Gear: (Requires starting capital, like any craft)
Do not be cheap here. If you can’t afford *all* items,
farm some more gil first. This really increases the speed of
skillgain/bites per hour.
#1) Fishermans Tunic
#2) Fishermans gloves
#3) Fishermans leggings
#4) Fishermans boots
#5) Mithran rod
#6) Sabiki rig

Please note, this guide is about SAFE (and therefor the least costly) fishing. There may be other places with better bite rates, or gil per catch.
There may be other places you can get skillups during the “dead zones”
But, I’m more interested in not replacing a rod or lure every 1000 casts.

Now that we have that out of the way, I’d also like to make another suggestion This step is entirely optional.
Purchase yourself a decent wireless gamepad!
Fishing becomes a *lot* less painfull if you can sit back and watch TV, and use a gamepad controller to fish. I personally use a Saitek p3000 wireless. I fish with full view of my computer monitor (even when watching TV) so I don’t need (or even want) the rumble motors.
However, when the fish bites, if you have a rumble device enabled, it will shake to let you know.
If you use a controller, you can easily fish while doing other things. And you won’t be inclined to chat (again killing your skillup rate) just keep an eye on the screen for GM conversations. Though it hasn’t happened to me yet, if a GM contacts you, and you don’t reply.. he’s just going to assume you are a bot. I will be having you fish in a *lot* of cities, so you will be getting a lot of tells (that you SHOULD ignore, most of the time it’s another annoying self-righteous bot-hunter) and after you ignore several, you *will* get a GM visit. Just do what he asks, and fish happily ever after.

the guide:

0-11
Port San d’Oria, Windurst Waters, Bastok Markets (bridge)
Mithran Rod/Insect Paste
In these aeras you will catch Moat Carp. Turn them in for the LuShangs quest (100gil per fish) or sell them on AH for about 3.5k/stack.

0-19:
Port windurst, Mhaura, Selbina, Port Bastok
Mithran rod/Sabiki Rig
In these areas, you will catch Cobalt Jellyfish, Pamtam Kelp, Bastore Sardines, Quus, Yellow Globes, and rusty items.
You’ll skill relatively quickly from 0-11 here. After 11, it still gains, but slowly.

10-14:
Selbina
Mithran rod/Minnow
Here, you will catch Greedie, and Fat Greedie. The Fat Greedie can be used for a quest in selbina.

14-17:
Mhaura
Mithran rod/Worm Lure
Here, your main target will be Yellow globes. The worm lure will focus on this particular fish, and you’ll gain skill a little faster than mentioned above with sabiki rig. Gains will still be slow (you ARE fishing)

15-27
Port San d`oria, North San d`oria, Windurst Waters, Bastok Markets (bridge)
Mithran Rod/Shrimp Lure
In these aeras you will catch Tricolord Carp and Gold Carp. Sell these directly to NPC. Tricolored will sell for about 120, and gold for over 400.. At 15, the gains will be slow, but the gil should be decent. You still won’t be making huge money yet. Stick with it!

27-47
Bastok Markets(Storage of water), Zeruhn Mines(bridge)
Mithran Rod/Worm Lure
In these aeras you will catch Dark Bass, and Black eels. The Dark bass will give good gains, but only sell for about 40gil to NPC. They’ll give gains till level 33. Black eels are what you are *really* after. They’ll sell for 300g each to NPC, and will cap you at 47 fishing! At the early stages of this section, gil and gains will be slow. by the latter skill, both should be coming in at a respectable pace.

40-53
Buburimu Peninsula (beach)
Mithran Rod/Rogue Rig
Warning! (It has been pointed out to me that this portion is not 100% safe as there is the chance of catching Bluetail, which can break the mithran. Please keep that in mind. I will research another path to 53, and update this ASAP.)
In this area, you’re primary focus will be on shall shells. I don’t recall the price, but I think they sold for about 600g per to NPC, or if you AH them, about 10k per stack. the rogue rig is quite expensive, but 2 stacks of shells on AH will earn it back. HOWEVER, any lure will work here for shal shells. Just not as effectively as rogue rig. The setup I described should have you making about 10-20k per hour depending on moon. If you use any other lure, expect it to cut into your profit potential.

53-69
East Sarutabaruta (lake)
Composite Rod/Fly Lure
This is where fishing becomes extremely slow to gain. Especially at early levels. It’ll take you to level 69, and the crescent fish sell to the guild for 1300 gil. The downside? Read the first line of this description. I’m 55 fishing, and am catching about one stack every 2 hours.

Main weapon:
Bastokan Knuckles
Dmg: +5
Delay: +86
HP: +2 MP: +2
Accuracy: +2 Attack: +3

Body:
Federation Gi
DEF: 17
VIT: +1 Evasion: +3

Head:
Empress/Emperor Headband
HP: -15
DEX: +3 AGI: +3
Evasion: +10

Hands:
Battle Gloves
DEF: 4
Evasion: +3 Accuracy: +3

Earrings:
Shield Earring(x2)
HP: +10 MP: -10

Rings:
Bomb Ring
DEF: 2
HP: +15
Vs. Fire: -5

Reflex Ring(+1)
(DEF: 1)
AGI: +2
Vs. Wind: +4(+5)

Ranged:
Happy Egg
VIT: +1
HP: +1%

Legs:
Martial Slacks
DEF: 14
AGI: +2
Evasion: +3

Feet:
San d’Orian (Kingdom) Clogs
DEF: 6(7)
HP: +3(+4) MP:+3(+4)
AGI: +1

Waist:
Purple Belt
DEF: 2
STR: +3
Haste: +4%

Back
Nomad’s Mantle (+1)
DEF: 2(3)
AGI: +2(+3)
Evasion: +3

For food bring:
Carbonara
HP +14% (Cap: 175@1249 Base HP)
MP +10
Strength +4
Vitality +2
Intelligence -3
Attack +18% (Cap: 65@361 Base Attack)
Store TP +4

For drinks:
Persikos au Lait
4 HP Regen every 3 seconds for 10 minutes, 800 total

For good measure also grab an Icarus Wing.

Now for the Strategy:
Bring /NIN sub job with a stack of Shihei.

