Arcana Trade Skill Guide for New World
Welcome to the ultimate arcana guide for New World: Aeternum, where you'll unlock the mysteries of crafting potions, powerful magical weapons, and more. In this guide, you'll get a deep-dive in everything you need to know about the arcana trade skill, including what arcana is used for, the fastest ways to level arcana, how to make gold with this trade skill, and more.
Arcana Overview in New World: Aeternum
Arcana in New World: Aeternum is a versatile and rewarding trade skill that allows players to craft a variety of magical items, including potions, tinctures, and magical weapons (like fire staffs, ice gauntlets, and more). These crafted potions and weapons are often used in combat, making max-leveled arcana crafters very sought after for their ability to craft the best items for PvP and PvE content. In other words, this trade skill has the potential to make you a great deal of gold due to popularity of the crafted items you can create.
In this guide, we'll cover the best items to craft in order to level your arcana quickly and efficiently, an overview of some of the most useful items you can craft with arcana, how you can maximize the gear score of crafted weapons with this trade skill, and more.
Arcana Leveling Guide in New World: Aeternum
Arcana is a fairly flexible crafting skill to level, as there is a massive spread of different reagents that can be utilized to craft potions and coatings. There are multiple ways to progress through arcana with ease, and maybe even make some gold in the process.
Below is a list of recommended items to craft at certain level ranges in order to be most cost-effective with your leveling strategy. To learn more about the specific ingredients for each, click on the item and you'll be able to see all additional details.
Please note: Some of these items will not be easy to sell. In some cases, it makes the most sense to craft these in bulk, then mass salvage them in order to regain some resources. Keep this in mind as you utilize the strategy below.
- Levels 0-50 — As you start out your arcana leveling adventure, it is best to mass-produce Common Corruption Tinctures, where you will only need to use a combination of Water, a T2 protective reagent, and a water reagent. All reagents can be found in the open-world. It's best practice to harvest all unusual-looking plants you see as you travel around Aeternum, as these are typically where you will find reagents. You will need to craft approximately 268 of these to reach level 50.
- Levels 50-100 — Once you hit level 51, it is most effective to mass produce either Steel Life Staff, Steel Fire Staff, or Steel Flail magical weapons, depending on the costs of the specific elemental motes each require. For example, the Steel Life Staff requires life wisps. If life wisps are cheaper than fire wisps and soul wisps, it's most effective that you craft the Steel Life Staffs so it's cheaper for you to collect the ingredients. You will need to produce a total of approximately 114 of these in order to hit level 100.
- Levels 100-105 — Congratulations - you hit level 100! At this point, you will see that things will get slightly more difficult. The most efficient next step will be for you to produce some Powerful Health Potions. You will need to craft approximately 42 Powerful Health Potions to hit level 105.
- Levels 105-150 — Now that you're level 105 in arcana, you can now mass-produce Powerful Mana Potions. When we say mass-produce, we mean it this time. You will need to craft approximately 816 Powerful Mana Potions to hit level 150. If you prefer crafting more Powerful Health Potions instead, that's fine too - but be cautious of the ingredients needed to make those. The ingredients for these powerful mana potions tend to be quite a bit cheaper, which is why we recommend this method.
- Levels 150-205 — For this next step, we are going back to crafting some magical weapons. Depending on how old your server is, you may want to consider posting some of these on the Trading Post to make some gold back. In order to gain these arcana levels, you will need to craft either Orichalcum Ice Gauntlets or Orichalcum Void Gauntlets, depending on the price comparison between water motes and death motes. If water motes are cheaper, then stick with crafting the Orichalcum Ice Gauntlets. You will need to craft approximately 275 of these to reach level 205.
- Levels 205-250 — We're almost there! For this last stretch, it is recommended to craft either Mythril Ice Gauntlets or Dark Leather Void Gauntlets, depending on your server's cost of water motes compared to death motes. If water motes are cheaper, then stick with crafting the Mythril Ice Gauntlets. You will need to craft approximately 139 of these to reach level 250.
- Levels 250+ — You made it! You're now max level in arcana. The fun doesn't stop here though - you can continue crafting potions and magical weapons to gain "Apptitude Levels", which grants you with unique rewards, such as the Package of Specialized Arcana Materials. At this point, you can start focusing on crafting items that are most sought-after to generate more gold. More info on some of these items can be found below.
How to Make Gold with Arcana
Depending on the server you're on, there are certain items that hold a large value. Below is a list of items that we recommend you consider implementing within your leveling strategy in order to potentially "break-even" as you craft, as they tend to be easily sold to other players within the Trading Post. Again - this is dependent on server. The list below showcases the lowest type of resource you can utilize to craft to get started, making your way to eventually crafting the most valuable, sought-after consumables and magical weapons with arcana.
- Alkahest — as you progress your arcana trade skill, you will be able to continuously craft a range of different types of Alkahest, starting with Weak Alkahest. This resource is incredibly easy to craft (requiring only Water and Hyssop), and will provide you a great amount of experience (and preparation) in your early levels of arcana. This resource is also a requirement for the next type of items you will be crafting to level up, which are potions.
- Potions — this is one of the main arcana leveling sources, as potions are utilized by every player, regardless if it is PvE or PvP content (and will always be needed, giving it an ever-lasting demand and value). After crafting a good amount of weak alkahest, you'll then want to use that to create a bulk amount of Weak Health Potions (which requires Weak Alkahest and 1x medicinal reagent). You will want to create a mix of health, mana, and regeneration potions utilizing this strategy as your arcana level rises, eventually leading you to the most useful quality of potions known as "Infused" (which include potions like Infused Health Potion, Infused Mana Potion, and Infused Regeneration Potion). Once you can craft these, it's best practice to make them in bulk, where you can keep some for yourself, and then also sell a handful at the Trading Post to make a profit.
