So, you want to be a Leather Crafter? - Leathercraft 101

[Brennon]

Leather crafting is not for everyone. All crafts require rather large amounts of gil, and Leather Crafting is no different, so If you're not patient enough to either farm your gil, or wait for things to sell on AH, perhaps you should wait before starting to work with leather. That being said, after much hard work and time and gil invested into Leather crafting, it CAN be profitable. Hopefully this guide will help you find your own niche in the leather market without too much pain and failed synths. :)


Sheep Leather - 0-2
Crystal: Dark 3-4k a stack
Ingredients: Sheep Skin(200-400gil each on AH, less at Guild, Windurst Tea Leaves (400-500 per stack on AH) , Distilled Water (9g each at Guild)

*This synth doesn't get you much skill, but you'll be using the Sheep Leather in other synths rather soon. Otherwise you can make

Sheep Wool 0-4
Crystal: Wind 1.2-1.5k a stack
Ingredients Sheep Skin X2

*This synth is somewhat profitable, especially if you buy your Sheepskins from the Guild.

Leather Gloves 2-8
Crystal: Wind
Ingredients: Grass Cloth (1k per stack on AH), Sheep Leather x 2(7500-9000 per stack on AH)

You're probably going to lose money here, but after getting to 6, switching to Solea is fine, and you can do without that Grass Cloth

Soliea 6-11
Crystal: Wind
Ingredients: Sheep Leather x 2

Lizard Mantle 8-14
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Grass Thread (1k at AH), Lizard Skin (8k per stack at AH) Lizard Molt (2-3k per stack at AH)

You're definately going to lose money here, but you'll lose less money than with any other recepie at this level.

Dhalmel Leather 13-21
Crystal: Dark
Ingredients: Dhalmel Hide (400-500 gil each on AH) Windurstian Tea Leaves, Distilled Water

I've always liked skilling on leathers, because you don't really lose any money even if you buy your hides from AH, and if you farm them yourself, you can make money easily. Selling Stacks of leather is good at any city, as it's a consumable item used in several different guilds. If you don't really need the money, you can save the leather, because you'll be using it soon anyway.

Leather Ring 18-22
Crystal: Wind
Ingredients: Dhalmel Leather (14k per stack on AH)

In case you want to use Dhalmel Leathers right away instead of selling them, this is a good recepie, and your Leathers will last a while. Wind crystals are much cheaper than Dark crystals also.

At this point you have two options. Dhalmel Mantles, or Sandals

Dhalmel Mantle 21-27
Crystal: Ice (900-1.2k a stack on AH)
Ingredients: Dhalmel Hide, Wool Thread (20-22k per stack on AH)

At this point, you may not be comfortable buying Wool Thread as such a high price, but you're gonna be making lots of other kinds of mantles later on, so you might as well get used to it now. :) If you dabble in Cloth craft, you can always make your own Wool Thread, but you won't be saving a whole lot of money doing it that way, and it takes alot more time of course.


Sandals 22-29
Crystal: Wind
Ingredients: Sheep Leather, Dhalmel Leather

Slightly Cheaper than Dhalmel Mantles, but you're going to fail a bit more until 23.

Parchement 25-31
Crystal: Dark
Ingredients: Sheep Leather, Rolanberry (I don't actually remember the price of this, i'll edit it in later. It's not terribly expensive though)

Chance are you're not gonna be skilling using this synth a whole lot, as you won't find Rolanberries for sale on AH that often. It can be profitable to sell in Jeuno to aspiring bards though, which is why I mention it.

Ram Leather 27-35
Crystal: Dark
Ingredients: Ram Skin (400-600 each at AH), Windurst Tea Leaves, Distilled Water

Another good money making synth. If you've got a lvl 30ish job you can go to Lathiene or Konschtat with several stacks of crystals, water and tea leaves, and leave with several stacks of Ram Leather, which go for 15k each on AH.

To continue, you've got several options here as well. Leather Gorget, Wolf Gorget, or Waistbelt, it all depends on what's available and how much cash you have to spend.

Leather Gorget 32-37
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Grass Thread (1k a stack on AH) Ram Leather (15k a stack on AH)

A decent synth, rather inexpensive if you make your own leather, but Ram Leather is better, even though it doesn't get you as far. I mention it because you may want to use that Ram Leather as you make it, and this is a good use for it.

Wolf Gorget 34-39
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Cotton Thread (5k a stack on AH), Wolf Hide (400-500 each on AH)

You *may* have trouble finding Wolf Hides, but it's a decent synth.

Waistbelt 37-43
Crystal: Wind
Ingredients: Ram Leather x2, Grass Thread

This is the recepie I personally recommend, as you can recover most of your investment selling to NPC or to guild.

From this point on, you're going to have far fewer options, and resources will be much harder to come by and generally more expensive. Not for the faint of heart.

Ram Mantle 42-49
Crystal: Ice
Ingredients: Ram Skin, Wool Thread

I told you you'd be using Wool Thread eventually. If you've gotten this far though, you may not mind the 20-22k per stack cost of this. Get every last skill point you can out of this synth, because after this it gets ugly for a while.

Himantes 47-52
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Lizard Cesti, Raptor Skin (30k per stack on AH)

You can start this at 47, perhaps even 46, but I really recomment waiting till 49, just due to cost.

Raptor Mantle 48-53
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Grass Thread, Raptor Skin x2

A doubly painful synth, as you use Raptor Skins twice as fast.

At this point, take a break from Leather crafting, and come back after you've forgotten the pain this has caused you.

Tiger Leather 53-61
Crystal: Dark
Ingredients: Black Tiger Hide(400-500 each on AH), Windurst Tea Leaves, Distilled Water

Ahh, sweet relief! Another profitable recepie. If you're one of those people that like to hunt Tiger Fangs to farm, bring along some leather making ingredients and double your income from hunting Tigers. ^^ You will fail alot but you may want to start using this recepie at 52, or even 51. You may find that this is a cheaper way to skill than the raptor gear, even in spite of failed synths. There are dark clouds once again on the horizon though.