1. Enter the BCNM.
2. Eat Carbonara.
3. Cast Utsusemi:Ichi.
4. Wait for Utsusemi:Ichi timer to reset.
5. Proceed to edge of BCNM.
6. Drink Persikos au Lait.
7. Target Seeker (without entering BCNM) and cast Dodge and Focus.
8. Immediately run at the seeker and engage.
9. Do not use weaponskill on Seeker!
10. After second shadow drops, cast Utsusemi:Ichi.
11. Immediately use Hundred Fists.
12. As soon as the Seeker drops, engage the Dragon.
13. Use Shoulder Tackle, immediately use Icarus Wing, and finish with Combo, to perform Impaction.
14. Proceed until the Dragon is dead.

This strategy will produce victory 9/10 times. Naturally, this will be more difficult using a Tarutaru character. However all other Races will do fine.

XP Locations: Gustaberg / Ronfaure / SarutabarutaMonsters: Various Beastmen/Worms/Vultures/Crawlers/Mushrooms/Sheep/Rabbits
When you begin as a Paladin you can solo the first nine to eleven levels by yourself around your starting Kingdom and adjoining areas. Things will get progressively slower until you really need to move on to seeking for parties. The earliest you can really party is Lv9, any lower than that and you would be putting yourself in great danger. I would recommend Lv10 or Lv11 before starting to seek as it means you’ll have access to a couple more defensive spells and a good set of armour.
Although the enemies in each starting area vary, your tactics do not. You do not have very much on offer to you at the lowest levels apart from a few weak healing spells and a single weapon skill. Kill until you fall low on HP, heal until you are out of MP, and then rest and repeat. I find that what you are subbing can vary at this point, since you do not need to worry about keeping hate. Since you are soloing, try to have the best armour on offer as well and it will keep you in good stead when you begin partying. There is no need to use food at this level at all.
Level10-19
XP Locations: Konschtat Highlands / La Theine Plateau / Valkurm DunesMonsters: Sheep/Bees/Goblins/Lizards/Crabs/Flies/Fish
The Dunes is the only real place to get XP parties from around Lv10 onwards to Lv19/20. While seeking for Dunes parties, you can solo some monsters in either Highlands or the Plateau. When you first begin partying in the Dunes you will start with only fighting Lizards and then occasional Goblins. After that you will move onto a mixture of Crabs, Flies, and Goblins. Near the end of the zones decency you will kill Fish. Some dangerous moves to watch out for; Goblins will use Bomb Toss (Barfira will help protect against this), Lizards can petrify, Flies can do AOE damage (Barfira protects), and Fish can do a massive one hit attack on a single enemy (Screwdriver).

This is where you will get your first taster of being the main tank for a party. You probably already had some experience playing this role levelling your first job to Lv30, but this is the real stuff now. Practise provoking when you can and timing the use of heals correctly. Sadly, there is not much on offer to you to help hold the hate, but do your best. Also, try to have the best armour on offer and keep everything nicely up-to-date. You can use food here if you want, but it is not necessary. Also, do not worry about your Divine magic and concentrate on healing. Enhancing is also not a priority to level up.
This is really the range where food can be toyed with. Try out a few to see how you like the effects. If you are short on cash just go with the basic, cheapest, stuff you can get your hands on (prices vary from server to server).
Level 20-29

XP Locations: Sauromugue Champaign / Qufim Island / Yuhtunga Jungle / Yhoator JungleMonsters: Beetles/Worms/Crabs/Fish/Giants/Plants/Goblin
Although not a common choice, some people like to XP on the beetles found in a small alcove in Sauromugue Champaign. Rhino Attack can be quite painful, so be ready to help heal when you get hit by this.
Many of the tactics from Dunes carry over to Qufim. Food should still be at the low end of the price range, if you do decide to use some. There is no need to be extravagant. You will be concentrating on crabs and then fish. You may venture inside the tower to kill Giants and Goblins, if the outside is crowded. Most of these enemies have hard hitting attacks that you just have to watch out for. When giants ready an attack, unlock from it and run away in the opposite direction. If you time it right it’ll give an error and the attack won’t be completed.
Around Lv24/25 you can move on from Qufim way out across the sea to Yuhtunga Jungle, which is outside Kazham. A Quest is required to earn the airship pass to Kazham. Way back in the day before everyone knew about Kazham, people stayed in Qufim until Lv30, so it is possible to hang around there – but it will be slow.
In the jungles you will fight mainly Mandragora. These plant type monsters are all of the Monk job and attack twice each time. It isn’t as bad as it sounds, because they are actually extremely weak. Make sure your party’s mages keep out of its AOE sleep attack range and you will find XP to be golden here. Nearing Lv35/36 you will start picking off Goblins as well, and then you move to the next jungle along to start on the Mandragora again. You should honestly not find levelling here any trouble, it is usually quite relaxed.
Level 30-39

XP Locations: Yhoater Jungle / Eastern Altepa Desert / Garliage Citadel / Crawlers NestMonsters: Plants, Goblin, Lizards, Beetles, Bats, Crawlers
At the start of this range you will still be in the jungle fighting the plants, with the occasional Goblin and Lizard thrown in for good measure. At around Lv32/33 you can move on to either the desert or the citadel. Many people (99%) hate the citadel, but its something we all suffer through. You would be fighting bats in there and any type of food is good for them. This can be quite tricky at first, as you will get hurt a lot. Just try to bear with it. When you are fighting the sets of three bats, be extremely wary of Jet Stream. It is a three fold attack.
In the desert, Goblins and Beetles would be your targets - watch out for Bomb Toss, as before. The only problem about this XP area is getting to it, many new players might not have the Altepa Gate Crystal allowing you to teleport out there and your White Mage will be to low level to have the spell, meaning you would need to pay someone for the service.
You will be happy to hear that your time way out in the desert or wallowing in the citadel is short lived, and you can leave them both around Lv34/35. You will move to Crawlers Nest fighting Crawlers.
At Lv37 you finally gain access to Flash, and as a result you will find it much easier to keep hate from the increasingly powerful skill chains. Begin a battle with flash and provoke. Because of MP you will only really be able to do it once or twice a fight, but that should be enough. Also, you should probably upgrade your food by this point, slightly. Level 40-49

