How to Level Your Crafting Classes Fast

How to Level Your Crafting Classes Fast

Leveling crafters in FFXIV is a very different beast compared to leveling combat Jobs. In many ways it’s much simpler! Though the best ways are split up across the world of Final Fantasy in places you might not think or know to look. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to leveling crafting classes in FFXIV as fast as possible! We’ll go over the best ways to get daily and weekly bonus XP — followed by the most efficient ways to grind. That means this won’t include tips on how to level your combat Jobs. Though you will need at least one healer, tank, or DPS leveled up a significant ways to access most of the side activities referenced in this guide. That’s just part of the game! Those looking for tips on leveling up their alternate Jobs can use this guide instead.

This is also not a guide to crafting itself. You should at least know the very basics — introduced as they are by the various in-game guilds found throughout Limsa Lominsa, Ul’dah, and Gridania. Though we will step through all the various stages of leveling, from Level 1 up to the cap. We also try to follow a relative sort of chronological order. That means various topics are discussed in the order you unlock them in the game. Though some categories (namely Tribe Quests) are lumped more closely together for the sake of clarity and flow.

With all that out of the way, it’s time to take a look!

A Note on Omnicrafting – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

Let’s kick things off by discussing what you actually want out of crafting class progression. While some MMOs lock you into a certain number of crafting professions, FFXIV extends the same freedom from its combat Jobs to crafters. You can level up every single crafting class on a single character. In fact, we highly recommend it. Doing so is most certainly an expensive slog in the short-term. However, pretty much every crafting class in the game relies on intermediate materials crafted by other crafting classes. Armorers need alkahest from Alchemists, Blacksmiths need leather from Leatherworkers, etc. Making (not to mention gathering) these materials yourself is typically much cheaper than buying stock from the Market Board. And since crafting in FFXIV is (mostly) about making money, you want to have as few overhead costs as possible.

A player who levels up every crafting class on a single character like this is sometimes called an “omnicrafter.” Though it’s not an explicit term used in-game. You don’t currently get any special privileges for grinding this hard — besides of course the ability to make those intermediate materials. It’s just an option! As an added bonus, however, most of the equipment used by one crafter is also used by all the others. Primary and secondary tools are unique to each class. The armor that provides most of the rest of your stats is not. Speaking of all these different classes: here’s a very reductive view of each:

Alchemist: Crafts potions and various “reagents” used as crafting materials by other classes
Armorer: Crafts metal-based armor and tools.
Blacksmith: Crafts metal-based weapons and tools.
Carpenter: Crafts a variety of wood-based equipment, weapons, and tools.
Culinarian: Crafts food that provides temporary in-game benefits to various classes.
Goldsmith: Crafts jewel-based items and accessories.
Leatherworker: Crafts leather-based armor and accessories.
Weaver: Crafts fabric-based armor.

There are exceptions to each of these rules, of course. This is just a broad overview of what each crafting class mostly provides. Of the options available Culinarian may appear to be the least necessary. However, the buffs aren’t just for combat Jobs; there are food types for crafters and gatherers as well. Endgame crafting often relies on those stat bonuses provided by high-level food. Especially while you’re still in the process of upgrading your armor and melding it with Materia.

Beyond that, the general idea of leveling up as an omnicrafter is to keep every class roughly the same level. This allows you to create those intermediate crafting items for other classes as needed — during class quests, levequests, while making Collectables, etc. Another possible exception to this rule is leveling up Blacksmith vs Armorer. Both classes can create many of the same metal ingots and intermediate crafting materials as one another. If you need to choose between one or the other, level up Blacksmith first, as they create a much wider variety of crafting tools than Armorer. This helps keep your gear up-to-date for cheap as you move on to more complex XP farming methods (e.g. Collectables).