Hard Leather Ring 56-62
Crystal: Wind
Ingredients: Tiger Leather (15-17k per stack on AH)

This is if you want to put that tiger leather to good use, and to delay having to use Cockatrice skins for one more skill level.

Beak Mantle 58-63
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Grass Thread, Cockatrice Skin x2 (1-2k on AH)

Cockatrice Skins are much more expensive in San d'Oria than they are in other cities, at least on Asura, so you may want to consider purchasing them elsewhere. I strongly suggest you don't start this synth until 62, as this is a big money looser. From 62-63 though, you'll want to make this, because it doesn't cosh as much money to make as your next synth.

Beak Jerkin 63-69
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Sheep Leather. Cockatrice Skin x 2

This is another synth that there is just no way around, at least for a few levels. You don't have to take it all the way to 69, because soon you can make Coeurl Leather.

Coeurl Leather 63-71
Crystal: Dark
Ingredients: Coeurl Hide (1-2k on AH) Windurst Tea Leaves, Distilled Water

Like other leather types, you can make this for a longer time with less failures than other recepie types, and you may wish to do so, since it's a cheaper synth, cost wise. I'd suggest not starting until 65 though, as 63-65 will cost about as much as Beak Jerkins, due to failures on THIS synth. But, Coeurl Leathers sell QUITE nicely, 35k a stack on Asura. Like Cockatrice skins, the San d'Oria prices of Coeurl Hides tend to be inflated compared to the prices in other cities.

You've got a few options coming up. Choose which you do based on cost, and whats available at the time.

Tiger Mantle 70-75
Crystal: Ice
Ingredients: Wool Thread, Black Tiger Hide

I bet your glad to be buying that Wool Thread now, aren't you? It's not TOO much cheaper over all than Cockatrice Skins of Coeurl Hides, but hey, it stacks, and its more readily available.

Tiger Jerkin 73-79
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Sheep Leather, Tiger Leather x2

I'd suggest taking Mantles until they cap, but overall this is not a bad synth.

Coeurl Gorget 73-79
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Cotton Thread, Coeurl Hide

Cheaper to make than Tiger Jerkin, but again Coeurl Hides are hard to find sometimes. They don't sell to NPC as well either.

Manticore Leather 73-80
Crystal: Dark
Ingredients: Manticore Hide (2-2.5k on AH), Windurst Tea Leaves, Distilled Water

This is also a profitable synth, and you can break even despite a higher failure rate if you choose to start at 72. I see stacks selling in Jeuno for about 60k pretty regularly.

Coeurl Mantles 79-85
Crystal: Ice
Ingredients: Wool Thread, Coeurl Hide

This is where I'm at now, so I can't provide much insight past this point.

Coeurl Jerkin 85-89
Crystal: Earth
Ingredients: Sheep Leather, Coeurl Leather x 2 (35k per stack on AH)

You'll almost definately have to make your own leathers for this synth, I almost always have to. Kind of a pain, yeah, but it's likely cheaper, depending on server prices.

Tiger Mask 89-95
Crystal: Ice
Ingredients: Black Tiger Hide x 2, Wool Thread, Ram leather, Wyvern Skin (25k each)

or

Griffin Leather 90-97
Crystal: Dark
Ingredients: Windurst Tea Leaves, Distilled Water, Griffin Hides(30k each).

Even though the cost of these synths are roughly the same, you'll likely be able to sell the Tiger Masks easier than the Griffin Leather.

95-100 Panzer Mask
Crystal: Ice
Ingredients: Wool Thread, Ram Leather, HQ Coeurl Leather x2 (500gil each), Wyvern Skin

[Brennon]

NOTE: all prices quoted are average Asuran prices, and the prices on your server may be somewhat different. Also, I only list a price the first time i mention a particular ingredient.


NOTE2: The level ranges I provide for an item are, IMO, the beginning level that I feel it's good for Skill without losing too much money, and the level that the item caps at. You'll notice often that ranges overlap. This gives you some added alternatives if you don't like a particular synth, or materials are unavailable)

[imstimpy]

At level 8, Soleas are giving me .1 skillup every 1-2 synths (this was on lightsday). They sell horribly to the NPC and at the AH. A possible alternative to this is the Lizard Mantle. I could synth a Rabbit Mantle for a loss of only about 200 gil whereas the Soleas synthed for a loss of 1000 gil. There aren't too many options for back equipment so the mantles sold quite often.

Breakdown: **
Rabbit Mantle 4-7
12x Rabbit hides = 1000 gil
12x grass thread = 1200 gil
12x earth crystal = 300 gil
Cost = 7200 gil per 12 synths
= 600 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = 50 gil
AH = 400 gil

Soleas 4-11
12x Sheep leathers = 7000 gil
12x Wind crystals = 1800 gil
Cost = 16000 gil per 12 synths
= 1300 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = 150 gil
AH = 300 gil

Lizard Mantle 8-12
12x Lizard skin = 7000 gil
12x Lizard molt = 2400 gil
12x Earth crystals = 300 gil
12x Grass thread = 1200 gil
Cost = 11000 gil per 12 synths
= 900 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = 80 gil
AH = 500 gil

From a conversational viewpoint, the Lizard Mantle is far superior; you get almost 1.5 times as many potential skillups for the same price. Unfortunately, there are two things I don't know about this. First, as I haven't skilled on it just yet I do not know if the success rate or skillups are any good. Rabbit Mantles were not bad at all so my hopes are that Lizard Mantles will be as well. Secondly, I don't know what kind of returns can be expected from the Lizard Mantles since I have not yet looked.

I bring up the above things because there are some who want to powerlevel and there are some who just want to level the craft at a minimal cost. My attempt at the minimal cost approach is to analyze the recipies at my level, do a cost analysis, then select which is best. The small caveat to this is that some recipies simply will not succeed at expected level ranges (ie: sandles) and so I may end up losing in the end anyhow.

I've heard the transition to dhalmel leather can be painful, so I ask why you don't mention the possibility of taking the loss on the early level dhalmel leathers and start at 11? Skillups were pretty big for me when I tried something somewhat earlier than I should have. Soleas are a loss no matter how you look at it, so it may be no different to lose with big skillups instead.

