Crafting is the most critical mechanic there is inPax Deiand you cannot progress without it. Everything you need in Pax Dei must be built, and you will find yourself spending a considerable amount of time at your crafting stations. Whether it’s armor, weapons, food, or shelter, you can find a crafting station for all your needs.

However, if you aren’t familiar with how crafting works in Pax Dei, it can be a little difficult to get your home base started. We’ve brought to you a list of everything you need to know about crafting in Pax Dei, and how you may get started on building the best settlement and homestead you can build.

Pax Dei: An image of the hammer in the crafting menu

Pax Dei is anEarly Accesstitle. We will update our guides as new information as new patches and mechanics are released.

Crafting Basics

Crafting in Pax Dei works a little differently from other open-world games, and can take some getting used to.

The Hammer And Basic Carpenter’s Workbench

The very first item you will ever craft in Pax Dei — and the item that will facilitate the creation of all other crafting stations from here on out — is thehammer.

To craft the hammer, you needone Gneiss Rock and two pieces of Sapwood.

Pax Dei: A closeup of the Simple Tailoring Table

You need the hammer toaccess the game’s build modeandplaceany pre-fabricated assets you acquire.

Equipping the hammer will allow you to access theplot management screen, build mode, and select crafting recipes. From the’Crafting' tab, you will find a few of the recipes necessary for unlocking categorized crafting stations.

Pax Dei: A closeup of the Stone Anvil

After building a hammer, enter the hammer’s ‘Crafting’ tab tocreate a Wood Chopping Block. You need the Wood Chopping block to make the components necessary for aBasic Carpenter’s Workbench.

Once you have crafted the Basic Carpenter’s Workbench, you shouldhave access to any crafting recipesyou have unlocked. This is also where you willcreate crafting kitsand sets thatunlock more advanced crafting stationsto be built from the Crafting menu of the hammer.

Pax Dei: The player peruses the crafting menu at the Basic Carpenter’s Workbench

How To Get Crafting Recipes

Crafting recipes areunlocked organicallyas you level up and improve your skills. Once you reach certain skill level milestones,more recipeswill become available to you.

You will also learn recipes when youcreate crafting kits and stations. Each station and kit will unlock a few recipes available at that station or within that category of the menu.

Pax Dei: An image of the Crafting tab of the hammer’s build mode

For instance, crafting theWood Chopping Blockautomaticallyunlocks the Wooden Pegrecipe.

Crafting Stations

There aretwo setsof crafting stations to build. The first set to unlock is thekit or categoryset and the second set isadvanced crafting stations.

How To Unlock Crafting Categories

Crafting categories are unlocked through items like theBasic Fletching Tools. When built, these toolsunlock the associated crafting categoryin the Crafting tab of the hammer’s build mode.

For example, once you have crafted theBasic Leatherworking Toolsat the Basic Carpenter’s Workbench, you willunlock the Leatherworking tabin the hammer’s Crafting menu, and any crafting stations associated with leatherworking.

Pax Dei: A closeup of the Simple Tanning Rack

Youalmost alwaysneed to have unlocked a crafting category’s basic crafting kit before being able to make more advanced crafts or crafting stations in that category.

How To Build Crafting Stations

Once you have unlocked a crafting category in the hammer’s crafting tab, you canstart building more advanced crafting stations. Usually, a category will havemore than onekind of station in it and all of the stationswork in concertwith each other.

For example, in theTailoring category, there arethree crafting stations: theSpinning Wheel, the Simple Tailoring Table, and the Simple Loom.

Pax Dei: An image of the player crafting wooden planks at the Wood Chopping Block, indicating the difficulty level and progress bar in the bottom right

You need the Spinning wheel to spin threads, the Simple Loom to create cloth from those threads, and the Tailoring station to create clothing.

All three of the above crafting stations are unlockedafter crafting the Basic Tailoring Toolsat the Basic Carpenter’s Workbench.

Pax Dei: A closeup of the Founder’s Crafting Table

How To Craft Items

Crafting items can be done from any of the previously mentioned stations or build menus. At every station, you need tomeet material requirementsbefore the crafting button becomes available.

Once you have all of the required ingredients or components in your inventory, you cancraft the itemof your choosing.

Difficulty Levels

Crafting recipes havedifferent difficulty levelsthat change the success rate of your crafts. As you level upyour skills, you will havebetter success rateswhen crafting items in those skill categories.

If a recipe is categorized aseasy or trivial, you will have ahigher chanceof succeeding in crafting that item. If a recipe is consideredhard, you will have aharder timecrafting that item.

When you craft an item, you will see theblue progress barbeneath the difficulty level light up. Thegoalis for your blue progress line toreach the center marker. Difficulty level willdecrease the sizeof your available progress bar as you work.

Higher-difficultyrecipes willdecreasethe size of the progress barmore quickly.

If the available progress bar decreasespast the center marker, your crafting recipe will fail, and you will berefunded your material costs. Your materials will be ejected onto the ground somewhere near the crafting station you were using.

Sometimes the refunded materials take a few moments to appear on the ground by the crafting station.Waiting a few momentsusually fixes this.

It is also important to note thatall difficulty levelscome with achance of failure. Even an easy recipe can fail if you aren’t lucky. However, the best way to ensure success is to make sure you areleveling your skillsas much as possible.

The higher your skill level, the more likely your crafting recipes are to succeed in that skill category.

Tips For Crafting

If you’re struggling to find the materials you need to unlock crafting categories or create crafting stations, trylocating a friend’s or neighbor’s settlement. It is possible that they have the crafting station that you need.

You canuse other people’s crafting stations, as long as you havebrought your own materials. Sometimes, you may even findunclaimedcrafting stations littered around the map.

If you haven’t alreadyplaced a plot, you can drop your ploton top of unclaimed propertyto annex it into your land andtake over ownership. This is one way you can gain access to crafting stations you otherwise would have struggled to make or use.

Try placing your base inresource-heavy areas. Even if you’re only next to one resource, like a field of Flax, it’s still worth it in the long run. It’s one less resource that you will need to hunt down later, and you will have aguaranteed supplyfor future crafting needs.

You should also endeavor to make achest systemthat organizes each resource. As you progress to more complicated recipes, you will needgreater amountsof each resource, and having themreadily availableand organized streamlines the crafting process.