- Elemental Infusions — there are a range of different types of elemental motes that you will come across in New World: Aeternum, such as an Air Mote. These raw resources are very valuable, as they are required to craft a range of helpful end-game items, including magical weapons and gems. Utilizing the arcana skill, players can combine motes from lower quality into higher quality motes, which are required for the most powerful magical weapons. For example, players can turn an air mote into a Air Wisp, then a Air Essence, then eventually a Air Quintessence, which is used to craft powerful items like Powerful Proficiency Boost and mob-specific ward potions, such as Infused Lost Ward Potions. All of these items are very sought-after, and will not only progress your arcana level, but also provide you with new gold-making opportunities.
- Weapon Coatings — arcana will also allow players to craft weapon coatings, which drastically improve the damage output players have on certain mob types. Weapon coatings are almost required when it comes to mutated expeditions, and yet again another great option for both leveling experience and generating additional gold. An example of one of these weapon coatings would be an Infused Angry Earth Coating, which can be crafted by using Oil and T5 offensive reagents.
- Magical Weapons — once you reach max level arcana, you will be able to utilize your arcana skills to craft powerful magic weapons, like fire staffs, ice gauntlets, void gauntlets, and more. If you're lucky when crafting these magical weapons at max gear score, you could find yourself makign deals with PvP-hungry players who might be willing to drop 100k+ gold for certain items!
Topaz Gypsum Potions
By utilizing the arcana trade skill, you will be able to craft a daily potion known as the Topaz Gypsum Attunement Potion). When consumed, it will allow level 55+ enemies to drop up to 10 Topaz Gypsum for the next 2 hours. You can use these Topaz Gypsum at the Gypsum Kiln to craft two Gypsum Orbs each day.
To craft this potion you will need 5 Epic Arcana Ingredients:
Material |
---|
Earthshell Tail |
Salamander Slime |
Lightning Beetle Wings |
Spinefish Fins |
Lifemoth Eyes |
Soulwyrm Tongue |
Blightmoth Dust |
Increasing the Gear Score of your Crafts
There are seven ways to boost the gear score of your arcana crafts. These bonuses can either increase the minimum and/or maximum gear score of your crafts. Below is a list of what you can do to improve the gear score of your arcana crafts.
Crafting Bonuses | Minimum Gear Score Increase | Maximum Gear Score Increase |
---|---|---|
Skill Level | 0 | +25 |
Crafting Materials | +45 | +45 |
Crafting Food | +15 | +15 |
Gear Perks | +15 | +15 |
Trophies | +15 | 0 |
Town Project Board | +5 | 0 |
Faction Owning the Mourningdale Fort | 0 | +5 |
Arcana Gear
Arcana has two unique sets of gear that can be equipped to increase the gear score of your crafts by +2 per item; these are the Arcanist Gloves, Specs, Pants, Shirt, and Shoes, or the Concocter's Gloves, Hat, Pants, Coat, and Shoes.
You can also acquire an earring with a crafting-related perk that grants +5 gear score increase while crafting (these are not specific and can come on any earring). You can generally find these as drops or on the Trading Post, however some pieces can be much rarer than others, and therefore more costly.
Armor | Drop Source |
---|---|
Arcanist Specs | Package of Specialized Arcana Materials |
Arcanist Shirt | Package of Specialized Arcana Materials |
Arcanist Gloves | Package of Specialized Arcana Materials |
Arcanist Pants | Package of Specialized Arcana Materials |
Arcanist Shoes | Package of Specialized Arcana Materials |
Concocter's Hat | Baines - Edengrove |
Concocter's Coat | Prince Goroto - Ebonscale Reach |
Concocter's Gloves | Entropy - Edengrove |
Concocter's Pants | The Siren's Dog - Reekwater |
Concocter's Shoes | Cael - Edengrove |
Trophies for Arcana
Trophies can be placed in each of your three houses that grant a +3/4/5 (Minor/Basic/Major) minimum gear score increase for all of your crafts related to that trade skill.
In order to craft any basic or major trophy, it will require a special crafting ingredient that can be obtained from Supply Stockpiles (or the Trading Post if you don't have much luck). These crafting ingredients can be found below.
Item | Trophy |
---|---|
Ancient Texts | Basic |
Philosopher's Stone | Major |
Crafting Food for Arcana
Sweet Wild Berry Infusion will increase the minimum and maximum gear score of your Arcana crafts by +15. It lasts 40 minutes, so try to have all of your materials prepared beforehand before consuming it.
Town Project Bonuses
Each settlement will have different town projects working at any given time. You can check what bonus perks are active by going to the to territory planning board in any settlement. As a note, you must own a house in the settlement to receive the town project bonus.
High-Quality Materials and Crafting Skill
Most crafts will enable you to use materials that are higher than what's necessary to craft them, allowing you to increase their gear score. When you are aiming to craft those high gear score items to either use or sell, you will always want to use the highest materials possible.
Your crafting skill also increases the gear score of items you can craft by up to +25 at maximum crafting level. For arcana, increasing your crafting skill also increases the chance to craft bonus items. Long story short, the higher your arcana trade skill level is, the better the outcome!
Changelog
- 07 Sep. 2024: Complete guide update to share most effective leveling strategies, and new ways to maximize gear score of crafts.
- 18 Mar. 2023: Gear, Leveling, and Trophies updated. Topaz Gypsum added.
- 27 Nov. 2021: Guide added.
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Savvvo is a New World Aeternum content creator with over 5,000 hours of gameplay. He specializes in developing leveling and gold-making guides, PvP builds, and discovering fun, new ways to enhance your New World experience. If you can not find him in Aeternum, he is probably somewhere on YouTube.
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