Farming

Farming is a term commonly used to refer to killing monsters for items that they drop, particularly valuable ones as a way of making gil. A few such items are sold to NPCs or used in Quests, but most are sold to other players via the Auction House. Farming usually involves killing monsters that are Too weak, since they can be killed more quickly and with less risk, but Easy prey are sometimes targeted because they can drop crystals, Beastmen's Seals, and at higher levels Kindred's Seals in addition to their normal drops. When farming Easy prey, be sure to receive Signet or Sanction so that crystals can drop.

Many players use Thief as their main or sub job while farming for its Treasure Hunter ability; Ninja is also popular for its ability to avoid damage with Utsusemi, and White Mage for jobs that can't normally heal themselves, to reduce downtime. Adventuring Fellows are sometimes used to speed up killing or reduce downtime, especially at higher levels. If the monsters being farmed are hard to find, Wide Scan may be useful.

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.

'''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(s), 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(s), have the best prospects for making money.

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

Level 1-10
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):

Level 11-20
Crystals remain a popular target for farming since many Easy prey monsters can still be killed quite quickly and with little risk.