Lyrium Potions for Profit

Introduction
Money in Dragon Age: Origins is tight. There are quite a few very nice things available to buy, but even if you completely clear Ferelden of all enemies, collect all possible rewards, and pick up and sell all available loot, you'll still have to pick & choose. That's because the amount of money you can accumulate is almost fixed. There's no place to go for endless enemies laden with treasure, and precious few decent payoffs for jobs well done. This game was designed with the money locked up in a nearly impregnable vault, but we were left with one small loophole.

There are three crafting skills allowing for the production of 77 different items from base ingredients, and no matter how good you are at the skills, the overwhelming majority of these items do not turn a profit. No wonder we don't meet any "Trap Building Gurus" or "Master Herbalists" in our travels. Furthermore, most of the ingredients are as fixed as the money and loot is, meaning that the end products of most recipes are of limited supply. But a few ingredients are available in unlimited quantities, and a fortunate coincidence happens. The only three recipes which can possibly yield profitable items just happen to rely on ingredients in never-ending supply.

The most profitable option is the only profitable option, unless your Warden is a Dwarf Noble. Since that counts for five out of the six possible origins, we'll start there.

But really, if you want to get rich in this game, be an Aeducan.

Potent Lyrium Potions
The Potent Lyrium Potion Recipe is available at the Wonders of Thedas in Denerim for 111750. It's useless until you have a master herbalist in the party, which for most means that you're on your own for gold until Morrigan reaches level 12.

For that to happen, it's very likely that you've accumulated about 100 already, which is an ideal starting point for this money-making opportunity. Takes gold to make gold, here. For tips on accumulating money before Morrigan gets to level 12, see money.

Ideally, you've got exactly 113244, which is what's needed for the recipe and all ingredients for a full stack of 99 Potent Lyrium Potions. You're also going to need nine free slots in inventory. This is what we need for one potent lyrium potion, and the ideal places to get it. Note that Figor, who's shop is off of the Orzammar Common District, will sell you flasks for 1 if he hasn't gone off to hide under a rock. But the savings isn't worth the time wasted walking to & through Orzammar.

Buying from Bodhan Feddic, in camp, would be a fair bit faster, but his prices turn this whole thing into a money losing operation for most.

Once you've got the ingredients, open up the crafting interface with your Master Herbalist (again, usually Morrigan), and click away. No shortcut available, here, you get one potion per click.

So the total cost for the ingredients to make a single potent lyrium potion comes to 1310. It's value is 5, which means that any vendor will buy it for 125, giving us a profit of 2190. This is a rate of return of 21%.

For a stack of 99 potions, we spend 102690 on required materials, and the revenue is 12375, leaving us a profit of 216810. If we then pour all that money into ingredients, we can make 120 more potions, then more, and so on. Now if you want to take this to a big pile of coins, you're going to start to feel like there's not enough room in the backpack. On the twelfth trip, you'll break 1000 by following this example, and will be crafting 813 potions. That will require 33 slots just for the lyrium dust, plus four more empty slots for one stack each of the bartender's ingredients, plus a slot for your new potions. So do what you can to free up inventory before getting into this. There's the party chest at Soldier's Peak, if that's been done, and there's also a storage chest for your camp that can be downloaded from Bioware for free. Obviously, you can sell off all your junk, but you can also afford to sell off pretty much everything - you're going to have plenty of money to buy it back.

Why Dwarves Rule
A proper dwarf (not some lowborn casteless abomination) has an enormous advantage in this game, and it's not the 10% Spell Resist. Or the nice beards. OK, it's almost as nice as the beards.

If you start as a Dwarf Noble, and are aware of just one little mega-spoiler, you're going to be swimming in gold. In a game where the money is a fairly limited quantity, this is huge.

By selling to your very generous buddy Gorim, at the Denerim market district, you get 50% of an item's value. That's twice what any other merchant will pay you and twice what any Grey Warden of less-than-princely background gets. That alone is remarkable, but the effect it has on this little scheme is truly amazing.