Class Quests – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

This one is rather obvious. However, we’re going to reference these questlines and the rewards they give in the sections below, so we’ve included this here for the sake of reference. Class quests — which are required to start crafting in the first place — give out really very generous amounts of XP. You just need to follow the story of your particular crafting class and complete the quests as they unlock. This only works up until Level 70, however. After that the crafters and gatherers (just like the combat roles) stop receiving new class-specific storylines. At Level 70 and Level 80 you instead gain access to the Crystalline Mean and the Studium, respectively. More on that in a later section.

ffxiv level crafting classes fast

Just Craft! – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

For the first few levels, you just need to craft. There’s no getting around it. This is an important first step, though, as it teaches you the basic strategies of crafting. We won’t really get deep into the strategies of high-level crafting here, but there is some basic information relevant to this guide:

Crafting almost any item in the game provides XP
Crafting High Quality items grants more XP than a Normal Quality item
Quick Synthesis lets you craft basic items quickly and en masse, but cataclysmically lowers the odds of receiving High Quality items
A failed craft awards no XP, so it’s always better to finish your work than mess up while chasing High Quality

Despite that last point about Quick Synthesis, this is your most time efficient way of leveling in the early stages of the game. The reason for this is that each craft takes only a second or two to complete — the duration of just one normal action if you crafted everything manually. But what are the best items to craft? The answer is “the best stuff that you can make cheaply.” Thankfully, every in-game crafting guild has an NPC labeled the “Guild Supplier” that will sell you basic crafting materials without the fuss of using the Market Board or gathering logs and ore yourself.

Eventually, of course, your level will outstrip the level of materials provided by the supplier. Don’t fret! Plenty of other crafts can be made from ingredients sold by other NPCs. Take the Level 18 Alchemist recipe for Firebricks, for example. This uses Mudstone (sold by Material Suppliers in player-owned of Free Company housing) and Potter’s Clay (sold by Esmenet in Ul’dah – Steps of Thal). If you have a house of your own, or join a Free Company with one instead, this opens up your options immensely.

But how do you know when something is sold by an NPC for gil? Easy! Just hover over the ingredient and read its item description. Anything sold by an NPC vendor will include a “Shop Selling Price.” Then it’s just a matter of checking which NPC sells the ingredient and where via the Lodestone website. This includes everything from character coordinates to a full list of other items said characters sell in their shop.

The only other ingredient you need to worry about when using this method is Crafting Catalysts: shards, crystals, clusters. These aren’t sold by NPCs. They’re primarily harvested by Miners and Botanists at gathering points. You can also get some via “Desynthesis,” which is the process of breaking down unwanted items as a crafter, though this isn’t a very efficient method to rely on by itself. You also don’t need to worry about this too much, too early in your crafting career. The various crafting class quests provide hundreds of elemental shards as rewards. These should be all you need to reach Level 20 or so on every crafter — especially if you follow every questline and start on the path to omnicrafting.

Another upside? The different questlines will award you with free crafting gear. You can typically only pick one reward at a time (a hat, a shirt, gloves, etc.). But if you level up multiple crafters you can pick the gloves from the Armorer questline, the pants from the Culinarian questline, and so on and so forth. This saves you money and time buying or crafting your own higher-level crafting gear as you progress. Though you will eventually need to buy or make your own.

Levequests – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

After reaching Level 20 or above as a crafter, you can make a choice. Your best options for leveling crafting classes become The Firmament in Ishgard or repeatable Tradecraft Levequests scattered throughout the world. Each option has its advantages. Each option can also be supplemented with the various daily and weekly activities listed below this section. Not to mention, you don’t strictly need to choose between The Firmament and Levequests at all. You can swap back and forth as you please. Both options have their advantages.

Levequests unlock as early as Level 9. Though you probably don’t want to start using them until they start to provide some more interesting rewards at slightly higher levels. You unlock these quests after a Level 9 Main Scenario Quest. Though exact name of the quest depend on your starting city: “Way Down in the Hole” for Ul’dah, “Just Desserts” for Limsa Lominsa, or “Spirithold Broken” for Gridania. Whichever quest you get doesn’t make any mechanical difference. It’s just flavor. After that, you can speak to NPCs known as “Levemetes” to accept “Tradecraft” missions. These task you with delivering a specific, crafted item within a 20-minute time limit. Though the limit is more of a formality. It takes just seconds to complete most crafts in FFXIV.

Levequests were previously a very good, efficient way to grind crafting XP in FFXIV. They still are! Though their relative benefits were slightly reduced with the release of Endwalker. They provide very good XP, gil, and other rewards like Crafting Catalysts or materials for the time investment. You can quite easily make more money than you spend on ingredients from the gil rewards given by these quests alone. That’s good, because these quests will require you to gather your own materials or buy them from the Market Board.

