Gearing Up: The Material Supply Chain

The honest, end to end map of how a Rookery Isles player gets the materials to craft the best gear at every tier, traced backward from best in slot all the way down to the gathering node. This is the ArcheAge 3.0 gearing supply chain on the live server, no guesswork, no cash shop shortcuts.

Table of Contents

• The Two Stage Model
• Requirements
• The Ladder at a Glance
• LOW Tier: Illustrious
• MID Tier: Magnificent and Obsidian
• HIGH Tier: Delphinad
• TOP Tier: Ayanad
• Master Material Sourcing Table
• The Bottom Line
• On Rookery Isles
• See also

The Two Stage Model

Every craftable gear piece on Rookery Isles (weapon, armor, shield, instrument) climbs the same two stage ladder. Understand this one diagram and the rest of the guide is just numbers.

Stage 1, bench craft the bottom tiers (Apprentice to Conqueror). These are classic recipe upgrades. Each step eats the previous tier item, plus Archeum (Dust then Shard then Crystal), plus a refined base material (Fabric, Leather, Iron Ingot, or Lumber), plus Coin, plus a finishing reagent (a pigment, oil, polish, or wood finish). These are the only recipes that consume gathered and refined raw materials directly. You make them at your class craft bench: the Armor Form, the Anvil, or the Handicraft Kiln.

Stage 2, salvage gear into Mana Wisps, then reforge up the ladder. From Illustrious upward, you stop feeding ore and fabric into recipes. Instead you take a finished low tier piece to a Salvage Forge, break it down into Mana Wisps, and then reforge those wisps into the higher tier. Every reforge recipe consumes only Mana Wisps plus Coin (plus one premium scroll at the very top). The ladder runs:

  STAGE 1: BENCH CRAFT (gathered + refined mats)
  Apprentice's -> Craftsman's -> Artificer's -> Artisan's -> Conqueror's
       |
       +--- salvage any of these at a Salvage Forge into Mana Wisps ---+
                                                                       |
  STAGE 2: REFORGE (Mana Wisps + Coin)                                 v
  Illustrious -> Magnificent -> Epherium -> Delphinad -> Ayanad
   (ilvl 41)    (ilvl 44)      (ilvl 49)    (ilvl 55)    (ilvl 62)
                                            [SEALED]      [SEALED]
                                            unseal ->     unseal ->
                                            element       element

The single biggest takeaway: there is no "Magnificent recipe made of raw ore." The ore and gather cost is buried at the bottom of the ladder, in the Apprentice to Conqueror gear that gets salvaged into wisps. Mid, high, and top tiers are recipes of wisps and Coin. The Rookery gear economy is a wisp and gather economy.

Two more rules that bite players. First, the top two tiers (Delphinad and Ayanad) come out Sealed. The reforge does not give you an equippable item directly. You then Unseal the sealed item, which yields the equippable piece in an element variant (Ocean, Quake, Flame, and so on). Second, Ayanad is the ceiling. There is no Erenor or Hiram crafted gear on this server. Erenor exists only as a cosmetic Hero Cloak. Anything claiming a craftable Erenor or Hiram tier is wrong for this build.

The Archeum used in the bench tiers splits by gear family. Weapons, shields, and instruments use the Sunlight Archeum line. Armor uses the Moonlight Archeum line. They are color variants of the same inter convertible Archeum, so do not panic if you have the wrong color; alchemy can convert it. See the Alchemy Guide for the extraction chain.

Requirements

World gathering requires Character Level 52. Mining, logging, herb gathering, farming, husbandry, and fishing all carry a Level 52 requirement on their world interaction skills, and the client enforces it. In plain terms: you cannot mine an ore vein, chop a tree, pick a herb, harvest a crop, shear a sheep, or fish in the open world until your character is Level 52. Plan your gathering around that wall. See the Leveling Guide to get there.

Bench crafting, smelting, weaving, extraction, salvage, and reforge have NO level gate. Smelting ore into ingots, weaving Fabric, processing Lumber, extracting Archeum, salvaging gear into wisps, and reforging wisps up the ladder all work at any character level, as long as you have the materials and the craft proficiency. That means a sub 52 player can absolutely craft, salvage, and reforge gear, they just have to buy the raw materials on the Auction House instead of gathering them. Many players gear an alt this way.

Craft tiers carry a proficiency gate, not a character level gate. Each reforge tier needs a minimum rank in the relevant craft vocation (Weaponry, Tailoring, Leatherwork, Metalwork, Handicrafts, or Machining). The gates climb with the tier. See Labor Points & Proficiency for how ranks work, and note this build uses the Amateur to Legend ladder, not the old Basic to Master one.

