Noobish materia question

[Alhanelem]

Do any of the crafting stats or your main attributes affect the multi-melding chance? or is it just the stats of the materia on the item, stats of the materia being attached, and your level that plays into it?

[IBloodmoon]

Only three things affect melding percentage.

1- total stats added to the meld, ie. +40 str is harder to make than +38 str. For abilities points I believe it is .5% per ablity point. Somebody correct me if I am off on this, I'm not a my computer right now.

2- order of meld, always meld the lowest material first, even with in the tiers. Ie, a +18 needs to be put on before a +20 even though they are both tier iv.

3- if the item is HQ, there is a flat 5% for a double meld, 4% for a triple, and I believe 2.5% for quad. Again someone correct me if the numbers are off, I'm only positive about the double meld bonus.

Nothing else affects the percentage. Hope that helps.

[Alhanelem]

I see... I'm just trying for the gambler achievements, trying to figure out what the most optimal setup will be. I only have GSM50, so the range of useable materia I can get my hands on at any given time is rather limited =\

[IBloodmoon]

Bone hora will be your best bet. 3 different ability materia, all the offensive elemental materia, and a couple others can be added to it.

[Elexia]

All those crap materia you get from SB (especially tier I)..this is what it's used for. Definitely no optimal setup because it would be too easy if you could modify something SE designed as a clear time and money sink xD.

[Punainen]

Its like Bloodmoon says. Your equipment is irrelevant to melding. It all has to do with the materials involved in the meld itself.

Also, don't use Bone Hora. LOW level items are less likely to succeed. (Look at my sig, I know what I'm talking about)

As a 50 GSM, this is what I did:
Find a whole bunch of dex +1 materia (avoid anything above +1 at all costs. Do NOT use more than one kind of materia ever) (Also, any kind of +1 materia that can go on the needle is fine, but be sure to stick with the same type)
Craft a bunch of electrum needles.
Begin melding the materia onto the needles.
???
PROFIT

[IBloodmoon]

All those crap materia you get from SB (especially tier I)..this is what it's used for. Definitely no optimal setup because it would be too easy if you could modify something SE designed as a clear time and money sink xD.

There is an optimal setup, it just isn't great either. You will see a difference in percentages if you follow certain rules. I won't argue about how correct those percentages are, since I haven't done nearly enough double or triple melds to have any useful statistics on that topic.

[Raldo]

I don't think it was mentioned, but melding to a Lv41~50 item has higher chances of melding than a Lv31~40 (and so on for every 10-level spread), right? If not, you could get your gamblers crown with a simple Lv10 class.

In order to get my gamblers crown, I spent my old guild marks for the crappiest value tier 1 materia. Took me only ~10 Raptorskin Thighboots to get a 5-meld.

Ooops, I missed it, someone did say it:

Also, don't use Bone Hora. LOW level items are less likely to succeed. (Look at my sig, I know what I'm talking about)

[Alhanelem]

Also, don't use Bone Hora. LOW level items are less likely to succeed.

I figured this out. The same materia had a higher success rate on a higher level item than a lower one.

[IBloodmoon]

I figured this out. The same materia had a higher success rate on a higher level item than a lower one.

I was thinking more for the amount of gil you would end up spending to make the higher level item as opposed to the increased percentage, its about 10% difference between a bone hora and a tortoise shell hora. So unless you have a ton of basilisk eggs laying around it could get pretty expensive doing electrum needles.