Potionomics – How to Make Super Potions

Wait, why did my potion suddenly drop in rank when I added extra Magimins? Why did it suddenly spike up when I only added a little? In this guide you’ll learn what Super Potions are and how to make them.

Guide to Make Super Potions

All credit goes to Tomodovodoo!

The Basics

A potion’s stars and tier increase solely based on the total amount of Magimins put inside, with a bonus applied only after that brew has been established. A potion’s stars aren’t determined by the ingredient’s rank, specific combinations of different types of ingredient do not (yet) provide a buff, and yet at specific values of Magimins, a potion’s rank suddenly shoots to the maximum amount of stars in their tier. What’s going on?

The specific Magimin values at which a potion shoots up to max stars in its tier is always 1 before the next star is hit.

As cheezy52 put it; “This feels like it’s almost certainly a bug – looking at the trend of where the star threshholds are, all of these are exactly 1 before where it “should” be. I suspect someone used a “<” in their if-else block where they should have had a “<=”, so when it’s right on those thresholds, the game just defaults to the last “else” in the block, which is the 5-star quality for that tier.”

Okay, it’s most likely a bug, should you really play the game this way? And to that, I say, especially in this case, that every bug is just an unintended feature. If not for examining the game and experimenting, one would just gloss over the high value, see it as a bug, and move on.

So here we are, an easily exploitable bug that instantly makes the game way too easy by giving you potions way above your rank for free. Or not?

How to Create a Super Potion

We’re making a Super Potion in a couldron with a maximum of 320 Magimins, barely enough for a low-star grand health potion without balance buffs.

The specific values for Super Potions are listed below:

  • 1->2: 9, 19, 29, 39
  • 2->3: 74, 89, 104, 114
  • 3->4: 169, 194, 214, 234
  • 4->5: 314, 344, 369, 399
  • 5->6: 504, 544, 584, 624

Once any of these targets are hit, you’ll gain the maximum stars of that potion’s tier, even though the Magimins aren’t at that high of a level in the tier.

It looks easy enough, but you’ll soon realise that actually getting these values can be trickier than it seems.

The trick to getting the most use out of Super Potions, is to get a boost from the lowest amount of Magimins to the highest stars, without disrupting the balance bonus too much so you can even get to the next tier. A full tier upgrade just by hitting a specific value, truly a secret mechanic! However, hitting these specific targets can be tricky, which will be covered in the Ingredients section.

Cauldron Selection and Magimins

One of the most important things to have, is a cauldron that’s able to barely hit the first super potion value of the next tier. For this demonstration, I’ve used an ocean cauldron which has a capacity of 8 ingredients and 320 Magimins.

This cauldron perfectly fits the criterea, and is available after the first competition. Do note that it needs to be upgraded twice to achieve a 320 Magimin capacity.

Ideally, the amount of potions should also be maximized. Every 2 ingredients, an additional potion is created. Since this cauldron can contain 8 ingredients, 4 Grand potions are created after Balance buffs. This means that cauldrons which can only contain 7 ingredients produce less, and you’ll have to have better ingredients to hit the 314 Magimin target with such cauldrons. Upgrading your cauldron is key with Super Potions, as upgraded Cauldrons usually bridge into the next tier of potions, which also happens to be the place Super Potions are most effective.

Ingredients and Combinations

I see you’ve finally arrived to truly master the craft of super potions. The best super potions are hard to create, since you’ll need top tier ingredients and generally be lucky. But you can stay ahead of the curve with a few tricks you’ll learn here.

The values of the Magimin targets are not divisible by 6. You might have noticed this already, but most ingredients, especially in early game, only grant magimins in multiples of 6. This means you need to prepare ingredients that do not divide by 6 to even create these super Potions. For strictly even-numbered super potions in early game, (2->3: 74, 3->4: 194(not possible in lower-tier cauldron), and 4->5: 314), stacking up ingredients such as these is important, in particular the ones with a single element:

  • Fairy Flower Bulb – 4A,
  • Impstoll Mushroom – 4B,
  • Rotfly Larva -4C,
  • Kappa pheromones -4A -4C,
  • Pixiedust Diamond -4B -4C
  • River Calamari -8A

In addition, the hardest to hit Magimin targets is the odd-numbered one,169.

