level up crafting with leves only?

Hi, im starting to craft and so far every recipe I have gotten has ingredients I dont have. Searching on the internet it looks like I have to either buy them from vendors or they are from higher level gathering areas I cant get to yet. Like the recipe for "Fine Sand" needs river sand which I cant gather yet. Or I got a recipe for arrows, but I cant gather feathers and I dont know how to make bronze ingots.

And Weaving is the same problem, I got the recipe for black straw hat. But I cant make straw hats and black dye is only from fish in some place I dont know how to get to. All of the weaving recipes ive gotten are the same, they are "X item" of "Y color".
But I cannot make "X item" and dyes are expensive on the market.

I was hoping that there would be some use for the mounds and mounds of stuff ive gathered, but nothing ive gathered allows me to craft anything. I was hoping to craft some neat stuff for myself, but doesnt look like its possible without buying things from vendors, and I dont know if I should be spending money on that yet.

So should I just do leves to level up crafting?
thanks for any advice

Oh, dear.
Just to start, the "X item of Y Color" items are ALL from Dated recipes, that is, they are recipes that are being phased out of the game. Whereas Lodestone has all the recipes if you go to www.mooglebox.com and select only (new) recipes it should be giving you a list of recipes that are easier to use to level.

As for levelling up your craft. You will depend on five different sources of materials: Your DoL classes that you will gather stuff by yourself, Your DoW/DoM classes by taking stuff that are monster drops (a fair few things are monster drops only but certain other ones are both gathering and drop), the Market Wards by buying stuff others got to sell, Leves which actually grant you items when you finish them, and the crafting materials given for the Leve itself.

Other than that, there are Leves, which I sincerely, ultimately prefer over any other sort of levelling. I actually levelled most of my Weaver levels using materials I had earned from fighting monsters or that LS mates of mine had done the same with (cotton bolls mostly).

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Originally Posted by VanillaChinchilla

So should I just do leves to level up crafting?

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Yes, Grinding at low levels is just a waste of money. Take the highest level leves you can do, usually 5 levels over your level, and just do them repeatedly.

Unless you intend to go out an gather all your materials yourself, grinding on Single crafts is a massive waste of money.

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Originally Posted by Skies

Oh, dear.
Just to start, the "X item of Y Color" items are ALL from Dated recipes, that is, they are recipes that are being phased out of the game. Whereas Lodestone has all the recipes if you go to www.mooglebox.com and select only (new) recipes it should be giving you a list of recipes that are easier to use to level.
.

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thats too bad that the recipes I am being rewarded for doing crafting leves are outdated and being phased out.
I was thinking I would look good in a black straw hat. kinda sad I cant make one.
If I keep doing the crafting leves will I eventually be rewarded one of the new recipe I can use?

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Originally Posted by Kiote

Yes, Grinding at low levels is just a waste of money. Take the highest level leves you can do, usually 5 levels over your level, and just do them repeatedly.

Unless you intend to go out an gather all your materials yourself, grinding on Single crafts is a massive waste of money.

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I was actually intending to try to gather everything for myself, which is what I usually do in other games. I never buy off any auction houses unless I have to and prefer gathering it.
But so far my inventory is full of stuff I have no idea what to do with or is used in any recipe I have been rewarded yet. Beans, eggs, twigs, silex, sap, minimum, grapes, tin ore, various mushrooms, grass, pelts, mistletoe, logs, blood, ect.
I have about 120 things in my inventory, and nothing I can use lol
not sure where to even start or what to do with all this stuff
If I am just going to use crafting leves to level up, should I just try to sell everything?

You should check if you can use those items later on when you get to higher level in your craft. Moogle box is a great site for that, as Skies already mentioned. Then you can just sell the others at the wards or to a NPC, which ever is better for you. :)

Depending on the crafts you plan to focus on, may determine your inventory.

Alchemy and culinary, you will probably have more diverse inventory.