There are just two major downsides. One is that Levequest “allowances” are limited. You can only hold 100 of these virtual tokens at a time. Though do you regain three allowances every 12 real-world hours. That means you can complete up to six leves per day and never run out. Any more than that, however, and you’ll need to start dipping into your stock. Once you’re out, you need to start letting the allowances build back up again to complete the quests en masse.

The other downside is that early Levequests — those pertaining to Levels 1-45 — are scattered across the world. Though plenty can be found in the three starting capitals, no one quest-giver provides leves for every type of crafting class at this stage of the game. You need to talk to the appropriate Levemete for the type of Tradecraft Levequests you want to complete. The Levemete’s available quest types match the guilds of the city their found in, too. You can get Goldsmith leves from the Levemete in Ul’dah, for example, because that’s where the Goldsmith’s Guild is located.

Here’s the list of relevant quest-givers for Levels 1-45:

T’mokkri: Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks (X: 11, Y: 11) – Armorer, Blacksmith, Culinarian
Eustace: Ul’dah – Steps of Nald (X: 12.0, Y: 9.1) – Alchemist, Goldsmith, Weaver
Gontrant: New Gridania (X: 11.7, Y: 13.3) – Carpenter, Leatherworker

Things get simpler once you reach the expansion content. There’s just one relevant Levemete for every 10 levels starting with Level 50.

Eloin: Ishgard, Foundation (X: 10.0, Y: 10.0) – Levels 50-60
Keltraeng: Hingashi, Kugane (X: 11.6, Y: 9.6) – Levels 60-70
Moyce: The Crystarium (X: 9.7, Y: 9.0) – Levels 70-80
Grigge: Old Sharlayan (X: 12.2, Y: 13.4) Levels 80-90

Supply & Provisioning – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

You might immediately notice that there are quite a lot of options for leveling crafting classes. While this is true, it’s also somewhat misleading. Many of the best ways to earn XP are locked: either until you beat a certain stage of the Main Scenario Quest or until you reach a certain level as any one crafter. “Supply and Provisioning Missions” are great for a number of reasons — not the least of which is because they unlock very early. You can start as soon as you pick a Grand Company. This occurs after the Level 20 Main Scenario Quest “In Pursuit of the Past.” Which Grand Company you select doesn’t matter, either, as they all provide the same benefits. The choice is more about flavor than anything else.

From this point forward you can speak to your Grand Company Personnel Officer about Supply and Provisioning Missions. The location of the correct personnel officer depends on which Grand Company you selected.

Serpent Personnel Officer: New Gridania (X: 9.8, Y: 11.0)
Flame Personnel Officer: Ul’dah – Steps of Nald (X: 8.3, Y: 9.0)
Storm Personnel Officer: Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks (X: 13.1, Y: 12.7)

These “missions” are actually just a list of item requests from each officer that change and refresh daily. You typically need to provide one or three crafted items in exchange for Grand Company Seals (a unique currency used to purchase items from the nearby Quartermaster) and a boatload of XP. High Quality items provide more XP than Normal Quality ones. Thus you should always provide High Quality items. If you mess up a craft and create a Normal Quality variant, start over and try again. Certain items will also be tagged with a “bonus” indicated by a yellow star icon. This shows that that particular request will provide more rewards than usual. One High Quality delivery with the bonus applied can easily earn one or even two levels’ worth of XP just for turning in that one item.

Even better: the XP scales with your crafting classes. Every Supply and Provisioning Mission will ask for an item appropriate to the level of your class. If you’re a Level 49 Weaver, for instance, it will ask for some sort of item made by a Level 49 Weaver. This is true for all crafting classes, every single day. There is always a Supply and Provisioning request available for every crafting class (plus gatherers and Fisher, but that’s not what this guide is about). Besides only receiving one mission for each class per day, there is no restriction on how many you complete during that day. You can fulfill the Weaver request for Weaver XP, then the Blacksmith request to get Blacksmith XP, and so on.

You can of course check which items are required each day by speaking to your Personnel Officer. Yet there’s another, easier method. Just go to your “Duty” menu and select “Timers.” Here you can track a number of daily and weekly quests — including Supply and Provisioning Missions. The menu will show you everything you can turn in that day and when the requests reset. For whatever reason, Supply and Provisioning Missions reset several hours later than most daily timers (e.g. Tribe Quests). So you can theoretically sleep in and still send your stuff over to the Grand Company.

