Ever heard people talking about how much money they make daily/weekly/monthly just by making a few items at some crafting tables in Rawl'kha or Alinor? Ever seethed in envy at the millions these players roll in as they gush about craft bag and its wonders and marvels? (All of which are true BTW, just saying). Ever wondered how you, a poor broke millennial, could amass such wildly huge fortunes such as this without giving ZOS a single cent more than the base game you paid for? If you've answered yes to any of these questions, this might be the guide for you.
INTRODUCTION:
There’s 1001 different guides and ‘how-to’s about how to get started on craft writs and certification, and so as such, this guide is going to begin under the premise that the player already knows how to get crafting certified.
Craft writs are like any other quest, insomuch that the gold payout is scaled based on your character’s level, and that doesn’t change regardless of what “tier” of crafts you’re doing. As such, that CP810 character that’s still doing writs with iron and maple will earn just as much gold as your max level character using ancestor silk and ruby ash. This guide is written under the premise of having 1or 2-5 max level crafters and the rest of them as low-level crafters that “feed into” the stocks of high-level mats your main character has/uses (more on that in the appropriate section below). If you wish to max out all of your characters… then firstly, I salute you for that level of dedication, and secondly, you may have to put more emphasis on sustaining your supplies, but with mats pouring in from craft surveys, that might be an issue that can be avoided.
While items such as housing storage, filler guild banks, or even alt accounts, can all help with inventory management, they aren’t absolutely necessary unless you want to keep a bunch of the low level mats rather than sell or destroy them. With proper inventory management however, you should be able to comfortably keep most upgrade mats, trait stones, the 9 racial style mats, furnishing mats, and still have a few extra slots leftover. How many extra slots depends on how far you want to go with buying bag space and bank space, but this guide is all about getting away with the using least amount possible.
I. SETTING UP/GETTING STARTED:
First and foremost: if you’re on PC, download Dulgubon’s Lazy Writ Crafter (and the necessary Lib add-ons). This is technically an optional step, but the time you save will make it a worthwhile investment, even if your knowledge of addons is so scant that it’d land you in a remedial add-ons class.
Without ESO+, bank space can be a tight squeeze, but in my literal months of doing this cycle, I’ve been able to manage inventory sufficiently 97% of the time, using only 150 slots. If you want more, then by all means have at it, but in most cases, you can get away with 150. For mains and alts, 160 on the main (4 upgrades, plus stable) and 140 on the alts (2 upgrades + stable) is where I currently sit, but you won’t even need “mule” characters for this system to function. If you’re just starting off a fresh new character to add to the ranks and are floundering about at only 70-80 slots, worry not; most slots beyond this number are just for convenience, really. More is always better, but this guide is focused on getting by with as little expenses as possible.
Once you’re level 6 and certified in all 6 crafts as well as Jewelry crafting, it’s time to set up camp. Pick a location that has the writ boards and every craft station fairly close to one another. Rawl’kha (Reaper’s March) is a popular pick, although Rimmen (Northern Elsweyr) and Vivec City (Vvardenfell) are also popular. For those who have the banker assistant, Alinor (Summerset) and Mournhold (Deshaan) are mighty convenient as well because a trip to the bank can save two trips to provisioning and alchemy.
How does one “skip” Provisioning and Alchemy (and theoretically enchanting too, although since glyphs don’t stack this fills bank space like lightning, and thus is strongly not recommended)? This is where Lazy Writ Crafter comes in handy, although even without it, this trick still works.
Writs only look at what player crafted the goods. As long as you crafted it on your account, you can “share” these between any character. So what does this mean? It means you can create stacks of 100-200 foods and potions, stick them in the bank, and have your characters withdraw them as you need them. For example: if Character A makes a stack of health potions, and then Character B picks up an Alchemy Writ that asks for a health potion, Character B could pull out one of those potions from the stack that “A” crafted, and use it as if “B” had crafted it him/herself.
With that all said, the following phase of the setup involves huge stacks of food and potions (food only stacks in 100s though, so beware). Ideally on your main crafter, it’s time to get to work.
