Crafting Thread

[Yeargdribble]

Del Murder was asking for some Clothcrafting advice so I thought I'd help him out... however, it was getting lenghty and I thought I might as well make a full thread out of it and perhaps more people could benefit from it later. It will be a work in progress and I'll keep adding to it as well as adding other crafting guides from personal experience for sub crafts and such.

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If you're new to crafting just learn to watch the market. Always check for NPCs that sell at a better prices than the AH. Check your guild... if you are lucky RMT won't be camping the item you need and you can get some super cheap.

Here's probably a good way to get started though.

0 -> 3 Grass Thread (Lightning > 2xMoko Grass)

Several NPCs sell Moko Grass so try to get it there. Hold onto what you make.

3 -> 4 Grass Cloth (Earth > 3xGrass Thread)

You can start this recipe early, but I wouldn't suggest it. You'll actually need quite a bit of Cloth soon so go ahead and make as much of that Thread into Cloth as you can (even after you cap).

4 -> 8 Cape (Earth > Grass Thread, 2xGrass Cloth)

These are a pretty bad loss. Depending if you have a lot of mule space and patience you can either NPC them or sell them over a month or so. Save one for your test, which you can do anywhere between 8-10. I'd suggest waiting until you're closer to the cap. Especially at higher levels it seems that once you're the next crafting rank your skill ups start coming slower.

8 -> 11 Hachimaki (Wind > 2xGrass Cloth)

These suck and are a rough loss. If you feel like it you can take them to the cap at 11, but the next recipe is almost worth starting early since you can buy ingredients from an NPC. Don't forget to do your test.

10 -> 19 Linen Thread (Lightning > 2xFlax Flower)

These don't suck too bad. Get Flax Flowers from the NPC. Save the Threads for the next recipe and make sure to do your next test before moving on.

19 -> 22 Linen Cloth (Earth > 3xLinen Thread)

If you want to hold onto your cloth for a much much later, optional recipe you can. However, sell it if you feel like it and need some gil back.

22 -> 29 Kaginawa (Earth > Grass Thread, Manticore Hair, Bronze Ingot) *SMITHING SUB REQUIRED*

These sell really well. These are generally profit to make. There are some other options in this range that don't require Smithing, but these are so good that they are absolutely worth leveling Smithing.

29 -> 34 Shinobi-Tabi (Earth > Saruta Cotton, Grass Thread, 2xCotton Cloth)

This is another potential profit depending on your server. Try to get the Saruta Cotton at the vendor when possible. You may want to stop this recipe early for the sake of materials for following synths or you may want to skip it period for the same reason.

29 -> 35 Wool Thread (Lightning > 2xSheep Wool)

Hold onto this for maing the Cloth. If you skipped Shinobi-Tabi, you may feel like you can stop this early and feel that you have enough thread for the cloths. You almost never will in any set like this so I'd suggest getting very close to the cap.

35 -> 37 Wool Cloth (Earth > 3xWool Thread)

Once you're finally done with this you should be able to sell left over cloth and thread unless you want to save some for future potential synths. I find it dangerous to hold onto materials in that way because the economy can sometimes shift and devalue materials you have sitting around. It's a gamble.

37 -> 42 Bird Flecthings (Wind > 2xBird Feather)

This can cost quite a bit, and farming bird feathers is a pain. Because of the state of RNG, fletchings and arrows are worth very little. I'd still suggest sticking these on the AH in Sandy (on a mule if possible). They will eventually sell to people leveling up Woodworking.

42 -> 52 Insect Fletchings (Wind > 2xInsect Wing)

This is very long stretch, but it's cheaper than the alternatives. Insect Wings are usually pretty cheap. If you can DO NOT buy them in Windy. You can stock up on them for extra cheap in other cities, but you'll need to synth at least the first several levels in Windy with HQ support. Go alllll the way to the cap because you're about to start burning money.

52 -> 53 Silk Cloth (Earth > 3xSilk Thread)

It's a tiny bridge, but I'd suggest doing it anyway.

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There are a lot of ways to go from here and they all suck a lot. Some people like to make Green Ribbons, which are a loss. However, with the economy being bottomed out so badly, they might not be so bad. They NPC for 1kish. You will lose a LOT of gil doing Green Ribbons. I personally did this during a time when Karakul Cloth was pretty hot. I would buy Karakul Wool and turn it into Karakul Thread until 55 and then turn my Threads into Karakul Cloth. This was break even when I did it... but I needed about 3M investment capital to keep it going at the time.

Cap @ 55 Karakul Thread (Lightning > 2xKarakul Wool)

Cap @ 57 Karakul Cloth (Earth > 3xKarakul Thread)

Cap @ 62 Green Ribbon (Wind > Silk Cloth)

If Karakul parts don't sound good to you, you can take Green Ribbons to 62 though you may want to stop earlier than that for the next recipe.