One last tip: you don’t even need to craft the items yourself. You can buy the requested item off the Market Board and provide it for the same rewards as if you crafted it yourself. This is more expensive, obviously, but less time-consuming. The real downside is that you lose out on whatever XP you would have gained for crafting the item yourself. How you handle it is up to you!

As one final note: don’t forget to spend those seals. This Grand Company currency will purchase Cordial, Ventures, Dark Matter, and more. These three items in particular are very useful for crafting. Ventures can be used to send Retainers on gathering missions to get you ingredients; Dark Matter is used to repair your gear for substantially cheaper than NPC menders; Cordial speeds up gathering as a Miner or Botanist.

Ixal Tribe Quests – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

The next type of daily quest to concern ourselves with is the Ixal. This faction’s “Tribe Quests” can be accessed after the Level 41 Main Scenario Quest “In Pursuit of the Past.” After that, you can speak to the NPC Scarlet in New Gridania (X: 9.9, Y: 11.4) to begin the quest “A Bad Bladder” at Level 1 on any crafter. This sets you down a series of quests related to the Ixal tribe featured in the Main Scenario Quest. Instead of fighting them, however, you’re going to help them by crafting items and doing daily missions.

Any character and perform up to 12 Tribe Quests per real-world day — split between any in-game tribes they want. Typically, these factions only have three quests available per day anyway. Not the Ixal, though. As you progress through their storyline you will unlock more and more options from the various NPCs scattered around their camp, Ehcatl, in the North Shroud region of Gridania. Finishing more quests slowly raises your reputation with the group, which unlocks more quests that grant greater rewards. This includes special currency, items, Crafting Catalysts, and evermore quests that provide better and better XP.

At this stage of your crafting career, you want to always accept the daily quest called “Deliverance” from the Ixal NPC “Ehcatl Nine Manciple.” This only subtracts one daily Tribe Quest from your total allotment of 12 per day, but it basically functions like a second set of Supply and Provisioning Missions. The Ixal will present you with a list of items to craft. For each one you provide, you get more XP, building towards a total quota for the day. You can’t craft more items than your quota allows, but it’s a very good way to get extra XP from a single Tribe Quest allowance.

You can keep on completing more Ixal tribe quests for the Ehcatl Nine faction on any crafter. But the XP gains are most efficient between Levels 1-50. Partly this is due to the Deliverance requests not scaling beyond that point (like Supply and Provisioning Missions do). The group will only ever ask you for items within this level range and award you with XP accordingly. While you’re still working on that, though, you can also check the daily Deliverance requests under the Timers menu — once again just like Supply and Provisioning Missions. Just click on the option labeled “Ehcatl Nine Delivery Quests.” The Timer menu will even tell you how many total daily Tribe Quests you have allotted for that period.

ffxiv moogle quest unlock

Moogle Tribe Quests – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

After reaching Level 50 we leave the Ixal in favor of the Moogles. This is unfortunately one of the most annoying sets of side quests to unlock in all of FFXIV. You first need to complete the Level 56 Main Scenario Quest “He Who Would Not Be Denied,” as part of the Heavensward campaign. This unlocks all of a semi-secret series of side quests that culminate in access to the Moogle Tribe. While the quests themselves aren’t secret (they are at least thankfully marked on your map) they don’t include the usual blue icon that denotes a side quest which actually unlocks something. The quests are presented as completely normal, unassuming, partially unconnected side quests in the world. There are 19 of these quests in all and they require you to play a combat Job at the appropriate level — not a crafter.

To save space, we’ve split this into its own Moogle Tribe unlock guide. You can read that for a full list of quests and their locations. For now, we’ll just mention that the questline starts by talking to Mogleo in The Churning Mists (X: 29.7, Y: 35.3).

Once you have the tribe itself unlocked, it works similar to the Ixal quests. Though you can only perform three quests for the Moogles per day — regardless of how many total Tribe Quest allowances you have. The missions are chosen randomly every 24 hours at the daily reset. This is how Tribe Quests work starting with Heavensward and onward from there. The one exception is that, every time you rank up your reputation with a tribe, you’re allowed to do another three quests for them that day. As long as you have enough total allowances left over. This makes it a good idea to fulfill the daily quests for a tribe you’re about to rank up first every day. That way you don’t run out of total allowances and can potentially level up your crafters faster.

