(This is a compiled thread from many a different place)
Maker is an Alchemy skill obtained in the town of the Alchemists, Magatia, in the Nihal Desert. Maker allows you to create equipment, and even improve upon its average stats through the use of graded Jewels. Jewels can be either Low Grade, Mid Grade, or High Grade. These graded jewels are made out of the ordinary refined jewels at a cost of 100k per grading procedure.
The odds of getting any particular grade are different: 70% of low grade, 25% of Mid-grade, and 5% of high grade.
To upgrade it, all you do is select from the drop down list the "Jewels" and then in the list beside it, pick out the jewel you are upgrading, and then hit go.
Another important item for forging with Maker is Monster Crystals. Monster Crystals are also graded. Monster Crystals are formed by taking 100 ETC items from any monster, putting them into the Maker UI, and hitting go. Unlike the graded jewels, the grade of a monster crystal comes from what level the monster whose ETC item you used. IE, I forged out of Cube Slime's ETC, and cube slimes are level 32, so I got Low Grade level C Monster Crystal. Also unlike the graded Jewels, Monster Crystals appear to be necessary for every possible forging combination. The level of the Armor seems to dictate what kind of Monster Crystal you would need. For most things, monster crystals are needed in relatively large amounts. For example, the level 50 Knuckle (pirate weapon) requires 20 Monster Crystals. That's 2,000 ETC items. Luckily the Monster Crystals are tradeable, so lazy people can just buy them. Only monsters over level 30 have ETC drops which can be used to make Monster Crystals. There is a SMALL chance that you can forge a higher quality Monster Crystal than the level range would indicate, however I have personally only had this happen when I used the skill many times in a row (Like after training, when I have 400 ETCs.)
The other required item is Magic Powder. Magic Powders come in different colors and are usually needed according to what color the end result will be. For example, Blue Maro needs Magic Powder (Blue). Magic Powder drops at about the rate of ores, so getting it isn't a problem. Collecting powders is probably the easiest part of the process. Think of it as dye. Since pretty much every class has dark equipment, Black powder is very much in demand, and tends to be rarer. Pirates need a lot of brown. Weapons typically don’t need powders, unless it’s a weapon that comes in a large variety of colors (Such as Scarabs or Arunds)
You might wonder how Mineral (Metal) ores play into this. Metal plates are used in some forging processes, mostly weapons. A level 50 Knuckle needs 1 Bronze plate, for example.
Monster Crystals. Monster Crystals are forged from 100 ETC items from any monster. As new areas are released, the ETCs from those monsters are added (Such as Elin Forest monsters.) Monster crystals come in three grades, and are divided further into quality from that point. The quality and grade of a monster crystal are determined directly from the level of the monster that dropped the item. For example, if I went to hunt stone golems, I would get 100 Stone Golem Rubbles, and then use the Maker skill on them. They would forge a Low Grade Monster Crystal B, because Stone Golems are level 55. Only monsters over level 30 have ETC drops which can be used to make Monster Crystals. There is a SMALL chance that you can forge a higher quality Monster Crystal than the level range would indicate, however I have personally only had this happen when I used the skill many times in a row (Like after training, when I have 400 ETCs.) More testing needs to be done in this department.
Notice that the change between grades occurs at 70-80, and 100-110. this is significant because you may only level up your Maker Skill at level 75 and 105. You don’t have to be in a town or anything to use this skill, so if you fill up your inventory full of ETCs while training, you can take a moment on a safe spot and use this skill to consolidate your hundreds of ETCs to a handful of monster crystals. it’s pretty convenient.
Additionally, you can optionally add new “graded” jewels to the formula. These are made from your standard gems (Diamond, Garnet, etc.) by putting them through the maker skill and appraising them. Each time you do this, it takes 100k. It has a high rate of coming out as low grade, a fair rate of coming out as Mid grade, and a low rate of coming out as High grade. I think it’s 70%, 25%, 5%, but I’m not positive. The grade will be denoted by a tiny mark in the corner, like a scrolled item. To upgrade it, all you do is select from the drop down list the “Jewels” and then in the list beside it, pick out the jewel you are upgrading, and then hit go.
Like Legendary Spirit, it has a “loading bar” style, so you’ll have to wait a moment to see what you got. In this case, I got a low grade. The use of these graded jewels is totally optional.
