Revision 13

Overview

Crafting in Of Peaks and Tides is built with as few fixed limits as the studio can manage. Rather than relying on set recipes, the system allows players to fuse nearly any combination of items and materials to produce tools, weapons, structures, and utility devices. This approach draws comparisons to the freeform crafting seen in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Fusing System

The core mechanic is item fusion. Players select two or more items from their inventory or the environment and combine them. The resulting product depends on the materials used, their properties, and the combination method.

For example, combining a rock with a stick produces a basic melee weapon. Swapping the stone for a berry produces an entirely new creation. The system rewards experimentation and allows players to discover combinations on their own.

The system is not limited to small items. Players can fuse large objects like tree trunks, metal beams, and stone slabs to build bridges, barricades, and siege equipment. The physics engine governs the resulting object's weight, durability, and behavior.

Synthesis (合成)

The system has a published name. In the playable builds shown through 2025 it is labelled 合成, the same two characters in Chinese and in Japanese, usually rendered in English as synthesis. As of 2026-09-12 no English name for the system appears on the Steam store page in either language, on the studio site, or in either English press release, so 合成 is the only label the game itself has published.

The flow in those builds was short. The player holds a base material, most often timber, and combines something picked up out of the field with it. Confirming what an item is for through Observe and then pressing a single button completes the synthesis. There is no recipe list to consult, so combinations are found by trying them.

Four combinations were named across accounts of the 2025 demo builds. They are the only crafting inputs with published names.

The two named plant items above are the Japanese-language build's terms. As of 2026-09-12 no Chinese or English names for either have been published.

Crafting Outside the Inventory

Crafting does not happen on an inventory screen. The player takes the item out of their hands into the world and crafts it there. Hands-on accounts of the 2025 builds singled this out as the detail that makes the system feel like making something rather than picking an entry off a list, and those builds shipped with no recipe reference of any kind.

The loop that results is closer to experiment than to manufacture. Every combination returns some result, so a bad guess produces a discovery rather than a wasted material, and the design leans on that to keep players trying things. It is the same principle the Physics System applies to objects: touching something is supposed to do something.

Planned Facility Synthesis

Chenchao Lin, the studio's chief technology officer, described the 2025 build as handling mainly item-to-item synthesis using materials picked up off the ground, and said the plan is for more complex synthesis carried out through built facilities. As of 2026-09-12 no facility has been named or shown, no recipe requiring one has been published, and no date is attached to the feature.

The same interview confirmed a second branch of construction aimed at creatures rather than terrain: building on top of ridable animals such as horses and elephants, so that a base travels with the player as a mobile fortress. That belongs with Base Building and Mounts and Traversal rather than with item synthesis.

Cooking

Food is a crafted output in its own right. Berries and animal meat restore health and also grant buffs, and either can be roasted by carrying it near a fire. Hands-on accounts of both 2025 builds describe cooking as the main use of gathered plants and hunted meat, and as the reason to keep a fire lit beyond its use in burning thorn barriers.

What Can Be Crafted

Building progression

Crafting follows a natural progression from simple to complex. Players start with a stone axe to fell trees, then build palisades from the timber. They can stack stones into walls and eventually raise full strongholds. Each step opens up new capabilities for Base Building and defense. Players can build shelters, villages, houses, and entire settlements over time.

Landscape-Changing Devices

A distinctive feature of the crafting system is the ability to build special devices that reshape the environment. These devices can create large pillars to serve as bridges or smash through boulders to open new paths. Dam-building tools can redirect rivers, earthmoving devices can flatten terrain for base construction, and canal systems can create irrigation for farming. These changes are persistent and interact with the Physics System and weather systems.

Siege Equipment

Players can construct large-scale siege weapons including catapults, battering rams, and mobile towers. These are used both in combat against powerful enemies and for traversal across difficult terrain. Building a siege tower during a wind calamity can launch players to otherwise unreachable areas.

Material Properties

Materials have properties like weight, flammability, conductivity, and durability that affect crafted items. These properties interact with the Physics System. A weapon made from metal conducts electricity during a thunder calamity. A wooden structure burns during a firestorm. Heavier materials produce slower but more damaging weapons.

Stone Axe to Stronghold Progression

The game's official description sketches the long arc of crafting in a single sentence: "From surviving the wilds to reviving civilization, from brittle twigs and scattered stones to roaring engines of war." The implied progression treats crafting and Base Building as one continuous loop, with the player starting bare-handed and ending with industrial-scale war machines.