I worked this up to help some of my LS mates and such, I figured I'd put it up here for anyone who hasn't started Alchemist or for new players who would like some help. This is simply how I leveled Alchemist, and I hope it will be of help to someone. It also explains how leveling a few other gathering or crafting classes along with Alchemy will benefit you as well. I’ll continue to update it as I continue to level Alchemist, so this will turn into a Rank 1-50 Guide once I am done!
First off, Crafting Leves are a wonderful thing and I do all 8 of mine every Leve reset to help with my SP gain! Usually I focus on Alchemy leves first going with the ones closest to my Rank and higher… if I have any left then I put those into cooking to help that craft as well.
Alchemy:
(1)Distilled Water: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/distilled-water?id=20
You can find the Muddy Water at the NPC in the Sapphire Exchange named Tataroga.
(5)Beeswax: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/beeswax?id=2
I would like to make a note at this time… Botany is WONDERFUL to do with Alchemy as well; you can get a lot of your supplies from gathering. I got a lot of Bee Chips doing Botany up in the Grid area, if you don’t mind putting in this extra effort this craft can be very cheap for you to do!
The above should get you to about 10-12 but if you don’t like the SP and want to go a bit higher:
(13) Sunset Wheat Flour: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/sunset-wheat-flour?id=26
Once again this is where Botany comes in handy, and since this is also Culinary 5… as I said Alchemy and Culinary go well together! Also the extra supplies such as wood, cooking supplies etc can be easily sold either at a NPC or on a retainer which will also give you a nice flow in income. This should get you to about 13 if the other ones didn’t.
Now comes the fun grind:
About 14(ish) you should be able to start breaking crystals, and I think I did this until I was about Rank 24. I just told my LS that I was at that stage in Alchemy and if they needed crystals broken to shards to please let me know, they were VERY supportive! I wrote down what each person gave me, broke them and gave back the shards. I never had a problem with supply of crystals at all due to the support of my shell. All I had to buy was the fine sand, which the NPC up at the Alchemist Guild sells.
Here is the recipe for breaking crystals, all of them are the same you need fine sand and then just pick the crystal. http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/lightning-shard?id=11
(24) Horn Glue: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/horn-glue?id=1088 & http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/horn-glue?id=1089
I started making this about 22-ish, my shell is very supportive and gave me any horns they found so I only had to buy the Muddy Water… which I mentioned above where you can find the NPC for that in Uldah. The reason I was making this was because other crafters needed the glue, seeing we are a shell that supports one another fully, I made this to help them.
(25) Maple Syrup: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/maple-syrup?id=643
This is what I leveled off of from about 22 Alchemist and up, also if you do decide to take up Culinary as well you will want to hold onto some stacks of this because at about 12-13 Culinary you can turn Maple Syrup into Maple Sugar! This is also another good reason to have Botany, you can get a lot of Maple Sap off the trees up in Grid!
(30) Lanolin: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/lanolin?id=2164
Here is where Leatherworker would come in handy, and to be honest while I was leveling Alchemy and Culinary I just grabbed some leves and got Leatherworker up. I am only a 12 Leatherworker and I have no problem making these, even though it says 15 Leatherworker. Once again farming for the win, myself and some friends went and farmed all the skins and in all I think I got about 150-200 skins during this time. At 32 I am still getting about 350-400 SP a synth for the most part, which isn’t bad.
I also have a friend who is a fisher, so I mixed in these recipes as well for the times I didn’t have skins:
(30) Shark Oil: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/shark-oil?id=2680
(30) Lightning Crystal: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/lightning-crystal?id=2979
The Newt to Lightning Crystal is really good if you are thinking, or have a friend who is doing Weaving. Turns 1 Lightning Crystal and a Newt into 3 Lightning Crystals!
This is where I am at this time, and at the moment I am still doing Lanolin to finish off my sheepskins that I have left over, and I am also doing the following:
(34) Wing Glue: http://ffxiv.yg.com/item/wing-glue?id=10009316
Good SP and also very helpful, other crafts need this to make stuff especially Carpenter and arrows. So I make this for them, and I also get free arrows for helping supply the glue and since I’ve been doing Botany this whole time as well I’m also able to help them with the wood they need for the arrows as well. Free arrows if you like Archer = Win!
(35) Shark Oil: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/shark-oil?id=2612
Once again because I have a friend who does fishing and can help me get the supplies.
(36) Bee Spatha: http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/bee-spatha?id=2070
I’ve been able to make these for some people, and the SP was really nice so if you know someone who needs an upgrade to their sword!
I hope this helps you if you are thinking of taking up Alchemy, and if ya did find this helpful just leave a comment saying so and I’ll continue putting in the information all the way to 50! Thank you everyone, and enjoy your time in Eorzea! <3