Have you come to learn about crafting, my friend? Do you want to know what class is right for you? Or do you just want to know what skills you should get in order to HQ items? Well, have I got some information for you then, and more. Have a seat, get comfortable, drink some tea!

This is my character, Ornil, and he is going to teach you the basics of crafting. Say hi, Ornil!

So you want to know about the Disciples of the Hand, eh? Well you've got a lot of choices there, so I'm going to help you narrow it down based upon what you want to do first in this section! Remember though, you can be every single class in the game if you want to be, so don't be afraid to try them all out youself!

To unlock crafting classes, you must first reach lvl 10 of your first combat class, and then talk to that craft's respective guild. I have ordered the Disciple of the Hand classes by City-State, so newer players will know where they will be able to acquire these classes.

Gridania

Leatherworker

Leatherworker's make all sorts of leather armour, hides, and even some weapons and accessories. They mostly rely on monster drops as their materials. Become a Leatherworker if you want to make all sorts of stuff, they are pretty well rounded.

Carpenter:

Carpenter's like to make lumber, bows, lances, furniture, wooden shields, and.... Just about anything made out of wood, really. This has got to be my favorite crafter so far, since I like to make furniture for my Free Company.

Limsa Lominsa

Culinarian

Culinarian's make lots of food. If you like to fish, then Culinarian's love you, like, a lot. But that is for another guide to show you. They can be very helpful if you want some extra stats and XP, or just need a little pick-me-up. Sadly though, they don't make tacos. Ornil loves tacos.

Blacksmith

Blacksmith's like to make tools and weapons, mostly. If you want to make sharp poking sticks for you and your friends to impale things with, go ahead and pick this.

Armorer

Self explanatory, really. But in case you didn't get the memo, these guys make armor, shields, metal materials, and even some metal tools. You should really pick this if you don't want your enemies to impale YOU.

Ul'dah

Weaver

Weaver's like to make cloth armour, yarn, and more cloth armour. They make lots of cloth armour, by the way. Pick this if you want to make gear for your cloth armour wearing classes.

Goldsmith

Goldsmith's generally tend to all your accessory needs. You want a necklace? They got it. You want some rings? They got that too. If you want to keep your pretty little accessories up to date, then pick this Disciple of the Hand.

Alchemist

Alchemist's make all those tasty potions that keep you alive and help regain some MP. They even make some cool stat boosting potions that can help out in a pinch, and some potions that, when used on enemies, give them a debuff. Be an Alchemist if you want to provide you and your friends with medical supplies and such.

Well, that's all of them. Wait, what do you mean "that's it!" There's a lot to choose from! Go ahead and pick what you like the most already!

Well, my friend, to start crafting stuff, pop open that crafting menu, (Default hotkey is N) select your level range and class, then pick your item and click synthesize! BUT let's go through a rundown of this window before we actually start crafting, because this stuff is important.

So here's the lowdown.

On the left, you can see what level range you are looking at, which classes recipes you are currently viewing, and switch between regular crafting, dye crafting (Which will appear at a higher level), or furniture crafting.

In the middle we have our recipes that you currently have unlocked.

And on the right, we have the materials required to make your item, how many elemental shards it will consume, and other nifty information. Please remember though, that you can adjust the amount of High Quality or Normal Quality items you wish to use by clicking the orange numbers next to each material. I will go over High Quality items in more detail in a later section, so don't worry your pretty little head all that much yet.

So, there's your little run down of the crafting log.

You may have already figured out how to start crafting, but actually making the item is a whole 'nother story. You may have clicked the synthesis button and were all like, "What the heck is this crap?" or went, "ZOMG wut is dis craft." Well don't get too far ahead of yourself there, because Ornil will show you what all this means.

This is the crafting window:


It looks complicated, right? Well, it really isn't once you know what everything means.

Durability

This number tells you how shiny or messed up your item currently is. It goes down by 10 points each time you modify your item using a skill that increases progress or quality. This number can be modified with certain skills that we will go over in another section. If this number reaches zero before the progress bar is full, then you done messed up, and you might not get the materials back next time you try.

Condition

This will tell you the condition of your item. The condition of the items directly effects how much quality you gain with a Touch skill. (We will go over these skills in the "Skills" section) If the condition is normal, you gain the normal amount of quality points you normally would. If the condition is Good, you will gain a little bit more. If the condition is Excellent, you will gain a huge amount of quality points. If the condition is Poor, you will gain a less than normal amount of quality points. There are some rules to condition, though.
1. Good and Excellent condition will appear randomly
2. Poor condition will only appear directly after the Excellent condition
3. Good and Excellent condition will never appear twice in a row

**May add screenshots of what the different conditions look like soon**

Progress

Your progress shows you how complete your item is. Your progress is increased when you successfully use a Synthesis skill. (We will go over this too) When it fills up, you made your thing, so congratulations I guess.

