Money Test

[kyus]

I read a lot of boards on 'money is so hard' and 'how do you make money?' and 'don't play ranger unless you are ready to spend lots of gil' and 'use iron arrows, they are not that much worse.'

These are some of the top concerns and questions about making money, so Yava and I (Kiky) decided to run a test on making money.

I was farming with a 30 RNG / 15 THI in Tahrongi.
Yava is a 30 THI / 15 NIN, and was farming in Ghelsba.

We are both on the Pandemonium server.

First, we both cleared out all of our AH inventory and tossed all our Gil on a mule. We both have multiple players (an extra 3 dollars a month to put a character in each town is VERY worth it, I pay 4 dollars and have one in Jueno as well). Then we decided on a time limit, 4 hours. We timed it by firing off our 2H to start, and stopped when we shot off the 2H for the 3rd time. (so it might be a few minutes after 4 hours). Yava had to leave around the 3 hour mark.

Techniques:

I took advantage of my Ranger widescan and hunted Wind Elementals in Tahrongi. I killed them with bone arrows. I did not even bother with Earth. When there was not wind weather, I would kill bee's and mands. I also used Steal every 5 minutes on mands to steal Sagu Cotton. At night I killed Ghosts. Also, I killed Crawlers when I had 100+ TP to burn a flame arrow on them.

Wind Cluster = 1.5k average drop was 2 of these per Air Elemental.
Sagu Cotton (dropped off mands) = 4k a stack
Cotton Squares (dropped off ghosts) = 7.5k a stack
Bee Chips (dropped off bee's) = 4k a stack
Honey (Dropped off bee's) = 1k a stack
Silk (Dropped off Crawlers) = 10k a stack

I sold Wind in San Doria, Cotton and Chips in Windurst, leftovers in Bastok. I had around 30 slots of items in the AH. (Thank you Kikysan, Kikyba, Kikywi, and Skyler *smirk*)

Also, I have 2 accounts (a lvl 15 whm) so I could lower downtime on elements by healing myself and have extra space before running to town.

After I was done, I put all stacks I made in 4 hours into the AH, and put the rest in a Bazzar mode and went to sleep.

--

Yava mass killed beastmen in Ghelsba. He also got many garlic drops and (doing this from memory) black slack drops (3k a pop). I'm unsure how much garlic goes for, but I know it was his money maker along with BeastCoins (~1k a stack) and Silver BeastCoints (~5k a stack). However, his money did not mainly come from selling items like mine, his money came from Gil Finder and killing beastmen. On average, the gil drops were ~40 gil. He did NOT have a 2nd character helping him. At the end of 3 hours (he had to leave early) he posted everything in the AH (on multiple characters, 7 slots just isn't enough), put the rest in Bazzar mode, and went to bed.

--

We farmed hard and non-stop. We did not chat on our LS much at all, and did not watch TV or get up to get a soda every 5 minutes. We went at this hardcore for 3-4 hours.

--

The next morning, I woke up and EVERYTHING sold in the AH, and I had a very few things left in Bazzar mode.

Yava sold most of his stuff, but had a few black slacks left over. (I hate saying black slacks, because I know it was something else but was close to black slacks ;p)

--

Summary:

In 4 hours, with 0 Gil on my main character, and nothing in the AH but stuff I farmed in 4 hours - I made 68,000 Gil.

In 3 hours, with 0 Gil on his character, and nothing in the AH but stuff he farmed in 3 - 3.5 hours - Yava made 42,000 Gil.

I took my earnings, and made 4 stacks of quivered Silver Arrows (durning my lunch break) : 4742 arrows (can finally make beetle now! Can't wait to be able to make horn ^^, btw: Silver Arrows are also _more_ expensive than Horn to make) and made a stack and some Shihei (since I'm RNG/NIN for exp, I failed on some of my makes on Shihei, since I was only 29-30 WW) My average game day is ~4 hours of play. In 1 day I made enough money for 4742 arrows (quivered) and plenty of Blink Powder (which I don't even use that much unless we don't have enough provokers or one good enough to hold aggro).