Namazu Tribe Quests – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

Another expansion means another crafting-focused tribe. For Levels 60-70, that means the Namazu. These little fish lads are unique, however, in that their quests can be completed as a crafter or a gatherer. That makes them especially valuable around this level range. Not to mention completing their questline unlocks a very fun mount for purchase with their special currency.

Like the Moogles, the Namazu first ask you to complete multiple series of combat quests. These unlock after the Main Scenario Quest “All the Little Angels” in the Stormblood campaign. Thankfully, unlike the Moogles, these are differentiated with blue quest markers. There also aren’t as many of them — just 10 in total, compared to the 19 required for the Moogle prerequisites. We have another guide specifically for how to unlock the Namazu Tribe, but the chains begin in Yanxia with the quests “Courage the Cowardly Lupin” and “Perchance to Hanami.”

As mentioned above, Namazu missions work just like Moogle and Ixal quests. You craft items or perform some equally simple task in exchange for free XP and other rewards. Though you can also complete the quests as a Miner and/or Botanist. The quests will change depending on whether you play a crafter or a gatherer. As will the rewards. Miners and Botanists get free Cordial in addition to their XP and gil; crafters get free Crafting Catalysts.

All of the normal Namazu Tribe quests take place in the Azim Steppe. Though you will be asked to visit other zones when leveling up your reputation with the faction.

Dwarf Tribe Quests – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

Shadowbringers also brings yet another set of crafting Tribe Quests. This time it’s the Dwarfs and they will help you level crafters from Levels 70-80. FFXIV has really set a rhythm for how this works at this point, but just to reiterate, you need to complete two blue-marked side quest chains. These unlock after the Level 78 Main Scenario Quest “Meet the Tholls.” From there you need to complete two sets of combat missions starting with “Village of Woe” in Kholusia and “A Disagreeable Dwarf,” also in Kholusia. Of course, we have a full guide to the quests and locations right here as well.

Dwarf quests then appear in Lakeland. As with the Namazu and Moogle quest lines, you can complete three missions for the faction per day, gaining free XP and other rewards as you go.

Custom Deliveries – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

Last but not least among our time-gated leveling options: Custom Deliveries. These function very similar to Tribe Quests in that you are allotted 12 in total. However, this allotment doesn’t refresh every day. It refreshes once per week — at the usual FFXIV reset time on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT. Also unlike Tribe Quests, you can complete six orders per Custom Deliveries NPC per interval (i.e. six per NPC per week). There are several of these characters scattered throughout FFXIV and you rank them up similar to the various tribes as well. What each of these NPCs has in common is that they task you with creating or gathering a certain “Collectable” item, like the one being crafted in the image below.

ffxiv collectables scrip farming

Right now, the NPCs themselves are scattered all throughout the world. They each have their own questlines to complete, but largely stay put once you start working for them. Here are their locations in order of lowest to highest level:

Zhloe Aliapoh – Idyllshire (X: 5.8 Y: 7.0)
M’naago – Rhalgr’s Reach (X: 9.8 Y: 12.5)
Kruenai – Tamamizu (X: 28.3 Y: 15.4 Z: -1.2); note that her questline actually starts in Kugane at (X: 10.1 Y: 9.9)
Adkiragh – Idyllshire (X: 5.8, Y: 7.0)
Kai-Shirr – Eulmore (X: 11.7 Y: 11.7)
Ehll Tou – The Firmament (X:14.2 Y:12.7)
Charlemend – The Firmament (X:8.9, Y:8.4)

A later Endwalker patch is also scheduled to add Ameliance Leveilleur as the expansion’s first Custom Deliveries NPC.

These deliveries require you to make unique Collectables not used anywhere else. Collectable crafting functions almost exactly like regular crafting. Except the “Quality” score that usually results in a High Quality item is replaced by “Collectability.” Collectability, as indicated by the colored bars in the image above, ranges from blue to yellow to green in the crafting window. The higher the tier of Collectability, the more valuable the item when you turn it in to the Custom Deliveries NPC. This results in more XP and other rewards — most notably the special currency called Crafters’ Scrips.

