How to Haggle Wisely and Boost Popularity in Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator

1. Game Overview

Potion Craft is a charming medieval-style alchemy management sim where you physically manipulate ingredients, i.e. grinding, stirring, heating and chart their effects on an alchemy map, inventing new potions through exploration and experimentation. As you craft and customize your shop, you serve unique townsfolk, build your reputation, and guide the course of your alchemical journey

• Developer: niceplay games
• Publisher: tinyBuild
• Release Dates: Early Access (September 21, 2021), Full Release (December 13, 2022)
• Platforms: Windows, Xbox
• Genre: Crafting simulator with light RPG and resource management
• Perspective: 2D side view with point‐and‐click interface
• Core Loop:  Gather → Craft → Sell → Experiment → Customize → Repeat

2. Core Brewing Mechanics

The brewing process unfolds in three main phases, i.e. grinding in your mortar & pestle, stirring in the cauldron, and heating with the bellows to imbue effects, followed by bottling to finalize the potion.

1. Grind: Use the mortar and pestle to grind ingredients. This action extends their rune path on the alchemy map, determining how far and in what pattern the potion marker will move when stirred.
2. Stir: Stirring the cauldron causes the potion marker to traverse the plotted path across the alchemy map, activating effects or revealing new areas.
3. Heat (Bellows): Applying heat with the bellows while the potion marker overlaps effect markers triggers and imbues potion effects. Additionally, heat activates whirlpools, a map feature that can rotate the potion marker and even carry it along the map if it’s positioned correctly.
4. Bottle: Once the desired effects are imbued and the potion brewing is complete, you bottle the potion, naming it, assigning a tier (I–III based on alignment accuracy), and shelving it for customers

Tip: Partially grinding ingredients can produce hybrid effects, so experiment with grind lengths to discover unique potions.

3. Ingredients & Potion Effects

Ingredients fall into four primary categories, i.e. herbs (including roots, berries, flowers), mushrooms, minerals, and salts. Each ingredient contributes an effect rune when used, and combining them lets you craft multi-effect potions, with higher potency yielding tiered quality based on map alignment.

1. Herbs (roots/berries/flowers): commonly unlock effects like Strength, Agility, Luck, Healing, etc.
2. Minerals: nable skipping sections on the alchemy map, affecting path traversal.
3. Fungi (mushrooms): unlock various effects, potentially including Poison, Sleep, or more exotic effects.
4. Salts (e.g., Philosopher’s Salt, Life Salt): special legendary ingredients created via the Alchemy Machine. They don’t count towards ingredient type limits and are used to unlock or refine higher-tier effects

Effects and their base prices (gold) for top-tier effects include:

Potion	Base Price (Gold)
Necromancy	2370
Luck	1700
Anti-Magic	1540
Inspiration	1400
Levitation	1320

Crafting higher tier (Tier II/III) effects multiplies these base prices (×1.75 for Tier II; ×2.5 for Tier III) and requires precision in aligning the potion marker on the alchemy map.

4. Alchemy Map & Machine

The alchemy map is a network of runes; each symbol links to a specific effect. Grinding and stirring moves your potion avatar along these nodes, enabling complex recipes. Despite community speculation, no physical upgrades exist for mortar, spoon, or bellows, only the advanced alchemy machine receives future content updates for new salts and stones.

• Map Reveal: Move near hidden paths to uncover runes; the Visibility Radius talent increases how much of the map your potion reveals per exploration
• Machine Upgrades: Unlock new salts and legendary substances via successive Alchemy Machine upgrades, no plans exist for upgrades to mortar, spoon, or bellows.

5. Shop, Haggling & Reputation

Customers present requests with effect icons and quality tiers. They offer a base price, which you can accept, refuse, or haggle. Refusing shady deals raises your reputation; accepting them nets quick gold but lowers reputation. Keep reputation between 75–90 to attract premium clients without stagnating your shop’s income flow.

• Quality Tiers I–III enhance potion effects and base price. Higher tiers significantly increase gold earned
• Haggling trades reputation for gold, so use sparingly to avoid client drop-off.
• Higher reputation, particularly on the good side, means “good” requests become more frequent, similarly, evil reputation leads to more shady deals

6. Recipe Discovery & Experimentation

Finding new recipes indeed requires exploring ingredient combinations on the alchemy map. You have a total of five slots per brew, each effect’s tier occupies a number of slots (Tier I = 1, II = 2, III = 3). If you exceed the capacity, the potion cycles out the oldest effect(s) to accommodate new ones.

1. Chain Patterns: Strategically plan your rune path to stay within the five-slot limit, maximizing multi-effect potions by combining lower-tier effects (e.g., 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1) or mixing intermediate ones (e.g., II + I + I + I)
2. Slot Limit: The game enforces a strict five-slot limit. Any new effect beyond that removes the oldest one
3. Map Mastery: Employ techniques like “partial grinding” or careful ingredient pathing to reach distant runes efficiently and avoid dead-ends.

7. Advanced Strategies & Pro Tips

Level up your alchemy with these proven strategies, from talent upgrades to map mastery, that elevate your brewing both efficiently and profitably:

1. Invest in Trading talent first: Boosts profit margins significantly, making income generation far easier.
2. Prioritize Alchemical Practice talent: Increases the appearance of XP books on the map, accelerating talent progression.
3. Harvest your enchanted garden daily: Ensures a steady supply of core ingredients (Firebell, Terraria, Waterbloom, Windbloom); unharvested plants disappear each day.
4. Haggle merchants aggressively, customers sparingly: Merchant haggling yields discounts without harming popularity; customer haggling is riskier, but worth it on high-value trades.
5. Use the water spout and diffuser for precision: Essential for aligning bottle icons perfectly to achieve strong (Tier III) potions

8. Achievements & Endgame

All 29 achievements are designed to be accessible and rewarding, with clear objectives and no missable content. Completing all achievements typically takes between 30 and 35 hours, depending on individual play style and efficiency. However, players should be aware of specific requirements for certain achievements and potential save system quirks that may affect achievement tracking.

Here’s a list of the rarest achievements and the most efficient way to snag them:

1. Alchemist’s Path: Complete all chapters of the Alchemist’s Path, which involves brewing every potion, creating every reagent and salt, and reaching maximum reputation.
2. Philosopher’s Salt: After completing Chapter 9, purchase the Philosopher’s Salt recipe from the Alchemist Merchant for 40,000 gold.
3. Legendary Alchemist: Reach a popularity level of 15 by selling potions at standard prices and avoiding haggling.
4. Oh, It’s All Sticky…: After purchasing the Alchemy Machine from the Fellow Merchant NPC, add any potion to any of the bottles and pull the lever.

9. Conclusion & Next Steps

Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator combines tactile brewing puzzles with savvy shopkeeping. By mastering grind-stir-heat cycles, mapping runic paths, optimizing your shop’s reputation, and exploring hybrid recipes, you’ll become the realm’s preeminent alchemist.

Experiment with partial grinding for hidden effect maps, maintain reputation near 85, and focus on high‐base‐price tier‐III potions once Philosopher’s Salts arrive. Keep an eye on patch notes for new machine content and ingredient expansions.