XP Locations: Crawlers Nest / Gustav Tunnel / Quicksand Caves / Western Altepa Desert / Garliage CitadelMonsters: Crawlers, Flies, Goblins, Antican, Beetles, Bats, Spiders
You can spend a lot of time gaining XP in Crawlers Nest as it has such a wide range of monster levels. You start on Crawlers and stick with them for a while, then you move onto Flies and Beetles before coming full circle back to higher level Crawlers (though that is not until later). Keep up the usual absorbs and watch out for the AOE attacks Flies can dish out.
An alternative to the early levels of Crawlers Nest is killing Goblins and Flies in Gustav Tunnel, which is good until around Lv43. Keep watch for the usual AOE damage.
Near the middle of this range you have a bit more choice. You can either go into the desert to fight Beetles or you can go fight Beetles, Spiders, and Antican inside Quicksand Caves (the spiders are at the low end entrance). Antican can be very annoying because of high defence, AOE petrify move (which also resets hate), and AOE silence. Spiders can do Sickle Slash which hurts, a lot. It is up to you whether you are brave enough to risk taking damage from that attack. Spiders sometimes love to spam it, and one might be enough to take you out. Timing your use of Flash right against them will save your life, but usually you will just get lucky.
I know you might not want to go back to the citadel, but you can at the end of this range around Lv48-50. You can stay in Quicksand Caves if you prefer. You drop down into the basement and fight bats, which some might prefer as they do not have as dangerous attacks (it is single bat sets, not triple, so there is no Jet Stream). I preferred those, they are a lot safer than spiders.
Level 50-59

XP Locations: Quicksand Caves / Boyahda Tree / Cape Terringan / Valley of SorrowMonsters: Antican, Beetles, Crawlers, Crabs, Velociraptors, Fish, Orcs, Torama
As I mentioned in the range above, you can stay in Quicksand for a bit longer fighting the Antican (and the occasional beetle to keep chains alive). Things will start to slow down soon though, and you should move on.
You will have a reasonably long stint in the tree coming up, fighting against the old favourites of Crab and Crawler. You should be a dab hand at taking these guys on now and with even more MP and your AF to boot, you should find tanking in this level range extremely easy.
Eventually you will move to the cape, which is through the opposite end of Kuftal Tunnel. You will fight Raptors, Crabs, and Fish here. This can last you a while, eventually leading to consistent chains. The only downside about this zone is that it is quite often packed with other parties. Raptors can do a breath attack which gives disease status, which means resting will not restore HP or MP while resting. You just have to hope your White Mage can cure it, as you require your MP to keep the hate at this stage.
Around Lv58/59 you will zone just behind the cape into Valley of Sorrows to fight slightly stronger raptors and giant birds called Preytons. These birds have insane evasion and are very dangerous. They are great for finishing a chain and drop Light Crystals to, but just be wary about keeping hate against them (as magic does a ton to them, so the mages will be in danger).
Level 60-69

XP Locations: Valley of Sorrow / Labyrinth of Ononzo / Bibiki Bay / Boyahda TreeMonsters: Velociraptor, Preyton, Torama, Goblin, Dhalmel, Crawlers, Crabs, Flies
You can carry on fighting Valley of Sorrow monsters after gaining Lv60, but the XP will soon begin to slow. At the late stages of the zone ATT+ food is definitely the way to go, as long as you still aren’t missing the giant birds a lot.
Fighting Torama in Ononzo can be hard as they will throw status after status on you. Not only that, it is the two worst status effects we can have cast on us; silence and paralyze. If your White Mage starts to be lacking, tell them they have to be fast at curing your ailments or you will die. These also hit extremely quickly, so timing your heals can be extra hard.
After finishing up your time in Ononzo you can either head back to the deeper sections of the tree or brave the Goblins in the bay. I, personally, prefer to fight Crawlers and Crabs as I was sure used to fighting them and don’t do dangerous AOE like Bomb Toss. Speaking of which, the Goblins in the bay seem to be able to randomly activate one Bomb Toss after the other – it is the only place in the whole game I have seen it happen. It is advised to have at least two stunners when partying in the bay. Flies in the tree make for good chaining at the latter end of this level range. Even though you have over 1000 HP by this stage, you are not safe. You can still be killed in a hit, keep that in mind.
If you do go to the bay, then make sure Barfira is up as well, as every so often their suicidal Bomb Tosses can hit for amazingly high damage (1,000+) if it is near full HP. The Dhalmel can give themselves Berserk effect (ATT+, DEF-). If this happens, it is the perfect time to unload a skill chain. You will find this time very dangerous, as you will take over double damage per hit. Luckily the hits are slow so you can get in your big cures. Some players prefer to dispel the effect away because they hit you for so much.
When you hit Lv65 you gain access to Swift Blade. You may be asked to take part in Lv3 chains, which is hard. We aren’t really made for gaining TP and we have no real accuracy improving stuff, but you have to put up with it.
Level 70-75

XP Locations: Bibiki Bay / Kuftal Tunnel / King Ranperre’s Tomb / Moon / SkyMonsters: Goblins, Dhalmel, Rabbits, Eft, Tigers, Cockatrice, Ghosts, Skeletons, Weapons
The start of this range is all about Bibiki Bay. As I mentioned above, you need to have the latest expansion pack to access this area. When fighting the Dhalmel, look out for Berserk as mentioned above. Make sure your White Mage keeps Barfira up at all times to protect against those super suicidal bombs! You will find that this zone dries up about Lv73. If you do fight Eft (usually to keep a chain alive) watch out for a dispel AOE move they have while will randomly take away a buff you have on, such as protect or shell.
Kuftal Tunnel will cap at about the same level, but you can grind through these areas if you cannot access the others. Tigers are very annoying because of the AOE paralyze ability, so you just have to hope your White Mage is quick at helping you out. Also, avoid this zone if you do not have a White Mage at all, as the petrify ability from the Cockatrices can be deadly to us.
Moon can be accessed as long as one of your party members has a Moon Gate Pass. You would fight Weapons and Golems in there. Unfortunately, the XP really caps at around Lv73/74 in there as well, so things can get really slow. Watch out for Smite of Rage, you can disengage and run out of range if you time it right so no damage will be done.
The Tomb is alright XP and you can get up to Lv75 there fighting Ghosts, and Skeletons. The AOE drain and AOE blind that the skeletons can dish out is quite annoying, but you just need to put up with it. I found most White Mage just got to lazy and did not bother removing blindness since you will get it pretty much every fight. Ghosts can deal out AOE curse as well, which adds to down time.
The last and best place to XP in for this range is Sky, an area only accessible through completing Zilart Mission 14. This is a hard area to get access to and without it levelling after Lv73 will become extremely difficult. Take the time to progress through the Zilart story, even if you find it boring, purely to make your levelling experience much better as you get to end game. Sky is a selection of small zones linked together by pads which teleport you all over the place and is also home the Gods of Vana’diel. You will be fighting Weapon type monsters here as well and concentrating on chaining them for consistent XP. Use the Weapon fighting tips listed above. If you haven’t started cracking out the best food on offer, now is really the time.

