Goldsmithing 60-100 Advanced Guide

[Vold]

Note - In my efforts to treat these forums as something more than mere feedback forums, I'm going to paste my GS guide here. It's probably for nothing because we don't get sticky threads and the like but whatev, it'll be around for someone to find it by chance or through search at some point in time if they are looking for such a thing.

I see many guides for goldsmithing for the 1-60 range and very few 1-100 guides. The 1-60 stage is pretty well documented at this point. I've recently done GS to 100 so here's what I chose to do, which was the very best options I could find to not spend a fortune, which includes the art of break synthing. It was quite the adventure and I had a lot of fun with it, seeing just how far I could go without spending a massive fortune. A lot of that fun came with the vastly cheaper prices these days.

Lastly, I stress, when I mention the word "cheap" my definition of cheap may be very different from the next person, and when I say advanced I assume the person following this guide is a veteran crafter doing GS to 100 on a mule, doesn't have all the subcrafts leveled yet, and is willing to level sub crafts for this journey. But it can also be done by novices. You just need to do a bit more research and preparation.

Lastly, part II, absolutely at all costs do whatever you can to make yourself hold off until you can get the kupower enhancement Artisan's Advantage in effect. You can't wait around forever but if you have patience and will wait several weeks it can pay off for break synthing.

60-70 The dreaded Platinum Stage

As if Gold wasn't bad enough, this is where goldsmithing starts to get real. But with some farming effort you can get through it without breaking the bank.


Platinum Ingots 60-64 - Fire Crystal - Platinum Beastcoins x4 - Platinum Ore x4 - Platinum Ore, Platinum Nuggets x6

Your goal here is to do the synth with the nuggets. Beastcoins and ores are a real chore to buy due to rarity and competition on the AH, so you want to make every single ore count. Instead of doing one synth with four ores, you can do four synths with four ores. If nuggets aren't a go for some reason on your server, you'll have to go the x4 ore route. Absolutely cap this to 64. Alternatively you can start doing Platinum sheets with your ingots but I saved mine and went another route. Yes, save them. Do not sell.

Platinum Earrings 64-68 - Wind Crystal - Platinum Ingot x2 - Just say no unless you are trying to spend every gil you can on this.


Moblumin Sheet 64-69 - Fire Crystal - Moblumin Ingot x1 - Ahhhh. This was the synth that seemed divine. You farm Goblin Freelance in Oldton for the ingots. Be prepared to spend A LOT of time in there as you will need about 15 stacks worst case. I farmed all of mine in advance of skill ups and I used up all 15 stacks to get to 68. The plus side to this is the sheets are used to craft Shrimp Lanterns which are used to spawn Shen. You could make a hefty profit on this in the long run but I can't speak to that. I have yet to finish leveling my subs to craft and try to make money on it. I'm not sure if there's a market for lanterns anymore. BUT I did use these for shrimp lantern break synthing.

Oberon's Gold Ingot 64-69 - Fire Crystal - Gold Ore x3, Fools Gold x1- It's an option I suppose, but I went with the Mob sheets.

Platinum Ring - Fire Crystal - Platinum Ingot x2 70- Again, if you want to throw your gil at it then by all means.


Congrats, you made it through the dreaded Platinum stage! Unfortunately, it means you're right back into the Gold stage but fear not. You will have the power of break synthing to ease your wallet pains. With the following recipes, ideally you want to attain skill 72 by whatever means necessary for the 5 level gap to Gold Gauntlets. How far you take it beyond 72 is up to you, but I chose to save Gold ingots for gaunlets at 77.


The Break Synthing stage. That really goes on until 99.


Gold Cuisses 68-71 - Fire Crystal - Cermet Chunk x2, Gold Ingot x1, Mercury x1, Ram Leather x1 - Oh yeah, here goes the start of your break synthing. But if you did the mob sheets then don't bother.

Noble's Crown - 71 - Again you can go this route if you wish, but you're throwing away more gil when you are guaranteed to lose your Gold ingots per synth. Remember, the idea of break synthing is to get more skill up chances with your materials, and to be within 5 levels of cap so that you can skill up on breaks.

Shrimp Lantern 73 - Subcrafts Smithing 16(31), Alchemy 30(45) - Fire Crystal - Beeswax x1, Moblin Putty x1, Moblumin Sheet x1, Tin Ingot x1 - Break synth this sumbitch for all it's worth to at least 72. A synth of divine nature, imho. Smithing to 16 and Alchemy to 30 for break synthing.

Gold Sabatons 70-74 Alchemy Sub 54 - Fire Crystal - Cermet Chunk x3, Gold Ingot x1, Mercury x1, Ram Leather x2 - Same deal as before, just 3 extra levels of Alchemy needed.

