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. This week, Q continues his 60-100 series with the sixth installment: Cooking. This week's special guest commentator/contributor is the pun-machine himself: Kaelis.
Cooking, according to the Vana'diel Census, is the most popular craft by far beyond the Craftsman level (58+). It's pretty easy to see why. The craft is rather inexpensive to get to 60 to begin with and probably one of the easiest/cheapest to get up to a very high level.
Does that mean it's worth getting up to 100?
I tend to view the consumables market as a necessary evil. Often times, consumables will sell for faster than you can make them, but the amount of time spent making them is somewhat better served by just going out to farm NPC'able items. Most of the time, the consumables market relies on your ability to HQ reliably. Meaning don't expect to make any money if you can't.
With that said, the three questions I normally ask don't really apply to Cooking in general. It's a consumables-based craft. There is no gear to be made for any level, just food and drinks. With it's variety in consumables, it's hard for anyone to corner the market for any one particular food. This works out to be a good and a bad thing. It's good because it means your competition is likely spread out over said variety. It's bad because your competition is keeping tabs on it all and the second you start making some money, they're going to come flood your market. While that latter part is true for most crafts, it's especially true for cooking since the ingredients are readily available from the AH or NPC. There isn't really a way for you to clear the stock out to buy yourself some time.
Cooking is definitely worth it to level, especially on a mule, just don't expect to make a bajillion gil all at once with it. Also...don't expect a real efficient manner in terms of time spent simply preparing for your final products.
Kaelis' Intro: What people who are going to be leveling cooking have to keep in mind is, you're basically fighting over scraps. Cooking is so easy to level, I did it on a mule back during the major inflation for a total initial investment of 50k. Which means competition is fierce, plentiful, and more than willing to undercut you to the bone. The way to make money in this is via volume, so if you decide to go with cooking, get used to spending most of your time sitting on your butt.
Read on for the guide.
Phase 1: Eggs and Cheese, Cheese and Eggs. Where's the Spam?
Cheap and easy synth. It's possible you were doing this prior to 60. In the 0-60 guide, I suggested using Yag drinks to cap at 60, but this works as well. Buy the milk from it's namesake vendor and the rock salt at the guild. Make these to cap, NPC them and move onto the next item. You should be relatively close to break even on these.
Recipe: Dark Crystal, 1x Selbina Milk, 1x Rock Salt.
Cap: Level 61
The same pattern persists here as a few previous synths. One version uses a lizard egg while the other, that caps higher, uses a bird egg. Definitely farm up the lizard eggs from Crawler's Nest (Labyrinth Lizards) as they drop in spades there. Buy up the rest of your mats from the regional merchants and NPC the results.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Lizard Egg, 1x Distilled Water, 1x LaTheine Cabbage, 1x San d'Orian Carrot.
Cap: Level 66
Same deal as above, only with bird eggs. Buying from vendors will put you just about at the break even point or a little above. Turn in some Raisin Bread when you reach cap here for your Artisan rank.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Bird Egg, 1x Distilled Water, 1x LaTheine Cabbage, 1x San d'Orian Carrot.
Cap: Level 68
Phase 2: Fruit Au Laits and Fish.
You will need to have Raw Fish Handling before you can finish this section. Rounding up the ingredients for each of the various sushi requires the Tavnazian region be under someone's control so you can purchase Ground Wasabi. Rice Vinegar can be bought from the various Tenshodo merchants (max your Norg fame). This pretty much leaves the Tarutaru Rice to be picked up from the guild merchants or from the AH.
Kaelis Comment: It should be noted that the Tavnazian vendor only sells if you're past mission 3-5 in CoP. In addition, that still leaves in a lot of cases the majority of the cost to be paid for a synth in which the other ingredients are cheap for the wasabi itself, which there is no way to reduce the cost. Sushi does sell quickly, but again, it's a popular market.
