Full Metal Alchemist! - Alchemy 101

[FFXITsukasa]

Ok Alchemists, lets get a guide for our craft. I am not a huge craftsmen but I do enjoy doing it when I have the extra gil. I am a level 2 Alchemist.

Level 0-2
Tsurara
~1 Water Crystal
~1 Rock Salt
~2 Distilled Water

Level 2-4?
Antidote
~1 Water Crystal
~1 Wijnruit
~1 Distilled Water
~1 Cluster or San d'Orian Grapes

Sorry I dont know anymore recipes. Im new at it. I am hoping the higher ups will make the thread worth looking at.

[Cali]

It's... ^^';;

Lv0-7
Tsurara
Ice crystal
Rock salt
Distilled water x2

lvl7-10
Deodorizer(not 100% sure if I got the right recipe)
Wind Crystal
Chammomile
Olive oil
Sage

or alternatively

lvl7-11
Poison dust
lightning crystal
yellow globe x 2

lv11-14
Mercury
lightning crystal
cobalt jelly x 4

Find a good recipe site, like mystery tour, and then, read recipes on lvl 3+ lvls above your current craft skill, and pick the cheapest one, ie earth synthesis with 2 ingredients over fire synthesis with 8 ingredients...

[Hopkins]

14-18
Poison Potions= Mercury + Poison Powder + Water Crystal

Poison powder = 2 yellow globe (fish) + Lightning crystal or 2 giant singers + lightning crystal.

[orts]

18~20 - echo screens
20~24 - silent oilx4(slime oil recipe)

few alts. here

22~25 - glass rod (light crystal + broken glass rod)
23~26 - minnow (lvl10 gs sub needed)
24~29 - silent oilx2(olive oil recipe)
24~29 - glass rod (4xglass fiber, 1xcotton thread, fire crys)

*note you can thunder+gob masks for glass fiber (~21ish recipe)and water+tonberry lanterns for olive oil (~24ish recipe)

29~34 - artificial lens
34~40 - potion (advanced support needed from 34~37)
37~41 - prism powders (using artificial lens)
41~45 - carbon fiber
45~51 - holy water (adv. support from 45~48)

few alts from 51~56

51~54 - carbon rod (if you have carbon fiber saved up)
51~56 - cermet chunk (pot shardx4 if you have money to invest)
51~57 - ice/thunder arrowheads (if you have smithing sub)

54~60 - high potion
55~61 - glass fiber (flintx8)

[grae]

a good alternative for around 21-28 is sairui-ran if you have cooking leveled up to 11 (probably would be okay to have it somewhere between 8 and 11). if you check around to see where to get the ingredients cheapest, you can make a decent profit from these (please check your server AH's first though). also, it doesnt hurt nearly as bad as losing beeswax, and they stack!

earth + bomb ash + kazham pepper + bast parchment + bird egg = 33 sairui-ran

[FFXITsukasa]

I am most interested in making bullets for myself and other Rangers. The lacking supply of bullets is killing the Rangers of Vana' Diel. I plan to make as many bullets as I can and sell them for a price where I break even and get a slight profit, if possibe, because I have been dying to use my gun and I bet alot of other Rangers wanna use their guns too.

[FFXITsukasa]

Wow, this is a really really good thread for Alchemy. With like 13k I got my Alchemy to level 11 from level 5 or something. Made my first Poison Potion and some Mercury, Im so proud of myself. As soon as I get past the current guide level on this thread I will continue to add how I got to the higher ups.

[simplex]

wrong version.

Lv0-7
Tsurara
Ice crystal
Rock salt
Distilled water x2

right version.

Lv0-6
Tsurara
Ice crystal
Rock salt
Distilled water x2

[Venkelos]

I made Kodoku from 15-19

Recipe
Kodoku - 18
Dark Crystal
x1 Elshimo Frog
x1 Shell Bug
x1 Lug Worm

It was actually a pretty good money maker, and fairly reliable skill ups. =-)
This is an excellent thread!

-Venk

[Elaron]

im now lvl 51 but dont know what to craft next... some guy says he did the 8x flintstones and fire crystal synth, but is that really smart to start with when you are 10 lvls below cap?

[Ipwnzuall!!!111]

For the risk of losing 8 flint stones ^_^; I think you'll be okay. 10 levels below is sorta shady, but with adv. image support you'll probably have around 50% failures. Still, it's not a comparatively bad loss for skillups post lvl 50. If all I had to worry about was a potential 1K loss on a failure post 50 I'd have to put a McDonalds cup in my pants just to catch all the happy juice.

[FFXITsukasa]

LOL happy juice. That was interesting to say the least. Lv. 29 Alchemy. /flails
That only took forever....
Making the freakin' Artifical Lens is such a pain, does anyone know what kind of goblins drop goblin masks?

[Patchinko]

I realize this is a little old, but I thought I'd share since I just recently got through the 50s...
Originally posted by Elaron
im now lvl 51 but dont know what to craft next... some guy says he did the 8x flintstones and fire crystal synth, but is that really smart to start with when you are 10 lvls below cap?
First make:

Sleeping Potions (56)
1x Water Crystal
1x Chamomile　(Vendor)
1x Sleepshroom　(AH)
1x Poison Flour (Goblin Mushpot Vendor in LJ or AH)

I'd do them until about 53. They sell briskly at AH, or better yet, save them for skilling up off Sleep Bolt Heads in about 10 levels.

Next make Hi-potions. You can make about 200% profit off them now thanks to Promyvion.

Hi-Potion (60)
1x Water Crystal
2x Sage (Valdeaunia Regional Vendor < AH < Alchemy guild, usually)
1x Malboro Vine　(AH)
1x Distilled Water (Vendor)

Not stackable being the worst point of them. If you have a lot of gobbiebags done, just bazaar them as you sell them on AH. Sell for 1.8-2k in a few hours on Remora at least. I actually took these to 58 and kept making them until 60 because of profit, though I did make a few stacks of venom dust as well (Venom Dust: 1x lightning crystal + 2x scorpion claws or 2x ogre eels), though it's pretty worthless.

Next I'm probably going to do Sleep Bolt Heads, which cap at 67.

Sleep Bolt Heads (67, also req'd: Blacksmithing 14)
1x Wind Crystal
1x Animal Glue　
1x Bronze Ingot　
1x Sleeping Potion

Any other suggestions for getting through the 60s will be appreciated. Seems fairly straightforward, as most of Alchemy has been so far.^^

[FFXITsukasa]

Level 40 Alchemy. Im working my way up there. Crafts are so expensive but I bet later I can make some decent gil. This guide is excellent, it should be stickied.

[nhusted]

I'm currently level 84 Alchemy and this is my guide to getting to 60(find all recipes on FFXI MysteryTour):

0-6 - Tsurara
6-10 - Deodorizer
10-16 - Mercury
16-20 - Echo Drops
20-28 - Sairui-ran (Requires cooking skill at 11. This is a profit item, just put in the little cash requires to hit 11. You also can stop flooding the silent oil market, that used to be profitable ^^)
28-34 - Potion (I know this is a big gap but it can be done, the synth is dirt cheap.)
34-43 - Vitriol (Use treant bulb recipe)
43-51 - Holy Water (Dirt cheap after the rusty cap nerf)
51-60/61/62 - Mixture of Hi-Potions, Glass Fiber(8x flintstone recipe), and Venom Dust.(This is the best way to go about it because of scaracity of the number of resources you'll need. Plus, if you continue Alchemy, you'll need the venom dust)

There you go, 0 to your lower 60s. I didn't lose all that much money on this skill up route, especially since siarui-ran is about 2-2.5k profit a stack. This is a fun craft that really starts getting expensive after 60(just like all the others), so don't let the easy beginnings trick you. Good luck!

