Alchemy in Oblivion Remastered looks simple on the surface, but the way the skill actually levels is one of the most misunderstood systems in the game. If you’ve ever spammed dozens of potions and wondered why your skill barely moved, you’ve already felt how punishing inefficiency can be. Understanding the underlying mechanics is what separates casual dabblers from characters who break the economy and trivialize combat.
The remaster preserves the original Oblivion progression rules, which means Alchemy does not care about potion value, ingredient rarity, or how powerful the effect feels. The game only tracks successful potion creation events, and even those are filtered through several hidden rules. Once you know what the game is actually counting, leveling Alchemy becomes predictable and extremely fast.
What Actually Grants Alchemy Experience
Alchemy experience is awarded every time you successfully create a potion or poison using a mortar and pestle. That’s it. Gold value, effect strength, duration, and number of effects do not modify experience gained per craft.
However, failed potion attempts grant zero experience. This is the first major trap players fall into. Low skill characters combining incompatible ingredients are effectively wasting time, ingredients, and inventory space with no progression payoff.
This means consistency beats power early on. One weak Restore Fatigue potion that succeeds is infinitely better than a high-risk combo that fails half the time.
Skill Thresholds and Effect Discovery
Alchemy skill directly controls how many effects you can see on an ingredient. At low levels, you only see the first effect, which massively limits viable ingredient pairings.
As your skill increases, additional effects unlock, which indirectly accelerates leveling by making more ingredient combinations valid. This creates a snowball effect where early levels feel slow, then progression ramps hard once your recipe pool expands.
The remaster keeps these breakpoints intact, so pushing past early thresholds as fast as possible is critical for long-term efficiency.
Why Potion Value Doesn’t Matter for Leveling
A common myth is that expensive potions level Alchemy faster. This is false. The XP gain per successful potion is flat.
High-value potions matter for gold generation, not skill progression. If your goal is leveling Alchemy, maximizing success rate and minimizing ingredient waste is the optimal path.
This distinction is important because chasing value too early often slows progression due to failed crafts and limited effect knowledge.
Mortar and Pestle Quality Explained
Tool quality does not increase experience per potion, but it dramatically affects success rate and effect magnitude. Better mortars reduce failed attempts and increase the chance your potion actually produces an effect.
For leveling, this means higher-quality tools indirectly boost XP per minute by reducing failures. If you’re still using a novice mortar deep into your playthrough, you’re handicapping your progression.
In Remastered, tool availability is smoother, so upgrading early is easier and more impactful than ever.
Trainer Limits and Efficient Use
Alchemy trainers follow the standard Oblivion rule of five paid skill increases per character level. These increases ignore all crafting mechanics and directly raise your skill.
The optimal strategy is to use trainers to push through low-skill dead zones where failure rates are high and ingredient compatibility is limited. Training early multiplies the effectiveness of every potion you craft afterward.
Because Alchemy scales so well with player knowledge, trained levels often outperform dozens of inefficient manual crafts.
Why Overleveling Alchemy Can Hurt Your Build
Alchemy is governed by Intelligence for attribute bonuses on level-up. Power-leveling Alchemy without managing your overall skill spread can result in inefficient stat gains.
This matters more in Oblivion than in most RPGs due to enemy level scaling. A character with high Alchemy but weak survivability can actually make the game harder.
Understanding how Alchemy progression interacts with the leveling system lets you grow powerful without accidentally inflating enemy stats beyond your combat readiness.
Choosing the Right Character Setup for Faster Alchemy Leveling (Major vs Minor, Attributes, Birthsigns)
All the mechanical optimizations in the world won’t save you if your character setup is actively fighting your goals. In Oblivion Remastered, Alchemy progression is tightly bound to your class structure, attribute growth, and early-game modifiers like Birthsigns.
If you want consistent, low-friction Alchemy leveling without wrecking your overall build, these choices matter more than potion value, ingredient rarity, or gold generation.
Major vs Minor Skill: The Single Most Important Decision
Alchemy should almost always be a Minor Skill if your goal is fast, controlled leveling. Major Skills drive character level-ups, and pushing Alchemy too hard as a Major can trigger premature level gains with poor attribute bonuses.
Keeping Alchemy as a Minor lets you spam potion crafting freely without inflating your character level. This gives you full control over when you level up and how efficiently you stack Intelligence bonuses.
