Alchemy & Sould gems ~~ How to needed!

[Sallyo]

Hello everyone,

 

I am back playing Oblivion for the 3 rd time. In all my years of morrowind, oblivion etc, I heard skyrm was a total let down, I have never gotten the hang of alchemy.

 

I know you need a basic tool set.. then there are other things such as the calcinator and such. I looked all over here then went to "Help Files". I didnt find any info.

 

I did see this video on Where to get the items. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzhcK9NFUVk I am more concerned with how to use the tools.

 

This article: http://oblivion.melian.cc/?cmd=cmdOblivionAlchemyFAQ Was actually pretty good. It still didnt explain HOW to use the calcinator or the advanced tools.

I know you use a basic pestle and mortar to crush the herbs and make a potion. I know that a calcinator purifies a potion and some of the other tools intensify it.

If there are any other articles that break things down step by step I would appreciate it.

 

Maybe its common sense once you buy the tools click on them and it tells you what to do? Anyone can cheat use a code and get the alchemy skills up really high so you can use the more advanced tools.. what I want to do is actually learn and get the pleasure of experiencing something in oblivion besides grinding, quest completion etc.. this time I want to feel as if I have really lived there.

 

Thank you so much for your time. My time to search and search is limited due to helping my love recover from knee surgery. Thank you for your help friends.

Edited October 22, 2016 by Sallyo

[Striker879]

In general, once you have a complete set of alchemy tools you just equip the mortar and pestle to make potions (i.e. bring up the alchemy menu) and the game automatically uses the other equipment it finds in your inventory.

 

Having a complete set doesn't make too much difference to the potions you make when your alchemy skill is low and only one or two of an ingredient's effects are visible in the alchemy menu as you won't often find two ingredients that share more than one effect in common. Once you reach higher alchemy levels you will start to run into cases where the ingredients you want to use also result in a "negative" side-effect ... that's when having a complete set comes in handy as the negative effect is minimized.

 

Sometime you can use that negative effect to your advantage vs the four potions rule (vanilla game you can't drink more than four potions at a time and can't drink another until one of the four has "expired"). If you select the right ingredients and then combine them in the correct order from top to bottom in the alchemy menu list you can make the negative side effect appear at the top of the list (e.g. from top to bottom ... flax, grapes and venison makes a feather potion with damage health 1 point for 1 second as the negative side effect listed above feather in the effects list). Once the damage health has expired you can drink another potion (works up to a certain limit I've found in actual gameplay, but you'll still be more than four feather potions).

 

Now if you didn't have a piece of alchemy equipment in your inventory at the time that situation would change depending on what piece you were missing. I've found in all my experimentation however that it's difficult to find the combination of ingredients that results in an advantage when you're missing a piece of equipment.

 

A tool I've found useful in trying to discover new alchemy tricks is the Alchemy Calculator at the UESP. The Oblivion:Ingredients page at the UESP Wiki comes in handy for looking for overlapping effects, and the individual ingredient pages list the top locations to find each ingredient. The Alchemy Effects page can also come in handy.

 

Finally, the UESP Wiki page Oblivion:Alchemy gives a pretty good description of what each piece of alchemy equipment does (see the Apparatus section). It also gets into the nitty gritty of the alchemy calculations the game uses, but I myself didn't get a lot out of that (I like to experiment).

 

I have found that the type of potions I use has changed over the years and as my mod list has evolved. All of my characters have used alchemy as one part of leveling Intelligence (important for maximizing your Magicka pool) but I don't make potions that my character doesn't use himself (i.e. I seldom sell potions). Back when my characters used the vanilla game start and were constantly grinding through Oblivion gates there was seldom a deer, grape or flax plant left in Tamriel if my guy ran across it (that Daedric stuff is heavy, and each gate is a gold mine full of it).

 

My current character uses an alternate start and the combination of Realistic Fatigue and Basic Physical Activities has placed a premium on managing my guy's fatigue, so now making restore and fortify fatigue potions is more my thing. I think I would need to rethink my "gotta get every last thing" mentality if I ever decide to allow the Main Quest to begin.

[Sallyo]

Wow Striker,

Thank you for the insight and all those awesome links! I always thought you had to use a table and make a mock lab with all your tools on it and then click each apparatus and choose commands to purify a potion etc. It sounds like as long as you have these tools in your inventory it all happens automatically on its own. Depending on what level you are, will determine the success of your potion right?

I cant wait to check those links. Thank you for the indepth explanation.

[Striker879]

You have 100% chance of succeeding in making your potion ... having a chance to fail sounds like a good idea for a mod maybe.

 

As your skill in alchemy increases your potions get stronger. Also along with that, as you find/buy better alchemy equipment the stronger your potions will be. Different types of dungeons have a chance of having alchemy equipment in the dungeon's containers that is better than the novice stuff you always find sitting out.

 

My own "secret spot" is the alternate exit to Ceyatatar, accessible from outside a short-ish distance to the WSW of the main Ayleid ruin. It's not very easy to find the first time, but I've been there so many times I can find it in pitch dark. Click on the "view map" link in the top right corner and then zoom the map in one click (if you don't want to try finding it on your own that is).

[Sallyo]

Thank you Striker. I am going to be honest and say that I cheat a lot. I use the tide ~ key and type in codes to raise my level. Thats the joy of owning the game and buying it. To do as you please. I hear tht when you download them or buy online the Tide key doesnt work.

I also buy alchemy equiptment too. I might surpass the novice stage. I will let you know. I am going to join the mages guild and read as many books as I can before I use the cheat console. I am in my 50's inmost atributes. Those links are super awesome and I appreciate them so much. I have copied a lot from them into word and I i am anxious to try them.

[Striker879]

I don't use any of the mods changing the leveling system. Over the years I have developed my own system for dealing with the vanilla game's leveling, using the tools that were provided with the vanilla game. By creating a custom class, with major and minor skills that match my gameplay style well, I can have a nice reasonable leveling progression without "grinding" to advance my desired skills while avoiding leveling too fast. I've recorded a single change in my notebook that I will make for my next character (I need to keep notes as it will be so long before that next character happens, and memory is known to fail).

 

Don't feel bad about using the console. I use it all the time to resurrect NPCs to add to my "collections". If you took away my console most of Striker's "mini-games" wouldn't exist.

[Sallyo]

whew good to know! Thank you Striker. Ijust dled a killer home with a whole spell crafting room! Rolling hills manor. I dont even need alchemy stuff. Ofc I am going to go get my stuff and move it in from Rosethorn. I still am going to learn the old fashioned way.

[Striker879]

Some of Emma's more recent houses include things like spell making/enchanting altars, as well as alchemy stations that equip alchemy equipment that matches your current alchemy skill level. The alchemy stuff I use without second thoughts. I resist over using the spell making/enchanting altars though ... better to be a bit under powered that greatly overpowered.

 

I do tend to use the ones in her houses rather than the altars at Frostcrag. Her houses are located somewhere I tend to travel to ... Frostcrag is a ways out from Bruma, and Bruma isn't on my normal circuit.

[Sallyo]

Funny you mention Emma!! I remember her from way back in the morrowind days! She is an awesome super modder! Her and Grumpy RIP. Lady Rae is awesome too