Is There Any Logic to Synthesis?

Okay. . . is there ANY logic to synthesis, or is it just a shot in the dark everytime?

I've tried to observe the synthesis colors, and the effects of standard, rapid, and careful synthesis on each. My notes look something to the effect of:

Yellow
Careful synthesis
Not standard sythesis, Standard synthesis
Not rapid synthesis

Red
Not careful synthesis
Standard synthesis, Not standard synthesis
Rapid synthesis, Not rapid synthesis, Sometimes rapid synthesis?

. . . etc., etc.

Despite all of my efforts, there are no obvious consistencies, which leads me to believe there is no logic to the synthesis system, like it's just completely random. Which has me hesitant to use it outside of levequests (as I don't want to lose my items trying to synthesize something.)

I've Googled "Synthesis Guide" but all I get are recipe lists.

Have you guys figured anything out? Or at least have any tips I could use?

There are few general synthesis guides out there because much of the information we'd like to know, is still debated amongst those that proclaim themselves as professional crafters. Then when someone does write up a decent guide, SE goes and changes the system again.

Quote:

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The Stability of Synthesis Materials
The stability of synthesis materials is represented by the color of the glowing light displayed onscreen while crafting. Each command executed has an effect on stability.

When the glowing light is white, the materials are extremely stable, and the chances of success of synthesis commands are increased. The light may also turn from yellow, to red, to multiple colors flashing rapidly. Though these states represent progressively lower chances of success when executing commands, they also indicate times at which the quality of the synthesis can most easily be enhanced, therefore increasing the likelihood of creating a high-quality item.

---

Source (at the very bottom)

To me, that means...

White, Yellow, Red, Flashing/Rainbow/Prismatic (call it whatever you like)
Highest Chance of Success <---------> Lowest Chance of Success
Lowest Quality Gains <---------------> Highest Quality Gains (upon success)

There are some people who argue with that conclusion, but that's how I read it.

That also means that no specific action is tailored to any specific color, which would explain why you were having trouble figuring out what the colors meant. There is no way to guarantee a successful action, so the best you can do is stack the crafting stats and hope for the best. The most important thing you can do is equip the right abilities, and know when it's best to use which actions and abilities. For the most part, this knowledge is just gained through the experience of trial and error.

There's a great deal more to know about crafting, but I'll either leave you to figure that out for yourself, or wait until you ask something else specific.

Here is a potentially helpful "general synthesis guide" that I wrote up some time ago. There have been some changes since I wrote that guide, so a small number of those things are no longer valid.

I believe, yellow, red and Prismatic lights give quality bonuses (+10%, +30% and +50%) respectively.

Edit: Raldo already said it, the values are here though.

As I understand it:

White - High success, low quality
Yellow - Average success, Average quality
Red - Low success, low quality
Pulsating - Low success, high quality

Standard synth - Average quality, success, progress and durability.
Rapid - High progress, low success, no quality. If success, no durability loss. If fail, high durability loss.
Careful - High quality, low progress, low durabiliy, average success.


When leveling, my set up is thus:

Abilities:

Culmination
Byregot's Blessing
Perfection
By the Books
(Another progress ability)

I start with Culmination and Rapid, get about 30-40% progress. Use Byregot's Blessing and grind out Careful. At some point during BB if I get a gold or prismatic I use Perfection and get a nice 100+ to Quality. Then I grind Careful until my Durability is in the teens. Thanks to my two progress abilities and Culmination+Rapid I only ever need to earn about 10 to 20 progress during any synth to know it'll be a success.

On synths over my level I can push ~300 Quality. Those below about ~500.

In short: Wait on red, careful on gold, careful on prismatic if you feel comfortable with you progress/durability.

Use your abilities wisely and remember, for each craft you level, each one thereafter is significantly easier.

Raldo's information is correct and generally the rules I go by while crafting.

If you are working on a synth above your level for XP purposes, it's best to wait if the orb is Red or Rainbow because a failed action is wasted Durability. I usually wait 1-3 times, but don't wait too many times as the cost of waiting goes up each successive time you do it. If you ever end up getting abilities that guarantee success on your next action, though, then it's best to use them on Red or Rainbow =P

Also, try to focus on Standard while you get used to it, and throw out Careful Synthesis as you near completion and your Durability is good. Increasing your synth quality gives you huge XP boosts, but it takes practice to learn your limits.

Rapid synth should ONLY be used with a Guaranteed-Success ability or if you are almost out of durability and have no other way to finish the synth - successful rapids don't use any durability if they succeed but will hurt a ton if they fail.

I'm linking the lodestone guide again, just in case you missed it in Raldo's post. The lodestone guides have a good deal of information and they may be able to answer some questions you may have on other parts of the game.

Pro tips from pro crafters. This helps me out too.

Thanks!
(*'-')

Some really good advice in here from some really good crafters. (Estellios made my Jade Crook! I want it autographed!)

As a much more amateur crafter, here's what I'd recommend:

1) Like Estellios said, when you're leveling, focus mostly on Standard synths.

2) Save Careful synths for the end. Use them ONLY if you've got plenty of Durability left. Increasing your Quality gives a nice XP bonus, but Careful synths burn a lot of Durability. You'll have to play around to figure out where your comfort level is, but as a general rule of thumb, when your Durability is less than 25, you might consider just using Standard to complete the synth.

3) Abilities are extremely helpful in crafting. Before you start crafting, equip your crafting tool, and then go into your "Abilities" screen. Equip any Abilities from any crafts you think will be helpful. When I'm leveling, I tend to focus on abilities that guarantee success for synth attempts. Sepherick's got a great list of some of the most useful Abilities for leveling.

4) More on Abilities. Like most things in FFXIV, you'll want to spend some time leveling all your crafting classes a little bit. (FFXIV generally refers to this as "horizontal" leveling -- which refers to leveling several classes at the same pace -- as opposed to "vertical" leveling -- which refers to leveling only one class at a time.) If you can get all your crafting classes to level 10, you'll learn several crafting Abilities. Those Abilities can then be equipped on every crafting class. For example, if you get to level 10 Blacksmith, you can then equip Maker's Muse on every class. Maker's Muse guarantees the success of the next 3 Standard synth attempts. That's 50-75% Progress guaranteed right there. Once you've learned it, you can equip Maker's Muse on Weaver, Armorer, Alchemist, etc. (Just don't forget to go to your Abilities menu and equip it before starting to craft.)