UO SAGAS Wiki uosagas.com
WikiSkillsTinkering

Tinkering

Tinkering is the odds-and-ends craft that keeps every other profession running: it makes all the crafting tools, plus keys, lockpicks, clockwork (clocks and sextants), utensils, potion kegs, luck jewelry, skill-mastery items and container traps. A tinker even crafts their own tinker's tools, making the profession fully self-sufficient. See the Crafting Overview for the general crafting model.

Tools and workplace

You need tinker's tools on your person — no station, so tinkering works anywhere. Tools carry limited uses; making a fresh set costs 20 ingots at 10–60 skill, so a tinker never runs dry. Ingots come from Mining.

What you can craft

Tools for every craft (5–95 skill, mostly 20 ingots each): sewing kits, smith's hammers, saws, fletcher's tools, scribe's and mapmaker's pens, mortars and pestles, skillets, pickaxes, hatchets, skinning knives, scissors and lockpicks (45–95, 25 ingots). Tools made from colored ingots have more uses and add exceptional chance for their owner — a Valorite smith's hammer is a prized commission.

Parts and assemblies. Gears, springs, hinges and screws combine into finished mechanisms — clocks, sextants and the potion keg (75–100 skill; 1 keg + 10 bottles + 2 barrel lids + 1 barrel tap). Assembly steps themselves need no skill; the parts do.

Utensils and household items. Forks, spoons, knives, plates, goblets, pewter mugs, cleavers (0–90 skill), plus keys and key rings, candelabras (70–110), scales (80–120), globes, spyglasses, heating stands — and the lantern (100–120), which needs a learned recipe and a hefty 150 ingots.

Luck jewelry (80–120 skill). Rings, necklaces, bead necklaces and bracelets that grant Luck, one line per gem — Amber, Amethyst, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby and Diamond. Each piece takes 1 gem, 2 ingots and 1–2 clovers (2 for the Sapphire/Ruby/Diamond tiers), and every piece needs a learned recipe. See Gems for the luck values per gem.

Skill-mastery items. Tinkers craft the prisms (2 gold ingots + a mastery gem), totems (4 gold ingots + a soul) and relics (6 gold ingots + a fragment) used by the Skill Mastery system — one of each per mastery.

Prospector's tool (100–120, recipe-gated) — upgrades an ore vein to the next tier for the next dig. It carries 5 charges, or 7 when crafted at exceptional quality.

The complete list

Assemblies

Item Skill Resources
axle with gears axle with gears 0 – 0 1 × Axles, 1 × Gears
clock parts clock parts 0 – 0 1 × Axles with Gears, 1 × Springs
sextant parts sextant parts 0 – 0 1 × Axles with Gears, 1 × Hinges
clock (right) clock (right) 0 – 0 1 × Clock Frames, 1 × Clock Parts
clock (left) clock (left) 0 – 0 1 × Clock Frames, 1 × Clock Parts
sextant sextant 0 – 0 1 × Sextant Parts
potion keg potion keg 75 – 100 1 × Empty Kegs, 10 × Empty Bottles, 2 × Barrel Lids, 1 × Barrel Taps

Gathering

Item Skill Resources
Prospector's Tool Prospector's Tool 100 – 120 20 × Ingots, 1 × Mystic Crafting Material

Miscellaneous

Item Skill Resources
key ring key ring 10 – 60 5 × Ingots
iron key iron key 20 – 70 5 × Ingots
globe globe 55 – 105 10 × Ingots
spyglass spyglass 60 – 110 8 × Ingots
heating stand heating stand 60 – 110 20 × Ingots
candelabra candelabra 70 – 110 25 × Ingots
scales scales 80 – 120 12 × Ingots
Lantern Lantern 100 – 120 150 × Ingots

Parts

Item Skill Resources
barrel hoops barrel hoops -15 – 35 10 × Ingots
gears gears 5 – 55 5 × Ingots
springs springs 5 – 55 4 × Ingots
hinge hinge 5 – 55 4 × Ingots
clock parts clock parts 25 – 75 4 × Ingots
Pack of Screws Pack of Screws 30 – 80 20 × Ingots
sextant parts sextant parts 30 – 80 8 × Ingots
barrel tap barrel tap 35 – 85 4 × Ingots

