Crafting and Gathering

I went into Endwalker, as my first expansion release, wildly unprepared so this time around I’m spending time preparing as best I can with both things I know and ‘just in cases’. If this helps one other fellow gamer be a little more ready and a little less stressed when expansion hits then HOORAY.

If you need to focus on crafters and gatherers pretty near the start of expansion, either to make items for yourself for when raids/savages drop or just to make a quick buck off all the people that don’t have time or ability to do it themselves then you have a lot of leveling up to do and not much time to do it in.

• Make sure to collect some levequests now. Complete them but don’t turn them in (unless you will overcap before expansion, no point on missing out on the achievement grind and gil they will bring you if nothing else) this means as soon as Dawntrail drops you can turn them in and actually get experience from them too. Essentially doing this will give you 116 levequests available for experience instead of the limit of 100. I’m saving all mine for my gatherers because there are more, and quicker, ways to level crafters up.
• Be doing your crafting and gathering tribal quests for Endwalker and Shadowbringers daily. If you will be awake early enough to play on day of early access launch “double them up” that day for extra experience (if you aren’t getting early access make sure to not complete them the day before and you can still double up when you do get access). You might have finished the story and not need anything from them but the trend of the last pentameld of several items usually needing “old materia” means you can use their currency to get some level nines on back up if you need them. The exchange rate isn’t great but when it comes to that last spot then every little bit helps right?
• Keep doing your custom deliveries too. If you are getting early access don’t do them on the Tuesday before reset and hold off until the weekend so you can get some experience too. Again I’ve largely been focusing on gathering ones here so I can buy hi-cordials with gatherer white scrips when I can to build up the supply. For purple scrips if I happen to cap between now and then I’m still putting them into various sands, because whilst the exchange rate is terrible vs going and aetherial reducing, it helps with the amount of potions I’m going through on some end of Endwalker fighting grinds! But again you could do crafters here and take a shot at the dark with getting some level nine materia in supply for that “just in case” moment.
• Make sure to be basically capped on white and purple scrips when Dawntrail drops as they could bring in a new currency that you can exchange them for or you might find yourself needing a material or two to make new items with. You can then also figure out better what materia you might need.
• Try and gather, or send retainers out, a small amount of things that appear at level 90 for Grand Company turn-ins and get materials on hand for what some of the crafter items could be so you can whip those up super quickly too. Because of maintenance you wont be able to see in advance what item you will need but you will have until the evening reset time (check your timers under the duty menu if you can’t remember when this time is for your own timezone).
• Take a look at the current level 90 collectables appraisals and have the materials ready to go. It has been so long since I leveled my crafters, as in I finished week one of Endwalker, that I can’t remember if you get experience for actually crafting the items or just turning them in. If you have inventory space and the time and don’t mind missing out on some potential experience then for saving time in Dawntrail have a bunch ready to go just to turn in.
• As well as stocking up on hi-cordials for gathering try and have a small amount of the best experience giving manuals on you (available with white scrips at the minute). Yes, you will burn through them at the start of Dawntrail but they are a good thing to tide you over until you can get a newer version (if they follow the trend and introduce such a thing). And have a supply of crafting and gathering food too, until you can focus on doing any new stuff.
• The biggest thing to make sure you have plenty of is shards, crystals and clusters. If you don’t want to go out and farm these yourself, garden them or send your retainers out to collect them then stock via the market board now if you see a bargain as prices will likely rise as soon as Dawntrail hits. Remember you can store extra in your retainers too.
• If you have your retainers as gatherers and want to make sure they can assist you with the gathering grind make sure to have a good supply of venture coins on you so that you can be speed leveling them at the same time too.
• Should you have neglected doing the Crystarium Deliveries or The Studium up until now and are already level 90. Wait until Dawntrail to do them. The experience might feel on the lower side with the new level cap/exp required but they are still better than nothing and will remove a few extra blobs from your map and knock out a few quest achievements too. Just remember that something like this will probably exist in Dawntrail so get ready to do it when you discover it to level up jobs that way too.

If I think of anything else I’ll be sure to add them to the list! Otherwise good luck with the grind and of course HAVE FUN.