The Ladder at a Glance

Here is the whole crafted ladder for the gear families covered in this guide, with verified item levels. Tiers in bold are the ones we walk through in detail.

Each gear family uses its own Mana Wisp, all of which are salvage only items (verified item ids below):

The split that confuses people: armor reforge is done with the Machining vocation ("Reforge: <Tier> Armor"), even though you bench craft armor with Tailoring, Leatherwork, or Metalwork. Weapons and shields bench craft under Weaponry; instruments bench craft under Handicrafts; and all of them do their reforge stage at a Salvage Forge under Machining skills. Use the forge matching your family: Sunlight Salvage Forge for weapons, shields, and instruments; Moonlight Salvage Forge for armor. A Starlight forge also exists. See Metalwork, Armorsmithing & Weaponry, Tailoring & Leatherwork, and Handicrafts & Printing for the bench side, and Gear Progression for the tier ladder.

LOW Tier: Illustrious

Illustrious is item level 41, the first rung of the reforge ladder and the gateway to real endgame gear.

Where it comes from, honestly: the world. This is gather, craft, and salvage. Not dailies, not events, not the marketplace, not honor. You bench craft cheap low gear, salvage it into wisps, and reforge the wisps into Illustrious. If you would rather skip the gathering, buy the materials (or even the wisps' worth of cheap gear) on the Auction House.

Character level to begin: any level for the bench craft and the reforge. But the raw materials behind it (ore, wool, cotton, pelt, logs, archeum) need Level 52 to gather. Realistically you start gearing seriously around 52, or earlier if you buy mats.

Proficiency to begin: craft vocation rank 1,000 (Amateur) for the Illustrious reforge.

What it takes (verified per family):

Those wisps come from salvaging the bench tiers. As a verified example, the Illustrious Desert Greatsword can be bench crafted directly from 1 Artisan's Greatsword + 6 Sunlight Archeum Crystal + 40 Iron Ingot + 5 Diluted Metal Flux + 1 Silver Ingot, which shows you exactly what raw refining sits underneath one wisp's worth of weapon. Instruments are the friendly exception: the Illustrious Meadow Lute also has a direct bench recipe, so you do not strictly need to salvage to reach it.

Salvage yields (verified, two handed weapon line): salvaging an Illustrious two hander returns 1 Two-Hander Metal Mana Wisp. Yields for other families are community reported and not individually confirmed in the data, so do not assume a universal number.

MID Tier: Magnificent and Obsidian

The mid band has two very different paths sitting at almost the same power level. Magnificent (ilvl 44) continues the wisp ladder. Obsidian (ilvl 46) is a parallel side branch sourced from dungeons and the Hasla zone.

Magnificent (ilvl 44)

Where it comes from, honestly: the world, at more scale. Same loop as Illustrious, just more wisps, which means more salvaged base gear behind it.

Character level to begin: same as Illustrious (mats gate at Level 52, bench and reforge ungated).

Proficiency to begin: craft vocation rank 2,000 for the Magnificent reforge.

Roughly double the Illustrious wisp count. Salvaging a Magnificent two hander returns 2 Two-Hander Metal Mana Wisps (verified, weapon line). Drum note: the Lightning Drum line has no Magnificent row in the data. For a full per tier instrument set, use the Lute or Flute, not the Drum.

Obsidian (ilvl 46), the side door

Where it comes from, honestly: dungeons and Hasla tokens. Obsidian is NOT a step in the reforge chain. Its base craft is 1 Mana Wisp + Obsidian mats + Coin, so it still rides the wisp economy, but its defining materials come from farming the Hasla zone for sealstones and from dungeon drops, not the gather and smelt path. From the Obsidian base it chains up into the famous named "awakened" weapons (Tearforger, Sunscreamer, and so on), each step adding boss drop reagents.

Proficiency to begin: the base Obsidian craft is low gated, but it needs Hasla mats in hand.

Malevolent Obsidian is processed (Metalwork) at the Hasla Kingdom Manufactory from sealstones that drop off Hasla mobs. Possessed Topaz, Revenant Soulstone, and the Maliceforged base pieces are drop and dungeon leaning reagents; the data shows a vendor price but does not confirm a buy source, so treat them as drops you farm. The deeper Obsidian named line (Sulfur Crystal, Renaia's Research Journal, Hanure's Horn, Kraken Ink Sac and the rest) is sourced from endgame dungeon and mob drops; the specific boss tables are not confirmed, so we tag them generically. See Dungeons & Raids.

