Critical Break: Favorite "Quick Gil" Farming Items

Critical Break is our crafting and economics column written by Qtipus. Q is an experienced crafter and also well versed in using the Auction House to turn a decent profit. Enough so that he was able to fund his own relic, Gungnir. Every Tuesday you will find Q's rants, raves and good crafting practices here. Q looks at the pre-crafting stages of crafting this week.

One aspect of crafting that I've touched on briefly in my various articles is something that has generally nothing to do with the act of crafting at all. As someone goes through their day to day lives in game, they're required to spend money on consumable items like food, reraise and meds. Depending on the event and how frequently said event is done, this can add up pretty quickly. For the more casual crafter or player, this doesn't always equate into monetary liquidity for these supplies. More often times than not, the average guy/gal is stuck waiting for something to sell on the AH before they have money to buy their supplies.

One thing I've always taken pride in was my ability to sniff out decent farming spots that see my spoils NPC'd for instant gil. While I'm the first to admit that the amount of gil I carry around is mostly due to a couple lucky crafting sessions, it's also necessary for me to point out that it hasn't dwindled away over my supplies for the various events that I do.

What do I target? What's necessary to pick up a decent chunk of gil in 30-60 mins? It's generally pretty simple.

What You Need

First thing that is necessary is to choose targets you can kill with little to no down time. No-brainer right? This doesn't mean picking Too Weak or Easy Prey targets. A lot of jobs can handle Decent Challenge or in some cases, all the way up to Very Tough targets. Just because a monster is harder doesn't necessarily mean your loot will be better. Some jobs can handle certain monsters better than others.

Second (and this is optional), find an area that has an NM or two that spawns. Sometimes loot from those aren't worth listing on the AH, but have a decent NPC price.

Lastly, find targets that drop an array of scrolls. These generally consist of the various beastmen across Vana'diel. If these targets are near an NPC you can sell to (think outpost), even better.

The Spots

Cape Teriggan

Goblins. Tons of them. Your target here specifically are the Goblin Alchemists. There's 11 of them spread out over the central region of the map. While the scrolls will be what you want mainly, you can also supplement your earnings by desynthing the various goblin pieces you pick up as well. It's all wrapped up in a neat little package thanks to the Goblins themselves dropping lightning crystals. Add in the nearby outpost, 5 minute respawns, and some TH love and you'll end up making a decent chunk of gil before you know it just off the scrolls alone.

There are also the undead that roam around in the north-central part of the zone too. While Blizzard III and IV won't pick you up much on the AH, it's another 11k to an NPC you can liquify. Get lucky with a Blizzaga III scroll and you've managed to pick yourself up a nice 150k bonus for your efforts. Not exactly the NMs I mentioned before, but you can't really avoid looking at that.

Scroll NPC earning potential (not including Blizzaga III): ~34,000gil

Castle Oztroja - Top Floor

Some will look at this suggestion and balk. This is a popular farming spot, but not for scrolls. For Coffer Keys. The reason I suggest it though is simply because unlike Cape Teriggan, 3 of the 4 types of Yagudo beastmen on this floor drop scrolls. Running down to the floor below and killing the lower level Yags opens up even more scroll possibilities.

With that being said, understand that there is no NPC here to instantly liquidate your spoils and that the Yagudo are on a 15-16 minute timer, but with so many birds and so many scrolls, you'll hardly notice. Not much in the way of NMs here either, but pick up a scroll of Tornado to AH and you'll have your supplies covered in one drop (once it sells...) making the rest of your spoils "fun" money.

Scroll NPC earning potential: Too many scrolls to add up.

Sea Serpent Grotto

This one is my personal favorite. You'll need to do the Sahagin Key Quest for this to become a good spot, but once you're back in the back area, prepare for non-stop killing and scrolls. The tan/brown Sahagins are going to be what you want to kill, but the entire selection of scrolls they drop add up to a whopping amount of gil/hour as long as you can kill decently fast. There are also two NMs back here (Coral and Abyss Sahagin) that are on 20 minute timers that drop decent amounts of gil in addition to the aforementioned scrolls. Get lucky and catch Ocean Sahagin and you'll nab yourself a shot at a Colossal Lance.

Hanging out behind the Ornamented Door means there's no NPC to instantly liquidate your stuff, but should you have a second account and the ability to dual-box...park that second account next to the Norg zone line and go sell your duplicate scrolls. Also, if you kill too fast, there's a little bit of down time in waiting for respawns, but even at the insane pace of a RDM and myself killing, we weren't down for longer than a couple minutes between repops.

The other bonuses back here are:

Mindgazers: Drops Fire III and Golden Hakutaku eyes. Beware of Hex Eye though...it can spoil your fun pretty quickly. The Hakutaku eyes are bazaar only and usually in the 30-50k range.

Coral Fragments: Not a very frequent drop, but you can pick up 2-3 of in a couple of hours with no TH. If you're a bonecrafter like me, this spells out a virtually free reraise item.

Scroll Earning potential: 60k+/hour.

Get to farming if you need quick gil. There are a lot more spots beyond these that have decent NPC earning potential. I focused on scrolls more than anything since their droprate, even w/o TH is far higher than some of the stalwarts like Wisteria Lumber. You have a favorite one? Post it!