In XIV, crafting gives players a huge number of benefits.
Many things that can be made can also be bought, but usually for a very high price.
With the Market Board system in Final Fantasy XIV, players can sell items to other players.
This means you can get items made from crafting recipes even if you can’t make them yourself.
Carpenters, Weavers, Alchemists, and others all have useful things to sell.
First, let’s give a simple answer to this question:
Crafters can make it so that vendors can’t sell certain things.
So, you can buy everything, but without crafters, you wouldn’t be able to get a huge number of things.
This includes things like furniture, clothes, food, and weapons.
There are mounts like the legendary Magicked Bed that only crafters can use.
No one can fly around Eorzea in their pyjamas without a level 80 Carpenter.
Making things is good for more than just that, though.
It’s a fun activity in and of itself, and for some players, it’s more important than XIV’s storyline and never-ending dungeons.
You can just go ahead and buy everything if that’s what you want to do.
But the economy will decide what you can do.
If making an item takes expensive or rare materials, you can bet that the price will go up really high.
People have to find a way to make gil.
Even if the item doesn’t need valuable materials, its price could change a lot based on how people want it.
It’s a tough world out there.
Sellers will undercut each other by one gil, raise their prices when the demand goes up. Buy all the cheap options, and put them back on the market at twice the price.
My point is that there isn’t always a “fair price” on the Market Board.
So, if you want to make cool things for any reason, it might be better to learn a trade yourself.
You can not only make your own things, but you can also use the Market Board.
Can You Make Money With Crafting?
Yes, but it won’t happen overnight.
You’ll have to put in a lot of work before you start to see big results.
If you want to make only crafts to make money, you’ll probably get tired of them before you reach your goal.
If you want to get the most out of your job, I think you should follow a guide like this pretty closely.
The FFXIV Guild is a great place to start, especially at the beginning of your journey, because it has guides that explain what each profession can make.
If you don’t want to trade goods you’ve made on the market, gathering might be the way to go.
A lot of crafters are too lazy to go out and get their own supplies.
Take advantage of this laziness by picking up Mining or Botany and going straight to the Market Board with your goods.
You can make a good amount of gil with very little work by keeping an eye on what kind of wood is in demand at the moment.
Do You Have To Craft?
Crafting is completely optional, so if you just kill monsters and take their stuff without making anything, that’s fine too!
You won’t miss anything important at any point.
You can still miss out on some parts of the game.
Crafters and gatherers can help rebuild The Firmament, a district of the city of Ishgard that comes to life based on what players add to it.
It has its own rewards and lets you meet up with other players who want to build something instead of killing monsters over and over again.
Fishermen can take a ship out to sea to go Deep Sea Fishing and then mount and frame the fish they catch to hang on their walls at home.
This might not be the kind of game you want to play, and that’s fine.
Everyone can find something to do in XIV.
The point is that crafting can be a good way to spend your time in-game, whether you want to make money or just try something new.
Which Crafting/Gathering Job Is Right For Me?
What you want to get out of it, really makes a difference.
If you want to make a lot of money, you should look into Blacksmith, Carpenter, Goldsmith, and Cook.
All of these jobs can make very popular equipment, furniture, and consumables that boost stats or EXP.
None of these, however, is a surefire way to make money.
You’ll still have to put in the work, and any money you make could depend on how the economy of your server is doing.
If you just want to craft for fun, you might want to consider getting crafters that go well with your main combat job.
It can feel great to make your own weapons and armour.
Even if you can’t use your own handcrafted gear in endgame content, the process can still be fun.
Really, though, you can make a good living doing almost any crafting or gathering job except fishing.
And you don’t have to become a “omni-crafter” who is the best at every job.
You can dabble in crafting, have fun with it, or just not do it at all.
