• NPCs will allow cache up to 3 bulk order deeds for players
• All BODs are limited to one every six hours
• The system will “cache” up to 18 hours worth of BOD give outs
• Players may claim all 3 deeds in quick succession
• Turning in a BOD adds a new deed to the cache (up to 3)
• Example: Log in after 18 hours and receive 3 deeds
• Example: Receive 3 deeds, then turn in 3 filled deeds, and immediately receive 3 new deeds

When offered, the bulk order is in the form of a deed, grey for blacksmithing and green for tailoring. Double-clicking this deed brings up the details of the order, such as the item name, amount to make, quality of the item requested, and the ore or material type.

To complete a Small bulk order, the player can use the “combine” button on the deed to combine the crafted items with the deed until the amount of items the deed requests has been reached. Once the correct amount of items has been created and combined with the deed, the deed can then be dropped on the NPC for a reward. Items cannot be removed individually from a deed, once they have been combined with it.

Types of Bulk Orders

Small bulk orders are the primary type of BOD received, with a 92% chance that any BOD request will be a small BOD, if the crafter is 70 skill or higher. If the crafter is less than 70 skill, the requested BODs will ALWAYS be small BODs. At skill below 70, the BOD will request items that will allow the player to gain skill by filling the BOD. Similarly, at skill below 70, the BOD will only request “Normal” items (though exceptional items can also be put into the BOD), of base material (Iron for blacksmiths, Cloth or regular Leather for tailors).

After 70 skill, Blacksmith BODs are 50% likely to require items that are exceptional quality. The base chance is 50% for a weapon BOD, 50% for a BOD type of the armor/helmet/shield group. And, if the latter group, it be at least 50% likely to require that the items be made out of one of the eight special metals gained through Mining (the likelihood of it being iron, of this category, goes down at 110 real skill, and again at 120 real skill, though there will always be a 50% chance of iron weapon BODs). There was originally supposed to be a 10% bonus to the chance of being an Exceptional BOD (so that 60% of BODs would require exceptional items) if the Smith is above 100 skill, but that appears to have been removed (intentionally or accidentally) in 2003, and never restored.

After 70 skill, Tailor BODs are 33.3% likely to require items that are of exceptional quality. 29 of the 55 small BODs for Tailors are Special leather types and exceptional quality items are not requested for tailors in training under 70 tailoring skill. The other 26 small Tailor BODs are for leather products, and have a 30% chance of being regular leather (though items of any leather type will fill this BOD), 42% chance of requiring spined leather, 21% chance of requiring horned leather, and 7% chance of requiring barbed leather.

Large bulk orders (often called LBODs) will be extremely difficult to fill, in that each large bulk order requires filling several small bulk orders of the requested types, and then those completed small BODs, are combined with the Large BOD in the same manner as items are combined with a small. For instance, a large bulk order for blacksmiths may require 20 full sets of armor to be made. The player must obtain several smaller bulk orders, each requiring 20 pieces of the individual piece of armor. These smaller orders for the individual pieces must be completed, and combined into the large bulk order before the large bulk deed can be returned to the NPC for a reward. The smaller orders must be for the same number, and ore type as the original large bulk order, and of the same or better quality than required. Large bulk orders offer higher rewards, and are only offered to blacksmiths and tailors with 70 respective skill or higher.

The items requested by Bulk Order Deeds are limited to a selection of equipment dating from before the Age of Shadows expansion. The quantity requested for a BOD is  limited to 10, 15, or 20 (equal chance of each). The ore types for smith BODs are iron, dull copper, shadow, copper, bronze, golden, agapite, verite, and valorite. There are 11 small BODs on the Armor/Helmet/Shield side of the decision tree (out of 24 possible), that have no matching Large BOD, making it much more difficult to get the high-value Blacksmith BOD rewards. These orphan or “famer” BODs (called so because all you are really filling them for is for the fame boost, the usually low-end reward of a small BOD, and to get a chance to request a new BOD after turn-in) are usually considered not worth keeping, unless they give special rewards (like the powder to increase item durability, or the chance for a colored anvil)

As noted before, there are 55 possible small tailor BODs. Each cloth small BOD and each leather armor small BOD will fit into one matching Large BOD. The FOOTWEAR small BODs will fit one of THREE different Large BODS (two of the cloth BOD sets – despite saying cloth, and of the 4 colors of leather footwear BODs will work), or the specific Footwear Large BOD. There are no orphan/”famer” tailor small BODs, though many larges are not worth filling due to low value of the reward.