Now we're getting into one of the stalwarts of Cooking. Sushi continues to be a popular, albeit not super profitable, synth despite the advent of Marinara Pizza. Round up the ingredients for Sushi per the instructions above. Bastore Bream and Mercanbaligi are regularly available on the AH for purchase and you can generally resell the results on the AH for a profit. Mercanbaligi are easy to catch in Nashmau w/o the risk of monster catches if your fishing is 50 or above as well.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 1x Mercanbaligi, 1x Tarutaru Rice, 1x Distilled Water, 1x Rice Vinegar, 1x Ground Wasabi
Cap: Level 72
These are going to NPC for a loss of about 300ish gil each. Which isn't huge, but it's enough to add up over 4 levels. Derfland pears are produced through regional control of Derfland or through Gardening only. Odds are, you're not going to find any on the AH. You can try to farm up the honey portion of this to offset some of the cost, but it's easier to just set aside some money to blow here. My experiences say it takes about 18-24 synths/level beyond 60, so an average worst case scenario here is that you're going to lose about 30k gil in this stretch. You can make that by farming some scrolls up pretty easily. You can attempt to sell these on the AH as well, but you'll need a lot of inventory space and some patience. They do sell, but usually only if there aren't any Pamama Au Lait up. Make these to cap if you don't have Raw Fish handling yet.
Recipe: Water Crystal, 2x Derfland Pears, 1x Honey, 1x Selbina Milk.
Cap: Level 72
Same deal as Bream Sushi. Gugru Tuna are common catches on the various boats using the right fishing set up. Their skill cap makes them easy to catch early on, but unlike Mercanbaligi or Bastore Breams, they do not stack. Make to cap if you have Raw Fish handling and round up your ingredients per usual.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 1x Gugru Tuna, 1x Tarutaru Rice, 1x Distilled Water, 1x Rice Vinegar, 1x Ground Wasabi
Cap: Level 77
These still end up being the same sort of loss as it's Pear counterpart if you NPC the results, but they do sell on the AH rather frequently at a profit. Buying all the materials from NPC will usually double your money on the AH. Make these to cap and turn in some Whitefish Stew as you cross 78.
Recipe: Water Crystal, 2x Pamamas, 1x Honey, 1x Selbina Milk
Cap: Level 81
Phase 3: Curry And Pie. Meal Of Champions.
Just adding up the NPC-purchased items, you're going to be sitting at approx. 3.5k per synth. Add in the Coeurl Meat that's missing and you'll likely be around 4-4.5k/synth. Coeurl Meat isn't super difficult to farm and there are a lot of them available to kill in Zi'Tah. However, the rest of the synth doesn't really have an alternate way of obtaining the materials other than through the various NPCs that sell them. You can opt to sell the curry itself (which isn't stackable) on the AH or you can opt to turn it into Yellow Curry Buns. You'll likely make the same amount of money either way, but the buns will sell faster and take up less inventory space. The other good news with turning them into buns is that there's only one HQ level that gives you more of the NQ buns and it's only 2 more buns. This means prices are likely to stay relatively stable even if you NQ all of them. Definitely make these to cap.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Curry Powder, 1x Coeurl Meat, 1x Distilled Water, 1x Popoto, 1x Selbina Milk, 1x Tumeric, 1x Wild Onion
Cap: Level 85
A staple of most mages, although some could make the argument it's not used as widely as it used to be with the implementation of other foods. Since they're a T1 only food, they tend to have a stable price range. You're in decent HQ range for Pie Dough at this point too (almost T3). Make these to cap and turn in some Seafood Stew for your final rank up item.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Bird Egg, 1x Gelatin, 1x Maple Sugar, 1x Pie Dough, 1x Rolanberry, 1x San d'Orian Flour, 1x Selbina Milk
Cap: Level 90
Phase 4: Julia Child Never Had It This Bad...
This is a popular tanking food, especially for the aspiring PLDs in the process of leveling up. It follows the same pattern as the rest of the sushi you've made so far, but you might be hard pressed to find the Noble Lady that's required to make it. Be patient (or hire out a fisherman with the right equipment/level) and make this to cap.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 1x Noble Lady, 1x Tarutaru Rice, 1x Ground Wasabi, 1x Rice Vinegar, 1x Distilled Water
Cap: Level 93
Very popular for melee jobs prior to 50 for the sole reason of it's cost vs. benefits. NQ'ing every synth here will be a slight loss (farm your dhalmel meat to offset this). Everything here can be bought from an NPC, but double check the AH to make sure someone isn't selling some of the ingredients for less than the NPCs do. Make to cap and sell.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Bamboo Stick, 1x Coral Fungus, 1x Dhalmel Meat, 1x Distilled Water, 1x Sticky Rice, 1x Rock Salt, 1x Maple Sugar
Cap: Level 95
This is here primarily as an optional bridge synth. Making this means you're going to lose a ton of money due to the Fresh Mugwort prices. These cakes don't actually sell very well, but from 95 up, there really aren't many spammable options. Most just opt to skip to the next synth or try to make Cursed Soup.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Cinnamon, 1x Fresh Mugwort, 1x Sticky Rice, 1x Gardenia Seed, 1x Maple Sugar, 1x Distilled Water
Cap: Level 99
Most popular means of finishing Cooking off, but you're sorely limited by options here. There are exactly TWO items in the vast array of recipes for Cooking that will actually cap you at 100. This one relies on your ability to catch Dragon Meat on the AH. It's expensive, but Red Curry, like it's Yellow Curry counterpart, can be turned into other foods that sell for a rather large profit.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Coriander, 1x Curry Powder, 1x Dragon Meat, 1x Distilled Water, 1x Kazham Peppers, 1x Mithran Tomato, 1x San d'Orian Carrot.
