Low level materia farming

[Guimu]

Hello there. I was looking for ways to get some grade I to III materia in order to pentameld my crafting gear. I know I can just hit the Market Board, but since I have time I'd like to get some myself. Afterall, this won't be the last time I need this.

After some searching I saw different options, like using low level armor and doing fates with it that are a higher level, or doing quick synthesis with some low level gear.

I tried the battle method equipping some lvl 8 gear (not weapon) and doing a few fates in Northern Thanalan with around only 3% spiritbond increase? Should it really take it that long? Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I'd really appreciate some help with this matter.

[Hasrat]

If you're just looking for crafting materia, the Ixal tribes sell it, along with low level gathering materia.

[Guimu]

The Ixal, huh... I think last time I went there was back in Heavensward lol. Thanks.

EDIT: Damn, they sell Materia I in stacks of five. That's pretty neat!

[Arohk]

I have heard about an efficient method for that but never tried it out, wear some low level battle gear and go farming high level crafting materials (mining/botany) , it should spiritbond quickly and extract combat materia.
Keep in mind, spiritbond is faster when you got more materia in it.

considering how cheap materia is on the marketboard though, i don't thing that is worth it, unless you farm Materia 1 only.

[LibitIncarne]

I have heard about an efficient method for that but never tried it out, wear some low level battle gear and go farming high level crafting materials (mining/botany) , it should spiritbond quickly and extract combat materia.
Keep in mind, spiritbond is faster when you got more materia in it.

considering how cheap materia is on the marketboard though, i don't thing that is worth it, unless you farm Materia 1 only.

The method is to equip IL1 HQ gear (Other than 1 high IL item for stats) and 2 Meteor Survivor Rings, then gather and craft IL13 items.

[Sorjal]

Note that materia spirit bonding rates are based on item quality and number of melds that item currently has, leading to hq crafted penta-melded items spirit bond the quickest.

What materia is extracted is based on the stats and level of the item it's extracted from. I do not know if stats that are melded to it also have a chance of being extracted. Meaning if you have a level 15-20 combat chest piece with say 5 crafting/gathering materia melded to it you will likely get a combat-based materia when it reaches 100% and you extract it. I don't recall ever getting a crafting or gathering materia from a combat armor piece, but that's not to say that it might not happen, it might just be a really really low chance. Note that this requires that the combat gear is wearable by all jobs so you can wear it while being a crafter.

I talk about using crafting/gathering materia with a combat item, mainly because those are generally cheaper to purchase, and you will likely destroy some in the process of penta-melding pieces.

I am unsure if the quality of the item you craft affects the spirit bonding rate, but it's level in compared to the items equipped is. When you craft items at or above the level of the gear you are wearing, their individual spirit bonding rates goes up a larger amount.

Adding boosts to spirit bonding rates also helps, but the items do have a cap as to how much their spirit bonding can increase per craft. The amount also is partially random. Essentially adding these increases the minimum amount of spirit bonding you will get per craft in each item. There are items that can boost this rate as well, such as the grand company ear slot item Lily and the Serpent Earrings (Gridania gc, haven't checked the other two but I'd guess they have a version as well)

Now successfully crafting an item is based on your total stats, so if you use high level crafting main and off hand, you likely won't need any additional stats from other equipment, so you can put combat pieces there instead. What you will want to have though is enough CP to cover the 250 of Trained Eye and enough CP for the Synthesis steps to complete it.

This all adds up to crafting items that are above the level of the gear in combat gear of the level of materia you are looking to get.

In the end this is what I mean for creating materia I's...



Now aside from crafting/spirit bonding, there is another way. That is using Mutamix's machine to mash 5 unwanted materia into one "random" new materia.

Personally, what I would love to see them add is a reverse of this process, where you take a higher level materia and smash it into random smaller ones.