Among the missions rewards, there should be experience, dappers, and equipment such as weapons, armour and jewels. Those should be reward items specifically designed for the NPE with stats you can't obtain when crafting, and would have a name. For instance, an amp given by the Zoraï mission giver could be called frost touch.
Note: the look should be the same as the usual crafted items
A thought on the missions and the rewards, this is not how it works ingame so don't do that. Introducing a 'frost touch' amp will only make new players look for a better frost touch amp on the mainland and won't find one, wich is confusing.
A alternative would be to let the NPC's make items for homins and recieve payments in mats or dappers.
deliver 10 yubo eyes or 10 ql 20 ambers for a ql 20 generic amp
deliver 10 caprini eyes for 10 ql 30 ambers for a ql 30 generic amp
deliver 10 yelk shrooms or 10 ql 50 ambers for a ql 50 generic amp
deliver 10 goari stings or 10 ql 20 shells for a ql 20 generic slashing/piercing weapon of your choice.
deliver 10 yubo skin or 10 ql20 fiber for a ql 20 generic light vest. etc.
It is not hard to get 10 of something and trade it for a usefull item with decent stats. Imo this would be much more educational to players. Foraging, hunting for materials and crafting is a major part of atys life, so why hide that from new players ?
The best possible crafted items on the island should be superior in stats to the NPC sold gear as it is now.