HIGH Tier: Delphinad

Delphinad is item level 55, the same as the max character level, so it is genuinely endgame gear.

Where it comes from, honestly: the world, at scale. Hundreds of salvaged lower pieces feed the wisp count. Not dailies, not events, not the marketplace.

Character level to begin: Level 52 to gather the underlying mats; the gear itself is endgame.

Proficiency to begin: craft vocation rank 70,000 (Authority) for the Delphinad synthesis. This is verified on the weapon ladder; armor, shield, and instrument gates scale identically (exact numbers for those families were not individually pulled).

What it takes (verified):

The reforge outputs a Sealed item. You then Unseal it (an item action, not a recipe) and receive the equippable piece in an element variant. Whether you choose the element or it is rolled is runtime logic and not in the data; treat it as "you receive an element variant." Salvaging a Delphinad two hander returns 30 wisps (verified, weapon line), which is the efficient way to rebuild a wisp stockpile if you have spare Delphinad gear.

There is also an alternate weapon route that upgrades a finished Delphinad weapon straight into Sealed Ayanad. See the next section.

TOP Tier: Ayanad

Ayanad is item level 62 and the highest crafted tier on this server. There is no Erenor or Hiram crafted gear. Ayanad is the ceiling.

Where it comes from, honestly: the world plus the Ayanad Library dungeon plus a touch of event currency. The bulk is salvaged gear (wisps). The capstone scroll pulls in a dungeon drop, an Auroria item, and an event and regrade currency. Not the marketplace.

Character level to begin: Level 52 to gather; this is the deep endgame.

Proficiency to begin: craft vocation rank 130,000 (Herald) for the Ayanad synthesis, plus 50,000 (Master) in the relevant vocation to craft the Ayanad pattern scroll.

What it takes (verified):

Yes, an Ayanad cloth chest is 2,800 wisps. That is why endgame gearing is a grind of mass crafting and salvaging. As with Delphinad, the output is Sealed, and you Unseal it for an element variant.

The Ayanad pattern scroll is the capstone reagent. The weapon scroll (Ayanad Weaponsmithing Scroll, item 40091) is crafted at a Master gate (50,000) from 80 Ayanad Scroll Scrap + 1 Book of Auroria + 10 Sunpoint + 250 Earthmana Leaf. The armor variant uses item 40092. Where those components come from:

The alternate weapon route (verified). Instead of grinding 700 wisps for a weapon, you can upgrade a finished Delphinad weapon into Sealed Ayanad at the Regal Anvil (Herald gate): 1 Delphinad weapon + 1 Ayanad Weaponsmithing Scroll + 21 Archeum Ingot + 13 Sunlight Archeum Essence + 7 Sunridge Ingot + 27 Gilda Dust + 2,600,000 Coin. This is the only place Gilda touches the crafted gear chain. See Currencies & Vendors for Gilda Stars and Trade Packs & Commerce for earning them on trade runs.

The Sealed and Unseal rule, stated plainly: the plain equippable Delphinad and Ayanad items have no direct craft recipe in the data. The supply chain ends at the Sealed item. Unsealing is an item action that yields the element variant. Do not expect to craft "a Delphinad Quake Shield" end to end; you craft the Sealed Delphinad Shield and unseal it.

Master Material Sourcing Table

Every base and intermediate material that any gear tier consumes, with how you actually get it. Source tags: GATHER (vocation + Level 52 + best zones), PROCESS (station recipe, no level gate), ARCHEUM (alchemy extraction), SALVAGE (Mana Wisp loop), VENDOR (a copper price exists; buy availability hedged where noted), GILDA, DUNGEON drop, EVENT, or NOT on this server.

Refined metals and alloys (PROCESS at a Smelter, Metalwork, no level gate)

See the Mining & Ore Guide for vein locations and the Metalwork, Armorsmithing & Weaponry guide for smelting.

Refined fabric, leather, and lumber (PROCESS, no level gate)

See the Husbandry & Livestock Guide, Farming & Crops Guide, Logging & Lumber Guide, Tailoring & Leatherwork, and Carpentry, Masonry & Construction.

Archeum (ARCHEUM, alchemy extraction at the Archeum Workbench)

The Archeum family is fully inter convertible (combine up, disintegrate down), each step costing Coin and up to 10 labor. Weapons, shields, and instruments use Sunlight; armor uses Moonlight. Both rings behave identically.

