Ground Crafting Guide

This guide covers ground equipment crafting: custom weapons, armor, clothing, implants, droids, gadgets, datachips, databits, modules, and lightsabers. It does not cover asteroid mining, refining, starship modules, or ship construction.

The short version

The normal equipment loop is:

choose an artisan profession
        ↓
harvest, buy, or dismantle materials
        ↓
obtain a mold and (optionally) one enhancement datachip
        ↓
put the parts in a crafting station and use checkcraft
        ↓
create a custom item, gain Artisan experience, and improve it over time

Datachips can instead be turned into a different upgrade path:

datachip → deconstruct → databit → compile → module schematic → install

Supply orders use the same station and materials, but replace the mold and custom item with a repeatable commission that pays credits, reputation, and Artisan experience.

Start here

At a crafting area, type:

artisan

If you have not chosen a profession, select one with one of these commands:

artisan armstech
artisan tinker
artisan engineering

The three professions are intended to cover the following work:

artisan is also the crafter's status sheet. It shows your trained crafting skills, effective skill values, Artisan level, current and total Artisan experience, resource merits, and the experience required for the next level. Use practice <skill> to improve a listed crafting skill and gain artisan when you have enough Artisan experience for the next Artisan level.

Choose deliberately. Changing profession costs both credits and Artisan experience:

artisan change <armstech|tinker|engineering>

The command will show the current cost before you commit. Profession-training feats can also make additional crafting disciplines available, so inspect artisan and feats available after major character-progression choices.

Materials: the foundation of every project

Crafting materials come from harvesting nodes, vendors and trade, or from dismantle <item>. Dismantling an unwanted item returns its base material; the return depends on its weight and your Mechanics skill, and also grants Artisan experience.

The material must belong to the family required by the mold. Common families are:

Use only one material type in a normal crafting station project. Bundled material must be split with unbundle <item> before it can be used. Essence is not ordinary material and does not count toward a normal material requirement or a supply order.

The required quantity is based on the mold's weight, with a minimum of five material units. checkcraft is the authoritative preflight check: it catches wrong material families and tells you whether the quantity is exact. Better materials improve crafting/harvesting experience, so they are valuable even when you are crafting routine equipment.

Harvesting

Find an object that is visibly a harvesting node in the room and use:

harvest <node>

Harvesting skill affects the chance of extra materials and of finding datachips. Node availability is finite, so move on when a node is exhausted. cancel harvesting stops an active harvest.

The old help text describes harvestorder, which would send harvests to a faction depot for resource merits. That feature is currently disabled in the game command, so do not build a gathering plan around it. Resource merits remain visible through artisan and may be redeemed where supported.

Molds: what you are making

A mold is an item template, not wearable equipment. It fixes the kind of thing being made, its wear slots, base properties, required material family, and material quantity. Mold vendors sell many standard patterns; the starter practice examples include a vibroblade, boots, and a hover droid.

The mold becomes the finished item. Do not put two molds in the station: a normal project accepts exactly one. A good rule is to treat a mold as a consumable pattern, not a tool that returns after the project.

Datachips, crystals, and enhancement choices

The player-facing documentation calls the enhancement component a datachip. Some game messages and internal item labels call the same kind of crafting component a crystal. In either case, the important fields are its level, its apply type, and—only for lightsabers—whether it is a lightsaber crystal.

A normal datachip adds one chosen property to a crafted item. Its apply types include:

strength, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, constitution, charisma
hitpoints, stamina, hitroll, forcepoints
weapon_accuracy, weapon_damage
fortitude, reflex, willpower, skill, all_saves, carry_weight

Only one enhancement datachip may be used in one normal craft. The chip's level raises the resulting item's level, and its apply type determines the stat being enhanced. The final item's level must not exceed the effective crafting skill used for that item, so a powerful chip can turn an otherwise valid project into one you are not yet skilled enough to complete.

Some applies have fitting restrictions. For example, weapon accuracy/damage belong on weapons, dodge AC belongs on boots, hitroll belongs on gloves or gauntlets, shield AC belongs on shields, and armor/shield AC cannot be put on weapons. checkcraft validates these combinations before you risk materials.