BTW, NEVER EVER pay more then 3.5k a stack for beehive chips on Midgard, I want the price to go down ^^

[keoni004]

0-6 - Tsurara
6-10 - Deodorizer
10-16 - Mercury
16-20 - Echo Drops
20-28 - Sairui-ran (Requires cooking skill at 11. This is a profit item, just put in the little cash requires to hit 11. You also can stop flooding the silent oil market, that used to be profitable ^^)
28-34 - Potion (I know this is a big gap but it can be done, the synth is dirt cheap.)
34-43 - Vitriol (Use treant bulb recipe)
43-51 - Holy Water (Dirt cheap after the rusty cap nerf)
51-60/61/62 - Mixture of Hi-Potions, Glass Fiber(8x flintstone recipe), and Venom Dust.(This is the best way to go about it because of scaracity of the number of resources you'll need. Plus, if you continue Alchemy, you'll need the venom dust)


This is the method that got me from 0-49 in two days and it worked great. Te Sairui-ran was actually a great, easy recipe for me to make (cooking @50) and will net me anywhere from 9k-14k/stack when it starts to move. Not too many ninjas using this right now, but I have them stored on mules (about 30 stacks x 5-7k/stack). I sold everything else back to vendor/guild to clear inventory space.

For those who want to power-level, like I kind of did, I went through around 400k to get to 49. Granted I still have around 150k locked up in sairui-ran, and sold most things for a minor-moderate loss. All told, I got from 0-20 in 6 hours of continuous synthing using around 100k, and from 20-49 in 8 hours, using around 300k.

Synthing in the 20s sucks, period, but it is probably the most profitable item I've made which is why I'm storing them for later sale. Leveling from 28-51 is a cinch...super easy synth with support, with minimal ingredients. I love making holy water, so simple, so easy; during the holy water range I was getting at least a level every ten minutes.

Good luck to other future alchemists out there! If you're on Seraph, gimme a /tell.

[Patchinko]

I'm 60 now, but am not sure what to use to skill up. Looking at mysterytour, the Ice and Lightning Arrow synths are tempting, but I'm wondering if they're for real. Can anyone confirm these?

Ice Arrow
Alchemy(65)
Wood(8)
Ice Crystal
Cermet Chunk　
Maple Lumber　
Insect Wing ×2

Lightning Arrow
Alchemy(65)
Wood(?)
Lightning Crystal
Steel Ingot
Arrowwood Lbr.
Insect Wing ×2

Lightning Arrow
Alchemy(65)
Wood(?)
Lightning Crystal
Maple Lumber
Insect Wing ×2
Steel Ingot

Also, assuming they do exist, does the Woodworking cap on the lighning arrows seem to be the same as the one for ice arrows (8)? And is there a similar synth for ice arrows using arrowwood lumber (since there's one for arrowwood and one for maple for lightning)?

Thanks to anyone who could answer this. ^^

[nhusted]

These are the items you're looking at post 60 for the cheapest and fastest skillups (I'll let you figure out the skill caps and recipes):

Venom Dust, Venom Potions, Venom Bolt Heads, Paralysis Dust, Paralysis Potions, Ouka Ranman, Mamushito, Cannon Shells, Paltinum Nuggets, Pannacea, Sun Water, and whatever that lvl 100 potion is called.

[Crowzukin]

DO NOT make the ice and lightning arrows. You will lose a crap load of money. For example, the lightning arrows on Fairy sell for 5k gil per stack of 99, but as you can see, one of the ingredients is a steel ingot, which itself sells for 4-5k. But you only get 33 arrows from one synth (assuming you don't get a HQ), so you are losing major gil.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the reason why the arrows sell for so little is that you can make them more cheaply through Woodworking.

[FFXITsukasa]

Well my Ranger friend wants to try some of my ammunition that I can make with Alchemy and since I am also leveling my Smithing then eventually I wil be able to synth steel ingots. Im gonna take smithing to 30 or 40 for making bullets and elemental arrows. I got to level 51 Alchemy last night, so of the low levels in my LS are currently saving all their Flint Stones for me so once I get a stock pile of those I will stop smithing and return to Alchemy. I'm still trying to get rid of all my Carbon Rods. :/

[Grizzlebeard]

/bump

Keeping this near the top.

[Grizzlebeard]

(51) Holy Water - Very cheap to make and good skill raiser
(58) Cermet Chunks - Expensive investment but you don't lose too much money on the combines
(62) Venom Dust - Lightning + Ogre Eel x2 - A nice welcome break from the expensive Cermet recipe. Ogre eels roughly 2k a stack on Fenrir so no real tears shed if you fail many combines
(68) Venom Potion - Water + Venom Dust + Mercury - Use those many stacks of dust you made getting to 62 and if you have any mercury left use that otherwise buy it or farm it. Again, pretty cheap recipe to get you to 68.

I generally use Advanced Synth Support for all the above until I'm within one or two points of the cap.

[Amphysvena]

This is what I did. I am currently lv96+2 with guild point items.

1-6 : Tsurara
6-12 : Poison Dust (Yellow Globe)
12-16 : Mercury
16-18 : Poison Potion
18-20 : Echo Drops
20-24 : Silent Oil (Slime oil version)
24-30 : Eye Drops (Sold to npc for 500 less per stack then AH, max fame helps)
30-34 : Artificial Lens
34-41 : Potions and/or Prism Powder
41-43 : Vitriol
43-51 : Ether and/or Holy water
51-61 : Hi Potion, Cermet Chunk, Venom Dust (best IMO), Glass Fiber
61-68 : Venom Potion and/or Hi Ether
68-71 : Spartan Bullet and/or Paralysis Dust (Three Eyed Fish)
71-76/78 : Venom Boltheads or Paralyze Potions
78-81 : Bloody Boltheads
78-84 : Ouka Ranman
84-85 : Repair Broken Comp. Rod
I had both of the + Alchemy skill items by now.
85-91 : Mamushito
85-93 : Icarus Wing (Lost alot of money on these but they sold semi-fast and got the job done.)
93-98 : Panacaea (Make platinum nuggets to 96 with this)
98-100 : Pro Ether and/or Sun Water

Granted this might not be the greatest path but its what I did. You can probably find other things to make at certain lvls for cheaper or more profit, depends on your server. Hope this helps.:thumbsup:

[Grizzlebeard]

Can we get this thread stickied please? :thumbsup:

/bump

[Grizzlebeard]

/bump

[TimeMage]

Wow, 3.5k for a stack of Beehive Chips on your server? I'm envious ; ;
Last time I checked, it was 6k-7k on Seraph in Windy =/

[UnnamedGalka]

Agreed...there's a lot of great information here. I second the sticky motion. ;)

/bump

[Zeix]

Originally posted by FFXITsukasa
I am most interested in making bullets for myself and other Rangers. The lacking supply of bullets is killing the Rangers of Vana' Diel. I plan to make as many bullets as I can and sell them for a price where I break even and get a slight profit, if possibe, because I have been dying to use my gun and I bet alot of other Rangers wanna use their guns too.

Sure, guns are cool and everything, but it says in the guide that bows and crossbows are more efficient. Plus, Rangers back in the Medievel times used to use bows, not guns.

[Elaron]

Originally posted by Zeix
Sure, guns are cool and everything, but it says in the guide that bows and crossbows are more efficient. Plus, Rangers back in the Medievel times used to use bows, not guns.


and how is that information even remotely relevant for FFXI? last time i checked there werent any airships or Blizzaga III MBs in the medievel times either.

Guns are great but expensive until you can get a a hold of an othinsius bow at lvl 67.. Hellfire +1 also work at high lvl which is a gun. Silverbullets have some of the highest damage of all ammo in this game.

[Pai Pai Master]

Stickied, thread name edited. :thumbsup:

[Somajan]

Is there another alternative to making mercury than just desynthing Cobalt Jellyfish? I'm having a hard time with those.

[gleneasy]

^^^^

[Will95GST]

There are no other synths on Mystery Tour so I doubt it. It's a pain trying to fish them up, and the guild just about never has any. They go for 3-4.5k/stack on Asura in every city. :(

[gleneasy]

I made Kodoku from 15-19


Recipe
Kodoku - 18
Dark Crystal
x1 Elshimo Frog
x1 Shell Bug
x1 Lug Worm

It was actually a pretty good money maker, and fairly reliable skill ups. =-)
This is an excellent thread!

-Venk

[Gorgan]

:confused: gleneasy what ecactly does ur reciepe make??? ?_?