Cap: Level 100
I mentioned Cursed Soup earlier and while the materials are generally available and relatively cheap, you're going to be parked in Crawler's Nest or Wajoam Woodlands killing bees for Royal Jelly. It is definitely a cheaper option to make than Red Curry though. If you're moving onto this from Rice Dumplings, then you can easily expect average about 24 synths/level. That's a ton of time. This is why most people opt to stick with Red Curry.
Recipe: Water Crystal, 1x Kitron, 1x Persikos, 1x Honey, 1x Distilled Water, 1x Royal Jelly
Cap: Level 100
And with that, you're now eligible to join the cast of Food Network's "Next Top Chef" (or whatever the hell that show is called).
Next week, Smithing and Blaize.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Critical Break: 60-100 Series: Cooking
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Critical Break: 0-60 Series: Cooking
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. This week, Q continues his 0-60 series with the sixth installment: Cooking.
If you hated clothcraft (like me...), you're going to despise Cooking. Fortunately, Cooking is virtually a stand alone craft with very few synths actually needing it for anything on their recipe list. So why level it at all? It comes in handy while leveling other jobs to make items like Yag drinks and whatnot so your entire inventory isn't eaten up by the drinks themselves. It also comes in handy if you ever plan on leveling Beastmaster as you can easily make all of your own supplies for the most part.
(LOLBST! I know...)
The only other reason anyone would have to level cooking if they aren't planning to take it to 100 is to simply be a completionist. I think I've used Cooking twice since I got it to 60 a year or so ago. It's pretty safe to say that if you have no intention of taking it to 100 and you don't care about having an entire list of ranks colored blue, then you can probably ignore this guide for now.
If you do want that blue Journeyman line, then read on.
Phase 1: Fisherman's Breakfast and Bait
A few things to keep in mind here:
First is you need to become familiar with Distilled Water and Rock Salt vendors. They are used in the majority of the items I have listed in this guide.
Second is that you will be running back and forth...a LOT.
Third is that there are no huge stretches or level gaps between these synths. This means you will have a wide variety of items on you the majority of the time while you're leveling these.
Fourth and lastly, have Wiki or BG or Alla open to find various ingredients. I will do my best in this guide to link the various ingredients to where they can be purchased at and where the seller actually is, but there's probably not enough room for all of that information in this guide or my brain.
Park yourself in Crawler's Nest with 3-4 stacks of Fire Crystals and 3-4 stacks of water and kill Lizards for a while. They can drop a ton of eggs at once and it takes very little time to amass the number of eggs required to cap here. You can turn around and sell the tails and skins on the AH for money as well.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Lizard Egg, 1x Distilled Water
Cap: Level 4Same recipe as the previous synth, only with a bird egg instead of a lizard egg. These don't drop with the frequency that the lizard eggs do, but they're relatively cheap on the AH if you can catch them and usually a little cheaper from the guild or vendors in the airship docks as long as the respective nation is in first or second place.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Bird Egg, 1x Distilled Water
Cap: Level 6
Juices are a staple of cooking and one of the most commonly crafted items out there. Nab a few stacks of water crystals and park yourself in front of Baehu-Faehu for the oranges as long as Windurst controls Saruta. You'll lose a little bit of gil NPC'ing the results as Orange Juice isn't exactly a great seller on the AH, but you should already be ahead of the game with the lizard skins you picked up. Buy a Salmon Sub from the guild (cheaper) for your first rank up.
Recipe: Water Crystal, 4x Saruta Orange
Cap: Level 10
Sliced Cod is a semi-popular fish bait that sells decently on the AH. The tiger cod used to make it is usually up in decent supply as well on my server for 2-3k/stack. Each synth will make you half a stack of cod meaning if you have no breaks, you should end up with 6 stacks to sell at 1k ea. on the AH. Cap on these, then AH the results.