Ia. Alchemy
With the advent of multicrafting (without addons at least), making stacks of potions has never been easier. Potions can stack up to 200, and if your main crafter has all the right passives, that means you can only blow off 50 reagents/solvents per stack of 200, saving you even more. For level 1 writs though, make the following 4 potions:
-Sip of Health (Water Hyacinth/Mountain Flower)
-Sip of Stamina (Mountain Flower/Dragonthorn)
-Sip of Magicka (Bugloss/Lady’s Smock)
-Sip of Ravage Stamina (Fleshfly Larva/Imp Stool)
NOTE: the above combinations are not the only ways to create these potions; these are merely some of the cheapest ingredients to use, since we’re all about maximizing profit here. For the full list of options, go here.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Alchemist_Writ
For higher level writs, refer to the above link as well to know what you need to make, and how to make it.
Ib. Provisioning
Provisioning is more or less the same thing, except the ingredient list is easier to “learn” because they’re all on the recipes. All recipes that writs (of any level) ask for will be green, and will be purchasable from chef/brewer NPCs when your passive is at the right level. Beware, because food only stacks to 100 instead of the usual 200, so if bank/inventory slots are tight, only craft these in stacks of 100.
Which foods you need to craft depends on what alliance(s) your character(s) is in, and since there’s a small multitude of them, the list will be provided more comprehensively in the link below.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Provisioner_Writ
Once you’ve got those neatly squared away in your bank and have found a nice, nifty spot to do writs on multiple characters, here’s where the actual crafting begins.
II. WHAT YOU NEED/MATERIAL MANAGEMENT
And now here it is: the meat and potatoes of this guide. After all that meticulous setup just to try and see how to manage crafting writs without the glorious and venerated Craft Bag. With the alchemy ingredients out of the way and the provisioning meals all stacked neatly in your bank waiting for use, that frees up a few slots, and more importantly, saves time… and everyone knows that time is money. Save money. Live better. Wal-Mart.
IIa. Jewelry Crafting
The thorn in every crafter’s side since 2018, Jewelry crafting mats (Pewter, in this case) are the only ones that aren’t “sustainable” at lv.1. The decline rate is gradual, but it happens. A stack of 200 pewter ounces is actually fairly cheap though (if you don’t want to farm it yourself), and even among 8-10 characters and with getting occasional surveys instead of mats, it will last a long time. Since all you need for jewelry crafting writs is the material itself, knowing what to manage on this front is easy.
IIb. Alchemy & Enchanting
While Provisioner Writs don’t ask for raw materials to complete them, Alchemy and Enchanting Writs do, and so knowing what mats to hold onto and which ones you can sell/donate/dispose of is important when running this game without ESO+’s venerated craft bag. These items may vary at different levels, although at lv.1 and max level they are actually nearly the same. For Enchanting, you’ll need the following materials:
Jora (these are obtainable through “Enchanter” vendor NPCs )
Deni/Makko/Oko (all three are used to make glyphs the writs asked for, but Oko is also asked for as a raw material, and so these will be used a lot)
Ta (Also asked for as a raw material, although these are much easier to get than Oko)
Jode (asked for as a raw material, but obtainable through Enchanter vendors as well)
For Alchemy, the raw materials the individual writs ask for at level 1 are as follows:
-Natural Water
-Blessed Thistle
-Wormwood
-Corn Flower
Of these, Natural Water is by far the easiest to obtain, also dropping almost every time from the Alchemist Vessels that come as rewards. The other three (even Corn Flower) drop sometimes from reward vessels as well. While it might seem tempting to sluff these writs off due to the ever-rising price of Corn Flower in particular, consider that even at lv.1, these writs have a chance to drop Clam Gall and Powdered Mother of Pearl, swiftly changing your ~1400g investment into a ~12,000g return. (on top of the 604-664 gold you get for the quest itself, coupled with the value of whatever mats or surveys are inside).
SIDE NOTE: It is also worth noting that you can “cheese” alchemist surveys by walking far enough away from them if you don’t like the set of plants that showed up the first time. Useful if you want to try your odds for more Corn Flowers or Columbine, or just accept whatever the DNG gives you on that front.
IIc. Everything Else
Blacksmithing, Clothing, and Woodworking mats sustain themselves with their rewards, to the point where as long as you have about 30-40 of the materials in question on your character, you should be okay even if you get a survey drop instead of replenishing mats. The kicker for these trades is the style material, but these are easily obtained whether through hirelings, random containers throughout the world, or (the easiest way IMO) through NPC traders like clothiers, carpenters, or blacksmiths.