I am not trying to put you off taking up a craft, but am making sure you consider how much time and money must be invested to get rich out of it. Even though you can craft from the second you start the game I do not recommend trying it until you already have quite a nice fund of Gil. Many crafts would not reach Lv100 even if you invest 1,000,000 Gil, so keep that in mind too.

What you need to know
High skill level crafting players are often sought after by Linkshells to make items from God monster drops and so on. So, if you get a craft very high, your services would be in high demand from all the End Game players. And here are the things you should always remember.

How Crafting works
You gain skill up points (which range from 0.1, 0.3 etc) for successfully crafting of items fit for your current total level. Every time the total reaches 1.0 you gain one level of skill.
To craft you require a crystal and ingredients.
There is a chance to fail to craft. If you fail you will always lose the crystal you tried and possible one, all, or none, of the other ingredients.
As you level up a craft the ingredients you require will become rarer and more expensive – it helps if you can farm for what you need, so use the farming tips in this guide to minimise loss.
At Lv8 with a craft you must take a test given by an NPC from the appropriate Guild for your craft. Then after that another test must be taken every ten levels or you cannot progress any further.
You can only have one craft at Lv100, the rest can cap at Lv60. If you try to get another craft over sixty while having one at one hundred it will start to lose skill points.
HQ means High Quality and is a term given if you get a better-than-normal result from crafting (you will know you have done an HQ as you will receive a different quantity or a slightly different name of the item you made and the animation will be different). The higher level your craft skill is above the cap of an item the more chance you have of doing an HQ.
There are literally hundreds of recipes for each craft so I cannot list them all here. Inside the Guild of your chosen craft are three NPC’s which can give you Image Support (which improves your results) and also tell you what you should be crafting to raise your skill.
To improve your results and stop having as many failures after a certain rank of a craft you can start handing in things you make to an NPC for Guild Points. If you amass a certain amount of these you can buy pieces of equipment with them which makes your results better. The downside of earning these points is that you make a 100% loss doing it. Also, you can only earn a certain number of Guild Points per Earth day.
What crafts are available?
As I said, you have a nice variety of crafts to choose from when looking for what suits you. Crafts depend on each other for some recipes so if you are taking one craft all the way you will also need to raise at least one more half way so you can make everything on offer to you. Here are the crafts that you can take up in FFXI:
Smithing
Goldsmithing
Leathercraft
Bonecraft
Fishing
Woodworking
Clothcraft
Cooking
Alchemy
Which crafts make the most money?
In theory, every craft can make you rich – as long as you put in the time and money needed to level it all the way to Lv100. The key thing to remember about crafting is that the most amount of money is made from HQ results of high level items. Each has its own best seller items that people use to make Gil after working so hard.

If I had to categorise what makes the most (in terms of one time large sums of money) I would say the most popular is; Goldsmithing, then Smithing, then Bonecraft. Goldsmithing is especially expensive to level up, but is also the most rewarding once you take it all the way. These would give you payouts of profits around 1,000,000 on certain things (after deducting ingredient costs) and would definitely make you rich. There are other crafts which provide you money over time and in no large sum amounts. You must decide yourself which kind of income you prefer, and take into consideration the cost of trying to level up a craft which high payouts at Lv100 skill.

Craft Information
The Guild for each craft (there are two in each of the three Kingdoms) sell you some basic items needed for crafting things, but not crystals. The Guild shop is re-supplied every game day as it opens so if you want to get supplies you might need to camp them as other players will be after the cheap ingredients as well.

Here is a run down of what I think of each crafting type, what sub-crafts it requires, and what makes the most money from it. Also, I will suggest the key types of items it requires and also the element of crystal most used for it. The links below each craft lead to a run down of what items you can make at what levels to raise your skill level (for others, consult NPCs in your crafts Guild).

Smithing

The craft is centred on areas of Bastok, which is great because of the close proximity to so many mines which supply the ingredients it needs. It uses a lot of Fire Crystals for its recipes which instantly means a high cost to level. This craft requires a huge amount of Ore found in Mines all around Vana’diel. See the Mining section of this guide if you want to know specific details about where to find what Ore. Keep in mind that the Guild for Smithing can supply Copper and Tin cheaply.

This craft also has some need for skill in Goldsmithing and small amounts of Leathercraft and Woodworking. You will mostly make tools for the higher level crafters at the low levels, and then later create many different types of weapons. At high levels you can make Adaman armour.

Goldsmithing

Another of the crafters centred in Bastok, this craft is one many people have as their main goal for loads of money at End Game. Its ingredients are very expensive so put serious thought into this craft before taking it up and check your server’s economy to see what you would need to farm to save money. This can also be made less expensive by Mining for ingredients, see the relative section.

Some recipes require small amounts of Woodworking, Smithing and Alchemy. At higher levels you can make elemental rings, ingots of all kinds and some specific kinds of weapons.

Leathercraft

This craft is centred on San d’Oria. Farming for ingredients of this craft can help bring down the cost of levelling it a lot. It requires Dark Crystals which is particularly expensive, but you can farm some. This is a craft which many others depend on, so even if you are not planning on taking this all the way, you will probably have to at least level it a bit sooner or later.

Bonecraft

Everything you need for this craft could easily be farmed for and is in close proximity to its Guild (which is in Windurst). A lot of people take up Bonecraft because you can craft a Scorpion Harness, when you get it higher – plus it has some nice looking glasses that you can buy with Guild Points. Wind Crystals and Earth Crystals are the most used element for this craft and are easy to farm for.

A lot of things you need to make to level up this craft depend on Leathercraft and Woodworking to a certain degree.

Fishing

See the fishing section for information on this and other aspects of taking this craft up. It is not a high earner in comparison to the others as it does not work quite the same way at all.

