Crafting 100% Success 100% HQ 2 Star Items

[Vortok]

It is important to know how much you can meld something! For the MOST part, you are going to be able to cap all 3 stats on any given piece of gear. The exceptions are the chest piece and the off hand

To add to this:

You can cap all those other pieces without using any grade IV materia. A single Craft IV materia will let you cap the chest piece as well, otherwise you leave a single point of craftsmanship on the table. Off hand is the only piece that can get significant benefits for using grade IV... and you have to overmeld everything past the first materia anyway.

One of the more amusing melds I saw from examining people in town was a chest piece with a Craft IV, a Craft III, and a Craft II with the other two overmeld slots not used. Was someone I've seen selling Titan runs, so I guess he had the money to throw away, lol. Had grade IVs in a number of other slots as well.

[YanDere]

To add to this:

You can cap all those other pieces without using any grade IV materia. A single Craft IV materia will let you cap the chest piece as well, otherwise you leave a single point of craftsmanship on the table. Off hand is the only piece that can get significant benefits for using grade IV... and you have to overmeld everything past the first materia anyway.

One of the more amusing melds I saw from examining people in town was a chest piece with a Craft IV, a Craft III, and a Craft II with the other two overmeld slots not used. Was someone I've seen selling Titan runs, so I guess he had the money to throw away, lol. Had grade IVs in a number of other slots as well.

Saw a WHM with fully overmelded full Vanya HQ/Astral HQ gear with ALL grade IV materia. And then I pressed Start and saw how poor I am with my 20k gil. XD

[Galactimus]

The following is NOT a 100% HQ method like originally posted:

Comfort Zone (Normal)
Inner Quiet (Normal)
Waste Not (Normal)
Steady Hand II (Excellent)
Basic Touch (Poor)
Basic Touch (Normal)
Basic Touch (Normal)
Basic Touch (Normal)
Basic Touch (Normal)

Great Strides (Normal)
Steady Hand (Excellent)
Standard Touch (Poor)
Great Strides (Normal)
Innovation (Normal)

Ingenuity (Normal)
Byregot's Blessing (Normal)
Careful Synthesis II (Normal)
Careful Synthesis II (Normal)
Careful Synthesis II (Normal)

I have 347 Craftsmanship, 340 Control, and 359 CP. The above results (getting two poors on a Basic Touch and Standard Touch) got my Quality to 90%. This is not a 100% HQ method. The easiest way to fix this is:

Add 14 more CP to your build for 373 total. This will let you use Observe if Steady Hand I is Excellent; making your Steady Hand I a Poor and your Standard Touch a Normal (instead of Poor.) This doesn't affect the rest of your rotation at all. It may be possible to make your Standard Touch an Advanced Touch for 16 more CP, or your Ingenuity I an Ingenuity II for 8 CP to try and get that 90% to 100%; but I'm not going to attempt the risk when Observe will make this an Official Guaranteed "100% Method."

[Maelwys]

I've done a little background reading/research into optimal melds for HQ AF and the various abilities and endgame recipes... and I sort of understand the link between the limits of Craftsmanship and the various Synthesis steps, but I'm still not quite sure about Control and the effect of the various random conditions on Touches...

Thanks to Roth_Trailfinder for the breakdown on the Condition modifiers.

I should probably add that I've since pinned down what I was doing wrong- the Difficulty and Quality levels required for the "hardest" 80 Durability synths are 233 and 2921 respectively and I was assuming the rotation listed in the OP could hit those. Unfortunately it doesn't quite seem to be able to.

[EDIT: Removed Rotation tweaks as was using inaccurate calculator for Control Progression]

[Nenin]

Saw a WHM with fully overmelded full Vanya HQ/Astral HQ gear with ALL grade IV materia. And then I pressed Start and saw how poor I am with my 20k gil. XD

Are you sure ALL of them were grade IV?



The % chance to overmeld a grade IV is:
1st = 29%
2nd = 16%
3rd = 10%
4th = 6%

The head/chest/hands/legs/feet have 2 slots so you need 3 overmelds. Assuming you have neither the best or the worst luck in the world that will take 109 materia. The waist/neck/earring/wrist/rings are worse because they only have 1 slot. To fully load up all the accessories that's another 224 materia.

The average price for a non-crap grade IV materia (no elemental) on Sargatanas is over 200k. Not including the price of the gear itself that's around 70,000,000 gil.



I'm not saying it's impossible but damn. I didn't play much in 1.0 but i've heard of people having over a billion gil before it was cut down by a factor of 10 and I personally know a few people with hundreds of cracked materia so maybe 70m is chump change for them.

[ImDingDing]

The average price for a non-crap grade IV materia (no elemental) on Sargatanas is over 200k. Not including the price of the gear itself that's around 70,000,000 gil.



I'm not saying it's impossible but damn. I didn't play much in 1.0 but i've heard of people having over a billion gil before it was cut down by a factor of 10 and I personally know a few people with hundreds of cracked materia so maybe 70m is chump change for them.

I am more suprised on people played that long time on 1.0 as everyone I met told it was a bad/unfriendly game.

[Maelwys]

OK, I've been working my way through a LOT of numbers.

And I've arrived at what should be a "100% HQ using only NQ materials" rotation, using the OP as a base.

The main benefit of the below would be that you don't need to level Goldsmith to 50 for Innovation, and you can choose between eating more expensive food or levelling Alchemist to 50 for "Comfort Zone". So it's a little on-topic!