There are edge cases where Alchemy as a Major works, but they require rigid discipline and careful skill tracking. For most players, Minor Skill Alchemy is simply safer, faster, and more forgiving.
Intelligence: Why Attribute Planning Beats Raw Potion Spam
Alchemy is governed by Intelligence for level-up bonuses, and this is where many players sabotage themselves. Crafting hundreds of potions without aligning other Intelligence-based skills leads to weak +2 or +3 attribute gains.
The optimal setup pairs Alchemy with other Intelligence skills like Conjuration or Mysticism, even if you barely use them. This allows you to secure consistent +5 Intelligence bonuses while leveling naturally.
Higher Intelligence doesn’t increase Alchemy XP directly, but it expands your magicka pool. That extra magicka fuels utility spells that support ingredient farming, exploration, and survival while you grind potions safely.
Race Selection and Hidden Alchemy Advantages
Races don’t dramatically alter Alchemy XP rates, but they shape how painless the grind feels. Breton and High Elf builds synergize well due to higher base magicka, making spell-assisted farming and survival easier.
Argonians and Khajiit bring utility through disease resistance and mobility, reducing downtime from negative potion effects and environmental hazards. This keeps your crafting loop uninterrupted, which matters more than raw stats.
The key takeaway is survivability and sustain. The less time you spend resting, curing diseases, or running from fights, the faster your Alchemy levels climb.
Birthsigns That Accelerate Alchemy Progression
Birthsigns don’t modify crafting directly, but they strongly influence efficiency per minute. The Mage is the safest and most universally effective option, providing a permanent magicka boost with zero downside.
The Apprentice can be powerful if you know what you’re doing, but the magic weakness increases risk while gathering ingredients in hostile zones. It’s viable, but only for players comfortable managing resistances and potion mitigation.
Avoid combat-focused Birthsigns early if Alchemy is a priority. Signs like The Warrior or The Steed don’t slow XP gain mechanically, but they offer nothing to reduce downtime or support the crafting loop.
Class Archetypes That Support Alchemy Grinding
Custom classes outperform premade ones for Alchemy-focused characters. You want control over Major Skills to prevent accidental level-ups from unrelated actions like jumping, sneaking, or blocking.
A strong template includes combat skills as Majors and Alchemy as a Minor, paired with Intelligence as a favored attribute. This setup ensures every potion crafted is pure progress without unintended scaling penalties.
Think of Alchemy as a background engine powering your build. When your character setup supports that philosophy, every ingredient you pick up becomes meaningful progress instead of wasted effort.
Ingredient Acquisition at Scale: Best Farming Routes, Vendors, and Respawn Tricks
Once your build is optimized to minimize downtime, ingredient flow becomes the real bottleneck. Alchemy XP in Oblivion Remastered is purely volume-driven, so the goal shifts from “finding rare effects” to maintaining an endless supply of cheap, stackable components. This is where route planning, vendor abuse, and respawn knowledge turn Alchemy from a grind into a production line.
High-Density Open-World Farming Routes
The single most efficient early-game route is the loop around Lake Rumare, especially the shoreline between Weye and the Imperial City Waterfront. Nirnroot, Water Hyacinth, Lady’s Smock, and Stinkhorn Pod respawn reliably and can be harvested without combat if you manage aggro correctly.
Stick to the waterline and move clockwise. You’ll minimize backtracking, avoid unnecessary enemy spawns, and keep your inventory full of two-effect ingredients that combine cleanly for consistent XP gains.
For land-based farming, the West Weald outside Skingrad is unmatched. Fly Amanita, Lavender, and Morning Glory spawn in dense clusters, and the terrain allows for fast traversal without elevation penalties.
Dungeon and Interior Respawn Exploits
If you want guaranteed resets, interior cells are your best friend. Most caves and forts reset every three in-game days, and ingredient containers inside alchemy labs respawn alongside enemy loot.
Fort Ash near the Imperial City is a standout due to its short layout and high container density. Clear it, loot all ingredients, wait three days, and repeat. It’s boring, but it’s brutally efficient.
Mage Guild halls also partially restock ingredient containers over time. Make a circuit between guilds while fast traveling, and you’ll passively refill your ingredient reserves while training or selling potions.