For the parchment, rolanberries can be purchased at the item shop in Upper Jeuno near the Batallia Downs exit. I believe they are around 100 gil each.

** prices are from my own server so do your own research

[EDIT] Added prices.

[Brennon]

You can usually start making leathers 10 levels lower than the cap of the leather you want to make, but you'll fail alot, and even though you don't lose hides EVERY time, you do lose a dark crystal every time, and those add up.

I hadn't considered making Rabbit Mantles as an alternative to Solea, but it definately seems viable. I choose not to work with them simply because it takes so much resources, even though the cost is less. You may find yourself running to AH alot more often, to buy stacks and stacks upon stacks of Rabbit hides if you use this approach, depending on how many you lose at failures.

Lizard Mantle is definately a better synth, and now that I think about it, is one of the recepies I used at this level. I had tried to remember back and thought it was a lizard helmet that i had made. but it was Mantles. Helmets are just too expensive for this lower level of skill. It caps at 14, by the way. My initial post edited. . .

I did not know what NPC's sold rolanberries, as i've not made more than probably 2 stacks of parchements. Thanks for the info :)

[Lmnop]

I've been looking for a nice leatherworking guide for some time. Thanks a lot and good job.

[ibroyles]

Thank you very much Brennon, this is very helpful. Maybe we can finally get a sticky for us Leather Crafters.

[Brennon]

I've been looking for a nice leatherworking guide for some time. Thanks a lot and good job.

*looks at server that poster is on*

Oh no, a competitor! :eek: :biggrin:

[Dragonhope]

I posted my own guide on the forums that my crafting LS uses. It uses different items for skillpaths on a few things but I think it's pretty much the same. Compare the two yourself and tell me what you think ^^

Edit: Whoops. Forgot the link. http://s7.invisionfree.com/TheCraft

There you go ^^

[Lmnop]

81 > 4


You win

[kengosan]

lv 95-100 ~ panzer mask.

[Fukkatsu]

I've been looking into Leathercraft as the guild I want to be in, but is there any chance of good profit for middle level Leathercrafters? Because 80+ is a long time til you start making money.

[imstimpy]

Lizard Mantles were a wonderful success for me. They shot me up from 8-13. The skillups were .1 and .2 on Lightningsday with 50% moon.

You will be crafting the Lizard Mantles for almost a 100% loss if you do not have the means to sell them back through the AH. In going from 2-13, I probably accrued 40,000 gil in crafted items. This is being sold back slowly for minimal loss. Powerleveling your craft could easily blow 50,000 gil taking it to a mere level 12 or 13.

Dhalmel leather is a stretch at 13 when I started it. Success was probably 1 in 3, but skillups were good. I did it with advanced synthesis support, but on a neutral day (Windsday I believe).

I attempted to farm the dhalmel hides with minimal success. I spent an hour killing dhalmels and I had only 3 hides to show for it. This was done almost exclusively in Tahrongi Canyon, however. I only killed about 5 dhalmels in Buburimu Peninsula. The drop should be better in Bubu, but I think my time is better spent farming in my favorite location and then buying the hides at the AH in any city other than San D'Oria. My success for that hour of farming was not from the hides, but from the 6,000 gil in wind clusters, 3,000 gil in giant femurs, and 2,000 gil in dhalmel meat.

Making money in leathercrafting can happen as soon as you start crafting leathers. If you level on sheep in Ronfaure, La Theine, or Konschtat you have the opportunity to craft for pure profit. If you aren't leveling in an area with hides or leveling your craft on leathers, money can be made but time is better spent farming. Once your crafting level is ready to make the next leather, you can make money once again. I'm able to pull in 1,000 gil per synth on the dhalmel leathers, but demand prevents this from being a strong source of income. Time vs profit also prevents this from being more worthwhile than other means of farming, but it is nice to have an extra 7,000 gil profit sitting there in the morning.

As with all crafts, there can be money made at all levels. The trick is to find your niche and exploit it without flooding your market. If you do find a niche, don't tell anybody. For example: Archer's Rings used to be 400k and Sniper's Rings were sitting around 450k; that's 50,000 gil profit. Sniper's Rings crept up to 500k and shortly afterwards, Archer's Rings went up to 500k. There is now ZERO profit to be made crafting Sniper's Rings due to somebody flooding the market. Please don't do this.

I'm currently skilling on dhalmel leathers right now, so I won't have much to add for a week or two.

[Foxion]

Ok .. how much will it cost to get my Leathercraft to 40?
I have THII so i get my skins easly.

and thx for the guide. :)

[Aciid]

this needs a sticky... btw nice guide @.@

[imstimpy]

I'm at a profit at lv21. I've also been playing the market, going out of my way to buy cheap and sell high. Everything that has been made has been sold at the AH for maximum recovery. Consequently, it has also been quite a few weeks since I first started leveling. I've almost got all my lizard mantles sold finally. ; ;

As I said above, you could blow a hell of a lot of cash in leatherworking if you are impatient and want to power level it. I probably made close to 40 lizard mantles. If I had sold them back to the NPC then I would have lost 32,000 gil going from 8-13. Instead, I have been selling them to the AH over the past few weeks at 600g each and so I only lost 12,000 gil. This could have been drastically worse too because the materials varied up to 1,000 gil per stack between cities. That was just to go from 8-13.

[iglak]

how often would you say dhalmel leathers fail at lvl 11 crafting?
what if i craft them on the field at that level? (no image support)

[Brennon]

without image support, you'll fail most of the time. it won't be worth it to craft without support out in the field until at least, i'd guess lvl 16 or so. To be honest though, i havn't done much crafting without support, so i don't really know how much of a difference it would make.

[Foxion]

omg .. i lost about 40-70k and i'm only lvl 10 :eek: :eek:

[imstimpy]

Told ya ;)

I attempted dhalmel leathers at 13 without image support. I succeeded on one and failed on two. This was done on darksday. From then on I used adv synth support up until lv18. I still failed a decent amount even with the synth support, but losses were minimal. Post 18 I synthed the leathers without support just fine.

