Greetings,

This is the second Repopulation guide I've created, the first covering the basics on how to gather resources for your profession. If you're new to the game/gathering resources, you should start there:
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=414000823
I'll make the assumption you have zero knowledge in crafting and cover what you need to know to build basic and advanced items. However, the very first thing you should know is crafting in Repopulation is daunting at first and will require you to do your homework before undertaking a large project. You'll also be networking with other players to master your trade because professions in Repop are woven together in a way so you cannot build the advanced items without the help of other professions. While you could try to do everything yourself, the amount of time it would take to get good enough in the other professions to build quality items isn't worth it (early on). You're simply better off working with friends or looking for what you need in the trade channel and trying to build connections.

If that doesn't scare you off, then let's jump right into it.

If you haven't already, you'll need to pick up a crafting profession. The great thing about Repopulation is there is no limitation on what you do, so don't worry about getting stuck in a profession, you can pick any amount of them up later. However, it's much more productive to focus your energy so I suggest picking up one or two that you're interested in and sticking with those for awhile. I deal with Metalworking, specifically Harvester building, so this guide will use those recipes as an example, but know the process is universal.

Head to the nearest crafting store and open a trade with the Crafting Supplies NPC to purchase a card to get you started in a profession:


While you're near a crafting station, it's a good time to look at some recipes. If you right-click on a crafting station (pictured below), a list of recipes you currently know will pop up, categorized into the professions you have trained.



Open a recipe that looks interesting to you and take a look at the crafting window. Doesn't really matter which one, but I'll use a common one as an example:


In the above example, I'm creating hardwood planks to give me a heat source reagent (Firewood). This is an example of a very easy recipe that you should use to get your feet wet with the crafting system. You won't be creating the cool things like fittings, houses, harvesters, or racers right away.

So let's cover what each item in the crafting window is:
Main Product - If you're interested in only a specific outcome, you can pick which recipe you want. In the above planks example, I could select a specific type of plank (Anjara, Cree'it, etc). If you select nothing, the product will be choosen for you when you fill in the reagents.

Difficulty - Some items require a reagent be crafted under a specific difficulty. However, most of the time you will not need to worry about this setting. I think of it as size, some items need a bigger part than others and they are more difficult to produce. If I want to build a bigger harvester, I need the circuitry to match that "size"

Skill/Recipe - Your skill with this recipe and profession. Being good with lumber makes even a brand new recipe easier. Of course, as you use that recipe, you will become better with it and the overall profession, which allows you to increase the grade further.

Grade - If you've gathered resources before in the game, you're familiar with this. In fact, if you are confused about grades, please see the other guide I wrote that is linked at the top. As you'd expect, increasing the grade of your products means they'll be worth more if you're selling them or it'll increase the function of the final product if you're building something else with them.

Ingredients - How much of what you'll need to complete the recipe. The ingredient quantity doesn't increase with any additional Progress Steps (explained below) you run. Ingredients play the largest role in the quality of the final product.

Agents - Agents are required to complete the recipe and are used to improve the quality of the result. They are consumed during each Progress Step. Meaning, if you want to complete 3 Progress Steps and it requires 2 of your Agent, you'll need 6 total to complete the Steps. The quality of the agents plays a role in the product's final quality but know it's smaller than the ingredient's quality.

Progress Steps: x/x - Each step requires another round of Agents and improves the quality of the item. There's also a chance for a random event that will let you add more agents and further increase (or decrease) the quality of your item. I'll cover this in the next section.

Auto Pick - Randomly pick items from your inventory that satisfy the recipe (be careful with this, you can burn resources you want for a different recipe).

Process - Add one step to the Progress Step.

Batch - Produce a bulk run that will complete after a set amount of time without any effort from you (sort of the Harvester of the crafting world). Great for those recipes you've mastered but need a lot of their results.

All - Complete all Progress Steps (if you have enough materials).

Finish/Abort - Finish and get your results or back out.

Shop - I don't think this does anything yet. Seems microtransion-y

To follow through on my example: if I mouse over the ingredient (the wood), Cree'it wood highlights in my inventory so I double click on it to add it to the recipe and I immediately see the results:


Notice the "Finish" button isn't clickable because I haven't added my Agent yet. The recipe allows for 3 Progress Steps, though only one is required to get the result. Since I'll be using the Firewood to craft with later, I want to get the highest quality I can so I add enough of my Contaminated Water and complete all the Steps. The fastest way to do this is to repeatedly click "All" then "Finish" and you can repeatedly press those two buttons back and forth to grind through materials. To give an example of how Steps affect quality, I listed the qualities I received at each step:

Starting at F0 with zero agents (keep in mind this is at my skill level & with the specific ingredients grades that I'm using):

F0 --> D1 --> C3 --> B4
Thus, using all the Progress Steps is going to be important to creating quality items.

As you explore different recipes, some ingredients and agents will be self-explanatory but others are bound to be confusing. You may have an item and wonder if it could be used as a Flux or maybe a Heat Source. To figure out what you can use on a recipe, you can mouse over an ingredient or agent box in the recipe window and any items in your inventory that can fulfill it will be highlighted in green (shown in images above). Additionally, right-clicking on that box will open the database and show a list of items that can be used. If the items in the database are something that have to be crafted, clicking on one of the links will show you the recipe. I'll go over this in more detail in the final section since it's a critical part of advanced recipes.