Where to get chips

• Harvesting can find them.
• Defeated enemies and other treasure sources can drop them.
• A slicer can use slice type subtype at data terminals. type must match a listed apply type exactly; subtype is chiefly used for a skill chip.
• Unwanted equipment can yield materials through dismantle; unwanted datachips follow the separate deconstruct route below.

Augmenting a datachip

At a crafting station, place at least two chips with the same apply type in the station and use:

augment

The highest-level chip is retained and the others are consumed to raise its level. This is a useful way to consolidate several weak chips before using one on an important item. It requires no profession-specific training.

Crafting a custom item

Use a crafting station. The station intercepts the crafting commands, so it must be in your current room. The reliable workflow is:

1. Put one mold into the station.

2. Put the exact required number of unbundled, matching materials into it.

3. Optionally put one valid enhancement datachip into it.

4. Check the whole project:

   checkcraft

5. If the preview is correct, begin the project with a roleplay-appropriate description that includes the material name:

   create a fibrous plasteel scout's vibroblade

checkcraft reports the result, final level, used skill, duration, bonus (if there is a chip), and credit cost. It is the step that prevents most costly mistakes. Do not skip it for a valuable mold, datachip, or lightsaber crystal.

The description becomes the item's name and room description. It must fit the Star Wars setting and accurately include the material; inappropriate or misleading names may be removed by staff.

On a successful start, the station is consumed and replaced, the materials and chip are used, the mold becomes your in-progress item, and the credit cost is paid from credits on hand. The base cost scales with final item level. A normal craft takes 15 ten-second ticks (about 150 seconds) before any speed benefit. The completed item is delivered to your inventory and the work awards Artisan experience.

Useful quality-of-life commands:

craftingbrief     # hide/show per-tick crafting updates
craftingtimer     # toggle a prompt progress timer (client-dependent)
fastcrafting      # toggle faster work when you have Fast Crafter ranks
cancel crafting   # stop the active crafting action

fastcrafting reduces the time only according to your Fast Crafter ranks and trades experience for speed. Leave it off when experience is your priority; turn it on when throughput matters.

A first practice project

The established starter walkthrough begins at the Czerka manufacturing area:

artisan armstech
buy vibroblade
buy plasteel 5
put 5 plasteel station
put vibroblade station
checkcraft
create a practice plasteel vibroblade

Equivalent starter choices are boots plus five kevlar for a tinker, or a droid mold plus five plasteel for engineering. The exact vendor inventory and station keyword can vary by location; use the noun in the room description.

Quality, Artisan level, and feats

Every successful harvesting and crafting action contributes to Artisan progress. The Artisan class is a production specialization alongside normal character progression, not a replacement for your adventuring class.

The most important automatic Artisan milestones are:

The recurring Proficient and Fast Crafter ranks compound their stated benefits. Productive Crafter is also worth prioritizing when available: each rank grants +10% Artisan experience. feats, feats available, and artisan are the best in-game sources for your character's precise next choice and rank values.

When a chip is used, quality can also increase from masterwork/threshold feats, crafting criticals, relevant droid assistance, and some guild bonuses. Critical quality is capped, so do not expect an unlimited reroll or stacking loop. Higher Artisan level is therefore useful both for access/efficiency and for reliably better high-end output.

Artisan Guild

If you choose the Artisans Guild, its ranks provide bonuses tailored to this loop:

• a bonus to the artisan skills of your chosen profession;
• a chance to reduce a project's material cost by one unit;
• increased supply-order rewards; and
• a small increase to critical crafting-success chance.

Use the usual guild commands (chooseguild, guild, and guildexp) to inspect availability, requirements, and the current conversion options. Guild progress is optional; it complements rather than replaces Artisan levels.

Supply orders: repeatable crafter commissions

Supply orders are the main low-risk way to build Artisan experience while earning money. They are not player commissions: they are NPC contracts, started and completed at the Czerka Supply Request Station.

1. At the request station, accept a contract:

   supplyorder new

   You must have selected an Artisan type. The contract tells you the item, material family, five-item quota, and rewards.

2. At a crafting station, place exactly three unbundled, non-essence material units from the requested material family in the station. Do not add a mold, a datachip, or extra materials.

3. Start one commission item:

   supplyorder

4. Repeat until the five-item quota is complete. You gain Artisan experience for each production action as well as the contract reward.

