Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key follows Ryza for her last adventure, bringing along many familiar systems with enhancements and tweaks, making everything feel much better to interact with than ever before. While veterans of the series will hit the ground running, the small changes and new mechanics can still provide a bit of a challenge.
The Alchemy, or Synthesis, system remains largely the same, with some minor quality-of-life additions that make it feel even more rewarding when you make a high-quality Item or something for the first time. That being said, this system can still be a bit daunting to work with, doubly so if you're a newcomer.
Alchemy Overview
As expected, the backbone of Atelier Ryza 3 is your ability to use Alchemy to Synthesize Items that will help you in battle, gather resources, or explore all regions to their fullest. You will spend most of your time making Weapons, Armor, Accessories, and Core Items with your Alchemy, so having a decent grasp on how the systems work will save you on materials and time and will also make everything you create much better.
Of course, the quality of materials you get depends on the quality of the Tools you use to obtain them, making it crucial to keep your Survival Tools up to date and constantly upgraded so you can get the most out of your Alchemy. For more information on every Survival Tool in the game, what they do, and how to make them, follow this link here.
The sections below will cover the Synthesis System, Material Loops, Recipe Morphing, and more. We recommend using this information to create better Gathering Survival Tools, along with better Weapons, Accessories, Armor, and Core Items for Ryza and the rest of your party. Lastly, don't forget that many of the best Alchemy Recipes come from Skills. The same will apply to your Weapons and other pieces of Equipment. You can find what we consider the best Skills to get first to help kickstart your journey by following this link.
Synthesizing Items
There are tons of things for you to make in Atelier Ryza 3, all of which follow the same Synthesis system you will use throughout your journey when visiting Ryza's Atelier. When creating a new Item, you will not only need the required materials but will also need to ensure you can make it have good Effects and be of high quality so it can be useful out in the world. Whether it be a Gathering Tool, a Weapon, or a Core Item, you must try your best to squeeze all you can out of it, as it will give you lots of SP for completing it and allow you to keep it around longer.
Filling Out Material Loops
In order to create items of high quality, you must fill out as many Material Loops as possible, which will be tricky to do in the early goings of your playthrough, but will become second nature as you gather more and more resources. A Material Loop refers to the tiny Element Icons located on each Material Platform of the Item you are attempting to Synthesize. Filling up those Element Icons is a Material Loop. Some Material Platforms have multiple Loops, while others will only have one.
Filling out Material Loops will give you tremendous bonuses to your Item ranging from Extra Effect Slots to +30 Quality and much more. Furthermore, the more Material Loops you fill out, the more SP you will receive when you Synthesize the Item, making it one of the best ways to earn SP and ensure your Item is of high quality. However, keep in mind that some Material Loops will be impossible for you to fill out in the early goings of the game, as your Material Quantity will be relatively low at the start and will have to be upgraded via the Skill Tree to allow you to use more Resources during the creation process.
At the very beginning of your journey, don't worry too much about filling out Material Loops. Instead, just focus on finishing the Item, especially your Gathering Survival Tools. After you obtain higher quality Items, you can remake those Items and gun for filling out several Material Loops then, which will drastically improve its quality and Effects.
Using Keys During Synthesis
Additionally, you can also use Keys to fill out Material Loops or raise the quality of your Item. For this, you must have a Key that has a Synthesis Effect. To ensure you get a Key with this Effect Type, check if the Monster you are creating the Key from has a high Synthesis Effect percentage. You can do this by opening the Key Creation menu during combat and looking to the right of the Success Rate percentage. Here, you will find a list of all Effects and the odds it will receive them. The higher percentage of the Effect, the more likely the Key will receive it.
Once you have a Key with a Synthesis Effect, you can use it to help your Synthesis. Not all Keys are created equally, and some will require very specific Conditions that you must meet to get any benefit from them. These Conditions can be simple, such as the primary Material Loop being a specific element. In contrast, others are a bit more particular and might require a specific type of Material to be in the Loop. While this may seem like a pain to deal with, it is well worth the effort, as you can complete several Material Loops for "free," essentially giving you a free move.
Recipe Morphing
Another reason Keys are crucial for filling out Material Loops is that you can use them to your advantage when it comes to Recipe Morphing, which refers to creating a new Recipe from within one you already have unlocked. Any Items with additional Recipes are marked with a Plus Sign (+) next to their icon in the Synthesis List. Recipe Morphing typically requires lots of Materials and will have you fill out specific Loops to gain access to another one, eventually leading to the new Recipe.
Not only that, but once you get to the new Recipe, you will obviously need the proper materials to craft it, but you will also need to fill out its Material Loop to make it. This makes some nearly impossible to get unless you use Keys to your advantage or have the Quality Up Skills unlocked, giving you access to more Resources during Synthesis. However, this also means that you need to get your hands on higher quality Materials if you keep falling short, as some Materials will fill in more of the Loop, allowing you to use fewer Materials but cover more ground overall.
Some Items will have several Item Morphs, so be sure the Plus Sign goes away after successfully creating a new Item via Morphing. If the symbol is still there, look around the Synthesis Tree, as there will be another Recipe you can build to and create!