From what I've discovered so far: [quote]* Sometimes you have to get a reagent from the shelf, sometimes not - is this random?[/quote] Nope, it only does this in the Brewing Guide intro quest, and only if you haven't picked up all of the ingredients first [quote]* A dozen of silly materials you need to farm to actually do this tonic nonsense * Then you gotta put stuff in here, drink there, do some other mumbojumbo to get a tonic[/quote] Yes, it's stupid - having to go through all of the 'add-taste-enhance' steps reminded me of the stupid 'Bollywood' routines you have to go through crafting food in Monster Hunter for some reason [quote]* Then these fieldwork tasks that somehow enhance somewhat and then you need to discover more tonics to unlock more of those quests[/quote] The only ones that really count are the ones in the second row - these govern the chances of material drops and tonic improvement (and if they'd have been labelled properly I'd have gone for the leftmost one first, BTW) [quote]* How do you even discover new tonics? I have 7 now - do I need to grind the heck out of the "brand new" seasonal content and hope for a lucky drop? Is it timegated? * The info thingy on the tonic table says you can discover more powerful tonics by synthesizing related tonics and a not specified item description should have more information - excuse me, but what? * Is there any info but this stuff written in a language nobody can understand?[/quote] To learn new tonics you have to ... make tonics! It's really badly described, but you essentially discover them randomly when making other tonics. Once you do, it opens up hidden submenus on the tonic recipe page so you can then see all the ones you haven't discovered yet To do this optimally - craft green recipes until the equivalent blue appears, then craft blue until the purple appears (takes about 5-10 each stage if I remember correctly). I'd also focus on the ones you're going to benefit from most that fit your build and loadout, because you can then at least get use out of them while farming When doing fieldwork tasks, select the ones you'd prefer from the first row until you can't select any more, do them and it will unlock the second row. The second row tasks are: BLOOD DRIVE - Collecting Reclaimed Vitality has a chance to reward Uncommon reagents. EXTRAORDINARY TONICS - Increased chance to synthesize higher-tier tonics in Eido's laboratory. PERFORMANCE BONUS - Completing bonus objectives in Onslaught: Salvation grants additional reagents and reputation progress. BOUNTY HARVESTER - Completed daily bounties award reagents, with a small chance of earning high-quality reagents. REVENANT RECYCLER - Dismantling Episode: Revenant weapons now rewards reagents. (Kudos to jafarykos for posting these) [url]https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/1fzpefs/tonic_upgrades_major_fieldwork_heres_what_they_do/[/url] Personally I would do Blood, Extraordinary, Bounty, Revenant and Performance in that order (although you can switch Bounty and Revenant if you're not chasing XP as well) This will give you the best chance of farming the most reagents and improve the chances of unlocking more tonics Do all that and you should get them all unlocked in no time and then you can go and find something more worthwhile to do until Act 2 starts...