Woodworking

If you are either a Ranger or a Ninja, you might want to seriously consider taking up this craft as it provides things you require constantly. Keep in mind to actually save money making the items yourself if you are either of those classes, you may need to get it high level so you can get HQ results. You will make tons of different kinds of arrows in this craft, so that is the reason a lot of Rangers take this up. Ninja’s will be interested to know that this craft also makes Shihei (quite possibly your most wanted tool). As with the arrows, to actually lower your costs from buying things straight from the Auction House farm for your items or get the craft high enough to consistently get HQ results. This would vary from server to server.

Depending on arrow type, this craft might require some skill in Bonecraft and Smithing (its down to what type of arrow head they need).

Clothcraft

This craft’s Guild is in Windurst (a very short distance from the Bonecraft Guild). This craft is very like cooking in its net gain as you slowly raise levels in it. I would say that it is a consistent earner at higher levels like Woodworking or Leathercraft as well. This craft makes many armours and accessories for Mage type jobs in particular and does not deal in heavy armour. At the highest levels of this craft you can make the Errant Gear and un-curse some Cursed objects which are highly valued by Linkshells.

This craft primarily uses Earth, Lightning and Wind Crystals.

Cooking

Many people describe this craft as a job because there is no massive payout regardless of level you get it to. This craft is more a constant earner, a slow and steady income like a job rather than lump sums of millions. With the current changes to food in FFXI I understand that some value has been lost, but more variety of things to create has opened up. Prior to changes you were left with making only specific types of pie and kabob to make money, now you can do a lot more based on the economy of your server. Keep an eye on it to see what is in high demand. Consider the new fish dishes and also other Mage based foods. This craft requires a heavy intake of Fire Crystals.

Alchemy

On my server the price of alchemy based items has sky rocketed. Sneak Oils and Prism Powders in particular have more than doubled in value – meaning it’s a good time to be an alchemist, especially a high skill level one. This is also a reasonably cheap craft to level up and requires Ice crystals, which are the cheapest to buy and easy to farm without competition.

A crafting alternative; supplying the crafters
This is something to consider if you just do not have the time or cash to put into levelling up a craft. The farming part of this guide is especially helpful if you chose to do this method.

Each server is different, and each server will have a specific craft which many people have taken up. This tip requires you to look at your server’s economy and see a pattern. See what is in the highest demand in what cities and how available they are.

You might notice, for example, that since the Bonecraft Guild is in Windurst that Wind Crystals, Bone Chips, Scorpion Claws and Beetle Shells sell the best and fastest there. You would then search the farming guide for the nearest area to it that drops those items and go farm them. You are supplying the players to lazy to farm items for their craft and making a profit doing it for them at no cost to yourself. It helps if you watch the market around where you spend most of your time. Also shop around and see where the best place to sell is (also, take into consideration the tax you must pay).

You might also notice through Mining or another earner you can try that if you sell in a specific place things will sell faster because of crafter demand. I made quite a large customer base that also comes to me when I sell my Mining results in Bastok Markets, for example.

Obviously this is not going to get you a massive 1,000,000 payout or anything like that, but it is a good source of income for someone not wishing to try levelling a craft.

Earning Commission
If you get a craft to Lv100 (congratulations on that!) you must now look at other ways to make money. Of course you can farm and sell HQ results of lower level things, but there are other methods available to you now. As I hinted at above, Linkshells will often look for high skill level crafters to make things for them from God drops and so on. This is a chance for you to make money. If you hang around in Lower Jeuno you might see people doing shouts which are asking for help to make an item. Basically they provide the crystal and ingredients. All you need to do is try and craft what they ask for. However, why should you do this for free? Charge people for the trouble of what you are doing for them. Base this fee on what the item is that you are making for them.

As an example (it would vary from person to person), I know someone who wanted a Scorpion Harness made for him and he paid the crafter who did it 200,000 Gil commission. Set your own prices and what you are happy with.

Summary
Assuming you have a crafting skill level either double that of an item you are trying to craft (thus making the chance of HQ much better) or near enough maxed out you can make double the usual Auction House value per successful craft. If you manage to get an HQ version of an extremely good piece of equipment like Scorpion Harness you will make a one time profit of a few million Gil. The amount of investment any craft requires is purely based on how many of the ingredients you are willing to farm for yourself. If you farm for all the ingredients and even the crystals you require levelling a craft will technically cost nothing (with the exception of completing the level tests).

You can farm yag necklaces or buy for ~300 windy AH. The yield is 3 for a low synth and up to 9 for HQ. But on average its 3. So 3×300=900g a stack, usually 1.5-3k on AH. Do as many as possible because you go through thread quick when makin cloth. Also it’s a very good way to make some quick cash HQ’ing these at high lvl’s cause you can make stacks that sell relativley easy. I recomend selling them in sandy cause the thread is used in leathercraft and price is jacked up a little there do to lack of materials.

0-4 Grass Cloth
Earth Crystal
Grass Thread x3

You should have saved most of the thread you have made. Most likely its gonna take about 8-10 stacks of thread to make it lvl 4.

4-8 Cape
Earth Crystal
Grass Cloth x2
Grass Thread

Very easy synth. 500g on Kujata’s Jueno AH for some reason and they sell good. Don’t ask me why. Most likely you will sell these to NPC for I think about 30 gil.

8-10 Hachimaki
Wind Crystal
Grass Cloth x2

Again a easy synth. You might have to make more grass cloth at this point but it should be easy. These don’t sell in AH. So you can sell to NPC or you can always desynth what you make. Just remember that you will fail just as much as you will success.

10-19 Linen Thread
Lightning Crystal
Flax Flower x2 ——-sold at guild, don’t buy at AH due to inflated prices.

What can I say, this is cheap and easy, plus you need a lot of it. Linen thread is also a great seller in AH, ranging from 12-16k in AH.

19-22 Linen Cloth
Earth Crystal
Linen Thread x3

Not a bad profit selling stacks on AH if you start from scratch. You can also do yag fletchings earlier but if you make your linen thread>linen cloth>you can make a profit rather than loss with fletchings.

23-27 Heko Obi
Earth Crystal
Grass Thread
Cotton Cloth x2

Your gonna lose some gil here. Sells to NPC for about 160-200 gil. You can also do fly lures, but it requires a little bone skill.

