T7 just did a mission and brought me back grade 2 color crystals...and I can't find a use for them. What are they for?

They are used by Artificers to make the level 15 crystals for weapons. Those crystals are what changes the color of the beam on a lightsaber or the color of the charges fired by blasters. They also grant additional endurance or crit rating

As you level up your crew skills, you'll get higher and higher grades of materials. They start at grade 1, and go up to grade 6.

 

If you open up your crafting profession schematics window, click on a pattern, then mouse over the materials. You will see a tooltip that says what grade each material is for that pattern. Then if you take a look at your gathering or mission skills, they will usually say what grade material they return. You are getting grade 2 crystals.

But when I went to my artifice screen it said I didn't have the necessary items to make the crystals...am I missing something? Or am I just dense?

Considering it lists all the items you need, I'm inclined to say that yes, you're missing something.

 

I don't have an artificier, but I'd assume you need more than just a color crystal. Presumably also need artifacts, power crystals, or the merchant available (but cheaper through missions) item.

 

In any case, on the crafting screen, it'll show how many of what you need to make the item. And you can mouse over them for a tooltip saying exactly what grade they are.

 

The only confusion is figuring out how the grade translates to the level range on the mission skill drop down. (which really should just say the grade not the level range, since the level range generally isn't even accurate anyways. But it's a simple 1-6, top is 1, second is 2nd grade, third is 3rd grade, etc.

That's the problem. It gave me...I think 3...of each color (green, blue, red) and when I looked at the artifice screen it said I didn't have the required items to craft any. It said I needed..."green amorphous crystal" or something, I think. How do I get these green amorphous crystals? Or any other color, for that matter?

This may help explain things.

 

http://i.imgur.com/3mrlX.jpg

 

As you can see it shows what materials you need and how many you possess at the moment.

 

I've got an ample stock of everything but chrysopaz.

Yoshi,

A couple of very usefull replies already, but I will add my comments:

 

You said you have Grade 2 colour crystals so I will go with that Grade.

But, the harvested crystals must be of the same colour as the crystal recipe you are trying to complete. Eg: only green raw crystals will produce a green finished crystal.

 

If you have (for example) a recipe for Grade 2 'Green Resolution Crystal', it calls for 3 different components to craft it.

 

Two each of :

Green Igneous Crystal (the raw harvested ones)

Lost Artifact Fragment (harvested)

Fibrous Nylite Solution (purchased from a crafting supply Vendor!!!)

 

Note that the 'solutions' can always be found from missions but that is a waste of time, just buy them.

 

Back to the recipe above. Note, you must have exactly the correct ingredients, and, enough of them, otherwise you will get the comment saying that you lack the proper ingredients!

 

As others said above, just look on the right side of the crafting panel and you will see all the required ingredients AND how many you possess at the moment ( a total of your personal inventory PLUS what you have in your ships' Hold)

 

As to whether you have enough ingredients, just look to the right of the listed items and you will see numbers such as:

16/2

1/2

37/2

These numbers show for all three ingredients

what you have / what you need

 

Note the second listing shows 1/2...that means you have 1 of the item but you need 2 so you will get the message 'you lack the ingredients....' . The first and third listing above shows that you have more items in inventory than you need so you are good to go with those particular ingredients. In other words, go find at least one more of item two!

 

Again, the recipes are quite self explanatory but you must have ENOUGH of the SAME GRADE ingredients to complete the recipe.

 

Hope this helps

Cheers

Oh, so the crystals I got may be useful for crafting in the future, but not for the things I can craft now? Thanks.

That's the problem. It gave me...I think 3...of each color (green, blue, red) and when I looked at the artifice screen it said I didn't have the required items to craft any. It said I needed..."green amorphous crystal" or something, I think. How do I get these green amorphous crystals? Or any other color, for that matter?

 

It sounds like you've leveled your Archeology faster than your Artifice. At the top of the Arch mission window, there's a drop down menu, this defaults to the highest level mission you can run, but you can click it and choose the lower level missions to send your companion out for those materials (I think the Amorphous Crystals are Grade 1s). When you've leveled up Artifice enough, you can go back to the Artifice trainer and he'll teach you the next level of color crystal (and the other things you can make), and those will require the Grade 2 color crystals, so save them for when you need them.