Let’s start with the Alchemist tools. The most important tool is the mortar and pestle. You can buy this tool from a non-player character (NPC) Alchemist at any Mage shop. You can also craft it if you have tinkering.

The Alchemist also uses empty bottles, and the potion kegs. You can buy empty bottles from an Alchemist at the mage shops or you can make them. See the glassblowing section for more information. Kegs you won’t be able to purchase from an NPC, but a tinker can make them.

Make sure a mortar and pestle and an empty bottle are in your pack. Double click the mortar and pestle. This will bring up a menu of everything that can be made. But be warned, just because it’s listed doesn’t mean you can make it. If you’re not sure, click the box to the right of the item you want to make. It will tell you the skill required, your chance at making the item and the materials and/or the reagents needed. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle handy, you can also find this information here along with a description of what each potion will do.

So you’ve got your tools, the reagents you need and you’ve made your first potion. Now what? At this point you have a choice, you can continue filling empty bottles, or you can fill kegs.

Filling bottles is a good option. Your filled bottles will stack, so you could have a stack of 300+ Greater Heal Potions but they will only count as one item in your bank box or house.

Kegs are great if you plan to sell your potions, and they also look cool. Each keg will hold 100 potions. To fill the keg, drop the filled bottle onto the keg. Don’t worry, the bottle won’t drop into the keg but the potion will. Once you have that first potion in the keg, every potion (of that same kind) you make after will go into the keg until it’s full. Note – you must always have one empty bottle in your pack. To remove potions from the keg, double click the keg. Again, you must have empty bottles in your pack.

Unlike filled bottles, you can’t see what’s in a potion keg unless you cursor over it. But you can dye your potion kegs using a furniture dye tub.

There are three potions and one item that require the alchemist to obtain a recipe. These include invisibility, parasitic, darkglow and a hovering wisp (which is a decorative item). To obtain the needed recipes, go to Heartwood or Sanctuary and complete one of the tinkering crafting quests. (Note – expect to do the quest many times before you receive one of these rare recipes.)

There are many different methods available, but the general idea is to make potions below your level and as your gains slow down switch to a potion that requires more skill to make. While you are working this skill, there are two things to keep in mind.

First, what are you going to do with the potions you create. Use them? Sell them? If so, choose potions that you or others can use. These would include; greater agility, greater cure, greater heal, total refresh, greater strength and deadly poison. How well deadly poison sells often depends on the latest pvp trends.

The second thing is cost. Some want to make the cheapest potion possible. Below is a chart of the different potions most often used to gain skill and the cost to make each.