Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist Of Arland

• Keep multiple saves! Failing an assignment means game over, and you only get the option to reload a save. Keep a save at the start of the assignment in case you lose track of the date.

• You can get free water from the well by the workshop. I somehow missed this and was buying the stuff.

• When making items, watch what traits are passed on to the final item. It's most important for Ingots and Cloth since the trait is what's needed when you go to make new equipment.

• You only need three or four large stars to pass an assignment, so don't sweat it if you can't max it out.

• Don't neglect your adventurer levels. There's a late-game assignment in an tough area.

• Sometimes you can buy better quality ingredients from the store. I usually don't care, but keep that in mind when you're getting scored on quality.

• You don't always have to be in town. If you're out adventuring when an assignment comes due, you'll get the next update via pigeon. I prefer to be in town for the portraits, but it's nice to know and can save you a few days of travel to and from.

• Try using harvested Uni as attack items in the first dungeon. They'll allow you to power through it, in the period before you get your second party member with his healing ability. You can even finish the area in one trip out of town, if you want.

• Explore dungeons before grinding them for items. You'll often find little branches with few/no enemies, a theme for their items, and shorter trip times, so you can hit that branch several times instead of vising a main path just once.

• Resting is a trap! Eating is a hell of a lot more efficient use of your time than sleeping, even if you figure in the cost of cooking/alchemy.