Creating Perfect Damascus at the Alchemy Table

Overview

A walkthrough intended for anyone who’s confused by the Alchemy Table.- UPDATED 6/27/2021 – 1.4.1 – no changes1.3.3 – The position of the litmus strips has changed.1.3.0 – It is now possible to achieve Excellent Damascus, and the quenching bug has been fixed.

Thanks & Change Note

Thanks

to everyone in the comments section who contributed time, testing, ideas, and a lot of good pointers – some I added to the guide early on – but they’re all there in the comments – if you’re having trouble getting Perfect Damascus, you might find some useful information there.

General tips and tricks before you begin

At the Forge

– There are always two plates for each kind of metal. There are always five small plates, and five large plates. Remembering this can help you plan where pieces should go.

– Plates of the same kind of metal can go next to each other like this,

but you don’t want them in the same column like the two plates of dark metal shown here:

– If you mess up, you can always throw in another box of metal pieces and try again.

– The forge does not need to be hot when you throw in the box of metal pieces. You can save coal/coke by throwing water on the fire before you start.

– Your blade does not need to be hot when you take it to the Alchemy Table – hot or cold – it doesn’t seem to matter.

At the Alchemy Table

– It’s okay to leave the table if you need to get more hydrochloric acid or hydrogen peroxide.

– Sometimes the table gets glitchy. When that happens, it might be easier to just exit the game
and reload instead of having to struggle through.

Main Objectives

You have three key goals:

First, you’re trying to make your solution match this color:

then achieve this color farther along:

At the very end of the process, you have to time
how long the solution will cover the sword blade
before you rinse it off.

Both colors are present on the right hand side of the Alchemy Table.
You can also see them whenever you press the help button.

Step One: Adding Ferrum

This step is simple since you don’t have to worry about measuring.
Select the canister of ferrum. Choosing Mix It will use the entire canister.

Step Two: Adding Hydrochloric Acid

This step takes a little more care.

Select the tube of Hydrochloric Acid and choose Mix It

At this point you have to press E to pour it into the beaker. Some players count out exactly how many small pours they use. I always just eyeball it, but I think I typically use about half of a full tube. You can use a little more – some players say they use all of it, but you definitely don’t have to. The more acid you use here, the more hydrogen peroxide you’ll need later, and the amount of heating time changes too. But if you don’t use enough acid, you won’t have enough solution to cover the entire blade.

For reference, this is always the level of Hydrochloric Acid I aim for:

Step Three: Warming up the mixture

Now it’s time to heat up the mixture.
You’ll be trying to match it with this color as close as possible:

After you’ve set aside the hydrochloric acid, select the beaker and choose, Warm up.

The second you place the flask on the burner, click on the beaker again then hover your mouse over the Finish Heating button. You’ll want to be able to remove the beaker at a moment’s notice.

As soon as it starts to bubble, you’ll see the bits of ferrum begin to dissolve in the hydrochloric acid, and the color will gradually darken. You can periodically remove the beaker to inspect the color then return it to the burner if it needs more time. I prefer to count the number of times the iron pieces shrink. Some people count the number of times the hue changes. Either way, it’s approximately 11-13 seconds, or 11-13 changes. It really depends on the amount of hydrochloric acid you used. Changes occur every second, so you could even use a stopwatch or count it out in your head if you want.

…not yet

That looks about right. Whenever I’m uncertain,
I often find it’s better to risk going a little darker than leave it too light.

Step Four: Adding Hydrogen Peroxide

This is another step requiring careful pouring.

It’s helpful to have two spare flasks of hydrogen peroxide nearby in case you need a little more. You can leave the table at any time, replace an empty flask, and start back up where you left off. It doesn’t seem to matter if the solution gets cold.

You’re aiming for this color:

Select the flask of hydrogen peroxide and choose, Mix It.

Adding a little at a time, you’ll see the solution turn varying shades of green as it darkens into a reddish-brown.

I usually count six or seven color changes then stop –
that means six or so tips of the bottle, or six-seven small pours.
If I did everything else correctly up to this point, the color will be one of the two highlighted here. I’ve gotten Perfect results with both hues, but most often when the color’s more red than brown.

