Why is the use the of lowest number of ingredients an optimization?
Because the ingredients you do not needlessly use can then be used for other potions. Thus helping you to make the most out of what you have collected. In short, just pick a few permanent Minerals / Organics that up protection values, follow the Magic_Number formula (count to 18), add a Small Mana Potion, and you will see that the resulting potions indeed yield the calculated results, with optimal gains! Comment: Playing all quests, plus searching all of Antaloor will let you discover many permanent Minerals. But even with the above optimizations the protection values for Fire, Cold, Lightning, and Physical (= Piercing, Slashing, Bludgeoning), will only be upped by 1000-2000 points each (this includes the Level up based defense bonuses). This sounds like a lot, but a good armor (gloves, pants, etc.) will up those values by another 5000-6000 points. So you may want to rethink using the permanent minerals in such a way. Personally, I would now use them to create Power-up crystals and enc
