Alchemy Factory Cauldron Recipes — How Values, Standard and Advanced Cauldrons Work

Alchemy Factory cauldron recipes are not a fixed list — they run on value. Every item carries an internal cauldron value, and the cauldron exchanges inputs for an output whose value is close to the sum (standard) or the difference (advanced) of what you fed it. That is why the same three plants can produce wildly different results, and why the community publishes a cauldron calculator instead of a recipe book.

How Cauldron Values Work

The standard cauldron sums the values of its inputs. The worked example from the community discussion is Gentian at 400 plus Gentian Nectar at 420 plus Flax at 2, which totals roughly 822 and returns Unstable Catalyst at 746. Because value is what matters, a cheap filler item is not a waste — it is the cheapest way to top a recipe up to the threshold you want.

Standard vs Advanced Cauldron

The advanced cauldron flips the maths: it returns an item based on the difference between the two inputs. Using the same plants, Gentian Nectar at 420 minus Gentian at 400 gives roughly 20, which returns Clay at 21. Duplicate handling differs too, and that difference is the main reason to keep an advanced cauldron around.

Cauldron	Maths	Duplicate handling	Worked example
Standard	Sum of input values	Two identical items cut the value by 1/3, three by 1/2	Gentian 400 + Gentian Nectar 420 + Flax 2 ≈ 822 → Unstable Catalyst 746
Advanced	Difference between two inputs	Returns the next best item from the list	Gentian Nectar 420 − Gentian 400 ≈ 20 → Clay 21; two Gentian 400 → Malachite 421

A player in that thread sums up the practical consequence: without duplicates the advanced cauldron cannot produce anything better than its inputs, so its job is simplifying old recipes for the shop — while duplicates are the only route to an output worth more than what you put in.

Documented Cauldron Recipes

The recipes below are the ones players called out in the same discussion. They are community-verified combinations rather than an official list, so treat the exact values as to confirm against the current build.

Recipe	Output	Why it is used
Flax + Flax Fiber	Plank	Called a "vegan" route to planks
Flax + Flax	Stone	Described as better than Flax ×3
Redcurrant + Redcurrant	Iron Sand	More compact than Redcurrant + Flax + Flax Fiber
Chamomile + Chamomile	Salt	Simpler than the three-item version
Gentian + Gentian Powder	Coke	Simplest Coke recipe, but wasteful on fertilizer
Flax + Chamomile	Coal	Reported as a route to Coal for making Coke
Flax + Redcurrant	Quicklime	Named as the route for Vitality Potions
Lavender + Flax	Black Powder	The one notable find reported from the advanced cauldron

Reading Item Values

The Cauldron Calculator publishes the values so you can plan a recipe before building it. The numbers are small, which is why cheap items matter: a Small Wooden Gear at 0.33 and a Flax at 2 are the filler that makes expensive inputs land on the right output.

Item	Value	Item	Value
Small Wooden Gear	0.33	Stone	4
Copper Coin	0.68	Plant Ash	4
Logs	0.8	Sand	4.5
Plank	1	Iron Nails	5
Large Wooden Gear	1.5	Quicklime	6
Flax	2	Rotten Log	6.5
Charcoal	2	Quicklime Powder	7
Flax Fiber	2.5	Refined Sand 1	8
Limestone	3	Sage	3

The Endgame Use: Making Gold

The cauldron's most profitable documented use is generating gold rather than saving space. The community guide's endgame chain uses a cauldron to produce Pure Gold Dust from Adamant plus Resonant Catalyst plus Gold Dust, then pushes that through Crucibles into a Gold Ingot and finally a processor for gold coins — a loop it describes as turning cheap flax into gold once fertilizer efficiency is high enough.

• Keep a filler stack of Flax or Small Wooden Gears next to every cauldron.
• Use duplicates deliberately in the advanced cauldron to step up a value tier.
• Do not repeat items accidentally in the standard cauldron, or you lose a third of the output.
• Plan high-value recipes around fertilizer efficiency, because plant byproducts are the cheap value source.

Before you build a cauldron line, it is worth deciding which of the three roles it is playing, because the same device behaves differently depending on what you expect from it:

• Value ladder: use an advanced cauldron with duplicates to step an item up to a more valuable one.
• Chain shortcut: use a standard cauldron to skip a long conventional production path.
• Shop simplification: use the advanced cauldron to replace an awkward multi-step recipe with a clean two-item one.
• Endgame income: use the standard cauldron to produce Pure Gold Dust and downstream gold.

What Is Not Confirmed

The full item value list, whether every 1.0 item is covered by the calculator, and the exact advanced cauldron output table are not documented yet. The calculator's own version stamp comes from the Early Access period and the discussion thread notes values were not fully current, so verify before committing a large production line. For the input cost side, see the fertilizer guide, and for running the power behind the cauldrons, see best fuel.