A Variety of Deeds

Considering all possible combinations, there are 1638 different bulk order deeds for blacksmithing, divided as such:

Weapons Smalls: 1 metal (iron) x 2 qualities x 25 weapon items x 3 quantities = 150
Armor, etc. Smalls: 9 metals x 2 qualities x 24 armor items x 3 quantities = 1296
Weapon Larges: 1 metal x 2 qualities x 5 weapon sets x 3 quantities = 30
Armor Larges: 9 metals x 2 qualities x 3 armor sets x 3 quantities = 162

For tailoring, there are 972 different bulk order deeds, divided as such:

Clothing Set Smalls: 1 cloth x 2 qualities x 29 cloth items x 3 quantities = 174
Armor and Footwear Smalls: 4 leathers x 2 qualities x 26 leather items x 3 quantities = 624
Cloth Larges*: 1 cloth x 2 qualities x 9 cloth sets x 3 quantities = 54
Leather Larges: 4 leather x 2 qualities x 5 leather sets x 3 quantities = 120

* 7 of the Cloth Larges require 3 specific cloth smalls, and one of the leather footwear small BODs. 1 of the Cloth Larges requires 4 specific cloth smalls, and one of the footwear smalls (specifically, sandals). The ninth Cloth Large requires 4 specific cloth small BODs (4 specific hat types).

Normal (non-exceptional) deeds may be filled with exceptional items. Exceptional deeds may be filled with only with exceptional items. One must take care not to confuse the two, or a lot of work can be wasted. Similarly, exceptional small BODs can be combined with a normal large BOD, by accident or deliberately to serve in place of a normal small (and in most cases, the exceptional small would have been a lot more valuable to the crafter, so it should be avoided unless you know the normal large is worth more than the exceptional small or its exceptional large). One can combine a colored deed small with a corresponding regular (Iron or Leather) large, but there are few reasons to ever actually do so.

Bulk Order Bribery

• Players may grease the palms of NPCs that give out Bulk Order Deeds
• The NPC will accept a bribe from the player in order to upgrade a BOD to a better one
  • Upgrades: Quantity, Quality, Material
  • Can only upgrade completely empty deeds
• NPCs will become more greedy over time and ask for higher bribes
  • Higher level deeds also require higher bribes
• NPCs who are bribed frequently will come under Guild scrutiny, and stop accepting bribes for a short time
• To start the process, select the Bribe context menu option on the NPC, and follow the instructions!

Rewards

The rewards are threefold. The first reward is gold. Large BODs have a set gold value by type, while small BODs give gold equal to half its vendor’s value (So, if an object is valued at 200 gold outside, then it would yield 100 gold multiplied by the requested amount). All these rewards will be deposited directly into the character’s bank, with a check given for Large BODs whose gold reward is greater than 60,000 gold. If the character’s bank is full, the NPC will refuse to take the BOD.

The second reward is a special item, often not available otherwise in the game, chosen based on the difficulty of the order. This is placed in the character’s backpack.

The third reward is an amount of fame, which is based on the point value of the deed.

The functionality of the items or the color of the items are unique. Some of the rewards are for showing off your skill to other players. Some of the rewards are even more impressive. The top end rewards should be sufficient (aside from the massive amount of fame you can get) as a reward for the huge amount of effort required to fill the order (including a large monetary reward).

