Alchemy and recipes

For both alchemy and cooking you need a Mortar and Pestle. There's one in the cottage on the opening forest route, or you can buy one. Khelebar in Underkeep Village also sells ready-made potions. If you need a potion right now, buy it there and save your ingredients for another recipe.

Pick up ingredients as you explore: plants, mushrooms, berries and monster parts. Empty Flasks count as ingredients too. A recipe is an exact combination, quantities included – one Amberrose won't do when the recipe asks for two, even though it's the right flower.

How to make a recipe

  1. Collect every ingredient on the list, in the right quantity.
  2. Use the Mortar and Pestle to open crafting.
  3. Put in the ingredients and confirm with Craft.

If the combination is wrong, crafting fails and you keep your ingredients, so you can experiment. A failed attempt won't tell you whether a different quantity of the same ingredients would work, though. Keep the recipes that worked separate from your guesses.

Healing, Mana and Stamina

Result Ingredients Effect
Potion of Minor Healing 1 Empty Flask + 2 Amberrose 4–8 HP
Potion of Healing 1 Empty Flask + 2 Amberrose + 1 Crimsonspire Berries 9–15 HP
Potion of Minor Mana 1 Empty Flask + 2 Moonpetal 12–17 Mana
Potion of Mana 1 Empty Flask + 2 Moonpetal + 1 Crimsonspire Berries 17–25 Mana
Potion of Minor Stamina 1 Empty Flask + 2 Solarbloom 10–14 Stamina
Potion of Stamina 1 Empty Flask + 2 Solarbloom + 1 Crimsonspire Berries 14–22 Stamina

The stronger version of each potion takes the same ingredients plus 1 Crimsonspire Berries. Potion of Stamina has a second recipe too: 1 Empty Flask and 2 Potions of Minor Stamina. It restores the same 14–22 Stamina, so it's handy when you're out of Solarbloom but have weak Stamina potions to spare.

Cures and three-round protection

Result Ingredients Effect
Potion of Cure Poison Empty Flask + Amberrose + Solarbloom + Red Mushroom Removes Poison
Frostvein Draft Empty Flask + Crimsonspire Berries + Moonpetal + Venom Sac Removes Burn and Freeze
Thunderwake Draught Empty Flask + Solarbloom + Crimsonspire Berries + Bug Mandible Removes Stun and Paralyze
Ironhide Potion Empty Flask + Crimsonspire Berries + Bone + Bug Mandible +5 Armor for 3 rounds
Ghoststep Draught Empty Flask + Crimsonspire Berries + Spider Eye +20% Evasion for 3 rounds
Wardstone Elixir Empty Flask + Solarbloom + Moonpetal + Amberrose +20% elemental resistances for 3 rounds

Where no quantity is given, use one of each ingredient. A cure only removes the condition named in its effect; it doesn't refill health or Mana. Protective potions don't give anything back either. They raise a defence for three rounds, so drink them before the hit lands.

The Bone in the Ironhide Potion recipe is also something a Blood Mage needs, since Blood Mages can pay for skills with bones. If you have one in the party, decide where your bones go.

Other mixtures and a permanent Mana boost

Result Ingredients Effect
Potion of Poison Empty Flask + Venom Sac + Red Mushroom A poison potion, also used as an ingredient in other mixtures.
Resurrection Potion Empty Flask + Mimic Heart + Potion of Poison Resurrection.
Mindwell Elixir Empty Flask + Potion of Poison + Moonpetal + Amberrose 10–15 HP and 15–20 Mana.
Warblood Tonic Empty Flask + Potion of Poison + Amberrose + Solarbloom 10–15 HP and 15–20 Stamina.
Caerlin Essence Empty Flask + Caerlin Blue Bloom + Voidshard + Moonpetal Permanently adds 5 Mana.

Each ingredient here is used once. Caerlin Essence isn't a Mana refill: the 5 Mana it adds is permanent.

Food and resting

Food Ingredients Food value
Simple Mushroom Stew 2 Mushrooms 1
Hearty Mushroom Stew 4 Mushrooms 2
Dungeon Toast 1 Mushroom + 1 Ham + 1 Cheese + 1 Bread 16

Food belongs to the whole party and gets used up when you rest, so cooking feeds all four heroes at once. You still need a safe place to rest, though: enemies nearby can stop the party recovering.