Mixing It Up: An Introduction to Apothecary

The Apothecary is one of Rifts six manufacturing professions and its focus is on creating consumables such as potions, philters, tonics, and dyes. As one would expect, the core ingredients come from various herbs gathered by the Foraging profession, however it also makes extensive use out of animal bones acquired through Butchering as well as a few reagents found within the Runebreaking profession. Some of the stronger recipes even use items found in rifts.

There are seven different kinds of craft-able items in the Apothecary profession:

Potions: Consumables which instantly restore either health, energy, or mana

Philters: An area of effect projectile that either buffs allies or damages enemies

Tonics: Consumables which restore health, mana, or energy over a short period of time

Dyes: Cosmetic items which change the colour of your characters armour

Serums: Consumables which provide a buff to the character for an extended period of time

Vials: Consumable similar to serums, but with enhanced effects that last through death

Bottles: Vanity consumable which transforms the drinker into something else

The Apothecary profession is useful for any calling and quite profitable as well. Popping a mana potion in the midst of a boss fight can save lives if your a healer, and using a healing potion while getting ganked can mean the difference between victory and defeat. At max level the use of Vials and Philters can significantly improve your chancing of winning a difficult encounter and most serious raiders will likely make use of them. Their usefulness at end game, combined with the knowledge that these items are consumable, means that there will always be a strong market for these items and are therefore great for making some quick cash if you can gather the materials.

Quests:
There are currently two quests relating to the apothecary profession:
Apothecary Supply Run (10)
Defiant: Magical Refreshment
Guardian: Salves for Scotty (10)

Work Orders:
Each of the manufacturing professions have several daily quests that require the p[layer to make a few items and deliver them in exchange for Artisan’s Marks and a few ingredients. The quests available are dependent on the characters skill level:

Workorder: Healing Tonics (Apothecary 1/ Character Level 7)
Workorder: Minor Healing Potion (Apothecary 50/ Character Level 15)
Workorder: Healing Tonics (Apothecary 80/ Character Level 23)
Workorder: Basic Healing Serum (Apothecary 120/ Character Level 29)

Trainers:
Here are the locations of the Apothecary trainers:

Leveling Guide:
There are three portions to this leveling guide: the first chart lists all the available recipes in each appropriate level range, the second chart is the suggested leveling guide, and the final part is a short guide on where to find the herbs and items needed to level Apothecary.

Recipe List:
This chart lists the available items that can be crafted for guaranteed points (orange recipes). These recipes can still give potential skill ups after the listed level range, however there is a chance that the item will not award a skill up. Most recipes reward more than one item when made, for example, one lesser mana potion recipe will actually create three lesser mana potions. The 300+ recipes are not listed here. Vendor ingredients are also not included.

 

 

Lightbound’s Suggested Leveling Path:

The following is the path I took to level my apothecary skill. I managed to do this whilst leveling and while simultaneously leveling both Butchering and Foraging. I have chosen the recipes that use the least ingredients and/or do not require rare reagents. Your mileage may vary depending on how lucky you are in finding specific herbs and whether or not you can keep your gathering professions up.

Total Ingredients:

Herb Locations: