Handicrafts

Handicraft is a versatile skill, it can be coupled with other major crafting skills such as cooking and casting and significantly shorten the time to level the other two skills.

It can also be complemented with skills such as procurement and collection, and therefore turning trash items such as grass, sand and stone into highly valuable commodity.

Handicraft can be used to make trade goods such as alcohol, as well as make gems from ore collected in landing areas. It is also responsible for making all furniture throughout the game, and can add valuable boosts to your ship by building figureheads and wooden armours.

Recommended Birthplace 

Mediterranean Chapter

  • Lisbon
  • Marseille

North Sea Chapter

  • London
  • Amsterdam

Mediterranean Chapter

Required Recipe Books:

  • Book of Pharmaceutical preparation [optional] (Nantes, Malaga, Syracuse) 5000D
  • Book of Seasoning (Palma) 5000D
  • Brewing Secrets (Cagliari, reward after 320,000D in investment;Hamburg) 10000D
  • Brewing Secrets Volume 2 (Montpelier, Havana, reward after 800,000D in investment)

Required Skills:

  • Food trading (animal trader, food merchant)
  • Alcohol trading (accountant)
  • Luxury item trading (accountant, medicine trader)
  • Handicraft (medicine trader)
  • Either one of Procurement or Collection [optional] (fisherman)
  • Industrial goods trade [optional] (mineral trader)

Level 1 (3 x Grass >>> Basic Medicine) 

One of the biggest problems with Handicraft is that most recipes start at level 2, so at level 1 your options are very limited.

You can of course try and purchase a +1 Handicraft Shipwright’s Saw from players, but that equipment would cost about 6 million ducats.

The next best thing is try to get your Handicraft to level 2 by crafting level 1 items.

Sail to Nantes, purchase the Book of Pharmaceutical preparation.

Go outside the town through the gatekeeper and use either procurement or collection skill (on a grassy patch) to gather grass and turn them into Basic Medicine.

This method can be time consuming if you can’t find the Logs.

Level 2 (Olive >>> Olive Oil; Cane >>> Cane Sugar; Wheat >>> Beer)

If you are Spanish you can sail between either Seville and Faro, and use the Brewing Secrets to turn wheat into beer or between Palma and Valencia and make olive oil from olives using the Seasoning Book both products can be sold back to the market.

If you are Portuguese, you can sail to Madeira and produce cane sugar from cane with the Seasoning Book, or travel between Porto and Lisbon to brew beer from wheat found at Porto.

Level 3 (Almond >>> Almond Oil; Wheat >>> Aquavit; Barley >>> Vodka)

Spanish players use the Seville to Ceuta route, making Aquavit from wheat and vodka from barley using the Brewing Secrets book.

Portuguese players use the Porto to Lisbon route, making Almond Oil from almond from the Book of Seasoning, and Aquavit from wheat using Brewing Secrets.

Level 4 (Almond >>> Almond Oil; Wheat >>> Aquavit; Barley >>> Vodka; 2 x Wine >>> Brandy)

Spanish players use the same route between Seville and Ceuta, this time with the addition of making Brandy from wine.

Similarly Portuguese players use the route from Porto to Lisbon making Brandy from wine on top of the Almond Oil and Aquavit.

Level 5 – 7 (Wheat >>> Whiskey; Barley >>> Vodka or Vinegar, 2 x Wine >>> Brandy)

Sail between Seville and Ceuta and brew Whiskey from wheat, Vodka from barley and Brandy from wine. Now you’ll see why Handicraft is so profitable,

Whiskey and Vodka are speciality products from the North Sea and can sell for quite a lot of money and fame.

If you want less profit and fame you can turn the barley into Vinegar with the Book of Seasoning.

Level 7 (Wheat >>> Whiskey; Barley >>> Vodka or Vinegar, Wine >>> Wine Vinegar)

Using the same trade routes above, except turning wine into Wine Vinegar with the Book of Seasoning rather than Brandy.

Level 8 – 10 (Wheat >>> Whiskey; Barley >>> Vodka or Vinegar, Wine >>> Wine Vinegar or 2 x Wine >>> Brandy, Brandy + Raisin >>> Shelly)

Path A

(Wheat >>> Whiskey; Barley >>> Vodka or Vinegar, Wine >>> Wine Vinegar)

If you are unlucky and do not have friends from France that can help you invest in a Brewing Secret Volume 2 then you are stuck in the Lisbon and Seville area, making Wine Vinegar from wine.

That would be the only recipe available to you until level 10.

Path B

(Raisin >>> Wine, 2 x Wine >>> Brandy, Brandy + Raisin >>> Shelly)

If you are lucky enough to grab hold of a Secret Brewing Volume 2, then its time to make some serious profit.

(Raisin >>> Wine, 2 x Wine >>> Brandy, Brandy + Raisin >>> Shelly)

Travel to the Bordeaux, Nantes area in the Bay of Biscay.

Once you get here you’ll understand just how just how much of an advantage French players have in terms of Handicraft.

Nantes sells Brandy, Bordeaux sells Wine and Raisins.

Simply travel between the two ports, loading up on Brandy, Raisins, and Wine.

Use wine to make Brandy, combine Brandy with Raisin to make Shelly.

Any leftover Raisins can be made into Wine, and then into Brandy and combined with another Raisin to make Shelly.

Everything related to alcohol here can be crafted and therefore making these Nantes and Bordeaux area ideal for Handicraft crafters.

Trade Route (Nantes/Bordeaux >>> Plymouth)

Once your ship has full cargo of Shelly, you can unload them at Plymouth, where Shelly is considered a speciality product, and earning you some handsome exp, fame and profit.

