Crafting materials
Raw resources gathered from the world — ores, hides, herbs, monster parts — that feed crafting recipes. The material economy is the connective tissue between activities: combat, exploration, and gathering all produce inputs that the crafting system converts into gear, consumables, and upgrades. Designers use materials to give every activity a second reward stream and to pace progression (the recipe is known; the bottleneck is the hunt for components). Key decisions: inventory pressure (stack sizes and storage are the tedium source in many games), material tiers versus a flat pool, drop targeting (Monster Hunter's part-specific breaks let players farm deliberately rather than pray to RNG), and sink balance so late-game players still value common materials. Pitfall: too many near-identical materials turns the system into inventory homework; every material should answer 'what do I want this for?'
- Dev effort: Medium
- Timing: Real-time or turn-based
- Common in: survival, rpg