You can also fish up the cod rather easily if your fishing skill is around 25-30.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Tiger Cod
Cap: Level 13
Same deal as the Sliced Cod prior to this synth only a little more expensive. Bluetails are regularly up on the AH for around 10k/stack with each synth making you 1/3 of a stack. With no breaks, you should end up with 4 stacks that AH for around 3k ea.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Bluetail
Cap: Level 15
America's Candy Bar. Take a few stacks of rock salt and a few stacks of ice crystals out to Selbina and park yourself in front of Dohdjuma. Save the results for later synths. Odds are we're going to use it all up. Turn in a bowl of Pea Soup (buy it from Guild...not cheaper, but a lot more time efficient) for your next rank.
Recipe: Ice Crystal, 1x Selbina Milk, 1x Rock Salt
Cap: Level 20
Phase 2: Meat, Balls, and Pet Food
Time to use up a bit of that Selbina Butter you just made. Your inventory probably thanks you for it too. Baehu-Faehu gets to spend some quality time with you again as he sells the popotos for cheap. The guild also sells them, but it's just easier to sit at this midget and avoid the whole guild hours thing. Just NPC the results wherever you feel like. You should be close to break even here.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Popoto, 1x Selbina Butter
Cap: Level 22
This is one of the few meat synths we'll be doing. Farm your sheep meat up by visiting the highlands again. It shouldn't take too long to farm up a few stacks as the meat drops rather frequently. If you don't want to spend the time farming, find whoever controls the Zulkheim region and buy it from there or just buy it from the guild. It should run you between 450-650 gil/stack. The Dried Marjoram can be picked up from the same Zulkheim vendor or the guild for very cheap as well. You're going to lose a little money here capping if you didn't farm, so you may opt to just get a couple levels, then move onto Insect Balls. NPC your results.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Giant Sheep Meat, 1x Rock Salt, 1x Dried Marjoram
Cap: Level 26
A very common bait used for catching moat carp. With 3 levels or more to cap, it could take a bit to move all of these, but if you bazaar them next to the fountain in Windurst Woods or other popular Moat Carp fishing spots, they'll move. Buy your little worms from Ensasa and your Millioncorn from whereever and make these to cap. Turn in a bowl of Vegetable Gruel for your rank up.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 1x Millioncorn, 1x Little Worm, 1x Distilled Water
Cap: Level 29
More balls! If the fishing guild has the Bastore Sardines for cheap, (less than 100gil ea.), pick them up from there. If not, just go fishing. They don't sell on the AH for very much or very frequently as they aren't used too often. If beastmen control the Aragoneu region, you can buy the Horo Flour from Pawkrix in Lower Jeuno. Make to cap, NPC the results.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 1x Bastore Sardine, 1x Horo Flour, 1x Distilled Water
Cap: Level 31
The Rye Flour for this can be bought relatively cheap in a number of places. Nothing too spectacular here otherwise. NPC the results for a slight profit.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Rye Flour, 1x Rock Salt, 1x Distilled Water
Cap: Level 34
Three of the four ingredients here can be bought from NPC for relatively cheap. The land crab meat can be farmed up relatively easy or bought off the AH. As long as you buy off the AH for less than 5k/stack, you can NPC the results for a slight profit. Turn in a meat mithkabob for your rank up.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 1x Rye Flour, 1x Land Crab Meat, 1x Bird Egg, 1x Distilled Water
Cap: Level 39
Phase 3: Just Desserts
Time to use up more of that Selbina Butter you made 20ish levels ago. The San d'Orian Flour can be bought for cheap from various NPCs. Make these to cap and save them for later synths. You might consider making a few extra stacks as well.
Recipe: Water Crystal, 1x San d'Orian Flour, 1x Rock Salt, 1x Selbina Butter
Cap: Level 42
I put this here as a bridge synth mostly to the next two synths. Also because you likely haven't made enough pie dough to cover 8 total levels. Fish up your Bluetail (or any other variation of this that's at 45) to cut your costs down as you will be losing about 1-1.2k/synth here if you NPC the results. AH them to recover most of your costs as BSTs tend to buy these things up pretty quickly.