There are two nice things about making Collectables for Custom Deliveries in particular. One is that the items required to make deliveries are cheap and sold by merchants right next to the delivery NPC. “Airship Fittings,” for example, use “Airship Fitting Materials.” These are sold for gil by the NPC merchant in Eulmore — just a few steps away from Kai-Shirr, the Custom Deliveries NPC that requests this item. The second nice thing about Custom Deliveries is that they provide way more XP and Crafters’ Scrips then normal Collectables. That’s especially true if the NPC has a bonus for a particular item that week. Custom Deliveries begin to offer these random bonuses after you level up that NPC to their maximum: Level 5.

As with so much other crafting stuff, you can track the total number of deliveries remaining each week, as well as the NPCs who offer them, via the Timers section of the Duty menu. Simply click on the Custom Deliveries section near the top. Then click on any of the NPCs to see more information — such as whether or not they’re offering bonuses that week. Check the image below for an example.

ffxiv custom deliveries

Collectables – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

While Custom Deliveries are capped at 12 per week, Collectables in general are not. Several cities throughout the in-game world feature NPCs called “Collectable Appraisers.” Starting at Level 50, these become one of the most efficient ways to level up crafters in FFXIV. They’re not time-gated like Tribe Quests, Levequests, Custom Deliveries, or Supply and Provisioning Missions. You can do them over and over again and as often as you like — as long as you have the right materials. Though you first need to complete the Level 50 Main Scenario Quest “The Better Half.” This unlocks the side quest “Inscrutable Tastes” in Ishgard, Foundation (X: 10.1, Y: 10.4).

Once you complete that quest, you can make Collectables and turn them in to any Collectable Appraiser at the following locations:

Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks (X: 6.1, Y: 12)
Old Gridania (X: 14.2, Y: 9.1)
Ul’dah – Steps of Thal (X: 14.3, Y: 10.9)
Mor Dhona (X: 22.4, Y: 6.7)
Idyllshire (X: 5.7, Y: 7.0)
Rhalgr’s Reach (X: 9.8, Y: 12.5)
Eulmore (X: 11.6, Y: 10.8)
Radz-at-Han (X: 11.7, Y: 9.8)

As with Custom Deliveries, you should always aim for the highest possible tier of Collectability. The higher the grade of Collectable, the more XP and Scrips you receive. For this reason, you shouldn’t try to craft Collectables too difficult for you to reliably reach the maxim level. Work on the lower grades of Collectables instead and come back when you’re a higher level and/or have better gear. One of the reasons Collectables are so efficient is actually because they can help you get better gear for practically nothing.

This is thanks to the Crafters’ Scrips. This special type of currency is always split into two tiers: a lower tier and an endgame tier. Endwalker uses White Crafters’ Scrips as they lower tier and Purple Crafters’ Scrips as the endgame, Level 90 tier. Both types can be used to purchase various types of items — like Master Recipe books and Materia. Since you can only hold up to 2,000 of each Scrip type at the same time, you always want to make sure you’re spending them. Gaining more than you can hold (a.k.a. overcapping) is essentially the same as throwing Scrips — and the money you spent to earn them — on the ground.

Thankfully, any Scrip Exchange NPC will sell you crafting gear in exchange for the lower tier of Crafters’ Scrips. For Endwalker, that means White Crafters’ Scrips can be used to purchase Handsaint’s gear — extremely high-level crafting gear from the last expansion. this is more than good enough to craft basic Collectables and keep on farming XP. You can also buy crafting gear for Level 58, Level 60, and Level 70.

While you’re at it, though, don’t forget to purchase the highest levels of Master Recipe books for all your crafting classes. These will be incredibly important later when you finally reach the level cap.

Crystarium & Studium Deliveries – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

Starting at Level 70, you can unlock the “Crystalline Mean” in the Crystarium after entering the Shadowbringers campaign. This functions a bit like the role quests available to your main Jobs. Crafting and gathering classes are lumped together into several subtypes that each share a questline. Blacksmith, Armorer, and Goldsmith all share the “Facet of Forging” missions, for example. Otherwise these function very similar to normal class quests. The appropriate NPC will ask you to craft certain items (usually a total of six). Fulfilling this delivery then unlocks more story and another set of instructions. Then, starting at Level 80, you get a new set of very similar class quests in Old Sharlayan at the zone called the Studium.

