Craftaholics Anonymous/Guide/Gil Generation

Crafting to generate gil is not as simple as one method that works under all circumstances. This sub page will go into further details. Please feel free to add comments or feedback in the discussion page. This is a sub-page of the Craftaholics Anonymous Guide
=== Getting Ingredients ===
The initial process would involve gathering the ingredients you need for the synthing that you plan on doing. 
The native ways which you gather ingredients would be:
*Farming
:::The part about farming that is a challenge is that you have to get the items you need from the monsters that are easy enough to kill. As a low level job you can accumulate crystals by ensuring you have your signet, but as you progress you will have to begin to harvest clusters. Drop rates for some items can make it not worth the effort to farm. You can increase your chances of drops with Treasure Hunter by having a Thief of Level 15 or higher.
*Hobbies (See icons below)
title=Harvesting	title=Excavation	title=Logging	title=Mining		title=Gardening	title=Clamming
:::Hobbies can be helpful, but the draw back is getting the needed equipment, which hatchets, pickaxes and scythes are costly and will break as you use them. If you get the gear for your hobby, you prolong the life of your tools. Other hobbies such as chocobo digging are almost crafts themselves. Hobbies all get easier the more you do them. There does appear to be skill to them, so the more you do them the greater your skill.
*Purchase through: 
::Auction House
::::Don't trust auction houses in cities. Often they provide highly erratic prices. Jeuno has the most reliable supply of items. Go to ffxiah.com and check the prices there. Its best to cross-reference prices there. I recently saw a piece of gear in someone's bazaar. After talking, it became apparent the person paid far too much for the item in Bastok and was not willing to accept the price in Jeuno, it was a 1/4 of what she paid. When it comes to ingredients the cities can provide lower prices than even seen in Jeuno or a NPC. For example Shell Bugs are often cheapest in Sandy. Buying items from the AH is tricky business and should be done with forethought. If you cannot compare AH's from the various cities it may be better to stick to NPC merchants.
::Bazaar
::::As with the AH, I don't recommend buying things from a person's bazaar unless you know the price variables. Sometimes you find people who know the prices and just want to sell what they have. More often, you find people trying to make money and it is highly unwise to waste your money buying these overpriced items. They decrease the profit potential of the items you make.
::NPC
::::There are three kinds of NPCs: the standard merchant who sells pretty much all the time, a regional merchant who only sells when a certain nation has control of a region, and guild merchants. There are even standard merchants that will only sell a particular item if their nation has an area under control. Other factors, such as your fame, or the day, also play a role in determening the cost of these items. My observation is that the day after a holiday is usually the day things will cost the most through a guild merchant.
=== Selling what you make ===
There would be three native ways of making gil from crafting: 
::Auction House Sales
::::Knowing what AH to sell to, keeping up with eratice prices is a slippery slope. There are definitely some givens that will sell well all the time, but most of those things are higher level recipes - so as you go along it is a challenge to determine what you can sell and how long you will wait for it to sell.
::NPC Sales
::::This is the best way to make gil through sales. There is no waiting and the prices rarely vary. Such as with Bug Broth, if you get all your ingredients through farming and NPC purchase then you can triple your money every time. If you want to make gil then you want to find out what the NPCs will buy for the best price.
::::----
::::A good example would be Tsurara which is a level 6 synth spell. 2 Distilled Water + 1 Rock Salt + Ice Crystal = 10 Tsurara If you farm them crystals then buy ingredients for around 450-500 gil, which there is a seller of the two ingredients in every main city, then you can craft about 120 Tsurara which from the same npc can be sold for about 1200 gill. Essentially you triple your money. It isnt fast, but this type of crafting is great for when you are waiting around for a party or standing around waiting for an airship.
 
::Bazaar
::::Sometimes you can make items so desirable people will buy them from your bazaar. To do good bazaar sales you pick an item, go to an area where that item is needed, and then you price it according to the people in that area who need it. If things don't sell people cannot afford them. Selling foods in dunes or selling range items or gear take some research and trial and error, but you see people doing it.
Category:Guides