Randomly on certain recipes, you'll have a chance event happen that will impact the final grade you end up with. When you're grinding through a ton of resources, trust me when I say you'll be annoyed by this step but it is handy when you want to create quality items.

It looks something like this:



In this image, I'm fighting a random event that is going to lower the quality slightly. I'm given the option to "Do Default" or add one of two reagents (only one shown in the above image) for the possibility of better outcomes. In this example, if I "Do Default" then I'll take a 5% decrease to the grade increase. In the same picture, I could also add Distilled Water for a chance to only take a 2% hit. It has a 35% - 65% chance of being success, and I *think* the chance depends on the quality of the Distilled Water but I can't find a source to confirm that. If it fails, the item will take a 7% hit.

The other option works the same way:


I can add a flux for a 35% - 65% chance to increase the quality by 2% instead of taking a hit. However, if it fails, I'll lose 10%. This is the general trend: big rewards come with big risks.

Along with an Adjustment, each event result comes with a listed "Length" that states for how many Progress Steps the buff/debuff will remain active. All this information is kept at the bottom of the window after the event:


During the above crafting session (different from the previous example), the event left me with a +4% adjustment that is going to last 2 Progress Steps.

While it's great to have an understanding of events, it won't make a significant impact when you're starting out so don't worry about them until you're producing high end items. You'll just be using more of your resources to craft.

If you're new to crafting, this is a great place to stop and go practice. You have the information you need to begin crafting and the next section discusses how to start advanced projects. It's worth your while to be comfortable with the basics before taking on the bigger tasks.

Since you probably don't have crafting ambitions of just creating firewood or refined metal bars, you'll come to a point where you want to pick a more advanced project and need to start putting the pieces together. For me, that was building Harvesters. However, I had no idea the work involved to create them. I mean, look at this recipe, it seems innocent enough, right:


You only need a Harvester Body, Hopper, Harvester Circuitry, Lubricant, and Bonding Agent....no big deal...


The above is a table tracking the parts needed to build the Harvester Body. The Excel spreadsheet has 132 rows for that one part (of the three ingredients for the Harvester recipe). The point of this graph is only to show you that this whole crafting thing is a hell of a project. Building an item requires that you build several more items, each in of themselves requiring you to build several more items. So where do you start?

If you're organized, you can do something like I did above and get an idea of what resources are important to you. If you aren't, you can just jump into it and start building when you get to the end of a what I think of as a "rabbit hole." The advantage of being organized is you'll spot the items that are used a lot when working on an advanced recipe. For example, when building harvesters, you'll quickly realize Welding Rods and Plate Metals are required for a lot of parts so it's not a bad idea to build a ton of those and store them away for later use.

However, you need to pick an item in your recipe and begin following it down the rabit hole, so I'll go over that process now, with a Lumber Harvester as an example. Even if you aren't interested in harvesters, I think it's worth following along just for the experience.

Shift+Right-Click a harvester in your inventory. If you don't have one, press G and select Recipes. Then type "Harvester" into the search bar. Start with the first ingredient and follow it down to the base ingredient.

Harvester Production - Metalworking
As the title "Produced in Recipe" suggests, the database is telling you the name of the recipe where this item is produced.

Harvester Body
The first ingredient needed to produce a harvester. Clicking on it shows examples of this type of item. This example is for a lumber harvester so...

Lumber Harvesting Body
Now the process begins to repeat itself. The database shows you what recipe and profession produces this item. Click on it to see the recipe...

Automated Harvester Body Production
Once again we're looking at a recipe.

Now here you should see this:


We've hit our first bottom! Refined Metal is a recipe in Mining that is created solely from resources pulled from the world and does not require a crafted component. However, does the type of refined metal matter? Can I use copper, iron, etc? Take a look at the bottom of the picture where it says "Lumber Harvesting Body" under "Results" and note there is nothing listed under Filter 1. The filters are in the same order as the listed ingredients. Filter 1 corresponds to Refined Metal. Since it's blank, any refined metal is going to work on this recipe! However, it does say "Wood" under Filter 2. That means the type of "Industrial Machine Component" does matter so it's worth going into that (and it's also next on the rabbit-hole-project anyway).

Like before, clicking on the ingredient shows a list of examples. The filter specified a wood item so stick with that theme

Lumber Blade Assembly
Getting the trend down now? This entry shows the item and will tell you what recipe produces it. So now click on the recipe:

Processor Blade Assembly - Metal Working
Click on the first item in the recipe....

Simple Blade
Select the example you're interested in....

Simple Composite Blade
And what recipes produces this item?...

Simple Composite Blade Fabrication - Metalworking
Okay, so what's the first item in this recipe?...

Plate Metal
What might some examples of this item be, I wonder....

Plate Metal Bar
Okay, so here it states "Plate Metal Bar" and "Refined Iron Bar" and from either one of those you're going to hit another bottom. Since the filters in the Simple Composite Blade Fabrication didn't require a specific type of metal bar, either should work fine.

The above Excel spreadsheet is a visual representation of this process. Once you hit a bottom, you can hit the back button and go down the next rabbit hole (In this case, it would be Nanoparticles in the Simple Composite Blade Fabrication recipe if you want to continue it on your own).

By the time you explore all the different rabbit holes, you'll hit recipes for tailors, hackers, pharmaceuticals, mining, logging, chemistry, and probably others. This is why networking becomes important.

I do make mistakes and I learn something new about crafting every time I look into it so please let me know if you find any errors.

I also appreciate comments so if you have any thoughts, please leave them below.

Hope this helps,
-Shamshire