Making money with Culinarian, is it even possible?

Hello!

Created this topic to ask for.. help I guess? Basically, I got to 50 Culinarian during the last few days and it cost me pretty much all the money I had. Obviously now that I'm 50 I'd expect to actually be able to make money, that's how it usually goes when it comes to crafting, but when looking at the market prices, at the cost of mats or the effort necessary to get them I quickly found out that there doesn't seem to be ANY money to be made as a Culinarian.

Food isn't exactly popular, and even the popular food is sold at around 2-3k. Problem is that 2-3k is basically what you need to pay to buy the mats necessary to make those "valuable" recipes, and if you don't actually get an HQ, you end up losing money instead of just.. not gaining. Makes it quite literally worthless.

Cont next post (dumb character limit)

For a while I made dye, that I'd sell at around 475, but lately the price of dyes has reduced considerably, now sitting at 230 gil each, making dyes poor choices when it comes to money, since it costs around 200 gil for the mats.

So! To make money as a Culinarian, would I REALLY need to get both Botanist and Fisher to 50, or is there some magic secret recipe I never heard off that I could make and sell?

I think in general the game is not tuned for crafters and gatherers. People prefer finding their gear in dungeons, and food is not as important as it was in XI. I hope SE elevates the importance of crafters.

I'm struggling with the same thing here at 50. I went for Culinarian thinking it would be great for end game once you max gear, but maybe the market hasn't caught up yet.

They really have to make either food buffs not fade when you die, extending food times/qty upon crafting, or something making it more important. I play a PLD too and I'd definitely not want to use a food item worth 2-3k and fade when you die. The likelihood of a wipe is very high in end-game content with a poor party.

The foods I'd find worth making are those for gatherers and crafters (cuz they won't die), but even then, they only need so much. All the DoW guys are pretty cheap and don't need food, they just want gear.

Remember when FFXI was new to NA? Remember how many people used food?

If you didn't play FFXI back then, basically no one used food. There were a few people that did, and you could tell if they were a good player because they cared enough to pop a kebab in the dunes.

Eventually, everyone used food pretty much all the time. A lot of times people carried 2-3 different kinds of food just for one job, because even a crappy party was worth using cheap food. They also came out with a bunch of new recipes that gave everyone new option on powerful food.

Will FFXIV become the kind of game where everyone buys expensive food so the culinarians can make a living? I don't know. I hope so. It was such a nice feature in FFXI and let you really customize yourself further.

Anyway, that's my speculation. Once the game matures a bit more, people will be looking for every edge they can get. That means buying the best food.

The effects of what food does right now is pretty limited. I think almost all food for DoW boost vitality but none that boost any of the other stats. Instead they boost the other stats like Critical rate or Skill speed and so forth. I try to make and eat food whenever possible because that extra bit is worth it to me. But I still feel that the choices of good food is currently lacking right now.

I just buy 99 hard boiled eggs from the npc, at 5gp a piece you can't go wrong. What kind of benefit does the 2k-3k food give?

If you're buying all of the mats, there's no way you're going to make money right now. I've been leveling CUL alongside FSH and BTN. It takes longer this way, but it's actually profitable IF you're making the right things. Alternatively, find some gatherers who will trade you mats for food. Same with other crafters for things like repairs/materia melds.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pots_Talos

I just buy 99 hard boiled eggs from the npc, at 5gp a piece you can't go wrong. What kind of benefit does the 2k-3k food give?

---

That is the problem with crafting right now, imo. People just buy things off NPCs because they are either cheaper, better or simply more convenient.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Koreos

That is the problem with crafting right now, imo. People just buy things off NPCs because they are either cheaper, better or simply more convenient.

---

That's fine for lower leveling imo. If you're just looking to get the 3% boost in exp, then buying NPC food isn't that bad.

Where it makes sense to buy food in the 500-750 range and then the 2-3k range is when you hit LVL 45+. You're not concerned about that 3% exp as much since you're likely fate grinding and by the time you're 50, you want the stat boosts which are in the two digit numbers for lvl35+ food.

I don't see much point in using or making food which require anything better than a shard. It's not worth the cost at the moment if you look at today's market. But ya, maybe if I had a lvl 50 miner and lvl 50 botanist too, then I would be making money. But even then, I would just be selling materials/ingredients and not really food.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by currypanda

That's fine for lower leveling imo. If you're just looking to get the 3% boost in exp, then buying NPC food isn't that bad.

