With every new Atelier trilogy developer Gust mixes things up and introduces a new synthesis system. Atelier games are, of course, famous for their alchemy. A very important part of the game, so one you will have to master. For the Mysterious trilogy, they went a whole new route. And though the game tries to explain it all, but I feel it doesn’t do a very good job at it.
So, I decided to make a Guide to Synthesis, detailing all you need to know. The Synthesis Guide for Atelier Sophie: the Alchemist of the Mysterious Book is found here.
Now, I’m gonna tell you all you need to know for Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey. Later on, the guides for the other Atelier games will be added too.
For this article, the images are based on the Vita game. The DX version on the Switch works in pretty much the same way, but the buttons are of course different.
So let’s get started!
The Info on the Screen
I assume this isn’t the first Atelier game you’ve played, so you know your basics. Making items with Alchemy is easy enough when standing at the cauldron, but to get the maximum out of what you make there’s more you need to know.
I use a Blau Bomb as an example. Below you see the bomb in Firis’ recipe list.
The level shown next to the Blau Bomb drawing is the alchemy level Firis needs to have to synthesize it. If her level is lower, you can’t make the item at all, and it’s indicated by a – in front of the recipe in the list. To make it complete, this is what you see in the recipe list:
- o Firis can make the item and has all the needed ingredients
- x Means you don’t have the needed materials
- ^ Means you have to make one of the base ingredient first
- – Means Firis’ alchemy level is too low
In Atelier Firis, you can also see which catalyst works well when making this item, but more on that later.
You can see the specifics of the item you want to make too. Like what the base price is, should you wish to sell it, what the category is to which it belongs (Bombs) and who can equip a Blau Bomb.
Clicking further and you can also check with materials you need and it shows which effects it will bring to the table.
Where in Atelier Sophie each item had a base color too, that is missing in Atelier Firis. But in the effects specified you do see what the main effect to strive for is. In this case Fire Damage, of which there are three levels, and it’s blue.
Material Selection
Time to look at the synthesis itself because if you like this part of the game, I can promise you will spend a lot of time trying to get the best results. The actual synthesis is split in four parts:
- Material selection
- Choosing the catalyst
- Effects influenced by material placement
- Trait transfer
Lets look at the Material Selection and take this Blau Bomb as example.
All materials you have to use for synthesis are categorised. If a material that you need to add is between brackets, then you can add any material from that category. For example, if you need to add an ingredient from the fuel category, there are various to choose from. Same goes in this case for (gunpowder) and (neutralizer). If a material is not between brackets you need to use that specific material, not one from the category to which it belongs, like the Blue Steel Stone.
When choosing your materials to use to synthesise an item, then don’t forget that by clicking on the submenu you can filter or sort the materials to use. You can sort for Quality, Count, Size, Components and more. You can also filter for a certain trait, a special item or category.
Every material has a Component which shows how powerful a material is. It makes for a higher effect by filling the alchemy component charge gauge of the item we want to make, but so does the size and the color of the material that will influence how much effect can be reached.
Let me explain with our example.
The Blau Bomb has an Alchemy Component Charge Gauge. It’s on the right side of the screen and shows a Gauge that is 40 (with 30 already filled as my pointer is on the Blue Steel Stone).
I need two Blue Steel Stones. Their component value is 30 for each of them, but I did choose the ones with the biggest size or footprint if you want to call it that. Adding the first stone ups my gauge to 30, adding the second stone too ups the gauge to 60. As the maximum of each gauge level is 40, it fills up the first level, and 20 out of 40 in the second level.
Next is the (gunpowder). Highest in component value are the red Kaen Stones but when you look at the left side, my top effect that I want to fill up is Fire Damage and that’s blue. I would be wise to choose a blue material. You can’t sort for color, but you can see by the outline of the grid where the blue materials are. The first one is this Wheat Flour, which only has a component value of 25. Still, it’s enough to fill the second level of my gauge and 5 of 40 on the third level.
The (fuel) is next. The Sweet Shoot of component value 40 is blue, but the next blue material is a Zettel with a value of only 10. It does have a nice size however, so I’ll give it a try. It fills the gauge with that 10 to 15 of 40.
Next is the (neutralizer). And in Atelier Firis, that’s super interesting. We’ve gotten used to red, blue, green and yellow neutralizer, but in Firis there are Rainbow Neutralizer that you can make as well. And it has several colors, this one has red, green and blue (mind you, not all rainbow neutralizer have that many colors).
Mine has a component value of 60 too, so I’m going for that one as my blue neutralisers are much lower in component value. It adds 60 to the Alchemy Component Charge Gauge, filling up the third level and puts 35 of 40 on the fourth level.
Choosing the catalyst
A new addition to the Atelier games in Atelier Firis is the use of catalysts. Catalysts are materials that change the way synthesis works. Some you find in the wild, others you can make yourself. You can’t use every catalyst on every synthesis, but using one can make a difference. It can change the number of places to put your circles or it can add bonus lines.
On the right side the effect of the catalyst is shown. The “Synthesis without Catalyst” had effects too if all panels in a line are filled by materials and all lines are filled. Quality then goes up with 10%. the size of the item you make goes up by 1 and you can add 1 more trait.
White lines can be covered by any color, but colored lines are specific. These catalysts also bring special effects to the table, like this Ripple Stone Shard. See that it ups the quality +10, you can transfer 1 extra trait and the effect on the level is +1 blue. I would have to cover the white lines with any color and the blue line with blue. Worth a try for our Blau Bomb!