[X Launcher]

I'd like to offer an alternative for 11-17 skill range. Lizard Cesti. The formula is 1 Earth Crystal + 1 Cesti + 1 Lizard Skin. It's really nice as you can buy Cesti for something like 153 from the NPCs at weapon shops. That, and they sell for a nice profit at 1k apiece. So, it's like 7k spent for a stack of skins and 12k earned for a profit of about 4k once you factor in the Cestis.

Plus, they usually sell in bulk. Probably the people skilling off of Himantes. Only real problem is that selling them takes up space on the AH. Not too big a problem if you have a mule in Sandy.

I love the guide!

[Klash]

i havnet messed around with leatherworking to much, im only level 1.5. should i stick to making rabbit mantles or sheep wool? i cant buy from the guild yet i dunno why. which gives the most experience(if theres a difference) and which is the most useful?

[imstimpy]

I've now made lv24 leathercrafting. My progression from lv21-24 is as follows:

Leather Ring 21-22
12x Dhalmel leathers = 11000 gil
12x Wind crystals = 2000 gil
Cost = 13000 gil per 12 synths
= 1100 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = ???
AH = 150-200 gil

This recipe may seem horrid, but it isn't. You can either make your dhalmel leathers, or buy a cheap stack at the AH. You then craft all your leather rings until lv22 where they cap. Now buy a stack of lightning crystals and desynth them all back to dhalmel leathers. I probably had a 60-70% success of this desynth and I was only at cap. This was more of an excercise in desynth than anything. I then sold my dhalmel leathers back as singles for 1700 gil each. Minimal failures without synth support.

Chocobo Gloves 22-23
12x Cotton Cloth = 7000 gil
12x Dhalmel leathers = 11000 gil
12x Lizard Skins = 7000 gil
12x Earth crystals = 500 gil
Cost = 25500 per 12 synths
= 2100 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = 600 gil
AH = 2500-3000 gil

This requires a bit of capital to level on, but if you have the patience you can break even or even turn a profit on them. They sell slowly at the AH, so be forewarned. Minimal failures without synth support.

[EDIT] Chocobo gloves are a VERY slow seller to the tune of 5 or so per month. They are probably not the best recipe.

Sandals 23-24
12x Sheep leathers = 7000 gil
12x Dhalmel leathers = 11000 gil
12x Wind crystals = 2000 gil
Cost = 1200 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = 841
AH = 900 gil

People have said these are horrible, but they were a better synth than the dhalmel mantles. I leveled these at a loss of 200-300 gil per synth whereas the dhalmel mantles were a loss of 700 gil per synth. I crafted 13 of these on earthsday, lost one, had one .2, eight .1 skill ups, and the rest were successes. If you +1 the desynth, you will get your dhalmel leather back; I don't know how easy the desynth is to succeed.

My next step will be Parchment from 24-27 and then cap out the ram leathers.

[imstimpy]

Parchment 24-27
12x Sheep leathers = 7000 gil
12x Rolanberry = 1900 gil
12x Wind crystals = 1900 gil
Cost = 10800 per 12 synths
= 900 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = ~100 gil
AH = 900-1000 gil

This allowed good skillups and a full return on synthesis. They can be sold back in Jeuno for the BRD quest, or sold back in any of the three nations for wood workers. I ended up with 4 stacks of Parchment after I was done skilling.

Ram leather 28-35
12x Ram hide = 7200 gil
12x Distilled water = 110 gil
12x Windurstean tea leaves = 230 gil
12x Dark crystals = 2300 gil
Cost = 10,000 gil per 12 synths
= 900 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = ???
AH = 1200-2000 gil

It is a leather recipe, it is good :). It is also plagued by a lack of supply at a good price, just like other leathers thus far. Farming for this one is definitely viable since the rams are on a 10 minute timer (I think) and turn in around 4 hides per kill.

I'm at 28.1 right now, and I have not synthed Ram Leathers yet. I'm waiting on a good supply of Ram Hides before I get going on it. They are stuck at 600-700 gil with minimal supply right now. I was also busy doing M6-1 and M6-2 ^^.

[Brennon]

I was frustrated by the lack of ram leathers at this point too. I went and hunted rams, since i needed the horns, for the purple belt quest, but also found the other people hunting rams and bought all the hides i could carry off them, and also they aggreed to bring them back to town with them and sell to me directly.

[imstimpy]

Waistbelt 35-43
12x Grass Thread = 1,100 gil
12x Ram leathers = 15,000 gil
12x Ram leathers = 15,000 gil
12x Wind crystals = 1,900 gil
Cost = 33,000 per 12 synths
= 2,800 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = 1,863 gil
AH = 3,000 gil

If you buy everything outright, then you are losing 1,000 gil per synth.

Alternatively, synth all your Ram leathers for this recipe. If you kept the Ram leathers you synthed up to lv35, then you should have 5-6 stacks all ready to go:

Waistbelt 35-43
12x Grass Thread = 1,100 gil
12x Ram leathers = 11,000 gil
12x Ram leathers = 11,000 gil
12x Wind crystals = 1,900 gil
Cost = 25,000 per 12 synths
= 2,100 gil per synth
NPC = 1,863 gil
AH = 3,000 gil.

I started with 5+ stacks of Ram leathers and after 1.8 levels (lv36.9), I am down to around 2 stacks left. The synths that require 2x of anything really eat up materials quickly. At lv35, I failed almost every synth and skillups didn't come as often as I would have liked. At lv36, failures have been reduced but are still prominent; I received more skillups at this level with some .2. I hear that lv37 marks the end of most failures. These do sell at the AH, however they only appear to sell to other crafters; possibly very high levels trying to HQ2 the belts but more likely those synthing Corsettes. As such, they are not sold very often.

Hard to get started on, but you are nearly synthing at a loss of just the crystal.

