Oblivion Remastered- Alchemy, Explained

Virtuos changed quite a few things in their collaboration with Bethesda, but there was one system that was barely touched, and that is the one that will allow you to craft some powerful potions and poisons.

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Whether you are a new player or a returning veteran trying to remember the ways of old, here is Alchemy, explained in the Oblivion Remastered.

Potion Making Is A Skill

Image Credit: Bethesda Softworks. Screenshot captured by Blast.

Alchemy, unlike Enchanting, is a skill. Leveling it gives three parallel benefits. Each level you get in Alchemy will make the potions you craft from then on a little stronger. That can be through magnitude of the effect (eg: instead of restoring 10 Magicka, you restore 15), or through duration.

Every time you cross a leveling threshold, you will get specific benefits:

• Novice (0-24)- You recognize only the first property of the ingredient.
• Apprentice (25-49)- You recognize the first two properties of ingredients, and have a chance to craft an additional potion.
• Journeyman (50-74)- You recognize the first three properties of ingredients, and can handle more simultaneous potion effects.
• Expert (75-99)- You recognize all four properties of ingredients, and always craft an additional potion.
• Master (100)- You can make potions from a single ingredient, and can handle even more simultaneous potion effects.

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Leveling Alchemy to at least Expert is something that you should make a priority in any build. There are min-max ways to level it up, but you can also do it in a relatively natural way if you’re patient.

Oblivion Remastered Alchemy, Explained

The biggest change in Alchemy from the original to the remaster is the User Interface. Oblivion Remastered has a modern-looking UI with a lot of quality of life features, most notable amongst them the filters. When you are swarming in ingredients, which will be often, you can just filter by effects and pinpoint whichever potion or poison you wan’t to make. But how do you choose which?

Before reaching level 100 in Alchemy, potions and poisons are created by mixing two ingredients with at least one property in common. If you mix two ingredients that Restore Health, you will create a Restore Health potion. Adding extra ingredients with the same properties will not amplify the effects, and those ingredients will be wasted. The duration and magnitude of the potion will only be affected by Alchemy level and by the tools used. We’ll get into those soon.

Image Credit: Bethesda Softworks. Screenshot captured by Blast.

Those third and fourth slots can instead be used to add new properties to the same potion. If you used the first two ingredients to Restore Health, you can use the other two to Restore Magicka or Fatigue, getting two beneficial effects from the same potion. At higher Alchemy levels, when you get access to more properties from each ingredient, you will be able to create potions with multiple effects at once, but beware, what we explained so far about properties also works for negative ones.

So if you mix four ingredients that have Restore Health and Restore Magicka, but at least two of those also have the Damage Health Property, your potion will do all of the above.

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So how do you make a Poison? Poisons follow the same rules, but with a tricky exception. To create a Poison you must only create negative effects. If you mix three negative effects with a positive one, that will still be a potion, just a bad one. You can make poisons with multiple effects though, as long as they are all negative. Once that poison is created, you simply need to use it and your character will coat your equipped weapon with it. Your next attack with that weapon will poison your enemy as long as they’re not immune or resistant. This can also be used for arrows, but beware, if you miss the arrow the poison will be wasted.

Alchemy Tools

There are four apparatus available to use in Oblivion Remastered’s Alchemy minigame. Here they are, alongside their usage:

• Mortar & Pestle- This is the only mandatory tool when it comes to Alchemy. Without it, you are not able to craft anything, even if you have all other apparatus on you. This tool also boosts your Alchemy skill.
• Alembic- Using an Alembic reduces the effect of negative properties in your potions. When creating potions, this tool has no effect.
• Calcinator- This apparatus boosts the magnitude and durations of all properties in potions and poisons. This means that even negative effects will be increased when crafting potions.
• Retort- The opposite tool to the Alembic, the Retort buffs the magnitude and duration of positive properties in a potion. It stacks with the Calcinator.

All of these tools come in five qualities, from Novice all the way to Master. The higher the quality, the stronger the respective effects will be. Apparatus of all qualities can be purchased from Alchemy vendors with the exception of Master quality ones, which can only be found in dungeons, often in ones filled with mages of some sort.

Image Credit: Bethesda Softworks. Screenshot captured by Blast.

What influences the quality of tools found and available to purchase, much like most other things in Oblivion Remastered, is your character level. Higher Alchemy levels will not have any effect on the quality of tools you’ll encounter. From level 17 forwards you will have the chance of finding Master Quality apparatus.

The last Alchemy "tool" is the lab that you can gain access to by upgrading the Frostcrag Spire. Standing close to the alchemy table in the lab will buff your Alchemy skill by 15 points, and this boost increases your mastery perks. If you are at level 100, it will boost you beyond it to 115, making your potions even stronger.

Why Alchemy Is Useful

Image Credit: Bethesda Softworks. Screenshot captured by Blast.

Knowing all properties of ingredients can make even cheap and common ingredients extremely useful, because you do not have access to the hidden effects, even if you mix them correctly. You’ll quickly be able to make potions that have multiple simultaneous effects, easily buffing your character to a much stronger level.

Even if you don’t intend to use Alchemy in combat, it is an excellent source of income and a great tool to level your Mercantile skill, especially if you are not going to utilize the duping exploit. Potions with rare properties or ones that mix multiple good effects can fetch really high prices.

Being able to consume more potions simultaneously is also extremely powerful, as they often stack. For example, if you create multiple restore fatigue, health, or magicka potions, you can consume multiple in a row. Their restoration effect will stack, making them much stronger.

Alchemy is also your key to crafting poisons, which are deadly. Poison damage is not influenced by difficulty changes, since the game considers the damage as originating from the weapon which caused the poison effect, and not from the player.

Like restoration effects in potions, poisons also stack. If you are facing an especially tough opponent, you can apply a Damage Health poison to your weapon after each hit and the damage over time will endlessly stack.

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