Re: Full Metal Alchemist! - Alchemy 101
I know this thread is old and has a lot of info, but I will share those things which I have made to get to my current level, 65, and some of the methodologies I used. The level cap is in parenthesis.
Group 1: Amateur
Antidote (3)
Tsurara (6) - Profitable
Silencing Potion (8) - Cobalt Jellies & Mercury
* - On Asura when I was crafting, Mercury was priced below 48 x Cobalt Jellyfish + 12 x Lightning Crystals. This happens frequently, if you are patient, just wait for it to happen. Silencing potions will be worth your time. Mine sold for more than I paid, buying cheap Mercury and crystals and a good purchase of Cobalts from the Guild. Keep at least 1 stack.
Group 2: Recruit
Poison Dust (11 & 12) - Not profitable, save
Silence Dagger (13) - Very nice weapon, sometimes flooded market
Mercury (16)
Poison Potion (18)
* - I made Poison Dust from Stingers I found on bazaars in Bastok and later from Yellow Globes purchased from Windurst and Jeuno. The dust itself is worthless as a sale item, and costs more to make than it does to buy it from Stinknix at the Junk Shop in Lower Jeuno. We are trying to get in range of Poison Potion which is a nice cheap synthesis that sells nicely b/c people drink them in battles where the enemy uses Sleep. You should save some for later, too. With mercury, try to be especially conservative and note the price on the market. Make only enough Mercury to bring you in range of Poision Potion. You'll only want to take Dust and Mercury to 11 or 12. If you can make the daggers for a profit, use them too.
Poison Potion (18) -
Once you're in range of PP, you may be able to make a little money. These were selling for 90,000 per stack at the time I sold mine--well above their cost of production. Use the dust and mercury you made first, and then when you run out buy dust from Stinknix in Lower Jeuno and buy Mercury where it is the cheapest. This is usually the Bastok Auction House. Make sure to check the Guild Shop (especially on Darksday), too. Just try to keep your costs below the Poison Potion market price. Keep at least a stack for yourself.
Group 3: Novice
Echo Drops (20)
Poison Arrowhead (21) - [20 Cap Smithing]
Poison Dagger (22)
Mokuto (23)
Poison Knife (23)
Blinding Potion (27)
These are an excellent synthesis. Get your sage from the Valdeaunia Regional Merchant wherever he may be. If Valdeaunia is under Beastmen control, you'll have to buy it from the Auction House where it can be costly. Honey also varies in price--it will most likely be the largest factor in your production costs. If the stars align, you'll make some money here. If not, the tuition cost should be quite bearable. Again, if it is unprofitable, move off of it ASAP. If it's profitable, stick with it until you can't skill up anymore. If you're a mage, save some for yourself, especially if you like to tangle with Malboro and other Silencing monsters.
Now it's time for the Great Void of Novice. Silent Oil is in here, but you won't be able to touch the price of this staple. Either recipe is likely to put the hurt on your pocketbook, and I recommend you stay away until you can HQ Beeswax AND preferably Silent Oil as well.
We only need a couple of points to come into range of our next synthesis, Blinding Potions. Now we finally get to use those wonderful Silencing Potions and Poison Potions we saved from before. We have three weapons: Mokuto, Poison Dagger, and Poison Knife. You'll want to make some of each--you need Tenshodo membership to buy Shinobi-Gatanas from the Bastok Tenshodo, so make sure you get that. If you happen to be lucky enough to have Smithing in range of the 20-cap, you can make those if they're profitable. If you've got deep pockets and a sizeable inventory, consider saving these items because they come up as Guild Contract syntheses.
You have a couple of options with Blinding Potion. You can either have a mule or friend mail you Poison Flour from the Junk Shop in Jeuno, or you can camp Pawkrix yourself. If you take the first option, your synthesis will go slowly. If you camp Pawkrix (what I did) you can't use Synthesis Assistance so see the lower portion of the guide for help with that. You probably don't want to try the Nebimonite recipe. Fish are expensive (they take a lot of work to get, so don't fault the fishermen) and Mercury is as well. You should probably save ALL of your Blinding Potions--they sell for a profit, but there's a reason why...