If my numbers are right, the below rotation remains a 100% HQ chance regardless of where it gets hit with excellent or poor conditions, apart from on Step 16 (Byregot's Blessing) where a Poor Condition can be dodged by skipping "Great Strides".

Target Synth: 2-Star - 2966 Quality, 233 Difficulty.
Needs 372 CP (with Comfort Zone) or 386 CP (Without Comfort Zone)

Cross Class Skills needed:
+ Byregot's Blessing (50 Carpenter)
+ Careful Synth 2 (50 Weaver)
+ Optional: Comfort Zone (50 Alchemist)
+ Steady Hands II (37 Culinarian)
+ Ingenuity (15 Blacksmith)
+ Manipulation (15 Goldsmith)

(Numbers in brackets below are for base quality gained per touch, assuming 340 Control)

1. Inner Quiet
2. Comfort Zone
3. Ingenuity
4. Steady Hand II
5. Basic Touch (+157)
6. Basic Touch (+183)
7. Basic Touch (+209)
8. Basic Touch (+235)
9. Basic Touch (+196)
10. Manipulation
11. Steady Hand II
12. Basic Touch (+216)
13. Basic Touch (+237)
14. Ingenuity
15. Great Strides [If excellent condition now, skip this step]
16. Byregot's Blessing (+1647)
17. Careful Synth 2
18. Careful Synth 2
19. Careful Synth 2
= 372 CP (for 3080 Quality Total, 114 above cap)

If you get an Excellent Condition on Step 11, Step 12's Basic Touch will get dropped to 50% effectiveness. However, with any decent amount of Control this is not enough to drop you under 100% HQ chance (example: with 340 Control you only get hit for -108 Quality, and you'd have 114 to spare)

--------------------------------------------

Regarding High-level Cross Class abilities:

It appears that you basically *Need* Byregot's Blessing from 50 Carpenter for any synth worth talking about, even if you plan to completely abuse Rumination.

You can get by without Comfort Zone (50 Alchemist), but Careful Synthesis 2 (50 Weaver) is extremely helpful.
This is not even for the 0 chance to fail, but for the extra +20% efficiency it grants over Basic Synthesis for 0 CP cost.

You can get a maximum of 354 CP from base stats and gear. And another 43 CP from food (HQ Bouillabaisse) for 397 total. Technically without either "Careful Synth 2" or "Comfort Zone", it's possible to fit a ~95% HQ chance rotation into 391 CP or a ~90% HQ chance rotation into 376 CP... but honestly for the expense required for that in both gear and food, it's pretty much always going to be better to just bite the bullet and level Weaver to 50 ASAP.



-------------------------------------- [EDIT] --------------------------------------

Another possible rotation is below.
Identical cross-class ability requirements to the above rotation.

Stat requirements are 357 Craftsmanship, 343 Control and 348 CP
(This is +10 Craft, +3 Control, -24 CP compared to the above rotation).

+ Comfort Zone
+ Inner Quiet
+ Steady Hand II
+ Basic Touch
+ Basic Touch
+ Basic Touch
+ Basic Touch
+ Basic Touch
+ Manipulation
*** IF CONDITION IS EXCELLENT THEN USE CAREFUL SYNTHESIS II HERE ***
+ Steady Hand II
+ Basic Touch
+ Ingenuity (If condition is excellent, swap this and the next 'Basic touch' around)
+ Basic Touch
*** IF CONDITION IS NOT EXCELLENT THEN USE GREAT STRIDES ***
+ Byregot's Blessing
+ Careful Synthesis II
+ Careful Synthesis II
+ Careful Synthesis II (Only use if not already used for an Excellent Condition earlier)

Technically you can hit the stat requirements for this rotation with just HQ gear + melds, no food needed.
This means that you could drop "Comfort Zone" entirely (eliminating the need for a 50 ALC) and just use cheap NPC food like the 37 gil "Stone Soup" for a guaranteed HQ with NQ materials.

(Note that technically it'd only need 343 control to ensure that it can weather a Poor condition on step #4 (the 1st "Basic Touch") - so you could attempt it with less control and just use your normal "Careful Synth 2" there instead if desired since it'd be incredibly unlikely to get 2 'Excellents' in exactly the wrong place...)

[YanDere]

It was ALL grade IV materia.

[le0]

On the 80 dura rotation I noticed that you finish off at standard synthesis, careful synthesis, careful synthesis. which you require 347 craftsmanship.
Now the below you quoted is used 3 careful synthesis II. That would require a lot less craftsmanship, correct? or am I missing something. Reason im asking is im stuck at 346 craftsmanship atm, and don't feel like wasting overmelds. Thanks.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Careful Synthesis : 90% Efficiency, 100% success
Basic Synthesis : 100% Efficiency, 90% success
Careful Synthesis 2 : 120% Efficiency, 100% success
Standard Synthesis : 150% Efficiency, 90% success

On the off chance that you didn't misread things, Standard + Careful + Careful = 150 + 90 + 90 = 330 Efficiency.
Careful 2 + Careful 2 + Careful 2 = 360 Efficiency.
Standard + Careful 2 + Careful 2 = 390 Efficiency.

With the way Craftsmanship works, for a given Craftsmanship, a higher Efficiency will get you more Progress. Thus, for a given amount of Progress, a higher Efficiency lets you get there with less Craftsmanship. In other words, if you read it rightly, Careful 2 x3 will require less Craftsmanship than Standard and 2 Careful 1's. On the flip side, if you read it wrong, then three Careful 2's will require *more* Craftsmanship than the Standard and 2 Careful 2's.