Blacksmithy Rewards
Item	Special Abilities
Leather gloves of mining	Increases mining skill by 1 point. Dyeable using a leather dyetub. Only leather gloves allow meditation without being altered, but all 3 glove types are subject to Imbuing and Enhancing. All three types come in one of the 8 special ore colors when they are gained. All can take mining over 100 skill.
Studded leather gloves of mining	Increases mining skill by 3 points. Dyeable using a leather dyetub. Initially does not allow meditation, if not imbued with Mage Armor property.
Ringmail gloves of mining	Increases mining skill by 5 points. Initially does not allow meditation, if not imbued with Mage Armor property.
Ancient smithy hammer	Increase blacksmithing skill by 10, 15, 30 or 60 points when equipped. Will take Blacksmith skill over the skill cap, but only for purposes of crafting and enhancing (no effect on quality of BOD pulls, but will increase quality of repair deeds).
Runic smithy hammer	Allows you to make weapons and armor imbued with magical properties. Comes in all different special ore colors. The amount of properties and their minimum intensity (as of the 2008 BOD and runic changes, all smith runics can create up to 100% intensity) depends on the hammers color: Dull Copper – 1 to 2 Properties with a minimum intensity of 40%. Hammer has 50 charges when new. Shadow Iron – 2 Properties with a minimum intensity of 45%. Hammer has 45 charges when new. Copper – 2 to 3 Properties with a minimum intensity of 50%. Hammer has 40 charges when new. Bronze – 3 Properties with a minimum intensity of 55%. Hammer has 35 charges when new. Gold – 3 to 4 Properties with a minimum intensity of 60%. Hammer has 30 charges when new. Agapite – 4 Properties with a minimum intensity of 65%. Hammer has 25 charges when new. Verite – 4 to 5 Properties with a minimum intensity of 70%. Hammer has 20 charges when new. Valorite – 5 Properties with a minimum intensity of 85%. Hammer has 15 charges when new.
Sturdy pickaxe	Allows you to successfully mine either 150 or 200 times before breaking. Ore output depends on multiple variables, such as facet, race, and whether tool is set to mine other materials as well as ore. Number of uses is determined randomly at the time the reward is given.
Sturdy shovel	Functionally identical to Sturdy Pickaxe, except that it is lighter, and cannot be equipped as a weapon.
Colored anvil	None, just a decorative item (but a rare and highly valued one). Color is one of the 8 special ore colors, and facing is random, east or south. The point value is such that it only comes from certain 15-count BODs (and only a 10% chance of being rewarded even from those BODs), further increasing the rarity.
Prospector’s Tool	Allows miners to harvest a higher “level” ore than a certain area would yield otherwise, so long as the miner can normally mine the higher ore. Comes with 50 charges before it is used up. Can be used together with a Gargoyle’s Pickaxe to raise an ore spot two levels (i.e. an Agapite spot allows you to mine Valorite).
Powder of Fortifying	Increases the maximum durability of metal arms and armor by 10 points. Comes with 10 charges when new.
Blacksmith Scrolls of Power	Allows your blacksmith skill cap to raise above 100 points. The 105 and 110 scrolls come from the same BODs that can drop the colored anvil, while the 115 & 120 scrolls come from BODs where the scroll is the only reward. The 115 scroll is the highest value reward that can come from a small BOD.
Gargoyle’s Pickaxe	Allows miners to harvest a higher “level” ore than an area would yield otherwise. Beware: Using a Gargoyle’s Pickaxe may summon a hostile Ore Elemental! Colored Ore type for the site is raised one step, but if the miner not capable of mining it, they will only get iron ore – but can still get the ore elemental for the higher ore.
Tailoring Rewards
Item	Special Abilities
Colored Cloth	New colors, not available otherwise. Come in 5 “levels”, each with 4 colors within the level, corresponding to the first five tiers in the Tailor BOD point system.
Brown Bear Rug	None, just a decorative item. Comes in two facings.
Polar Bear Rug	None, just a decorative item. Comes in two facings.
Flower Tapestry	None, just a decorative item. Comes in 4 types (regular & dark, two facings for each)
Small Stretched Hide	None, just a decorative item. Comes in two facings.
Medium Stretched Hide	None, just a decorative item. Comes in two facings.
Specially Hued Sandals	None, just a decorative item. Come from the same small BODs as level 4 & level 5 Reward cloth, and are randomly one of the 8 colors from those two levels. 10% chance of Sandals from a level 4 BOD, 20% from a level 5 BOD, but the sandals can be of any of the 8 colors, regardless of the level of the BOD giving them.
Clothing Bless Deed	Allows you to make one item of clothing “blessed”. The item then cannot be stolen and will stay with you if you die. These deeds work on the sandals above, as well as most “magical” cloth items, in addition to normal clothing. Do not use on Arcane clothing (or items being made arcane), as the blessed property is lost in transition.
Tailoring Scrolls of Power	Allows your tailoring skill cap to raise above 100 points. Unlike Blacksmith scrolls, each of these is the sole reward for their Reward value level, though the BODs that give 115 & 120 scrolls can be the result of, or be raised from, those point levels by random bonuses to the point system.
Runic Sewing Kit	Allows you to make tailored armor imbued with magical properties. Comes in all three different hide colors. As with Smith BODs, these were improved in 2008, and the maximum intensity raised to 100%. The amount of properties and their intensity depends on the sewing kits type: Spined – 1 to 3 Properties with a minimum intensity of 40%. Kit has 45 charges when new. Horned – 3 to 4 Properties with a minimum intensity of 45%. Kit has 30 charges when new. Barbed – 4 to 5 Properties with a minimum intensity of 50%. Kit has 15 charges when new.

