Crafting 101

Hey you guys my name is Artamas
If you don't know crafting is basically my life, i love to craft more than anything else in the game. I'm 103+3 Bonecraft, 60+1 Leathercraft, 60 Alchemy, 25smithing, 80 Cooking(Butterballslve/mule), 51 Goldsmithing (Cuteshaggykoala/mule), and 56 Clothcraft. In this post I’m going to share everything I’ve learned about crafting, i hope you appreciate it ^^ and if you need anything in-game look me up

Crafting 101

Skilling

Skilling a craft is very simple, you attempt to synthesize items above your crafting level. When you do this you will gain skill ups every so often. The higher the gap the greater the amount of skill gained. You can receive .1 - .5 skill ups until level 60. Then you can only receive .1 skill ups at a time.

There are a few different things to consider when deciding what to skill up on. 1st you need to decide what to level on, I recommend picking something around 10 levels above your cap. 2nd you need to consider how much the item costs to make, if it costs 20k to make per synth there is probably something better to skill up on. Money was always a big concern of mine. 3rd you need to see if the items are readily available, it is harder to find enough H.Q and non stackable items to level off them. However if it is the cheapest way and you have the patience to camp the Auction house then I say go for it. 4th is the direction in which you stand. You receive greater skill ups, and more breaks, if you stand in the HQ direction of the crystal you’re using(HQ directions are covered later in the post.)

Once you find a suitable item to level off of you will craft that item until you cap you skill on the item. Then you will repeat the process.

Note: Do Not For Any Reason Attempt to Skill On Desynthesis!! This will get you nowhere but broke in most cases, some of these exclude key GS & Smithing synths.

Desynthesis

Deynthesis is a form of crafting that only uses lightning crystals. It is not to be confused with normal synthesis. Desynthesis fail very often, you can be at cap and will most likely fail. Basically a Desynthesis is used to obtain the original syth. materials, if you +1 a Desynth you will get a different materials. There are no Desynthesis for cooking.

Crafting Armor/Guild Points

Every Guild has special armor that can only be obtained through guild points. To be able to join a Gildworker's Union you must be rank Novice of higher.

Guild points are obtained by trading the item of the day to an appointed Guildworker's Union Member for the guild you need the points for. This is an npc, normally wearing all the guild items, who is there to manage the trading of manufactured crafts and the exchange of guild points. The npc will give you an item to synth depending on you rank in the guild. You will have one earth day to reach the max number of points you can get. Normally it is between 1,500-6,000 points each day. I find that is normally is around 4,000 except in cooking where it rarely goes over 3,000 daily.

Here is a link to the best site for daily guild point info: http://www.ffrecipe.com/guildPattern.php?lang=en it will tell you you’re item by rank and if you click on the item the recipe for it and ect.

At any point in time you can change to a different union if you wish to. However it is important to note that after doing so all your unused Guild Points will be deleted. If you ever return to the former union you will have to begin again form 0 points.

Special Crystals - 500 for light and dark, 200 for all others
Crafter's Belt - 10,000 guild points
Key Item(required to do special synthesis) - 40,000 guild points
Crafter's Glasses/Gloves(48+ skill level) - 70,000 guild points
Crafter's Apron(68+ skill level) - 100,000 guild points
Crafter's Furnishing(88+ skill level) - 150,000 guild points

Special Crystals are used to sign items. Basic crystals are 200 Guild Points. They include: Inferno(fire), Glacier(ice), Cyclone(Wind), Terra(Earth), Plasma(Lighting), Torrent(Water). The 500 Guild point crystals are: Aurora(light, Twilight(Dark)

The belts have an enchantment 'Synth support' for whichever guild you receive them form. They have 25 counter on them.

Key Item are required for cretin special synthesis they include: Anima Synthesis, Alchemic Encirclement, Alchemic Purification, Bone Purification, Bone Encirclement, Cloth Purification, Cloth Encirclement, Noodle Kneading, Raw Fish Handling, Gold Purification, Gold Encirclement, Leather Purification, Leather Encirclement, Metal Purification, Metal Encirclement, Wood Purification, Lumberjack, Wood Encirclement.

The 70,000 guild point item give craft +1 crafting skill. Alchemy give a weapon. Leathercraft, Smithing, and Woodworking give gloves. Bonecraft, Goldsmithing, and Clothcraft give Glasses. Cooking give a Hat. Fishing gives boots.

The 100,000 guild point item gives an apron that gives +1 crafting skill.

The 150,000 guild point item is a furnishing that gives +1 craft. It also gives Moghancement: <Craft> which adds +3 to your base craft. This is by far the best item, however some people choose not to get it because they need their storage space and cant afford to 'waist the space' (Ex. Lhexh)

Days & Moon phases

Note: When dealing with HQ *vs* success, the higher the chance of HQ the lower the chance of success, and the higher the rate of success the lower the chance of HQ.

The most important part of synthing is knowing what each day and moon phase is about and how it will effect your synthing.

The Moon effects your high quality and success rates. The closer the moon is to 0%(new moon), the higher the chance of +1 and the lower the chance of success. The closer the moon is to 100%(Full Moon), the higher the chance of success, and the lower the chance of +1.

The Day of the week you synth on also effects your chance of +1. I found a Thread that has a very good explanation. Here is the link: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=24&mid=1099896875297146423&num=10

Personally i find that the Day effects the synth more than the moon, but its nice to have both configured to what you want.

Crystal Directions

There are two things about crystal directions, one direction is success and another is HQ. The only directions i am 100% sure about are wind and earth(The two major crystals in Bonecraft).

Wind: HQ-East, Sucess-SouthEast
Earth: HQ-SouthEast, Success-South
Lightning: HQ-South, Sucess-SouthWest
Water: HQ-SouthWest, Success-West
Fire: HQ-West, Sucess-NorthWest
Ice: HQ-NorthWest, Success-East
Light: HQ-North, Sucess-NorthEast
Dark: HQ-NorthEast, Success-North

All of these concepts add a whole nother level to crafting. You can configure your synth to conceder HQ, Success, and materials loss if failure. This makes synthing very complicated and fun ^^

Note: None of this is absolute, it is what i find to be most accurate in all of my crafting.

Remember nothing in crafting is absolute. I have made a +1 on a full moon and broken a V-Claw on one too, i was facing SE on waterday though.

I think that about covers it. I hope you all have fun crafting & Good Luck

>>Desynthesis

Deynthesis is a form of crafting that only uses lightning crystals. It is not to be confused with normal synthesis. Desynthesis fail very often, you can be at cap and will most likely fail. Basically a Desynthesis is used to obtain the original syth. materials, if you +1 a Desynth you will get a different materials. There are no Desynthesis for cooking.<<

Desynth uses Wind crystals aswell...

Turning fish into eggs is also argueably a desynth as well (albiet one with a good success rate), based in cooking.

Yay for taking cooking to 99 and deciding to change crafts!

Your Basic Ideas and information about crafting were very good IMO. Only thing I question is the +3 to base skill with Moghancement. I was to believe that it only gives +1. Can anyone verify this? I am just a few K away from my furniture piece. If this is true, then I could be 100 +5 +3?

To Xarchangel:
No, the max u can be is +3 +3. Moghancement gives +1 only (I think the OP was referring to the total from having Moghancement, Apron, and Gloves/Hat/Glasses).

KK thanks, that is what i though it was. Thanks for the clarification.