Guide:Introduction to crafting

Guide:Introduction to crafting

Crafting is one of the cornerstones of development and success in Sapiens. Without it, you would be limited to thatch structures, and be unable to cook larger meals to sustain a growing population, or entertain your sapiens with music. This guide will inform you on the basics of crafting simple items. For more advanced techniques, see Guide:Advanced crafting.

Setting up a crafting area

Most crafting is done via the crafting area - some can be performed on a campfire, primarily the actions of cooking meat or baking bread, but these can only be prepared via extensive crafting at crafting areas.

A crafting area is built with 1 large rock, and can be placed from the same menu as the storage area, the building menu. Large stones can be found lying on the ground, and will be collected automatically by sapiens for the build command.

Click on the crafting area to bring up the crafting interface.

The crafting interface

The crafting menu is similar to the build menu - there are items that can be crafted, represented by their icons, and, when clicked on, the items that will be allowed for this recipe will be shown, and you can select whether or not to allow variations of these items (for example, blocking the use of pine branches). A slider can be used to control the quantity of crafted items produced, and 2 buttons are present, “craft” and “craft continuously”.

Crafting mechanics

Crafting is similar to building, although the end product is an item, rather than an object in the world. The sapiens gather the ingredients at the crafting area, if they are available (otherwise an orange triangle will be shown around the crafting icon, showing it does not have the required ingredients available). A sapien with the required role will then craft the item, either after a short delay or after learning the skill, which takes time.

When the “craft” button is pressed, sapiens will craft the item individually, but repeat the process for the number of items specified by the slider.

When the “craft continuously” button is pressed, sapiens will craft the item individually indefinitely.

Crafting a set of basic tools

Initially, you will want to craft some basic stone tools to get started on activities such as farming, digging and chopping trees.

You will need to investigate the rock knapping skill first, which is performed by investigating a Small Rock or a Large Rock.

Firstly, gather several large rocks, and many small rocks. The large rocks are used in the tools, and small rocks are used as knapping tools, which are ‘tools’ used to create stone tools. Ensure these rocks are stored in storage areas near to the crafting area.

Now, craft a stone knife and a stone hand axe. These tools will allow you to perform basic tasks required to advance - carving and cutting with the knife (used in other crafting recipes), and digging and chopping with the hand axe. Make sure you have storage areas for each of these tools.

Notice how you must wait for one item to be finished before crafting the other - it is a good idea to build several crafting areas so that you can craft in parallel, which saves time.

Next steps

Congratulations - you have crafted your first items! You can now perform tasks such as digging, farming.

The guides below may help you in realising the full potential of the new tools you have created, or you can learn how to refine your own crafting skills.

• Introduction to Farming
• Introduction to Building
• Guide:Advanced crafting
• Guide:Advanced Digging and Mining