Line #48 VideoGame/PotionCraft


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/potioncraft_1.png]]
2	''Potion Craft'' is an alchemy simulator made by niceplay games and published by Creator/TinyBuild. You play as an alchemist in a fantasy setting, solving clients' problems with all sorts of magical elixirs; lightning potions to throw on monsters, sleeping potions to treat insomnia, and growth potions to heal blighted fields. Along the way, you can learn new recipes and renovate your apothecary, turning it from an abandoned house to a renowned workshop...perhaps one capable of synthesizing the Philosopher's Stone.
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4	Just be careful who you sell poisons to...
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6	''Potion Craft'' entered Early Access on Steam in September 2021. The 1.0 release version was released in December 2022.
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8	!!This game includes the following tropes:
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10	* AchievementSystem: Notifications pop up when certain things are achieved, like buying a replacement Alchemy Machine or hitting the Reputation {{Cap}}.
11	* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Salts do not count as ingredients for customer requests that want no more than X type(s) of ingredients in the potion. This makes it possible to brew strong potions that use only a single ingredient type to fulfil the request.
12	* AwesomeButImpractical:
13	** Hard and Very Hard difficulty Haggling. They allow you to squeeze more coins from customers and merchants, up to ''six thousand'' in some cases, but careless mistakes can send it all down the drain and put you in an even worse position. Unlocking both talents also cost a whopping 15 points, enough to raise the other 3 talent trees for 2-3 levels ''each''. The changelog for the 1.0 version mentions making it noticeably easier in response to feedback.
14	** Philosopher's Salt. It automatically draws and rotates the potion towards the nearest not-yet-used effect on the map and rotates the bottle to match - but to craft it, you need 12 customized five-effects potions and the Philosopher's Stone, which is an item you get after a long and arduous chain of crafting. The rotation can be done with lower-tier salts and by the time you get halfway to the Philosopher's Stone you'll have enough ingredients and control over them to push your potion in any direction you want.
15	* BadPowersGoodPeople: Even players trying for [[KarmaMeter 100% reputation]] will find it useful to keep destructive potions around. Aphrodisiacs can be used to spice up marriages and UnproblematicProstitution, hallucination-inducing potions inspire the local MadArtist, rage potions can let meek people grow a spine on the spot, poisons serve as excellent fumigation tools, and so on. The one exception is the Potion of Necromancy, which no good NPC wants to buy - but it can be used for creating the legendary alchemy ingredients.
16	* BraggingRightsReward: Before Philosopher's Salt was added, the Philosopher's Stone did nothing more than act as a pretty paperweight.
17	* {{Cap}}: Reputation maxes out on the positive axis at +100.
18	* CardCarryingVillain: Many of the shadier clients will openly declare their intent to kill their spouses, steal things, etc. It's justified in that [=NPC=] conversations are such a brief part of the game that it wouldn't be fair to the player otherwise.
19	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Each type of ingredient has a color that matches its element.
20	** Air ingredients are white
21	** Magic ingredients are purple
22	** Water ingredients are blue
23	** Life ingredients are green
24	** Earth ingredients are brown
25	** Death ingredients are a sickly yellow-green
26	** Fire ingredients are orange
27	** Explosion ingredients are red
28	* DungeonBypass: Minerals/crystals bought from the Miner will teleport your potion on the Alchemy map, letting you bypass bones easily. They're especially useful for getting Necromancy.
29	* ElementNumberFive: And six, seven and eight; when the sorting compass was added in 1.0, the diagonal directions had sub-elements assigned to them. Northeast is Magic, Southeast is Life, Southwest is Death and Northwest is Explosion.
30	* EvilPaysBetter: While even good-natured people can offer high prices, it's usually the vilest people who pay the most. Necromancy in particular sells for a ludicrous 2370 gold without any modifiers and is only ever used by evil people.
31	* FlowerMotifs: As you might expect, the herb-gatherer is a lovely young maiden, and the mushroom-seller a quirky old hermit.
32	* LovePotion: [=NPCs=] may request a Potion of Charm. As of 1.0, it's treated as neutral in most cases unless the requester is an obvious creep.
33	* NaturalElements: The most basic ingredients are themed after fire, air, water, and earth. On the recipe map, Air takes you North, Water takes you East, Earth takes you South and Fire takes you West.
34	* MagicMap: The recipe map shows ''where'' recipes are, but not ''what'' a recipe is for until the player has crafted it for the first time. Much of the gameplay involves charting optimal 'routes' across the map based on the ingredients you have available.
35	* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: The Miner merchant has all the hallmarks of one; besides his occupation, he's also visibly shorter than other clients & merchants, sports a magnificent beard and speaks in short, blunt sentences.
36	* PotionBrewingMechanic: The game's primary mechanic. Each ingredient moves the marker on the diagram in a specific relative direction, and heating the brew in certain spots will turn it into a potion.
37	* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Averted. Magic potions are both cool ''and'' used for cool purposes, like supercharging weapons, rejuvenating crops, and healing injuries. The townsfolk recognise this and will pay you a fair price for your wares.
38	* ShoutOut:
39	** One of the clients is a monster hunter strongly resembling [[VideoGame/TheWitcher Geralt]], who says he will "toss a coin" to you if you sell him the potion he's looking for.
40	** Goldthorn herb looks exactly like the one found in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''.
41	** The Moon Salt reagent is not to be confused with [[Franchise/TheElderScrolls Moon Sugar.]]
42	** One of the icons for your potion label is [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} the Hypnotoad.]]
43	** One of The Miner's potion request dialogues mentions excavating a cave that's "guarded by [[VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic a bug. A huge one with a shell like stone]]."
44	** The achievement for brewing a strong potion for the first time is called "[[WebVideo/PotionSeller I need only your strongest potions!]]".
45	* TooAwesomeToUse: Rainbow Cap is a mushroom whose path is an ellipsis going around a few times, making it rather versatile -- but it's a rare and expensive ingredient. Its description even spells that out.
46	** Fable Bismuth even more so. It has the same path as a Rainbow Cap but is a square spiral instead of a circle spiral, AND lets you dodge bones by teleporting around them. You'll rarely ever see more than three in a seller's inventory.
47	* WorthIt: Crystallization mistakes result in a useless but iridescently coloured spiral, which the player keeps as an ornament. The item description declares it to be "worth it".

Context VideoGame / PotionCraft