At this point you'll want to head over to the Blacksmith and get 12-14 skill there--it's not hard and there are other guide for that. You'll need to use the first synthesis in the next section to cap off Novice. (NOTE: You should've done this before for Poison Arrowheads if they sell where you are, I didn't).
Group 4: Recruit
Blind Bolt Heads (31) - [14 Cap Smithing]
Artificial Lens (34)
Bronze Bullet (38) - [13 Cap Smithing]
[EDIT: Changed Firesand and Prism Powder levels, you don't have any (or at the very least enough) Ahriman Lenses, and you don't have any (or enough) Yuhtunga Sulfur.]
This is about the point where the budding Alchemist's become giddy. Prism Powder and BB Heads are awesome syntheses--even for low levels. We need to do a little bit of preparatory work first...
You must now camp all of the auction houses for Goblin Masks. Buy the cheap ones ONLY... On Asura their price fluctuates between 1,000 and 5,000+. I didn't buy masks for more than 3,000 and it took about an earth week to collect enough. You are going to blast these masks with Lightning Crystals to produce Glass Fiber. My "Lucky Rabbits Foot" for this Desynthesis was: New Moon on Watersday facing North, but I have no empirical evidence to support that this is correct. When you see 8 Glass Fiber pop off of a mask, you shall be very happy. When you blow one up, you will wince with pain--get used to it. You'll want to camp for the elusive cheap Light Crystal stack or Light Cluster. It may be a hard decision but you will have to choose between Moghancement: Lightning which will reduce your "explosions" and Moghancement: Desynthesis which will increase your High Qualities. I chose MH: Desynthesis.
Make your lenses and save them up until your inventory is bursting at the seams. Then you'll probably have enough skill to start Prism
Powders (see Apprentice). This is an excellent profit here. Stick with it until you ruin the Goblin Mask market.
Firesand sells well if you don't plan to make bullets, but I strongly recommend that you plan to sell some kind of bullet--either Goldsmithing Bullets or Smithing bullets.
Bronze Bullets sell, too (slowly), but you'll probably want to make your own Bronze and Firesand (see Apprentice). The Gustaberg Regional Merchant in Port Bastok sells Sulfur and Bomb Ash can be purchased from the Gunpowder Room.
Blind Bolt Heads do not sell quickly. Sure lots of people use blind arrows, but after 15th level, they will fire at most a handful of these per battle. It is a good idea for you to pick up Woodworking in the skill range of 12-16 so you can make bolts. After all, you got into Alchemy for the money right? Glue will be your biggest expense here. I suggest you make your own unless you can't save money by doing so.
At this time, you'll want to seriously consider investing in Concoction. If your lucky, those Poison Daggers, Knives, and Mokuto that you made might be exchangable for some GP.
Group 5: Apprentice
Firesand (40)* - NOT The Yuhtunga Sulfur recipe
Prism Powder (41)*
Potion/Potion Drop (40) - NOT The Ahriman Lens recipe
Vitriol (43) - NOT The Dhalmel Saliva recipe
Acid Bolt Heads (45)
Holy Water (51)
Potions and Potion Drops are my favorite and most common Alchemy Synthesis. I think they're awesome and I rarely sell them--they are not terribly profitable and they take a bit of work, so I only make them for myself, even though I have on occasion sold them at the Auction House just as a teaser. I made Prism Powder during this area for money and they supported my Potion Drop habit nicely.
Vitriol is an incredibly cheap synthesis. Take it all the way to 43 and then make bolt heads. Sell some heads and make some heads into bolts as before.
