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Midnight Engineering Leveling Guide 1-100

This Midnight Engineering leveling guide covers the fastest way to level Engineering from 1 to 100. Engineering works differently from most professions because your cheapest recipes come from Recycling discovery, not the trainer. I'll walk you through the early trainer crafts, when to spec into Recycling, and the best options for reaching 100. Check the shopping list before you start so you can buy the materials for the first half in one trip.

If you're looking for all Engineering recipes and knowledge sources, or want help picking a specialization, check out these guides:

Recipes & Knowledge Points Specialization Guide & Builds

Engineering Trainer Location

You can learn Midnight Engineering from Danwe in Silvermoon City.

Silvermoon City
Silvermoon City
Danwe
Danwe

Shopping List

These are the materials you need to craft each trainer recipe once.

From the Vendor

You can buy these from the Engineering supply vendor standing next to the trainer in Silvermoon City.

Leveling 1 - 45

1 - 16

You can buy an Arclight Spanner and Gyromatic Micro-Adjustor from the Engineering supply vendor near your trainer if you don't have profession tools yet.

16 - 20

Learn new recipes. Craft these to get the First Craft bonus:

20 - 25

At this point, use the First Craft Bonus filter so the recipes are easier to find.

Craft these for more First Craft bonuses:

25 - 39

  1. Pick Recycling as your first specialization. I'll explain why in a minute, but it's important to get this first.

  2. Learn all recipes from the trainer.
  3. 10x Soul Sprocket - 10x Malleable Wireframe, 50x Refulgent Copper Ore, 100x Umbral Tin Ore
  4. Craft the four Cogwheel recipes to get the first craft bonuses.

Unlock Recipe Discovery

I don't usually recommend a specific spec for leveling, but Engineering is different. The cheapest leveling recipes (all the Quel'dorei gear) come from Recycling discovery, and that system is locked by default. You need to put 10 points into the Recycling specialization before recycling will start discovering new recipes.

Don't worry about "wasting" points here. Even if you plan to go Market Mobility for profession tool crafting orders, you still need the extra crafting skill that Recycling gives you. On top of that, every discovered recipe is a First Craft bonus, so you basically earn back what you spent.

  1. Put 10 points into Recycling.
  2. Pick Resourcefulness sub-spec.

Engineering Specialization: Recycling

39 - 45

  1. 20x Recycling on the Bright Linen Bolt, Refulgent Copper Ingot, or Powder Pigment you bought.
  2. Learn new recipes from the trainer.
  3. In your Profession window, click on Filter and tick "First Craft Bonus". This will only show recipes that still give the first craft bonus.
  4. Craft each recipe that gives the first craft bonus until there is nothing left in your Profession Book.

Leveling 45 - 100

45 - 80

Use Recycling until you discover your first Quel'dorei recipe if you haven't already. This part is pretty random, so I can't tell you exactly how many times you'll need to recycle. Just keep recycling your cheapest materials until you discover a recipe with "Quel'dorei" in the name.

An example would be Quel'dorei Guards. They all cost basically the same, though some need a few more vendor materials. These are the cheapest recipes and will carry you to 80 with minimal material cost.

60x Quel'dorei Guards - 300x Pile of Junk, 60x Malleable Wireframe, 60x Evercore

This is just an example. There are many Quel'dorei recipes you can discover from Recycling.

80 - 100

Quel'dorei gear goes grey at 80, so you need something new. You have a few options here, and you can combine them depending on what materials and specs you have.

Housing Decor

This is the only path that can take you to 100 without Crafting Orders. There are 7 decor recipes that you discover through Recycling, the same system that gave you the Quel'dorei gear earlier. Each one gives a First Craft bonus, so craft every recipe at least once before repeating any. All 7 stay yellow until 92 and do not go grey until 100, but the last few points can be painfully slow, so I recommend making these until around 92-95.

Every recipe uses 5x Aetherlume, 5x Evercore, 10x Song Gear, and 10x Soul Sprocket. The only difference is the Thalassian Lumber cost. You'll need around 600-700 Lumber total, so either farm it yourself or buy it from the Auction House.

Recipe Thalassian Lumber
Small Telogrus Lamp 18
Ren'dorei Void Projector 22
Ren'dorei Crafting Framework 24
Ren'dorei Lightpost 26
Ren'dorei Warp Orb 28
Ambient Aethercharged Crystal 30
Ren'dorei Stargazer 32

Rare Profession Equipment

If you went into the Market Mobility specialization, you can craft rare profession tools and accessories. These are yellow from 80 to 90 and green from 90 to 100, so they can take you all the way. There are no time-gated materials here, so you can mass craft if you want. These usually sell well on the AH, so you can often recover a good chunk of your costs.

Recipe Materials Source
Turbo-Junker's Multitool Market Mobility: Engineering Tools
Sin'dorei Snippers Market Mobility: Tailoring Tools
Sin'dorei Clampers Market Mobility: Jewelcrafting Tools
Sin'dorei Headlamp Market Mobility: Mining Accessories
Sin'dorei Gilded Hardhat Market Mobility: Engineering Accessories
Junker's Big Ol' Bag Market Mobility: Engineering Accessories (30)
Sin'dorei Angler's Rod Market Mobility: Fishing Rods

Crafting Orders

If you want a more passive approach, you can level by completing Crafting Orders for other players.

Epic profession tools always give a guaranteed skill point, up to 100. They need Fused Vitality which is time-gated, so these come in slowly. But every craft counts, so even a few orders over time will fill in a lot of levels. The epic profession tool and accessory recipes are sold by Lyrendal in Silvermoon City for 150 Artisan Engineer's Moxie each.

The epic Aetherlume armor (goggles, bracers, boots, and guns from the Combat Analytics spec) stays yellow until 95 and green until 100. Customers provide the Sparks through their orders, so you just need the spec unlocked. If you specced into Combat Analytics, pick up any orders for these whenever you can.

Public Orders

When you open the Crafting Orders tab, make sure to hit "Search" on the Public Orders tab because they don't load automatically. Public orders are not cross-realm, so you'll only see orders from players on the same realm.

Patron Orders

Patron Orders are NPC crafting orders. They show up periodically and are player-specific, so nobody else can claim them before you. Keep an eye on these because they are basically free skill points.