Expert Recipes for 6.2

[Caimie_Tsukino]

First of all, for those who don't know, one can check what conditions are available for a Master Recipe by right-clicking the recipe, and select "Potential Condition List":


Now, so far... I've had many successes...


I've had many painful failures...


I've had close shaves, where my quality was barely just beyond the required amount...


I've had desperation runs, but eventually dragged on and came back from hell...

*Note that I ran dry with CP, but came back with some lucky Tricks of Trades, and then finally GS-Innov, and baited with an Observe, before getting a Byregot on Good...

And I've also had my fair share of wealth...


From what I have learned... these are the general strategies:
(1) I now prefer Reflect over Muscle Mem. I know many will disagree with me, but my impression is that MuMe+Vene+Groundwork doesn't provide that much progress anyway. I have even tried using MuMe+Vene+WN+ multiple Groundworks, and it's just blowing CP without doing very much. You will still end up with a lot of Rapid Syn anyway. So I prefer to just use Reflect to immediately secure 2 IQ stacks instead.
(2) Since there's no more Pliant, Manip should ideally be used when Primed is active.
(3) Ideally, Vene should be used when Primed is active. However, if Manip is not active yet, prioritize the Manip on the Primed over Vene.
(4) Ideally, Rapid Syn should be used when Centered is active. In fact, prioritize the use of Rapid Syn over Hasty Touch whenever Centered pops up. Because my strategy relies on successful Rapid Syn. It is CP-free, and it's still pretty strong even when naked without Vene.
(5) Ideally, Hasty should be used when Sturdy or Centered is active. This is for building up IQ stacks. But if progress isn't maxed yet, save the Centered for Rapid Syn instead.
(6) In the beginning phase, when Good condition appears, it's better to use it on Precise Touch. If you have Vene active, you can use it on Intensive Syn. But sometimes, even so, I'll still do Precise Touch. Most of the times, Precise Touch just can't be wrong.

This is my "rotation"... or more like the "flow" of my reactions to different conditions:
(1) Right after using Reflect at the very beginning, the "condition game" is on! If I get Sturdy, I'll use Hasty Touch. If I get Centered, I'll use a naked Rapid Syn. If I get Primed, I use Manip. If I get Malleable, I'll Rapid Syn. If I get nothing, I either go Vene or use Observe to bait.
(2) If I baited 2 times and still nothing happens, I give up, and use Vene.
(3) After Vene is active, I'll spam Rapid Syn until Vene expires. However, if Good happens, I look at my Vene stack, and choose between Precise Touch and Intensive Syn. If my Vene has plenty of steps left, I'll go Precise. If my Vene stack isn't that many, I'll do Intensive Syn.
(4) If Vene is active, and a Malleable pops, I may use Heart & Soul + Intensive Syn.
(5) Final Appraisal before the last synthesis is a very common thing. Depending on the need, I may supplement with weaker but more secure synthesis towards the end of the progress bar.
(6) If my durab is running low, but no Primed pops, I either do Observe or Careful Observation (Delineation required) to bait for conditions.
(7) If baiting fails after 2 or 3 tries, I'll give up and just do Manip anyway.
(8) Sometimes, IQ stacks maxes out before progress (if a lot of Goods were used on Precise), but sometimes progress maxes out before IQ stack (if a lot of Rapid Syn lands on Centered).
(9) If I am at IQ8, and if Heart & Soul is still available, I may use it for a Precise Touch to get IQ10 directly.
(10) After progress and IQ stack are maxed, then I work on the quality bar. Maxing of the quality bar is all about LEVERAGING!!! There is NO WAY for anyone to straight up push quality to max with just Innov+Prud spam or Innov+Trained Finesse spam. Those are out of the question, because you get almost no leverage. One must BAIT for Good conditions to leverage quality. Back in ShB, the way I "bait" for Goods was to do my "Touch Combo", which consists of "GS, Innov, Observe, FocusT, PrudT, PrudT". If a Good pops up at any given step, I would be able to leverage the quality, e.g. after GS, if Good pops, I go Precise; after GS,Innov, if Good pops, I go Preparatory Touch; after GS,Innov,Obs, if Good pops, I go Prep Touch; after GS,Innov,Obs,FocT, if Good pops before any of the 2 PrudT, I go Precise. The "GS" serves as a very important action to DOUBLE your gain from the Good condition. When you line it up with Innov, and if a Good pops and you use a strong touch, it has a superior multiplier effect. And that's how one can "leverage" quality increase.
(11) Before the Touch Combo, if Primed is up, I'd use Innov first before the GS. This way, I'd gain more Innov stacks for whatever touches to use.
(12) If I used Innov on a Primed, and so I ended up with many Innov steps after GS,Obs,FocT, I'd use GS,Obs,FocT again instead of Prudent Touches x3, because it has more leveraging potentials, and consumes 5 less durab.
(13) Now in Endwalker, apart from the "Touch combo" mentioned above, we do have another way to push quality steadily, and that is to use the "Basic/Standard/Advanced Touch combo" (BSA combo). So e.g. if I have plenty of durability (Manip is active, and current durab is higher than 25), but CP is not enough for a big "Touch Combo", I may resort to Innov, and then BSA combo. It doesn't have much leverage potentials, but the combo itself is pretty powerful under Innov. It is also flexible with Goods on every step, which can be used for either Precise or Trick of Trades. So this is certainly a valid combo if you don't have enough CP for a Touch Combo.
(14) CP is often an issue after IQ and progress are maxed. Heart & Soul can be used as a source of 20 CP sometimes. If I still have around 300 CP with me after maxing IQ and progress, and having some Manip steps active, then I'm usually in a pretty good position. If I am around 200 CP at that stage, I know I'm in trouble.

My strategy is probably not the best... I have only about 50-60% success rate so far. I'm killing about 2 crafts in every 5 to 6 crafts. I've had success streaks of 4s, but I've also had failure streaks of 3s. RNG still dictates a lot of things. But at least this strategy seems viable to me in making these items.