27-30 Fisherman’s Tunica
Earth Crystal
Linen Thread
Linen Cloth
Sheep Leather
Cotton Cloth x3

Cost a little more to make, can’t remember specifics, but it sells quick in most towns. I’d did this during the fish botting era so everyone was fishing and these sold fast for profit.

30-35 Wool Thread
Lightning Crystal
Sheep Wool x2

Sheep Wool is about is hard to come by sometimes. You can camp the guild in Sandy and buy it there though for cheap or you can farm sheepskins. This is a good time to level up some leathercraft on the side doing sheepskinX2+Wind crystal=Sheep wool. Oh, and btw you need to make a lot of it.

35-37 Wool Cloth
Earth Crystal
Wool Thread x3

I do not recomend selling stacks on the AH as a moneymaker due to the fact you will prolly lose cash or break even. Wool isn’t used in too many recipes for skillup or high level HQ items.

37-42 Bird Fletching
Wind Crystal
Bird Feather x2

So cheap, So easy. You should fly through these lvls if you sell to NPC and can handle small loss. The fletchings sell for crap to NPC but you can sell at Jueno or Sandy AH or bazaar in front of woodworking guilds to high level woodworkers that make arrows from these. Usually sell for 1.5k-3k. Also if your gonna do the AH route have patience cause your invtentory fills up quick during these levels, cause one stack of bird feathers makes 6 stacks of fletchings.

42-52 Insect Fletching
Wind Crystal
Insect Wing x2

Same as bird fletchings, but easy to obtain while leveling one your character through the 45-50 cause all you do is fight beetles. I saved all mine and ended up with about 9 stacks.

51-53 Silk Cloth
Earth Crystal
Silk Thread x3

The cloth sells really quick if you wanna use this as your money maker. And the thread is always in stock do to lower lvl players and gil farmers making a easy buck. Cloth sells for 30-32k sometimes cheaper when I was in this phase but unfortunantley it shot up to over 130k. ; ;

53-62 Green Ribbon
Wind Crystal
Silk Cloth

This is why people always buy the cloth right here, everyone seems to be doing this part forever. This the cheapest way to raise skill through these levels also. So this also becomes very important to make your own cloth, because your gonna need every bit of cash you have to make it through this part. The green ribbon sells for ~2k to NPC. The only real advice I have here is know a high level clothcrafter to desynth these back down for you so you don’t break the bank.

62-69 Silk Headband
Earth Crystal
Silk Cloth
Carbon Fiber

The headband sells to NPC for about 2.2k. This is a slow part cause after 60 the skill-ups slow down to a halt. This part also helps to have a high level alchemist who can make carbon fiber from bomb ash. That will definately cut down on the cost.

69-72 Black Chocobo Fletchings
Wind Crystal
Black Chocobo Feather x2

This part sucked so far for me. Each feather sells for about 1.2k in Windy choco stable only when windy is first in conquest AND you have to be windhurstian to buy. Thank god I had a mule to buy it for me. But if you have patience you can sell these in any AH for about 4-5k, sometimes up to 10k in sandy due to woodworkers makin arrows.

72-78 Rainbow Thread
Lightning Crystal
Spiderweb x2

When I did this the webs were only 5-6k each. Now since people seemed to have effd up the market it has jumped to like 10k-15k each. You can sell these for ~350k a stack at Jueno or Windy AH. Sells quite well.

78-80 Rainbow Cloth
Earth Crystal
Rainbow Thread x3

This sucks to fail but in the end you can make small profit selling on AH in Jueno. There are other routes around this, but this is what I did because I saved all my thread.

80-82 Jester Headbands
Earth Crystal
Dodge Headband
Linen Cloth
Cotton Thread

Alla says this caps at 81, but I’m sure I capped this out at 82. These are dropped from Malboros in Rolanberry, or you can buy on AH for like 2k. This is the alternative to rainbow cloth if you start them earlier. Sell to NPC for loss.

82-85 Devotee’s Mitts
Earth Crystal
Zealot’s Mitts
Linen Thread
Silk Cloth

Zealot’s mitts sell on every AH, so you gotta do some traveling. They sell for more than devotee’s do because people know that these are used more for skill up rather than equips. Make them and resell on AH for loss. You can also do Masters Sitabaki for less, but sometimes can be a little more difficult to find on AH.

85-88 Ahrat’s Hakama
Earth Crytal
Silk Cloth x2
Velvet Cloth x2
Silk Thread
Sheep Leather x2

It uses a lot of materials, but it is the cheapest route for this level gap. You can sell on AH for practically the same price as selling to NPC just without the tax.

88-94 Errant Slops
Earth crystal
Rainbow Thread
Ram Leather
Silk Cloth x2
Velvet Cloth x2

Lot’s of money is lost in this period. Alternative is Giant Bird Fletchings which don’t sell on AH. Because of the prices of the feathers for a stack and what they sell for to NPC you can actually do better off on errant slops. But it is very server dependant and they are rarely in stock.

94-95 Elite Beret
Earth Crystal
War Beret
Pheonix Feather

War Beret’s are crafted by high level leathercrafters and sold for ~30k on AH. You can resell on AH for ~20k which sell very poorly. This is very cheap for a 90+ synth and you can start ealier if you can get items in stock.

95-98 Dance Shoes
Earth Crystal
Moccasins
Rainbow Thread
Rainbow Cloth

These will hurt you and they hurt bad.

98-100 Dalamatica or Errant Cape

Being Planned is key to this, first you will need some items and at least 50~60k Gil (you’ll need to adjust on your world’s AH prices) and your 2hr Astral Flow needs to be usable!! you only have a 15Min time limit!!!

Also you need to Cap or be close to capping Your Summoner Magic skill seeing as your going after an avatar and can only have Carbuncle!

you will at least want in gear the whole “Trader’s Set” ( Hat: Trader’s Chapeau Hands: Trader’s cuffs Feet: Trader’s Pigaches Body: Trader’s Saio
Legs: Trader’s Slops ) as they are the best stuff you can get on a budget for smn (if you don’t already prepare to spend a good 250 to 450k as prices are going wacko for this set) if you have Gil to burn like its nothing, Grab the Barron gear (+1 versions w/ some parts have + INT or + MND)

as for a Weapon NORMALLY people say the Mercenary’s Pole is bets NOT!! you want to bring with you the Hermits wand because of its Spell interruption rate down ( This is key w/ Shiva and Ifrit as they like to try to hit you as much as they can)

Medicines and Foods needed!

