UO Tinkering Skill Guide
Tinkering crafts tools, jewelry, traps, golem parts, house add-ons, and repair deeds. It supports every other crafting profession and is vital for Lockpicks, Tools, and many utility items. It also participates in the BOD system with unique rewards.
Tinkering is a crafting skill in Ultima Online, rated as Easy difficulty to train. This guide walks you through everything you need to raise Tinkering from 0 to grandmaster, including the most efficient training methods, the targets and items to use at each skill range, and the gains you can expect along the way. Whether you are building your first character or optimizing a finished template, the breakdown below will help you train Tinkering as quickly and cheaply as possible.
Below you will find an overview of what Tinkering does, a step-by-step training guide, recommended skill ranges, any bonuses Tinkering provides, and the templates that pair well with it. If you would rather skip the grind, UO King can deliver a ready-made character or the gear you need to support a Tinkering build on your shard.
Tinkering is Ultima Online's precision-crafting skill, using a set of tinker's tools to build small mechanical and household items from ingots, wood and gems. Its output is unusually varied: utensils and tools, clock and sextant assemblies, jewelry, and the trap and part pieces used by other systems. Tinkers also craft the tools that most other crafters depend on, which makes the skill a quiet backbone of the crafting economy.
Beyond everyday goods, tinkering reaches into more advanced content: gem-set magic jewelry, faction trap devices, and the mechanical golem pet, which is built with the tinker skill even though it does not appear on the standard tinker's tool menu.
Uses the standard UO formula (skill − item minimum) ÷ (100%-skill − item minimum). The 100%-success skill is usually about 30 points above an item's minimum; adjust it to match the exact item.
Craft progressively harder items. Jewelry gives good gains mid/high. Recycle failures where possible.
| Skill Range | Recommended Items |
|---|---|
| 0.0 – 30.0 | Train from Tinker NPC |
| 30.0 – 55.0 | Lockpicks, Tinker’s Tools, Shovels, Pickaxes |
| 55.0 – 80.0 | Gears, Clock Parts, Scales; then Switch to Jewelry (rings) |
| 80.0 – 100.0 | Necklaces/Earrings (gemmed), Traps, House add-ons |
| 100.0 – 120.0 | BOD crafting, Golem parts, Advanced add-ons, Repair Deeds |
0.0 – 30.0
30.0 – 55.0
55.0 – 80.0
80.0 – 100.0
100.0 – 120.0
Exceptional tinkered items gain the usual quality benefits and, where permitted, the maker's name. As with the other trades, each recipe lists whether it can be signed, keeps its material color, or needs a recipe. Useful reminders:
- Maker's Mark: exceptional items that allow it can be stamped with the crafter's name.
- Retains Color: applicable pieces keep the color of the ingots used.
- Requires Recipe: several magic-jewelry and specialty items require a learned recipe.
- Skill Required: the listed value is the minimum to attempt, not a promise of success.
- The golem, the game's original mechanical pet, uses tinkering but is not on the tool menu and is made separately.
- A tinkering talisman adds to effective skill and exceptional chance; plug its values into the calculator to see adjusted odds.
Because cheap utensils and parts start at zero skill and cost only a handful of ingots, tinkering is one of the fastest and most affordable trades to raise. The table below outlines the menu's categories and the skill span of each.
| Crafting Category | Craftable Items | Lowest Skill | Highest Skill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assemblies | 14 | 0.0 | 90.0 |
| Jewelry | 12 | 40.0 | 65.0 |
| Magic Jewelry | 11 | 75.0 | 100.0 |
| Miscellaneous | 20 | 10.0 | 90.0 |
| Parts | 9 | 0.0 | 70.0 |
| Tools | 26 | 0.0 | 75.0 |
| Traps | 8 | 30.0 | 90.0 |
| Utensils | 11 | 0.0 | 25.0 |
| Wooden Items | 21 | 0.0 | 75.0 |
These near-zero-skill items are the classic, ingot-cheap way to begin tinkering:
| Skill Req. | Item | Resources | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0 | Axle with Gears | 1 Axle 1 Gears | Assemblies |
| 0.0 | Clock | 1 Clock Frame 1 Clock Parts | Assemblies |
| 0.0 | Sextant | 1 Sextant Parts | Assemblies |
| 0.0 | Barrel Hoops | 5 Ingots | Parts |
| 0.0 | Pitchfork | 8 Ingots | Tools |
| 0.0 | Fork | 1 Ingots | Utensils |
| 0.0 | Knife | 1 Ingots | Utensils |
| 0.0 | Plate | 2 Ingots | Utensils |
| 0.0 | Spoon | 1 Ingots | Utensils |
| 0.0 | Axle | 1 Boards or Logs | Wooden Items |