I hope you didn't stop camping Light Crystals...because it's time for Holy Water. Unlike most other syntheses, you will feel pain at the loss of the crystal rather than the ingredient in this synthesis. Light Crystals are expensive, but generally not nearly as expensive as the Holy Water you buy from Tu'Lia, so you'll be quite safe especially if you're planning to make bolt heads which I hope, by now, you are.
Group 6: Journeyman
Holy Bolt Heads (53)
Sleeping Potion (56)
Hi-Potion/Hi-Potion Drop (60)
We'll start with Hi-Potion/Hi-Potion Drops because even though you can't make them yet, you will need to start gathering Malboro Vines now that your inventory has been voided of Artificial Lenses. Make sure you don't let the Malboro vine farmers get greedy, remember that the Guild sells Malboro vines for just over 5000 each most of the time--just buy a whole bunch when they're low at the guild if you can't get them cheaper from farmers. Make sure you keep your cost BELOW the market value because Lab Coat Alchemists can use Emerelda to HQ Drops easily and use Guild Vines the whole time. Of course, we're getting ahead of ourselves...
Remember all that Holy Water you made? Well, now you can make bolt heads with it. The nicest thing about Holy bolt heads is that there is no glue involved! Glue has been and still is my arch-nemesis. Early on because of the expense, now because of the extra time it takes for me to camp bone chips. However, he dare not show his face before the mighty Holy Bolt (some assembly required)!
Sleeping Potions are next and, again, I recommend you camp Pawkrix rather than shipping flour. Most of you weekend alchemists will leave me now, and will not break your 60 caps. If you are one of these, you should sell your Sleeping Potions now because the Sleep Bolt Heads (64) will be just beyond your reach as a good profit synthesis. Those of you who are continuing on will want to reserve your potions.
Now that you're done with Sleeping Potions, make your Hi-Potions and/or Drops that you've been camping Malboro Vines for.
The Money
You've been exposed to a number of markets through your Alchemic path and you've seen which ones sell and which don't. You may now add a few more items to your reportoire:
HQ Beeswax: You'll want to achieve maximum bonus when you do any HQ Synthesis (see below).
HQ Animal Glue: Yes, you can ally yourself with my archnemesis if you want.
HQ Silent Oil: You may not get a very good HQ rate from these, but if you combine this HQ rate with your Beeswax HQ rate, you'll make out nicely. Beware the Lab Coats however.
HQ Low-level Durable Goods: Yes, there is sometimes a market in these, but remember that Durable Goods markets are very easy to disturb so try not to rock the boat.
HQ Low-level Medicines: People buy drops and Poison Potions. Make some and you'll make some money.
As always, you can make your higher-level consumables and bolts. The markets up in the Journeyman area are quite stable in general as few have the patience to take The Craft that far. Bolts, and Bullets will always be your friends. Just remember the Golden Rule of the little guy: Beware the Lab Coats.
I know this thread is old and has a lot of info, but I will share those things which I have made to get to my current level, 65, and some of the methodologies I used. The level cap is in parenthesis.
Group 1: Amateur
Antidote (3)
Tsurara (6) - Profitable
Silencing Potion (8) - Cobalt Jellies & Mercury
* - On Asura when I was crafting, Mercury was priced below 48 x Cobalt Jellyfish + 12 x Lightning Crystals. This happens frequently, if you are patient, just wait for it to happen. Silencing potions will be worth your time. Mine sold for more than I paid, buying cheap Mercury and crystals and a good purchase of Cobalts from the Guild. Keep at least 1 stack.
Group 2: Recruit
Poison Dust (11 & 12) - Not profitable, save
Silence Dagger (13) - Very nice weapon, sometimes flooded market
Mercury (16)
Poison Potion (18)
* - I made Poison Dust from Stingers I found on bazaars in Bastok and later from Yellow Globes purchased from Windurst and Jeuno. The dust itself is worthless as a sale item, and costs more to make than it does to buy it from Stinknix at the Junk Shop in Lower Jeuno. We are trying to get in range of Poison Potion which is a nice cheap synthesis that sells nicely b/c people drink them in battles where the enemy uses Sleep. You should save some for later, too. With mercury, try to be especially conservative and note the price on the market. Make only enough Mercury to bring you in range of Poision Potion. You'll only want to take Dust and Mercury to 11 or 12. If you can make the daggers for a profit, use them too.
