Alchemy & Poisons

Wanderfolk’s alchemy system adds 22 recipes that turn monster drops into combat consumables — coatings for your weapons, throwable potions, and effect-enhancing brews. If you’ve been selling monster drops as vendor trash, the alchemy bench puts them to better use.

The Alchemy Bench

All alchemy and poison recipes are crafted at the alchemy bench, located inside alchemist buildings. Not every village has an apothecary — they appear in villages with a sufficient tier and a population that includes a herbalist or alchemist NPC. Check the village building roster when you enter a new settlement.

The alchemy bench is separate from the standard crafting stations. You cannot substitute a workbench or kitchen for alchemy work.

Monster Drop Ingredients

The majority of alchemy recipes require ingredients sourced directly from monster kills. Drops that previously had low utility now serve as the primary reagents:

Dungeon boss drops yield high-potency reagents that produce stronger versions of standard recipes — longer durations, higher damage values, or reduced cooldowns on throwable potions.

On-Hit Effects

Weapon coatings apply an on-hit status effect to your target for a set number of strikes. The three primary effects are:

Burn

Deals fire damage over time after each coated hit. Burn ticks deal damage every second for 4–8 seconds depending on recipe quality. Does not stack — a second burn application refreshes the duration rather than adding a second stack.

Good against: High-HP enemies, enemies that cluster together (burn spreads to adjacent targets if they’re within close range).

Freeze

Applies a movement slow on hit, reducing the target’s speed by 30–50% for 3–6 seconds. Freeze does not stop movement entirely — it slows. Against fast-moving monsters like shadow wolves or wychwood alphas, freeze coating is one of the most effective tools for controlling the engagement range.

Good against: Fast enemies, kiting setups where you need distance between hits.

Wither

Reduces the target’s defense for the coating’s duration, making all subsequent hits — from you and your companions — deal more damage. Wither is a force-multiplier effect rather than direct damage.

Good against: Armored enemies and dungeon bosses where the defense reduction compounds across a long fight.

Throwable Potions

In addition to weapon coatings, the alchemy bench produces throwable potions — consumables thrown at a target location that apply effects to everything in the impact radius. Throwable potions are one-use items crafted in small batches.

Throwable potions are especially effective during monster raids when you want to apply effects across a clustered group without engaging in melee.

Effect Durations and Quality

Like all crafted items, alchemy output quality is determined by your crafting minigame performance. Higher quality produces:

• Longer durations — burn and wither last several seconds more per quality tier
• Stronger values — freeze slow percentage increases, wither defense reduction deepens
• More charges — weapon coatings grant more on-hit applications before wearing off

Excellent-quality burn coating can more than double the total fire damage of a normal-quality batch. The alchemy minigame rewards precision — it’s worth mastering.

Related Articles

• Crafting Stations — alchemy bench location and access
• Quality System — how minigame performance scales effect values
• Bestiary — monster drop tables for alchemy ingredients
• Monster Raids — throwable potions in village defense
• Dungeon Guide — boss drops for high-potency reagents