I have no idea how long 4742 arrows is going to last me since I have not level my ranger past 30, but I hope it is for at least 3-4 days of play. Because by 4 days of leveling, I'll be ready to woop some more elemental butt! This time, in La Theine!

Not sure what Yava did with his money, but I'm sure I could find a use for it ^^

[Biterman]

Hey, cool post dude. 68k gil is a nice figure for 4 hours of regular mob farming. NM hunting can yield you more, but hey, at least regular mobs in Tahrongi arent camped to death. ^^

[tonka]

Nice test, looks like a Ranger with scan could be a very good money job to help offset those costs.

One question, how much does garlic actually go for on your server? On Garuda depending on whether or not Kolshushu is beastman or not, garlic fluctuates from 1.5k per stack to 7k per stack.

[Negorath]

CAN is a big factor when NM hunting >_<

[Cobalt Katze]

I have no idea how long 4742 arrows is going to last me since I have not level my ranger past 30, but I hope it is for at least 3-4 days of play.

Once you get barrage, it'll probably be averaging 2 stacks every hour. This is considering you shoot once, melee hit once, then shoot again.. on average anyways. Having also played mage jobs, you really get to notice where the hate of the enemy's pointing. So if I think I can get away with more ranged hits, I'll take the opportunity. If I've just gained a whole bunch of hate from WS or Barrage, I'll usually slow down my rate of fire to compensate and let the tank establish some more hate.

Congrats on raising your carpentry skill though. It's a bit more expensive for ya, as far as aquiring arrows, but once you can make beetle>horn>scorp>demon(eventually) arrows I'm sure it'll pay off.

[Sadeira]

i say rng/thf have an easier time farming than most other classes. wide scan helps you find mobs that you want to hunt and th1 just helps in general drop wise. but then again, rng/thf also have to make the most money to keep their bows or guns up to date and to have enough ammo to keep going. high level thf have the easiest time making money because of th2/steal/gil finder. my friend always steals mythril beastcoins in badeaux from quadavs. he's only level 38 but he has made some major cash by doing so even if there is a chance steal will fail. and if nothing else, he subs rng and kills rams in konschtat or la theine.

[Sinzer]

Slightly unfair test really seen as Tahrongi has better drops than Ghelsba IMO. Most of the stuff in Tahrongi drops wanted quest and craftskill items.

Windy is the place to farm around 30, Giddeous is actually pretty good as well if you want to level cloth on the side.

Thanks for the tips on Ghost tho didn't realise they dropped cloth squares :)

Now if I only I could find something that dropped linen.

[Sadeira]

if you want linen cloth, just bring some sickles, wear some harvesting eq, and run around giddeus like a yagudo with your head cut off. i got a stack of flax flowers with 6 sickles and no eq in one day. i haven't sold them because i want to use them for cloth crafting :)

[kyus]

"plenty of Blink Powder (which I don't even use that much unless we don't have enough provokers or one good enough to hold aggro)."

I can not believe how WRONG I was about this. Shooting silver arrows with Meat Mithkabobs hit for about 90-100 damage on Siege Bats in the Citadel. My Barrage does from 250 - 400 damage. Piercing Arrow does 240+ charged.

I was in a group with PLD, BLM, RNG (Me), RNG (with Bone Arrows /cry), WHM, DRK.

At first I tried to control aggro, it was so bad that I had to shoot then melee twice. Even then I would pull aggro when I used my WS. I dropped down to Beetle Arrows (cheaper than silver) to shoot off my barrage, and would still draw aggro.

---
BTW: At level 32 with EXACT equipment and Sub (NIN) and both eating Meat Kabobs, I was shooting silvers and hitting for 90-92, the other Ranger with Bone arrows was shooting bone arrows and hitting for 72-74 vs Siege Bats. Versus Beetles I was hitting for 52's and the other ranger was hitting for 42's. Arrows make a huge difference; please fellow rangers, use good arrows.
---

We were doing lots of damage with 2 RNGs, BLM, DRK so the bats were going down pretty fast, but the bats were ping-ponging all over.

