crafting advice

[Ksenia]

Your MIN and BOT retainers can gather shards for you...

Mine gather crystals and while 30 at a time wouldn't support the way I leveled to 50, the HW timed mats won't either so it's fine.

50+ they throttle at every turn, stacking the throttles in many places but up to 50 you are only throttled by dedication and determination.
Sarg shard rates are between 20 and 30 and silver or flax sell at 200 to 300. It takes just as long to gather shards as it does flax or Silver so gather the gil and buy the shards.

Depending on how much time you spend getting punched in the face by RnG on the 'lord of the - fishing zone' 2 and 3 star fish, you can pull a lot of desynth trash too. These add up fast. I got 1500 or so Wind crystals trying to catch Anomalocaris. (Sea of clouds 50) I still haven't caught him. I sort of wish they had an electric eel I could get Lightning from. I'd spam that instead.