A Genuine Guide To Making Gil

• Q: Everyone knows that crafting just isn't profitable any more, no one can really 'get rich,' so what's the point?
• A: You sir, are a liar pants! Anyone can make millions of gil even on a daily basis. Players are convinced that the Auction House is a waste of time, because they haven’t seen immediate success.
  • For Example: If a player floods the market with Bone Subligars and Wax Swords they will make little to no money, then be a bit heartbroken. That’s exactly what I did. With patience and a bit of homework (30 minutes should be enough to start) you will get profits within a couple sales.

• Q: Every time I've tried to sell something, everyone undercuts me! It doesn't matter if the product is selling like crazy, why can't I ever make a sale?
• A: This only makes the process slightly more challenging. It doesn't matter if "they" can undercut you, you can still make money by the truck-load. Undercutting is a valuable tactic to make sales. This tactic is used in Real Life constantly. Believe it or not, you can use strategic undercutting to your advantage, without destroying the market value of the product.

• Q: Players with 100+ crafting skill can make High Quality items at a massive speed, for almost pure profit. How can I compete with that?!
• A: Become 100+ skilled and make the HQ3 profits yourself. If you're dedicated, and have saved up a nest egg of crafting capital, you can level a craft from 0-110 in a weekend. You can even making money while doing it.
  • NOTE: Some crafts require more money to level than others, so the size of your nest egg should reflect that. I recommend starting with an affordable craft.
  • For Example: Cooking is the most affordable craft, and it’s very profitable. On the other hand Goldsmithing (my favorite craft) will be ten times more expensive. You’ll spend millions levelling it, and you’ll make hundreds of millions using it.

• Q: There was a time when I had Smithing up to skill 110 and Leathercraft also to 110 on my mule. I made, the best armor and weapons in the game. No one bought them. I invested all that time and money, and got nothing out of it. If you can't sell the best armor and weapons in the game then the system is broken right?
• A: The system isn’t broken. I wouldn’t recommend leveling Smithing or Leathercraft past skill 70. These two are only useful as sub-crafts for other profitable crafts. The weapons and armor you tried to sell, don't sell for a reason. Players can earn better gear through quests. Let me tell you what does sell: Food, Ammo, Ninjutsu Tools, & Potions. Gear doesn't sell, the only exceptions are Jewelry and Fishing items. If you have your heart set on Smithing, great! Start synthing/selling Darksteel Ingots they sell quickly for good profits. Darksteel Ingots are one of the few products Smithing is good for.
  • NOTE: You should only advance a craft to 110, if the craft has numerous profitable items.

• Q: My friends Cooking skill is 110, and he doesn't make any money. He makes the best Food/Consumables on the market! He doesn't even break even. If he's not successful, why would I be?
• A: If your friend broke themselves, this is not your fault. Your friend may have genuine skill, but do they have real "know-how?" Follow the tactics and strategies below, change them to suit your needs, experiment. Find out if it works or not.

• Q: Can you give me a basic list of things to sell?
• A: Sure, the materials to make these are cheap, and they do sell at the Auction House - but a bit slowly.
  • Copper Ingots: sell for 20,000-30,000 per stack, buy the Copper Ore from the Goldsmithing guild.
  • Beeswax: sell for 6,000-10,000 per stack, buy the Beehive Chip's from the Alchemy guild.
  • Grass Cloth: sell for 10,000 per stack, buy the Grass Thread from the Clothcraft guild.

1. I recommend using any guide by Ctownwoody, his guides are a little outdated but still better than the others.

2. Any sub-craft(s) you train shouldn't progress past 70. Your preferred 110 craft will start losing points if you break the 70 mark.

NOTE: Synergy, Fishing and Chocobo Digging are excluded, as they're hobbies not crafts. You can level these to 110 without adverse effect.

3. As you skill up, be aware that post 50 skill-ups come slowly. This is why I use Kitron Macarons, they help you skill-up faster (but they're not useful until after 50).

4. In any craft, the moment you hit level 28, turn in your cap test and start earning Guild Points. They are invaluable.

5. ALWAYS get Synthesis Image Support, the cost is very low and the benefits are tremendous. This helps when the gap from one bridge synth to the next, is greater than 5 levels. It can also increase your skill-up rate.

• For Example: Advanced Synth Support adds 2 levels to your effective crafting skill, which makes 7-8 level "jumps" attainable and less expensive.

6. Don't underestimate the value of Moghancements. Most players don’t understand what Moghancements do, or understand that only one Moghancement can be active at a time. Additionally, the Moghancement needs an aura strength of 100, or it’s not very effective.

• For Example: If you're leveling Goldsmithing, you’ll want the Fire Moghancement. This Moghancement grants more synth successes, and minimizes losses when synths breaks (when using fire crystals). The easiest way to get this Moghancement, is to purchase seventeen cupboards. Cupboards are aligned with the fire element, and each have a fire aura strength of six. Seventeen cupboards times six, equals a total fire aura power of 102. This will make your Moogle declare, "There is an overwhelming amount of fire energy Kupo!" This is an effective Fire Moghancement, if it’s less than 100, it’s not very effective, but anything more than 100 is redundant.

• NOTE: You might consider putting non-essential furniture away, as their auras can interfere with an existing desirable Moghancements.

7. As you craft, I'd recommend using the following Macro:

/lastsynth
/wait 25
/lastsynth
/wait 25
/lastsynth
/tell YourCharacterName blarg

The gateway to gil in the Hundreds of Thousands.

• Selling items purchased with Sparks to NPC Merchants is a decent way to make money. 1,000 Sparks will convert roughly to 10,000 Gil. Whether you're a high or low level player, earning Sparks isn't difficult. Running through "repeat" quests can be very profitable: Kill 200 enemies, Crystal acquisition, etc. Players can typically make 5-10 thousand Sparks per hour, which equals 50,000-100,000 gil. High level players can get even better results.

