Cooking Questions 12-20

[Gman]

Ok, so I plan to make Selbina Butter from 12-20, but I have a few questions....

1) Where is the cheapest place to get Selbina Milk? I have good fame in Windurst, yet the cooking guild charges me 78 gil/bottle which is 936/stack... gawd thats expensive... there must be a cheaper spot. Maybe the regional vendor? But right now Bastok owns Zulkheim territory and my fame is crap there.

2) How can I farm my own ice crystals? I can get them for 900-1000 at AH, but I would rather get my own if possible. I never see any Ice elementals, and I'm probably too weak to fight the ones in the northern regions.

3) Is there any way to prevent this from being a money loser? In Windurst, a stack of selbina butter only sells for 500 gil. In San d'oria its like 800-900, but I'm guessing it sells much slower. Assuming no failures, it will cost me 2016-2116 to make 36 butters, so I can get 1500 for them in Windy or 2400 in San d'Oria... did anyone else experience this when making butter?

4) Best day for skillups AND success? Would you recommend lightsday, or Iceday? I found I skilled up doing bastore Sardine + Wind Crystal very well on both light and dark days.

Thanks in advance.

Cant wait to get to the level where I can start making insect paste ^^

[grae]

i think the zulkheim vendor will be your best bet. when i started butter, san doria held it, and im from bastok.. i think it was only about a 3g difference in price. its somewhere around 55-60g if i recall correctly.

you can get ice crystals from some mobs in qufim. not sure where elementals can be found =( beaudicine glacier perhaps? or you could try growing them. grain + fire crytals can yield ice crystals.

if you purchased all items:
12 ice ~1000
12 milk ~ 720
12 salt ~ 190
total ~1910/4=477 per stack assuming no failures

this is also assuming that my memory for the price of milk is correct what i couldnt fit on AH i put on bazaar and parked myself outside the guild. most of it had sold by the next morning ^^

i usually try to synth on darksday, seems like i get the most skillups then. not really sure what would give you most success.. at 12 you'll probably break a lot of crystals =( once you hit 13 it shouldnt be nearly so bad.

[Gman]

Thanks for the response ^^

I did some hardcore cooking tonight and got from 12-18. I think I might ditch butter in favor of baked popotoes until 22 when I'll start Insect Paste (finally something someone will buy)

I got mad skill ups on darksday... think I went from 16.5-18.3, and I only used about 2 stacks of crystals.

Just wish butter sold faster. If I counted correctly, my mule has 7 stacks in auction and 16 stacks in his inventory that I have to try to get rid of. Luckily they are selling from 800-1000/stack in San d'Oria. I would take 700 as a selling price if it meant selling them quicker, but not the 500/stack that they are selling for in Windurst.

[cld]

no need to do the popotos till 22 imho.
i started with insect paste at 18 cooking with synth support and on lightsday...
i did have some failures but since the profit margin is pretty high (costs about 80g to make and sold for ~300g) you will nevertheless make gil in the process.

the skillups will be faster than with popotos and insect paste sells very fast on at least 2 ah's, probably more.