Any of the 9 basic racial style stones are available for 15g, and Style Motifs for the 9 playable races (Imperial is quite rare and generally expensive; not worth getting unless you’re going for completion/achievements) are usually only about 0-100g in guild traders. Sometimes you can even find players giving them away for free. Alternately, for the really stingy penny-pinchers among us, you could forage for them through random containers anywhere in the world.
III. HANDLING EXCESS MATERIALS
This is where the wonderful game of Inventory Tetris comes in. The whole “80-140 slots per character and 150 bank slots” scheme centers around keeping a lot of certain commonly used materials, and since the writ rewards tend to drop a great deal of items that aren’t needed for future writs, the question rises of how to dispose of them. Obviously there’s the option of simply destroying them, which is a fantastic method for people who don’t like money or that utterly lack common sense. However, before delving into methods of mat “disposal”, it would be best to first explain what to keep.
IIIa. Materials to keep on individual characters
Given the minimalist nature of this guide, items on this list are things that are obtained so frequently that it’s often better just to keep individual supplies on each character rather than throwing them to accumulate in the bank, because they tend to accumulate fast. Materials to keep on-hand for each character are as follows:
-Iron Ingots and Steel Ingots
-Sanded Maple and Sanded Oak
-Rawhide and Hide
-Jute and Flax
Rationale: Iron, Maple, Rawhide, and Jute are used in writs and will drop from rewards frequently. Unless you like making multiple trips to the bank every day, it’s just better to keep these on your person. Steel, Oak, Hide, and Flax drop as often as their Tier 1 counterparts (when writs drop materials, they will always drop a handful of mats from your current tier, as well as a small amount from the tier above you, and a tier below you. Since lv.1 is the lowest, it’s also easier to manage because that’s one less set of mats (4, 5 if you count jewelcrafting) to keep on hand), and so they’re generally just easier to hold onto and accumulate before selling or using them.
IIIb. Materials to store in the bank
This list might vary between individuals, but this existing system allows the more-or-less easy storage of the following slew of materials, which are either uncommon or inconsistent drops, or are just overall easier to keep communal.
Style Materials (9-13 slots): These items drop infrequently from hirelings or from intricate items that you can use to deconstruct. If you’re really tight on space, you can just use a single style stone, as long as you either play one race, or make sure all of your characters know that particular style. Higher level crafters may also hold onto Argentum, Palladium, Bronze, and Daedra Hearts since those styles appear in the higher-level writs as well. Again, this is up to user discretion, although this guide takes that into account as well.
Trait Materials: (16-20 slots) the 8 trait materials (such as fire opals, diamonds, bloodstones, etc) that add traits your weapons and armour. None of them are particularly pricey, but they drop just often enough that I just hoard them because I refuse to throw them away. The pulverized versions of the 4 “common” jewelry traits (antimony, cobalt, zinc, titanium) are also accounted for. Those are a tiny bit pricier and easier to sell, but again, these slots are an easy variable and losses are minimal if you get rid of these items.
Copper Dust & Pewter Ounces (2 slots)
Level 1 Jewelcrafting writs are odd because rather than dropping copper ounces as their reward, they drop copper dust. But the amount of items they drop is so low (1 copper dust and 4-5 pewter ounces per shipment) that it’s easier to keep them communal, especially since the writs call for items that cost 5 or 6 pewter to make. The gradual decline of pewter is mentioned in section IIa.)
Materials for Consumables: (10-13 slots)
With the “premake the potions and food” system mentioned in section I, the only materials we need to account for are the runestones needed for glyphs, and the raw alchemy materials required by the writs. These materials include the following:
-Jora, Jode, Oko, Makko, Deni, Ta (runestones)
-Corn Flower, Wormwood, Blessed Thistle, Natural Water
Solvents such as Clear Water, Grease, and Ichor are also accounted for, given that they drop fairly often from writs and/or day-to-day adventuring.
Upgrade Materials: (18-24 slots)
It should go without saying that any crafting material that is used to upgrade an item should be kept, and this guide accounts for that. Of all the things to keep, these are undoubtedly the most important. The flexibility comes from considering blue and green runestones optional, as well as keeping the jewelry platings unrefined/as grains until needed. In layman’s terms, if it’s coloured, it’s definitely worth keeping, regardless of your bank size.