Finally, I said, 'Let me Tank'. Of course I got all kinds of giggles, but they finally said, 'Sure ;p'. I would pull, PLD would voke it off, I Blinked and unloaded. Took about 2-3 shots and I had aggro. I would shoot a couple more times, then re-blink. I took about 3 hits after the 2nd blink fell until the bat was dead. We had virtually NO downtime. About 30 minutes later, our PLD had to leave - we replaced him with another BLM. I continued to tank for the next 4-5 hours.

I went through about 2 quiver stacks of silver arrows, 3 stacks of Shiehi (ms) for blink, and a stack of Meat Mithkabobs. Our party consisted of BLM, BLM, RNG, RNG, DRK, WHM. I made 3 and a half levels. Was probably the fasting leveling I did since lvl 16-20 in the Maze soloing worms.

I know I will probably never get a chance to tank again as ranger, but for 5 hours, I played main tank and it was a blast =)

I still have 2 stacks of silver quivers, and a LOT of meatmithkabobs (I always thought these were expensive until I found out how LONG a stack of 12 goes for, 6 hours of leveling = LOTS of arrows and blink powder, making meatmithkabobs very cheap in comparison. It is amazing how much more damage you can do with meatmithkabobs. I'm 100% addicted to them and even farm with them) I had to make trips back to Jueno to buy more sheihi (note to self: Make A LOT more blink powder next time) Jueno they are 5.5k a stack of 99 (damn tax)! I can make them for MUCH cheaper.

If it wasn't for the fact I need to farm for Drone Earrings now, I think I have another 2-3 levels in me from the farming I did on the 'Money Test'. 1 day of farming let me fire off top of the line arrows, eat top of the line meat, and tank a party for almost 4 levels, and I KNOW I can use the same arrows, meat and blink powder for at least another 3 levels. 1 Day of farming for levels 32-39.

Cost an issue for rangers up to level 40? Hardley. More then most classes? Of course.

Am I going to get an invite before the RNG shooting bone arrows who didn't have ninja blink? I guarentee it.

Money for a Ranger goes to feed Damage, Livability (is that a word?), accuracy and usefullness. It also goes into an invisible pool called Karma. The more you bring to a party, the less downtime you have looking for a party.

Final Phrase: Don't be cheap, this is a game where the value you add to a party buys you reputation, and in the end it doesn't matter how much damage you do, how uber you are, how much money you have, how well you tank; it matters how many friends you have, because you can not accomplish anything alone in this game. And you build that friend-base in the PreGame and MidGame.

[Sadeira]

this is very true. when i see a mage hanging around the crawlers' nest waiting for a party wearing linen gear, i only think one thing... CHEAPSKATE. level chasers may not have the latest spells because they look cheap and will not have anything to offer to parties. if you have nothing to offer, then you cannot possibly level because no one will invite you. rng and mages require a lot of gil to maintain and if one is not willing to go gil farming to keep up with their eq and spells then they don't deserve to get in parties.

[kyus]

Hi Sinzer :)

"Slightly unfair test really seen as Tahrongi has better drops than Ghelsba IMO. Most of the stuff in Tahrongi drops wanted quest and craftskill items."

Our aim in the test was not to compete, but to optimize our income for our classes. I could not have made the money he did mass killing for Gil, and he could not have made the money I did using Wide Scan for elementals. (He could have! but didnt' have RNG sub or a 2nd character to mule around) Honestly, we made simular rates, because I went for 4 hours and he went for 3 hours. I also had an advantage with a WHM running around with me and an additional 25 slots of inventory. (I'm so used to playing 2 characters, did it in EQ and DAoC as well =)

Hi Sadeira :)

I am leveling my thief to 30 now! After seeing the success Yava had with his thief, I'm going to rush my thief sub to 30 and start farming with Thi/Rng. I personally think this is probably the best combo for farming Gil. Minus of course NM hunting, but I have terrible luck camping items, so I try to find more stable source of income =)


PS: I would really like to hear from some AE farmers and Dia/Blaze Spike farmers. I have heard good things about the money you guys can bring in, and I'm curious on how well you guys do and some areas you guys AE/DS kill in =)

[Sinzer]

I don't find mass killing for gil all that helpful.