[Gorgan]

:confused: :errr: :wasted: :magdisgus :confused:

[Kyluyasha]

So which area can I sign up for Alchemy San d'Oria, Windurst, Bastok, Jueno, or Kazham?

[Thoronas]

There is no guild sign up in any city other than the 3 starting cities. Alchemy is in Bastok Mines.
Also an addition to the list should be sleeping potions from 51 to 55. I got really lucky and there was a high demand for them that was being met. So while I skilled up I was actually earning 10k a stack (thats after losing up to 5k on breaks). Eventually the other alchemists clued into this and sleeping potion stacks went from 30k to 15k but if you arent failing very much you'll still break even.

Sleeping Potion = 1 water crystal + sleepshroom + poison flour (buy from goblin npc in jueno) + chamomile (buy from M&P npc in jeuno)

[Kyero Fox]

Pholsigherstone ..... i cant spell it but is it a Rare item or make ... if its make able it should be hard to craft.... sorry major FMA fan lol

[Grizzlebeard]

Philisopher Stones drop in KS fights only I believe, maybe BCNM as well, I'm too lazy to check right now. They sell for 80-100k each on Fenrir and about 1.2 Mil per stack. Once you get to the level you start using these to level up you should be able to support the costs and the inevitable breaks.

[Kyero Fox]

Good too know they are NEEDED and not like in WoW ...

[Serryl]

18~20 - echo screens
20~24 - silent oilx4(slime oil recipe)

few alts. here

22~25 - glass rod (light crystal + broken glass rod)
23~26 - minnow (lvl10 gs sub needed)
24~29 - silent oilx2(olive oil recipe)
24~29 - glass rod (4xglass fiber, 1xcotton thread, fire crys)

*note you can thunder+gob masks for glass fiber (~21ish recipe)and water+tonberry lanterns for olive oil (~24ish recipe)

29~34 - artificial lens
34~40 - potion (advanced support needed from 34~37)
37~41 - prism powders (using artificial lens)
41~45 - carbon fiber
45~51 - holy water (adv. support from 45~48)

few alts from 51~56

51~54 - carbon rod (if you have carbon fiber saved up)
51~56 - cermet chunk (pot shardx4 if you have money to invest)
51~57 - ice/thunder arrowheads (if you have smithing sub)

54~60 - high potion
55~61 - glass fiber (flintx8)

Some of these don't have the recipe...
Well...Most of them don't...
Can anyone post the recipe for all those?
:worry:

[Thoronas]

ffxi.somepage.com will have all the recipies. I highly suggest bookmarking the site.

[Serryl]

Orts posted Echo Screens and Silent Oil...
But, no recipe...

What is it???

[edit]
I already asked this question...
And was directed to another site...
>.<;;

[Sethe]

99 - 100 is utter hell.

Do not touch Ahriman Wings before 99, you will regret it when you cant find any at level 99.

[Sabaron]

I know this thread is old and has a lot of info, but I will share those things which I have made to get to my current level, 65, and some of the methodologies I used. The level cap is in parenthesis.

Group 1: Amateur
Antidote (3)
Tsurara (6) - Profitable
Silencing Potion (8) - Cobalt Jellies & Mercury
* - On Asura when I was crafting, Mercury was priced below 48 x Cobalt Jellyfish + 12 x Lightning Crystals. This happens frequently, if you are patient, just wait for it to happen. Silencing potions will be worth your time. Mine sold for more than I paid, buying cheap Mercury and crystals and a good purchase of Cobalts from the Guild. Keep at least 1 stack.

Group 2: Recruit
Poison Dust (11 & 12) - Not profitable, save
Silence Dagger (13) - Very nice weapon, sometimes flooded market
Mercury (16)
Poison Potion (18)
* - I made Poison Dust from Stingers I found on bazaars in Bastok and later from Yellow Globes purchased from Windurst and Jeuno. The dust itself is worthless as a sale item, and costs more to make than it does to buy it from Stinknix at the Junk Shop in Lower Jeuno. We are trying to get in range of Poison Potion which is a nice cheap synthesis that sells nicely b/c people drink them in battles where the enemy uses Sleep. You should save some for later, too. With mercury, try to be especially conservative and note the price on the market. Make only enough Mercury to bring you in range of Poision Potion. You'll only want to take Dust and Mercury to 11 or 12. If you can make the daggers for a profit, use them too.

Poison Potion (18) -
Once you're in range of PP, you may be able to make a little money. These were selling for 90,000 per stack at the time I sold mine--well above their cost of production. Use the dust and mercury you made first, and then when you run out buy dust from Stinknix in Lower Jeuno and buy Mercury where it is the cheapest. This is usually the Bastok Auction House. Make sure to check the Guild Shop (especially on Darksday), too. Just try to keep your costs below the Poison Potion market price. Keep at least a stack for yourself.

Group 3: Novice

Echo Drops (20)
Poison Arrowhead (21) - [20 Cap Smithing]
Poison Dagger (22)
Mokuto (23)
Poison Knife (23)
Blinding Potion (27)

These are an excellent synthesis. Get your sage from the Valdeaunia Regional Merchant wherever he may be. If Valdeaunia is under Beastmen control, you'll have to buy it from the Auction House where it can be costly. Honey also varies in price--it will most likely be the largest factor in your production costs. If the stars align, you'll make some money here. If not, the tuition cost should be quite bearable. Again, if it is unprofitable, move off of it ASAP. If it's profitable, stick with it until you can't skill up anymore. If you're a mage, save some for yourself, especially if you like to tangle with Malboro and other Silencing monsters.

Now it's time for the Great Void of Novice. Silent Oil is in here, but you won't be able to touch the price of this staple. Either recipe is likely to put the hurt on your pocketbook, and I recommend you stay away until you can HQ Beeswax AND preferably Silent Oil as well.

We only need a couple of points to come into range of our next synthesis, Blinding Potions. Now we finally get to use those wonderful Silencing Potions and Poison Potions we saved from before. We have three weapons: Mokuto, Poison Dagger, and Poison Knife. You'll want to make some of each--you need Tenshodo membership to buy Shinobi-Gatanas from the Bastok Tenshodo, so make sure you get that. If you happen to be lucky enough to have Smithing in range of the 20-cap, you can make those if they're profitable. If you've got deep pockets and a sizeable inventory, consider saving these items because they come up as Guild Contract syntheses.

You have a couple of options with Blinding Potion. You can either have a mule or friend mail you Poison Flour from the Junk Shop in Jeuno, or you can camp Pawkrix yourself. If you take the first option, your synthesis will go slowly. If you camp Pawkrix (what I did) you can't use Synthesis Assistance so see the lower portion of the guide for help with that. You probably don't want to try the Nebimonite recipe. Fish are expensive (they take a lot of work to get, so don't fault the fishermen) and Mercury is as well. You should probably save ALL of your Blinding Potions--they sell for a profit, but there's a reason why...

At this point you'll want to head over to the Blacksmith and get 12-14 skill there--it's not hard and there are other guide for that. You'll need to use the first synthesis in the next section to cap off Novice. (NOTE: You should've done this before for Poison Arrowheads if they sell where you are, I didn't).

Group 4: Recruit

Blind Bolt Heads (31) - [14 Cap Smithing]
Artificial Lens (34)
Bronze Bullet (38) - [13 Cap Smithing]


[EDIT: Changed Firesand and Prism Powder levels, you don't have any (or at the very least enough) Ahriman Lenses, and you don't have any (or enough) Yuhtunga Sulfur.]

This is about the point where the budding Alchemist's become giddy. Prism Powder and BB Heads are awesome syntheses--even for low levels. We need to do a little bit of preparatory work first...

You must now camp all of the auction houses for Goblin Masks. Buy the cheap ones ONLY... On Asura their price fluctuates between 1,000 and 5,000+. I didn't buy masks for more than 3,000 and it took about an earth week to collect enough. You are going to blast these masks with Lightning Crystals to produce Glass Fiber. My "Lucky Rabbits Foot" for this Desynthesis was: New Moon on Watersday facing North, but I have no empirical evidence to support that this is correct. When you see 8 Glass Fiber pop off of a mask, you shall be very happy. When you blow one up, you will wince with pain--get used to it. You'll want to camp for the elusive cheap Light Crystal stack or Light Cluster. It may be a hard decision but you will have to choose between Moghancement: Lightning which will reduce your "explosions" and Moghancement: Desynthesis which will increase your High Qualities. I chose MH: Desynthesis.

