Which is the better alchemy mod in 2022?

[Dyvalas]

Hi everyone!

 

Like the title says, I'm trying to find out what is the better alchemy overhaul mod as today.

 

What I want to do is to improve the whole experience by getting rid of the "refill" feature, that seems to be gamey and lazy, and re-introduce a system more similar to previous games, where you must re-brew oils and potions after you have used it.

 

For what I gathered, there are several options:

 

- Preparations: it integrates perfectly with Friendly Meditation, and also adds more features that improve the immersion. Both this and FM are a must, but the alchemy is improved only in letting you "refill" your potions with all ingredients instead of just the alchool, and I want something more enhanced than this (i.e. it does not seem that it rebalances the availability of the ingredients)

- Alchemy Enhanced: this seems to be one of the most used and complete mods, providing a nice integration with both Preparations and Friendly Meditation, and generally not having conflicts with many other popular mods. It also make oils, potions and bombs properly consumables, you have to completely re-brew these items as soon as they are consumed, and also rebalances the recipes, the availability of ingredients and so on. But by reading the comments, it seems that it is abandoned and it won't be improved further, also many players report that the new system makes monster ingredients hard to find and this could be a problem, since they are used also for crafting and not just for alchemy.

- Primer: this is another popular and liked mod. Like AE it makes alchemy items proper consumables, and provides a system where they are crafted based on base substances (Aether, Rebis, etc.), making every recipe craftable with various non-fixed ingredients. It also adds secondary effects based on Albedo, Nigredo and Rubedo, like in the previous games. But it has its own system of meditation that seem to conflict (or at least be redundant) with Preparations/FM. It also seems to be way less compatible with other popular mods, i.e. it has several conflicts with other popular mods that I'm using (like Sort Everithing and Witcher Lore Collection, Brothers in Arms bugfix, etc.

- Better Alchemy: I never tested this, it seems that it more or less lets you have a system similar to previous games, but its last update was in 2017 and I don't know if it can be compatible with more recent mods. I also does not have many endorsements/downloads, so I wonder whether it is a viable option as today.

 

Other mods seem to be outdated an not compatible with the current version of the game, or they don't rework the alchemy system to make it like previous games.

 

Have I missed something? What is the most viable option as today, both for compatibility with other mods and for game balance with other features?