Making money with Culinarian, is it even possible?

[Vyniea]

Hello!

Created this topic to ask for.. help I guess? Basically, I got to 50 Culinarian during the last few days and it cost me pretty much all the money I had. Obviously now that I'm 50 I'd expect to actually be able to make money, that's how it usually goes when it comes to crafting, but when looking at the market prices, at the cost of mats or the effort necessary to get them I quickly found out that there doesn't seem to be ANY money to be made as a Culinarian.

Food isn't exactly popular, and even the popular food is sold at around 2-3k. Problem is that 2-3k is basically what you need to pay to buy the mats necessary to make those "valuable" recipes, and if you don't actually get an HQ, you end up losing money instead of just.. not gaining. Makes it quite literally worthless.

Cont next post (dumb character limit)

[Vyniea]

For a while I made dye, that I'd sell at around 475, but lately the price of dyes has reduced considerably, now sitting at 230 gil each, making dyes poor choices when it comes to money, since it costs around 200 gil for the mats.

So! To make money as a Culinarian, would I REALLY need to get both Botanist and Fisher to 50, or is there some magic secret recipe I never heard off that I could make and sell?

[Koreos]

I think in general the game is not tuned for crafters and gatherers. People prefer finding their gear in dungeons, and food is not as important as it was in XI. I hope SE elevates the importance of crafters.

[currypanda]

I'm struggling with the same thing here at 50. I went for Culinarian thinking it would be great for end game once you max gear, but maybe the market hasn't caught up yet.

They really have to make either food buffs not fade when you die, extending food times/qty upon crafting, or something making it more important. I play a PLD too and I'd definitely not want to use a food item worth 2-3k and fade when you die. The likelihood of a wipe is very high in end-game content with a poor party.

The foods I'd find worth making are those for gatherers and crafters (cuz they won't die), but even then, they only need so much. All the DoW guys are pretty cheap and don't need food, they just want gear.

[Zeyn]

Remember when FFXI was new to NA? Remember how many people used food?

If you didn't play FFXI back then, basically no one used food. There were a few people that did, and you could tell if they were a good player because they cared enough to pop a kebab in the dunes.

Eventually, everyone used food pretty much all the time. A lot of times people carried 2-3 different kinds of food just for one job, because even a crappy party was worth using cheap food. They also came out with a bunch of new recipes that gave everyone new option on powerful food.

Will FFXIV become the kind of game where everyone buys expensive food so the culinarians can make a living? I don't know. I hope so. It was such a nice feature in FFXI and let you really customize yourself further.

Anyway, that's my speculation. Once the game matures a bit more, people will be looking for every edge they can get. That means buying the best food.

[Zareth]

The effects of what food does right now is pretty limited. I think almost all food for DoW boost vitality but none that boost any of the other stats. Instead they boost the other stats like Critical rate or Skill speed and so forth. I try to make and eat food whenever possible because that extra bit is worth it to me. But I still feel that the choices of good food is currently lacking right now.

[Pots_Talos]

I just buy 99 hard boiled eggs from the npc, at 5gp a piece you can't go wrong. What kind of benefit does the 2k-3k food give?

[Pashmana]

If you're buying all of the mats, there's no way you're going to make money right now. I've been leveling CUL alongside FSH and BTN. It takes longer this way, but it's actually profitable IF you're making the right things. Alternatively, find some gatherers who will trade you mats for food. Same with other crafters for things like repairs/materia melds.

[Koreos]

I just buy 99 hard boiled eggs from the npc, at 5gp a piece you can't go wrong. What kind of benefit does the 2k-3k food give?

That is the problem with crafting right now, imo. People just buy things off NPCs because they are either cheaper, better or simply more convenient.

[currypanda]

That is the problem with crafting right now, imo. People just buy things off NPCs because they are either cheaper, better or simply more convenient.

That's fine for lower leveling imo. If you're just looking to get the 3% boost in exp, then buying NPC food isn't that bad.

Where it makes sense to buy food in the 500-750 range and then the 2-3k range is when you hit LVL 45+. You're not concerned about that 3% exp as much since you're likely fate grinding and by the time you're 50, you want the stat boosts which are in the two digit numbers for lvl35+ food.

I don't see much point in using or making food which require anything better than a shard. It's not worth the cost at the moment if you look at today's market. But ya, maybe if I had a lvl 50 miner and lvl 50 botanist too, then I would be making money. But even then, I would just be selling materials/ingredients and not really food.