Tools

Item Skill Resources
scissors scissors 5 – 55 10 × Ingots
tinker's tools tinker's tools 10 – 60 20 × Ingots
sewing kit sewing kit 10 – 70 20 × Ingots
mortar and pestle mortar and pestle 20 – 70 20 × Ingots
mapmaker's pen mapmaker's pen 25 – 75 20 × Ingots
scribe's pen scribe's pen 25 – 75 20 × Ingots
deciphering tools deciphering tools 25 – 75 20 × Ingots
defuse kit defuse kit 25 – 75 20 × Ingots
skinning knife skinning knife 25 – 75 20 × Ingots
hatchet hatchet 30 – 80 20 × Ingots
saw saw 30 – 80 20 × Ingots
skillet skillet 30 – 80 20 × Ingots
fletcher's tools fletcher's tools 35 – 85 20 × Ingots
smith's hammer smith's hammer 40 – 90 20 × Ingots
pickaxe pickaxe 40 – 90 20 × Ingots
lockpicks lockpicks 45 – 95 25 × Ingots

Traps

Item Skill Resources
dart trap dart trap 30 – 80 1 × Ingots, 1 × Crossbow Bolts
poison trap poison trap 30 – 80 1 × Ingots, 1 × Green Potions
explosion trap explosion trap 55 – 105 1 × Ingots, 1 × Purple Potions
militia gas trap militia gas trap 65 – 115 1000 × Militia Silver, 10 × Ingots, 1 × Green Potions
militia explosion trap militia explosion trap 65 – 115 1000 × Militia Silver, 10 × Ingots, 1 × Purple Potions
militia saw trap militia saw trap 65 – 115 1000 × Militia Silver, 10 × Ingots, 1 × Gears
militia spike trap militia spike trap 65 – 115 1000 × Militia Silver, 10 × Ingots, 1 × Springs
militia trap removal kit militia trap removal kit 90 – 115 500 × Militia Silver, 10 × Ingots

Utensils

Item Skill Resources
spoon (left) spoon (left) 0 – 50 4 × Ingots
spoon (right) spoon (right) 0 – 50 4 × Ingots
fork (left) fork (left) 0 – 50 4 × Ingots
fork (right) fork (right) 0 – 50 4 × Ingots
knife (left) knife (left) 0 – 50 4 × Ingots
knife (right) knife (right) 0 – 50 4 × Ingots
goblet goblet 10 – 60 4 × Ingots
pewter mug pewter mug 10 – 60 4 × Ingots
cleaver cleaver 20 – 70 10 × Ingots
butcher knife butcher knife 25 – 75 15 × Ingots
plate plate 50 – 70 5 × Ingots
food bowl food bowl 70 – 90 10 × Ingots

Container traps

A tinker can arm an unlocked, lockable chest with a trap (30–105 skill depending on type):

Trap Skill Materials
Dart trap 30 – 80 1 ingot + 1 crossbow bolt
Poison trap 30 – 80 1 ingot + 1 poison potion
Explosion trap 55 – 105 1 ingot + 1 explosion potion

Pick the trap in the menu, then target the chest. Trap strength scales with your Tinkering skill, and the trap only goes live once you lock the chest — one trap per container.

Colored metal and quality

You can tinker from the six ingot tiers (Shadow at 60 skill up to Valorite at 120), but the color only shows on certain items — utensils, keys, candelabras, scales, globes, spyglasses, lanterns, scissors, lockpicks and all crafted tools. Exceptional quality works normally (worth chasing on tools for the +25 bonus uses); note that tinkered items cannot be repaired — when a spyglass or key ring breaks, you make a new one.

Raising the cap to 120

Tinkering reaches 120 via Crafting skill scrolls. At 120 you can work Valorite ingots — the top-tier tools with 175 uses (200 if exceptional) that every serious crafter wants — and you get reliable odds on the 120-capped recipes: scales, the lantern, luck jewelry and the prospector's tool.

Training path

Skill What to craft
0 – 50 Forks, spoons and knives (4 ingots), then gears, springs and hinges
50 – 60 Tinker's tools (stock up on your own tools while training)
60 – 90 Cleavers, butcher knives, then smith's hammers and pickaxes
90 – 95 Lockpicks (always in demand)
95 – 110 Spyglasses, candelabras, heating stands
110 – 120 Scales (12 ingots, 80–120) — the standard finisher

Iron ingots are the only real cost for most of the climb — pair Tinkering with Mining or buy ingots in bulk. Tools and lockpicks sell steadily, and luck jewelry (once you find the recipes) is a genuine money-maker at the top end.

Town Quests for tinkers

Your tinkering is worth citizen points

The town Tinker posts crafting town quests for a set number of one item. They pay citizen points, town score and reward currency, and count toward Town Exports.

Switch it on first. Toggle Craft for Quest in the crafting menu. The label is greyed out until you have a quest for the highlighted item, and turns green once the toggle is on. While it is on, a qualifying craft spends your materials and counts toward the quest — you do not keep the item.

A material and a quality are only ever asked for on items that support them; when they are, the longer quests want rarer ingots and exceptional work.

Nothing is wasted if you miss the requirement: a craft that does not qualify is simply made the normal way and stays yours, it just earns no progress.