Hello, knights/developers! With the recent optimizations, and now the Forging Ahead update balancing and soothing a major pain point in the Forge, I'm optimistic with regards to this game's future and ambitious enough to suggest a few rebalances of my own with regards to crafting.

Before we begin, three disclaimers.

One, I am by no means a proper game designer. This is all the equivalent of vibe-coding.
Two, I'm disregarding the UV seller market, both because y'all are crazy, but also because that's a player-driven thing and you do you there.
Three, I'm also disregarding the Auction House, though that's because that's a player-run and driven thing, again, you do you.

If you want to just get to certain sections, feel free to Ctrl + F the following terms;

Crafting Recipe Cost Adjustments

Orb Of Alchemy / Unique Variant Changes

New Rarity Recipes / Bulk Crafting

- Crafting Recipe Cost Adjustments -

This section, by and large, isn't going to hit 1-3 star recipes, as those are actually fairly priced. What it is going to affect is 4-5 star recipes instead. Simply put, while 1-3 star recipes are alright to buy, 4-5 stars are prohibitively expensive; There's a REASON FSC gets farmed so often. I crunched the numbers, and at absolute bare minimum, a full set of 5-star equipment - Helmet, armor, shield, two weapons - will set you back by 244,500 crowns, assuming you find every material to craft this stuff and don't buy any Energy. That is a lot of dosh, and just about 52% of that cost is literally just the 5-star recipes alone. That's not okay.

So, to bring these in line with the rest of the game, here's my quick-fix:
4-star recipes: Cost lowered to 7,500 Crowns (was 10,000).
5-star recipes: Cost lowered to 10,000 Crowns (was 25,000).

These two changes cut 17,500 Crowns from every item, bringing the total to a somewhat more sedate 157,000 Crowns instead under the same conditions; Still painful, but not nearly as terrible, with 5-star recipes now only accounting for a third of the cost.

- Orb Of Alchemy / Unique Variant Changes -

Orbs Of Alchemy represent another major pain point, similar to the Forge - It's a hard-to-obtain drop that you're asked to grab entirely too much of per gear set - 15 total per set, made worse with overlapping Depths diluting what you need with what you don't need. At the same time, with Unique Variants being possible per-craft and botting being a thing, how do we both throw a rock at botters while making it easier for people to obtain better gear? I don't know why I phrased that as a question, but the change here is going to be simple and kind of weird.

All recipes now only require one Orb Of Alchemy to craft, but similar to the Forge, you can add more Orbs Of Alchemy, specifically one to three, to ensure an item rolls with UVs. However, adding any more Orbs will auto-bind the item to your Knight and require you unbind it. While UVs can still be randomly generated on baseline crafts, adding Orbs simply ensures they'll roll to begin with. In exchange, crafting from a two-star to a three-star item with anything unbound will no longer instantly bind it to you, allowing you to sell 3*s at the Auction House with less friction if the RNG blessed you.

To adjust for this change, the Supply Depot now sells Orbs Of Alchemy in two different packs; One Orb for a third of the cost of our current packs, and a 4-pack for the cost of the current packs, now labelled as 'Base x* Craft' and 'Deluxe x* Craft'. It'll default to Base Craft if you're out of Orbs, or offer Deluxe if you have sufficient Orbs to craft, but less than four.

- New Rarity Recipes / Bulk Crafting -

A new Stranger has set up shop in the Bazaar, Luxos! Luxos sells recipes that allow you to craft up or down with Orbs Of Alchemy and Fire Crystals.

In addition to the current Fire Crystal recipes for players who missed those, Luxos also sells the following categories of Recipe:

Upgrade Fire Crystals: Spend 6 Fire Crystals of a lower tier and 250 Crowns to get 3 Fire Crystals of a higher tier. Radiant Fire Crystals are now possible again, and 0-1 star Fire Crystals have a purpose for endgame players now.

Upgrade Orb Of Alchemy: Spend two Orbs Of Alchemy and 1,000 Crowns to gain one of a higher tier. Useful for UV seekers or if you're so, so close to a gear set that it HURTS.

Downgrade Orb Of Alchemy: Break one Orb Of Alchemy and 1,000 Crowns down into two of a lower tier. Good if you've got too many Eternals and not enough Everything Else. Couldn't be me.

In addition to Luxos's arrival, Spiral HQ has found out how to queue recipes at Alchemy Stations. You can now specify how many times you want to craft for Rarities and Sprite Food; Provided your materials and Crowns can hold, you can now instantly downgrade or upgrade a lot of Rarities in one click instead of having to confirm it every time, or batch-produce Sprite Food to give your Battle Sprites a full stomach faster than their skills can recharge.