Poison Potion (18) -
Once you're in range of PP, you may be able to make a little money. These were selling for 90,000 per stack at the time I sold mine--well above their cost of production. Use the dust and mercury you made first, and then when you run out buy dust from Stinknix in Lower Jeuno and buy Mercury where it is the cheapest. This is usually the Bastok Auction House. Make sure to check the Guild Shop (especially on Darksday), too. Just try to keep your costs below the Poison Potion market price. Keep at least a stack for yourself.
Group 3: Novice
Echo Drops (20)
Poison Arrowhead (21) - [20 Cap Smithing]
Poison Dagger (22)
Mokuto (23)
Poison Knife (23)
Blinding Potion (27)
These are an excellent synthesis. Get your sage from the Valdeaunia Regional Merchant wherever he may be. If Valdeaunia is under Beastmen control, you'll have to buy it from the Auction House where it can be costly. Honey also varies in price--it will most likely be the largest factor in your production costs. If the stars align, you'll make some money here. If not, the tuition cost should be quite bearable. Again, if it is unprofitable, move off of it ASAP. If it's profitable, stick with it until you can't skill up anymore. If you're a mage, save some for yourself, especially if you like to tangle with Malboro and other Silencing monsters.
Now it's time for the Great Void of Novice. Silent Oil is in here, but you won't be able to touch the price of this staple. Either recipe is likely to put the hurt on your pocketbook, and I recommend you stay away until you can HQ Beeswax AND preferably Silent Oil as well.
We only need a couple of points to come into range of our next synthesis, Blinding Potions. Now we finally get to use those wonderful Silencing Potions and Poison Potions we saved from before. We have three weapons: Mokuto, Poison Dagger, and Poison Knife. You'll want to make some of each--you need Tenshodo membership to buy Shinobi-Gatanas from the Bastok Tenshodo, so make sure you get that. If you happen to be lucky enough to have Smithing in range of the 20-cap, you can make those if they're profitable. If you've got deep pockets and a sizeable inventory, consider saving these items because they come up as Guild Contract syntheses.
You have a couple of options with Blinding Potion. You can either have a mule or friend mail you Poison Flour from the Junk Shop in Jeuno, or you can camp Pawkrix yourself. If you take the first option, your synthesis will go slowly. If you camp Pawkrix (what I did) you can't use Synthesis Assistance so see the lower portion of the guide for help with that. You probably don't want to try the Nebimonite recipe. Fish are expensive (they take a lot of work to get, so don't fault the fishermen) and Mercury is as well. You should probably save ALL of your Blinding Potions--they sell for a profit, but there's a reason why...
At this point you'll want to head over to the Blacksmith and get 12-14 skill there--it's not hard and there are other guide for that. You'll need to use the first synthesis in the next section to cap off Novice. (NOTE: You should've done this before for Poison Arrowheads if they sell where you are, I didn't).
Group 4: Recruit
Blind Bolt Heads (31) - [14 Cap Smithing]
Artificial Lens (34)
Bronze Bullet (38) - [13 Cap Smithing]
[EDIT: Changed Firesand and Prism Powder levels, you don't have any (or at the very least enough) Ahriman Lenses, and you don't have any (or enough) Yuhtunga Sulfur.]
This is about the point where the budding Alchemist's become giddy. Prism Powder and BB Heads are awesome syntheses--even for low levels. We need to do a little bit of preparatory work first...