Furnishing Materials: (7 slots)
These items include Alchemical Resin, Regulus, Bast, Clean Pelts, Ochre, Decorative Wax, and Heartwood, and they drop enough from day-to-day adventuring that I put them into consideration as well, especially since some of them go for a pretty penny. While not essential for crafting writs, many of these items are often required for some of the holiday writs during certain game events, and can either be used to unlock achievements or other items, used for some heavy XP, or sold for decent profits.
IIIc. Other Materials
It should hopefully go without saying that nothing on this list is absolute, but these are the items that were considered for maximum time-saving mixed with profit. Adjust it to fit your needs and wants, as well as to fit your inventory size, and capacity. Price check tools such as Tamriel Trade Centre and/or Master Merchant (or joining guilds with people that have them) can give you insights on what “non-essential” items are valuable and worth selling, and which other ones might just be better giving away or selling to vendors.
Ultimately, these items will take up between around 62-79 slots, or about half of a 150-slot bank, leaving you with a modest amount of room to store other junk as you see fit.
IV: OTHER STORAGE OPTIONS
This guide was written with something of minimalism in mind, and so even before your alts have reached the 60 days of stable training needed to give them 140 slots, there are other ways to expand your space without plunging into abysses of debt (although on the other hand, with all the gold you’ll be pulling in from crafting writs, suddenly bag space and bank space costs might feel more like pocket change when all’s said and done). As such, there’s plenty of ways to expand inventory for those that like to hoard useless gear, crown store/daily reward junk, or piles of crafting mats you’ll unlikely use. Life without craft bag is hard, and I understand the struggle. I don’t judge.
IVa. Storage Chests
If you’re a Telvar junkie or have a max level crafter and have started doing master writs, housing storage chests can be a godsend. I personally use two of the 60-slot ones for extra materials: notably, one for all those common provisioning materials, and one for excess Essence Runes and Alchemy plants. Both of them consistently hover at around 35-50 slots used too, so it’s not even that tight of a squeeze. But, there are 8 of them in total, and that’s all that much more inventory space.
IVb. Guild Banks
While I do not recommend dumping low-value items into any random guild bank, if you have an extra guild slot and can dupe 10 inactive schmucks into joining, you can get your very own 500-slot guild bank to do whatever you please with. Not entirely ethical, but it gets the job done, and if they go inactive anyways, where’s the problem?
It’s important to note though that during all but the slowest of times on the server, it often takes a crazy amount of time to withdraw or deposit items from guild banks, whether from server spazzes or from whatever other issue causes it, don’t be surprised if you get hit with an endless barrage of “waiting on previous request…” messages as you try to manage inventory.
IVc. Bag Space & Bank Space
The simplest option by far, although also the most expensive. You can buy bank space up to 240 slots, and character bag space up to 200 (140 + 60 from stable training). However, character bag space is also done individually and can get pretty pricey. If gold is less of an issue however, then this becomes a much easier and more practical solution.
IVd. “Mule” Characters
Given that I am the type of person to use every character for crafting writs in one form or another, I’m not one to recommend mule characters, although each one comes with 60 slots right off the bat, so if you’re really pressed for space, knock yourself out. This guide does not take that into account though, which may add even more to your general space.
V: CONCLUSION
Not to toot ZOS’s horn, but craft bag is absolutely worth the money you pay for it assuming you’re an active player. That said, while you obviously have to play a lot of Inventory Tetris and such to make crafting materials and crafting in general be feasible on a non-ESO+ account, it can be done. This guide was made from personal experience, and while I did have guilds and accounts and (late on) even storage chests to help me, that’s all stuff that I could have sold or otherwise unloaded, and managing the core sets of materials to make these writs work on a regular basis has been something I’ve managed to do for months now without any common interruptions.
Also worth considering is that this is a minimalist guide. If you’re willing to spend more money on bank space or character slots or bag space, or housing storage, all it’ll do is make your life easier in the long run. So hopefully someone can benefit from this information the same way learning it benefitted me.
Va. FAQ if necessary/on request.
~Zul~