1: 4 Ethers or 8 Muslums (it has to be normal ethers not high ones!!)
2: Some Defense Food (Boiled or steamed crab will do)
3: 2 Yagudo Drink’s
4: at least 2 Hi-Potions maybe 3

yes i know from the Start, it sounds too expensive, trust me the gear and wand make it worth it in Quifim Island, but after your geared up the other trips are only at the cost of the food and medicines (Ethers and potions)

Now that we’re prepared we’re ready for the avatar!! make sure you have your Mini tuning fork for the requested avatar. talk to the elvaan, galka,hume etc thats usually standing next to the Prime smn avatar and they will warp you to the Protocrystal.

Now plan this ahead!!

First and foremost!: Go on the avitar’s opposite day/weakest day. going to say Shiva on iceday is a wish (lol)

heres a List of days and opposite days and what the avatar is:

List:
Firesday (Ifrit): Strong to: ICE Weak to: Water
Earthsday (Titan): Strong to: Lighting Weak to: Wind
Watersday (Leviathan): Strong to: Fire Weak to: Lighting
Windsday (Garuda): Strong to: Earth Weak to: Ice
Iceday (Shiva): Strong to: Wind Weak to: Fire
Lightingday (Ramuh): Strong to: Water Weak to: Earth

(Extra days related to Fenrir and Diablos)
Lightsday (Carbuncle) Opposes Darksday
Darksday: (Fenrir and Diablos) Opposes Lightsday
(to get Fenrir you need to beat all primes and keep their whispers and diablos you ,must complete CoP 3-5 Darkness Named Diablos)

you want to cast Protect and shell on yourself (better off if you have a high lv whm give you shell IV and protect IV be4 you go.

go over in your mind “Am i ready?” , ” do i have everything i need?” ” and am i all set?”

once your sure your ready, have your protect and shell, trade the mini tuning fork o of the correct smn to the proto crystal and you’ll get a CS! and then after your in

“OK lets kill!!” NO wait this is where you need to have the Strategy in hand

1: your 2hr must be ready to use or you are seriously Boned! (because you haveto wait 1 RL Japanese new day be4 going back in same protocrystal)

2: Once in come to the bend (just as you can start seeing the avatar) Eat Crab, Consume a Yag Drink and Summon Carbuncle.

3: Have him attack the avatar AND ASAP Use your 2hr “Astral Flow” and have Carbuncle use Searing Light.

4: After he uses it run to other side… consume an ether and heal and TRY for atleast 56 or 61 MP because thats how much you need to get Searing light to go off if it dips under that somehow use an ether.

Repeat this till its dead. this is also known as “Multiple Astral Flow Trick”

NOW for Ramuh this trick is basically the same EXCEPT for one thing!, dont go on the avatar’s Opposite day. yes i know “What’s he thinking??” trust me Go on Lightsday because of 1: Carby and you have a Better resistance to Paralyze and 2: its Carbuncle’s strongest day just adjust this w/ an extra hi-potion and maybe some medicine to cure paralysis and if carby gets hit w/ it release and summon him quick..

“is there cap fights for Diablos and Fenrir?” (as much as we do for fenrir) NO there isnt some sites say yes but thats a bunch of bull**** Fenrir is your reward for Prime fights and Diablos is a CoP mission

a lengthy guide BUT this has all the information you will need Good luck and Enjoy the job of Summoner! (trust me its Kick ass in higher lvs it starts paying off around lv 30)

Melyon in Selbina will pay premium price for any of the following:
Five heads of La theine cabbage (100gil)
Three ears of millioncorn (120gil)
One clump of boyahda moss (600gil).

Grab 10 stacks of Boyahda Moss and go to Selbina and hand it in to Melyon. For every 1 you
turn in, he will give you 600 gil and some fame San D’Oria and Bastok. This fame in turn boosts
your fame in Jeuno since “All roads lead to Jeuno”. You can only hand in 1 at a time. Total hand
in time for 10 stacks is about 40 minutes and will bring your fame to 6 in Jeuno. You can check in
Lower Jeuno with the NPC called Mendi outside the Magic shop.

The moss is often for sale for about 500-600 gil a piece in AH, so you might even break even on
gil or turn a slight profit. 10 stacks of 12 costs roughly 72,000-75,000 and I remember making most of it back if not a slight profit. Now if you don’t have the capital to do this all at once, then buy one or two stacks at a time until you have fame desired. After you attain fame 6, the returns are diminishing in that you don’t get as much fame increase per stack as you used to.

If you can’t find any moss in the AH, they are dropped from Goobues - the big grey/green looking monsters:

Ancient Goobbue - lvl 74-77 Boyahda Tree
Elder Goobbue - lvl 74-77 Boyahda Tree
Goobbue Lvl 22-25 Pashow Marshlands
Goobbue Farmer Lvl 28-32 Rolanberry Fields
Goobue Gardener Lvl 40-43 Zi’Tah Sancutary
Jolly Green Lvl 27-28 Pashow Marshlands
Old Goobbue Lvl 65-68 Boyahda Tree

After you have properly equipped yourself, clear out your inventory as much as possible, at this point you should only have your 4 pieces of mining gear, your linkshell, and mabey a piece of head armor and a weapon to get you by in case you get aggro.

Next, your going to need to pick up some pickaxes which are sold by various NPCs in town. They generally sell around 200 gil, more or less depending on your fame.Pick up 2 or 3 stacks of them to avoid constand trips back to town.

Bastok Mines- Boytz (H-7)
Bastok Port- Numa (E-7)
Upper Jeuno- Champalpieu (G-6)
South San d’Oria- Ostalie (F-9)
Windurst Waters- Upih Khachla (H-9)

At this point you should have 10 items in your inventory max, leaving you 20 spaces for nothin but ores. Nextly and most importantly, chosing your location. Theres alot of places to mine, but depending on your level, you should be in different places. The most important thing is not to mine in places where you’re going to pick up aggro. Theres more places than these, but heres some of the popular spots.