[imstimpy]

Ram Mantle 43-49
12x Ice Crystals = 1,000 gil
12x Ram Hides = 6,000 gil
12x Wool Thread = 18,000 gil
Cost = 25,000 per 12 synths
= 2,100 gil per synth
Return:
NPC = 1,012 gil
AH = 900 gil

This is a painful recipe to synth. Sadly, this is the best option on my server. It sells back to the NPC for more than the AH, however. If you decide to desynth the mantle, a normal desynth will get you back the Ram Hide (net loss of 1,600 gil) and an HQ desynth will get you back the Wool Thread (net loss of 700 gil). I haven't tried desynthing, but chances are you will lose more money desynthing that if you just took the 1,000 gil loss by selling to the NPC.

I synthed these on Windsday and got one .1, five .2, and two successes with no skillups. This has put me up to 44.1.

[Sirch]

Can I get to the point where I can make Ram Leather with 250k?

[Truce]

Well, I started Leatherworking a couple of weeks ago with this guide and have achieved level 68 so far. I'd say I probably started with around 1.1 million gil and I had about 220K left. However with all the items I still have to sell some of which I'm holding for later synths, such as coeurl jerkins, I have about 550K. However, since I was holding some of the items I camped VE twice and sold two pins :). So now my net gil is back up around 1.1 mil. Anyways, it cost a good bit to get here and finding enough coeurl hides to craft with from 65-71 is hard and expensive. Especially since, on my server, Coeurl leathers do not sell well at all. I was just going to suggest, I don't know what options are out there, that you may want to craft something other than coeurl leathers for skill up at this point. Unless you have the gil and the plan to craft Coeurl jerkins in the relatively near future you may want to choose anothe route. I got from 0-62 in about a week and after that things have slowed down quite a bit for me. I do hope to hit 70+ by the of the weekend though.

And to the original poster~ Great post, it has helped me a lot in crafting for minimal loss.

Also Dhalmel mantles were a pain to level off of as well, but the guild wanted them for guild points and my mule sold many in Bastok so they didn't last too long.

Anyways goodluck to all you future leather crafters. I hope to be around lvl 90 by the end of next week.

[Truce]

Hey me again. To the person who wanted to know if they could get to the point of Ram Leathers with 250K... I'm not exactly sure. I think it might take you pretty close but not quite that far. It's hard for me to say because I don't remember when I started spending all my gil.

P.S. I got lvl 74 by the end of Sunday.... I hope I can get 85-90 this week. :biggrin:

[Eabe]

nice guide, helped me get from 0-4 in 1 night :) made a few thousand k too, not bad

[Brennon]

Well I'm up to lvl 89 now ^^


An alternative to Tiger Masks is Griffon Leather, which caps at lvl 97. On my server, Griffin Hides sell for 30k each, which is *sort* of comparable to Wyvern Skins at 25k, and considering the other ingredients in Tiger masks, these synths are both about the same cost per synth.

Just make sure every synth counts, as materials are not only very expensive, but also rather rare.

One other note . . . there's alot of info out there about what days/moon phase is best for HQ or skill ups, and i've done a bit of my own research and found that, apart from full moon/lightsday . . . full moon windsday is also very good for skill up (vs. full moon/other days) Note, this is using earth crystals, wearing no + or - elements aside from the +1 dark on my guild gloves, and with earth energy in mog house. Just in case any of that affects it significantly. So, I hope that information helps you. :)

edit: updated original post a bit.

[Truce]

Well, I know I planned on being further than this by now, but I'm now at 84 and I already have the materials for 85-89. Only reason it's going so slow is that coeurl hides sell very fast on my server and I've probably farmed about 30 of my own. 2.5K each on Valefor. Anyways, once I hit 87-89, however far my 14 stacks of coeurl leather take me, I am going to do an in depth research on day of the week affecting HQ. My recipe will also be using an earth crystal b/c imo it's the most important crystal for a leathercrafter to have success with(assuming they're trying to make money). Once I've done the research I will post it on here and on the Day of the Week topic. Goodluck leathercrafters. ;)

[Bigbird]

Leathercrafters , lets keep this current >:)

Thanks for the guide it has really helped me Alot, I've Reached Level 88.999 lol thanks to your guide. I have spent alot of money because of powerleveling but i am happy to be this high in only 1.5 weeks.

Level 90-100 Is going to literally take me months to achieve because of limited Options to skill up on. Wyvern skins are 32k Per skin on fairy and Griffon Hides are 40k Per. I really dont care about the price but the supply is what really hurts me. So far i have been able to get my hands on about 15 wyvern skins in the last week. It's THAT bad, i have many other Leathercrafters who camp the AH daily so its difficult to get enough materials at times.

As far as sub skills, it looks like clothcraft(Brigandine,etc), bonecraft(Bison gear,etc) and smitthing(Byrnie, etc) are going to be needed to really be the best leatherworker possible.

I have also noticed during Fullmoon to be the best day for skill, however Last full moon i wasnt able to take much advantage or test it enough.

As far as HQs which is supposed to be better Full moon or New Moon??

[Bigbird]

Well just wanted to share my terrible experience this last full moon.

I am curently 92+1 leathercrafting and I got a behemoth hide off of byakko. I was looking forward to crafting it into a mantle, i figure i had a chance of HQ on Full moon. Unfortunatly it failed and i lost the hide ;; 1million gil (See you again) However i did make a nomads+1 so i was happy.

As far as skillups it has been extremely slow 89-92. I am paying at least 500k per level these days because of the slow skill, high prices for materials and limited supplies to craft with. AT this rate I am guessing i wont be 100 for another 4 months at least, but after you reach 90+ you can make alot of cool things so its pretty fun being this high.

[guyincorporated]

/wave Bigbirdd. I was skilling up on dhalmel hides 2 weeks ago and chatting w/ you. You were making coeurl/ogre masks, I think.

Anyhow, I hit 21 leather. My goal is to get to 35 (the end of ram skins) as a support for bonecraft. The way I see it, I've got to get my skill up to about 27 or 28, then I can go nuts farming the living hell out of battering rams. (25 drops in 4 rams? {Yes, Please!})

So I need advice for the 21-27 stretch. Reading the thread, one guy mentioned leather rings + desynth, which just seems like throwing money away to me. What other options are there? Parchment sounds like it about breaks even...if it sells at AH. How quickly do stacks usually sell? I know bast parchment is used in shihei, but I'm not sure if it is the same item as regular parchment.