Quality

Quality measures the awesome level of your item, and determines the percentage of which you will obtain a High Quality item. Quality points are gained when you successfully use a Touch skill, or if you added other High Quality items into the mix when you start crafting. Making High Quality items is good, so if you get Quality as high up as possible, you might just score a shinier version of the item you were going to make. If it comes out High Quality, then you did it! Congratulations, cupcake.

And then there is the quit button. Don't use this, because you could lose your materials! And seriously, only lame people use the quit button. They should really just replace "quit" with "I'm lame."

In order to craft stuff, you need to use your skills and stats. What kind of skills and stats you ask? Well Ornil will tell you that too. He's going to give you the skills icon, description, and show you what they are used for, as well as tell you about all the stats that crafters use. Why am I talking about my own character in the third person. Just a fair warning, this is going to be a big one.

This first sub section will define the stats of a crafter as they are listed in game.

Craftsmanship

"Affects the amount of progress achieved in a single synthesis step." ~ Square Enix

Control

"Affects the amount of quality improved in a single synthesis step." ~ Square Enix

This sub section is going to be about skills that all crafting classes will get.

Synthesis Skills:


Used to increase progress.

Touch Skills:


Used to increase quality.

Master's Mend:


Increases the durability of the item currently being crafted. This is best used when the durability is low as to not waste any of the CP you are spending to use it.

Inner Quiet:


Increases your Control temporarily each time the items quality goes up. This skill gradually makes it easier and easier to increase an items quality.

Steady Hand:


Increases the success rate of any skill used by 20% for your next five steps. Use this if you want to make sure you get that touch just right.

Now that you know about your stats and basic skills, are you ready to learn about cross-class skills? If you think you are, then go ahead to the next section. If you aren't though, I might just go cry in a corner. After all, I AM trying to get you learnt. D:

Well, well, well. You want to learn about these epic cross-class skills am I right? Cool I guess, but first you gotta take a look at the in-game description and decide if it's worth levelling the class it's associated with, because these skills, of course, can only be learned by their specific class at a certain level. Pick and choose which ones you want. If you don't decide to get any of them, then I will be disappointed. It's dangerous to go alone without these if you want to be a successful crafter. Everybody should consider getting these amazing skills.

Rumination:

Unlocked at Carpenter lvl. 15
Trades in all Inner Quiet stacks for CP. Use this skill when you need just a bit more CP to get that Master's Mend, Touch, or other skill in. (You should always use Inner Quiet at the beginning of the craft if you plan on using this, and it's a pretty good idea to use it.)

Tricks of the Trade:

Unlocked at Alchemist lvl. 15
Converts a Good condition into CP. Use this to recover CP rapidly. (I typically use this every time I see a Good condition pop up, unless I'm full of CP already.)

Waste Not:

Unlocked at Leatherworker lvl. 15
For the next four turns, decreases durability loss by five. This is useful when you have extra CP to spare. It's generally helpful in any situation.

Hasty Touch:

Unlocked at Culinarian lvl. 15
Has a low success rate, but increases quality at the cost of no CP. This is best used when combined with Steady Hand so that it will have a higher success rate. It's very useful for conserving CP.

Careful Synthesis:

Unlocked at Weaver lvl. 15
Has a 100% success rate to increase progress, but is only 90% as efficient. Use this when you need a small amount of progress to finish, but need to make sure you don't screw it up.

**I may be adding more skills here depending on which ones I feel are useful, BUT also basic, and not too far into advanced crafting**

After you get some of these skills, it will make it easier for you to make High Quality items. If that's really important to you, which it should be, head on over to the next section. There I will tell you how to use these skills effectively in High Quality crafting.

Now that you have all this knowledge, go and make some crap! I hope you are very successful in your crafting someday! Thank you so much for reading, and I hope I made you at least smile a little!

I am open to suggestions in the comments below. Thanks again, your support is appreciated. :D

My character's name is Ornil Lendarin on the Mateus server if you ever wish to speak to me in game.

I will also be constantly adding onto this guide when I see that I should change/add something. This is the first guide I have ever made, so I'm trying to do good here! I really hope you guys liked it though. :D