Vendor Cycling and Gold Recycling
Alchemy vendors restock every 48 hours, and Oblivion Remastered makes this loop smoother thanks to faster load times. Buy out every cheap ingredient regardless of effect synergy, because XP is awarded on creation, not potion value.
The Imperial City Market District is the core hub. Visit The Main Ingredient, Edgar’s Discount Spells, and the Mage Guild, then wait two days and repeat. Sell your crafted potions back to them to recoup gold and reset their inventory through bartering.
This creates a self-sustaining loop where gold becomes irrelevant after the first few cycles. As long as your Mercantile isn’t actively sabotaging prices, you’ll never run out of materials.
Ingredient Duplication Through Respawn Timing
Respawn timing is where experienced players pull ahead. If you harvest ingredients in an exterior cell, leave the area, and avoid re-entering for three full days, the entire node set resets.
This means you can chain multiple regions. Farm Lake Rumare, move to the West Weald, hit a cave or fort, then wait once in a safe interior to reset everything at once.
Never wait inside the same cell you want to reset. That mistake kills efficiency and forces unnecessary travel, which is the silent XP killer during long Alchemy grinds.
Loot Everything, Even “Bad” Ingredients
There’s no such thing as a useless ingredient when leveling Alchemy. Damage Fatigue, Burden, and Drain effects are irrelevant if your goal is raw XP per potion crafted.
Combine anything with anything as long as it shares a single effect. Two-effect potions are ideal early, but even one-effect potions push the skill forward at a reliable rate.
The mindset shift is critical. You’re not crafting potions, you’re converting ingredients into experience points as fast as the game allows.
Potion Value vs. Quantity: What the Game Really Rewards for Alchemy Experience
Once you understand ingredient flow, the next trap players fall into is chasing potion value. Oblivion Remastered does not reward you for being a master chemist early on. It rewards repetition, not refinement, and that distinction defines the fastest Alchemy leveling routes.
Alchemy XP Is Tied to Potion Creation, Not Gold Value
Every potion crafted grants Alchemy experience based primarily on whether the potion succeeds, not how much it sells for. A 5-gold Restore Fatigue potion gives XP just like a 200-gold Restore Health potion at low skill levels. The gold difference matters for Mercantile, not for Alchemy progression.
This is why spamming low-tier potions is optimal. The game checks the act of creation first, value second, and value scaling doesn’t become meaningful until much higher skill thresholds.
Why High-Value Potions Are a Late-Game Optimization
Potion value does technically influence XP, but the scaling is shallow early and mid-game. Until your Alchemy skill and relevant attributes are high, the difference in XP between a cheap potion and an expensive one is negligible compared to the time lost setting it up.
Chasing four-effect potions too early slows you down. You’ll spend more time sorting ingredients, managing inventory, and waiting on restocks instead of actually clicking “Create” and moving the XP bar.
Quantity Beats Quality for Skill Gains
From Novice to Expert, the fastest XP comes from volume. Craft the maximum number of potions possible per session, even if they’re one-effect trash brews with no combat utility.
This is where the previous ingredient-hoarding mindset pays off. You’re converting stacks into skill points, not building an endgame consumable arsenal. Speed and consistency outperform optimization every single time.
The Hidden Advantage of Low-Value Potions
Low-value potions also solve a logistics problem. Vendors will buy unlimited cheap potions without bankrupting themselves, which keeps the gold loop stable and prevents inventory clog.
High-value potions can actually slow your cycle by exceeding vendor gold pools, forcing extra waiting or travel. Cheap potions keep the loop tight, efficient, and endlessly repeatable.
When Potion Value Finally Starts to Matter
Once you hit Expert and approach Master Alchemy, potion value begins to scale XP more noticeably. At that point, four-effect potions with Fortify effects become worth crafting for both XP and profit.
But by then, you’ve already won. The early grind is where efficiency matters most, and the game clearly signals that raw output is king. Until the skill is nearly capped, quantity is the stat you should be optimizing, not value.
High-Efficiency Potion Recipes for Early, Mid, and Late Game Power-Leveling
Once you accept that quantity beats quality for most of the grind, the next optimization layer is choosing recipes that are fast to assemble, easy to restock, and consistent across vendors and wilderness nodes. You’re not hunting perfect potions here. You’re minimizing menu friction and maximizing clicks per minute.
These recipes are structured around ingredient availability, not potion value, and they scale cleanly as your Alchemy skill climbs.
