The most obvious tools Bayek uses to murder, stab and assassinate his way across Egypt in Assassin’s Creed Origins are random loot drops. You’ll pick up bows, melee weapons and shields this way. (We wrote all about the gear you pick up and how to improve it in our Assassin’s Creed Origins gear guide.)

But there’s more to for you to manage than just Bayek’s arsenal — basically, everything that Bayek uses that you don’t pick up. This guide will walk you through the other pieces of equipment you can upgrade, what they do and what you’ll have to do to get the required crafting materials.

What you can craft

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There are six pieces of Bayek’s loadout that you don’t find in random loot drops. These are things that increase Bayek’s stats regardless of what weapon you have him using.

• Hidden blade. It’s an Assassin’s Creed game, so this isn’t really a spoiler. Bayek uses a hidden blade that’s not unlike the Assassin blade you’re used to. By upgrading it, you can increase the damage it deals, allowing you to take down tougher enemies. You can upgrade your hidden blade 10 times.
• Quiver. Your quiver holds all of the arrows for your four types of bows, no matter which bow(s) you have equipped. Upgrading your quiver means you hold more arrows of all types. You can expand your quiver five times.
• Stabilizer glove. Upgrading your stabilizer glove increases the damage you deal with ranged weapons. You can upgrade it 10 times.
• Bracer. Your bracer is the melee version of the stabilizer glove. Upgrading it increases your melee damage. You can upgrade it 10 times.
• Breastplate. Upgrading your breastplate increases your max health. (The other ways are by equipping a better shield or just by leveling up.) You can upgrade your breastplate 10 times.
• Tool pouch. Your tool pouch is your quiver for tools like sleep darts and fire bombs. Upgrading it increases the number of all tools you can carry. You can upgrade your tool pouch five times.

What you need to upgrade

In Assassin’s Creed Origins, each upgrade requires crafting materials. You can view the requirements (the recipe, if you will) by hovering over the item in your gear menu. You can also pin the requirements so they show up on your HUD to help you keep track of what you have.

There are six materials in Assassin’s Creed Origins: cedarwood, bronze, soft leather, hard leather, pelts and iron. You can see how much you have of each in your inventory.

How to find crafting materials

Finding and collecting crafting materials is something that’s a constant while you play, whether you’re actively seeking them out or not. There are just a lot of places where you’ll find them.

• Loot drops. You can find one or two of any of the crafting materials in the random loot drops either from chests or jars that you find around the world or from soldiers. This will give you a constant — but very slow — accumulation of materials.
• Dismantling gear. You can dismantle bows, melee weapons and shields from your gear menu. It’ll break down into a few pieces of crafting materials.

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• Convoys. Senu can highlight military convoys — either a wagon or a ship — that is carrying a large batch of crafting materials. You’ll have to fight your way through a few Greek soldiers to get your hands on it, though. This is the best (the only, really) way to find large quantities of cedarwood, but you can also find convoys carrying large amounts of bronze, iron and pelts.
• Hunting. Hunting won’t get you metals or wood, but you can hunt animals for soft leather, hard leather and pelts. Senu can help you find animals of each type.
• Shops. If and when you unlock the buy materials ability, you can purchase materials from the shops around the world of Assassin’s Creed Origins. Blacksmiths sell bronze, iron and cedarwood. Weavers sell soft leather, hard leather and pelts.