Final Fantasy XIV: Crafting Guide

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But Which is FFXIV’s Best Crafter?

There isn't one that’s better than others. All Crafter options work with each other, and the ideal is to level them up equally to save equipment space, since they share sets.

When equipping a Crafting job, always note its Control, Craftsmanship and CP (Crafting Points) statuses:

With a Crafter in hand, you can start producing. First, open your crafting log, usually located in your hotbar. If you can't find it, go to menu Logs > Crafting Log. It contains the recipes you currently know and the cost of each of them

In this screen, we have a preview of what we are going to do:

● Progress: Defines how long it takes for the item to be ready. When completed, the craft ends;

● Quality: Defines the chance of the created item being HQ, aka high quality. Keep in mind that not all items have an HQ version;

● Durability: Defines how many steps the item can take before breaking. If it reaches 0, and the progress bar is incomplete, the craft will fail;

● Materials: Here you will define the materials to be used in production. HQ items offer an initial bonus to the quality bar of the final product;

● Trial Synthesis: Here you can train your craft without risking losing your items. I always recommend testing if you are unsure whether you will be able to finish;

● Quick Synthesis: Most used in mass production. With it, your character produces the item in a single step, with a chance of the item coming to HQ, based on your status;

● Craft: Here you start the craft itself;

● Condition: With each skill used, the item's condition will change randomly. These conditions offer both benefits and downsides. When you hover the mouse over it, you can see exactly what it will change in your next skill;

Yes, even the Crafters in this game have a rotation, and it is important to have a basis on how each skill works to adapt them to your equipment and level. As a rule, skills with “Touch” in the name will add quality at the cost of durability, and skills with “Synthesis” will add Progress at the cost of durability.

It’s vital that you have a good notion of ​​how much progress you make on each of the bars to balance them according to your needs. Otherwise, a failure to finish may occur, wasting your materials.

In this combo, you capitalize on using both Innovation and Great Strides for a massive quality boost. This is just an example of what you can do at the starting levels.

It all depends on which part of the main story, aka MSQ, you are in and how much you are willing to spend. The methods below are cumulative, that is, doing one does not prevent you from doing the other:

MSQ Level 30

It's around this level that you already have access to most of the base game's maps and access to the Grand Company. At your Grand Company HQ, you can deliver certain items daily, and they give you massive amounts of XP if it's a HQ item.

You can see what your Grand Company needs by accessing the menu Duty > Timers > Next Mission Allowance menu.

With the item in hand, simply go to your Company's HQ and speak to the Personnel Officer, and select the first option:

MSQ Level 50 and Post-A Realm Reborn:

Here you have access to the Ixals, a beast tribe that offers daily crafting quests in the North Shroud area. To unlock them, simply complete the side quest A Bad Bladder and its subsequent quest.

MSQ Level 60 and Heavensward complete:

From here, you have access to the best method of leveling up a crafter, which is through Ishgardian Restoration. To achieve this, complete the quest Towards the Firmament to gain access to the delivery area. Keep in mind that materials can be expensive, depending on when you start.

Collectables are slightly more advanced Craftings which you exchange for Scripts, which in turn are the equivalent of the Tomestone of Poetics for Crafters.

Collectables require you to create them with a certain quality minimum, that is, items below this minimum cannot be exchanged for Scripts. You can see this minimum when crafting the item. You can exchange these for several unique equipment and materials.

To access them, you must first have arrived in the Heavensward regions. There you will find a quest in Foundation, which will take you to Revenant’s Toll, and from there you will unlock this function:

When you reach level 19 with any Disciple of the Hand, you will be able to place Materia to have additional statuses on your equipment. To do this, simply do the quest with F'hobhas, located in Central Thanalan (X:23.5, Y:13.9).

At level 30, in Uldah Steps of Thal, you will be able to learn how to desynthesis items, which is an alternative to selling equipment that you no longer use. Also, keep in mind that to desynthesis an item, you must have the crafter who created the item be at a similar level. For example, to desynthesis a level 30 equipment made by Weaver, you must, at least, be a Level 20 Weaver.

● In your Grand Company, speaking to the Quartermaster, you can purchase a training manual with Company Seals. They offer great XP boosts for a very affordable price:

● If you need a boost in your stats to craft, you can use food and teas to do so. They offer small boosts, but it can be the difference between a normal or HQ item:

● When getting Scripts, the first thing I recommend purchasing are the Master Recipes. They contain recipes for boss weapons and, most important of all, casual clothes.

With all this information under your belts, you already have a solid foundation to start working as a crafter and not be left behind.

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Thanks for reading!