Crafting in Final Fantasy 14 is more accessible than it used to be, but it’s still hard to find the best way to level. Pretty much everything in the game gives XP for combat jobs, but only a few specific activities will level crafters. It can be challenging to figure out what’s the best use of a player’s time when working on Disciples of the Hand classes. Fortunately, we’ve found a routine that will allow beginners (of which there are many now that the game is available for purchase again) to level their crafters fast without too much grinding.
Readers should note that our method isn’t the most efficient. However, it does ensure that players only spend part of each day leveling Disciples of the Hand, and avoids the greatest foe of any MMO player: burnout.
What’s the best way to level crafting in Final Fantasy 14 for beginners?
We recommend not even worrying about crafting in Final Fantasy 14 until players unlock Grand Companies and their Chocobo. Luckily, as soon as a player joins a Grand Company at level 20, the quest to get a Chocobo unlocks as well.
Once the above is completed, players should travel to Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul’Dah and unlock each of the eight Disciple of the Hand class by visiting the various guilds.
Supply and Provision Missions
When players join a Grand Company in FFXIV, they unlock the ability to complete Supply and Provision Missions by speaking to the Grand Company Personnel Officer. These requests require the player to deliver a particular item in exchange for Company Seals and a big chunk of experience. Each day, there will be eight supply requests to complete, one for each crafting class and three provision requests, one for each gathering class.
The great thing with Supply and Provision Missions is that providing a high-quality item doubles the amount of XP and seals a player receives. These requests are always keyed to a player’s level too.
To level crafters quickly, just complete these requests by providing high-quality items each day. Just this will give players multiple levels per day in each gathering class. As long as players complete their job quest every five levels with each class, they should have the crafting stats to get through everything up to level 50.
The trick to finishing Supply and Provision Missions is finding crafting materials. We typically snap a pic of the day’s requests and head over to the local market board. Often it’s much cheaper just to buy raw material off of the market and then refine it into what is required than to teleport somewhere and find a crafting node. Also, around every 5-10 levels, each class will move to a higher tier material, so don’t feel the need to stockpile too much.
Take a break when needed
Between completing Supply and Provision Missions, job quests every five levels, and crafting materials and items, it should only take an hour or so a day for a week or two to level each crafting class to level 50. Unfortunately, this is where things get more complicated. Materials will start severely eating into a player’s funds at this point. I particular recipes start requiring elemental crystals instead of shards, which are very pricey on the market.
Once players hit level 50 in their crafting classes, we highly recommend taking a brief break until they get to level 50 with the Mining Class. As we said above, crafting past that level starts taking Crystal, and the only way to find it dependably without spending a lot of money (at this point in the game) is by mining.
Most importantly, if players start feeling burned out or that they aren’t making progress, they should take a break from crafting. At times, it can feel grindy to level crafting classes, so do a raid or some MSQs to break up the monotony.