The most money I make is from simply running around in Tahrongi killing anything that moves :)

You get the real nice items like Gob armour and Femur bones, simply get a choco back to town put on AH and go out again, takes about 10 mins to get back and forth if you farm near the crag. I call them nice cos they sell in about 30secs, you can put them on go back out and it is cleared straight away.

62K for 4 hours is pretty good though.

[Negorath]

PS: I would really like to hear from some AE farmers and Dia/Blaze Spike farmers. I have heard good things about the money you guys can bring in, and I'm curious on how well you guys do and some areas you guys AE/DS kill in =)

I have a friend doing this (BLM) all he does is go to some lowbie area where mostly all the monsters link, make a HUGE! train, I'm talking like 30-50 monsters at a time, train them to an open area, make them stand in a group, Fireaga II! mass deathage. I'm not sure on how much he's making though, haven't bothered asking, but he's been doing this in Valkurm etc.

[FeralisCallidus]

Yeah, but it seems that ever since the patch it is harder to hold aggro~ a bee will go off on a tangent about 5 minutes after I maim it, making it difficult to mass-train.

[Brer Fox]

They should actually fix that, kind of an exploit. If they haven't already. I, too, have noticed most creature-type enemies give up so easily now, they de-aggro if you get fifty feet on them. From what I've seen, undead and beastmen are slacking off as well.

It also leads to mass lamage by training a platoon of aggro to a zone or something.

[Kenki]

O.o 64k now that's so cool. I made the same amount in 8hrs by crafting T-T. I must farm~! So you have rng/thf right? hmm so so down time but I think a thief sub willl be good ^^. train train thief yay~!

[Melkor]

Thief/Rng would probably work good, you have wide scan and TH2, and Flee every 5 minutes to get around a little faster.

[Spider-Dan]

kyus, do you know if your friend was fighting mainly against tier 2 or tier 3 orcs? Most of the tier 3 orcs are in Yughott, not Ghelsba, but you mentioned that he was stealing stacks of Silver Beastcoins, which are tier 3-4 only, so I wanted to know for sure.

[kyus]

Hi Spider-Dan ,

"kyus, do you know if your friend was fighting mainly against tier 2 or tier 3 orcs? Most of the tier 3 orcs are in Yughott, not Ghelsba, but you mentioned that he was stealing stacks of Silver Beastcoins, which are tier 3-4 only, so I wanted to know for sure."

I'm not sure if he stole any Silver Beastcoins at all, I know that he did sell them thou. I'm assuming that Ghelsba is like Gideus in the fact that the Tier 2 Yags drop Silver Beastcoins on occasion but when you go to steal, you steal a Beastcoin (don't think I was ever able to steal a Silver Beastcoin).

I will deffinately ask him today, and post answer to your question tomorrow =) If you are refering to Fighters and Cursemakers as tier 3, I do not think he killed these for gil drops.

---

Update: After getting bored of leveling, I decided to farm again. A few things that I picked up that might be helpful to you all.

First, In Tharongi, there is a "C" looking mountain in the middle of the zone. During a weather change (wind for example) an air elemental will spawn in there once every 2.25 - 2.75 game hours. If it is night out, there is a chance a ghost will spawn there. Grenades also spawn there every once in a while. So for the readers that do not have widescan and wish to kill elementals, you can camp that area during a wind/earth storm while killing bee's, mands and ghosts. On average you can catch 3-4 spawns before a weather change.

