Edward Guncutter's Guide to Potion Making

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Making All the Potions
Greetings from Cuba. I am Edward Guncutter, a level 46 pirate, I love making potions. As a Master potion maker, I made every potion currently available on Pirates of the Carribean Online. The biggest reason I make potions is they give pirates a huge advantage over normal game play and they can be loads of fun! If you are good at puzzles, you will be good at potion making, but you don't have to be. Over the months, I have learned some simply tricks that can help you get to potion level 10 easily, and probably even level 20 when you Master potion making. See the Potions or the Potion Skill pages for more information about potions in general.

Strategies, Tips, & tricks
 Use the Whole Mouse 

For weeks I didn't realize that you can switch the potion order before dropping them until I read the guide! Clicking the right mouse button switches the two ingredients. When looking for ingredient matches, it is important to make sure that you connect as many of the same ingredient as possible. While this is beginning advice, it will train you to look for, and anticipate, certain patterns in the potions. POTCO wants you to succeed in potion making, but cannot do it for you. Look for special patters while making each potion to best line up ingredients. When you get better at lining up similar ingredients, it makes the next section much more fun.

''' What's Next? ''' In the top left corner of the potion mini-game, the next ingredients will be displayed. This is critical for planning the next move in higher level potions. Sometimes double ingredients are bad so it is always good to know what's coming.

More is Less, but More is More
The main potion page notes that connecting more than one ingredient, but does not explain the process. I do! I have made every potion in the game, but one slot remains empty. I am guessing that used to be the animal potion slot (used to turn pirates into alligators, etc) or is reserved for the Raven's Cove Quest. The second interestion point is the chicken potion that is only awarded after treasure map games like saving the Pearl or after defeating LaSchafe on the Queen Anne's Revenge.

As you build your potions, it is important to understand the numbers. Three (3) ingredients create one (1) next largest ingredient e.g. Three (3) Crab Claw = one (1) Crab Jelly. Three (3) Crab Jelly = one (1) Crab Extract and so on. Increasing the number of lesser ingredients also increases the output greater ingredient by one (1). Four (4) Crab Claw = two (2) Crab Jelly. Five (5) Crab Claw = two (2) Crab Jelly and so on.

The largest number and highest order of ingredient I have made is eight (8) Volcanic Essence from ten (10) Lava Extract. Ultimately this would have greated six (6) Volcano Gem that would have converted into four (4) Volcano Soul if the potion did not call for four (4) Volcanic Essence.

If you can combine ingredients efficiently, you can make lvl 15+ potions more easily. There are many times I cannot complete a potion because of mistakes or a lack of specific ingredient. In the image left, you can see that I had to make two (2) Essence of Crab, one (1) Essence of Scorpion, and two (2) Essence of Alligator, and I didn't even use them! They made room for my massive magma stack to the right required to make Hardy Matey II efficiently.

The Stack Attack
Connecting more than one ingredient is important, but there are many ways to build potion ingredients. Thoughout potion making, I found some common patterns I used to make potions more efficiently. Depending on how much of a single ingredient or how deep in ascention the potion demands (Essence or Soul), common methods can be used to help make potions more quickly and effectively.


 * Single Stack Single_Stacking.jpg


 * Building straight up is the easiest way to create potions. In the illustration left, two (2) Crab Essence were created by building staight up from only one or two columns. Two (2) Crab Jelly are on top of the Essence and the pirate would continue placing Crab ingredients on the same side of the game. This is a good method in more simple potions: levels 1-5, but is not a good way to build higher ascended ingredients due to space constraints. Building more complex potions requires Double stacking or Tube stacking.


 * Double Stack


 * Building ingredients over two columns allows more margin for error and quicker ingredient combinations. Taking up more space does require more columns and reduces the number of ingredient combinations possible. Determine the most complex ingredient combinations before building and reserve those columns for those ingredients. If the potion requires Essence of Alligator, the pirate must first combine more than three Alligator Tooth, three or more Fang Shard, and then three or more Tooth Dust. Using two columns, or a Double Stack, over the Single Stack method is much more efficient.


 * Tube Stack


 * Building ingredients over three columns is the largest space efficiency will allow (please contribute your algorithms here mathematicians) given the maximum eight (8) columns in the mini-game. Tube stacking requires building two independant Single Stacks, then combining them with a middle Single Stack to create a Stack Tube. This Tube will multi-combine the ingredients into ever decreasing numbers of ingredients, but of higher magnitude.