Alchemy leveling + gil

Hey all. I'm new to FFXIV crafting, and enjoy how it works in it's unique way. I've decided to level Alchemy as I'm leveling fishing. Currently my fishing is 30, and alchemy is only 6. What's a quick route to leveling alchemy? Will making shards/crystals via the fish I make a good way to level, throwing in leves in the mix? And how is alchemy doing at higher levels for making gil? Should I just sell the fish I get that's unused with Alchemy, or is there something I can make that will sell for profit as an alchemist?

Currently Alchemy is in a bit of a shambles because it's had many, many ingredients taken out of the game. Its set to be updated in patch 1.21, but until then, you may find it difficult to level during certain levels, and the ways to make money are very few.

I am not a fisher, so take this with a grain of salt, but...

1 + 2) What's a quick route to leveling alchemy? Will making shards/crystals via the fish make a good way to level, throwing leves in the mix?
Luckily, you've stated that you are leveling fishing! Fishing is an excellent way to level alchemy by doing the shard/crystal conversions. You may need to pad out a few levels with other recipes and/or leves since the shard/crystal conversion synths are rather spread out (Lv1, 11, 21, etc), but overall it's pretty easy.

3) How is Alchemy doing at higher levels for making gil?
Since Alchemy hasn't been updated yet, and potions are pretty crappy right now, the only real way to make money with Alchemy is to make shards. I personally don't do this (I am not a fisher) so I can't personally say how lucrative this is. We'll see how useful Alchemy is after they update the recipes.

4) Should I just sell the fish I get that's unused with Alchemy?
I can't imagine what else you'd do with seemingly useless fish. If they're not worth much in the wards, just vendor them.

Extra Note: Turning Dart Frogs into Disabling Powder is currently the best way to get from 40 to 50. You may want to hang onto the ones you get, but on the other hand, they sell for a pretty penny right now, and you may want to sell them before 1.21 adds new recipes. Your choice.

Thanks for the info, Raldo! What I've been doing now is the shard/crystal conversions and it's working out pretty good. And I actually made a couple hundred k selling some shards on the wards. I was pretty shocked. I hope Alchemy does get updated soon. I have a feeling it'll be needed sooner or later ^^. And I'll look into those Dart Frogs for the near future.

Don't forget you can turn some fish into the GC Supply/Provisioning for seals so be sure to check that out before you NPC/sell any of your excess fish.

Thanks Aratharn, I didn't know that. I'll look into that today.

you can lvl alchemy from 0-50 purly by breaking fish into shards or crystals, also doing this u can lvl cooking to about 35+/- and gold to 10-15 if you make your own sea/river sand to break the crystals into shards, again lvling fishing you can also turn in for GC seals as Aratharn says, check out this site for w/e company your with's item of the week...
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...hl=en_US#gid=0

lvling alchemy and fishing you will never run out of gil as it costs nothing... its very time consuming to do both thou so be warned ;p. as others have said alchemy is a lil messed up but it is still very possible to hit 50 with only fish. hopefully it will ge some nice recipes soon especially for 35-50. look on mooglebox or yg for the lvls of breaking fish into shards/crystals.

I never thought about the fine sand route to break crystals. Thanks for bringing that up, Robert. I guess I will spend a lot of time crafting. Breaking crystals > shards will seem to net me some nice gil as well as levels for GSM and Culinarian.