Zeruhn Mines–Pretty much for low lvls, almost anyone over level 5 can come here and mine with no problem. Common ores here are Copper, tin, zinc, iron, and silver. The less common are silver and darksteel, which are defenately keepers, they sell decently, between 5k-10k.

Palborough Mines– Good for around level 20-30. Common ores are Copper, tin, zinc, and silver. Rare ores are Iron, mythril, platinum, and silver. The problem with palborough is that you cant get gold or darksteel ores, so theres really not much thats going to make this trip worthwile, the most expensive ore you’ll get here is still less than 1k. Not the best place to mine, but its there.

Yughott Grotto– An all around great place to mine around level 35. Common ores here are Copper, tin, zinc, iron, and silver. Rare ores are iron, flint stones, and most importantly, your main money makers, Gold and Darksteel. You should keep mining here until around 40.

Gusgen Mines– This is a very confusing area, so it is a good idea to do the quest to get the map before you go and in case you get lost, its a good idea to pick up a scroll of instant warp for 750 conquest points at the gate guard.

When you get to be around 40, you can come here and mine the upper level, and around 45 you can mine the lower levels. Here, you can get copper, tin, zinc, and iron easily. The harder drops to get are Silver, Gold, Darksteel, and you can also get colored stones. You can get a different colored stone depending on the day of the week.

Firesday- Red stone
Iceday- Translucent stone
Windsday- Green Stone
Earthsday- Yellow stone
Lightningday- Purple stone
Watersday- Blue stone
Lightsday- White stone
Darksday- Black stone

You can pretty much just mine in Gusgen as long as you want, but if you decide you want something more exciting, you could always try Ifrit’s Cauldron. Load up on silent oils and Prism powders when you go and try to avoid anything that moves. Note that a whm cant just go in and sneak/invisible themself, there are bombs there that will aggro by magic. It’s a pretty dangerous, but if you get an Adaman ore, it will be worth it. They sell for 80k-100k.

Mining Strategy

you should always buy or quest for the map of an area you are going to mine in. When you find a mining point, mark it down in your markers on the map, this will help you to memorize all of the points in the area. When you start to memorize all of the points, plan a route to travel. Try to plan it so that you pass as many mining points as possible in the shortest ammount of time. Travel around your route and pick up as much ore as possible. When you fill up your inventory, filter out things like pebbles, flint stones, or copper ores in order to make room for more expensive ores. I would just repeat this until you are out of pickaxes and have a full inventory. At this point, just return to town and put your ores up at the AH. It will also be helpful to have 1 or 2 extra characters to send items to so you can have a maximum of 21 items selling at the AH at once, this will greatly speed up the process. That’s pretty much all you need to know to start mining, I hope this helped you. Good luck everyone!

NOTICE

As a side note to all you miners, when you sell ores, check the price history and please don’t undercut prices in order to make your items sell faster. This will just hurt you in the long run. As a result of people undercutting, i have seen the price of darksteel ore drop from 8k-5k. So everyone please…dont undercut.

Getting fame is pretty slow, especially trying to get fame for each nation.But there is a way to level up your fame in Jeuno,Bastok and San D’oria fast at the same time.

First you will need alot of inventory slots, then go to the npc in San D’oria and get about 30 stacks of La’Thiene cabbeges, or just buy some in the Auction House.Next go to Selbina and talk to the guy who takes care of sheeps.Trade him all of your La’Thiene cabbeges,until you have no more.

He only takes 5 at a time though, so it will take a few moments.If you keep repeating these steps, you will get Lv5 fame in Jeuno and about lv3-5 fame in Bastok and San D’oria in less than a hour.

NOTE: **** You must have reached Chains of Promathia mission 2-5 or above to have access to Monarch Linn. ****

Walkthrough on how to activate and reach the battle.

1. Talk to Morangeart in the Tavnazian Safehold (G-10 on the main floor).

2. If you have sufficient access rights, Morangeart will give you the key item “Monarch Beard”.

3. Travel through either ‘Riverne - Site #A01′ or ‘Riverne - Site #B01′ normally to Monarch Linn. If you have access to ‘Riverne - Site #B01′ it can be easier to go through this way as only one Giant Scale is required to get through to the Battlefield via this route.

4. Once at Monarch Linn, you will be able to choose one of the ENM battles at the battlefield. This is the same location as the CoP mission battle. Note that you can complete both an ENM and the mission battle while at Monarch Linn, if you wish.

When you start the battle Razorn gets a Random Element. If this element is casted on it, it will self destruct. With there only being 6 elements (Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Ice, Lightning) there is only a 1/6 chance of it going boom. (No, Dark and Light will never make it go boom.)

Also by chance, 1/6 also I believe, the Self-Destructs can do damage. I never seems to do much damage to me, so i don’t know what this “loads of damage is” lol.

But all in all, It’s an Easy NM. Me(SMN) and WHM friend recently brought along a NIN that helped us kill Fire Drakes.

But in 6 runs we’ve gotten:
1 - Thugs Zamburak
2 - Crossbowmans Ring
3 - Ether Ring
4 - Woodsman Ring
5 - Woodsman Ring
6 - Woodsman Ring

As for people wanting a strategy, it’s simple.

SMN Goes in, Summon Ifrit after WHM buffs up, then runs to NM and Astral Flow. (Doesn’t matter how long Ifrit is out since you will waste all MP soon anyways)

Then you use your Yagudo Drink, and Inferno the bish. Also at the same time, the WHM should be casting Banishga II.

Use a Hi-Ether and run to other side of Arena and wait for ifrit do die. Resummon, don’t sic, WHM starts casting Banishga II again while you Inferno.

That should of killed it, i’ve only ever needed to 2hr twice, and if not, WHM can cast a quick Banish II or Banishga II.

Summoners are also capable of soloing this ENM by using the strategy that most people us for avatar fights. This includes: Astral Flow, run away, recast carby, and astral flow again. Having whm subbed is important because a Banishaga 2 can also be used to finish off any remaining HP.

Red mages can solo this by using Chainspell and spamming a nuke spell. Rdm/Blm is recommended for the added INT and elemental seal. Just remember to put aquaveil, stoneskin, blink, and phalanx on before engaging in case you need to finish off Razon with close combat.

*Note that there are four ENMs in this battlefield; you can enter a specific battlefield for ENMs once every 5 Earth days, so is it possible to complete only one of the four ENMs in Monarch Linn once every 5 days.