Early Game (Alchemy 0–25): One-Effect Spam Recipes
At Novice Alchemy, reliability matters more than synergy. You want ingredients with a guaranteed shared first effect so every click produces a potion without RNG failures.
The gold standard early recipe is Restore Fatigue using Bread and Cheese Wedges. Every food vendor in Cyrodiil sells both in bulk, they’re cheap, weightless, and stack infinitely. You can clear an entire vendor’s inventory, brew dozens of potions instantly, sell them back, wait 24 hours, and repeat.
Another strong option is Damage Fatigue using Stinkhorn Cap and Fly Amanita. These are everywhere in forests around Chorrol and the Imperial City, respawn quickly, and pair cleanly without requiring any perk unlocks.
Don’t overthink effect usefulness. These potions exist purely to move the XP bar, and early skill gains are almost entirely action-based, not value-based.
Mid Game (Alchemy 25–50): Bulk Two-Effect Recipes
Once you unlock Journeyman Alchemy, you can see multiple effects, but you still shouldn’t chase complexity. The goal here is still speed, just with slightly better ingredient efficiency.
Restore Health becomes viable with combinations like Aloe Vera Leaves and Lady’s Smock Leaves. Both grow abundantly along roads and near water, making them ideal for fast farming loops. Even if the potion value is modest, the ingredient density keeps your output high.
For negative-effect spam, Damage Health using Harrada Root and Nightshade is extremely efficient. These are common dungeon and cave spawns, and vendors restock them frequently. The potions sell reliably without clogging vendor gold pools.
At this stage, ingredient weight starts to matter. Favor plant-based ingredients over monster parts to avoid unnecessary inventory management slowing down your crafting rhythm.
Late Game (Alchemy 50–75): Efficient Value Scaling Without Overhead
Expert Alchemy is where potion value finally begins to pull its weight, but only if you keep the ingredient pipeline clean. This is the transition point where three-effect potions become worth the effort.
A high-efficiency option here is Fortify Magicka using Flax Seeds, Redwort Flower, and Bog Beacon Asco Cap. These ingredients are farmable in predictable zones and share overlapping effects that stack value without requiring rare drops.
Another strong recipe is Fortify Fatigue using Rice, Tomato, and Cheese Wedges. This sounds mundane, but the food-based sourcing makes it shockingly efficient. You’re converting vendor trash into high-XP potions with zero combat involvement.
Even now, avoid ultra-rare ingredients. Losing time hunting Daedra Hearts or vampire dust kills your XP-per-hour, no matter how expensive the potion looks on paper.
Endgame Power-Leveling (75–100): Four-Effect XP and Gold Loops
At Master Alchemy, value scaling finally matters enough to justify complexity. This is where four-effect Fortify potions become the optimal grind, especially if you’re finishing the last 10–15 points.
Fortify Intelligence and Fortify Magicka stacks extremely well using combinations like Glow Dust, Bloodgrass, and Redwort Flower. These ingredients overlap multiple Fortify effects and create potions that spike both XP and resale value.
This is also where self-buff loops become viable. Craft Fortify Intelligence potions, drink them, then craft again. Each iteration increases potion strength, XP per craft, and gold return, creating a positive feedback loop that trivializes the final stretch.
At this point, vendor gold limits become the bottleneck, not XP gain. Rotate cities, use wait timers aggressively, and treat crafting sessions like optimized dungeon runs. You’re not role-playing anymore. You’re speedrunning a skill cap.
Using Equipment, Tools, and Fortify Alchemy Effects to Multiply Skill Gains
By the time you’re pushing Master Alchemy, raw ingredient efficiency isn’t enough on its own. This is where gear, tools, and temporary buffs turn a solid grind into a full-on XP exploit loop. If you’re not stacking bonuses here, you’re leaving skill levels on the table.
Mortar and Pestle Quality Directly Affects XP
The quality of your Mortar and Pestle is non-negotiable. Journeyman and Master tools significantly increase potion strength, which directly increases potion value, and value is what drives Alchemy XP.
Always upgrade this first before worrying about Alembics or Calcinators. A Master Mortar and Pestle alone can outperform multiple ingredient optimizations combined, especially during Fortify Intelligence loops.
