Sometimes, you just want a good 'ol grind

[Minarisweet]

Only crafters can feel like this unfortunately...

[ICountFrom0]

Oh, thanks for the tip! Garland tools didn't mention aetherial reduction can be used to acquire the sands, and they're usually a pretty reliable source. Luckily I didn't put too much time into farming those scrips, but it was also one of the easier and more relaxing portions of this grind.

Oh, it's there, it's hidden rather badly, I'm sure there's some logic to it, that site always makes me feel like I've gone through 12 steps to get to something that could take 1.

Meanwhile I've gotten distracted by starting on the new relic, the first tool we've ever been offered with this kind of special effect, it's a curious thing indeed.

[ICountFrom0]

I finished right hand side before bed and then set about farming the legendary nodes. I'm using up the last of my scip of all four kinds at this point, and today's roulettes will give me the last tomestones needed to get the last ingredients for the left hand side.

After this, gathering right hand, then gathering left hand, then offhands, then relics, then upgrades. ... and then backwards to old relics and sublime.

Looking at the first post, I'm going to have to sit down, do some serious work, I'm thinking 300 to 500 refined capachino and another stack or two, 200ish of the purple refined culinary.

Good news is tomorrow I'll be able to grab purple gather scip from my weekly. The 119 gripgel is just... I'm totally going to grab a little from the loporits. I can only hope the loporit sources cause a bit of a market crash.

I'm looking at this in sets of 10. Crafting left and right, 10. Gathering left and right, 10. Offhands, 10. Then crafting relics, 11. End of today I expect to be done with the first 10.

[Gemina]

Good work! Keep trucking my friend. It's definitely a good and worthwhile grind to partake.

A bit of an update on my progress is I am just about done with the gathering portion, including the scrip grind. The gel without question took the longest. The immutable solution was nothing in comparison.

For the white crafter scrips route I chose was actually crafting a bunch of lapidary hammers for 71-80 BSM at 114 white scrips per turn in. I went this way because it is far more efficient than the options for 81-90 because it takes much less steps during crafting (3 steps vs 16-18 steps). Even though you get less scrips per turn in, you spend far less time getting what's required for 119 gels.

I just have to wrap up the timed nodes and then it's time to start crafting. I also gathered additional material to account for failed crafts, which I know will happen. HQing the intermediary mats would be a whole other grind in itself. Plus, I want the challenge of starting all crafting from 0%, hehe.

[ICountFrom0]

Okay, there we go.

Left side, right side, crafting and gathering.

That leaves getting the crafting relic weapons to get, and all the crafting relics and gathering relics to upgrade, and the offhand crafting and offhand gathering.

I think I'm going to sell off, recoup my losses, and work on the relics first, prices will only ever go down.

Edit:

Sold the rest, and then came back today, made the gathering offhands. Meant crafting a new set of items for scip, and an evening spent gathering to get the other bits, but it's worth it. Starting to think I might end up doing each offhand between the second and third stage of the crafting relic's as I get there.... so maybe don't sell the grip gel this time?

[TaleraRistain]

The 119 gripgel is just... I'm totally going to grab a little from the loporits. I can only hope the loporit sources cause a bit of a market crash.

My friends saw that before I did and they were like "Thal, you're gonna scream when you see what's on the loporrits". I wasn't too surprised, though. We had the same with dwarves and slithersand. I just don't remember having to use nearly as much slithersand. IIRC it's 250 and I don't think it was ever more than that. 500 a pop with gripgel is just oof.

Though since the relics are using only white scrips, kinda glad the gripgel grind buffed my supplies of white scrip items and I perfected my macro for them. So I can crank them out for the 1500 required for each new tool after the first freebie and all the scrip items needed for the collectibles.

[ICountFrom0]

I just finished the gathering relics. Fishing as always felt the worst, but was the easiest.

This leaves 8 indagator's offhands, 8 first step upgrade and 8 second step upgrade.

Think I'm going to go do a bit more of the manderville before coming back to this.

[Gemina]

Update:

Grind complete!

I probably stood up longer than I should have getting it done tonight, but done in two weeks as planned, heh. Friggin' brutal man. I don't remember the final set of DoH/DoL in ShB being this grindy. I also definitely had to HQ some of the intermediary mats for sure, but as I progressed through the grind the need to do so lessened, which made things go faster towards the end. After about the 200 or so of those crafts though, I was getting crazy burned out, but I pushed through it. The amount of Alkahest and Ilmenite needed is insane.

Time for some R&R.

[DiaDeem]

Congrats! So far I've completed my pan, my saw, my needle and I just finished my Hatchet earlier as well.

I've been taking breaks, but I'm having a lot of fun, as they're on the more relaxing side for me. I wasn't geared well enough to complete the Skysteel Tools, but this time I invested in a Pentamelt set to make sure I can eventually finish all of them... hopefully!

[Gemina]

Thanks! I started off with the tools. Particularly BSM since it makes the majority of them. Then I prioritize based on who is crafting the most. I believe the order I went with tools was BSM, ARM, ALC, GSM, CRP, LTW, WVR, CUL and then DoL tools. Once tools are done, HQing intermediary mats becomes much easier. From there I did all the accessories, then finally the gear.

I had most materia on hand and got pretty lucky with extraction RNG also. Always use spirit bond potions throughout this entire process. Forget crafting syrup if you already meet requirements.

I haven't really pentamelded yet. A few over melds here and there, but I tend to only meld just enough to meet requirements. As I get excess materia during the course of the expansion I will add more slots. I'm still looking into glamour, and using some general ones right now. I also have excess mats that I will process and place up on the MB to get back the teleportation and shard expenses. Especially during the scrip portion of the grind.

Anywho, keep going and enjoy the grind. It's totally worth it considering how long the gear will last.