Where to find it
The Workshop opens once you finish your cave training in the first chapter of the story (or have made your first rune with Iona). From then on, Edda in Payon, Iona in Archer Village and the Last Lantern in Al De Baran show a Runesmithing option: choose it, then Open the Workshop. Before that, the Runesmithing option is hidden. The Runesmiths' Hall in Al De Baran, through the door at 89, 234, keeps the Hall's own benches, where runesmithing teaches a quarter faster.
The window works while you stay near the station. It has four tabs: Recipes, Equipment, Salvage and Echoes. Nothing is used until you press a button, and it says what went wrong if something can't be done.
Recipes
Every recipe is listed with what it needs and what you carry. Filter by Runes, Fusion, Radiant, Tools & glass, Dust, Echoes or Advanced, or show only what you can make now, and make one or up to ten at a time.
Tools & glass includes the chisels, Ember Glass from a Thunderstone, and trading three Clear Glass for an Amber or three Amber for a Crown.
Lantern Glass
Lantern Glass shapes the affixes of the Magic and Rare equipment you find, the way crafting orbs do in other worlds. It drops from creatures everywhere, comes out of salvaged equipment, and Mythic monsters, MVPs and monsters whose guard you broke always leave some behind. Glass never destroys an item, and the item's own level decides how strong its affixes can be. Shattered and Still Glass reroll, so the new numbers can come out lower as well as higher. If shaping something you are wearing would raise its level past yours, the Workshop asks you to take it off first.
- Earth resistance can only be shaped in with glass.
- Forged weapons carry a maker's mark instead, and named relics keep their shape.
- Equipment nobody has shaped keeps exactly the affixes it dropped with.
| Glass | What it does |
|---|---|
| Clear Glass | Turns Normal equipment Magic, awakening one or two affixes. |
| Amber Glass | Adds an affix to Magic equipment with room for it. Magic holds one of each kind. |
| Crown Glass | Turns Magic equipment Rare. It keeps its affixes and gains one more. |
| Ember Glass | Adds an affix to Rare equipment with room, up to six: three of each kind. |
| Shattered Glass | Rerolls every affix on Magic or Rare equipment. |
| Still Glass | Rerolls only the numbers. The item keeps which affixes it has. |
Salvage
Break equipment and spare runes you don't need into Rune Dust. Magic equipment adds a chance of Lantern Glass, Rare equipment one piece and relics two. Cards and runes in a salvaged piece come back to you. Shop and quest equipment has nothing worth salvaging, worn equipment is not listed, and you choose up to thirty things at a time and press twice to be sure.
Echoes and Radiant runes
When you break a monster's guard with Break and Boost, it leaves an Echo when it falls: a Faint Echo from a Rare monster, a Resonant Echo from a Mythic one and a Sovereign Echo from a boss or MVP. Three of one kind trade up to the next.
A Faint Echo and three matching greater runes fuse into a Radiant rune. Specialty runes need a Resonant Echo and legendary runes a Sovereign Echo, in place of most of their old Zeny fee. A Blue Mage can study an Echo at the Workshop for mastery past its height, toward Laurels.
Runesmithing as a trade
Every craft, shard, socket and salvage at the Workshop teaches runesmithing, from level 1 to 50. Crafting by night teaches a quarter more, and so do the Hall's benches. Hall Clerk Maddoc posts one small work order a day for runesmithing experience, dust and glass.
- Rested at a Wayfarer campfire? Grinding gives one more Rune Dust while the rest lasts.
| Level | Perk |
|---|---|
| 10 | Steady Hands: fees cost a fifth less |
| 20 | Spare Shard: fusing sometimes leaves a spare lesser rune |
| 30 | Fine Grind: one more Rune Dust from every grind |
| 40 | Two into One: fusing takes two matching runes instead of three |
| 50 | Runewright: the title, and spare runes twice as often |
Masterwork forging
Blacksmiths and Whitesmiths can leave a maker's mark on a forged weapon: one gatherer's material gives it one guaranteed affix, as strong as the smith's level allows. Emberstone gives attack, Volcanic Glass critical damage, Kunlun Jade SP, Birch Amber HP, Bog Iron VIT, Gilded Riverstone LUK, Juperos Gearstone DEX, a Starlit Ingot accuracy, Thunderstone wind resistance and Crownstone magic attack.
Starlit Ore only takes the heat under the night sky, so Starlit Ingots are smelted after dark.