When you think you’ve got it right, set aside the hydrogen peroxide,

select the beaker and choose, Pour it onto the sword. If you measured out the correct amounts of liquid at each step, the solution will just cover the entire length of the blade.

If all went well…

The more difficult parts are over with,

but we’re not done yet!

Step Five: Letting the Blade Rest

After you coat the blade with the solution, leave the solution on the blade for 3-5 minutes. The exact time doesn’t seem to matter, but aiming for 4 minutes is probably safest since you’re less likely to go over or under the required range of time.

The ingame pocket watch is helpful, but the clock that’s visible on the steam overlay when you press shift+tab is even better since it displays seconds, and it will continue counting even if you inadvertently pause the game.

You can just leave the blade on the floor ’til time’s up; or while you wait, you could go ahead and finish assembling it with the handle and even sharpen it if you want.

If you’re in a hurry, you could easily just exit the Alchemy Table after coating the blade and immediately proceed to the final step if you like, and it would still give the blade a damascus pattern as well as add some value to the sword.

Step Six: Rinsing off the blade

The final step is even simpler than the first.

Whether you put the sword to the side for 3-5 minutes, or choose to rinse the solution off early, all you have to do is place the blade into the quenching barrel to remove the solution and reveal the design beneath. You may want to hold it with the tongs when you drop it in. Sometimes when you drop it in with your hands the blade doesn’t go in correctly, then you have to remove it and drop it again.

And that’s it. You’re all done.

If you managed to get, Perfect Damascus at both the forge and the table, you should be able to get a blade with “Excellent” damascus within the 3-5 minutes time range.

If you got, Perfect Damascus, at one, and Good Damascus, at the other, the best you can reasonably expect is “Good” damascus at the end.

But even if you somehow mess up your timing, your damascus should end up being at least average quality. You’ll know how it turned out after the sword’s fully assembled and you place it on the sales wall.

Closing Thoughts

In the end it really comes down to developing your own timing and your own feel for the different parts of the process. Some players prefer to use an entire tube of HCI and a flask of H2O2 and claim to get good results. And as long as it works, that’s all that matters. Hopefully the more you attempt it, the more successful you’ll become. Even with a lot of practice, perfect damascus isn’t a given, but you should be able to get it around 50% of the time without any trouble. The rest of the time, you should be getting good damascus. That’s the point of this guide, I suppose – that achieving Excellent Damascus in the first place is actually possible – so long as you keep trying.

The cost of making a damascus blade is 85 coins.

Excellent damascus adds 347 coins to the value of your sword.
Very Good damascus adds a value of 312 coins.
Good is worth 250 coins.
Average can be worth 133 – 200 coins.
Bad can be worth up to 100 coins.
Very Bad is worth up to 88 coins. (I think)

The damascus patterns might have less to do with the quality of the damascus than the amount of time you left the solution on the blade. I’ve seen the same pattern on good damascus that rested for over four minutes as I have on average damascus that I rinsed off after just a few seconds.

Gold

Bronze

Iron

Titan

Tungsten

It can be a little harder to see the pattern on metals like silver and mithril.

But in the right lighting, it’s quite beautiful.

Damascus doesn’t show up well on Elandoor, but it still adds to its value.

Troubleshooting

Problem

I keep making Bad Damascus at the Alchemy Table.

Solution: Most of the time damascus goes bad, it’s either because of the amount of hydrochloric acid you’re using, or how long you heated it. Try starting with a new tube and look at how much you’re using. If you’ve only got a little left in the tube, you’re using too much. If the final solution isn’t covering all of the blade, you’re not using enough hydrochloric acid.

If the solution is looking a little pale after you heat it, let it simmer on the burner for another second or two.

I find the wood grains on the table useful in keeping the amount consistent. I aim for one in particular – hopefully you can see it here. I’m not saying this is the only correct amount and you have to use it – just that this is always the amount I try to use. I know a little more or a little less will work too. Once you find an amount that works for you, stick to it. Being consistent in this one step will remove a lot of the guess work in the steps that follow.