Cap @ 63 Hunter's Cotton (Earth > 3xCotton Thread, Carapace Powder, Distilled Water)

I'd suggest leveling Bone at this point. You'll hit a spot where Carapace Powder is nice for leveling up. Making your own Carapace Powder is almost always better than buying it. Hunter's Cotton is all but useless. It's for upgrading AF to AF+1. However, very few RNGs do this. You can keep this on a mule and try to sell it over the next 3 years or you can NPC it.

You can weight you options as to whether you want to take this to the cap or start the next synth.

62 -> 72 Black Chocobo Fletchings (Wind > Black Chocobo Feather)

This is a recipe best done when the economy is inflated. Right now, it could be pretty nasty. You an buy the feathers at the chocobo stables of whatever nation is in 1st. They are not cheap. Except to spend 1M+ to get to 72. For the same reason as all other fletchings... these are crap and a big loss to sell on the AH. They don't NPC that great either. It's up to you.

Cap @ 78 Rainbow Thread (Lightning > 2xSpider Web)

Get HQ support all the time. It's not worth losing your materials. You should be looking ahead to puk fletchings. You may only want to take this up to 75 or so and then start making Cloth. This can be a very large investment as you'll need to hold onto the threads rather than selling them (which would be around break even). Whenever you decide to stop, move on to making the Cloth from them for a return in your investment.

Cap @ 80 Rainbow Cloth (Earth > 3xRainbow Thread)

At this point I'm only telling you what I'm planning, so I can't give any first hand experience. However, these will sell well. It's generally far better to stick them on a mule and sell them out slowly in singles for maximum return of your investment.

Cap @ 82 Puk Fletchings (Wind > 2xPuk Wing)

This recipe is pretty cheap. As a result of constant meriting going on in ToAU areas, these are pretty easy to come by. If you merit a lot, go hang out with your PT and ask them for all of their Wings. They aren't worth much, so most PTs will be happy to hand them over.

Cap @ 88 Wamoura Silk (Lightning > 2xWamoura Cocoon)

These are currently dirt cheap (by comparison to other cloth things). Doing this will probably be cheaper than Rainbow Thread/Cloth. Hold onto your Threads.

Cap @ 90 Wamoura Cloth (Earth > 3xWamoura Silk)

Can't say much... I'm not there.

[Yeargdribble]

Smithing

If you want to try mining it may help you out. Gusgen is a good place for the first 20 levels.

0 -> 2 Bronze Ingot (Fire > 3xCopper Ore, Tin Ore)

Buy the ores at the guild and hold onto the results.

2 -> 4 Bronze Sheet (Fire > Bronze Ingot)

It sucks turning perfectly good ingots into crappy sheets. Hold onto these as well.

4 -> 10 Bronze Scales (Wind > Bronze Sheet)

If you run out of Sheets, it might be worth checking to see if it would be cheaper to make Ingot -> Sheet instead of just buying Sheets from the AH.

10 -> 15 Tin Ingot (Fire > 4xTin Ore)

Buy the Ores at the guild

15 -> 20 Iron Ingot (Fire > 4xIron Ingot)

Hard to buy at the guild most of the time. Cheapest if mined, but you can find them on the AH as well.

20 -> 22 Iron Sheet (Fire > Iron Ingot)

Another shame.

22 -> 26 Iron Scales (Wind > Iron Sheet)

Horrible loss.

26 -> 30 Iron Chain (Earth > 2xIron Ingot)

Depending on the market these can be break-even or profit.

[Del Murder]

Awesome, that's exactly what I needed. This should keep me busy.

Is there way to put synthesis on a macro?

[Markus. D]

My main LS wont let me take up Smithing because they think it is overrated.

same with Goldsmithing.

soooo, I will either do Cooking or Cooking :)

[Del Murder]

Why do you have to do what they say?

[Yeargdribble]

Sorry, can't macro crafting.

As for Smithing. I think Smithing is actually the most UNDER-rated craft. It's pretty spectacular and usually there aren't a lot of level 100 Smiths on a server. However, level 100 cooks are a dime a dozen. I might take Cooking to 100 on a mule, but I don't think it's worth being a main craft really.

Also, consumables are absolutely destroyed by RMT. Do a /sea all Hollyboyboyboy. There's one on most servers that does nothing but sit around and make sushi all day out of the catchs of RMT fishermen. As a result, they can cripple the sushi market completely.

I'll try to keep updating these at least to 60 (since I'm cloth main I might edit that one beyond 60). Most of these will be based on my own experience. Always keep in mind that guides are just that. They aren't the only path. Depending on the market it might be in your best interest to look around.