You can find them under the “Story” section of the “Special Recipes” tab of your Crafting Log. Crystarium Deliveries use normal items Studium Deliveries task you with making Collectables. Just like with Supply and Provisioning Missions, as well as normal Collectables, your Quality and Collectability boost your rewards. That means you should always turn in High Quality items and Collectables with the highest tier of Collectability. These quests are a one-time deal! You can never repeat the story missions again, so getting the maximum reward every single time is recommended. Besides XP you get Crafters’ Scrips — the number of which is also boosted by turning in High Quality items and maxed out Collectables.

The Firmament – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

“Isghard Restoration” technically refers to a type of activity that no longer exists in FFXIV. It was a time-limited event in which players worked together to restore parts of the titular capital city — unlocking features and story elements by crafting special Collectables. While the restoration project is technically over, the Collectables and rewards associated with it are still available. That means you can use it to farm XP on crafting classes and level up very quickly while earning yet another special currency called Skybuilders’ Scrip.

You just need to start the quest “Towards the Firmament” by interacting with the Recruitment Board in Ishgard, Foundation (X: 9.7, Y: 11.5). Finishing the very brief questline that follows will unlock the option to “Travel to the Firmament” when interacting with the Aetheryte in Ishgard. That way you don’t have to walk back through the gate every single time you want to return.

While you can technically perform Ishgard Restoration activities as any Level 20 or higher crafter, you actually need to first complete the Level 60 Main Scenario Quest “Litany of Peace” to unlock this side quest in the first place. Players who start their crafting careers much earlier will want to rely on Levequests and other leveling methods shown above.

The Firmament is convenient because you can do pretty much everything in more-or-less one place. There are, naturally, some downsides. One is that you need “Approved Grade 4 Skybuilders’” crafting materials. Players sell these on the Market Board, of course, but that can be expensive. The other option is to acquire these items yourself. That requires entering the Diadem: a special, instanced gathering area. It’s a bit like a massive dungeon, Eureka, or the Bozjan Southern Front. Only it’s for Miners, Fishers, and Botanists instead of fighting.

You enter the zone by speaking to Aurvael, the Mission Commander. Then you gather as much as you can for as long as you can stomach it. Ignore any materials lower than Grade 4 while you’re at it. Grade 3 and below are no longer useful. Once you have what you want, exit the area, which will return you to the Firmament. Next ask Flotpassant, the Resource Inspector NPC next to the Mission Commander, to “approve” your collected materials. This earns you Skybuilders’ Scrips while also converting the items into crafting materials for making special Collectables.

Just like all the others, you can find these Collectable recipes in your Crafting Log. Check the Special Recipes tab, select “Ishgard Restoration,” and look under the “Restoration (4)” category. From this point forward you just need the appropriate materials (either gathered in the Diadem or bought from other players on the market). Then craft the highest level of Skybuilders’ Collectable for whichever class you want to level up. For instance, the “Grade 4 Skybuilders’ Alloy” for Level 20 Blacksmiths. Note that you’ll also need one normal, non-Diadem crafting material as an ingredient. The aforementioned Grade 4 Alloy needs Iron Ore just as an example. You will need to bring these materials in with you ahead of time; there is no Market Board inside the Firmament.

Once you have a Collectable or two, hand them in to the Collectable Appraiser NPC called Potkin. He’ll reward you with more XP and Skybuilders’ Scrips. As an added bonus, he’ll also stamp your “Kupo Vouchers.” These are essentially infinite, free lottery tickets. Whenever you reach five stamps you can turn in one Kupo Voucher to Lizbeth, the NPC next to Potkin, for chances at extra prizes.

If this all sounds confusing, we promise it’s not. It’s actually mind-meltingly boring once you get started. The Diadem is a never-ending cycle of mining and harvesting without end. Running out of the right materials is a pain, since there’s no Market Board to buy more. Then getting back to the Firmament is a bit of a pain since you can’t just warp directly there. You need to teleport to the Isghard Aetheryte Plaza, click on the Aetheryte itself, select “Travel to the Firmament,” and sit through another load time.

The rewards are arguably worth the tedium, though. The XP is quite nice for the low amount of effort (just make sure to put on a podcast or something while you work). Meanwhile, the Skybuilders’ Scrips can be used to purchase Materia as well as Glamour items and dyes not found anywhere else.

engineering manual

Engineering Manuals – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

There are several ways to passively boost XP gains in FFXIV. Food crafted by the aforementioned Culinarian class is one obvious example. Any food item will provide a 3 percent XP buff for its duration. Free Companies can also provide XP bonuses for various activities. But there’s also a far less obvious system for earning extra XP as a crafter: Squadrons.