Make your lenses and save them up until your inventory is bursting at the seams. Then you'll probably have enough skill to start Prism
Powders (see Apprentice). This is an excellent profit here. Stick with it until you ruin the Goblin Mask market.

Firesand sells well if you don't plan to make bullets, but I strongly recommend that you plan to sell some kind of bullet--either Goldsmithing Bullets or Smithing bullets.

Bronze Bullets sell, too (slowly), but you'll probably want to make your own Bronze and Firesand (see Apprentice). The Gustaberg Regional Merchant in Port Bastok sells Sulfur and Bomb Ash can be purchased from the Gunpowder Room.

Blind Bolt Heads do not sell quickly. Sure lots of people use blind arrows, but after 15th level, they will fire at most a handful of these per battle. It is a good idea for you to pick up Woodworking in the skill range of 12-16 so you can make bolts. After all, you got into Alchemy for the money right? Glue will be your biggest expense here. I suggest you make your own unless you can't save money by doing so.

At this time, you'll want to seriously consider investing in Concoction. If your lucky, those Poison Daggers, Knives, and Mokuto that you made might be exchangable for some GP.

Group 5: Apprentice
Firesand (40)* - NOT The Yuhtunga Sulfur recipe
Prism Powder (41)*
Potion/Potion Drop (40) - NOT The Ahriman Lens recipe
Vitriol (43) - NOT The Dhalmel Saliva recipe
Acid Bolt Heads (45)
Holy Water (51)

Potions and Potion Drops are my favorite and most common Alchemy Synthesis. I think they're awesome and I rarely sell them--they are not terribly profitable and they take a bit of work, so I only make them for myself, even though I have on occasion sold them at the Auction House just as a teaser. I made Prism Powder during this area for money and they supported my Potion Drop habit nicely.

Vitriol is an incredibly cheap synthesis. Take it all the way to 43 and then make bolt heads. Sell some heads and make some heads into bolts as before.

I hope you didn't stop camping Light Crystals...because it's time for Holy Water. Unlike most other syntheses, you will feel pain at the loss of the crystal rather than the ingredient in this synthesis. Light Crystals are expensive, but generally not nearly as expensive as the Holy Water you buy from Tu'Lia, so you'll be quite safe especially if you're planning to make bolt heads which I hope, by now, you are.

Group 6: Journeyman
Holy Bolt Heads (53)
Sleeping Potion (56)
Hi-Potion/Hi-Potion Drop (60)

We'll start with Hi-Potion/Hi-Potion Drops because even though you can't make them yet, you will need to start gathering Malboro Vines now that your inventory has been voided of Artificial Lenses. Make sure you don't let the Malboro vine farmers get greedy, remember that the Guild sells Malboro vines for just over 5000 each most of the time--just buy a whole bunch when they're low at the guild if you can't get them cheaper from farmers. Make sure you keep your cost BELOW the market value because Lab Coat Alchemists can use Emerelda to HQ Drops easily and use Guild Vines the whole time. Of course, we're getting ahead of ourselves...

Remember all that Holy Water you made? Well, now you can make bolt heads with it. The nicest thing about Holy bolt heads is that there is no glue involved! Glue has been and still is my arch-nemesis. Early on because of the expense, now because of the extra time it takes for me to camp bone chips. However, he dare not show his face before the mighty Holy Bolt (some assembly required)!

Sleeping Potions are next and, again, I recommend you camp Pawkrix rather than shipping flour. Most of you weekend alchemists will leave me now, and will not break your 60 caps. If you are one of these, you should sell your Sleeping Potions now because the Sleep Bolt Heads (64) will be just beyond your reach as a good profit synthesis. Those of you who are continuing on will want to reserve your potions.

Now that you're done with Sleeping Potions, make your Hi-Potions and/or Drops that you've been camping Malboro Vines for.

The Money

You've been exposed to a number of markets through your Alchemic path and you've seen which ones sell and which don't. You may now add a few more items to your reportoire:

HQ Beeswax: You'll want to achieve maximum bonus when you do any HQ Synthesis (see below).

HQ Animal Glue: Yes, you can ally yourself with my archnemesis if you want.

HQ Silent Oil: You may not get a very good HQ rate from these, but if you combine this HQ rate with your Beeswax HQ rate, you'll make out nicely. Beware the Lab Coats however.

HQ Low-level Durable Goods: Yes, there is sometimes a market in these, but remember that Durable Goods markets are very easy to disturb so try not to rock the boat.

HQ Low-level Medicines: People buy drops and Poison Potions. Make some and you'll make some money.

As always, you can make your higher-level consumables and bolts. The markets up in the Journeyman area are quite stable in general as few have the patience to take The Craft that far. Bolts, and Bullets will always be your friends. Just remember the Golden Rule of the little guy: Beware the Lab Coats.

Beware The Lab Coats
(A short essay on High Level Crafters for Journeyman- Crafters):

I will start by saying that there are two kinds of Lab Coats: Regular Lab Coats and Super Lab Coats. The Difference? Super Lab Coats have Emerelda. Fortunately for you, there are few of them. The common theme among Lab Coats is that they like selling their wares for the same price you like to, they just get a lot more HQs than you therefore they make a lot more money. If you decide to try to undersell them for a prolonged period of time and their products end up being mailed back to them, you will call down the hammer that is their wrath. You will have your 18 stacks of Silent Oil on the market when they're trying to sell 3 or 4 stacks for 1500 less than the LCs were selling before. They are, in actuality, producing their oils for around 4000 less per stack than you are. What happens next? Any good Lab Coat can estimate your price per stack and then price his wares just lower than yours--say 500gil. He can also keep doing this until all of your stacks end up in your Delivery Box and you won't make a dime. So one more time, let me state: Beware The Lab Coats.

It is not to say that the Lab Coat Alchemists are your enemies, they are usually quite helpful if you have a question. They just get to set the line on the products in the market place. You have to follow suit or they will crush you. Be nice and share the gil or your greed will come up from behind you and bite you in the rear.

[Sabaron]

[Continuation of Previous Post]

Getting the Most HQ Bang for Your Buck and Skilling up at +7/+8:

There are three factors that can influence your ability to craft these are listed below. Keep in mind that I don't factor in my partial skill points when calculating recipe difficulty, I consider only my whole number skill score.

Synthesis Assistance
It is assumed that Advanced Image Support (the one you pay for) is +1 and that Free Image Support is +0.5.

The Day of the Week
Almost all crafters know that synthesis is easiest on the day of the crystal and hardest on the day whose element is strong against the crystal. I use the following mnemonic to remember my crystal order:

I Wish Everyone Looked Alot Fatter.
Ice > Water > Earth > Lightning > Air > Fire > ...
[Please don't tell me that Alot should be spelled A lot... ]
Some people prefer Thunder to Lightning, but I'm sticking to mine.

Darksday is always bad for synthesis (except for Dark synthesis, for which it good), and Lightsday is always good (alas, it doesn't appear to be twice as good Light synthesis).

Day of my crystal or Lightsday: -1 Recipe Difficulty
Day opposite my crystal or Darksday: +1 Recipe Difficulty
All other days are neutral: +0 Recipe Difficulty


The Phase of the Moon

The Light Elements like the Full Moon: Light, Fire, Air, Lightning
The Dark Elements like the New Moon: Dark, Earth, Water, Ice

Moon of my crystal: -1 Recipe Difficulty
Moon opposite my crystal: +1 Recipe Difficulty
Half moon: +0 Recipe Difficulty

Unlike the day, the moon increases gradually, so the 75 Gibbous and Crescent moons give about +/- 0.5 difficulty although this does not factor in much since your partial skill points do not appear to affect the synthesis results.

The Direction You Face*
* - There have been studies on many FFXI web communities and there seems to be evidence to suggest that this affects your crafting results, but most agree it is to a lesser degree than the Moon and Day. There is a Star Chart NPC in each of the starting towns.