• You may find this method alone to be enough for your needs, and not bother with the Auction House. It's certainly an easy method, but it feels a lot like grinding and gets old. However, this is a phenomenal way to save up a nest egg of crafting capital, then skill-up to 110 on your favorite craft in a couple of days.

The Auction House: Making gil in the Millions, stacked with Millions, padded with Millions, swimming within Millions...

• NOTE: Don't forget the list of items in the Q&A section - it's beginners who craft them, more advanced crafters are busy synthing other advanced items - but they (Copper Ingots, Beeswax, Grass Cloth) are valuable and sought after.

First You Must Choose a Craft:

• Key Items can make piles of cash, some Permanent Key Items work best paired, most work fine all by their lonesome. A good "paired example" would be Anima Synthesis (Alchemy) and Bone Purification (Bonecrafting). Together, they synth Vivified Coral, a nice money maker. Research each Key Item from your preferred branches of crafting - find which ones complement each other.
  • For Example:
    • Coral Fragments go for 40,000 a stack. Purchase a stack and synth them into Vivified Coral.
    • Vivified Coral goes for 120,000 per stack. That's a good return on your investment. Alternatively, if you've the skill, synth the Vivified Coral into Reraise Hairpins.
    • Reraise Hairpins sell for 50,000 - 60,000 gil each, these sell slowly, but they DO sell. This comes to a total of 600,000 - 720,000. That's good money (just don't expect it all at once).
      • NOTE: You will always have competition in everything you sell, these numbers are idealistic but also possible, if the cost of a valuable item goes down, hang onto the product and sell it when it's rare. You're more likely to get the price closer to what you want.

• There are items in every craft that can be sold to NPC Vendors or the Craft Guild for a profit. Keep in mind the Guilds & the Tenshodo often purchase items in limited amounts per (game) day, & the Smithing Guild in Bastok may purchase items that the Guild in San-Doria won't. Most of the time, these items sell just above the "break even" point for the materials. But there are some... that can make you extremely good money. I'm not going to tell you what they are, you'll have to find them yourself. If I slap a list of money inducing goodness - how quickly do you think Square-Enix will nerf them? Maybe not quickly, but they would be nerfed eventually.
  • For Example - There was once an item that sold so well that "Real Time Sellers " went nuts crafting it in the hundreds of thousands. They'd sell the product to vendors, then sell gil for real money to cheating players. This item was Remedy - these days it sells for a tiny amount (480~492 gil), but it used to command a very high price. Misuse of Remedy crippled the virtual economy and enabling illegal activity. Billions of gil was deleted from all servers, & a couple thousand accounts were banned (Players and Real Time Sellers, and some just caught in the cross-fire) I don't want to be a part of that.

• Most of the time, Farming isn't worth it. Farming is extremely expensive, because it eats your TIME. When I have to farm, I always do two things: I earn copious Sparks by tapping The Records of Eminence Money Keg, and I stockpile; so I don't have to Farm the item again for a VERY long time or never again. This is the only reason to Farm. Making money two different ways at the same time. I'd rather buy something from a vendor or the Auction House. If I have the materials now I can make the item immediately - and sell stacks of them quickly.

• Arcane Flowerpots - hard to obtain, and are expensive... and they're worth every cent. They sell for 250,000 at the Auction House, you can also get them from the The Chocobo Hot and Cold Game (see more on Chocobo Digging below) and randomly from Strange Apparatuss.
• Tree Cuttings & Tree Saplings - You can buy Tree Cuttings to grow Tree Saplings to sell if you want; but I personally find they take too long to grow and the profits for them are a bit low. I grow several items for several reasons... at this point, I leave it to you. Research it out, you'll make money.
• The Gardening Moghancement - many players don't understand how Moghancements work. You can only have ONE moghancement active at a time (excepting a very few high tier crafting moghancements) and you need it to be very powerful to have any effect.
  • For Example: Buy or syth a Maple Table ("Elemental Alignment" is Earth "Aura Strength" is 8) and you will get "Moghancement Gardening!" Yay. Good for you. It will be nearly useless, as the Moghancement doesn't have much power ("Aura Strength" 8 is rather small). Now buy 15 Maple Table's, you now have an "Earth Aura Strength" of 120 powering the moghancement - with your Moogle reporting "An Overwhelming Amount of Earth Energy kupo!". This is what you want. Put your other furniture in storage according to the moghancement you need active.

Chicken Lizard digging can be profitable - but, like HELMeting, it is a Hobby. I don't do it for making money, mostly I do it for fun, and the occasional Arcane Flowerpot. Understand though, it takes a very long time to level Chocobo Digging to max, sometimes years. No... I'm not joking, I wish I were.

• How To Train a Digger - There is no reason to feed your Chocobo any skill enhancing food. These skill enhancing foods have a negligible effect at best, and I consider them a waste of money. So, go get a Chocobo Egg, gaze upon it rapturously until it feels loved, to maximum affection. As you raise the Turkey, keep it's affection for you, maxed at all times, this increases skill gains. When the Yellow Beast (Color has nothing to do with an effective Digger) hatches, have it to Listen to Music constantly; this raises Discernment and Receptivity, which are the two dominant traits in raising a great Digger. When the Ostrich Chicken Bird Thing becomes older, have it Dig for Treasure and Act in a Play alternating week to week. Teach your Yellow Pig Lizard Bore and Treasure Finder or Burrow and Treasure Finder.
• The Chocobo Digging Guide - A good resource that will show you all the "ins & outs" of Chocobo Digging.
• The Chocobo Hot and Cold Game - Another great resource, I highly recommend reading it.