If you’re not even sure what a Squadron is, don’t feel bad. It’s an easy-to-miss feature of FFXIV. To even unlock it, you first need to level up in your Grand Company to the rank of Second Lieutenant. To do this, you essentially need to “buy” the promotion from your given Personnel Officer using Grand Company Seals as the currency. Simply select the option “Apply for a Promotion” when you have the requisite number of seals. You also need to complete the Rank 1 and Rank 2 Hunting Logs for your Grand Company — found in your Logs menu. Click on your Grand Company icon within the Hunting Log to see what monsters you need to kill to finish both logs.

As you rise up through the ranks, you will receive a couple of side missions culminating in the mission “Gilding the Bilious.” With this mission complete, your Rank 1 and Rank 2 Grand Company Hunting Logs filled out, and 9,000 Grand Company Seals, you can finally reach the rank of Second Lieutenant. This unlocks the Squadrons system. From this point on, you can recruit and passively train a squadron of randomized NPCs. You can even take them on “Command Missions” yourself to level them up and unlock unique perks. This functions just like Trust or Duty Support — which makes sense given that it’s really the precursor to those systems.

Besides accompanying your Squadron into battle, though, you can send it out once per week on a battle by itself. If one of these “Squadron Missions” is successful, you’ll get something in return. This reward is always listed prior to sending your Squadron out to fight in the “Basic Reward” section of the mission menu. And if you’re looking to level up crafting, the reward you want is a “Squadron Engineering Manual.”

This yellow piece of virtual parchment provides a tw0-hour bonus to all XP you gain from crafting items. That adds up immensely over time. Even more so when you consider that Squadron Missions can provide 10 of these bad boys from one successful mission. That’s 20 total hours of 20 percent bonus XP. No matter what level you are!

Of course, you may not want to deal with all that mess. On the bright side, there’s a much simpler (though slightly less effective) option. You can also simply purchase Engineering Manuals from the Quartermaster next to your Personnel Officer. You can acquire a “Company-issue Engineering Manual” as low as the rank of Private First Class with your Grand Company. That’s only the third rank up. At Sergeant First Class, you can also buy a “Company-issue Engineering Manual II.”

These aren’t as effective as the Squadron Engineering Manual. While the XP buff is much higher, there’s an upper cap on how much extra can be earned per manual, meaning you need to buy more and more to keep up the benefit. Not to mention the buff is cut in half when you’re above a certain level of crafter. Still, it’s an easy buff to get, and anyone doing their Supply and Provisioning Missions will be swimming in Grand Company Seals regardless. You can also gain more of these by doing FATEs as any combat class.

Becoming a Specialist – FFXIV Crafting Class Leveling Guide

Last but not least we come to the concept of specializing. This is a completely optional endeavor. It’s not even technically a form of leveling. But it does provide bonus stats to up to three crafting classes at one time — similar to if you had leveled them up beyond their respective caps. You simply need to complete the Level 55 side quest “Beloved of the Builder” in Mor Dhona (X: 22.0, Y: 6.0). The quest unlocks after the Level 50 Main Scenario Quest “The Better Half.” Once complete, this provides you with three “Souls of the Crafter,” which can be applied to up to three crafting classes of your choice.

This provides the double benefit of extra crafting stats and the ability to use special skills: Careful Observation as well as Heart and Soul. Both skills make crafting with that class significantly easier. Though they consume an item called a “Crafter’s Delineation” every time you trigger them. You can buy more of these for Crafters’ Scrips at the Scrip Exchange, however.

You can apply new Souls of the Crafter to your various crafting classes by speaking with the NPC Alderan in Ishgard, The Pillars (X: 14.7, Y: 10.7). This is the same NPC who gives you the souls in the first place during the side quest. He’ll trade you for different souls (e.g. Soul of the Carpenter, Soul of the Blacksmith, etc.). This allows you to swap out which of the three classes you have specialized! Just be aware that you can only make these switches three times per week.

And that, finally, is the end of our guide to leveling crafters fast in FFXIV. We hope this provided at least a little bit of help getting your feet wet in the brutal world of making stuff in Final Fantasy. Best of luck with the Market Board!

Author: Deann Hawkins