Quote Originally Posted by Nyalia View Post
Ingenuity lowers a recipe to your level. There is a penalty for doing recipes above your level both for Progress and for Quality. Ingenuity II lowers a recipe to below your level. There is a bonus to Progress for doing recipes below your level, but there is not a bonus to Quality for doing recipes below your level. So, generally speaking: Ingenuity helps both Progress and Quality. Ingenuity II helps more on Progress than Ingenuity, but helps the same as Ingenuity for Quality.
This is no longer completely true.

It does still hold true for 1/2 star crafts, but Ing / Ing II have a much lesser effect on 3 star and above.

E.g. Ing II does not lower a 3 star recipe below your current level and Ing II gives a higher quality gain than Ing I for 3 star+ crafts.