[Markus. D]

Why do you have to do what they say?

because Kishimoto is ftw?

I only really want to take up Cooking, Alchemy or Leathercraft. :)

[Del Murder]

Sorry, can't macro crafting.
Also, consumables are absolutely destroyed by RMT. Do a /sea all Hollyboyboyboy. There's one on most servers that does nothing but sit around and make sushi all day out of the catchs of RMT fishermen. As a result, they can cripple the sushi market completely.

That same goes for woodworking. Almost all the ninja tools are monopolized by RMT on my server.

[Lionx]

There has been a recent if not yesterday..mass banning. So crafting of consumables might be better off soon. On that note i used Yagudo Fletchings at some point instead of Linen Cloth because feathers are extremely easy to get, AND you can lvl a 1-10 job off yagudos easily with getting the crystal. It isnt as safe as it is before but i definetly used Yagudo Fletchings and i think it would be safe still to use.

Instead of Kaginawa, i did that fishing lure...i forget i think it was fly Lure, all you need is lvl 4 bonecrafting, and then it lvls up along with cloth craft as you make them. NPC it or Sandorian Sell....but i aint sure about it now. Back in the days thats what i did. Then do Shinobi Tabi til 33. Afterwards i spammed bird fletchings...then 42-ish i think spammed Insect until you do silk..in which after a while you can subsititute for Hunter's Cotton these days.

[Yeargdribble]

I hear of a lot of people doint Fly Lures that don't have Smithing. I just remember being surprised after making Kaginawa because it was such a huge profit. It's still a good money maker now on my server. If you can get your Cloth and Smithing to a decent tier to HQ and actually farm the Manticore Hairs then you'll be rolling in gil. But even buying them is still profit for me by quite a bit.

[Lionx]

no clue,i have heard however that on most servers, its only a profit if you successfully make one one skilling up, if you fail you lose however....maybe it breaks even but i just prefer a more consistant skill up.

[Citizen Bleys]

92 clothcraft here.

I make a whack of money off of shinobi-tabi.

Earth + 2x Cotton Cloth + Grass Thread + Silk Thread

I HQ the snot out of them, but they're a profit synth even without HQ on Alexander at the moment.

they cap at 34.

[dodhungry]

this is an awsome guide. For smithing I would have never thought to start crafting those bronze scales before lvl 8. As a result of this guide my smithing went up 3 points in less than 30mins :D

[Yeargdribble]

At low levels larger spreads are easy. I find that 6 level spreads are a joke almost anywhere. An 8 level spread isn't too difficult. I've done two 11 level spreads (in higher levels, which made them horribly painful). I would suggest doing a 10+ level spread unless you really really know what you are in for. If you are gonna do a large spread be prepared to get HQ support.

[Del Murder]

I just got level 42 in Clothcraft today. 0 to 42 in less than a week. Not bad! Here's how I did it. Up to 22 I followed Yearg's guide.

22-->23 Yagudo Fletchings (Wind, Yagudo Feather x2)
I couldn't resist getting a cheap level with these feathers since you can buy them from the guild for almost nothing. The Fletchings sold for a small sum, too.

23-->27 Heko Obi (Earth, Cotton Cloth x2, Grass Thread)
These were at a loss but the materials aren't that expensive if you buy them all in one day at the guild when prices are low. The good part about this is that you can still get a skill up on a break, and actually breaks are more economic since the materials cost a lot more than the result is worth. When I did get a success I just desynthed them to try to get some more skill up and also material back. The loss wasn't huge, though.

27-->30 Fly Lure *Requires Bonecraft 8* (Earth, Animal Glue, Bat Fang, Chocobo Feather)
For me, levelling Bonecraft to 8 was much easier than doing Smithing to 19. The guilds are both located in the same country for one. Also the price of Manticore Hair made Kaginawa not very economical. The only thing you need to worry about here is the price of glue, since fangs are pretty cheap on AH and feathers can be bought from various NPCs. I was able to make a profit from these, and am still selling them on another character.

30-->34 Shinobi-tabi (Earth, Cotton Cloth x2, Grass Thread, Saruta Cotton)
This is the good stuff here. I was able to make a nice profit on these. Make sure you watch the price of cotton, as it can get expensive, but if you need gil for the later levels this could be a good money maker. I got the cloth and thread at the guild, but cotton I had to buy at the AH.

34-->35 Wool Thread (Lightning, Sheep Wool x2)
I only got one level of this, but I made a lot of Wool Thread because I used it in the next recipe and buying the Sheep Wool and synthing was much much cheaper. Check prices and see if you can make a profit on this. I bought my wool from the guild.