Gold Gauntlets 72-77 - Fire Crystal - Cermet Chunk x2, Gold Ingot x1, Leather Gloves x2, Mercury x1 - Ahhh another divine synth. Break synth this baby all the way to the bank.

Gold Buckler 77-80 - Fire Crystal - Gold Ingot x1, Mercury x1, Targe x1 - You just need to get this to 78.


Congrats, you're basically through the dreaded 70-80 stage like a champ. Thanks break synthing! Will 80-90 be as nice? Surprisingly, yes.


The Bead and Orich Stage, with a little of Break Synthing on the side

Rapier 79/80-83 - Smithing sub 28 - Fire Crystal - Fluorite x1, Gold Ingot x1, Mercury x1, Steel Ingot x2 - More break synthing, baby! Have your smithing sub at 13. If you got the alternative character with smithing leveled to 60 or higher use it to HQ the steel ingots from iron ingot synths. It's a moderately high rate even at just 60. Or just go straight for the steel with it's skill 54 synth. Start buying flourites well in advance. It will take months to buy enough of them as they pop up on AH. This is a journey, not a race. Take this to 82 and gtfo of dodge for beads to 87.

Elemental beads 82-87 - Wind Crystal - Elemental Ore x1 - Here she is, ladies and gentlemen. The most electrifying synthesis in Goldsmithing to this day. You're a somebody when you reach this stage. You know a person has been through hell to get there, loss after terrible loss on breaks. Lucky for you, you aren't feeling those pains as badly in this day and age but nonetheless, be proud. Take this puppy for all it's worth all the way to 87.

Orichalcum Ingot 87-89 - Fire Crystal - Orichalcum Ore x3, Platinum Ore x1 - Oh God, help me! Or not? Is it really THAT bad? Once upon a time maybe, but right now the prices on my server to do this stage is 20k per synth which was the same when I accomplished this stage a year ago. I'm sure you'll live through it.

Orichalcum Sheet 89-90 - Fire Crystal - O ingot x1- You can do this but I saved my ingots and skipped it.


Congrats, you just made it through the 80-90 stage! You are one dedicated mofo. Make sure you don't stop now, let's go for a cool 100. The 90-100 stage is filled with awesome break synths with cursed gear but unfortunately for me I didn't have the option due to material requirements. It's up to you if you go that route.


The Crown/belt/ring stage

I used a combination of cursed crown/muscle belt/Orich rings to reach 93. I tried to do as little of the rings as possible to save space for the 100 run, so basically crown to 91, belt to 92, and rings to 93.

Cursed Crown 91 - Fire Crystal - Copper Ingot, Gold Ingot, Siren's Hair(thanks Abyssea!)
Muscle Belt 92 - Fire Crystal - Brass Ingot, Gold Ingot, Manticore Leather
Orichalcum Ring 93 - Fire Crystal - Orich Ingot x2

The Platinum Stage returns...with friends

Platinum is back, and it's pissed off. Now you get to use those platinum ingots you saved and buy a crap load in addition. You'll be using Platinum rings and HQ gems for rings to 95, so start buying gems early along with the flourites. These sell like crap on the AH for the most part, and there's far too many to deal with so just desynth them. Success rate can be hit or miss. I always stopped desynthing when all I did was break and kept trying until I could get success streaks. Desynthing is a whole nother thing so I won't get into it but that's what I did to reuse materials and it helped me save a lot of money and the massive headache of dealing with space issues and sales. It also helped me attain 95 when the AH was cleaned out of materials by myself and one or two other competitors for a few weeks leading up to my synthing.

Gem rings 92/93-95 - Fire Crystal - HQ Gem x1, Platinum Ring

Gem rings 94-99 - Fire Crystal - HQ Gem x1, Platinum Ring +1- Do this with any of the HQ rings you got during your synthing rings for the 92-95 run for that extra poof in skill ups. You won't get many chances but every one counts.

The Verdun Stage - dank gawd for break synthing!

Verdun 95-99 - Fire Crystal - Adaman Ingot x2, Gold Ingot x1, Mercury x1, Platinum Ingot x1, Spinel x1 - Here it is. The ultimate divine synth that saves yo ass. Start buying those spinels early on and make sure you don't use them on anything but this synth. Break synth all the way to 99 if you don't want to spend a fortune on Orich ingots for rings for the elemental rings to 100. I know, I know, veteran Goldsmithers. We young'ns just don't even know about fortunes.

The Elemental Ring stage - You're there, go for the gold!