[onorok]

Originally posted by guyincorporated
Anyhow, I hit 21 leather. My goal is to get to 35 (the end of ram skins) as a support for bonecraft. The way I see it, I've got to get my skill up to about 27 or 28, then I can go nuts farming the living hell out of battering rams. (25 drops in 4 rams? {Yes, Please!})

When you go for rams, occasionally shout in the zone that you're buying skins incase anyone else gets the pull before you. I've bought 24+ ram skins for 100 to 300 each doing this, as some people don't see them worth as much as the horn and taking up inventory space.

Originally posted by guyincorporated
So I need advice for the 21-27 stretch. Reading the thread, one guy mentioned leather rings + desynth, which just seems like throwing money away to me. What other options are there? Parchment sounds like it about breaks even...if it sells at AH. How quickly do stacks usually sell? I know bast parchment is used in shihei, but I'm not sure if it is the same item as regular parchment.

I did the following:

[15-22] Leather Ring: Wind Crystal + Dhalmel Leather
[22-24] Sandals: Wind Crystal + Sheep Leather + Dhalmel Leather
[24-31] Parchment Paper: Dark Crystal + Sheep Leather + Rolanberry
[28-35] Ram Leather: Dark Crystal + Ram Skin + Distilled Water + Windurst Tea Leaves

The parchment was selling the fastest in stacks in Jeuno on Valefor server, and I probably only made 3 or 4 stacks before I had moved on to ram leather. So probably parchment till about 29 or 29.5 I guess.

[Bigbird]

I did exactly what Onorok Did.

Leather ring is the way to go, its the easiest and fastest way to get skill at that point. You can make your own dhamel leather if you want to save some gil, but of course that will take a longer time. As far as desynthing them, 8/10 times you will fail so i dont believe it is worth it. You get secure gil by selling to the NPC and using that to buy more supplies. Although, i did try desything alot at later levels, it was mostly because the materials are alot more difficult to obtain, but at your level its pretty easy to buy or make your own ram and sheep leather.

[onorok]

Forgot to mention that I was making dhalmel leather to 21 too, and basically once I made however many dhalmel leathers I synthed to rings, then NPC'd. I forget if the guild buys the, but the guild will usually pay you more for the item than other NPC's -if- the guild is buying the item at that time.

[Drzaus]

Brennon know any higher lv leather crafters who HQ amemet mantles for profit? im 89.7 and i wanna know when i can really start, i was thinking 95- was good enough to get a steady rate?

Edit: btw this is the first time ive posted since i first registered on this site i think.. how do i change my profile lol...

Edit again: yey i found it!

[Bigbird]

You can already start but if you dont do it on the right days you could lose alot of gil. I got alot beter results at lvl 91+1 tho. On a bad day i'll do about 15-20% and on a good day its more like 33%.

Amemet is turning into a dead market because of gill sellers who camp it 24/7 there are over 11 amemet+1s for sale over 15 regulars for sale and over 33 skins for sale on my server, the prices decrease by the hour for the mantles. Wish these guys didnt have to ruin our markets with over supply.

[Truce]

Well, there were 27 amemit skins in AH on my server last I checked going for 150K. So for 3 synths it would cost 450K. Well, the mantles +1 still sell for 750-800K. So on my server if you were crafting them 33% of the time you would still be making a good bit. And if you sell the regulars they go for about 35K. So you would have about 835-460K. That's 375K profit on three synths. I just wish I had completed my day and moon phase study so I could start crafting these things. Oh well, I'm only lvl 88 atm, I still need to skill up some more.... but not much more.

[Drzaus]

ur totally right about the gilfarmers ruining many things, which is one of the reasons im trying to get my skill up and make money off the mantles while i can b4 the market dies

ive put too much time and money into this craft and they arent gonna ruin it for me until i make that money back.

[Drzaus]

im gonna try to HQ a few mantles, and ive been told several things.. so i need help clearing this up.. HQ moon is New moon?
better HQ rate is on the day the element of the crystal is weak too?
so for +1 mantles i would try to synth on New Moon Windsday?

som1 who does HQ freaking tell me plz lol...


Edit: Nevermind lol, i found a thread that had a link to a test i find to make alotta freaking sense and i know what im gonna do woot

[Bigbird]

FairyServer Wyvern skins = 40k each

Losing like a million each level and its rare to find them on the AH X.X Finally got lvl 93 last night tho.

[Pro24.7]

Hi, I'm stuck at the lv79 and I need advice, that couerl hide is a pain..

[{Pug}]

How far will 3 million gil get me in this craft? Just a rough estimate.

[Bigbird]

i'd guess about 60-70 if u npc everything.

Got 94 the other day and my apron, 94+2 skill is fun ^^

85-100 is taking longer and more expensive then 1-85 LoL

[Bigbird]

Got 95 yesterday after spending god knows how much, jesus im at the final Stretch, please god, make the pain go away fast ; ;;

I also had a painful 10% success on Amemet+1's the other day, ; ; lost millions there too. Stay away from that mantle , it will make you the biggest Gambler ever, and slowly strip away all your Gil. :(

[Pai Pai Master]

Stickified.

[Bigbird]

Yay Stickified, too bad Leathercrafters dont post anymore :mad:

O well, 96 leather now =-)

[Bigbird]

LoL these forums are soo dead :( O well, ive adopted it as my own little Diary anyways.