Hedge on Archeum entry: the exact first raw unit of Archeum entering the economy (identifying unidentified archeum, the mining phase branch proc sometimes called "Fortuna," or direct archeum gathering) is not a clean recipe row in the data. The ARCHEUM tag is correct in kind; the precise yield per identify is unconfirmed. Note there is no node literally named "Fortuna Vein"; it is the mining phase branch mechanic. See the Alchemy Guide.

Finishing reagents (VENDOR priced, buy availability hedged)

These are consumed by the Apprentice to Conqueror bench tiers. Each has a copper price in the data, but the data does not confirm a vendor SELLS each one to players (the price may be a sell or refund value). Treat them as "buyable as a reagent," not "guaranteed on a specific vendor."

Mana Wisps (SALVAGE only, the spine of every mid, high, and top tier)

All wisps share one truth: a copper price of 1, no honor, living point, contribution, or cash price, and no craft recipe. They are produced only by the salvage item action at a Salvage Forge, breaking a matching family crafted piece. They can also appear in drop packs.

Hedge on yields: the per salvage wisp count is verified only for the two handed metal weapon line above. Armor, shield, and instrument per salvage counts are not confirmed in the data, so do not assume a universal "salvaging X gives N wisps."

Top tier capstone and Obsidian reagents

Universal

What is NOT a gear material source on this server (verified all zeros): no gear tier or its mats is purchasable with Honor, Vocation Badges, or Contribution Points. No gear material is Marketplace or cash shop only. The Honor shop sells its own parallel "Honor's <weapon>" line and cloaks, but that is separate from the crafted gear ladder. Gilda touches the chain only via Gilda Dust on the alternate Ayanad weapon route. Events touch it only via Sunpoint for the Ayanad scroll.

The Bottom Line

• The gear economy is a wisp and gather economy, not a cash shop, honor, or vocation badge economy. Only the bottom (Apprentice to Conqueror) consumes gathered and refined raws. From Illustrious up, every tier is Mana Wisps plus Coin at a Salvage Forge. You craft cheap low gear, salvage it into wisps, and reforge the wisps upward. Wisp counts explode toward the top, which is why endgame gearing is a grind of mass crafting and salvaging.
• The real entry gate is Character Level 52 for raw materials. Crafting, processing, and reforging have no level gate, but the ore, wool, cotton, pelt, logs, and archeum behind it all need Level 52 to gather. A sub 52 player can still craft and reforge by buying mats off the Auction House.
• Ayanad is the ceiling. No Erenor or Hiram crafted gear exists. Brand this server ArcheAge 3.0, not Erenor.
• Delphinad and Ayanad cannot be crafted directly. The chain tops out at a Sealed item; you Unseal it for the element variant equippable. Ayanad also needs an Ayanad pattern scroll built from Ayanad Library drops, an Auroria item, and an event and regrade currency.
• Obsidian is the side door. Same item level band as Magnificent, but sourced from Hasla sealstones and dungeon drops, and it chains into the famous named awakened weapons.
• Honest sourcing by tier: Illustrious and Magnificent come from the world (gather, craft, salvage). Obsidian comes from dungeons and Hasla tokens. Delphinad comes from the world at scale. Ayanad comes from the world plus the Ayanad Library dungeon plus a touch of event and regrade currency.

Once a piece is finished at any tier, you can push its quality up the 12 grade regrade ladder and slot lunagems into it. That is a separate system covered in Regrading & Lunagems.

On Rookery Isles

This guide is built entirely from the live Rookery Isles server data (the ArcheAge 3.0 "Revelation" build, AAEmu 3.0.3.0 NL0bP fork). Two server truths shape everything above. First, world gathering is gated to Character Level 52 here; the client enforces it, so you genuinely cannot harvest raw materials in the open world before 52, while bench crafting, smelting, weaving, extraction, salvage, and reforge stay ungated at any level. Second, Ayanad is the top crafted tier; there is no craftable Erenor or Hiram gear on this build, and Erenor appears only as a cosmetic Hero Cloak. A few details are deliberately hedged because they are not confirmable in the data: the exact raw entry point of Archeum, the buy availability of finishing reagents on a specific vendor, Mana Wisp yields beyond the verified two handed weapon line, whether the Unseal element is chosen or random, and the specific dungeon boss drop tables for Obsidian named reagents and Ayanad Scroll Scrap. Where this guide says "verified," it was read straight from the server database.

See also

• Gear Progression
• Regrading & Lunagems
• Mining & Ore Guide
• Metalwork, Armorsmithing & Weaponry
• Labor Points & Proficiency
• Dungeons & Raids