Home/Progression & Economy/Crafting Friction
Progression & Economy

Crafting Friction

Review signals

Start with the scale and shape of the thread before reading the asks.

37 Messages excluding OP
21 Participants unique contributors
13 Reactions thread total
8 Primary asks Multiple

Summary and sentiment

The short read before diving into the detailed asks and evidence.

Overall summary

Players find the crafting system fundamentally broken across several dimensions: timers are too long (especially for F2P), RNG is too punishing, the gold quality chance at max level (25%) is far too low, and T2 items cannot be crafted at all.

There is broad agreement that crafting currently fails to feel rewarding and that targeted/focused crafting options are badly needed.

Sentiment read

Players do not see crafting as a minor tuning problem — @chewybarka describes it as "one of the most frustrating systems in the game" and @hadesziel quit engaging with crafting after one week after seeing how punishing it was.

There is some nuanced debate about T2 crafting (whether allowing it would undercut elite mission incentives), but even players on opposite sides of that debate agree the current system is broken.

The timer disparity between F2P and pass holders is called out as a fairness issue. The loading-screen reference to "focused crafting" that isn't in the game yet added visible frustration — players feel they've been shown a promised feature that hasn't arrived.

Primary asks

Actionable requests extracted from the synthesis.

#01
Balance

Increase the guaranteed gold quality chance at level 10 craft — many want it at or near 100%

Raised by
Ephraïm
Echoed by
@itasil92, @n1trozipp3r, @chewybarka
#02
New Feature

Allow T2 items to be crafted (with appropriate gates, e.g. T2 dismantling mats only)

Raised by
imajes
Echoed by
@alexofmac, @rixelated, @kyetrades
#03
New Feature

Add focused/targeted crafting — let players select a specific gear set, talent, or stat pool

Raised by
JB
Echoed by
@tibballt, @lukis4390, @caelancromwell
#04
Balance

Reduce or remove crafting timers, especially for F2P players (12h vs 3h for pass holders is excessive)

Raised by
Ventz
Echoed by
@hadesziel, @fearlessdave, @kyetrades
#05
QoL Improvement

Allow Recalibration Modules/Books to be crafted or obtained outside of Conflict

Raised by
Madras
Echoed by
@ttsia_, @tibballt
#06
Balance

Reduce material costs for leveling up crafted items

Raised by
El Gato
Echoed by
@itasil92, @kyetrades
#07
New Feature

Add benefits for maxing crafted items (e.g. small bonus to drop quality per maxed item)

Raised by
JB
Echoed by
No explicit echo captured
#08
Bug / Missing Feature

Make "focused crafting" (shown in loading screens) actually available in the game

Raised by
charlesu in nokia
Echoed by
@hadesziel

Community voices

Representative comments preserved from the synthesis.

Voice 01 Discord thread
YES — Upgrading piece by piece takes days and days, eventually to reach lv10 and get... T1 PURPLE! Also, a piece in 24h with a queue, and 11h in the clan base with 2 pieces in queue is still too much.
Itasil92 Jun 3, 2026
Why it matters

Concisely captures why the time-to-reward ratio feels broken across the entire crafting loop.

Voice 02 Discord message
Crafting is currently one of the most frustrating systems in the game, primarily because of the combination of long timers and excessive RNG... it is possible to spend dozens of Superior materials and multiple days of crafting time without receiving a usable item.
Chewbarka Jun 3, 2026 2 reactions
Why it matters

The most detailed critique in the thread; framed analytically rather than emotionally and credible as a result.

Voice 03 Discord thread
T2 items should be craftable, but mats needed to craft them should exclusively be obtained by dismantling T2 items. This makes crafting worth something by making it possible to get useable gear at the T2 level.
Rixelate Jun 4, 2026
Why it matters

The most well-designed proposal in the thread — adds T2 crafting while preserving elite mission value through a mat gate.

Voice 04 Discord thread
I find the crafting timer for f2p players being 12 hours is wild compared to the 3 hours for people who buy the warden pass.
Ventz Jun 3, 2026
Why it matters

Flags a fairness perception issue: when a core gameplay loop is significantly gated by subscription, players read it as predatory rather than premium.

Dev notes

Editorial synthesis for developer review.

Crafting has multiple overlapping failure modes that players are clearly able to articulate: too slow, too random, too cheap on quality at max level, and inaccessible for solo/F2P players without a maxed clan. These are not competing opinions — nearly every player agrees on all of them simultaneously.

The only real debate is whether T2 should be craftable, and even skeptics (like @chewybarka) acknowledge that the core problem isn't T2 access but the broken RNG and timer systems below it.

The most actionable signals from this thread are: (1) raise the gold quality chance at level 10 significantly — 25% is widely seen as insulting after the time and material investment required; (2) investigate focused/targeted crafting which appears to already be teased in loading screens; (3) address the F2P vs. pass holder timer gap which is generating fairness friction.

@rixelated's proposal on T2 crafting using T2-dismantle mats is the most structurally sound suggestion and worth examining as a design path.

One under-noted thread: @jbcode gave up on crafting as a gearing path entirely and uses it only for SHD level tasks. If crafting is supposed to be a primary gearing loop, this represents a total system failure for at least some portion of the player base.