Examples

The easiest smithing bulk order to complete would be an order for 10 buckler shields of normal quality and made with iron ingots. The reward would be a moderate amount of fame, some gold, and a special item.

The hardest smithing bulk order to complete would be a large bulk order for 20 suits of platemail (all 6 pieces) of exceptional quality made with valorite. The player would need to have a large bulk order deed, as well as six small bulk order deeds, each for the same number, quality, and ore type, and each for a different piece of the full armor set. These six small orders (each for 20 of a particular armor piece, of exceptional quality, and made from valorite ingots) would need to be combined into the deed. The reward would be an enormous amount of fame, a bank check for a large sum of gold, and a magical item.

Bulk Order Books

In order to make storage of the large amount of bulk orders you are bound to end up with easier, Bulk Order Books have been created. The books act as a container that can hold only bulk order deeds, both tailor and smith deeds of all sizes and types.

A bulk order book can hold up to 500 orders. The Book and the first 4 orders in it count as 1 item. For every 5 orders above the initial 4 (and fractions thereof), it will counts as one extra item, so when it’s filled it will count as 101 items.

Since 500 orders can be a bit hard to manage in a big pile, the books also have a filtering option that allows you to only view the deed types you wish to see. The filter has a number of options like size, quality, quantity, material and skill, which makes it very easy to check if a certain deed is in the book.

When placed on a vendor and set to being not for sale, the book will allow the buyers to buy single orders from within the book at a price specified by the owner (the price set individually for each BOD). The filtering options are of course also available to potential buyers.

Bulk orders do NOT have to be priced in a book on a vendor. There are two reasons for this.

First, it is a means of allowing crafters to show off BODs they have for trade, so that other crafters could look at the books, then contact the house owner to try to arrange a mutually beneficial trade.

Second, and more common, is that BODs take up an incredible amount of space in a house, and the Vendor inventories do not count against the house capacity. This allows for a house to be used as something as more than a place to store BODs (in fact, prior to the ruling that Vendor BOD Book storage was in fact legal, there were some guilds that had most of their houses dedicated solely as communal BOD storage). A homeowner can store up to 623 (2 books, with 499 and 124 BODs, respectively) BODs per vendor, and only have to pay 60 gold per vendor, per day, for the BOD storage. The re-affirmation that this type of vendor usage is completely legal can be found at this EA Knowledge Base article.

LBOD Types

Here is a list of what small BODs are required to fill each Blacksmith LBOD (remember that the metal types, item counts and quality types must correspond):

An LBOD Ringmail deed needs the following BOD’s: ringmail gloves, ringmail sleeves, ringmail legs, ringmail tunic

An LBOD Chainmail deed needs the following BOD’s: chainmail coif, chainmail legs, chainmail tunic

An LBOD Platemail deed needs the following BOD’s: platemail gorget, platemail gloves, plate helm, platemail arms, platemail legs, platemail tunic. Note that the Plate Helm is located in the Helmet part of the crafting tool gump, not the Platemail section.

An LBOD Axes deed needs the following BOD’s: large battle axe, double axe, battle axe, two-handed axe, axe, executioner’s axe

An LBOD Swords deed needs the following BOD’s: cutlass, viking sword, long sword, scimitar, broadsword, katana

An LBOD Macing deed needs the following BOD’s: mace, maul, war mace, war hammer, hammer pick, war axe. Note that the War Axe is in the Axe part of the Blacksmith tool gump, but is a macing weapon in terms of skill used in combat.

An LBOD Fencing deed needs the following BOD’s: dagger, kryss, war fork, short spear, spear. The first two are in the “Blades” part of the Blacksmith tool gump, the latter three are in the “Polearms” section.

An LBOD Polearm deed needs the following BOD’s: halberd, bardiche.

