The crafting tree is the set of recipes and blueprints that turns six native materials, Iron, Silicate, Carbon, Copper, Ice and Exotics, into everything else in ARCHON. Recipes combine natives and their products into progressively more complex resources: iron becomes iron plate, iron plate and carbon become steel plate, boards and circuits become processors, and so on.
Grades
A resource's grade is one more than the highest grade among its inputs. Natives are grade 0: mined, never made. Slag and Scrap are byproducts and have no place in the tree.
The crafting tree shows every resource by grade, and the tiers show where each native is found. The home tier has iron, silicate, carbon and a little copper; ice and exotics come from tiers further out, by travel or trade.
Chains
| Chain | Steps | Where its natives are |
|---|---|---|
| Plates | Iron → Iron Plate; Copper → Copper Plate; Silicate → Glass | Home, though copper is scarce there |
| Steel | Iron Plate and Carbon → Steel Plate | Home |
| Gears and wire | Iron Plate → Gear; Copper Plate → Wire | Home |
| Concrete | Silicate → Concrete | Home |
| Circuits | Wire and Iron Plate → Circuit | Home, with more copper further out |
| Assembler parts | gears, wire and iron plate → Motor; steel plate and gears → Frame; motors, frames and circuits → Thruster; a motor and steel plate → Pump; a frame and steel plate → Container; steel plate and concrete → Panel; steel plate, a gear and a motor → Drill Head | Home |
| Electronics | Glass and Copper Plate → Board; circuits, glass and copper plate → Sensor; Wire, Steel Plate and circuits → Antenna | The Static, for copper |
| Computing | Circuits, boards and wire → Processor; processors, sensors and antennas → Nav Computer; processors, antennas and frames → Control Unit; a processor and glass → Data Core | The Static, for copper |
| Fuel | Carbon → Fuel, or Ice → Water → Hydrogen and Oxygen → Fuel; fuel and circuits → Jump Charge | Home for carbon; the Static and Fade for ice |
| Fluids | Pump and Steel Plate → Tank; iron, carbon and oxygen → steel plate | The Static and Fade, for ice |
| Chemistry | Carbon and Hydrogen → Polymer; polymer with carbon → Fiber, with water → Coolant, with fiber → Composite and with steel plate → Seal; Silicate and Oxygen → Ceramic | The Static and Fade, for ice |
| Exotics | Exotics and Steel Plate → Exotic Alloy; exotics, Wire and Coolant → Superconductor; superconductors, a frame, coolant and exotics → Field Coil; alloy, Composite, Ceramic and exotics → Shielding; alloy, frames, composite and exotics → Heavy Frame | The Deadzone, and deep deposits in the Static and Fade |
| Drives | Field Coil, Control Unit, Shielding, tanks, seals and exotics → Drive Core; drive core, thrusters and a Heavy Frame → Heavy Thruster | Every tier |
| Gates | Heavy frames, field coils and shielding → Ring Segment; drive cores, control units and superconductors → Gate Core; both, with concrete → Standard Gate | Every tier |
| Fittings | containers and frames → Cargo Pod, Cargo Bay; tanks and frames → Fuel Tank, Reserve Tank; drill heads, motors and frames → Drill, Heavy Drill; steel plate and ceramic → Armour Plating; sensors, an antenna and circuits → Sensor Suite; antennas and panels → Decoy; field coils, superconductors and a control unit → Shield Generator; a heavy frame, containers and steel plate → Hangar | Home, and the Static or Fade for ceramic |
| Ammunition | steel plate and copper plate → Rounds; Iron → Slugs; steel plate and polymer → Shells; a tank, a sensor and fuel → Torpedoes | Home, the Static and the Fade |
| Weapons | motors, sensors and steel plate → Point Defence; motors, a control unit and steel plate → Battery; a heavy frame, a field coil and motors → Mass Driver; a heavy frame, a control unit and containers → Torpedo Bay, all in an Armory | Every tier |
| Station defences | a heavy frame, motors, circuits and steel plate → Defence Battery; steel plate, motors, sensors and circuits → Point Defence Array; sensors, antennas, processors and steel plate → Sensor Array; both on a Forward HQ or a Combat Station | Every tier |
| Warships | composite, thrusters and sensors → Picket; steel plate, composite, thrusters and circuits → Escort; steel plate, frames, thrusters and circuits → Raider; heavy frames, steel plate, thrusters and circuits → Warden, Bastion; heavy frames, containers, steel plate and thrusters → Fleet Carrier; composite, thrusters and steel plate → Fighter, Bomber, built as strike craft items; all at a Shipyard | Home for the Raider, the Static or Fade for composite, the Deadzone for heavy frames |
| Salvage | frames, a thruster, motors and a container → Scrapper; a heavy frame, thrusters, motors and containers → Breaker; both at a Shipyard, taking wrecks apart into Scrap | Home, and the Deadzone for the heavy frame |
| Recycling | Scrap → Iron Plate | Wherever there is scrap |