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Originally Posted by VanillaChinchilla

thats too bad that the recipes I am being rewarded for doing crafting leves are outdated and being phased out.
I was thinking I would look good in a black straw hat. kinda sad I cant make one.
If I keep doing the crafting leves will I eventually be rewarded one of the new recipe I can use?

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Hrm! I may have used the english language poorly, it's not my mother language, I apologize. By "X item of Y color" I meant the 'part' recipes like "Hempen Outer Cowl (Brown)". The finished colored items are actually part of the non-dated new recipes.

However, you do not need to actually earn the recipes through Leves to be able to craft them! If you simply throw, say a Hempen Yarn, Sheep Leather and Undyed Hempen Cloth in your 'ingredient list', you will have a list of ALL possible recipes with these items, it's generally just one but it can be more. The Awarded Recipes are simply to facilitate your selection and to teach you what you can do, however sites like mooglebox will list all the recipes for you, hell, they're also buried somewhere within the Lodestone.

Once again, apologies for the misuse of the language

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VanillaChinchilla

thats too bad that the recipes I am being rewarded for doing crafting leves are outdated and being phased out.
I was thinking I would look good in a black straw hat. kinda sad I cant make one.
If I keep doing the crafting leves will I eventually be rewarded one of the new recipe I can use?

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You can make a Black Straw Hat. You'll just have to buy the materials from the wards. The All-Purpose Black Dye will probably be the most expensive item.

You also don't need to earn a recipe first to make it. That will be the case in 2.0, but you'll acquire recipes by more means than just leves. You just have to select a square in the grid and then select an item from your inventory to add it.

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Originally Posted by Skies

However, you do not need to actually earn the recipes through Leves to be able to craft them! If you simply throw, say a Hempen Yarn, Sheep Leather and Undyed Hempen Cloth in your 'ingredient list', you will have a list of ALL possible recipes with these items, it's generally just one but it can be more. The Awarded Recipes are simply to facilitate your selection and to teach you what you can do, however sites like mooglebox will list all the recipes for you, hell, they're also buried somewhere within the Lodestone.

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Ok thanks so I dont need the recipe to craft something? So there is a use for all this stuff I gathered?

I just tried it out, I put two pieces of Moko Grass in the boxes and it let me make hempen yarn.
But, it only showed the recipe when I had all of the ingredients in place (one piece of moko grass in each box)

I didnt see a list of recipes when I just had one piece of Moko Grass in a box, I had to look the recipe up on Mooglebox.
Did I do something wrong? It would be easier if it did show a list of all the recipes possible from just one ingredient

It's a bit misleading, but the "Recipes" section of the crafting menu really is for "recently made" recipes (so you can repeat recent crafts more easily) or to look over recipes awarded by turning in leves. There is currently no real recipe book in game, but you can look up recipes at mooglebox.com or http://mozk-tabetai.com/. You can make any recipes that are up to 10 levels above you, no matter if you have actually gotten the recipe or made the item before (so for example, a level 5 weaver can perform any recipe up to level 15). Both websites also give you a list of what any particular recipe an item is used in.

Rule of thumb, though, is not to horde too much. For weaving, yarns, cloths, ingots, and leathers are your "staple" materials. Some recipes require random things like maybe a feather or a rivet but you will save a lot of space if you focus on saving the staple materials and selling the rest that you will not have any immediate use for.

For your straw hat, you can buy Straw from a NPC in Ul'dah (three for a hat). For the Black Dye, you can gather some on Fisher by equipping a Gig tool in your off-hand (you will need the fishing rod to actually change to fisher as well). Black Dye is from spearfishing from any level gathering nodes in the Thanalan (Ul'dah) region, so you can just head out to camp Black Brush, near the pools of water, and clicking on the glowing little orbs coming out of some of the grass there. Spearfishing nodes have a little fish icon on your minimap, don't confuse them with the botanist nodes, which are a little wheat icon.

If you get the dye, you just begin crafting and select the dye along with the hat, your hat will instantly become dyed.