Dark: North
Light: Northeast
Ice: East
Wind: Southeast
Earth: South
Lightning: Southwest
Water: West
Fire: Northwest

Since the effect is lesser, it is most commonly assumed that direction is only half strength, so it can only serve to buffer the effect of the moon and to enable you to use Free Synthesis effectively. Since partial skill points don't really help, Free Synthesis might not be effective unless you combine it with direction. Free Synteshesis doesn't last very long, so I generally don't bother.

Direction of my crystal: -0.5 Recipe Difficulty
Direction opposing my crystal: +0.5 Recipe Difficulty
Other Direction: +0 Recipe Difficulty

Using these three factors, you can manipulate the recipe difficulty. For instance say that you have 20 skill and you need to make Blinding Potions at 27. 7 points is an awfully big jump, but during a new moon on Watersday or Lightsday with guild assistance, you can reduce the difficulty to 24, which is quite reasonable. Furthermore, you can use Directional Synthesis to craft at the same level as long as the moon is at 25% or less. When you get to 26 skill, you might consider synthing on Darksday and Lightningday instead and face toward Lightning during a 75% or better moon to bump the difficulty to 29 and keep your skill-up rate high. +8 difficulty syntheses will be difficult using this method, but they are still within the realm of possibility for those of you who like to gamble. I would strongly advise against +9 or worse.

I generally assume that any partial point is of no use, but feel free not to--there is no statistical information from Square Enix on any of these effects, but there are hints, studies, and information that suggest they work.

Treasures of Aht Urhgan Items:

The Iron Bullet (45) [Cap 22 Smithing] is a possible synthesis for Apprentices, but I have never made an Iron Bullet and did not do so during my Alchemy training. I have also not tried to make any of the 55th level Puppet parts or the 17th level cards and most items using materials from Aht Urhgan. Please note that "new" items are often wildly inflated and that only 50th level+ people can farm for the materials to make such things, so I will say that if you wish to make them, go ahead and do so, but make sure to do your homework at ALL of the auction houses.

Notes:

Some of the items in the guide were not made by me during my training. For instance, I did not make Acid Bolt Heads, I made Carbon Fiber instead. Acid Bolt Heads are leagues better than Carbon Fiber and I make them now for profit. I suggest you get your supporting crafts along with your Alchemy to enhance your experience of the craft itself.

I in no way guarantee that this information will help you make money. You have to actually use your head to make money. Don't be greedy. Share the market with others.

Many times in Alchemy, you will find others in the area crafting items that use the item you are crafting as an ingredient. You may be able to sell your materials directly to them (at a discount of course)--this will save you a lot of Auction House time and inventory space--remember that you may be making a lot more of an item than you can feasibly sell. Don't be greedy and be good to your fellow Alchemists (you have to work with these people).

Notes for Future Lab Coat Alchemists:

I am not going to write a guide for 60+. I am a 65th level alchemist and am therefore not quite skilled enough to suggest any course of action for you other than to mention that I've already told you where to go to get to where I am even though I haven't spelled it out in Alpha-Bits for you. By now, you should be familiar enough with The Craft to continue on your own. I intend to push 100 skill in Alchemy. I had at one point considered Goldsmithing, but I see the Durable Goods markets as lossy and volatile, so pushing 100 in Gold is a monumental task. That is not to say that Panacaea and Pro-Ether are a walk in the park, they just happen to be consumables, so they never come back on the market.

Alchemy is a guild of consumables. Our Guild Veterans and Artisans can make some very nice Durable Pieces such as Hawker's Knives +1,Bloody Weapons, and some Cursed pieces, but the bulk of the money is in consumable items. That is why Alchemy is such a nice guild. There are other consumable guilds, so if you can't see yourself as a dottering senile chemist mixing arcane elements in a tower on a hill (insert your own fantasy here), then perhaps one of the more solid crafts will wet your whistle.

I wish you luck if you wish me the same (crossing my fingers that Emerelda won't be sold out when I get to 88).

Cheers,

Sabaron

[Lucky and Elizabeth]

:)
I found this List, and thought I would share it with you all.

Not sure who wrote this.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

0-3
Antidote
Crystal: Water
Ingredients:
Wijnruit
San d'Orian Grape
Distilled Water

Where to buy/get item?
Wijnruit: Upih Khachla in Windurst Waters H-9 (Price 110-124 Gil )
San d'Orian Grape: Aveline in San d'Oria South F-7 (Price 69-79 Gil )
Destilled Water: Boncort in San d'Oria North F-8 ( Price 10-12 Gil )

Comment:
I sugesst you sell these to NPC because they dont sell good at AH, and you
dont loose so much money.


Here you have a chooise. You can now synth Beewax if u want until level 5
but u wont earn any money if u dont Farm your items here. But if do that u
will make a nice profit so u can continue with your skillup if you are low
in cash. If u already got money for skillup i sugesst you continue with
Tsaura that cap at level 6.

Alternetive 1

3-5
Beewax (x1)
Crystal: Fire
Ingredients:
Beehive chip x3
Destilled Water

Where to buy/get item?
Beehive chip: Farm them in Giddeus by killing bees or if u really want you
can buy them from AH for 6k/stack (Hades server) price can various on
server.
Destilled Water: Boncort in San d'Oria North F-8 ( Price 10-12 Gil )

Comment: Very good money if u farm the Beehive chips, a stack of Beewax
sells for 20k on Hades server.

Alternetive 2 ( Recommended )

3-6
Tsaura (x10)
Crystal: Ice
Ingredients:
Rock Salt
Destilled Water

Where to buy/get item?
Destilled Water: Boncort in San d'Oria North F-8 ( Price 10-12 Gil )
Rock Salt: Benaige in San d'Oria South F-7 ( Price 14-16 Gil )

Comment: You can sell these on AH and hopefully make some profit.

6-10
Deodorizer (x1)
Crystal: Wind
Ingredients:
Olive Oil
Chamomile
Sage

Where to buy/get item?
Olive Oil: Aveline in San d'Oria South F-7 ( Price 14-16 Gil )
Chamomile: Dabih Jajalioh in Ru'Lude Gardens F-9 ( Price 119-135 Gil )
Sage: Aveline in San d'Oria South F-7 ( Price 170-192 Gil )

Comment: Dont put these on AH they wont sell so sell them to NPC or save
them for later when the guild wants them so you can collect some Guild
Points.

Turn in Item to Alchemy Guild ( Level 8-10 )
Animal Glue (Cap level 7)
Crystal: Fire
Ingredients:
Bone chip x2
Rabbit hide
Destilled Water

10-12
Poison Dust (x1)
Crystal: Lightning
Ingredients:
Yellow Globe x2

Where to buy/get item?
Yellow globe: Babubu in Windurst Port C-8 (Dont remember price but they are
cheap). Or buy them from AH 2k/stack on Hades server.

Comment: Save these for later levels to skillup on ^_^

12-16
Mercury (x1)
Crystal: Lightning
Ingredients:
Cobalt Jellyfish x4

Where to buy/get item?
Cobalt Jellyfish: Babubu in Windurst Port C-8 and also in Alchemy Guild

Comment: Save these too for later level

16-18
Poison Potion
Crystal: Water
Ingredients:
Poison Dust
Mercury

Where to buy/get item?
You already go the items ^^

Comment: Now you can sell these on AH and get some money back.

Turn in item to Alchemy Guild (Level 18-20 )
Poison Potion
18-20
Echo Drops (x1)
Crystal: Water
Ingretiens:
Sage
Distilled Water
Honey

Where to buy/get item?
Sage: Aveline in San d'Oria South F-7 ( Price 170-192 Gil )
Distilled Water: Water: Boncort in San d'Oria North F-8 ( Price 10-12 Gil )
Honey: Kopopo in Windurst Waters E-8 ( Price 100 gil dont know exact)
you can also farm these by killing bee´s or buy from AH ~3k/stack.

Comment: Sell these on AH to get your money back and mabye get some profit.


