Farming Guide by Karinya of Carbuncle

Notice: The value of any item varies from server to server and from time to time. While the items listed here have been profitable in the experience of the author, there is no guarantee that they will be profitable now and on your server. In particular, updates often influence the value of many items. You may wish to check your own server's Auction Houses before farming. These lists do not include every monster with a valuable drop, but only those with the most valuable and common drops that, in the opinion of the author, have the best prospects for making money.

See Farming for a general overview of farming, job choices, etc.

Particularly at higher levels, the suitability of the player's job compared to the specific monsters being fought is sometimes important in choosing a good farming target. Red Mages (and sometimes White Mages) have an advantage over magic-using monsters because of Silence and Dispel, Rangers are powerful against worms because of their immobility, jobs with Killer traits are effective against the types of monsters affected by those traits, jobs that specialize in a particular damage type are more effective against monsters that take extra damage from those types, Black Mages are more powerful against monsters with pronounced weakness to a specific element such as elementals, etc. So a farming spot that is good for one job may not be good for another.

Some areas or monsters listed are only suitable towards the upper end of the level range given, or if your job is particularly strong against that monster type.

Depending on the area, it may be profitable to combine farming with Mining, Harvesting, Logging or Excavation.

Making money from Notorious Monsters is not covered in this guide.

This guide was originally written by Karinya of Carbuncle, but may contain contributions, additions and changes by other contributors as well.

At very low levels, few monsters are actually Too Weak, and therefore almost all monsters can drop crystals, which are often as valuable as or more valuable than their regular drops. Some targets that are likely to be especially profitable in this level range (Note: only the most valuable drops are shown):

Crystals remain a popular target for farming since many Easy Prey monsters can still be killed quite quickly and with little risk.

Some areas listed for lower levels appear again in this section, with new monsters that were too dangerous to hunt before. This is generally in addition to the previously listed monsters, which remain profitable as well. By this level, crystals are generally no longer enough to make it worthwhile to target a particular monster, even if you are hunting Easy Prey; they are more of a side benefit.

However, elementals become a viable farming choice at this level range for some jobs, especially Black Mage and Red Mage. Elementals drop clusters, which can be used to convert them into 12 of the corresponding crystal or sold at the Auction House in cluster form. In most areas, elementals only pop during weather that matches the elemental's element.

Some synthesis recipes use clusters directly, so it is not always beneficial to break clusters before selling them. Compare the price history of clusters and stacks of crystals before deciding whether to sell clusters whole or break them and sell as crystals. There may be significant price differences in either direction.

Generally, when monsters of the same family appear at different levels, the higher level ones have slightly higher drop rates. By this level, this effect is fairly significant; a Carnivorous Crawler or Caterchipillar has noticeably better drop rate than the Crawlers of Sarutabaruta. However, this should be balanced against your ability to kill monsters quickly with little downtime. Exactly what levels of monsters are right for you depends on your job, level and gear. For some jobs, an Adventuring Fellow can add significantly to your farming ability, especially on Easy Prey to Decent Challenge targets.