Here is what is required to fill each Tailor LBOD (with the same restrictions as the Blacksmith BODs):

An LBOD Footwear deed needs the following BOD’s: Sandals, Shoes, Boots, Thigh Boots

An LBOD Studded Leather deed needs the following BOD’s: Studded Gorget, Studded Gloves, Studded Sleeves, Studded Leggings, Studded Tunic (note: the “Studded Armor” is part of the female armor LBOD set below)

An LBOD Bone Armor deed needs the following BOD’s: Bone Helmet, Bone Gloves, Bone Arms, Bone Leggings, Bone Armor

An LBOD Male Armor suit deed needs the following BOD’s: Leather Cap, Leather Gloves, Leather Gorget, Leather Sleeves, Leather Leggings, Leather Tunic

An LBOD Female Armor deed needs the following BOD’s: Leather Skirt, Leather Shorts, Leather Bustier, Studded Bustier, Female Leather Armor, Studded Armor

An LBOD Hat deed (the only cloth LBOD that does not requre footwear)needs the following BOD’s: Cap, Tall Straw Hat, Wide-Brim Hat, Tricorne Hat.

All other “cloth” LBODs for Tailor (8 total) require one Footwear small BOD (each footwear type fits 2 of the 8; LBOD will say cloth, but any of the 4 leather type footwear BODs are meant), one specific hat type cloth small BOD, and two more specific cloth small BOD types (three for the only 5-part cloth LBOD, commonly referred to as the Town Crier, that gives the same rewards as the two 5-part leather LBODs).

BOD Reward Point Systems

These are a cleaned up version of the point systems given on the EA Knowledge Base web site.  The one major difference is one not yet included in the KB articles, and that is the Bonus Points added to high-end BOD rewards, that now cause variability in rewards starting at the 120 Skill (Blacksmith) or 115 Skilll (Tailor) Scroll of Power level, and higher.

The Point System for Blacksmith BODs is as follows (taken from the official numbers at EA’s Support site, and corrected for typoes on EA’s behalf):

1. Count Points:

2. Quality Bonus: Add 200 Points if Exceptional

3. LBOD type (if an LBOD)

* note that for the longest time, there was a typo on the site that had Fencing at 300, & the 6-part weapons at 350 – hence the errors on the Tower of Roses charts for those weapons.

4. Metal Type

The Base Point value of a given BOD is these 4 values added together, ranging from 10 points for a small iron 10-count BOD to 1200 for a Large 20-count Exceptional Valorite Platemail BOD.

5. High End BOD Bonus: In 2008, an additional bonus was added to high-end BODs. It is believed that this bonus kicks in at the 900 or 1000 point level (confirmed for 1000, reported but not yet confirmed for the 900-point level; not very many people fill 120 Scroll BODs anymore, as most smiths already have them, and more urgent needs for the ingots). This bonus appears to range from 0-200 points (at least), and further modifies the reward for the BOD. It would seem from experience that this modifier is only applied 20-25% of the time, or only ends up high enough to cause a change in reward level that often. As a result, assume any LBOD at or above the 900 point level can end up producing a reward up to 200 points higher, possibly with a rare bonus being able to allow any of these to give a Valorite hammer.

The rewards, by point totals, are as follows. Blue items are considered to be the only desirable rewards from the Low-end BODs (under 900 points). From 900 points upward, every reward typically sells for hundreds of thousands of gold. Some people would also consider Copper Hammers valuable, but if you use the BOD cycling technique, you are likely to get so many Bronze hammers that filling larges for copper hammers (except the ones with the Anvil chances) will seem a waste of resources.

Low-end BODs (10-875 points)

High-end BODs (900-1200 Points). All are considered valuable rewards.

The Point System for Tailor BODs is as follows (taken from the official numbers at EA’s Support site, and corrected for typos on EA’s behalf):

1. What is the quantity requested of your BOD?

2. Is your BOD exceptional or regular?

3. Is your BOD a Large order (4 or more items)? BODs are worth the following points.

4. Now take the total value of your BOD from tables 1 through 3 and reference that point value.

5. Note that the High-End Bonus to the point system mentioned in the Blacksmith Table description ALSO applies to Tailor BODs at the 575 Point level and higher.

Thanks go to Sir Fruit of Cup & Nadia of Sonoma for original data. Updated January 2010 by Basara.