A Genuine Guide To Making Gil

This is a personal guide, if you disagree with anything feel free to leave comments on the talk page, but please don't remove, change, or add anything. All the information provided here has been tested 1st hand by the author: IconicIdea.

=A Quick Q&A Session=


 * Q: Everyone knows that crafting just isn't that profitable any more, no one can really 'get rich,' so what's the point?
 * A: This jaded belief exists because many players (innocently) believe ANYTHING they craft, (regardless if it's in demand or not) will explosively sell. This creates discouragement & a false impression that the system is against them.
 * For Example: If you flood the market with Bone Subligars and Wax Swords you will be heart-broken. You will make little - to no money, feel like a failure, and likely never try an AH sale again. If this sounds familiar, don't worry. Patience and a bit of homework (30 minutes should be enough to start) will get you profits within a couple sales.
 * Q: Every time I've tried to sell something... Every Time! Everyone undercuts me, and it doesn't matter if the product is selling like crazy, why can't I ever make a sell?
 * A: At most, this make the process slightly more challenging. It doesn't matter if "they" can undercut you, you can still make money by the truck-load. Undercutting other sellers is a very valuable tactic to make sales. This tactic is used in Real Life constantly. You can use undercutting to your advantage, without destroying the market value of the product (read more on how to do this below).


 * Q: Other people with 100+ craft skill can get HQ3 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," (read more on how to do this below) you can level a craft from 0-110 in a weekend. There is nothing difficult in becoming 100+ skilled in any craft, and making money while doing it. To be a skilled Crafter... all it takes - is patience.


 * Q: There was a time when I had Blacksmithing up to skill 110 and Leathercraft also to 110 on my Mule. I made, and tried to sell, the best armor AND weapons in the game. No one bought them. Do you want to know how many sales I made? THREE! Only Three! If you can't sell the best armor and weapons in the game then the system is broken right?
 * A: Um... no, not at all actually. You should never have leveled Blacksmithing & Leathercraft past skill 70. They're only useful as sub-crafts for other profitable crafts. The "Almighty Weapons & Armor" you are trying to sell? They don't sell for a reason, players can earn far better gear through quests. Would you like to know what does sell? Consumables: Food, Ammo, Ninjutsu Tools, Potions, etc. "Gear" doesn't really sell, the only exceptions are Jewelry and Fishing gear. You should only advance a craft to 110, if the craft is profitable.


 * Q: OK... well 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: The failures of others are often far from Truth. Your friend is your friend, so you assume he knows how to make sales; I'm sorry, but he doesn't, & that's why he's not successful. Follow the tactics & strategies below, then decide for yourself if they don't work.

=Tapping the Records of Eminence Money Keg=

Records of Eminence: The gateway to gil in the Hundreds of Thousands.


 * Every 1,000 Sparks you earn converts, roughly, to 10,000 Gil by selling items purchased with Sparks, to NPC Merchants (this won't work with Rare/Ex items). Whether you're a High or Low level player, gaining Sparks isn't difficult. Running through "Repeat" quests can be very profitable: “Kill 200 enemies,” “Crystal acquisition” etc... You 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 can feel 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.
 * NOTE: I'd recommend you follow any Crafting Guide by Ctownwoody, his guides have helped many a Crafter and have fairly solid advice. ALSO - Understand any sub-crafts you train shouldn't max past 70! Otherwise your 110 craft will start losing points.
 * Sub-note: Post 50 skill-ups come slowly, however, if you use Kitron Macarons, you'll skill-up far faster than you would without them (they're not really useful until after 50).
 * NOTE: Some crafts require more money to level than others, so the size of your "Nest-Egg" should reflect that.
 * For Example: Cooking will be very cheap until you hit 80-110. On the other hand Goldsmithing (my favorite craft) will be four times more expensive from the start.''

=Be An Auction House Boss (or AH "Bawse")= The Auction House: Making gil in the Millions, stacked with Millions, padded with Millions, swimming within Millions...


 * 1rst You Must Choose a Craft: Browse through each, and pick the one(s) destined for you.


 * Selling Culture, Learning, & Laziness - The methods you learn here are not a "Get Rich Quick Scheme," this is a "Being Patient & Intelligent Makes You Powerful Scheme." You have to be patient, and resourceful as a Ferret stalking Undead Weasels. Don't stop learning, or you'll start losing. If you get comfortable and passive, other sellers with take advantage. You'll find as a successful Crafter & Seller that some Markets fluctuate, others will disappear, and new items will come on the market with monthly updates. Highly successful sellers have a habit of researching new opportunities and new products quite often. Success makes people successful and curious about opportunity. Don't get lazy, others will be more than happy to out-sell you.