This Weekend was an awesome weekend for crafting. Friday Started off with me trying to make some Gil off of Winged Boots. I didnt wait for full or new moon knowing how hard it is to HQ a 89 Cap item, and i wanted to take advantage that none were up for sale. I get to the tanners guild and notice its lightningsday Waxing haning or something, at the last minute i decided i'd use a Special crystal, got Support and BLAM Winged Boots+1 signed Lol!!! Hah, that kept me up til about 3am, i couldnt believe i made them. Too bad i cant sell these, they mean too much, i have NEVER seen a signed pair of these on the server. And the last sold was in August (over 3 months ago):spin:

Saturday comes and i get my hands on some wyvern skins. I wasnt sure how far from 97 i was, i was guessing .4 or so. Boom, got .3 Skill and Reached 97 YAY. Almost to 100, final final stretch. Cost me 550k for .3 skill tho :(

I had been gathering crafting materials for a week, knowing that the next moon would be Monday around Midnight. I had my usual bunch of things , and i usually try about 4 sniper rings, but with the huge price increases, i could only afford 2 archers at the time. So i gathered my stuff and was waiting for the airship to sandy. LoL i feel asleep with only 30mins left in the Day of the week that i prefer for HQ. I rushed to sandy got support and did my usual crafts, i got Decent HQ not as much as i'd like, but i left the snipers for last. With about 1 minute remaining on my day, i crafted the sniper BOOM, Sniper +1 weeeeee. My second sniper wasnt a HQ tho, but weee, Hq'd a Cap 90 item with only 97 base skill! Ok after that i couldnt sleep, i just kept looking at the screen shot pinching myself as a reminder that i wasnt dreaming when i crafted it :eek:

Ok thats just to give you noobie Leathercrafters some Motivation to keep going. The Road is long and hard to 90+ but moments like these just make everything worth it. :thumbsup:

[Bigbird]

Double - post :mad:

[icesharc]

How bout that behemoth +1 (signed?) last night. You were talking non stop on vent for hours after that. ^^

[Brennon]

wow, after how many months of this guide being up, i finally got a sticky ^^

I'm up to 92 now, wyvern skins were up to 50k a piece on Asura. They are back down to about 30k each now.

Bad information i put in there about griffon hides. They are a dynamis drop, so they'd not exist in enough quantities to be worth skilling on, i don't think :P

As far as HQ, that's something i still havn't gotten around to really testing yet. Most of my recent testing has been how to get skill the fastest, so as to make leveling up as cheap as possible. I've tried amemit mantle many many times, and always had *terrible* luck, so i stopped trying for a while (i don't think i've tried it since 90.x something actually) maybe i'd have better luck with it now. . . .I've got then tanners gloves and apron, and got about 82k towards the golden fleece.

Anyway, i don't visit these forums as much as i used to, but I'm really glad to see my thread is alive, and filled with great info from other crafters out there, and is helping people out! Good luck everyone :)

[Bigbird]

Yea Brennon thx alot for the guide, although alot of people dont post, i assure you, MANY people check/use your guide.

After months and months of work, I reached level 100 today (first NA 100 leathercrafter on Fairy wootaru), Wyvern skins were going at 40k a pop, but i have a feeling they will go down since i was the main buyer, and with these AH fees people naturally lower the price on things to undercut each other.

So far i have Smithing and cloth subs maxed, and it doesnt really seem worth getting gold, alchemy or woodworking since theres very few items that need those subs anyway and not that big of a profit margin on what you can even make with them.

[Dragonhope]

I stopped posting here before since there didn't seem to be that many Leathercrafters around. But it's nice to see that this guide finally got stickied too. Also if my computer didn't go down, i'd also be 100+2 instead of 91+1:p

I was the first NA Leathercrafter to hit Veteran but I won't be the first to be 100 I know. Oh well...at least I get to wear my own signed gear. If any craft makes armor for Thieves, it's Leathercrafting ^^

PS: I got 50% HQ rate on Amemit Mantles on New Moon and I think it was Ice Day O.O I ended up making 7 Amemit mantle +1 (all signed!!) out of 14 (some friends and I hunted Amemit for a few days to synth in a big session). I found people I knew that had an Amemit +1 already and traded the signed one for a non-signed one so it wouldn't surprise me if they're still floating about ^^

[guyincorporated]

Originally posted by Bigbird
After months and months of work, I reached level 100 today (first NA 100 leathercrafter on Fairy wootaru), Wyvern skins were going at 40k a pop, but i have a feeling they will go down since i was the main buyer, and with these AH fees people naturally lower the price on things to undercut each other.


Congratulations!!!

/praise

[cares]

Originally posted by Brennon
Most of my recent testing has been how to get skill the fastest, so as to make leveling up as cheap as possible. I
hehe mindposting some of results?
I'm stuck at 90.0+2
I got enough Ingredients together for synthing 24 errant pigacches and wanna get the most skill out of them =P

[Dragonhope]

Synth on Earthsday and face the south. The facing the south is optional. It pretty much depends on if you believe in Directional Synthing or not ^^

[cares]

Actually that's contra everything what I researched so far...I usually synth on windsday facing southeast for maximal 'failrate' and there for possibility to learn aka -skill ups-
Yet, I asked Brennon, since he may have data in numbers which disproves both of us =O

[Dragonhope]

And what's wrong with me replying? You think i'm not as smart just because i'm 9 levels under her?

Fail rate just means it has a higher chance of failing without skillups. On earthsday, it's pretty good chance on both. I actually did the Pigaches up to 91 as well. Due to a new source a friend of mine found for Wyvern Skins, i'll be using the Tiger Mask -> Panzer Mask up to 100 now that I have access to the game again.

[cares]

I never offended you in any way, no need to get upset about anything, aight?
If you see apply this theory (http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=24&mid=1099500603923343276&num=97) ,
you would land on -0.5, causing a miserable skillup rate.
However, I still am waiting for Brennons, results, and what she/he has found out for herself.
$0.02

[Brennon]

Someone refered to me as "He" and I'd like to correct that, first off :P

Ok so, update on my progress . . .i'm now lvl 93 flat, wyvern skins are incredibly hard to find and they're starting to go up in price again . . . but I *think* I've pretty much figured out the *secret* to synthing HQ, at least a little bit, so funding shouldn't be too much of a problem anymore. (my last two sessions of amemit, i went 5/12 and 4/13, the 4/13 was on a day I expected to be less than ideal, but I guessed that i'd get some, and I was luckly correct ^^)


I am a *firm* believer in Directional Facing, this is in fact the theory i've tested the most, and had the strongest results from. I've also created some other followers of this theory on Asura . . .

The information is already out there, so It doesn't hurt too much I suppose to post my own results here.

When i synth for skill ups, I synth on the day that the crystal is weak to, facing the direction that the crystal is weak to, during full moon, with guild items on, and synth support on. I get very good results this way, compared to just random directions or days.

