In ODIN: Valhalla Rising, crafting is essential if you want to stay competitive in both PvE and PvP. Whether you’re grinding for gear upgrades or pushing for top-tier enhancements, crafting can make or break your progress. But while the game offers several shortcuts to speed things up, many of them come at a hefty price—especially when Diamonds are involved.

Here are six crafting shortcuts that might seem tempting at first but will drain your Diamonds faster than you expect. If you're trying to avoid overspending and keep your progression efficient, keep these in mind.

1. Instant Craft Completion

When you're short on time, the game offers the option to instantly finish your crafting process using Diamonds. While convenient, this feature becomes dangerously addictive—especially during event grinds. Unless you're working on a high-tier item that's time-sensitive, it’s usually better to wait it out.

2. Resource Substitution With Diamonds

Ran out of rare materials? The game lets you swap missing resources with Diamonds. It's easy to justify this when you're crafting that one final piece for a full set, but this habit can quickly spiral out of control. Farm the resources when possible, and save your Diamonds for more strategic upgrades.

3. Enhancement Protection Items

Protecting your item from breaking during enhancement is smart—but the Diamond cost for these protective items adds up fast. You can often get similar items through gameplay or events. Don’t fall into the trap of burning your Diamonds every time you enhance.

4. Speeding Up Material Gathering

Some players use Diamonds to refresh gathering nodes or buy materials from the in-game shop. It sounds harmless, but the convenience comes at a steep cost. If you’re crafting multiple items, this shortcut can turn into a Diamond black hole.

5. Crafting Event Boosts

During crafting-related events, the game may offer temporary boosts—at a Diamond cost. While these can slightly improve your success rates or reduce crafting time, their actual impact is often minimal unless you're crafting in large volumes. For most players, it's not worth the Diamond investment.

6. Daily Crafting Attempts Extension

If you’ve hit your daily crafting limit, spending Diamonds to reset the counter might seem like a good idea—especially if you're chasing limited-time content. But doing this frequently puts a serious dent in your currency reserves. It’s better to plan ahead and use your attempts wisely.

Final Thoughts

Crafting is a long game in ODIN: Valhalla Rising. While shortcuts can be helpful now and then, relying on Diamonds for convenience will burn through your resources faster than you think. Instead, focus on building up your stockpile through gameplay, events, and smart planning.

If you’re low on Diamonds but still want to optimize your progression, some players look for cheap ODIN Diamonds through community-trusted sources. Many mention that they buy ODIN Diamonds from platforms like U4GM—as long as you’re cautious and avoid sketchy offers, it’s one way to stretch your resources further.