The item usages are as follows (information provided by Loose, which was originally from a deleted post by Fiel on sleepywood):
Type of Crystal – Stat added – [Low Grade, Mid Grade, High Grade]
Diamond: Weapon Attack [1, 2, 3] – Only usable on weapons
Sapphire: Magic Attack [1, 2, 3] – Only usable on weapons
Garnet: Accuracy [2, 3, 5]
Opal: Avoid [2, 3, 5]
Aquamarine: Jump [1, 2, 3]
Amethyst: Speed [1, 2, 3]
Topaz: HP [10, 20, 30]
Emerald: MP [10, 20, 30]
Black Crystal: Random [1, 2, 3]
Dark Crystal: Random [2, 3, 5]
Power Crystal: STR [2, 3, 5]
DEX Crystal: DEX [2, 3, 5]
Wisdom Crystal: INT [2, 3, 5]
LUK Crystal: LUK [2, 3, 5]
Secret Crystal: Level Requirement [-1, -2, -3] – Not yet available in game.
[Low Grade, Mid Grade, High Grade]
Every different type of gem has a different affect on the end item. The stat crystals add the stat they are related to (IE, Dex Crystal will add Dex, etc.) Diamonds add weapon Attack, but they can only be used on weapons. Sapphire adds Magic attack, so it is a separate gem, and mages won’t have to deal with price hikes on Diamonds. It, too, only works on weapons. These don’t affect the slots at all, so you end up with an above average item with different stats on it. There’s no chance of the item breaking if you add a graded jewel to the formula. This is great, because you can use this skill to add a stat that isn’t normally found on something (For example, use a LUK crystal to add luck to an overall, or shoes) and then start tossing Chaos Scrolls on it. It really opens a lot of doors when used in conjunction with Chaos Scrolls.
For a Maker Skill at level 1, you can only use 1 jewel per formula. I believe the number of jewels you can use goes up as you level the skill, meaning that at 105 you could use a total of 3 jewels on one forged equip. They don’t all have to be the same jewels, either. Since a high grade Diamond will add 3 weapon attack. According to Blitzkrieg (Shrapnel of KMS), you may only use one of a jewel type per equip. One diamond, be it high grade or low grade. Now you see why this skill is useful, no? pineappleing godly.
On top of all that, you can use stimulators to forge things as well. They created Overall Stimulators and hat stimulators and so on now, so there’s a stimulator available if you choose to use one. stimulators DO, however, add a chance of failing to the item, which at default is 10%. The higher your Hands stat is (OMFG HANDS IS USED FOR SOMETHING), the lower the failure rate is, but this doesn’t lower the odds of the item coming out below. Since Hands is calculated from total Dex+Int+Luk, warriors and Infighters (who have mostly STR) are really screwed over by this. archers and gunslingers will have a harder time than Mages and Thieves, who will have their Hands at maximum. Stimulators can also be used in conjunction with graded jewels. Either way, I wouldn’t recommend using a stimulator, because the benefit of having it is outweighed by the odds of it ruining your item.
There’s also a series of quests associated with the skill that involve using it to forge special quest items. It’s pretty neat, but in the end it’s a decoy for collecting the items to forge the quest item.
One other thing, is that there’s a “Mystery forging” option. You can put whatever materials you want in there and try to forge something. I have no idea what it’s for and I’ve never been able to make anything in this way. I assume that if you knew the formula to forge an equipment from another class, you could use this option to make it, however I can’t confirm this. It also costs mesos to forge items, however the amount is typically a pittance in comparison to the items’ cost, though it is almost always higher than the NPC price of that item.
Some downsides to this skill system? For one, it requires refined gems, however you can’t use this skill to make ores into refined gems. This means you’ll almost always have to hike off to a town with a refining NPC. It can also get quite expensive, what with 100k to grade a refined jewel and meso costs to forge items. You can’t add the jewels to a pre-existing item, so poorly scrolled items and below average ones will take a hit when this is released. On top of this, since each type of jewel now has 4 forms (The ordinary refined, ungraded form, and the three grades) you’ll be wasting a LOT more ETC space on this. I previously speculated that people would create new mules for the sole purpose of carrying excess gems, Monster Crystals, and Magic Powders.
Maker Skill Recipe List
For the powder column, please note it may be a powder and/or plates - If it's a metalic (silver, gold, etc ) its a plate, if it's a chromatic (red, blue, etc) it's a powder.
Note that some names vary slightly in our version. I don't really care. As long as you know the "type" of item and the level that's really all you need. The rest is just semantics.
I will add in the chart later