35-->37 Wool Cloth (Earth, Wool Thread x3)
Basically I turned all my Thread into Cloth to gain these levels. Stacks of Cloth don't sell as often, but individually they sell for nice profit if you have the patience for that.

37-->42 Bird Fletchings (Wind, Bird Feather x2)
There's no profit to be made here, but recipes in this range are kind of lacking. At least Feathers are cheap and the Fletching stacks at 99 so you don't have to keep unloading your inventory. An acceptable loss for me, since I've still got plenty of Shinobi-tabi to sell.

So now I'm at 42 and kind of stuck. I might do Velvet Cloth to 45 and then Silk Thread to 51, or just go right to Silk Thread. Everyone needs silk. The problem is those damn cocoons don't stack.

[Citizen Bleys]

Make Velvet Cloth. You'll use a sod of a lot of it later.

Same with silk threads. A LOT of high-level skillup / CP item synths require silk (both threads & cloth) and velvet cloths. There is no such thing as enough.

Linen's another one that's a pain to get when you need it...both the threads and the cloths. If you have any left over, hoard it.

[Yeargdribble]

I think I did a 10 level spread on insect fletchings there. It may be a rought 10 level spread, but insect wings are hella cheap. I didn't expect you to move so quickly. I'll update my cloth guide soon.

While you can do Velvet and you may use it a lot later, keep in mind that for guild items (on my server at least) it's almost always cheaper to buy the items off of the AH or at the Tenshodo Guild than to try to make them yourself. Last time I actually needed any Velvet to make something I bought a stack and used what I needed. I've still got 10 Velvet Cloths sitting on a mule because I haven't found much use for them.

[Citizen Bleys]

and just hateful synths, like making rainbow thread ><

God I hated that.

[Yeargdribble]

I'm working on Rainbow Thread at the moment and I despise it. Planning to quit early and move to Cloth though so I can aim at Puk Fletchings.

[Del Murder]

48 now and working on Insect Fletchings to 52. What do you recommend after 52?

[Yeargdribble]

I editted it yesterday. I'd say do at least one level of Silk Cloth.

After that, check the market on your server. It may be break-even to do Karakul stuff, which is what I did. Either way, I think it will probably be far less loss than Green Ribbons. There are a few recipes I didn't mention like Field Hose in there as well as you near 60.

[Citizen Bleys]

I agree with Yearg's initial post -- silk cloth for one level. You'll use what you produce.

EDIT: Accursed concurrent posting. I hate being a me-too'er.

[Lionx]

Hunter's cotton might not be such a bad idea, lvl bonecraft to 17 and the powders comes naturally. Cotton can be bought via guild or desynth.

[Del Murder]

Since 53+ is a lot more intense, I think I'll take a break from it and level another craft. What's a good compliment to clothcraft? Smithing?

[Citizen Bleys]

leathercraft.

[Del Murder]

What nation is that in?

EDIT: Eh, I guess I could look that up easy enough. Any tips though?

[Citizen Bleys]

Nope, I'm arse with leather.

EDIT: KEEP YOUR COMMENTS TO YOURSELF

[Rostum]

Del, you should also try alchemy perhaps. You can make a decent profit while leveling up on mercury and poison dust / potions (I think they all start at around 14-20).

Then at around 28 you can do the cheap-man's silent oils (the one without beeswax I believe). When I did that I easily made such a huge profit.

But that was a long time ago when I did all that, maybe the banning of gilsellers lately have risen the prices (haven't checked for awhile). Either way I think it's pretty decent to have if you need to make some potions for an event.

Hi-potions for instance, just go farm a few Malboro in Ordelle's, as well as the water elementals in there. And you got yourself some hi-potions for free (well apart from your time). Though, they are generally cheap these days. =(

[dodhungry]

mk for Iron Chains, what would be a good price for a stack to go for?
Right now they are selling for around 56-60k in Sandy on Carby.

[Yeargdribble]

With 60 Leather and 60 Cloth you're tier 31 on most Seer's gear. At 75 Cloth and 60 Leather you'll be tier 51 on most Baron's/Noct gear. These can be a pretty good profit if you are watching your market.

Cloth uses Leather more than almost any other sub. At the higher levels Gold becomes a bigger deal. With 45 Smithing and 60 Cloth you're also tier 31 on Kaginawa.

Just so you know... Leather sucks ass. If you're looking for something to save money while you put Cloth on hold, Leather is probably not it. However, if you have ample time and will to farm, you can make Leather into quite a profit to skill up. I did a good deal of my leather while farming and turned a decent profit in some level spreads.

Alchemy is a good cheap craft to take to 60 (or beyond) though the sub isn't used very often. If you find Cloth to be too pricey for you, Alchemy and Cooking can make for pretty decent choices. I took both to 60 at a profit (long ago though).

Perhaps later I'll put down some guide material.