 * How To Research Your Target Product(s) - Open any of the aforementioned crafts in another window - such as this one: Alchemy. Now, scroll down until you see Alchemy/All Recipes (It will be towards the bottom). Click it! & you will be rewarded with a list of Alchemical Recipes, from basic, to the most advanced. Now open www.ffxiah.com in another window - in the upper left hand corner make sure your server is selected. Take at least 30 minutes and look up items according to your skill level. You will be searching for the following trends: How Quickly the items sells, & How Much they sell for.
 * For Example: stacks of Holy Water tend to sell 'Very Fast' for 10,000 while single Quake Grenades sell at an 'Average' rate for 20,000-30,000. Both of these sell quickly enough, and would both be profitable enough, to synth & sell. Find at least 5-10 items like this (it's advisable to have a pool of 14-21 items, [more on this below] but this is enough to start on for the moment).
 * Note: Holy Water requires Alchemy level 51 and Quake Grenades require Alchemy 58, with Smithing level 29. If you're not this skilled yet yet, shoot for lower synths, there are many that are easily as profitable, if not more so.
 * Note: Don't just research potential money and speed of sale, look up the materials and find how much each of them cost. A product may be selling like Hot-Cakes... but can you afford to make it? Or spend all the time running around to get all the materials? If not, move on to another product.
 * For Example: Marinara Pizza's are a decently popular item, they sell quickly, usually around 10,000 or better, but they're made of PURE EVIL to synth. 1rst you have to make the Marinara Sauce (it require anchovies which you'll have to synth from Sandfish or Icefish which you'll have to catch yourself, as they are rarely for sale) and Pizza Dough (which requires Semolina, an expensive product: 1,500-3,600). Then you have to make the Marinara Pizza itself (which requires Chalaimbille cheese, retailing for 600-1,900 gil). Then if you decide not to cook Marinara Pizza but Slices of Marinara Pizza, instead (also good sellers) you'll need to synth your own Pizza Cutters as they, also, are never for sale. Oh.. and Marinara Pizzas don't stack, they hog a lot of storage space. Does This Seem Like A Run-Around? It IS! Do you really want to do all that work for something worth just 10,000 gil? Sadly, some people do, because it's the only thing they know how to sell. Research your products before committing, or they will bite you.


 * Why You Should Diversify - The 1rst, and foremost reason you want to have a diverse product line is this: YOU CAN MAKE MILLIONS of Gil, consistently. Now, there's nothing wrong with having 3-4 highly profitable items in your pool of products, as long as you have a diverse range of products selling. Meaning a handful of "Quick Small Sales" tempered with your "Slow Big Sales." You need at least 14 different items (preferably 21) on the market. This gives you consistent small sales (3,000 - 6,000 - 10,000 selling a couple times a day) tempered with the slower "Big Sales" (50,000 - 100,000 - 250,000 that can sell once per day, or once every 2nd-3rd day). If you don't have a -solidly diverse- product pool, it's very easy for "Vapid Seller's" to crash your income party.
 * Vapid Sellers Are those who give nary a 2nd thought to the market, they attack the Auction House with the single minded spunk of a Suicidal Lemming... Just -SPAMMING- the market with quick (filthy dirty, stupidly cheap) sales. I pray to all the Holy Pagan Gods Of Science(!) - after you read this guide, if you've been a Vapid Seller? That you'll stop! Now, and -never- Vapidly sell again; but that you would be filled with beneficence! And sell with decorum and grace..! With goodwill to all.


 * Don't Specialize - You may be tempted to choose just 3-4 highly profitable items ranging from 40,000 to 200,000. There is a danger in doing this. If you specialize in a limited pool of products... It's only a matter of time before someone crashes your market (more on how to deal with this below). Dun! Dun! Duuuuun! And what was making you money Hand-Over-Fist, is now bringing in nothing...! Leaving you in a financial famine, mentally distraught and foaming at the mouth with impotent rage! You are unable to feel powerful at all! Nor are you able to complete your taxing fiduciaries! Oh! The Feels!! Bottom line - Don't Specialize. It's what the dumb people do.


 * How To Keep 14-21 Items On The Market At All Times: I sell 21 DIFFERENT products simultaneously with three characters: My Main - GrumpySherbert (Cooking 110) and his two mules: Hezeplamp (Alchemy 110) and Conquestery (Goldsmithing 110) (Yes... idiotic names appeal to me, they make me giggle, one of the joys of life really). I research the products I want to sell per Character/Crafting Skill; and I have each character place 7 items on the market at a times, equaling 21 items all for sale in concert. Selling thusly - is very tidy, isolated to different chars with different skills, and separate storage. To invest further clairvoyance on the usefulness of Mules - I suggest reading The Theory of Mules: Guide by Ctownwoody. There is a lot of good advice there.