For this, you’ll need to have odd-numbered total Magimin ingredients. Immediately fill them in Quinn’s store, they can be bought again pretty cheaply the next day, and you’ll need them if your cauldron’s maximum is just above 169.

The odd-numbered total Magimin ingredient available early on and usable are:

  • Cubic Ooze – 3A -3B -3C,
  • Bog Beet -27B
  • Hydra Vertebra -9A -9B -9C

The 2 routes I’d recommend for 169 Magimins, are:

  • 5 ingredients 169: 40+40+40+40+9 (Cubic ooze) or 60+40+18+27(Bog Beet/Hydra Vertebra)+24
  • 6 ingredients 169: 30+30+30+30+40+9 (Cubic ooze) or 30+30+40+18+27(Bog Beet/Hydra Vertebra)+24

For 314 Magimins, I’d recommend these routes:

  • 5 ingredients 314: 168+60+40+40+6
  • 6 ingredients 314: 70+64(early game luck)+60+60+30+30 or 168+40+40+30+30+6 or 168+60+30+24+24+8
  • 7 ingredients 314: 60+60+60+60+40+30+4
  • 8 ingredients 314 (extra potion): 60+60+40+40+40+40+30+4 or 60+40+40+40+40+40+27+27
  • 9 ingredients 314 (no >40): 40+40+40+40+40+40+40+30+4 or 30+30+40+40+40+40+40+27+27
  • (5->6:504).

Of course, if you want/need to add ingredients.

Cohesive Balances for Next Tier

Super potions can really only be called super potions when they jump a full tier from their original starting point. However, the this can be called the trickiest part of making one. Multiple factors influence the balance bonus of a potion.

There are 2 ways to go about balancing one, the first is to simply aim for “Balance of magimins is stable”. This gives you a chance to receive a higher tier potion, but it isn’t guaranteed.

Of course, aiming for that secured extra star and thus a tier upgrade with “Balance of magimins is very stable” is difficult enough.

Let’s take 314 with 7 ingredients, A tricky but possible creation, one without requiring extraordinary luck like the 5-ingredient creation. This superior potion can only really be created with formulas that include 3 different elements. With 2 elements, the 60 Magimin minerals and gems you could have obtained in early-game will produce too much of the other elements (>15 in a single one for 314 Magimins).

Since recipes utilizing element E are not available yet if you’re at this tier/competition, I’ll focus on the creation of the Superior Sight Enhancer. This recipe needs the following according to my sheet:

  • 7 ingredients 314: 60+60+60+60+40+30+4(Fairy Flower Bulb)

However, this recipe works great for insight enhancer, a slight modification can let it work with the possible materials we got from the new regions our adventurers could conquer. According to the ingredients sheet:

7 60 total Magimin ingredients can be acquired, and all originate from these 3 second-tier regions. Since we need to add in total 4 60 materials, and with either D or E empty, respectively E and D cannot exceed 15. So we already know this would require at least 3 thunder quartz. If we add 4 thunder quartz, whatever we do, we’ll have an excess of element A. So 3 thunder quartz, 1 Copper Dollop, add 70 of element B with 40+30, and 1 Rotfly Larva -4 producing -105A -115B -79C -15D. Damn, still not good enough.

Luckily, we also possess some Squid Vine (Ocean Coasts), this reduces the need for 4 60 Magimin ingredients to 2, but requires 2 extra 40 Magimin ingredients:

  • 7 ingredients 314: (60+10)+60+60+(60-20)+40+(30+10)+4(Fairy Flower Bulb) =
  • 7 ingredients 314: 70+60+60+40+40+40+4(Fairy Flower Bulb)
  • 1 Squid Vine, 2 Thunder Quartz, 2 Banshee’s Bloody Tongue -40B , 1 Spriggan Antler -40C (both gotten from Baptiste, always, always take Baptiste trades and put them in Quinn if they’re affordable enough), 1 Fairy Flower Bulb to produce -84A -120B -95C -15E. Within limits and gotten the “Balance of magimins is very stable”, it’s gonna be a guaranteed Superior Sight Enhancer.

