Amalur Wiki
Register
Advertisement

As I mentioned on my profile page, I have spent a lot more time playing this game than the savegame file shows. I'm looking at it now as I type this. Time Played: 188:49:40. The thing is, this little counter only increments very slowly for me. I spend many long hours playing the game, but the counter only goes up by mere minutes or even seconds. But it's not a bug, it's not broken. The reason for this time differential is that the hours I'm spending playing Kingdoms of Amalur:Reckoning are mostly being spent at a blacksmithing forge, trying to get the best components possible from salvaging unwanted equipment.

The Great Cycle[]

My time at the blacksmithing forge goes something like this. The first thing I do is save the game. Then, I'll salvage a powerful item like a Prismere Helm, for instance, and get back just a single insignificant component, such as Weak Rivets. I have so many Weak Rivets, Simple Bindings, Basic Trims, and Basic Grips in my component case now that at one time I sold 198 of each to Marisal Cadyr in Pride of Pryderi, and still had plenty of each to spare.

So rather than just accepting the single silly component that was recovered during salvaging, I reload from the savegame, where I'm standing in front of the blacksmithing forge, and have another go. This time it's two useless items maybe. Occasionally it might even be three useless items, and I'll toy with the idea of keeping them all to sell. Nah, they go back to the ether of "never having been" too, with another reload from my last savegame. Try again. This time I might get a core component, like a Prismere Headdress. That's a bit better, but by itself it seems a bit weak for what this item is worth. I can do better! Another component that never was. Reload.

You get the picture. Eventually I'll salvage a core component and a support component that is of "greater" or better quality. Rather than committing them to the ether like all the rest before, I will save the game at that point, and start the cycle all over again with the next item of equipment from my Junk pile. Between the time I first saved in front of the blacksmithing forge and the save after finding something worthwhile, the game itself has progressed by roughly 30 seconds: the time it takes me to decide to keep what I salvaged. I've really spent an hour or so mashing buttons on my Xbox controller to get to that point.

There must be a better way[]

Thoreandan is a level 40 character, and has maxed out his Blacksmithing skill. I've tried drinking potions of Master Blacksmith's Craft to boost his skills even higher, above the maximum 10 points. I've even tried ingesting Scarab Salts to improve his Luck while salvaging. Nothing seems to work. The incremental buffs you get when increasing your blacksmithing skill only unlock the ability to salvage new classes of equipment, such as infrequent and rare items. There is no buff for unique or set items though. Increasing your blacksmithing skill also increases the effectiveness of Repair Kits. However, nothing improves your ability when salvaging items, or, in other words, the chance of recovering something useful during salvaging. This would be of much more use to me than more effective Repair Kits, which I seldom use anyway. If a weapon is worn so much that it's useless, just craft a better one! That's my philosophy anyway.

Game mechanics[]

Salvaging unwanted items is an integral part of the knowledge of a blacksmith, just as how to forge a new item is. It seems to me that in Amalur, once you know how to use a forge you can craft anything. Having newly arrived in Gorhart with very little blacksmithing skill, and visiting the blacksmithing forge in The Corner Shop there, if someone had inadvertently left the components necessary to craft a new set of Prismere Daggers laying around, I'd be able to forge them just as easily as my current level 10 skilled, mastercrafting blacksmith character can. Unlike in Skyrim, for instance, a blacksmith in Amalur is endowed with the inherent knowledge of how to craft any quality of item, as long as they have access to the components necessary to do so. It is the availability of such components that scales here in Amalur, rather than the knowledge of how to use them. A new character arriving in Gorhart isn't likely to find Small Prismere Blades or a Flawless Illuminator's Hilt in the vicinity, even in random loot. The net effect is that a new character cannot forge the best weapons and armor, despite having the knowledge necessary to do so.

The same appears to apply to salvaging. If you can salvage that Rusty Longsword you found sticking out of a skeleton beside the door under the Well of Souls in Allestar Tower, then you can salvage anything at all. There is no scaling to the ability to salvage, other than being able to salvage infrequent and rare items. But let's face it, there isn't really anything different between a regular Steel Longsword and the Almain Cutlass as far as a blacksmith is concerned. A longsword is a longsword after all. The fact that the game decides that one is unique and one isn't has nothing really to do with blacksmithing. Similar to crafting - constructing - forging - making, the unmaking of items in Amalur is an inherent and unscaling ability that all player characters, despite their class or skill level, can master.

The purpose of this rant[]

Master salvaging potion

An example of what such a potion might look like.

I'm not saying here that Amalur should be more like Skyrim. I am saying, however, that the chance to recover better quality components when salvaging items should naturally scale with the level of your character's blacksmithing skill. Alternatively, maybe a potion incorporating Scarab Salts (for luck) added to the Tindertwig and Sky Blossom of the Blacksmith's Craft potion recipes would make a useful solution. Make it scalable like other potions: Chance to Salvage Greater Component, Chance to Salvage Master Component, Chance to Salvage Flawless Component anyone?

I'm not expecting this to happen, mind you, and I expect to continue with my great cycle of saving, salvaging, reloading, salvaging, reloading, salvaging, and saving again. I've seen the stories about the Amalur IP and what happened to 38 Studios and Rhode Island, so I know that there isn't likely to be any patches to existing bugs in the game, let alone improvements such as I'm proposing here. But it was a good way to use up some time while I've been salvaging today. Time Played: 188:58:16

See Also[]

Advertisement