Question For crafter (About materials)

[PoyoYoyo]

Do u use more materials from Botanist, miner or hunter? I'm trying to figure out if i should get more hunter retainers but i'm not sure if recipes require a lot of monster materials ( compared to mining and botanist materials) Thanks !!

[Renalt]

I think getting monster pieces are harder so do one as a hunter and the other as one you like to do the least. The only one you can gather yourself.

[Tiramu]

I'd use retainers for monster materials. Generally, I use way more mats from botanist and miner than from mobs with the exception of leatherworker.

Overall, I find botanist and miner far more useful and lucrative both for materials to sell, and for crafting.

[Mikita]

I personally find the hunters to be quite useful because the drop rate on materials from mobs can be pretty bad, so I use my retainers regularly.
I also have 1 miner and 1 botanist retainer. They are useful, but it's usually faster to just gather those materials myself.

[Jojoya]

Do u use more materials from Botanist, miner or hunter? I'm trying to figure out if i should get more hunter retainers but i'm not sure if recipes require a lot of monster materials ( compared to mining and botanist materials) Thanks !!

I prefer to use the DoW/DoM retainers because I can generally gather what I need from BTN and MIN very quickly myself but RNG creature drops can be annoyingly slow at times. Keep in mind that any use of retainers for crafting materials needs to be planned in advance since you'll usually have to keep sending them back out for more.

Actual use of materials will depend on what I'm making. Sometimes it's more MIN heavy, sometimes will be more BTN and sometimes more creature drop.

If you try to break down each crafting class by what it uses the most:

CRP - BTN heavy
BSM - MIN heavy
ARM - MIN heavy
GSM - MIN heavy
LTW - Creature heavy
WVR - BTN/Creature split
ALC - fairly even between the 3
CUL - BTN heavy

But all of them will use items from all 3 sources to some degree.

Now if you want to add FC workshop needs into the bargain, MIN would come out far ahead due to the huge need for metals for airship and submersible parts. Creature drops and BTN are still needed but in smaller quantities.

[PoyoYoyo]

I prefer to use the DoW/DoM retainers because I can generally gather what I need from BTN and MIN very quickly myself but RNG creature drops can be annoyingly slow at times. Keep in mind that any use of retainers for crafting materials needs to be planned in advance since you'll usually have to keep sending them back out for more.

Actual use of materials will depend on what I'm making. Sometimes it's more MIN heavy, sometimes will be more BTN and sometimes more creature drop.

If you try to break down each crafting class by what it uses the most:

CRP - BTN heavy
BSM - MIN heavy
ARM - MIN heavy
GSM - MIN heavy
LTW - Creature heavy
WVR - BTN/Creature split
ALC - fairly even between the 3
CUL - BTN heavy

But all of them will use items from all 3 sources to some degree.

Now if you want to add FC workshop needs into the bargain, MIN would come out far ahead due to the huge need for metals for airship and submersible parts. Creature drops and BTN are still needed but in smaller quantities.

This list is what i needed thank you !!

[Gemina]

This list is what i needed thank you !!

I am going to argue just a little bit, because I have two MIN retainers. That is how heavy its demand is, and this demand is present regardless of what your crafting goals are unless you deliberately avoid 80% of crafting requirements. The demand for metals by themselves easily totals, if not exceeds the demand for all other mats combined. While classes such as CUL and ALC are BTN heavy, this is because of the amount of different mats needed to craft those goods. This demand comes nowhere near the sheer quantity requirements for ores, stone, and sands.

The thing about retainers, is you need to send them out in advance. If you're all of a sudden hit with the need to make 200 ingots, retainers taking 40-60 minutes to bring back 30-50 ores at a time is only going to extend the amount of time it takes to complete your current tasks since you can gather what you need in much less time. Your retainers should be used to help fund your needs. Stock piling mats is a distant second.

Mob mats are only more painful because there isn't a gathering class that specializes in their acquisition. Combat retainers simply take too long and the their yield is too low for them to be of a benefit. Again, you will gather much more on your own in the same amount of time, despite the RNG factor with mob drops. The only reason to have a combat retainer is for things like quick and standard explorations as there are items they bring back that are exclusive to those type of retainers. Or you can use them to bring back the mob mats, and then turn around and sell them since the demand will always be high for them. In later levels you can use the stones dropped from FATEs to buy mob mats. Again though I feel this is a waste, as those gemstones can be used to acquire exclusive items such as orchestrion scrolls and vouchers. Don't burn up those stones on mats man.

[Tiramu]

I am going to argue just a little bit, because I have two MIN retainers. That is how heavy its demand is, and this demand is present regardless of what your crafting goals are unless you deliberately avoid 80% of crafting requirements. The demand for metals by themselves easily totals, if not exceeds the demand for all other mats combined. While classes such as CUL and ALC are BTN heavy, this is because of the amount of different mats needed to craft those goods. This demand comes nowhere near the sheer quantity requirements for ores, stone, and sands.

The thing about retainers, is you need to send them out in advance. If you're all of a sudden hit with the need to make 200 ingots, retainers taking 40-60 minutes to bring back 30-50 ores at a time is only going to extend the amount of time it takes to complete your current tasks since you can gather what you need in much less time. Your retainers should be used to help fund your needs. Stock piling mats is a distant second.

Mob mats are only more painful because there isn't a gathering class that specializes in their acquisition. Combat retainers simply take too long and the their yield is too low for them to be of a benefit. Again, you will gather much more on your own in the same amount of time, despite the RNG factor with mob drops. The only reason to have a combat retainer is for things like quick and standard explorations as there are items they bring back that are exclusive to those type of retainers. Or you can use them to bring back the mob mats, and then turn around and sell them since the demand will always be high for them. In later levels you can use the stones dropped from FATEs to buy mob mats. Again though I feel this is a waste, as those gemstones can be used to acquire exclusive items such as orchestrion scrolls and vouchers. Don't burn up those stones on mats man.

While you arent wrong, gathering metals en-masse is pretty easy. If you're only interested in GSM, BSM and ARM then yeah, Miner retainers will give you more for those on top of what you gather. Same applies to Botanist and WVR, ALC and CUL.

With the cost of a lot of mob items and drop rates relative to resource need, I think a hunter retainer is a better investment. This of course assumes one is interested in the tradeskills that use them, namely Leather. Trying to get Omnicrafter its Leather and Alchemist that have caused me the biggest resource problems.

[Deveryn]

I have one of each retainer between my main and an alt to cover each of the 18hour ventures and the potential minion drops.

The one I use the most for materials is my hunter because everything else is pretty easy to gather.

[SamSmoot]

I have hunter (because beast drop rates are insanely low), and botanist. Also, beast materials can be bought with gemstones, but that's difficult later in expansions when no one is running fates any more.