Here we get a choise again i sugesst you make Sairui-ran but you will need
Cooking 11 also. If you dont wanna make those u can make Blinding Potions.
And Blinding Potions can u use to later skillups i will tell when we comes
there.

Alternative 1

20-28
Sairui-ran (x33)
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients:
Bast Parchment:
Birg Egg:
Kahzam Pepper:
Bomb Ash:

Where to buy/get item?
Bast Parchment: Buy from AH ~10k/stack
Kahzam Pepper: Ghemi Sinterilo in Kazham G-7 ( Price 55-62 Gil )
Bomb Ash: Olaf in Metalworks G-7 (Price 470-530 Gil )
Birg Egg: You can buy these inside the area there u take the fly for 51 gil,
but if u dont got airship pass you can buy them at Cooking Guild or AH.

Comment: On hades server ~2k profit / stack

Alternative 2

20-27
Blinding Potions (x2)
Crystal: Lightning
Ingredients:
Nebimonite:
Mercury:

Where to buy/get item?
Nebimonite: Buy from AH ~18k/stack
Mercury: You know how to make them ^^

Comment: Save these for skillup 27-31


Ok here your choise depends on what u just skilled up on.
If u did Sairui-ran its time to make some Artificial Lenses.
If u did some Blinding Potions its time to make some daggers.


Sairui-ran way:

28-34
Artificial Lense (x1 not stackable)
Crystal: Fire
Ingredients:
Glassfiber x2

Where to buy/get item?
Glassfiber: Buy from AH or desynth Goblin Mask (Lightning + Goblin Mask = x4
Glass fiber)

Comment: Sell these on AH


Blinding Potion way:

27-32
Blind Dagger:
Crystal: Water
Ingredients:
Blinding Potion:
Bronze Dagger:
Animal Glue:

Where to buy/get item?
Blinding Potion: You already got them
Bronze Dagger:Ashene in San d'Oria South K-7 ( Price 150 Gil )
Animal Glue: You know how to make them

Comment: On hades server 2k profit per dagger but they dont sell so fast
thoe

32-34
Blind Knife
Crystal: Water
Ingredients:
Blinding Potion:
Bronze Knife:
Animal Glue:

Where to buy/get item?
Blinding Potion: You already got them
Bronze Dagger:Tavourine in San d'Oria North E-4 ( Price 150 Gil )
Animal Glue: You know how to make them

Comment: Same here, profit but dont sell so fast


Now we are on same way again for those who did sairui-ran and Blinding
potions ^^


34-40
Potion (x1)
Crystal: Water
Ingredients:
Sage
Lizard Tail
Distilled Water

Where to buy/get item?
Sage: Aveline in San d'Oria South F-7 ( Price 170-192 Gil )
Lizard Tail: Buy from AH or kill lizards
Distilled Water: Boncort in San d'Oria North F-8 ( Price 10-12 Gil )

Comment: Sell to NPC to get some money back or put them on AH they sell
fast.

Turn in item to Alchemy Guild ( Level 38-40 )
Firesand (cap 40)

Firesand (x2)
Crystal: Fire
Ingredients:
Sulfur:
Bomb Ash x2

Comment: I sugesst you buy one from AH, but Sulfur can be bought at AH and
you know where to buy Bomb Ash ^^


40-43
Vitrol
Crystal: Water
Ingredients:
Treant Bulb x2

Where to buy/get item?
Treant Bulb: Buy from AH ~2k/stack or kill all kinds of Saplings

Comment: Sell on AH to get money back

43-51
Holy Water
Crystal: Light
Ingredients:
Destilled Water:

Where to buy/get item?
Destilled Water: Boncort in San d'Oria North F-8 ( Price 10-12 Gil )

Comment: Here you can loss a little when u sell these on AH or you can make
some profit it depens on your server, and what price it is on Light
Crystals. You will fail a lot in the start but you wont loose much money.

Turn in item to Alchemy Guild (Level 48-51 )
Fire Sword (Cap 46)

Crystal: Earth
Ingredients:
Iron Sword
Slime Oil
Firesand

Comment: Buy one from AH but if u refuse u can kill jellys to get Slime oil
and u know how to make firesand. Iron Sword can be bought at Ashene in San
d'Oria South K-7 for around 7500 Gil.


Ok lets keep the skillup but now it starts to go slower, a lot slower. You
will get like 0.2-0.4 skillup per stack of synths now ><

51-56
Sleeping Potion (x1)
Crystal: Water
Ingredients:
Chamomile
Sleepshroom
Poison Flour

Where to buy/get item?
Chamomile: Dabih Jajalioh in Ru'Lude Gardens F-9 ( Price 119-135 Gil )
Sleepshroom: Kill fungars or buy from AH ~2.4k/stack
Poison Flour: Pawkrix in Jeuno Lower H-10 ( Price 515 Gil )

Comment: These dont sell fast on AH and Poison Flour isnt stackable so i
sugesst you put a mule in Jeuno for this skillup. But then the potions sells
on AH you will get the money back ~10k/stack at Hades server.

56-60
Hi-Potion
Crystal: Water
Ingredients:
Sage x2
Malboro Vine
Distilled Water

Where to buy/get item?
Sage: Aveline in San d'Oria South F-7 ( Price 170-192 Gil )
Malboro Vine: Buy from AH 800-1200 Gil or at Alchemy Guild
Distilled Water: Boncort in San d'Oria North F-8 ( Price 10-12 Gil )

Comment: Here you will get some profit for like 1k-1.5k per potion it
depends on your server.

Turn in item to Alchemy Guild ( Level 58-60 )
Hi-Potion

You know how to make it ^_^


Ok now we will go past 60 and just so u know u gona start loose money now on
a lot of synths.

Here u can skillup on 2 things

60-61
Venom Dust (x1)
Crystal: Lightning
Ingridients:
Scorpion Claw x2

Where to buy/get item?
Scorpion Claw: Kill Scorpions or Buy at AH

Comment: On Hades server this is a loss, Scorpion Claws goes for 1k each,
that makes 2k per synth. And one stack of Venom Dust goes for 5k/stack so on
12 synths you will pay 24k for Claws and u can sell the Dust for 5-10k
depens on server. But my sugesstion is that u save the dust for further
skillup. This one is only good if u farm the claws.

60-62
Venom Dust (x1)
Crystal: Lightning
Ingridients:
Ogre Eel x2

Where to buy/get item?
Ogre Eel: Buy at AH, on my server they sells for 4k/stack
Comment: This is a much better option if u dont wanna farm the claws for the
other recipt. Save these for further skillup.

62-68
Venom Potion (x1)
Crystal: Water
Ingridients:
Venom Dust
Mercury

Where to buy/get item?
Venom Dust: You got them.
Mercury: You know how to make them.

Comment: Save these for later skillup


Ok time for some bigger losses ^^. And now i REALLY sugesst u level your
Smithing to level 14 because some recipts will now contain smithing . And
level 14 dont take long time to make.

68-71 (Smithing 13)
Spartan Bullets (x33)
Crystal: Fire
Ingridients:
Copper Ingot
Twinkle Powder
Bronze Ingot
Firesand

Where to buy/get item?
Copper Ingot: Make or buy from AH
Twinkle Powder:Upih Khachla in Windurst Waters H-9 ( Price 350-400 Gil )
Bronze Ingot: Make or buy from AH
Firesand: You know how to make them.

Comment: i did like -3k / stack here but that wasnt so bad, and they sell
quiet good on AH aswell.

71-76
Venom Bolt Heads (x6)
Crystal: Wind
Ingredients:
Animal Glue
Bronze Ingot
Venom Potion

Where to buy/get item?
Animal Glue: You know how to make them
Bronze Ingot: Make or buy them
Venom Potion: You already got them

Comment: Ok here you make big losses because these Bolt Heads sells for 1-2k
/ stack.
Nothing to care about just keep going ^^

[WishMaster3K]

Holy Shit.

Last 3 threads O_O

A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You two, win the internets.

All of them <3

Thank you. :P

[Lucky and Elizabeth]

Thanks, when do I get my prize?:rofl:


Holy Shit.

Last 3 threads O_O

A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You two, win the internets.