Where it makes sense to buy food in the 500-750 range and then the 2-3k range is when you hit LVL 45+. You're not concerned about that 3% exp as much since you're likely fate grinding and by the time you're 50, you want the stat boosts which are in the two digit numbers for lvl35+ food.

I don't see much point in using or making food which require anything better than a shard. It's not worth the cost at the moment if you look at today's market. But ya, maybe if I had a lvl 50 miner and lvl 50 botanist too, then I would be making money. But even then, I would just be selling materials/ingredients and not really food.

---

I agree with you. I just wish cooking felt more meaningful pre-50. Even right now though at 50 it isn't that great.

Seriously.

So many times I get asked for food, and then when they ask for the price I'm forced to give a price that's roughly equivalent to what it costs me (often a few thousand gils for high level food) and 100% of the time they just decide not to buy anything, cause it's too expensive.

Crafting food is the only type of food that's worth making atm, because for a crafter, if eating food can make a difference between NQ and HQ it's totally worth it.

I've been mostly working on botany and weaving... and went to look for food for both classes. There wasn't anything being sold. I ended up making some low-level food items myself (my culinary is 11 to my 36 weaver/33 botany). As Vyniea put it, I bet there would be a stronger market for crafting and gathering food items - especially crafting as it can make a noticeable difference in HQ rates.

Food needs to not fade on death and/or most recipes need to craft 3-12 pieces of food(like FFXI), HQ food needs to last 1 hour(like FFXI) and the 1 and 2 star food needs to last 2-3 hours as well as not fade on death. There also needs to be some food that you only make 1 of per synth, but it lasts 2-3 hours(besides the 1-2 star food) just for fun/variance, and other 30 min food that you make 3-12 pieces of in a single synth. This would also make food more interesting/fun and you'd use different depending on the situation.

Food recipes REALLY need fixed, they are as expensive as a piece of armor yet fade on death and last 30 minutes.

I find this thread odd as I've just started leveling Culinarian. My FC wants someone to do it and the prices are stable across the server. Our FC uses them at End-Game across the board and as a perishable item they are always looking for more. From what I've been told they are the only stable prices on the server and as things get rolling there will be more and more demand for high quality food items.

I do agree with the idea that leveling Fishing/Botany is key to producing the goods cheaply. CUL synergizes with FSH very well and I've started producing my own higher level/quality bait. I'm leveling Fishing alongside it right now but it's much easier to level DoH than DoL.

The problem with something like high end food that costs a lot per piece is simply: The majority get to max level and then spend their level money on relic quest items. Most people end up with 15-50k after that. And we all know the meanings of income is limited currently. The best way is to get it from other players but that only re distributes the limited gold amount of players.
If you have around 20-30k and you know you probably break even with a dungeon run considering repps or maybe make a few gil win. You dont buy food for thousands of gil that fades away when you get a bad group.
So basically my point: I think most people just can't afford it currently and those who swim in gil probably either make their own food or have friends that make it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Abbycat

The problem with something like high end food that costs a lot per piece is simply: The majority get to max level and then spend their level money on relic quest items. ~~ If you have around 20-30k and you know you probably break even with a dungeon run considering repps or maybe make a few gil win. You dont buy food for thousands of gil that fades away when you get a bad group.
So basically my point: I think most people just can't afford it currently and those who swim in gil probably either make their own food or have friends that make it.

---

Are Guildhests and Levequests no longer available at end-game? I've been making a fair bit off those but haven't really been thinking too much about end-game as there's so much to do at my current level. They seems to flush me with cash when I do all six of whats available in whatever particular region I happen to be in. Please understand I never went beyond lvl 20 in FFXI and haven't done any other MMOs.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bacour

Are Guildhests and Levequests no longer available at end-game? I've been making a fair bit off those but haven't really been thinking too much about end-game as there's so much to do at my current level. They seems to flush me with cash when I do all six of whats available in whatever particular region I happen to be in. Please understand I never went beyond lvl 20 in FFXI and haven't done any other MMOs.

---

Guildhests only really give money for doing them once then they give only peanuts. Levequests are ofc still around but 1. they are not much money still and 2. should be kept for leveling professions anyway imo.
Yes while leveling you get spammed with money. But i thought we talked about high level food here which i imagined gets used by people who to high level content ;)