Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Willow's Guide to Pottermore Potions: Cost/Benefit Analysis

Willow's Guide to Pottermore Potions

My Pottermore username is WitchWillow140, so I take that to mean I'm a witch named Willow (how very Buffy). And this is my potion brewing guide, complete with a cost and time analysis for potion brewing. It turned out quite a bit longer than I'd originally envisioned. I don't intend anyone to read it in its entirety, but hopefully if you have questions or are experiencing some issue or other, you can find the necessary answer. If you find any mistakes, or things that have been changed, let me know.

This guide is broken into the following sections:
1. The Basics - If you've never brewed a potion, read here what it's all about.
2. The Ingredients - Where to find all the ingredients used in the 6 potions currently available.
3. General Tips - Advice that could be useful on any or all of the potions.
4. Potions Walkthrough - What you need to know to get you through the brewing of each potion.
5. Potions Cost/Benefit Analysis - OK, so which potions should you brew? I do a simple mathematical analysis to determine which potions give you the most bang for your buck--or for your time.
6. Video Tutorials - I've started doing screen captures of my potion brewing, narrating with helpful tips. If you want to see rather than just read, check these out.

Potions Cost/Benefit Analysis
Note: This guide is only current through Philosopher's Stone. Given the new ingredients available for free in the recently added chapters of Chamber of Secrets, this will need to be recalculated. 7/14/12

Not all potions are created equal. Their ingredients cost different numbers of Galleons, they take different times to brew, and now they give a different number of House Points for a successful completion. If you want to brew at least some of all the potions, for completeness' sake, that's fine. If you want to stick to the potion you find easiest, that's fine, too. But here's the math on the costs--in time and Galleons--and benefits of each potion.


All right, so we see that you can earn points the fastest (most points per hour) by making the Antidote. But it's one of the most expensive ways to earn points, second only to Herbicide. If you're worried about Galleons (there is only a finite sum you can get, at least for now), then you earn House Points at the cheapest cost when you brew the Wideye Potion (see my video guide here). On a budget, you can get over three times the House Points by brewing Wideye compared to any other potion. The others, by the numbers, just aren't worth it.

Of course, this all assumes that you always succeed on each of these potions in one try. I don't think Wideye or Awakening Potion is too hard, but it is more complicated than the Antidote to Common Poisons. Ultimately, do whatever potion you feel best about doing.


That's all for now! Phew, I kind of went on a bit...Hopefully I haven't put you to sleep--but I do have an Awakening Potion for that. I'll try to update this if things change. If you find mistakes, have questions, or have advice of your own, let me know in the comments.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

awesome!
Love,
Spiritfang16

Eleni said...

Thanks!
I found you on Pottermore. Fellow Ravenclaw :)

Anonymous said...

Yay, thank you!

Anonymous said...

Hi

Thanks 4 the info fellow Ravenclaw..

Lets just hope the Slytherins dont get hold of this page

Spirit Fang 125

Eleni said...

You're welcome :)

Haha, those Slytherins will need all the help they can get ;)

andrea b said...

I was thinking about calculating this, but figured that someone *must* have done it already!
Thanks a lot fellow Ravenclaw :)

andrea said...

Forgot to add, I'm BludgerSnidget100. I'll friend you in a moment :)

Unknown said...

As soon as I get in I'll friend you. I'm FlooCloak115.

Eleni said...

I "friended" you in Pottermore, Kathy. Whenever you get there, you should be able to find my invitation :)

Eleni said...

Oh, and Andrea--I found you :)

Elaine said...

Thanks Willow! I'm a fellow Ravenclaw as well and this guide really helped a lot! The Slytherins are ahead by a bit, but with this we should be able to catch up. Add me on Pottermore: FeatherKnight28

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the help. I would have blown up cauldrons trying to work this all out.

Phoenixmagic205

Anonymous said...

Very helpful!
Another fellow Ravenclaw: DraconisStone210

MidnightPixie99 said...

You have the best advice on the internet! Thanks - MidnightPixie99 Will try and friend you - I'm a Slytherin, but hey we can't all be Ravenclaws.

Eleni said...

MidnightPixie - Oh no, so I'm helping our rivals? ;)

My hope is that once dueling comes back, it will be the great equalizer, finally bringing Hufflepuff and Gryffindor up from behind. It's more fun when it's not just a two person race.

Glad I could help!

CloakFirebolt12844 said...

Unfortunately, slytherin still leads, and ravenclaw is still second, and gryffindor and hufflepuff still lag behind

Anonymous said...

how do you wave your wand?

Eleni said...

Your wand should be on the right side of the table, in front of the directions book (might be partially behind other ingredients, and it won't look like "your wand", just a generic wand). Click it, and let it wave itself!

I should get back into it and brew more potions for Ravenclaw! :)