Crafting is a fundamental process in KeeperRL. While the general idea is available to all Keepers without need of research (though advanced crafting methods will require such efforts), you the player may benefit from a refresher on the process. How about it?
1) Get the Ingredients
In order to build anything, you’re going to need raw materials. Even items without specific crafting costs still must be built at a crafting station, which itself very much does have a construction cost. Mark a Resources tile in a reasonably safe place (ideally it’ll also be convenient for your troops to transport the resources from the harvest point) and use the dig/cut tree order to mark the resources for extraction. (You will probably have to mark tunnels to dig to stone, iron ore, etc.)
It’s probably a good idea to set up an Equipment tile at this point, too, to hold your finished products. Later on, when your dungeon is well established, you can construct specialized storages to organize your gear, but at the start a Designated Pile suffices.
2) Set up the Station
Once you have the resources available, go ahead and order the crafting station built. Crafting minions will need to reach and operate the station, and as many minions can usefully contrbute to projects as are qualified and can fit around the station(s). It’s best to have all 8 tiles around a station open and not needed for through traffic, dangerously close to hazardous terrain, well-lit, and (ideally) provided with nicely reinforced walls, finished flooring, and other luxuries such as fountains, candelabra, etc. In KeeperRL 1.0, the four primary crafting stations all have an Upgraded version that requires special (but hazardous) terrain. While the station must be built adjacent to the enchanted pool or the magma, it’s perfectly safe (and Dungeon Occupational Safety & Health Administration recommended), to cover the nearby liquid with a Bridge, out to at least two or possibly three tiles in the case of lava forges or jewellers, to prevent accidentally dropping crafted items or displaced workers falling to their deaths. If you anticipate having a LOT of qualified crafters and work for them, such as with alchemical conversions and Classic Keeper harpies, consider setting up two stations with room to gather at each, as folks clamoring to help can displace others who are currently working, resulting in slower progress.
Resources safely stockpiled in a Resources tile (or gold in a Treasure Chest) are immediately available for construction or crafting projects throughout the dungeon, without regard to where the project is. Unlike other similar games, there is no need to transport resources to a job site in order to use them.
3) Retain the Crafters
A perfect workroom isn’t much use without staff to operate it. Your base-level artificers and artisans are quite likely to be available from Immigration, provided ou’ve the beds to accommodate them and crafting stations for them to operate. Higher skill levels speed the crafting process and may help make Better crafts (by a point or two, so not particularly critical); however, for Forging, high skill levels are absolutely necessary to craft the higher-tier metals such as Adamantine and Adoxium. Keep watch for qualified crafters and take the necessary steps to get them working for you! (See Prisoner Guide for tips on crafter-capture.)
4) Schedule Production
A Keeper with a workroom, resources, and qualified staff is ready to get their production ON. Click directly on a crafting station to bring up a menu listing possible crafting options at that station, and the current production queue (if any). If you’re just starting out, chances are you’ve built a Workshop, which produces leather and wooden gear. Once you’ve got Iron and the “Iron Working” technology, the Forge is the place to go for all your metal-equipment needs, and Jewellery & Alchemy provide Jeweller tables and Laboratories, respectively; Necromancers use the Morgue table to construct their fell creations.
Clicking an item from the menu schedules one such item for production. Repeatedly clicking the same item will order additional items, or you can click the +/- in the production queue to adjust the amount you’re ordering. As your workers work the station, a green progress bar will fill in behind the line item being worked heach time the bar fills, one unit of the item is produced (so a line asking for 5 iron helmets will fill up 5 times in total, each time creating one helmet reducing the requested amount of helmets). Items will be produced in the order listed, with multi-unit line items being completely fulfilled before work begins on the next item. If you need to cancel or reduce production of an item, the X will strike the entire line item from the queue and refund the resources on items that haven’t yet been worked on, whereas the +/- can also reduce the amount of items ordered (but tends to reset the amount of work completed on the current item).
5) (Optional, unless Gnomes or making Automatons) Specify Upgrades
You probably noticed an “upgrade” button appear as part of the queue. Equippable items like weapons, shields, and armor pieces can accept glyphs that improve their stats or grant special abilities; Necromancers building undead at their morgue table can develop advanced enbalming mixtures called “balsams” to improve their undead’s capabilities, or perhaps graft additional arms, legs, or heads on their fell creations. (Some things, such as potions, balsams, jewellry, and glyphs themselves, cannot accept upgrades and won’t show the button.)
However! Gnomes busily making their automatons will need to craft arms, legs, heads, etc first and then specify them as upgrades when they build the automaton corpus, though. Those who seize the means of production without fully understanding the process have been known to build limbless automata that do nothing but sit there and take up engine power, wasting valuable resources. Be careful!
In order to apply an upgrade, it must be stored in the appropriate storage (an “equipment” tile generally suffices, though automaton parts have a designated chest as well and graftable limbs can be found in the Grave with the other corpse parts), then specified for the relevant item before or during its crafting. It’s a good idea to pause the game when ordering items you intend to upgrade, just to make sure everything is ordered correctly before production. Once something’s been crafted, it’s too late to install an upgrade.
6) Get the Goods
Once the crafting has finished, the target item will be dropped on the tile of whoever’s work finished the item. (Flying and Swimming crafters can craft over hazardous terrain…and if they complete an item while in the hazardous terrain, it’ll get Dunked. Please remember to build bridges around your hazardous-terrain crafting stations!) Assuming no tragic last-minute mishaps, one of your worker units will come along and haul the finished item to the relevant storage, where it will be available for your minions to equip; a completed automaton will power up and go about its business, and animated undead will likewise arise.
(If you’re controlling someone particularly eager for an item, such as a Keeper lusting after the latest gear upgrade, manually picking the item up and equipping works too.)
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