Conclusion

In conclusion:

  1. You now know what Super Potions are.
  2. Can look up the table of values and exploit it to drastically increase the stars, tier, and consequently the value and potency of your potions.
  3. You know that ingredients non-divisible by 6 are very good in the early stages of the game to get to super potion Magimin values.
  4. Understand the importance of correct balancing of potions.
  5. Know how to balance a potion through trial and error
  6. How to absolutely obliterate the game with this knowledge, a true min-maxer’s mindset

A Personal Note

As a note, discovering this bug/mechanic was actually a ton of fun. People can complain however they want that things like this aren’t patched out immediately or aren’t introduced in the game. But personally, this is the kind of joy I was exactly searching for. Imagine playing a game, finding something interesting, and instead of instantly googling or saying it’s bad, you try to investigate further and find this cool mechanic. People call the game stressful, and that’s because this game has attracted 2 kinds of gamers. The casual “Romance” gamer, the one who pursues all relationships and sees potion making as a sidequest. And the “Optimizer” gamer, the gamer who tries their best to produce the best results and focuses mostly on that aspect.

For now, I believe that the Romance gamers can use this mechanic to skip most hard sections if they wish to until multiple difficulties are released. A tip to them: keep buying Baptiste’s expeditions, take on adventures a bit later to be truly profitable with them, and add ingredients to Quinn whenever you can. Guides for specific potions using Super Potions will most likely come out soon by others, so no worries I guess.

For the Optimizer gamer, this process of choosing which ingredients to use in the potion with limiting factors is pretty cool in itself. Acquiring only a specific amount of Magimins while balancing the elements as optimally as you can is such a STEM thing to do it’s insane. I’m personally a chemistry student, and this potion mixing has such a same vibe, I can’t describe it. Tiny bits of inginuity, math, and general sense to create something very specific. I truly hope a similar system to this bug in the code is made, and that until then, this isn’t “Fixed”. It doesn’t hurt gameplay and increases creativity. There are now multiple ways to ” the best product”.

I truly hope that both types of gamers can have their own space in this game. It offers so much, but due to conflicting wants and needs, both types are now suffering through balance changes.

Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 7697 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

10 Comments

  1. which cauldron overall the best? odd number ingredient but lower magimin or even number with higher magimin

    • Higher magimin is in almost all cases better, the “perfect brew” does, in fact, not have to be absolutely perfect, but can deviate with 1 or 2, which is useful to know when using higher grade ingredients which have odd numbers.

  2. Thank you for kindly documenting this for us! The patch made the process more consistent, but it was quite fun trying to find the ‘magic numbers’ 🙂

  3. Many thanks for the help either way, was lots of fun, and many headaches trying to find the proper combinations. Thank you for the guide!

  4. The fact that Cubic Ooze is rare and it struck me as particularly useless before realizing this was a thing makes me wonder if the 9 magimins being in short supply is exactly because this exists within the game. It very well may be a bug, but what would you ever use Cubic Ooze for … if not this? It doesn’t seem to have any inherent value yet it’s a rare drop you can only get 2 per day from Quinn.

  5. Very thorough guide, thanks. Thanks for the shoutout as well. When I tried super potions last night I had such a crisis of faith in this game, because, to use your words, I’d basically realised I was a Romance gamer that had been forced into an Optimizer role to even make the game work, and when my super potions allowed me to complete the objectives for day 30 on day 23, it felt like everything I had worked myself stressed for had been mere pointless overthinking. I don’t think I would hate super potions if they were an intended mechanic mentioned *somewhere*, like if it was just another potion-making playstyle to aim for, but as this secret cheatcode for instant victory, it felt like a punch in the gut.

  6. very nice writeup, I discovered this myself earlier today but decided to check the guides to see if someone beat me to it… Not only did you beat me to it you have thoroughly explained it far better than I could’ve! props to you.

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