There are currently 28 items you can make with the Alchemy skill. Every one of them has their use, but how used are they, and are they worth making in bulk (or at all)?
There's also the issue of value, whether the cost of the ingredients makes the item better to make on your own, or just buy outright.
I've put together below a list of the items, as well as my personal thoughts on each. Keep in mind that these are the opinions of a single player, others may have differing opinions and may have different experiences with each. Don't base your Alchemy work on the opinion of one person. ;)
ESSENCES
Fire Essence - The backbone of Alchemy. This is where you make many of your first Alchemy levels. They sell well, as so many of them are needed for bar-making and more. Value of ingredients is about 3gc, sell for 3.5gc, so you make a little more and get experience off making them rather than selling ings. Overall this is something you'll make a lot of, both for yourself and to sell. Eventually though, the experience you get making them just isn't worth it and you may end up becoming a buyer of these for your bar work.
Water Essence - One of the primary means of leveling the Crafting skill is polishing emeralds. Polishing requires 2 water essies per gem, so a lot of them are needed. As well, these are needed by a smaller number of players who are advancing their Tailoring, as they are needed to make dyes.
If you plan to do either of those skills, make yourself a lot of these. Sell-wise, they sell for at or only slightly above the value of the ingredients, so making money off them is only an option with self-harvesting. The market for them tends to fluctuate, and many choose to just make them themselves as they aren't going to make much (or any) profit off their gems/dyes if they are bought.
Earth Essence - On an incredibly rare occasion, someone may actually buy these. However, rare means rare. These have only one use, to make matter conglomerates (see comments on those below). Those who make "gloms" are most likely going to make the essences themselves as well. Do not rely on these for income, and don't bother making them unless you actually need them yourself.
Air Essence - Mana draining is used and abused to increase magic levels. That's their primary usage, with a few other uses that are minor in comparison. The sale of them goes in waves, sometimes lots being bought and other times less so. They sell for a decent profit though. You won't sell as many of these as other essences, but they are sellable eventually. Use them to level after water essies, see how well they sell, decide from there if you want to continue making them.
Spirit Essence - The first of the two essences that require mercury as an ingredient. These are regularly needed in the game for teleporting, however the ingredients make them a loss to make on your own. For leveling the Alchemy skill, most if not all skip these and go to matter essences directly after air essences. This is the only essences that I'd recommend buying from the magic shop NPC rather than making. The NPC sells for 9gc each, and it's the only essence that sells from the NPC for less than the ingredients cost. Mercury alone sells currently for 6-7gc each from players, if you can find anyone selling it at all. In all, these are the 1 essence I never make. (Or rather, rarely make, as I do sometimes make a handful of them when they are really needed and I don't have time to go to the shop to buy them.)
Matter Essence - Another regularly-needed item, but they are incredibly hard if not impossible to sell for more than what you could get for the individual ingredients. You will make these, but mostly for your own use. The price issue is because of this... the individual ingredient going rates:
- iron - 3.5gc
- each type of quartz - 2gc
With 3 types of quartz and 1 iron, total of the ingredients is 9.5gc, not including food cost. Most people try to buy them at 8gc, and will refuse to at 10gc. Why sell them when you could sell the ingredients instead?
Of the essences, this is the most confusing one when it comes to pricing, and as such makes them not worth selling. You'll need to make these for yourself at the least though, and they are regularly used. And if anyone tries to buy them from you for less than 10gc, laugh at them.
Energy Essence - Heavily, heavily used. Whether by mercury extractors, or people teleporting (5 per trip to the portal room), or any of several other uses, these babies have their market. Well worth making for both yourself and to sell, which they will at a slight profit.
Life Essence - Easy to make with only two ingredients, easy to sell to those working on their summoning levels, and will sell at a profit. Higher-level summoners can and will buy these in extreme amounts for making summoning stones.
Death Essence - Make for yourself only. Limited use, and due to the mercury needed won't sell at any profit. These are normally skipped when leveling as well as spirit essences due to the mercury needed.
Health Essence - These are the most-needed of all essences. Heavily used, heavily bought. You'll get an overwhelming amount of your alch leveling done on these alone. Make them, make them a lot. Use them. Savor them. Sell them.