Also, you can steal cotton squares from ghosts. I can not say this for certain, but it seems steal works more often if you steal before you aggro, that is, use steal to open up the battle. Remember, cotton squares are a GREAT seller item, getting 7.5k a stack and drop VERY often off ghosts.

Wind Crystals on Pandemonium dropped from 1.6k - 1.3k. I went ahead and did my standard Tharongi farm for 4 hours a couple of days ago, and came out with ~58k. I farmed again last night, and I believe (tallying up my drops on my AH accounts) I think I will break 70k if everything sells. I think I did much better on my last round because I used bone arrows to kill EVERYTHING not just elementals. Before I would dagger to death bee's and mands. Using bone arrows to 1 hit all the little guys picked up my killing rate noticiably and was able to run to AH sooner. The cost of arrows were offset with my first Air Elemental kill.

I am also trying other ways of obtaining money.

One such way is to get outstanding faction in an area (I did the Yag neck quest ~60 times to get my ninja blink scroll for my ninja sub) and buy items there for cheap then sell in the AH. I was able to buy some scrolls at 1.1k and resell them for 5k. I was also able to buy a few katanas and resell them for a higher price. The turn around time was not in 1 day like the farmed items in tharongi though.

Another thought was to get boneworking up to 30 orso to start making powerbows +1 for money. I can make money off arrows right now, but I still get a better rate from tharongi farming. Has anyone made good money off crafting +1 items?

I have yet to kill any NMs, but I'm going to have to give it a try sometime =) If any of you are professional NM hunters, please post your experience here =)

---

Also, do not be shy posting up money making ideas/strategies on this board. The people that actually read these boards make up less then 1% of FFXI population and even then they are probably on other servers.

[Serif]

Originally posted by Sadeira
this is very true. when i see a mage hanging around the crawlers' nest waiting for a party wearing linen gear, i only think one thing... CHEAPSKATE. level chasers may not have the latest spells because they look cheap and will not have anything to offer to parties. if you have nothing to offer, then you cannot possibly level because no one will invite you. rng and mages require a lot of gil to maintain and if one is not willing to go gil farming to keep up with their eq and spells then they don't deserve to get in parties.

The only problem I have with you saying that Mages being cheapskates, is the BRD job. Myself, I can not farm for crap. I go to attack To Weak to be Worthwhile Gobbue Farmers and almost die ><;. So have a little leniancy for us BRD Tarus. Even though I have +20 Charisma and Mary's Horn I am still feeling cheap since I don't have all the Carols and Requiem IV. I am not even gonna go into getting Monster Signa. The only way I can usually see BRDs getting money is through BCNM 40 and 60. Oh well, I know you can say, Hey get on your WHM at level 30 and sub your level 15 THF. I have done this before. The only way I can farm with that is if I go to Palborough and use Banishga against a stack of Quadavs. Not a good idea sometimes ;;

[kyus]

Hi Serif :)

Bards can be a double-bladed sword for making money. On one hand, they are probably the hardest class on this game for making money solo.

However, your money maker will be in lvl 40 BCNM fights - like the 8 Mand fight in Gideus. It is _almost_ manditory to have a bard like yourself for these fights. Make a name of yourself by studying how to play the bard 'sleep' role in these battles and people will come beating on your door when they are ready to take on a lvl 40 BCNM battle.

The Gideus BCNM consists of killing 7 white Mands and 1 black Mand. You have to kill them one at a time and the battle takes time. Without sleep, the battle is almost impossible. (I have heard stories of 6 beastmasters being able to beat the BCNM without sleep ^^)

The BCNM battle will reward the party with 6 items, all being very vaulable; some 100k+. And this is repeatable as long as you have Beast Seals.

Bards are very sought after for 40 BCNM fights.