You must now camp all of the auction houses for Goblin Masks. Buy the cheap ones ONLY... On Asura their price fluctuates between 1,000 and 5,000+. I didn't buy masks for more than 3,000 and it took about an earth week to collect enough. You are going to blast these masks with Lightning Crystals to produce Glass Fiber. My "Lucky Rabbits Foot" for this Desynthesis was: New Moon on Watersday facing North, but I have no empirical evidence to support that this is correct. When you see 8 Glass Fiber pop off of a mask, you shall be very happy. When you blow one up, you will wince with pain--get used to it. You'll want to camp for the elusive cheap Light Crystal stack or Light Cluster. It may be a hard decision but you will have to choose between Moghancement: Lightning which will reduce your "explosions" and Moghancement: Desynthesis which will increase your High Qualities. I chose MH: Desynthesis.
Make your lenses and save them up until your inventory is bursting at the seams. Then you'll probably have enough skill to start Prism
Powders (see Apprentice). This is an excellent profit here. Stick with it until you ruin the Goblin Mask market.
Firesand sells well if you don't plan to make bullets, but I strongly recommend that you plan to sell some kind of bullet--either Goldsmithing Bullets or Smithing bullets.
Bronze Bullets sell, too (slowly), but you'll probably want to make your own Bronze and Firesand (see Apprentice). The Gustaberg Regional Merchant in Port Bastok sells Sulfur and Bomb Ash can be purchased from the Gunpowder Room.
Blind Bolt Heads do not sell quickly. Sure lots of people use blind arrows, but after 15th level, they will fire at most a handful of these per battle. It is a good idea for you to pick up Woodworking in the skill range of 12-16 so you can make bolts. After all, you got into Alchemy for the money right? Glue will be your biggest expense here. I suggest you make your own unless you can't save money by doing so.
At this time, you'll want to seriously consider investing in Concoction. If your lucky, those Poison Daggers, Knives, and Mokuto that you made might be exchangable for some GP.
Group 5: Apprentice
Firesand (40)* - NOT The Yuhtunga Sulfur recipe
Prism Powder (41)*
Potion/Potion Drop (40) - NOT The Ahriman Lens recipe
Vitriol (43) - NOT The Dhalmel Saliva recipe
Acid Bolt Heads (45)
Holy Water (51)
Potions and Potion Drops are my favorite and most common Alchemy Synthesis. I think they're awesome and I rarely sell them--they are not terribly profitable and they take a bit of work, so I only make them for myself, even though I have on occasion sold them at the Auction House just as a teaser. I made Prism Powder during this area for money and they supported my Potion Drop habit nicely.
Vitriol is an incredibly cheap synthesis. Take it all the way to 43 and then make bolt heads. Sell some heads and make some heads into bolts as before.
I hope you didn't stop camping Light Crystals...because it's time for Holy Water. Unlike most other syntheses, you will feel pain at the loss of the crystal rather than the ingredient in this synthesis. Light Crystals are expensive, but generally not nearly as expensive as the Holy Water you buy from Tu'Lia, so you'll be quite safe especially if you're planning to make bolt heads which I hope, by now, you are.
Group 6: Journeyman
Holy Bolt Heads (53)
Sleeping Potion (56)
Hi-Potion/Hi-Potion Drop (60)
We'll start with Hi-Potion/Hi-Potion Drops because even though you can't make them yet, you will need to start gathering Malboro Vines now that your inventory has been voided of Artificial Lenses. Make sure you don't let the Malboro vine farmers get greedy, remember that the Guild sells Malboro vines for just over 5000 each most of the time--just buy a whole bunch when they're low at the guild if you can't get them cheaper from farmers. Make sure you keep your cost BELOW the market value because Lab Coat Alchemists can use Emerelda to HQ Drops easily and use Guild Vines the whole time. Of course, we're getting ahead of ourselves...
Remember all that Holy Water you made? Well, now you can make bolt heads with it. The nicest thing about Holy bolt heads is that there is no glue involved! Glue has been and still is my arch-nemesis. Early on because of the expense, now because of the extra time it takes for me to camp bone chips. However, he dare not show his face before the mighty Holy Bolt (some assembly required)!
