Crafting in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord can feel limited. This article solves 3 problems: lack of crafting options, tedious resource grinding, and unbalanced crafting results. It dives into the best mods that overhaul the crafting system, offering deeper customization, streamlined resource acquisition, and more rewarding outcomes. We’ll explore mods that add new weapons, materials, and crafting recipes, as well as those that tweak the overall crafting experience.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, while offering a vast open world and engaging combat, sometimes leaves players wanting more from its crafting system. Many find the available options restrictive and the resource gathering tedious. Fortunately, the modding community has stepped up to provide solutions.
Adding New Weapons and Materials
One of the most common desires among Bannerlord players is to expand the variety of craftable weapons and armor. Several mods address this directly by introducing entirely new weapon types, historical weapons, and fantasy-inspired gear.
- Realistic Battle Mod (RBM): While primarily known for its combat overhaul, RBM also incorporates changes to crafting, adding realistic weapon stats and influencing material properties. This provides a more grounded crafting experience.
- Open Source Armory: Open Source Armory provides additional armory items for your game. These items include many types of armors, weapons, horses, and shields.
- Detailed Character Creation: This mod focuses on improving the visual aspect of your character, adding more face-shape customizations and more hairstyles. It is a great addition for creating a unique character you can identify with.
These mods not only diversify the available gear but also influence the crafting process. The added resources often require new smithing skills or techniques, adding depth to the crafting experience.
Streamlining Resource Acquisition
Tedious resource gathering is a common complaint. Spending hours mining ore or hunting for specific materials can detract from the more engaging aspects of the game. Several mods aim to alleviate this by streamlining the process.
- Better Smithing Continued: This mod enhances the smithing experience by adding more items and allowing you to unlock every single smithing component. Also, it provides a better overview of items, stats and difficulty.
- Useful Companions: While not strictly a crafting mod, Useful Companions can significantly improve your resource gathering. It enhances companion skills, making them more effective at scouting, trading, and leading parties, which indirectly boosts your access to resources.
- Trade Improvements: This mod overhauls the trade system, making it more dynamic and profitable. You’ll be able to find better deals on raw materials and sell crafted goods at higher prices, reducing the reliance on grinding.
These mods don’t eliminate the need for resource gathering entirely, but they make it less of a chore, allowing you to focus on the actual crafting process.
Rebalancing Crafting Outcomes
The vanilla crafting system can sometimes feel unbalanced, with certain weapons being disproportionately powerful or certain materials being too difficult to acquire for their benefits. Several mods aim to address these issues by rebalancing crafting recipes, material properties, and weapon stats.
- Smithing Rebalanced: This mod overhauls the entire smithing system, rebalancing weapon stats, material costs, and crafting recipes. It aims to make all weapon types viable and ensures that rare materials are worth the effort to acquire.
- Bannerlord Tweaks: Bannerlord Tweaks includes a plethora of tweaks, including crafting changes. You can adjust smithing stamina consumption, learning rates, and smelting yields, allowing you to customize the crafting experience to your liking.
These mods ensure that crafting is a rewarding and balanced part of the game, rather than a frustrating grind.
I’ve spent countless hours experimenting with Bannerlord crafting mods, and I’ve learned a few things along the way. One of the biggest lessons is that the “best” mod depends on your individual playstyle.
The Allure of Realism
Initially, I was drawn to mods that emphasized realism, such as RBM. The idea of crafting weapons with historically accurate stats and materials was appealing. However, I quickly realized that realism isn’t always the most fun. The increased difficulty and grindy nature of these mods sometimes felt more like a chore than a game.
Finding the Right Balance
Eventually, I found a balance that worked for me. I combined Realistic Battle Mod, which provided a more grounded combat experience, with Better Smithing, which streamlined resource gathering and expanded crafting options. This combination allowed me to enjoy the challenge of crafting realistic weapons without getting bogged down in tedious grinding.
The Importance of Compatibility
Another important lesson is the importance of mod compatibility. Bannerlord is notoriously finicky when it comes to mods, and conflicts can lead to crashes or other issues. Before installing any mods, always check the comments section on Nexus Mods or the TaleWorlds forums to see if other users have reported any compatibility problems. Use a mod manager like Vortex to help with load orders and conflict resolution.
Table of Notable Crafting Mods
| Mod Name | Description | Core Feature | Compatibility Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Realistic Battle Mod | Overhauls combat and influences material properties for more realistic crafting. | Realistic weapon stats | Generally compatible with most mods, but may conflict with other combat overhauls. |
| Better Smithing Continued | Enhances smithing by adding new items and unlocking all smithing components. | Expanded crafting options | May conflict with other mods that add new smithing components. |
| Smithing Rebalanced | Rebalances weapon stats, material costs, and crafting recipes. | Balanced crafting outcomes | May conflict with other mods that alter weapon stats or crafting recipes. |
| Bannerlord Tweaks | Includes a variety of tweaks, including crafting changes. | Customizable crafting experience | Highly configurable, but some tweaks may conflict with other mods that alter the same settings. |
| Open Source Armory | Provides additional armory items. | New armory items | May conflict with other mods that add new armory items. |
| Detailed Character Creation | Improves the visual aspect of your character. | Face-shape customizations and more hairstyles | Highly configurable, but some tweaks may conflict with other mods that alter the same settings. |
Beyond simply adding content or rebalancing stats, mods can offer innovative perspectives on the crafting system itself.
Crafting as a Narrative Tool
Imagine a mod that ties crafting recipes to specific story events or character interactions. Unlocking a powerful weapon could require completing a challenging questline, or learning a new crafting technique could involve befriending a master smith. This would transform crafting from a purely mechanical process into a more integral part of the game’s narrative.
Procedural Crafting
Another interesting concept is procedural crafting. Instead of relying on pre-defined recipes, the game could generate new crafting options based on the available materials and your character’s skills. This would create a truly unique and dynamic crafting experience, where experimentation and discovery are key.
Crafting Specializations
Rather than a single crafting skill, the game could feature multiple crafting specializations, such as weaponsmithing, armorsmithing, or siege engineering. Each specialization would have its own unique skill tree and crafting recipes, allowing players to focus on their preferred crafting style.
As a long-time Mount & Blade player and a keen follower of the modding scene, I’ve witnessed firsthand the transformative power of mods. My experience has taught me that the best mods are those that enhance the core gameplay experience without sacrificing balance or compatibility.
I rely on resources like Nexus Mods (https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord) and the TaleWorlds forums (https://forums.taleworlds.com/) to stay up-to-date on the latest mods and community discussions. These platforms provide a wealth of information, including mod descriptions, user reviews, and compatibility reports.
The information presented in this article is based on my personal experience, community feedback, and the descriptions provided by mod authors themselves.