And as a general rule of thumb, you should have thief as your main or sub when farming (for loot or gil). Might as well level that thief to 15 and get it out of the way now, it will continue to pay off for you in the future =)

As for your current gear settup, you are FINE! When I complain about gear, it is when I am in a group with a 31 Samurai without rings, earrings, or a necklace and lvl 17 lizard armor. Or a ranger dual wielding axes, and actually meleeing with them, then shooting off a WS with wooden arrows. These are the people that need to stop leveling for a sec, and make some money =)

[Negorath]

On Phoenix, in Jeuno, the regular Power bows sell for more than the +1 :/ (18k for the regular, 14k for the +1) and they sell somewhat faster aswell actually, considering the regular version is used for the first mog safe quest, every job wants them and are not only limited to the guys who wanna use a good bow.
The money I make varies a lot though, some days they sell faster than others, and in return isn't really a very reliable source of income, but hey, anything helps.

[Serif]

I attempted your strategy in Tahrongi Canyon, and I made around 30k in 2 1/2 hours. This is attacking with a AF1 Dagger that only have 16 attack. And having BRD/THF. Thanks for all the info though.

[tonka]

I doubt gil finder added much to his total income at all. Gil finder is an extra perk but nothing significant. A few hundred more maybe an hour.

You can steal silver beastcoins from L25ish beastmen. This includes the "key" beastmen, Orc Serjent/Cursemaker/Fighter, Copper/Brass/Old Quadav, etc..

I saw people AE farming last week. The most impressive was a taru BLM in Palborough. He cleared the entire second level of quadavs in one set of nukes. I estimate about 20 melee quadavs and about 8 caster quadavs. So whatever fix they put in didn't stop him from AE farming. But i hear that if mobs are "too weak to be worthwhile" then their drop rate is lowered.

[Sinzer]

I doubt gil finder added much to his total income at all.

Gil Finder is a multiplier, so when you fight the higher level beastmen it actually stacks up a lot.

The highest beastmen at 30 THF will drop me around 60-70 gil per peice, a non THF gets about 40-50.

If you are out farming for 4 hours, I can well imagine you will kill a couple hundred mobs.... that is around 4-5K difference, not exactly peanuts.

Still no one should be farming without lv 15 THF sub, you need TH to be anywhere near effective.

Finally got my RNG job unlocked, once I persuaded a high level JP to stop killing the tiger :) Look forward to levelling it this week, widescan seems awesome!

[Brer Fox]

I am currently hunting forest tigers in Jugner and can make a pretty good turn out on selling the fangs and hides, but even with widescan they're a mighty rare spawn, and at 31 they still waste me enough to give me a bit of downtime every two or so, making me rest forever. I've also almost died a few times, one even got me to 14 hp from 200-something, razor fang and claw cyclone do about 150 to me.

I'm going to go out to Tahrongi and try that kill-everything strategy, sounds pretty good.

[Nameless]

I've been using giddeus for my money source.

In an hour I get 3000 and enough yagudo necklaces to fill up my inventory, then stacks of beehive chips (which go for 3,000 gil). So in an hour, if all I'm wearing are my weapons, I can make about 12 thousand gil.

Your method seems better, but since I farm as my THF giddeus is kind of easier. I'll try your method though :)

[tonka]

The highest beastmen at 30 THF will drop me around 60-70 gil per peice, a non THF gets about 40-50.

If you are out farming for 4 hours, I can well imagine you will kill a couple hundred mobs.... that is around 4-5K difference, not exactly peanuts.



Forgive me for being anal about a minor point, but assuming you are killing 1 mob every 2 min, over 4 hours:

30 mob per hour (120 total)
+20 gil per mob

over 4 hours that's 2400 gil. Considering he made almost 70k for his run, i think that's not that big of a bonus.

[Ghaurok]

Well you'll kill more than 120 mobs in 4 hours if you're farming, but to use your numbers:

120 mobs total x 50gil regular drop = 6000gil only

So add 2400 to it and thats a 40% increase in gil.

On a side note, I believe the true number gil find adds is around 25% gil. If I'm right then 4 hours will get you what would take 5 hours without gil find. So in long term farming gil find is very nice to have.