All of them <3

Thank you. :P

[levish]

on venom bolt heads now -_-.

I skipped spartan bullets which was a bad idea it looks like a cheaper synth and problably would npc for more than the stinky venom bolt heads.

if there is anything that even remotely looks good synth that, bolt heads are a waste of gil selling like molasses or slower.

I'm not looking forward to the bloody bolt head stage either, 60+ at least I don't have to do them for a long stretch going by the recipie list.

All I've been getting is .1 skillups so you can imagine how many stacks of venom bolt heads I have. Adding further insult to injury NPCing them for about 50gil a piece doesn't come close to covering 1/2 the costs.

I guess grinding these stages really takes a toll on the shihei fund

[Mhurron]

if there is anything that even remotely looks good synth that, bolt heads are a waste of gil selling like molasses or slower.
You could level WW to 16+ and make your own bolts. I found that by doing this I didn't have to really wait to move anything as the bolts sell much faster then just the bolt heads, and I made a little more doing the whole thing then I would have selling the bolt heads alone.

I like leveling on status Bolt Heads because of this, and I would really recommend this if you end up sitting on a few stacks and a partial stack of bolt heads.

Shihei is lvl29 woodworking which is really just a hop, skip and a jump from 16 and since even NQ shihei sells at a little profit, at least on Kujata, you'd end up saving a little more and you can make one of the ingredients yourself.

[Sabaron]

I did Spartan Bullets for 1 point. Anima are expensive; Venom Bolt Heads are worthless as a sale (on Asura they sell for 20k per stack, but I got lucky and sold mine for 40k). I made back the money from them by HQing the glue I needed to make them. People on Asura sell Venom Potion for a loss, so there's another savings.

The problem with making the bolts themselves is that, even though you can sell them at a profit, an Alchemist levelling 71-76 will produce something on the order of 1200 bolt heads! That makes 400 stacks of bolts, or 33 12-stacks of quivers. The wood is the biggest problem. If you don't have Lumberjack (which means you need to take WW to novice first AND contract with the WW guild--don't get me started on WW guild contract items 50 Maple Harps? No thank you), it will take you 1200 synths just to make the wood and another 1200 synths to make the bolts themselves. It is infeasible at best for a levelling alchemist to do this especially since the bolts (at least on Asura) turn only a meager profit (they have a good sell rate though).

[levish]

I've got ww to 59, the trouble has to do with the same reason boltheads are slow sellers. I've made a few stacks of shihei and bundled them up on occasion but it defeats the purpose of leveling alchemy to synth woodworking stuff.

Going to move to fireworks after bloody bolt heads and then churning them into bolts, worst case i can use them to solo my thief a bit further.

[Argenthart]

Venom Bolt head stacks were crap on my server (Hades) when I went through that stage, selling for 20k each. I make my own mercury for the potions, my own animal glue, desynthed bronze harness for ingots and I still couldn't make them that cheap.

This pissed me off so much I bought all of the Venom Bolt Head stacks that were up for 20k and then posted them at 100k. I sold a few at that price and then dropped the price down to 90k, and then to 80k. I made several stacks of quivered and unquivered Venom Bolt Heads and sold them also. Eventually I have sold all of my stacks plus the ones I bought, all at a profit.

Of course I made a lot of bolt makers very angry with me (lots of nasty tells). They were paying 20k a stack for bolt heads and generating 4+ stacks of quivered Venom Bolts which they were selling for 50k (180k profit).

I am glad that I am through that stage. The price of Venom Bolt Head stacks has dropped to 50-60k since I stopped, I don't know what is up with people. The only reason I would make them anymore is for personal use.

[levish]

going to see what x potions cost to cook up, might be a better alternative till i get closer to bloody bolt heads

[levish]

just a little update, x potions were great for the stretch to their cap, they sell reasonably fast (if you time selling them for the weekend when most people plan events) and at a slight profit. In other news my bolt heads and most of my bolts that i made from some of the bolt heads still haven't sold.

[raidenn]

Why does Sairu-ran is set up at 20 ? Silent oil before Sairu-ran. I thought the guide was correct when I attempted it at 20 and got so many failures.

[Sabaron]

Silent Oil is produced with Beeswax and Slime Oil. The reagents are ocassionally prohibitively expensive--it is not a recommended synthesis for skill-ups, unless you end up losing less money than you otherwise would for other skills. I made Mokutos, Poison Knives, Poison Baselards (Sandy in 1st or 2nd can't remember, a stack of Vermillion Laquer, and a stack of Silent Oil). You may be failing Sairui-ran because it requires cooking skill, but eight points to Sairui-ran is a stretch--try Blinding Potions on Watersday. Making 6 stacks of Silent Oil might put the hurt on your wallet, be careful unless your filthy rich--the weapons (if you don't make too many) will be profitable over time.

[raidenn]

Silent Oil is produced with Beeswax and Slime Oil. The reagents are ocassionally prohibitively expensive--it is not a recommended synthesis for skill-ups, unless you end up losing less money than you otherwise would for other skills. I made Mokutos, Poison Knives, Poison Baselards (Sandy in 1st or 2nd can't remember, a stack of Vermillion Laquer, and a stack of Silent Oil). You may be failing Sairui-ran because it requires cooking skill, but eight points to Sairui-ran is a stretch--try Blinding Potions on Watersday. Making 6 stacks of Silent Oil might put the hurt on your wallet, be careful unless your filthy rich--the weapons (if you don't make too many) will be profitable over time.

But its listed here as level20-28 Sairui-ran skillup. Thats wrong.

Its not bad really if you can farm. I farmed 3 stacks of slime oils in 2 hours using a thf sub. Got pretty lucky too since sometimes they drop 2 or 3x (happened once). I guess no one was farming that time since I saw only 1 or 2 people who are killing jellies.

Beeswax on the other hand is expensive. This you have to buy since some people can HQ them easily and sell them at 2/3 of what the price is for 3 stacks of beechips (for 1 stack of beeswax).

[Sabaron]

But its listed here as level20-28 Sairui-ran skillup. Thats wrong.

Its not bad really if you can farm. I farmed 3 stacks of slime oils in 2 hours using a thf sub. Got pretty lucky too since sometimes they drop 2 or 3x (happened once). I guess no one was farming that time since I saw only 1 or 2 people who are killing jellies.

Beeswax on the other hand is expensive. This you have to buy since some people can HQ them easily and sell them at 2/3 of what the price is for 3 stacks of beechips (for 1 stack of beeswax).

Yes, in that particular guide it is listed at 20-28, which is possible (read my earlier guide). You can do 8 below. You just have to do it at the proper time:

Since it uses an Earth Crystal, you would do it on Earthsday with New Moon (at or near 0%) with Guild Assistance which reduces the recipe difficulty by "3" to 25--manageable. See, again, my earlier post.

I'm going to do a cost/benefit analysis using data gleaned from http://www.ffxiah.com/ using Midgardsormr Jeuno AH averages:

Bird Egg (from Airship Dock): 61 (166 Avg @ AH)
Kazham Pepper (Regional): 66
Bomb Ash (Bastok): 535
Bast Parchment: 655 (7869/stack Midgardsormr Average FFXIAH)
Earth Crystal: 174 (2079/stack Midgardsormr Average FFXIAH)

So the cost is : 1491 per synth or 1596 if you can't get Airship Eggs.
Per stack made: 4473 (4788)
Average AH Price (Midgardsormr): 12039
Profit margin: 7566 (7251)
Percent Profit: 62% (60%)

The last line indicates that you will not lose money doing this synthesis on Midgardsormr unless your failure rate exceeds 60%. It is a very good skill-up synth for you. Please read the section of my guide on high-distance skillups (you can ignore the directional synthesis thing if you want). The 60% failure rate option is godly--this is why people do this synthesis for skillups (even for 8 points) it won't hurt you to bad if you do it right. I'm thinking you just don't like seeing your crystals break that much. ^^

3 stacks of slime oil will get you about 2 points of skill for 2 hours and roughly 20 minutes worth of work. Cutting the "farming" time down to a lean 15 minutes of shopping gives you 1 hour and 45 more minutes of synthing time which is 90 more syntheses, roughly, which is 5 more skill points worth of time. (30 seconds per synthesis--I think that's right, correct me if I'm wrong).

