Marvel Heroes Omega crafting guide: How to level up and make the best gear

Crafting can be daunting early on, but this guide will teach you how to level up your crafting NPCs so you can make the best equipment!

Crafting

In Marvel Heroes Omega, crafting is used to upgrade and create armor, gear, and other items. The crafting system unlocks after players complete the tutorial missions and the Learn Crafting System mission within Avengers Tower.

You'll craft items and perform other functions via four SHIELD agent NPCs (non-player characters). These agents appear in each Headquarters location, starting with Avengers Tower. Three of them are designated on the map by atomic symbols and one by a dollar symbol. Similarly, three can be leveled up and will offer more items at higher levels. The maximum level for crafting NPCs is 20.

While the crafting system doesn't offer much benefit to players until they reach level 60 and Superheroic difficulty, it's best to start leveling your crafting NPCs as soon as possible. That way, you'll already have access to more craftable goods when you get farther in the game.

Logistics Division Quartermaster

Of the four crafting NPCs, the Logistics Quartermaster is the only one to appear as a dollar symbol on the map. That's because he sells his wares for credits rather than materials. I recommend leveling him up before the other two NPCs.

Each item the Quartermaster sells can only be bought once per refresh. For example, if you buy a stack of Biological Samples from him, you'll have to refresh his inventory to get him to restock that particular item. This makes buying large quantities of items tricky. You can refresh his stock up to three times (buying everything you need between each refresh). After using up your refreshes, it takes 30 minutes for another one to charge up.

The Quartermaster sells the following types of items:

Research materials: Used by the Research and Development NPC.
Crafting materials: Used by the Engineer and Scientist.
Certificate of Prestige: Used to prestige a character and return them to level 1.
Modification Installation Kit: Used by the Scientist to modify artifacts. Costs 100 Odin Marks.

Before you worry about actually crafting things, you'll want to level up your crafting NPCs. To do that, make sure you buy these three items from the Quartermaster every time his supply refreshes:

Engineering Schematic Data.
Supplier Contact Information.
Technical Readouts.

Engineering Division Specialist

The Engineer serves two purposes: creating random pieces of gear and converting crafting materials into materials of greater rarity. For instance, he can make common materials into uncommon ones and uncommon materials into rare ones. Enemies and chests drop common materials much more frequently (of course), so this is very useful.

He sells:

Crafting Materials: Turn one or more materials into another material.
Artifacts: Buy SHIELD Training Manuals, Bannerteach Adrenalizers and Accelerators, and more.
Gear: Create a random accessory, lower body armor, upper body armor, utility armor, or weapon. These come in three rarities: rare (light blue), heroic (dark blue), and superheroic (purple).

Science Division Specialist

The Scientist adds useful buffs to equipment. Her services include:

Enhancements: The Scientist adds a buff to the designated item. The buff depends on the type of item selected.
Utility armor: These are major enhancements that cost 100 Odin Marks. That's a hefty cost, but one gets you multiple significant buffs. The actual values of each buff are determined randomly, so luck plays a factor as well.
Other gear: These enhancements are much more affordable, though their buffs aren't nearly as amazing. For example, one might add 20-50 melee damage or 75-150 defense to an item. The boost amount depends on item level, so level 60 items will always get the maximum boost on the enhancement description.
Artifact modifications: Grants multiple buffs to an artifact. The value of the buffs scale based on item level, with items of level 42 or higher getting the maximum buff amount.
Unbind items: Unbind an item from a character so that other characters can equip it. This requires a Matrix of Unbinding, a premium item. With the console versions not supporting trading between players at launch, the value of unbinding items is currently limited.

Research and Development Analyst

The Analyst is the only crafting NPC who doesn't level up. She converts research materials sold by the Quartermaster into Research projects (crafting boxes). These boxes give XP to the other crafting NPCs.

The three materials used by the Analyst are:

Engineering Schematic Data.
Supplier Contact Information.
Technical Readouts.

Each type of research is available in three levels:

Level 1 research costs five materials and 8,000 credits. It provides 10,000 XP to the designated NPC.
Level 2 research costs 12 materials and 20,000 credits. It bestows 25,000 XP and one or more crafting materials.
Level 3 research costs 25 materials and 40,000 credits. It gives 50,000 XP and one or more crafting materials.

How to level your crafting NPCs

There are two ways to level crafting NPCs: with research projects and by donating items. Research projects should be your primary method. The basic loop works like this:

Buy all three research materials from the Quartermaster.
Refresh and repeat until you run out of refreshes or credits.
Save up enough materials to buy the Level 3 research project for the crafting NPC you're currently focusing on. Hold onto the research materials for the other two NPCs until you max out the current NPC.
Use the research project from your inventory.
Play the game to earn more credits to fuel your crafter leveling. You can equip the Kingpin Medallion to make enemies drop credit boxes and increase your credit gain.
Repeat the process.

How to use research projects to level an NPC:

After buying a research project, press the Back/Menu button and select Inventory.
Press Right Trigger to select the Supplies tab.
Select Boxes and then use the research project. This will give you a research report and possibly crafting items.
Having opened the research project, stay in the Supplies menu and select the Misc category.
In the Misc menu, use the research report to donate the XP.

Because of the wait for Quartermaster refreshes, you might want to donate items to the crafting NPCs as well. Donating items provides them with some XP, but you don't have a chance to gain crafting materials like you would with research projects. Still, it can speed the process along to occasionally donate your unwanted loot while waiting for refreshes.

How to donate items to level an NPC:

Talk to the crafting NPC you're currently focusing on.
Use Right Bumper to select the Donate tab.
Select the category of item you wish to donate.
Either donate items individually or press Right Trigger + A to donate all items in that category.
Each item you donate will be converted to XP for that NPC.

Superheroes deserve super loot

The crafting system might sound complicated – and it is! — but all you need to master early on is that simple loop of buying research materials and research projects. Keep at it and you'll have your crafters leveled up before too long. Once you reach the endgame, you can start worrying about using the crafting system to max out your high-level gear.

Given that Marvel Heroes Omega is a Diablo-style MMO, collecting loot and becoming more powerful is half the fun. The rest comes from playing as your favorite Marvel superheroes, defeating famous supervillains, and teaming up with friends. As a fan of both Marvel superheroes and Diablo-style games, I gave the game a favorable review.

Marvel Heroes Omega is free, so give it a try! If you fall in love with it, you can always grab some DLC characters to have even more fun.