Tinkering is a gnome-only trade skill in Everquest. Tinkering allows a gnome to make wondrous devices that usually work as intended. In order to get started as a tinkerer, the character must have a love of gadgets and purchase a toolbox that he can make the items in. (Toolboxes come in 8 and 10-slot varieties.)
To being his career as a tinkerer, a young gnome should visit Bom Knotwood. This helpful and cheery vendor can be found in the windmill in Steamfont Mountains halfway between Ak’Anon and Lesser Faydark. At Bom Knotwood's shop a character can purchase the equipment he needs to make the beginning items.
The Beginning Everquest Tinkerer
Gnomes start out with a tinkering skill of 50 and a gnome character cannot raise tinker until he reaches level 15. Tinkering can be expensive to raise, but some items such as the tinkered fishing pole, mechanical lock picks, aqua lungs and rebreathers, are marketable to other players and can be used to fund a character's later tinkering endeavors. Other items, such as the compass had greater use earlier in Everquest’s history, and became useless when the in-game compass was introduced.
Raising Tinkering
As noted earlier, a character must be level 15 and be a gnome before he can start to raise the skill. After a player meets these requirements he can start raising his tinkering skill in a serious manner. Because all gnomes start with a tinkering skill of 50, items that become trivial before that skill level are not included in the list of items to make.
What Items to Make to Raise Tinkering Faster
- Collapsible Fishing Pole to 53
- Mechanized Lock picks to 68
- Spyglass to 95
- Stalking Probes to 102
- Gem cutter to 120
- Aqualung to 148
- Rebreathers to 188
The above list comes from the guide on Allakhazam’s Magical Realm by Gromad and is several years out of date. Shadows of Luclin added tinkerer recipes that improved bonuses to trade skills and more items have been added in the expansions since the release of Shadows of Luclin. EQ Traders is a good site for the Everquest trade skiller to keep up on current information.
Tinkering to Make Money
Absor, an SOE Representative, once said to the author that trade skills are not designed to make money being sol back to a vendor. Tinkering is one of the few trade skills where the demand for many of the low level items produced remains steady. Mechanized lock picks provide a nice boost to the lock picking skills of rogues and bards, and the collapsible fishing pole helps the fisherman in Everquest. Should a tinkerer find buyers for his wares, a gnome tinkerer can make a profit.
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