I think Sairui-ran looks very appetizing as a skill-up synth on your server if done properly from 20-22 skill to start depending on timing. Still disagree?

One more thing:

For the record, were I skilling-up alchemy at your level again, I would not go the way I did (mixed durables). At the time, I didn't have any cooking skill and skipped Sairui-ran. Looking at the recipe, now, I would probably have been better off doing it. Fortunately, I caught a good moon and sat in Jeuno doing Blinding Potions, which sell very nicely as well even with a high failure rate. Do an analysis yourself. I recouped my losses from the Silent Oil I made with AH materials...

[raidenn]

Yep I disagree.

You have to wait till Earthsday to craft for it and there are just so much space taken by 4 ingredients you expect to tide you over till 28. This is a common problem and we all know that we keep running out of space all the time.
2 stacks of bomb ash
2 stacks of eggs
2 stacks of b parchment
2 stacks of kazam peppers
The best you can do is make sure you can make them fast and reliably.
I got 14 cooking skill when I was doing this by the way. Not to mention having a hard time looking for that guy who bundles them.

Maybe silent oil is too expensive and there are gilsellers who can HQ the stuff cheaply but you can successfully make them 9 of of 10 at level 20 without relying on the day. Farming oils isnt so bad really. I think I had a more harder time farming beechips. Also you can camp the Ghost NM (which i did and got a couple of nice cloths)

How much do nebimonites cost in your server? Mine costs 20k a stack.
Mercury costs 23k a stack if you dont make them yourself.

Blinding potions costs 19k a stack which pretty much loses you a bit of gil.

[Sabaron]

Yep I disagree.

You have to wait till Earthsday to craft for it and there are just so much space taken by 4 ingredients you expect to tide you over till 28. This is a common problem and we all know that we keep running out of space all the time.
2 stacks of bomb ash
2 stacks of eggs
2 stacks of b parchment
2 stacks of kazam peppers
The best you can do is make sure you can make them fast and reliably.
I got 14 cooking skill when I was doing this by the way. Not to mention having a hard time looking for that guy who bundles them.

Maybe silent oil is too expensive and there are gilsellers who can HQ the stuff cheaply but you can successfully make them 9 of of 10 at level 20 without relying on the day. Farming oils isnt so bad really. I think I had a more harder time farming beechips. Also you can camp the Ghost NM (which i did and got a couple of nice cloths)

How much do nebimonites cost in your server? Mine costs 20k a stack.
Mercury costs 23k a stack if you dont make them yourself.

Blinding potions costs 19k a stack which pretty much loses you a bit of gil.

For Blinding Potions I recommend the recipe below. I only use Nebimonites to make Black Ink and not for skillups, for making Shihei (Jusatsu works too, but I don't make them...yet) to sell/use.

Sleepshroom (http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/4076)
Poison Flour (http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/3507)
Crying Mustard (http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/4017)

Sleepshrooms are the only AH-only item. On Asura, 10k/stack. I didn't look at Midgardsormr before I wrote my last post, but they appear to be 20k/stack. However, on Asura Blinding Potion goes for 10k/stack and on Midgardsormr Blinding Potion goes for 20k/stack, so it's the same loss rate. In order to do this recipe you have to camp the Junk Shop in Lower Jeuno.

I wouldn't, however, recommend selling the potions; if you use them to make bolt heads you'll get more skill (later on) and make money either off the bolt heads or the bolts. You probably won't make all of your heads into bolts--it would take forever.

A stack of Blind Bolt Heads on Midgardsormr (17 synths) goes for 100,000gil. A stack of Bronze Ingots is only 10,000 gil, so 14167gil for a stack at 100% quality plus your potions: 6180 Flour + 360 Mustard + 20000 Shrooms + 1000 Crystals = 27540/stack or 39015 per 17 yielding 100000 - 14167 - 27540 = 58293gil Profit per stack of bolt heads or roughly a 58% Profit Margin....

As for the storage for the Sairui-ran reagents, do the gobbie bag and moogle bed quests--it shouldn't be a problem. Moogle bed quests are incredibly cheap because you only need to hold the bed on Conquest Tally day and you can sell it back when you're done or borrow a bed from a friend or LS Member. The gobbie bags (with the exception of the one with the Gold Ingot (III) and the Iolite (VI) are more expensive, but well worth it. Get a mule character (it only costs a dollar/month) and gives you access to a second set of 7 AH slots preferably in another town or Jeuno and you can use your mule to make purchases from regional/standard merchants not under your town's control.

If you've already got all that stuff and you still have inventory problems...maybe it's time for a Garage Sale or trip to the Armor storage/Random Event Crap storage people?


It's actually 5 reagents. You forgot the crystals. And you only have to craft on Earthsday for a single point of skill (2-3 sets of reagents or 10 inventory). After that, your new skill point will make up for the Earthsday bonus and you'll be crafting at the same rate you were the day before.


Also:

Your original post did not specify your inventory concerns, so I could not account for them, obviously. The only recipe I ever found to be a pain in the inventory was Hi-Potions/Drops since you have to make tons of them for a skill point, the Malboro Vines don't stack, and you need 2x sage per synth.

L&E's guide is still correct--you can do Sairui-ran profitably on Midgardsormr from 20-28 provided you don't have special circumstances such as a maxed-out inventory. Also Sairui-ran is an excellent alternative for those characters who cannot go out and farm their own Slime Oil either due to their job level or chosen profession.

Ominous Cloud is a bit elusive, but I like the fact that you got skillups on Cooking too (double bang for your syntheses). Did you make money on them?

Mercury on Asura is highly unstable. Sometimes it drops so low that it's cost is below my HQ rate for Cobalt Jellies, and I'm at 82. I'm sure that high level alchemists are not making oodles of really cheap mercury for profit, so I figure it must be low-level "rich" alchemists dumping the stuff at a loss. When I see this, I snag it. I only make my own mercury when the price is more than 10% above my cost--I'll pay 10% for someone to do that for me--it takes a while to make all the mercury I usually need. I don't bother with guild jellies either since it's only 6 in stock per Van day and that makes 1.5 vials (@NQ) per day--definitely a waste of time.

I don't think gilsellers make a lot of Silent Oil for profit. There are better things to do like Black Pearls or fishbots. Silent Oil profit margin and market position is too volatile for it to be palatable to GS, but that's just my thoughts.

[Evion]

For a thread titled "alchemy 101", I don't think it teaches too much. I just started in the guild (lv O), and need some info. I see the item to synthesize, and what lvl to do it, but what does that even mean? Is that the most profitable/best item to make at that level? Is this guild profitable overall? How much gil do I need to start off effeciently? When should I buy the needed ingredients at the AH and not? NEED HELP! Thanks,

Evion

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Is that the most profitable/best item to make at that level? Is this guild profitable overall?
The answer to those questions vary from one server to the next, and can also change drastically from one day to the next. So you'll never find a thread that can give you accurate answers to those questions.

How much gil do I need to start off effeciently?
That also varies from server to server, and can change from one day to another. This is also a question you'll never find an accurate answer to. If you want, we can pull bogus numbers out of thin air. But that won't help you.

When should I buy the needed ingredients at the AH and not?
You should buy ingredients from the AH when 1) it's cheaper than the alternative and 2) it's available on the AH.

To find out if there is an NPC source as an alternative to buying from the AH, I suggest researching with sites such as FFXIclopedia (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/index.php/Main_Page), somepage (http://ffxi.somepage.com/), and ffrecipe (http://ffrecipe.com/?lang=en).

[un7ouchab1e]

^_^ Nice

[711rocks]

Kind of random/lazy of me to ask, but
in today's ffxi economy, about how much would it cost to get Alch from 0-100?
ragnarok has the highest economy listed on ffxiah.com if that matters at all
D:
Assume i'm not going to farm materials ><
maybe idk ><
thanks in advance D:

[WishMaster3K]

Omg, if you don't farm Alchemy materials, expect to go broke trying to make beeswax.

[711rocks]

yeah maybe I will crap
but definatly not everything