Crafting: discover recipes and make anything
More guidesHow recipes are discovered, what the "?" ingredient means, stations, crafting from nearby chests, friends who help, and the wiki link in every recipe.
You pick up a strange blue stone in a cave, and the crafting panel lights up: a recipe you never knew was there. It was waiting for that one stone. Every new thing you find can open a new recipe, and the best ones wait for the finds that are far away.
How recipes are discovered
You don't learn recipes from a book. You learn a recipe by finding what goes into it. Pick up or catch every ingredient at least once, and the recipe is yours for good.
Open crafting with C (with a controller: the Menu button, then Craft). The panel has three lists:
| List | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Your recipes | Everything you can make, the ones you have enough for first |
| Your gear ladder | Gear for your class a little above your level, so you can plan your next set |
| One discovery away | Recipes you are only one find away from |
In One discovery away and Your gear ladder, an ingredient you haven't found yet shows as a ? named "Something undiscovered". The game keeps it a surprise until you find it.
Stuck on a "?"
Every recipe has a small Look it up button under its ingredients. It opens that item's page here on the wiki. The page lists the whole recipe and, for every ingredient, where it comes from: which creature drops it, which tree or rock gives it, what you fish, farm or craft for it.
When an ingredient is still a ?, the panel says so: "Not sure what's missing? The TATAZO wiki knows." It's up to you. Read the page and go straight to it, or keep exploring and let the world surprise you.
- On Steam the page opens in the Steam overlay, so you never leave the game. Elsewhere it opens in your web browser.
- With a controller, press Y (Triangle on a PlayStation pad) to open it.
- On a child's profile (Family safety features) the game never opens a browser. It shows the page's address instead, for a grown-up to open.
Making things
- Pick a recipe. Its details show what it needs and how many you have.
- Go to its station, if it has one. Some things you make by hand anywhere. Others need a Workbench, an anvil, a furnace, a Campfire, a Cookpot, a Loom and more. Stand next to it and the recipe turns ready.
- Press Craft for one, or Craft all for as many as you have the ingredients for. A bar shows the work as it goes.
Every craft gives experience, and the first time you make something it goes into your discoveries too.
Chests nearby count. Crafting takes ingredients from your satchel first, then from your chests close by, so a workshop with chests round the workbench saves a lot of carrying.
Crafting with friends
A friend within 6 m of you while you craft a batch can join in with "Help craft". Each helper adds your own pace again, up to 3 helpers. You keep everything made and pay for every ingredient, and each helper earns crafting experience for every item made while they help. Their level, class and recipes don't matter.
A recipe opens the moment you have found every ingredient once, even if you sold or used it since. On your next trip, pick up one of every new thing you see: a flower, a stone, a strange drop. Then open crafting and look at One discovery away.
Where next
Open crafting, find a recipe with a ? and press Look it up. Then go and find it. To plan the gear you'll craft next, read The gear ladder. Where your materials go between trips is in Storage: satchel, chests, the locker and the vault, and what you can do with a friend nearby is in Level sync and parties.