Effects Influenced by Material Placement
Now it’s time to place our materials on the panel. But first, let’s look at the percentages on the top of the screen during synthesis. You see all colors and a percentage next to it. Currently I’ve placed the first Blue Steel Stone with 3 circles. The percentage next to Blue goes to 9%. The game determines the percentages by taking 3 circles to the power of 2, so 3^2 which is 3*3=9%.
It means that if I place another blue material, the component value of 30 will go up by 9%, so instead of 30 added to the gauge, I get 32 added to the gauge. The gauge goes up 1 level, and the effects below get their dots filled up. If the color of the effect corresponds with the circles, I get 1,5 dot filled up in the blue ones like Fire Damage M. The other colored effects get 0,5 dot filled. But as I filled in the entire blue line, I get 1 dot extra in blue effects! So my Fire Damage now has 2,5 dot filled.
As the second Blue Steel Stone had 2 circles there are now 5 circles on the panel, so the percentage blue goes up to 5^2=25%. Now on the the Wheat Flower with component value 25, which will now give me 25 +(25% of 25)= 31. This means that my gauge get an extra level too, which will add 1,5 dot to blue effects and 0,5 dot to the yellow and red effect.
With placing the Wheat on the panel I now have 9 circles, all blue. So the percentage goes up to 81%. With these percentages it pays off to put materials up on the panel that have a high component value of themselves. So let’s use the Rainbow Neutralizer of 60! it adds 60 +(81% of 60) =108 to the gauge. This ups my gauge bar with 3 level! Blue effects get 4,5 dot and the others 1,5 dot.
As this is the Rainbow Neutralizer it also ups the percentages of red and green, each 4^2=16%. But as I don’t have any other colored materials anymore this doesn’t matter for now. What matters more is that it now has put my blue percentage to 169%.
Let’s put the Sweet Shoot with component value of 40 up there, which instead adds 40+(169% of 40)=107 to the gauge. This ups the gauge again with 2 levels, which means it fills up all my blue effects and the red effect to the max. Where there was a description of none there is now a blue Blue Fames, a red Super Hot and a yellow Inflicts Burns. The yellow one isn’t full yet. Let’s see if I can make that happen too.
My last one, the Zettel is only 10 in component value, but with a percentage of 225% (15 blue circles) added it’s enough to add another level to the gauge. My yellow component is now filled too. And as I’ve covered all lines, my quality goes up from 50 to 60.
Tips For Placement
I realise this may seem very difficult to follow when you’re just reading this. What I’d like to say is this: open your own game, find a recipe you want to use (and that’s already unlocked for you) and follow the steps with your own counts and percentages. Write it out once for your own recipe, and you’ll see it makes sense.
Sometimes you aren’t happy with one of the materials you chose in hindsight. By pressing the L-shoulder you can easily go back to your materials and choose another one with better size or color.
If your panel isn’t big enough I have found that placing same color circles overlapping doesn’t matter, the % on top stays the same. But placing them over another color does: the color that was originally there decreases in percentage as if the circles were never there. The level in your component gauge stays the same though.
I chose the Rainbow Neutralizer as an example, to show you that Firis has multi colored materials. And because it had a high component value. However, as I didn’t have any other red or green materials, those percentages were waisted. Still, it’s a nice touch to see items with more colors, not just the neutralizers.
Trait Transfer
Traits are latent power in items, you can have those that enhance the abilities of an item and those that add new abilities to an item. Did you see that my Blau Bomb only had one trait? I didn’t pay attention when choosing my materials to what traits materials would bring, just focused on maxing the effects.
Looking back at the materials I used I saw that only this trait “Light” was there in black lettering. The others were greyed out and not usable. Zooming in on the details of light you get the screen below with more info.
Up to three can be transferred, but there are incompatible traits, like putting healing on a bomb. This is where filtering your materials comes in, before you put them up for synthesis. If you are looking for a certain trait, this can be found by putting a filter on Trait like this.
Below you see the (gunpowder) materials I can choose from and what traits I can filter. This would however mean that component value, color of the material and size aren’t taken into account.
Where to Get Your Recipes?
Ideas for a recipe can come from all kinds of actions in exploring, making other items, talking to people and more. These recipes are gathered in Firis’ recipe book. At the start the recipes are represented by a ?.
The hints for unlocking these recipes are already there. By the time you start fulfilling them, greyed out images appear in the recipe book. Only after Firis has made the item for the first time, a little image appears in the book.
While completing quests Firis earns Recipe Idea Points. You can also use these to unlock recipes that are already in the hint phase.
In Atelier Firis, you can make your furniture to spruce up your mobile Alchemy tent as well. And what’s more, some can bring extra benefits too.
Mass Synthesis
Mass Synthesis isn’t what it sounds like. It’s not like you can make multiple ingots in one go. No, you can only make certain items with mass synthesis for which you require loads of materials. But if you succeed, these mass synthesis items should unlock a part of the game you haven’t been to before.
On the Koei Tecmo website they mention “items that change fields themselves can be created, leading you to a world yet unseen”. The images below are on the website.
It sounds intriguing, but I must say I only have one mass synthesis item in my recipe list, and that’s the Propulsion Furnace. For that, you need 30 ores to make it (among other things) so that’s quite the shopping list! But then, if you made it, you can pass the waterspout and advance the story. After that, another mass synthesis item like the Artificial Sun will be added.
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