North Sea Chapter 

Required Skill Books:

  • Art Handbook (Cairo, reward after 400,000D in Investment)
  • Book of Additional Wood Armour (all six capital cities) 15000D
  • Book of Alloy Smelting [optional] (Dublin, reward after 300,000 in investment)
  • Brewing Secrets [optional] (Cagliari, reward after 320,000D in investment; Hamburg) 10000D
  • Brewing Secrets Volume 2 [optional] (Havana, Montpelier  reward after 800,000 in investment)

Required Skills:

  • Industrial good trading (mineral trader)
  • Handicraft (medicine trader)
  • Ore trading [optional] (mineral trader)
  • Casting [Level 7+] [optional] (mineral trader, firearms trader)
  • Alcohol trading [optional] (accountant)
  • Luxury items trading [optional] (accountant, medicine trader)

Level 1 – 3 (Lumber + Iron >>> Cedar Boards)

Although, casting is not essential, having casting at level 7 and being able to make Bronze would make the levelling up of Handicraft 10 or more times faster.

The reason is that you can turn Bronze into Bronze statue and the materials to make Bronze can all be found in Hamburg.

If you wish to master Handicraft and you are from either England or Netherlands, it is highly recommended that you start off with Casting and use Handicraft as a complement rather than head straight into Handicraft.

Make iron in Hamburg or purchase from Amsterdam/London and then sail to Oslo.

In Oslo combine lumber with iron to make Cedar Boards from the Book of Additional Wood Armour.

Level 3 – 5 (Lumber >>> Wooden statue)

The recipe book required for making Wooden Statue is obtained from Cairo.

Wooden Statues will sell for quite a lot in Oslo, and this recipe can make you rich very quickly.

Level 5 – 10 (Copper Ore + Tin Ore >>> Bronze: Bronze >>> Bronze statue)

Bronze can be purchased from ports but it is much quicker if you use level 7 casting skill and the Book of Alloy Smelting, obtained from 300,000D in investments in Dublin to produce Bronze from Copper Ore and Tin Ore, which are both available in Hamburg.

In this method you can level up your Casting as well as your Handicraft, and you don’t have to leave port.

Master Handicrafts

Before you start your late game handicraft, it recommended that you have a high level in Collection, at least 6, and even better, if you have farm that was producing the raw materials for crafting.

The items needed for crafting late game materials in Handicraft are a pain to gather, such as Red Ore,

Honeycomb and Vegetable Oil can only be obtained through Collection in Landing areas.

Before you head out to collect the materials make sure you stock up on food items to replenish vigour.

If you can produce the required items in your farm then you can level up quite easily.

Required Recipe Books:

  • Art Handbook (Cairo, reward after 400,000D in Investment)
  • Brewing Secrets [optional] (Cagliari, reward after 320,000D in investment; Hamburg) 10000D
  • Brewing Secrets Volume 2 [optional] (Havana, Montpelier  reward after 800,000D in investment)
  • Craftsman Drill Book (Candia, reward after 320,000D in investment)
  • Book of Stone Cutting (Sao Tome, reward after 400,000D in investment)
  • Skilled Craftsman Drill Book (Jaffa, reward after 300,000D in investment)
  • Book of Ruby Cutting [optional] (Ceylon, reward after 2,000,000D in investment)
  • Book of Emerald Cutting [optional] (Zanzibar, reward after 2,000,000D in investment)

Required Skills: 

  • Alcohol trading [optional] (accountant)
  • Luxury items trading [optional] (accountant, medicine trader)
  • Industrial good trading (mineral trader)
  • Handicraft (medicine trader)
  • Collection (fisherman)

Level 10 – 12 [Book of Arts] (Stone material + Lumber >>> Stone Statue)

You can stay in Oslo and purchase lumber and stone to make Stone Statue, then selling the Stone Statue back to the market.

It is recommended you bring a lot of purchase orders to refresh the market.

Level 10 – 12 [Brewing Secrets Volume 2] (5 x Large Leaf >>> Tequila)

Large Leaf can either be produced from your farm or collected in the Caribbean.

Just land in any Landing area around the Caribbean, find a landmark and start collecting.

You need level 6 in Collection though.

Level 12 – 14 [Brewing Secrets Volume 1 + 2] (Raisin >>> Wine, 2 x Wine >>> Brandy, Brandy + Raisin >>> Shelly, 4 x Cane >>> Rum, Rum + Shelly + Honeycomb >>> Treaty Ale)

Shelly and Rum can be easily made in Madeira, Honeycomb can only be collected from landing areas in Eastern Europe.

The best way is to collect a near full cargo of Honeycomb and sail to Madeira to make Treaty Ale.

The grass that you collect can be made into Vegetable Oil with the Craftsman Drill Book.

Level 12 – 14 [Skilled Craftsman Drill Book](10 x Grass >>> Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Oil + 2 x Lumber >>> Fine Furniture)

Go to the landing area outside the gatekeeper in Nantes.

Find a Stack of Boulders just outside the entrance to the West.

Use collection and collect Vegetable Oil.

Grass can also be crafted into Vegetable Oil with the Craftsman Drill Book.

Once you have a cargo full of Vegetable Oil travel to Oslo and combine 2 x Lumber with Vegetable Oil to make Fine Furniture.

Level 14 – 15 [Gem cutting] (4 x Ore >>> Gem)

The ores required for cutting gems can be produced from your farm and that is probably the easiest and best way to acquire them.

Otherwise you will have to collect them yourself.

Ruby: Red Ore
Amber: Yellow Ore
Emerald: Green Ore
Diamond: White Ore

Graduation!!! You have mastered the art of Handicraft you can now turn unwanted objects into prized possession and with level 15 at your disposal you can millions in a matter of minutes.

But wait, there is still something more challenging.

Yes with Handicraft, you can also build Furniture for people’s Apartments.