Magic Essence - The market for these, despite having some uses, is close to zero. This is because they are the highest experience of the essences, and saturate the market because of people using them to level. Keep some for your personal use, make them when you need them.
They do, however, have that leveling use, and making them solely for that reason is not a bad thing. If you have the gc to burn, make them in an alchemy school for double experience. If not, make them anyway. Ingredients cost a total of about 4gc, so even if you buy all the ingredients, they can be sold for 6.67gc to the magic shop NPC, a profitable option if you don't mind hauling them there from storage.
ENRICHED ESSENCES
There are 5 available. 2 can only be made "by accident" while making their non-enriched counterparts. Those are Enriched Water Essence and Enriched Death Essence. Neither of those are very regularly used so no matter.
The other 3 can be made but require an enrichment stone, a rare item.
An Enriched Life Essence would be a waste. They sell for much less than the enrichment stone itself. Their limited use makes it better to just hope for one while making Life Essences, and they tend to be made that way relatively regularly.
Your best bet is to save the enrichment stones, using them only to make an Enriched Fire Essence or Enriched Magic Essence when you absolutely need one of those. Otherwise you won't make these often at all.
BARS
Bars in general are pain in the... to make due to heavy ingredients. Selling prices are generally at or slightly below the cost of ingredients, so they're generally only profitable if you harvest things yourself. As well, you'll need a good stock of fire essences if you plan to make these.
If you are alching solely to increase your alchemy level, you're better off sticking to the essences due to their being easier to gather ings and make.
Iron Bars - Used by manufacturers, you should have no problem selling these off, though less so than steel bars. A necessity, made in large quantities. Primarily bought by people making S2Es to harvest hydrogenium.
Steel Bars - Like iron, but sold in even larger quantities. The reason being their primary use is to make S2Es, which require 16 bars each, with only 2 iron bars. Iron and steel bars of course have other uses, but primary buyers are those making S2Es.
Silver Bars - primary use being for rings in crafting. A fluctuating market, you might end up selling some, but don't rely on them for income. Better to make these for yourself for your own crafting.
Gold Bars - primary use being for rings in crafting. (I'm repeating myself!) These have an even less chance of selling, as the most-used rings are all made with silver rings, not gold. Make for yourself as needed, don't expect to sell them.
Titanium Bars - Used almost exclusively in higher-level manufacturing that also requires rare inredients, so their usage is extremely limited. Those that would actually need them wouldn't need huge amounts, and will likely make them on their own. At best they sell to NPC for 40gc each, but the ings could be sold for more.
Tin/Copper/Bronze Bars - Putting these together as the only purpose for tin and copper bars is to make bronze bars. There is almost no market for these at all. Chance of sale is slim to none, and there is an incredible amount of work involved to make them. Only make if you actually have a use for them yourself.
Hydro Bar - The holy grail, you could say, as 50 are needed to buy a nexus. However, when you make these, chances are you'll be in a guild doing group projects to make them. Hydro ore is the hardest ore to get. But these definitely have their game usage.
Seridium Bars - Take a lot of work to make (making matter conglomerates to harv the seridium), and have little to no market. Don't make unless you need yourself, or have someone willing to buy in advance.
Wolframite Bars - Require a rare serpent stone to make. You won't be making these in any large amounts. They have uses, but better to only make if absolutely needed.
MISCELLANEA
Bone Powder - The lowest point-wise. As a starting potioner, you'll need to make these. Make them for your own personal use only though, as they don't sell well, and with 3 bones needed, you'll make more selling just the bones than the powder.
Matter Conglomerate - You'll feel a sense of accomplishment in making these, but that's where it ends. They have limited usage, don't sell well if at all... don't make unless you have a guaranteed buyer or want to use them yourself. They're a lot of work for no good reason otherwise.
Mercury - The oddball of alchemy. Requires an expensive tool (alembic) to make, a high-level harvesting item to extract it from (cinnabar), and an energy essence. Very nice experience, but expensive as the alembic will break eventually at some point where it won't be worth the value of the mercury it produces. By the time you get to where you can make this, you'll need to decide for yourself whether it's worth it.
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Okay, that's it for alchemy. Hopefully it helps you decide if you should/shouldn't make each item if you're working your way up the alchemy ladder. And remember, these are just my opinions and thoughts on each item. Your mileage may vary.