Supporting Tools: Alembic, Calcinator, and Retort
While the Mortar determines the base outcome, the other tools quietly push your results further. Calcinators boost positive effects, Retorts reduce negatives, and Alembics clean up harmful side effects that would otherwise tank potion value.
You don’t need perfect versions early, but once you’re in the 75–100 range, Master-tier across the board noticeably increases XP per craft. Think of these tools as passive multipliers that smooth out RNG and keep potion values consistently high.
Fortify Alchemy Gear: Free Levels Hidden in Plain Sight
Fortify Alchemy enchantments are one of the most overlooked accelerators in Oblivion Remastered. Even small percentage boosts scale aggressively because they increase effect magnitude, not just success rate.
Stacking multiple Fortify Alchemy pieces turns mediocre ingredient combos into high-value potions. This is especially powerful when paired with self-made Fortify Intelligence potions, creating compounding returns every crafting cycle.
Fortify Intelligence Loops and Skill Scaling Abuse
Alchemy XP scales with potion value, and potion value scales with Intelligence. That’s the core mechanic you’re abusing here.
Drink a Fortify Intelligence potion, craft new potions while buffed, then repeat. Each loop increases XP gained per craft, gold value, and future buff strength, effectively compressing hours of grinding into minutes if executed cleanly.
Where to Get the Best Alchemy Gear Without RNG Pain
Guild halls, especially the Mage’s Guild, are your safest source of high-quality tools early. For enchanted gear, prioritize static loot locations and quest rewards over random dungeon farming to avoid time sinks.
If you have access to custom enchantments, Fortify Alchemy and Fortify Intelligence should always be prioritized over cosmetic bonuses. This isn’t about survivability or DPS. This is about turning every click of the “Create” button into maximum XP with zero waste.
Trainer Optimization: When, Where, and How to Use Alchemy Trainers Without Wasting Levels
Alchemy trainers are deceptively powerful in Oblivion Remastered, but only if you respect how skill training interacts with leveling. Used correctly, trainers shave hours off the grind. Used poorly, they silently cap your efficiency and cost you permanent progress.
Understand the 5-Trainer-Per-Level Rule First
Oblivion still hard-limits you to five paid training sessions per character level. Once you level up, that counter resets. If you train after hitting the level-up threshold but before sleeping, those sessions are wasted forever.
The rule is simple: never touch an Alchemy trainer unless you have already slept and locked in your level. Check your skill increases, rest, then immediately spend all five trainings before doing anything else.
Train at High Skill Levels, Not Low Ones
Alchemy XP scales brutally as the skill climbs. Early levels fly by through crafting, but 70 to 100 is a slog even with Fortify Intelligence loops.
This is where trainers shine. Save your paid training for when Alchemy hits a wall naturally, usually around 60+. Using trainers at low levels is inefficient because you’re skipping cheap XP you could earn in seconds with basic ingredients.
Who to Train With and When They Cap Out
Trainer tier matters. You cannot train past a trainer’s maximum skill threshold, and hitting that cap mid-session wastes the remaining potential.
Journeyman trainers cap at 40, Experts at 70, and Masters take you all the way to 100. For Alchemy specifically, your endgame target is the Master trainer, who should be reserved exclusively for 70+ progression.
Master Alchemy Trainer Location and Requirements
The Master Alchemy trainer is Felen Relas, located in Skingrad. He will not train you unless your Alchemy skill is already at least 70.
This is the pivot point where trainers become mandatory rather than optional. From here, each paid level replaces dozens of potion crafts, especially once ingredient costs and inventory friction start to slow your loop.
Stack Trainers with Fortify Intelligence for Maximum Value
Trainer gains are flat skill increases, but the real efficiency comes from timing. Train first, then immediately craft while under Fortify Intelligence and Fortify Alchemy buffs.
Those higher post-training skill levels increase potion success rate and value, which snowballs XP gains from every subsequent craft. You’re effectively using trainers to raise the floor so your buffs scale higher each cycle.
Optimal Training Cycle Per Level
The cleanest loop is mechanical and repeatable. Sleep to level up. Visit the trainer and buy all five Alchemy sessions. Then craft potions aggressively until you trigger the next level-up.
This keeps every training session converting into real momentum instead of being diluted by inefficient crafting or forgotten under quest distractions.
Gold Efficiency: Don’t Bleed Septims
Alchemy trainers aren’t cheap at higher tiers. The counterplay is obvious but often ignored: sell the potions you just crafted.