Other characters are just barely able to squeak by with potent lyrium potions, because their revenue is only slightly more (21%) than their cost. For a dwarf noble, the cost is the exact same, but the revenue doubles. So now, the rate of return is 142%. A single potion profits 14690, and a stack of 99 gets us 1454310. So given the same starting point as the surfacers & brands, above (that is, just enough gold for the recipe and ingredients for 99 potions), this is how life looks as a dwarf noble after only three cycles. Keep in mind that all things won't be equal at that point! A dwarf noble could probably afford to start off with 150 potions, maybe 170, on the first trip, by selling all post-Ostagar loot to Gorim, which greatly increases the ending total.

And, it gets better! The double revenue from Gorim is good enough to make both Greater Lyrium Potions and Lyrium Potions profitable. The rate of return for each is 48% and 31%, respectively, so it's a drastic drop in profitability, but still much better than what those other Wardens can do. And Morrigan can pull this off right out of the Korcari Wilds!


 * 1) Make Potent Lyrium Potions, giving a profit of 2190 for every 99 Potent Lyrium Potion crafted. If you're a Dwarf Noble, profit leaps to 1454310!!
 * 2) *The Potent Lyrium Potion Recipe is available at the Wonders of Thedas in Denerim for 111750.
 * 3) **It's useless until someone has learned Master Herbalism, which for most means that Morrigan must reach Level 12.
 * 4) **However, a Dwarf Noble doesn't have to wait until that point. The Lyrium Potion Recipe is good for a 31% profit, and the Greater Lyrium Potion Recipe earns 48%. Both are better than Potent Lyrium Potions for other Wardens, and Lyrium Potions can be crafted as soon as you leave Lothering!
 * 5) *To the expense of the recipe, you must add the cost of materials for your first trip.
 * 6) **A single stack of 99 potions will require 1020690 in ingredients if you buy everything but the Lyrium from the Gnawed Noble Bartender
 * 7) **You should have something close to this amount by the time you're able to craft the potions, especially if you're doing Orzammar side quests.
 * 8) *It takes around 15 minutes (need someone to test & confirm) for the round-trip from the Gnawed Noble Tavern to the Circle Tower and back.
 * 9) *During this time, you can craft as many potions as you like, as long as you have the gold and room for the ingredients. To produce a stack of potions, you need four stacks of Lyrium Dust, two stacks of Concentrator Agents, two stacks of Distillation Agents, and one stack of Flasks. Given the profit-making goal, it is probably best to temporarily dump some cheap items on the merchant who will be buying your potions to make space for the ingredients you will buy from him and the potions you will produce. Lyrium dust is cheaper and takes up less room than the other ingredients, so you should start at the Tower, buy all the dust you can afford, and head to Denerim. There's a real trade-off between time spent at the end-points of the trade route and the number of trips taken.
 * 10) *Like any other potion, creating a Potent Lyrium Potion only takes 0.1 seconds, but requires a mouse-click for every single Potion.
 * 11) *For every round-trip, invested money for most Wardens goes up by 21%.
 * 12) **Assuming the first trip is for 99 potions, the proceeds will be 12375.
 * 13) **That money can go into making 120 potions, bringing the total to 150.
 * 14) **Which can be turned around for a third trip, and now we have 18125.
 * 15) *For a Dwarf Noble, rate of return is 142%.
 * 16) **Compared to the tall-folk and casteless, above, this character's money goes to 24750 after the very first trip.
 * 17) **The second trip takes it to 600.
 * 18) **And finally, if the wealthy dwarf has enough room in the backpack, the third trip brings the gold pile to 145250.
 * 19) *Sadly, no other craftable item yields any long-term profit without glitching your game. You can sell any multiple of 3 Spring Traps to Allison in Lothering for a very significant profit (Barlin sells unlimited Trap Triggers), but doing so will also earn experience which will cause companions who later join the party to be lacking in attribute points.