Xenoblade Chronicles Guide- Walkthrough Part 32c: Ether Gem Crafting (part 3)

The gem crafting process really begins when you’re choosing your materials.

When you look at each Crystal or Cylinder, it will show you a list of all the Qualities that that material possesses, and what degree they are.  You can use up to eight pieces of material in a single craft, but when you put in an item that pushes one Quality over 100%, then you have to stop there- you can backtrack and take materials back out, but you can’t add more once you have a Quality rated over 100%.  This is because when you craft Ether Gems, you will make one Ether Gem for each Quality over 100% at the end of the crafting, and its power will be determined by the rating of that Quality at the end of the crafting.  At the same time, you cannot start crafting without a Quality rated at 100%- because if you do, there is no certainty that you will get an Ether Gem, and you cannot craft and -not- create an Ether Gem.

After choosing your materials, you will go to the Crafting Process itself.  Here you will see a list of the Qualities from the materials currently in the Ether Forge on the left, with their percentages next to them.  To the right of that is a tall meter that fills with green- this is the Cylinder Gauge.  It starts at 1, and for each time you fill it, it will increase by 1.  This Gauge is what is filled up when you use a Gentle Flame, and it is what will let you make Cylinders.  At the end of the Crafting Process, when each Quality rated over 100% is converted into an Ether Gem, the other Qualities will then be listed, and you are allowed to choose a number of Qualities equal to the number that the Cylinder Gauge reached.  These Qualities will then be converted into Cylinders with a value equal to the percentage reached during the Crafting Process.  Because of this, it is possible to selectively craft to create high-value Cylinders, though you will find sometimes you waste some material making ‘trash’ Ether Gems in the process.  This may well be perfectly alright, though- the high-value Cylinders will give you a much larger chance of getting a higher-ranked Ether Gem.

To the right of the Cylinder Gauge you will see the Ether Forge and the two party members you selected as Shooter and Engineer.  Once the crafting process begins, they will take turns calling out to one another when it’s the other member’s turn to work the Ether Forge.  The number of turns they take is drawn from earlier in the Crafting screens where you chose your Shooter and Engineer.  You are allowed to press the A button to ‘speed up’ the Forge, also.  The closer you time your presses to when the Shooter is adjusting the Forge, the higher your chances of a stronger flame are.  If you just ‘speed up’ randomly and repeatedly, you will often get Gentle Flame and the overall Flame selection will be more randomized.  This lets you choose between adding large numbers to individual Qualities to seek a higher-powered Ether Gem, or improving all Qualities and inflating your Cylinder Gauge to create better raw materials.

It’s also worth noting that when you achieve a Strong Flame, it’s more likely to affect a Quality that has a higher percentage rating, which further improves your ability to make a single high-Quality gem when you choose to.