Sleeping Potions are next and, again, I recommend you camp Pawkrix rather than shipping flour. Most of you weekend alchemists will leave me now, and will not break your 60 caps. If you are one of these, you should sell your Sleeping Potions now because the Sleep Bolt Heads (64) will be just beyond your reach as a good profit synthesis. Those of you who are continuing on will want to reserve your potions.
Now that you're done with Sleeping Potions, make your Hi-Potions and/or Drops that you've been camping Malboro Vines for.
The Money
You've been exposed to a number of markets through your Alchemic path and you've seen which ones sell and which don't. You may now add a few more items to your reportoire:
HQ Beeswax: You'll want to achieve maximum bonus when you do any HQ Synthesis (see below).
HQ Animal Glue: Yes, you can ally yourself with my archnemesis if you want.
HQ Silent Oil: You may not get a very good HQ rate from these, but if you combine this HQ rate with your Beeswax HQ rate, you'll make out nicely. Beware the Lab Coats however.
HQ Low-level Durable Goods: Yes, there is sometimes a market in these, but remember that Durable Goods markets are very easy to disturb so try not to rock the boat.
HQ Low-level Medicines: People buy drops and Poison Potions. Make some and you'll make some money.
As always, you can make your higher-level consumables and bolts. The markets up in the Journeyman area are quite stable in general as few have the patience to take The Craft that far. Bolts, and Bullets will always be your friends. Just remember the Golden Rule of the little guy: Beware the Lab Coats.
Beware The Lab Coats
(A short essay on High Level Crafters for Journeyman- Crafters):
I will start by saying that there are two kinds of Lab Coats: Regular Lab Coats and Super Lab Coats. The Difference? Super Lab Coats have Emerelda. Fortunately for you, there are few of them. The common theme among Lab Coats is that they like selling their wares for the same price you like to, they just get a lot more HQs than you therefore they make a lot more money. If you decide to try to undersell them for a prolonged period of time and their products end up being mailed back to them, you will call down the hammer that is their wrath. You will have your 18 stacks of Silent Oil on the market when they're trying to sell 3 or 4 stacks for 1500 less than the LCs were selling before. They are, in actuality, producing their oils for around 4000 less per stack than you are. What happens next? Any good Lab Coat can estimate your price per stack and then price his wares just lower than yours--say 500gil. He can also keep doing this until all of your stacks end up in your Delivery Box and you won't make a dime. So one more time, let me state: Beware The Lab Coats.
It is not to say that the Lab Coat Alchemists are your enemies, they are usually quite helpful if you have a question. They just get to set the line on the products in the market place. You have to follow suit or they will crush you. Be nice and share the gil or your greed will come up from behind you and bite you in the rear.
(A short essay on High Level Crafters for Journeyman- Crafters):
I will start by saying that there are two kinds of Lab Coats: Regular Lab Coats and Super Lab Coats. The Difference? Super Lab Coats have Emerelda. Fortunately for you, there are few of them. The common theme among Lab Coats is that they like selling their wares for the same price you like to, they just get a lot more HQs than you therefore they make a lot more money. If you decide to try to undersell them for a prolonged period of time and their products end up being mailed back to them, you will call down the hammer that is their wrath. You will have your 18 stacks of Silent Oil on the market when they're trying to sell 3 or 4 stacks for 1500 less than the LCs were selling before. They are, in actuality, producing their oils for around 4000 less per stack than you are. What happens next? Any good Lab Coat can estimate your price per stack and then price his wares just lower than yours--say 500gil. He can also keep doing this until all of your stacks end up in your Delivery Box and you won't make a dime. So one more time, let me state: Beware The Lab Coats.
It is not to say that the Lab Coat Alchemists are your enemies, they are usually quite helpful if you have a question. They just get to set the line on the products in the market place. You have to follow suit or they will crush you. Be nice and share the gil or your greed will come up from behind you and bite you in the rear.
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