Crafting

  Crafting is an important part of the Guild Wars game.  Items such as armour and focus items can be created from materials that you pick up or salvage during your travels.  Because of this, it is a good idea to hold on to any materials that you discover during the game.  Materials that don't prove useful for one character right now may be useful for a different character class or even later on in the game.  Crafted items require more materials and more gold later as you progress in the game.

Holding onto Materials

It is often a good idea to hold onto salvaged and collected materials

a - for your characters, all the armour types for different characters take different types and amounts fo materials, so what you might not need now for your main character may come in useful at a later point for a sub character.

b - for other guild members, other people may not be as prepared as you.

c - if you are running short of cash you can sell materials in multiples of 10 to material traders. The prices you get will vary depending on current demand, but the amounts soon add up.

Why do I need materials

Take a look at the Armour Crafting Section on this website. In it you will be able to see all of the armour types for your character. (Please note armour types are only available for the primary profession of your character)This list shows you the armour available for you, where to get it and more importantly what it costs with regard to gold AND materials.

 Now of course you could just buy the materials you need from a trader but the cost of doing it that way soon becomes prohibitive.

Salvaging

Many items in the world of Tyria, including armour and weapons, can be salvaged to make other items and materials.  To do this though, requires a salvage kit.  In this process you can gather common crafting materials, rare crafting materials, runes and even weapon upgrades.

Some items, after being identified using an Idenficiation kit, will be labled 'Highly Salvagable'.  Using a salvage kit on these items will harvest more materials than normal items.

Salvaging an item is done in the same way that you would Identify an item, simply double-click on your salvage kit and then click onto the item for salvage.  Note: Some items, such as quest items, cannot be salvaged.

Basic Salvage Kit  

These Salvage Kits are found in Pre-Sear and early Post-Sear Tyria.  They are the cheapest form of Salvage Kit but provide the least number of uses and also can't salvage rare materials, runes or weapon upgrades from items.  If this item is used on an item that contains rare materials, runes or weapon upgrades then the item will be salvaged as normal but only basic materials will be salvaged from it.

Expert Salvage Kit 

These Salvage Kits are found throughout most of Post-Sear Tyria.  They are relatively inexpensive and, although they only provide the same number of uses as the Basic Salvage Kit, they can salvage rare materials, runes and weapon upgrades from items as well as basic materials.

Superior Salvage Kit 

These Salvage Kits are found deeper in Post-Sear Tyria.  These Salvage Kits are very expensive (approx 2k) but they provide 100 uses before the kit is desroyed.  These Salvage Kits can salvage rare materials, runes and weapon upgrades from items as well as basic materials.

What are Salvaged items used for?

Various things can be Salvaged from other items.  The most common things to be salvaged from items are common and rare crafting materials.  These can be either sold to a material trader or given to armour and weapon smiths to be crafted into new items or armour.  Crafted items and armour are covered in more detail later. Here is an example of what some of the Items and Salvage look like (Please note Salvaged components may vary)

Salvaging from Uncommon or Rare Items

During your adventures you may find items whose names appear in purple or gold.  These items are Uncommon and Rare, resepectively.  The first thing to do with these items is to identify them. These items tend to be weapons, focus items or salvagable armour. 

After identifying these items, there is the chance that a weapon upgrade or rune may be unlocked (this will appear at the top of your screen).  This notification will tell you what can be obtained from these items by salvaging them.  The choice to do this is yours however.  Some Uncommon and Rare items may be more useful in their current state.  It may be worthwhile noting what can be salvaged from these items if you don't intend to salvage them right away.

Here is an Example of a Gold Dwarven Scout Armor, that was idintified and revealed a Superior Rune of Fast Casting, and then salvaged with an Expert Salvage kit to get the Rune.

Salvaging and what you get.

Below is a table of what we have gotten from items after salvaging. If you find any additions or amendments to the information below please let us know via the feedback form.