The Alchemist in the Prairie village is the place to go when a plain stone isn't good enough. Walk up to them and you'll see two options: Refine and Combine. (Tamrang, also in the Prairie village, offers the same two services.)
You need to stand close to the Alchemist for any of this to work, and the items have to be in your bag.
Put one Black, White or Red stone (any tier: Stone, Crystal, Jewel or Best Jewel) into the Combine window and confirm.
What the special stone does depends on its colour:
| Colour | Special effect |
|---|---|
| White | Always adds the same bonus when you imbue it (damage, defense, attack rating, critical hit, max life, max mana, life or mana recovery), instead of a random one. |
| Red | Always lowers the same requirement (level, strength, stamina, dexterity or energy). |
| Black | Either a bigger imbue success bonus, or a stronger stat boost. |
Black Jewels and Best Jewels can go back in after their first Combine to push the stat boost further. A special Black Jewel's boost climbs 20, 35, 50; a special Best Black Jewel's climbs 40, 70, 100. Each step is another coin flip, so decide how lucky you feel.
Which effect you get is random. Read the stone's tooltip to see what you rolled, then take it to a shopkeeper and imbue as usual.
Collected a pile of Black Powder, White Powder or Red Powder? Put them in the Combine window: 22 powders of one colour become one Black Stone, White Stone or Red Stone.
If you put equipment-combination materials (World Maps, gems, Fast Moving Books) into the Alchemist's Combine window, the Alchemist sends you away with "Please use JinHyun's Craft Mix for this combination." That's how the game works now: those combinations moved from the Alchemist to JinHyun. Nothing is used up when you get this message.
Coming later: JinHyun's Craft Mix, and the World Maps, gems and Fast Moving Books it uses, aren't in the alpha yet. JinHyun's Compound is open, though. See JinHyun Compound.
Refine is where weapons, clothes, hats and shoes get a five-element attribute (Fire, Water, Wood, Metal or Earth) or an Imperial Secret Jewel. It needs gear with a free socket:
| What you put in | What it does | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| A refining crystal (Red Fire, Ice, Green, Steel or Soil Crystal, or its Best version) | Gives a socketed item that element | 40% of the item's price per crystal |
| Phoenix Force | Removes the five-element attribute again | Free |
| An Imperial Secret Jewel (pendants, Lu charms, silkworm threads, ghost cards and hairpins) | Puts the jewel's effect into an item's imperial socket | 2,000,000 Jeon |
| Phoenix Fall Force | Removes an Imperial Secret Jewel again | Free |
When everything is right, a refine always succeeds.
Coming later: the alpha world doesn't have socketed gear, refining crystals or Phoenix Forces yet, so Refine is mostly waiting for them. Imperial Secret Jewels exist but can't be found in the world yet. We'll update this page when they arrive.