I only level up crafts by leves since day 1 and this is the result

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...cicuid=1624462

I am more focused on keeping my leves at 0 than leveling up crafts, on the plus side it gives gil, materials and crystals.

it should also be much higher but for the first rank 1-20 i didn't know what local leves were

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Originally Posted by VanillaChinchilla

Ok thanks so I dont need the recipe to craft something? So there is a use for all this stuff I gathered?

I just tried it out, I put two pieces of Moko Grass in the boxes and it let me make hempen yarn.
But, it only showed the recipe when I had all of the ingredients in place (one piece of moko grass in each box)

I didnt see a list of recipes when I just had one piece of Moko Grass in a box, I had to look the recipe up on Mooglebox.
Did I do something wrong? It would be easier if it did show a list of all the recipes possible from just one ingredient

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Indeed, you did nothing at all wrong. The system is de-facto obnoxious and even the development team agrees on that, such that they are changing it, however the entire recipe selection method can unfortunately only be changed come 2.0, wherein it will definitely be far more intuitive, it seems.

But for now, yes, you need to place every single item in a recipe in the boxes, and then you will be given a choice of which recipes that use exclusively what is in the boxes that you want to make. Unfortunately difficult, but they are going to resolve it.

Also as Estellios mentioned, the "Recipes" tab is, indeed, for recently-made recipes. (also do check his post, good tips there)

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Originally Posted by Kiote

Yes, Grinding at low levels is just a waste of money. Take the highest level leves you can do, usually 5 levels over your level, and just do them repeatedly.

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Is there any feedback on doing leves 5+ levels and not fail them all the time? I have changed actions/traits many times to get a good combination going since most of my DoH are around L10-L18 but those higher level leves i very rarely complete because of constant failure...help thx

Make sure to keep up-to-date on your gear, especially your tools. It feels like it makes a lot bigger difference than it used to. Aside from that, use abilities that guarantee success (Maker's Muse is very good, it's low level Blacksmith) and make sure to use Wait if the orb isn't yellow or white. Red and Rainbow have lower success rates.

Don't forget to throw in a few Careful Synthesis actions in so you get a larger quality bonus, too.

I ranked up all my crafting job with leve- lodestone me ;) just dont rush it you'll be 50 by the time 2.0 comes out

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Originally Posted by Skies

Indeed, you did nothing at all wrong. The system is de-facto obnoxious and even the development team agrees on that, such that they are changing it, however the entire recipe selection method can unfortunately only be changed come 2.0, wherein it will definitely be far more intuitive, it seems.

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Ok great, now I know how it works. It would be nice to have a list of recipes in game but its actually more fun and experimental the way it is. I just put some hemp thread and cloth into the box and discovered a list of recipes. I made myself a scarf that makes my character look like a bandit now!

I thought this game was like other MMO and you had to have the recipe first, which is why I thought I couldnt make a straw hat, but it also makes more sense that my character can figure out how to make straw hat on his own if he has the ingredients. Im sure its not a huge secret how to make a straw hat lol
But I am in Gridannia, so the black straw hat will have to wait, I havnt decided if I should spend the 2500Gil on an airship trip to another city yet.

Now that ive crafted a few items, I agree with what other people have said that using leves to level up crafting is the best.
I only got about 200 xp for the couple things I crafted and you can only craft one thing at a time which is time consuming, so leves are a much faster and efficient way of leveling, plus you get bonus rewards also.
But I am still going to see what other neat stuff I can craft along the way :)

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Originally Posted by VanillaChinchilla

I thought this game was like other MMO and you had to have the recipe first

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Older MMOs, such as Everquest and Final Fantasy XI, allowed you to try to make whatever you wanted so long as you had the required items. You might be told the items needed via a book (Everquest) or an NPC conversation (FFXI), or looking them up online, but the game itself never bothered to track which recipes you "knew". Crafting systems that require you to acquire the recipe before you can craft an item are a newer phenomenon (relatively speaking - they've been around for a while now).