High-Intelligence, high-value potions easily fund all five training sessions per level, often with profit left over. If training is draining your gold, your potion value isn’t optimized yet.
What Not to Do if You Care About Max Efficiency
Never train before sleeping. Never train below 40 unless you’re roleplaying or rushing a challenge build. Never mix training with random dungeon runs or questing in the same level cycle.
Alchemy progression is strongest when isolated and controlled. Treat training like a precision tool, not a convenience button, and you’ll hit 100 Alchemy with fewer crafts, fewer ingredients, and zero wasted levels.
Advanced Optimization & Common Mistakes: Avoiding Diminishing Returns and Resource Traps
Once you’re chaining trainers, buffs, and high-value potion loops, Alchemy stops being about raw grinding and starts being about efficiency discipline. This is where most players accidentally sabotage their own progression. The mechanics don’t punish you immediately, but over multiple levels, small mistakes compound into dozens of wasted crafts and thousands of lost septims.
This section is about tightening the screws. You’re already leveling fast. Now we make sure every action converts cleanly into skill gain with zero bleed.
Diminishing Returns: When Crafting Too Much Slows You Down
Alchemy XP per potion does not scale infinitely. As your skill rises, low-value potions contribute less meaningful progress, especially if your Intelligence isn’t keeping pace.
The trap is continuing to mass-craft cheap restore effects out of habit. At higher skill tiers, you want fewer potions with higher gold value, not more potions with junk output. If your inventory is filling faster than your skill bar, you’re already in diminishing returns territory.
The fix is simple: upgrade your ingredient pool as your skill climbs. Prioritize multi-effect combinations and rarer effects that spike potion value, even if ingredient acquisition takes slightly longer.
Ingredient Hoarding vs. Smart Consumption
New players hoard ingredients like they’re endgame crafting mats. Veterans know this is backwards.
Ingredients only generate value when converted into potions. Sitting on hundreds of unused plants is a resource trap that delays XP, gold, and skill scaling. If an ingredient can be used to craft a potion that sells well under your current buffs, it should be consumed immediately.
The only ingredients worth stockpiling are those tied to high-tier effects you can’t yet reliably craft. Everything else should be fueling your current leveling cycle, not waiting for a hypothetical future breakpoint.
Overbuffing and the Illusion of Efficiency
Fortify Intelligence and Fortify Alchemy are mandatory, but stacking them recklessly can waste time. Chasing perfect buff uptime with excessive gear swaps and potion chains introduces friction that offsets the gains.
You want strong, consistent buffs, not theoretical maximums that slow your loop. If rebuffing takes longer than the XP gained from a few extra points of Intelligence, you’re losing efficiency.
The optimal mindset is repeatability. A slightly weaker buff you can maintain every cycle beats a min-maxed setup that burns minutes and breaks momentum.
Training Timing Errors That Kill Momentum
Even advanced players still mess this up. Training after crafting instead of before is the fastest way to dilute your gains.
Trainer skill points increase your base Alchemy, which directly affects potion success and value. Crafting first means you’re generating potions with a lower ceiling, effectively throwing away potential XP. Always raise the baseline before you start brewing.
Also, never split training across multiple skill-ups. Buy all five sessions in one clean block or don’t train at all that level.
Inventory Friction and UI Fatigue
Oblivion Remastered smooths some edges, but inventory management is still a silent killer. Carrying too many ingredients increases menu time, slows decision-making, and breaks your crafting rhythm.
Cull aggressively. If an ingredient doesn’t contribute to your current potion plan, sell it or store it. A lean inventory leads to faster crafts, fewer mistakes, and more consistent XP flow.
This matters more than it sounds. Over dozens of levels, UI friction becomes one of the biggest hidden drains on efficiency.
The Final Optimization Rule: Control the Loop
Alchemy rewards players who treat it like a closed system. Sleep, train, buff, craft, sell, repeat. Every deviation introduces RNG, inefficiency, or distraction.
If you’re questing mid-cycle, experimenting with random ingredients, or crafting “just because,” you’re leaking progress. Control the loop, and the skill climbs itself.
Master Alchemy in Oblivion Remastered isn’t about grinding harder. It’s about wasting nothing. When every potion, trainer session, and ingredient serves a purpose, hitting 100 Alchemy stops being a goal and starts being inevitable.