Final Fantasy XIFinal Fantasy News

Crafting in FFXI is quite expensive to start, but the long term gains make it well worth the effort and expense. Crafting is divided up into 8 guilds: black smith, gold smith, weaver, carpenter, alchemist, boneworker, tanner and culinarian. Fishing is also a guild you can join but there is no crafting involved with it so I will not be covering it here.

You can craft anything without officially joining a guild. However, joining a guild does have it’s benefits. When you are a guild member you can buy crafting materials from the guild, get training, and even receive assistance with whatever projects you may undertake. Joining a guild is quite easy and anyone who decides to take up crafting should definitely join the guilds.

You are able to join any number (or all) of the crafting guilds at once and there is no cost associated with sign up. All you have to do is go to the correct location during the correct time (in game time) and join. The shop locations are as follows along with their hours of operation:

Bastok:
Alchemist – Bastok Mines (K7) – 08:00 to 23:00
Blacksmith – Bastok Metalwork (E7) – 08:00 to 23:00
Goldsmith – Bastok Market (H8) – 08:00 to 23:00
Weaver – Selbina (E12) – 06:00 to 21:00
Fisherman – Selbina (H9) – 03:00 to 18:00

San d’Oria:
Blacksmith – Northern San d’Oria (E5) – 08:00 to 23:00
Carpenter – Northern San d’Oria (E3) – 06:00 to 21:00
Tanner – Southern San d’Oria (D8) – 03:00 to 18:00
Weaver – Selbina (H9) – 03:00 to 18:00
Fisherman – Selbina (H9) – 03:00 to 18:00

Windurst:
Blacksmith – Mhaura (G9) – 08:00 to 23:00
Boneworker – Windurst Woods (H13) – 08:00 to 23:00
Culinarian – Windurst Waters (E8) – 05:00 to 20:00
Goldsmith – Mhaura (G8) – 08:00 to 23:00
Weaver – Windurst Woods (F12) – 06:00 to 21:00
Fisherman – Port Windurst (C8) – 03:00 to 18:00

Once you have joined a guild it’s time to start crafting. In order to begin crafting you will need to collect some basic components. You can get these components from monster drops, or from searching in the wilds. If you talk to a border guard in the wilds he will give you a signet which will allow you to find crystals more effectively for a short period of time. You can also buy some of the components from your guild as well as the auction house if other players are selling them.

Once you have the needed components you can start your crafting. It is recommended that you begin with crafting easy to make items, since you will succeed more and your skill will go up faster. You can sell some of these items at the auction house, but more than likely you will not make much money off of them until you start reaching the higher levels.

Each guild can make different types of items. Blacksmiths can make arms and armor, culinarians can make food, alchemists can make potions. Each guild has it’s strong points and each is useful in a different way.

Alchemist
A very powerful, and expensive, guild. Alchemy allows you to not only make potions and salves, but a good alchemist can also make very strong elemental weapons. If you plan on just sticking to the potions you will not need to worry too much about joining any other guilds. However, if you want to make the elemental weapons then you are going to need to find friends in other guilds or join them yourself. Blacksmithing, carpentry, and goldsmithing are the three you will find needed the most.

Blacksmith
Blacksmiths are able to make weapons, armor, and other metal tools from raw materials. As you reach the higher levels you will find that there are components needed which you can not make. For this reason it’s best to find a friend who can make these items or take up the corresponding guild on your own. Most of these items come from carpentry, goldsmithing, and tanning.

Boneworking
When working with bone you are able to make a wide array of jewelry for other players (or yourself) to wear. Boneworking doesn’t stop there however, if you are more battle oriented boneworkers can make an array of weapons, shields, and armor. In order to make the best stuff you are going to need to find a tanner to help you with some of the components.

Carpenter
It’s a shame that carpenters can’t build houses in this game, but they are not totally useless either. Carpenter’s can make a number of furniture items to warm any mog house as well as fishing poles, staves, bows, and arrows. Taking up tanning and bone working on the side could prove very useful to any carpenter.

Culinarian
Cooking is overlooked in many games but in FFXI it can be very powerfull. At high levels of cooking you are able to produce foods that will increase your stats for a short duration. For example, if you are a warrior and take up cooking you could make yourself a bunch of vitality food and eat it before going into battle. This would increase your vitality for a short period making you take significantly less damage from attacks. Luckily, culinarian is one of the few guilds which don’t really require the support of any other guilds.

Goldsmithing
Gold smithing is one of the most expensive guilds to level up in, but it does have it’s advantages. The main one being, it doesn’t require knowledge of any other guilds to make it’s best items. Goldsmith made items tend to be mostly jewelry, but there is rumor that high level gold smith items can have magical properties.

Tanner
Tanning is the art of working with hides. As a tanner you will be able to make a very wide array of light armor for use by other players. Tanning isn’t the most expensive guild to start up in but it is also not the cheapest. At high levels you will find that having a friend or two in goldsmithing and weaving may come in handy.

Weaver
Weaving, as you may have guessed, is used to make cloths of all types. This guild is mainly used to make clothing for players to wear. The best part about this guild though is it’s ability to make capes. Everyone should have a cape. Goldsmithing is the main secondary guild you will need for this but boneworking and carpentry could also come in handy.