Ok, and I'll give two examples, to clarify. If using an EARTH crystal synth, synth on full moon, WINDsday, facing southeast (the direction associated with wind) If using an ICE crystal, synth on full moon, FIREsday, facing northwest (the direction associated with fire)

Now, don't take what I say for truth, go and test it yourselves. There's alot of bad information on the net, and you can only filter out the bad and keep the good when you try for yourself and then you know for sure.

There's other theorys I'm testing out at the moment as well, but I've barely begun testing those.

Oh, one more positive personal note, i'll finally have my golden fleece by the end of the week ^^

[Bigbird]

Ill have my golden fleece by today, im only 4k Away, weee, cant wait to test 103 skill.

[Dragonhope]

Hmm...i've always gotten best results when facing south...but then again I also thought there was a small bug with South and Earth Crystals...so maybe they fixed it while I was unable to play. I'll try southeast and get back to you when I try to skill up.

[cares]

an interesting part of screenshot.....my LS mate showed me when she lvld alchemy on her mule
http://www.hinato.com/cgi-bin/s_o_h/data/IMG_000040.jpg
her statement to it:
moon is 88% waxing

from the ss i think im facing south. cos im standing at the paid support guy and facing south.

crystal is water.

at guidhouse.

calculated ss date/time to a wind day.

my mog is just 3 xmas trees and 1 coffer.

im really thinking it pure luck.


Discuss.

[Dragonhope]

You got extremely lucky cause I know a LOT of people would kill to get skillgains like that regardless of whether they use Directional Synthing or not.

Only explanation I can come up with.

[Truce]

Just curious, has anybody done Brigandine +1?

I'm thinking about trying them soon when I have 60 smithing, 60 cloth. My leather is already 90.

Just curious how often I'd HQ with those lvls if anybody has any experience crafting brig +1 at lvl 90+ with capped subskills.

[Bigbird]

Tried 30 brigandines at lvl 95 Leather, 60 cloth, 60 smithing, and got Zero :) 0/30

Hard to hq items that need subskills, specially when subskills are capped at 60 =-(

[Dragon Ghost]

orz, I started leather a bit, was doing leather gloves ~ 14k for a stack of sheep leather. Used about 3 stacks of sheep leather, then on lightingsday desynthed all the leather gloves for for my sheep leather back & occasionaly an extra one, but sometimes I got grass thread which I took an earth crystal too that too make grass cloth ~ so it all worked pretty well, took the sheep leather from desynth too make me solea which was a breeze :biggrin:

[rpgcrazy]

Hi, I was wondering if someone/anyone could give me an estimate on how far I can get in Leathercraft with about 5M gil. Not powerlvling, and taking it slow by selling most of the expensive synths at the Auction House. Reason why I ask is because I want to be certain what I am getting myself into, i've saved this gil for quite sometime, and I'd like to invest it into a long term goal. Any comments would greatly be appreatiated. :)

[Talus]

Not as far as you think. T-T

[cruets]

5mil got me to about 91 or 92 i think. gets really expensive once you have to lvl on wyvern skins.

[rpgcrazy]

:o ohhh that is very good. :) thx

[JP_Ikari]

Going to pick up this craft in a couple of weeks, so I'm wondering since my friend is having trouble getting sheepskins, where can you get them frequently and often??

JP

[rpgcrazy]

I went to Konscthat Highlands, lots of sheep...with a THF sub you can rake in a ton of sheepskins and craft on the spot if you bring materials. It is just time consuming if you want to do it cheaper. :)

[JP_Ikari]

Took awhile til someone responded, but thank you RPGcrazy, that helps a ton. Ok, seems reasonable enough, now only if I can find a better area than Beaucidine/Xarcabard for Dark Crystals.

JP

[Jei]

my favourite sheeo location is in Bedaux. Lots of sheep around the tougher areas which drops skins almost every kill + a couple milks + chest keys. I normally carry my crystals there and syn as I kill, can make up to 4 stacks per hour if im lucky. I'm... pretty sure they don't aggro 60 but don't count on that :D

[JP_Ikari]

Ohh, now that you mention it, that does sound good. Though some around that area were still EP's. But yea sounds great, thanks for the help jei.

JP

[Jei]

it's been a while since my last char... now my new char has reached 73 I decided it's a good time to start on my leather craft again. I saved a lot of money this time from 0 all the way to 31 so far. Here's a few things I did.

0-2 I actually made tons of sheep leather. spare some for skill up and sell the rest. Got my skill up to 11 all by farming sheep in BD and made 300-400K gil on the way selling both leather and butter made from milk.

11-14 I went farming lizard in CN for 2 whole days. Got my self 20+ stacks of lizard skins. I made lizard cesti until my skill reaches 14 and got tons of skins left to sell. Made another easy money here can't remember how much.

14-21 dhalmel leather of course.

21-23 bugard leather. I carry a few stacks of resources and go farming bugarfs in lufias. This craft actually doesn't sell well at all. But there's a lot of good things about it
- only cost aprox 600 gil per synth if you farm. If you buy tho skins will be 2-3k.
- buffers me enough to start making Parchment so I don't have to make dhalmel mantles! It totally rid my need to use my dhalmel leather so I can sell them all for easy 200K there.

23-31 parchment. Made a tiny profit with this synth. almost break even :D Which means I didn't lose any money wee.

I think I made almost 600k training my skill.
- farm almost all the skins used.
- sold tons of leather in the AH
- didn't AH the armors I crafted that often. Money made from leathers were more than enough.

[hobobicus]

thanks for the guide

[Zoko]

Thanks very much for guide i need this for my crafting... due to the fact that my Link need's a Leather Crafter. i have vhosen to take up this burden! Thanks so much!

[ffnewb2006]

for leather glove farm three grass threads use earth cystal to synth square of grass cloth usave u self a bit of gil

[carlos]

besides sheep leather whats another good recipe for level 2

[CS_911]

omg, i found this a few days ago, and wow, i have been making gil ever since, even at lvl 1, thanks for the recepies and the tips.