Kingdom Come Deliverance: Alchemy Kingdom Come Deliverance Guide & Walkthrough

This page of the Kingdom Come guide contains the most essential information and tips regarding alchemy, using the bench and preparing potions.

Last update: 27 October 2022

Alchemy plays a big role in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It allows you to brew various potions for personal use or you can make those that are required to complete a given quest. On this page of the guide you can find the most important information about the alchemy as well as our suggestions.

• Basics
• Alchemy bench- where to find and how to use it?
• Brewing potions
• Auto-brewing potions
• Additional tips for alchemy in Kingdom Come

Basics

1. Just like with all other skills, Alchemy points are received by using the ability - which means that you have to brew potions. The game doesn't have any regulations and requirements here so you can start brewing potions after completing the prologue. The only requirement is to find an alchemy bench. They are marked on the map and they are usually found in places with an herbalist or an apothecary. You can use them for free.
2. The main reason for using alchemy is to have an unlimited access to Saviour Schnapps - potions that allow you to save the game. Later, when Henry is more skilled in Alchemy, brewing potions becomes fast and simple. However, making a potion requires a little bit of time because you can't make them on the fly, at least at the beginning of the game.
3. The fact that Henry knows Saviour Schnapps recipe from the beginning of the game (see the picture) makes things easier. The rest of the recipes has to be learned by reading documents - you can find them during exploration or you can buy them from traders (especially from herbalists and apothecaries). You can't make a potion without having a recipe.
4. The potions' main ingredient are herbs but you may also need to use trophies removed from killed animals (this can be done by using Hunting skills). Most of the ingredients can be bought from merchants but there are some, e.g. a boar's tusks, that aren't commonly available. Try to buy more unique and rare ingredients than you currently need even if you don't plan on using them right away in alchemy. This mainly concerns Nightshade, a rare herb and one of the ingredients for Saviour Schnapps. Buying a few extras from an herbalist is always a good idea. Their goods get resupplied after some time which means that you can go back to a given trader and buy more items.

Alchemy bench- where to find and how to use it?

You can't brew a potion without using an alchemy bench. The first one can be found in Rattay but you can also use different ones to make potions. Below you can find locations of a few other alchemy benches:

1. Rattay - the alchemy bench is located on the back of the herbalist shop, in the same building where the Bailiff has his office. In theory, the access to it is blocked with a door that is secured with a hard level lock but you can reach that bench from the other side - go around the building and proceed through the gate located in front of the church.
2. Sasau Monastery - the alchemy bench is located in the infirmary, a few dozen meters from the monastery's main gate. This is the same building where Johanka helps the wounded from Skalitz. Brother Nicodemus takes care of the bench. He is an alchemy expert and can sell you herbs.
3. Neuhof - this alchemy bench is in the forest located west from the Neuhof's stable. Find it as soon as you reach that area - your first visit there happens when you are investigating the slaughter that took place in the stable.

Each alchemy bench works in the same way. All recipes are presented in the book on the right. Select a recipe to start brewing a given potion. New recipes are added to that book automatically. It is possible to decipher a recipe without having the ability to read but this isn't easy. Because of that you should start your adventure with alchemy after completing Mightier Than the Sword side quest. Its description can be found on the page that contains walkthroughs for the quests available in Uzhitz. The goal of that quest is to meet with the Uzhitz's scribe and pay him for the first reading lesson.

Brewing potions

The key in brewing every potion is to follow the steps written in the book. Access to a potion base (a substance that is poured into a cauldron, e.g. water) is free. The player only needs to have all required ingredients in the inventory. If you don't have them all, the game will automatically stop the brewing process. Remember that you can access the recipe book whenever you want, even if you are already brewing a potion.

1. The process of making a potion starts when you pour a potion base. Depending on a recipe you may have to add the right ingredients, boil them or not and then add more herbs. Heat up your cauldron with bellows (Q key / L2 / left trigger) - the more you pull the string, the longer your cauldron will boil. The sandglass helps you with determining how long your potion needs to boil (F key / R2 / right trigger). It determines the boiling time for most of the potions. Some ingredients need to be smashed with the mortar or they need to go through the distill. Both objects are on the table but remember that the distill needs to be heated up with the bellows. The last object - dish - is a plate on which you keep ingredients taken out from the bags.
2. Take one of the bottles on the left and pour your potion into it when it is ready. If you haven't made any mistakes, the game will display your potion's name.

Auto-brewing potions

You will quickly find out that making potions is a tedious and time-consuming process - brewing one potion can take you a few minutes. In theory, this should be easier thanks to auto-brewing process.

1. It becomes available thanks to Routine I perk that can be unlocked at Alchemy level 10. However, you shouldn't bother with speeding up this process until you reach level 13 in Alchemy where you can buy Routine II. Why? The reason for that is how this ability works. The developers have simplified things a little bit - the higher your Alchemy level, the more potions you can make from one portion of ingredients.
2. At Alchemy level 10 you can get three Saviour Schnapps from two Nightshades and a few Nettles but auto-brew can only give you one Saviour Schnapps. Routine II perk available at level 13 solve this problem to some extent.
3. Overall, the traditional brewing is more profitable, especially when you make a potion that uses rare ingredients (e.g. a Saviour Schnapps).

Additional tips for alchemy in Kingdom Come

1. The game allows you to make some mistakes and certain actions can be speeded up but huge mistakes like, e.g. pouring ingredients in a wrong order will result in a failure. That potion is still added to your equipment but you shouldn't drink it, just throw it out.
2. Getting experience in Alchemy takes a lot of time because points are only received when you successfully finish brewing a potion. Because of that Alchemy is one of the few abilities that should be speeded up by paying for trainings. Usually, an Alchemy trainer can be found near an alchemy bench but it can happen that that trainer can teach you about Herbalism instead (you shouldn't waste your money on this skill). Alchemy trainers are, e.g. the apothecary in Rattay, Brother Nicodemus in Sasau Monastery and Charlatan in the urban part of Sasau.
3. There is an option to use Alchemy as a way of earning money but since the brewing process takes a lot of time you should find another way of getting money. You can start selling potions when you reach level 13 in Alchemy because you will be able to make three potions thanks to the auto-brew option. However, until then Henry will already be a rich man.
4. You should try out the brewing process at the beginning of the game because making a potion can be useful to you or it even can be required to complete a side quest, e.g. Pestilence where you have to prepare a potion for Merhojed village. Henry needs to brew a potion himself if you want to heal every villager (some of them will die if you use Brother Nicodemus' help). The same goes for a few other quests.