5. Return to the request station and collect:

   supplyorder complete

   Rewards include credits deposited into the bank, reputation/quest points, Artisan experience, and—when the account cap permits—account experience.

At either relevant location, supplyorder with no subcommand reports your active contract. supplyorder quit abandons it. Do not accept another order after completing one until you have turned it in.

Datachip → databit → module upgrades

This is separate from placing a chip in a crafting station to make a new custom item. It consumes a datachip to make an upgrade schematic for an existing weapon or armor.

1. Deconstruct a datachip

deconstruct <datachip>

This uses Use Computer. A chip must be no more than 20 levels above your Use Computer value to attempt deconstruction. Success gives a databit with the same rating; failure destroys the datachip without usable data.

2. Compile the databit into a schematic

compile
compile <databit> <module type>

Running compile alone lists the currently supported module types. The schematic determines both the effect and which equipment can receive it:

An item can have several compatible modules, but not the same module twice. Module points represent the combined installation difficulty, so adding more or higher-point modules makes later installation attempts harder. Compilation uses Use Computer and consumes the databit whether it succeeds or fails.

3. Install the schematic

An Armstech crafter installs the finished schematic into an eligible weapon or armor:

install <armor-or-weapon> <upgrade type>

For example:

install flak armor dropsuit

install with no arguments lists the available module types. Installation requires the matching schematic in your inventory, an eligible target, Armstech skill, and credits; it can fail and consumes the schematic on an attempt. Use this route when you want to improve an existing piece rather than manufacture a replacement.

Building a lightsaber

Lightsabers use the normal crafting station, but are deliberately stricter. They are not an Armstech shortcut: the creation skill is Use the Force.

Prerequisites

You need both feats:

force sensitivity
lightsaber proficiency

You must also be able to meet the final item's Use the Force skill requirement. On the actual create attempt, you must pass a Use the Force check of 25. Failure destroys the contents of the station, so run checkcraft first and do not use a prized crystal until you are prepared for that risk.

Components and procedure

1. Obtain a lightsaber mold. The standard mold list includes a training lightsaber; it is a valid first saber pattern. Obtaining lightsaber molds requires level 7 and a quest starting in Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine.

2. Gather the exact compatible hilt material required by that mold—normally a hard-metal material such as plasteel. Use checkcraft to confirm the quantity and current credit cost.

3. Obtain a lightsaber crystal. A normal enhancement datachip cannot be used for this. Conversely, a lightsaber crystal cannot be put into a non-lightsaber project.

4. Put the single saber mold, exact materials, and single lightsaber crystal in a crafting station.

5. Preview the item:

   checkcraft

   Confirm that it reports Use the Force, the expected final level, and the intended crystal type.

6. Create it with a setting-appropriate name that includes the material:

   create a plasteel hilted training lightsaber

The saber crystal supplies its special crystal effect and an accuracy or damage-oriented enhancement. It also determines the named crystal property:

After construction, lightsaber proficiency removes normal use penalties. Lightsaber combat feats, Force powers, and forms improve how you use the weapon; they are not required to craft it beyond Force Sensitivity and Lightsaber Proficiency. Useful follow-up feats include Deflect Attacks, Lightsaber Defense, Riposte, weapon focus/specialization for lightsabers, and the appropriate saber forms for your class.

Other station services

Crafting stations also support a few useful maintenance operations:

• restring <new description> changes an existing item's description while retaining its statistics; place the item in the station and keep one fifth of its value in credits on hand.
• resize <fine|diminutive|tiny|small|medium|large|huge|gargantuan|colossal> changes a weapon, armor, or shield's size. Put the original item and enough of its own material into the station first.
• enhance applies item-enhancement schematics/holocrons to an eligible item in a station.
• convert turns appropriate material quantities into a new material form; the station requires exact multiples of ten.

Read the station's error messages carefully. They are specific about the items and quantities it sees, and are more reliable than trying to guess a recipe from the appearance of a mold.

Troubleshooting checklist

Recommended in-game references

For live values and anything that can change with a balance update, consult:

artisan
feats
feats available
checkcraft
compile
install
help crafting
help crafting-walkthrough
help supply-orders
help datachips
help databits
help lightsaber-crystals

checkcraft, artisan, and the blank compile/install commands should be your source of truth before spending a rare mold, high-rating chip, or saber crystal.