Use crafting as a loop: identify the item you want, learn or find its recipe, confirm the current materials and unlock, protect those inputs in storage, craft from the live Haven interface, then compare the result in the mission it is meant to solve. Salvage supports that loop only after you check whether an item is needed for a quest, recipe, building, or upgrade.
Crafting workflow
Find and learn recipes
July notes say recipes for named and fixed items can drop from enemies and chests. February notes also describe recipe books learned through the inventory. Those are different steps: acquiring a recipe object is not always the same as learning it, and learning it is not the same as meeting the material or station requirement.
When a recipe drops, read the item before leaving the mission if the situation is safe. Record the producing item and any source hint. Back in Haven, confirm whether the recipe appears in the crafting list or must first be used from inventory. If it does not appear, check the correct building, NPC, quest state, or recipe action before assuming the drop is broken.
Do not promise a farming route from one chest or enemy. A named source in a tooltip can guide the search, but a drop rate needs repeated current-client observations. The July note proves enemies and chests can supply recipes in that test; it does not establish a permanent chance for every recipe.
Read materials and need markers
Official notes add markers for items needed by quests, recipes, buildings, and upgrades. Use those markers as a stop signal during inventory cleanup. A material can support more than one system, so the immediate recipe is not the only possible cost.
Choose one near-term target and reserve its known inputs. Keep quest and building materials separate from equipment you are willing to salvage. If the game shows a faction or location hint, use it to plan the next mission, but confirm the map scope. Alpha-only areas and later Journeys are not Demo farming locations.
Unknown materials should remain unidentified rather than receiving an invented purpose. Keep a limited holding area and revisit them after unlocking the next quest, building, or crafting tier. This avoids filling every storage space while still protecting scarce inputs.
Salvage equipment safely
Salvage converts unwanted equipment into useful materials according to the July notes. Start with duplicate or clearly replaced equipment whose role, condition, and need markers you checked. Do not salvage the only item that provides movement, healing, wound recovery, a shield, or utility until another loadout covers it.
Compare salvage with repair and replacement. A damaged item can be worth repairing when its role and source are known, but repeated repair costs may make it poor for practice. If you can craft a reliable replacement, the salvage decision becomes easier. If the source is unknown, preserve the item until you understand the loss.
After salvaging, verify the actual output. Updates have changed salvage returns, rarity behavior, and economy values. Do not build a conversion table from an older test and present it as the Demo.
Use Haven, NPCs, and storage together
Crafting is linked to Haven progression. Official notes describe NPC and building upgrades, storage rows and chests, backpack bonuses, and clearer building markers. The exact order can change, so follow current quest and interface prompts. If an option is missing, inspect Haven progression before searching for a hidden menu.
Organize storage around actions: materials for the selected recipe, protected quest and building inputs, repair candidates, recipe books, and equipment awaiting comparison. Labeling by purpose is more useful than sorting only by rarity because it makes the next decision visible.
Party preparation also benefits. Before a co-op mission, state which material, recipe, or upgrade the group is pursuing. That prevents one player from pushing deeper while another expects to extract after finding the target.
Compare the crafted result
Equip the item and inspect every changed stat, threshold, granted ability, and slot conflict. Test it on a reachable objective with the same hero, difficulty, and party size used for the previous setup. Record whether it improves survival, position, recovery, objective speed, or extraction reliability.
One craft cannot establish a complete rarity system, stat range, or best item. If the result can vary, record the observed item and leave the range unknown until the current client supplies enough examples. If it is fixed-stat or named equipment, confirm the tooltip rather than assuming every copy is identical across patches.
Fix common crafting problems
- Recipe obtained but missing from the list: check whether a book must be used and whether its Haven prerequisite is complete.
- Material disappeared during cleanup: protect every quest, recipe, building, and upgrade marker before salvaging or selling.
- Online recipe cost differs: compare the source’s test date and product with the live Demo screen.
- Crafting list is confusing: select one target, identify its inputs, and ignore unrelated rows until that target is complete.
- New item performs worse: inspect thresholds, slot conflicts, granted abilities, condition, and the encounter used for comparison.
- A source points to an unavailable area: it may describe the Alpha or an older Playtest.