Hello everyone, and welcome back to the channel. Today, we're moving beyond the basics. We're going to dive deep into the systems that separate the knowledgeable players from those who are constantly wasting resources. We're talking about Crafting, the Stele system, and how to use the Auction House to your advantage. When evaluating the Auction House, players often face a critical choice: spend hours farming materials, or simply buy Raven 2 Crystal directly to acquire the necessary resources and expedite their progression. Understanding the market value of Crystals is essential for making informed purchasing decisions.

Part 1: The Two Paths of Crafting

Crafting in Raven 2 isn't just one menu; it's two distinct systems with different purposes.

Path 1: Personal Crafting (The Craft Menu)

This is your go-to for personal gearing and material refinement.

Finding Your Recipe: Open the Craft menu. On the left, you'll see sections for Weapons, Armor, Accessories (Suars), and more. Navigate to the item you want.

Material List: Select an item, and the bottom of the screen will show you exactly what you need to craft it. This is your shopping list.

Source Tracing (The Smart Way): This is the most powerful feature. See a material you don't have, like "Improved Iron"? Right-click on it.

A window will pop up showing you three ways to obtain it: Crafting, Monster Drops, and Chests.

Farming: For reliable, immediate farming, click on "Defeated Monsters." It will show you a list of locations and the specific mob (e.g., "Risen Death Herald") that drops it. You can click "Teleport" and go farm it right now.

Crafting: It will also show you the recipe to craft the material from lower-tier components (e.g., crafting Improved Iron from regular Iron).

Path 2: Guild Crafting

The second option is found in the Guild menu, under "Item Crafting."

The Benefit: This is a collaborative system. Almost all guild members can contribute materials to craft an item. It's an excellent way to gear up a specific member who needs a boost, or to craft an item to sell on the market and split the profits among the guild. It's a powerful tool for group progression.

Part 2: The Golden Rule of Crafting - Always Compare Prices

This is the single most important tip in this entire guide. Never craft anything without first checking the Auction House. The game gives you the tools to be your own economist.

The Example: Improved Iron vs. Regular Iron

Let's walk through the example from the video to show you how to spot a good deal.

Check the Price of the Finished Product: You need Improved Iron. Open the Auction House. You see it's selling for 6 diamonds each.

Check the Price of the Components: You look at the recipe for Improved Iron. It requires:

100x Regular Iron (Auction House price: 0.2 diamonds each = 20 diamonds total)

Fragmented Crystalline Material

Gold

Do the Math:

Buying directly: 1 Improved Iron = 6 Diamonds.

Crafting it yourself: To get 20 pieces of Improved Iron, you'd need to spend 20 diamonds on the base material alone. That's effectively 1 diamond per Improved Iron you craft.

The Verdict: By buying the cheap base material (Regular Iron) and crafting it yourself, you are saving 5 diamonds per item. If you need 20 Improved Iron, that's a saving of 100 diamonds.

The Lesson: Always break down the cost. Sometimes the raw materials are cheap, and the crafted product is expensive. That's your opportunity to save money or even craft items to sell for a profit.

Part 3: Item Substitution - The "Two Yellow Arrows"

Some items in crafting recipes have a small icon with two yellow arrows next to them. This is the Substitution Indicator.

What It Means: This material can be replaced with an alternative resource.

How It Works: Click the icon. You'll see a list of substitute items. For example, you might be able to use an "Heir's Token" instead of a specific, expensive ore.

When to Use It: Tokens and universal blueprints are often given out for free in passes and chests. If the required material is very expensive on the Auction House, check if you have a substitute item in your inventory. Using a free token instead of spending diamonds is always a win. However, don't waste valuable tokens on cheap materials—save them for when you need to replace a truly expensive component.

Part 4: Farming Strategy - Efficiency Over Level

When you decide to go farm a material from monsters, remember this: Efficiency is more important than the monster's level.

The Trap: Don't automatically go to the highest-level zone that drops your item. If you're level 55, farming level 55 mobs will be slow. Your kill rate will be low.

The Solution: Look for a lower-level zone (e.g., level 45) where the same material drops. You will tear through those mobs much faster. A high kill speed on easy mobs will always yield more materials per hour than struggling against tough ones.

Part 5: Demystifying the Stele System

The Stele system can seem confusing at first, but it's a massive source of power. Think of it as a puzzle where you're trying to score as many points as possible.

The Basics:

What are Steles? You get them from summoning cards (the same ones that give you robes and familiars). They come in different grades: Common, Uncommon, Rare, etc. Higher grade = better base stats.

Checking a Stele: Right-click a Stele to see the specific bonuses it provides (e.g., PvP attack, defense, etc.).

The Color System: Ignore the item grade (blue, purple) for a moment. Look at the actual color of the Stele icon—Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, etc. This is the key to the bonus system.

How the Stele Grid Works:

The Point Scale: Each Stele has a point value (e.g., 12 points). You have a limited number of slots based on your level. The sum of all your equipped Steles' points fills a progress bar.

Color Combinations (The Poker Hand): This is where the magic happens. Matching specific color combinations gives you bonus points.

For example, having five Steles of all different colors might give you +10 bonus points.

Having seven different colors might give you +14.

The ultimate goal? Nine Steles of the exact same color gives you a massive +40 bonus points.

The Goal: Your aim is to maximize the total numerical value of the bar. You want the best base stats from your Steles, combined with the highest possible color-combo bonus.

The Reward: Unlocking Boost Slots

Why is filling this bar so important? Look at the thresholds on the bar: 40, 60, 80, 100, 110 points.

Unlocking Slots: Every time you cross a threshold (e.g., reaching 80 points), you unlock a new Boost Slot.

What Boost Slots Do: These slots provide three random, powerful bonuses. They are a direct, permanent increase to your character's power that you can't get anywhere else.

Your Strategy:

Equip your highest-point Steles first.

Then, without drastically lowering your point total, try to swap Steles to achieve better color combinations for the bonus points.

Keep pushing that bar higher to unlock more Boost Slots.