 * How To Undercut (Without Upsetting Other Sellers or Destroying Product Market Value): This is the whole point of diversifying your product pool. Pick any ten products that sell "Fast" or "Very Fast," - it's likely there is a queue of "15 to 100" of them for sale at any given time (typically, these are smallish items selling for 2,000 - 10,000 - 30,000). They sell quickly, it's fast money, and people want to cash in. This is a good thing! Undercut them. You only have 1-2 of these to sell today, (NO MORE THAN TWO, EVER otherwise you'll crash this item market right down around your ears) they probably have 7, and possibly more on the market with a Mule. Your item will sell before Theirs, and you'll likely get a tidy profit. Selling limited, -daily- amounts of "Best-sellers" guarantees you quick, consistent sales across your product pool. This keeps the market (for each item) from crashing - If You Do It Right (again patience, intelligence, don't sell like a Lemming).
 * NOTE: Please understand though... while this method is designed to cause minimal harm to other sellers, and the market, any time you undercut: It-Is-A-Gamble, there will be times when you do not make money.
 * Sub-Note: In the long run... I always make money. I make Millions in fact, but there are always bad days, and devious buyers. I myself am a devious buyer. I once bought 20 stacks of Dark Crystals for 1 gil each. Experiment with different undercutting prices, and different prices when buying. Be a Brilliant Seller and a Devious Buyer.


 * When NOT To Undercut (Because it will upset other sellers AND DESTROY Product Market Value): A Brilliant Sellers is a gracious seller, Don't Crash Markets. You'll make sellers swear at you. I'm not kidding. It's not a fun experience having 4 random people sending you /tells, trying to convince you that you're an idiot. It makes for a bad day. You can undercut ONLY when it's a "small," quick selling product that has a queue between "15 to 100". If the product has a high price tag (50,000 - 100,000 - 250,000) and only sales "Average," or "Slow," with a small queue between 1-5. Don't undercut, or... if you do undercut, don't (For The Love Of The Scientific Gods!) undercut by much. If you repeatedly undercut these "Slow Big Sales," (by a lot, or a little) the public will catch on quick; and the market can come crashing down.


 * What To Do With a Crash - So... You, or someone else, just crashed your market (try really hard not to swear at people, I know... it stings, but Be Magnanimous. If you act like the guy you wish you were, pretty soon, you'll be almost something like the guy you want to be). If you believe the product still has value, store it for a few days. See if buyers restore confidence in the material. Then toss 3-4 back on the market at incremental values. Let's say it was originally worth 80,000. Price the 1rst one at 30k, the next at 45k, the next at 60k etc. Stepping stones to slowly bring the price back up to normalcy (or an even higher level, sometimes a crash can be a good thing). If the product is of smallish respect (between 2,000-6,000), consider liquidating with an NPC merchant. Otherwise it's horking storage space that could be used for product that DOES sell, and HAS value.


 * Farming vs. An Outright Purchase - 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. While others are futzing around for hours, I'm making money, and being a bawse.

=H.E.L.M - I Think I Might Throw Up Now=


 * Harvesting
 * Excavating
 * Logging
 * Mining
 * Aren't they wonderful!? You get to spend money, to buy tools, to waste time! YAY! Hurray for Helmets! None of these HOBBIES will save you money when crafting. The only money you might make, is by selling extremely rare materials - which you may or may not find. HELMeting is a far bigger gamble than the Auction House (The only exception, is Mining, which feels exactly like grinding through fatigue and loneliness. Tapping the Records of Eminence money keg, works far faster). The few times I've found H.E.L.M helpful, was when I needed a few of these extremely expensive, remarkably rare items that weren't for sale at the Auction House, so I had no choice but to go and find them myself, & I hated every minute of it, & I'll never HELMet again. HELMeting is for the birds...

=Gardening - The Smart Way=


 * Arcane Flowerpots - These are the only Flowerpots you should want. They increase profitable gains and decrease junk products. Without them, you're burning time, and gambling randomly. It takes forever to grow anything, and if you get nothing but stacks of Rock Salt when you were shooting for hoards of Sonic Death Monkeys... it causes Sadness. Arcane Flowerpots are hard to obtain, and are very 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.

=Chocobo Digging=
 * It 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 bird-monkey 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, so.. pick YELLOW.) hatches, force 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. Forever... until it's done. Teach your Yellow Pig Lizard Bore and Treasure Finder or Burrow and Treasure Finder. After a short eternity, the bird will be ready for Christmas Dinner, I mean... to dig up a bunch of money making junk... on command.
 * The Chocobo Digging Guide - Read this thingy it will help you. A lot. I promise... READ IT.
 * The Chocobo Hot and Cold Game - Read this thingy too, it's neat.
 * Why Chocobos Taste Like Chicken. - It's a known fact that all birds are, are evolved warm blooded reptiles with mutated scales, that grew as feathers. So... they're nothing more than feathered lizards, & all feathered lizards taste like chicken! Ask Anyone! Even scaly lizards taste like Chicken, for instance: Alligator, Crocodile, Iguana, Komodo Dragon, Rattlesnake, Python, Horny Toads, Brontosaurus, and Cats - they all taste like Chicken! It's True! They're all delicious!