Elemental Rings 99-100 - Earth Crystal - Orich Ring x1, Elemental Bead x1

It's time to break out those O ingots and start whipping up some rings. Use the beads you crafted during the 82-87 run if you got them. I had many of them saved but I used quite a bit for elemental staves, which was my goal at the time for GS, get it to 87 for elemental staves. But I figured, why not finish GS? So I did. Smile all the way to the bank on this synth.

Alternatively or in addition, you can do Star rings to 100. But I found the elemental rings were selling for a bit more on the AH so I went with elemental.

Congratulations, you've finished Goldsmithing to 100! Good job. Now you get to level Synergy to 80 if you haven't already if you want to make any serious gil with GS these days but hey, the task is done for all time and you never know. That next update just might usher in a return to big money synths for crafting. Be glad you're now set. And you did it for fairly cheap. Not bad. Not bad at all.



Have an idea to better this guide? Having a hard time following? Let me know and I'll do what I can.

[Cljader1]

I like the guide, I'm an old time master goldsmith, so you newbies got it easy these days with some of the new synethesis added over the years...but synergy is a whole other ball of wax and it will take you a long time to get it too lvl 80.

[Punchus]

1-80 synergy in 3 days. Not difficult or expensive.

[Vold]

Apparently there's a cap of 10,000 so I have to add stuff in follow up posts:

Keep in mind that with break synthing you only need one of your subcrafts under skilled, and generally as low as 8 levels under is enough to break most synths. Also, you should always do research for your server. If you see something where you can make profit or break even, do it. Everything else you should break synth as much as possible.

Finally, I know some people are probably going to look twice at that verdun recommendation. Verdun 95-99 - Fire Crystal - Adaman Ingot x2, Gold Ingot x1, Mercury x1, Platinum Ingot x1, Spinel x1. It's pretty daunting at first glance. I said hell no to it at first. But then I got to looking at the sub and realized I could break synth it. From there it just made sense: Either buy a crap ton of O ingots(or make them) for about 20k a pop, 2x per synth + gem-about 45k per. OR 50kish per synth on the Verdun and break synthing.

Now, I had been buying tons of O ingots up to the point of deciding on verdun. I had about 15 stacks of them. After seeing what it took to do the rings from 92/93-95, I realized 15 stacks wasn't even going to be enough. I did each Verdun synth with 15-20k loss per synth on average. If a person has the mules and space and will to sell on the AH for many months, then by all means, go all the way on the elemental rings to 100. You'll make money on them. But I chose the break synth route because it's pretty satisfying to get skill ups and have them not cost a thing but a single crystal. And the rings sell slowly on AH. Real slowly. I mean REAL slowly. But they do sell. Though, if there's any competition you can expect any profits to drop like a rock as people get desperate with unloading their stockpile for any price. I guess it boils down to taking a loss on the verdun to skip the PITA ring sales, for myself. Up to you with how you go about the 95-100 run. On your server the rings may very well be a loss or break even on the AH by now.

BTW start at 94 on Verdun if you wish, or wait until 95.(I couldn't even add this much to the OP, so here it goes)

Synth Additions and changes:

Shotel 64-69 - Smithing 34 Bonecraft 50 - Fire Crystal - 1x Bugard Tusk, 1x Silver Ingot, 1x Steel Ingot, 1x Tiger Eye -This is an exceptional choice if you don't want to do the other options. You may or may not have to farm the tusks but in the end, if you have bonecraft leveled up, it's a better option than the plat rings.

Platinum Ring - Fire Crystal - Platinum Ingot x2 70- If you wish to get a jump start on saving them up for the run to 95 and get some skill ups in the process, and you have the space to hold them, go for it. Just don't do this synth with the idea of selling off the rings. I know it can be tempting, especially if you don't have a lot of funds to work with. But make yourself save these rings and find funds elsewhere, imho. Personally, I rather break synth and save all plat ingots to make rings for when it's time to do the rings at 95 so I don't lose any ingots skilling up.

Aside from including every possible synth that's worth mentioning as an option, like making star earrings to 90 or Phry ingots in the 80s and such for example(I typed this in the early morning hours so I eventually stopped including optional synths in addition to what I chose to do) I'm pretty satisfied here. So this will be my last post. At best I'll edit my OP the best I can with the character limit but I don't suspect it'll happen. I just wanted to get the shotel synth in and re examine the plat ring synth as I consider them important enough to bother. Happy GSing, peeps!

[Kristal]

I'm still stuck on 54 goldsmithing myself.. only want to level it to 60 for completion's sake, but kinda feel reluctant to invest millions when noone would bother buying anything I'd craft with 100 WW/80SYN/60 everything else.