Recipe: Water Crystal, 2x Bluetail
Cap: Level 45
And here's where it gets annoying. There are a lot of ingredients here. The ease of purchase depends on your affiliation and San d'Oria's place in the conquest rankings (needs to be first). Benaige in Raimbroy's Grocery will be your best friend for the next 5 levels. Buy your Cinnamon (if you can), Faerie Apples and Maple Sugar from her. Use up your pie dough and go farm up a few stacks of lizard eggs. Turn one in for your final rank up.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Faerie Apple, 1x Cinnamon, 1x Maple Sugar, 1x Pie Dough, 1x Lizard Egg
Cap: Level 48 Wut? Pies again? Same deal as previous synth only you need bird eggs this time. Odds are you're still in San d'Oria, so head over to the airship dock and buy them from Albinie as long as Sandy is in 1st or 2nd place. Sell your results on the AH for about break even.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Faerie Apple, 1x Cinnamon, 1x Maple Sugar, 1x Pie Dough, 1x Bird Egg
Cap: Level 50
Phase 4: Almost Iron Chef
You can buy the crayfish for cheap from Kulh Amariyo in Whitegate. You'll want to craft these in front of NPCs that sell San d'Orian Flour since the flour doesn't stack. NPC your results for about break even.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 3x Crayfish, 1x Distilled Water, 1x San d'Orian Flour
Cap: Level 52
Time to finish off the rest of that Selbina Butter if you still have any. Hopefully a nation owns the Fauregandi region as the cooking guild seems to be a little more expensive than the regional merchants for the Beaugreens. As long as you pick those up for 120ish gil or less, you should break even NPCing your results.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Beaugreens, 1x Selbina Butter
Cap: Level 55
These things sell like hotcakes on the AH between 5-6k/stack. Coeurl Meat is relatively easy to farm up if you spend some time in the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah. There's a nice heavy concentration of Coeurls roaming around in the NW area of the map. By now you should know where to farm up heaps of lizard eggs in a relatively short period of time. These are a good money maker and will easily make up any gil you've lost along the way up to this point. Having to sit in front of a San d'Orian Flour vendor is a drag again, but a necessary evil.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Lizard Egg, 1x Coeurl Meat, 1x Distilled Water, 1x San d'Orian Flour
Cap: Level 59
Very popular drink. I wouldn't expect to make these unless a nation controls the Kolshushu region. If one does, you can just park yourself at whatever NPC sells Kolshushu goods with some Dark Crystals and go to town. Hopefully it won't take many to cap. AH your results for a slight profit.
Recipe: Dark Crystal, 1x Yagudo Cherry, 3x Buburimu Grapes
Cap: Level 60
Congrats! If you've been following my guides, this should be your sixth craft to 60. As you can see from the various recipes here, Cooking involves a lot of legwork and a lot of consumable synths. Like any other craft, most of it's money makers rely on your ability to HQ, but with by far the largest number of synths available to any craft, there's sill some money to be made even at 60 if one dedicates the time to do it. But as is the case with anything good and easy, everyone's got it done.
Next week: Smithing
Friday, July 17, 2009
POL News: The Shortest Post Ever.
What
The
Fuck
Is
This
Shit...
Don't really know what else to say... Bells? Really? Ebisu? Ok, that is fine, but is it even worth an update note? Fucking Curry Buns? Does SE think we are 8 years old?
If you care about the update notes today, then go ahead and click for more. Don't blame me if you want your thirty seconds back. You won't get them back from me.
In addition to the hoards of adjustments and new content promised thus far, the fast-approaching July version update will boast numerous overall improvements including an upgrade to the /bell command added this past April and scrumptious new synthesis recipes that will leave streets drenched in adventurer drool.
More Bells and Whistles for the /bell Command!
The /bell command added in the April version update will be expanded to allow two full octaves, including sharp and flat notes, to be played. From full-scale hand bell orchestras at Vana'dielian weddings to solo performances of your favorite tunes on street corners, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination!
Enhanced Ebisu Fishing Rods!
The ebisu fishing rod, looked upon by many as the mythic weapon of the angler community, is set to be on the receiving end of a potent upgrade. From the July version update onwards, wielders of this mighty king among fishing rods can expect an even bigger haul after a day at their favorite fishing spot.
Curry Favor with Curry Buns!
In response to popular demand from fans at the official 2008 festival event in Japan, it is with great pleasure that we announce "curry buns" as one of the latest additions to the diverse food synthesis menu. Be sure to pack a few in your gobbiebag before you head off on that next big adventure!
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
Chaotic Pellucidity
Teabags and KY Jelly
The Bloggaru!
