"How do you make gil?" big scary sir...

Arctyrael

♫♪ Squirrels of a Down ♪♫
Adventurer
Joined
Apr 7, 2005
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5,333
Age
40
Location
Johnson City, TN
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BlackMage-Male
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Summoner-Male
Third Job
WhiteMage-Male
Server
Quetzalcoatl
FFXIV
Arctyrael
We all get the question from some people. "How do you make that gil?" "It is not possible to even have that much?"

Some people take offense to it, some people just laugh and spill their guts, others yet just ignore you til your eyes bleed. So I've made observations and discussed with people, and I will post a general answer to your questions. First I must point out, I am by no means rich, but I'm not a character with no gil items either.

BCNM/KSNM/ENM:
This is great money, 'cause ENM has no seal restrictions. However, there are several huge money items in BCNM and KSNM. I really am not going to review any of the KSNM or BCNM because you have to have some brain power to even do them in the first place. Get a good group of friends to do these regularly, and you will have no money problems.

Farming:
Duh! A lot of the problem with the economy prices lie in how few of us farm and just spend spend spend. Those few that do farm, take advantage of us - good for them, they deserve the praise for keeping our economy going. I must admit, I am guilty of this too. However, Even I drew the line once Beehive Chips hit 30k/stack. My profit margin at those prices is so minimal, I don't bother. I would rather just farm and let them rot on the AH. It really is only a supply vs. demand issue. Square Enix is only partially to blame by not adjusting drop rates as server population rose.

(This is not a flame on prices - really. I encourage more people to farm because the price for your effort is much higher atm than it would have been 4 months ago)

Fishing:
This I know from experience. Everyone knows about the exorbitant costs for Sushi. The Black Sole are 30k/stack or more. However, you really don't have to be a high lvl fisherman to make similar gil. Moat Carps are a level 10 fish and go for 22k/stack. They will probably go up because supply is low and demand is retardedly high. If you are a lvl 15 char, with no fishing skill, I'd say you could fish 80k/hour, easy. You can safely pull Moat Carp up from Knightwell pond in Ronfaure. I promise you, Moat carp will sell - and if you get addicted and take fishing to 85, you will have a passtime in Port J. while lfg. As a lvl 45 fisherman, I am raking these in at a rate of ~120k/hour.

Mining:
I haven't mined in forever, my guess is that Gusgens is wretchedly packed. To the dismay of smithers and goldsmithers alike I'm sure. This I will blame fully on SE for the high prices. As the population and new areas increased, good places to mine has not. I imagine you can pull on a good day 150k/hour from the mines.

Clamming/Harvesting:
I really am not sure. I do not know how much is possible. If you can harvest Fresh Mugwort, that seems a good price - as well as others I'm sure. Check it out ^^;

Chocobo Digging:
I also do not have much info about this. All I know is that you go to chocobo stalls, get some Ghysal Greens, and go. Early on, this is not any good, but the more you invest - time and gil - the more you will earn. Supposedly you can get stuff as good as Philosopher's stones, Ores(elemental varieties too), and Logs for WW. The downside to this is that diggable items are 'pooled' and other Chocobo diggers can affect your yields. So be kind and don't CC unless you have to.

Gardening:
Aha~! I almost left this guy off. Anyone can garden. I Garden myself and must say, the potential for large sums of gil is excellent. I encourage you to research the prices of gardening. Yet another reason that Sushi is so expensive = rice. Anyone wanting to move on to the more lucrative elemental ores - I would suggest practice first. Expect 2-3 days on most 'seeds' and 2-3 weeks for cuttings/saplings/cacti.

Services:

-Teleporting. I am not going to tell any WHM to go out and do it, cause I myself hate it with a passion. However, it is good money. I have seen shouts go up to 10k, seen a lot @ 3k. I implore people that 'spoil' other whm's moneymaking by porting not to do so. You are not helping the problem by offering 500 gil or free teleports. The people that were making a lot of money are not likely to continue to porting if they can't make adjusted income like everyone else. The port problem will only get worse.

-Mercenaries. I don't know what the deal is against mercs. Does everyone frown upon regular businesses IRL? It is the same tactics taken to a game. You don't have to have friends to accomplish stuff in game. Although, they do keep it cheaper. Look into mercing if it is your style of play - ALTHOUGH I warn you, some endgame shells do not accept this behavior.

Conclusions:
These are just the few minimal ways to make gil. I see people whine everyday about costs, I have done it too. I have had people ask "How do you make gil" etc.. I would only expect some complaints from Smithers/Goldsmithers regarding supply because the supply is limited by the game itself. Most everyone else, has the ability to go out and get their materials. A friend made me realize this the other day as I bitched about Alchemy. Maybe if more people take the initiative to get there own materials, prices would actually - heaven forbid - drop. (I must exclude items such as V. Claw/ D. Ingot etc... cause those are also supply limited)

*EDIT* typo and run on. probably more I'll see and fix later.
 
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Awesome guide :D Very informative and great research for those struggling to make money legitamately in the game! Hey.... You even taught me a couple of things, so thanks :D
 
It takes about 6mil of buying greens from the npc's with hero fame to get chocobo digging to a level that it CAN dig up elemental ores. that's a lot of pebbles, bone chips and rattan lumber -.-;
 
I second the Fishing option for players who are inclined to try it. The cost of materials (rod and lure/bait) is low and the returns are very great. When someone complains about the price of something, I'll sometimes say "Yeah, that's three stacks of moat carp. Get cracking."

I myself refuse to catch another moat carp (I have my Lu Shang, so I'm finished with that hateful fish), but you can't deny there's a lot of gil to be made there.
 
Blackchaoshero said:
It takes about 6mil of buying greens from the npc's with hero fame to get chocobo digging to a level that it CAN dig up elemental ores. that's a lot of pebbles, bone chips and rattan lumber -.-;

You can't dig up elemental ores. That is a myth. You can however dig up adaman ore, orichalcum ore, philosphers stones, gold coins, platnium ore, gold ore, darksteel ore, and any number of other valuable items.

I personally have dug up everything listed above, with the exception of adaman. And personally, I don't think it takes a specific skill level to dig any one item up, skill level just increases your chances of finding an item, and increases the speed you dig at.
 
Also add "make a female char and cyber your day away" to the how-to-make-gil list. I think we have a few good threads about how well that actually works somewhere on this board.
 
Crafting?

this is pretty much where you find how efficient you can be with gil, the ability to take raw materials and craft them into something of more worth than the some of it's parts is how alot of people keep a steady gil flow. 90% of the gil making tactics you listed only have value due to crafting, if you don't pl, cut out one of the listed steps, you just got pure profit. Most people don't have the patients for that, and for others, they literally can't afford to be bothered.

Course there are those magic people in FFXI that always have alot of gil and the best gear, don't craft, don't bag nm's and do none of the stuff you list. So those people invite scrutiny in a way. I know a few people as listed, and alot of the stuff they have I have no idea how they got it, or were handed it......
 
Noxxx said:
You can't dig up elemental ores. That is a myth. You can however dig up adaman ore, orichalcum ore, philosphers stones, gold coins, platnium ore, gold ore, darksteel ore, and any number of other valuable items.

I personally have dug up everything listed above, with the exception of adaman. And personally, I don't think it takes a specific skill level to dig any one item up, skill level just increases your chances of finding an item, and increases the speed you dig at.

You can't dig up elemental ores?
http://www.qcdn.org/showthread.php?t=15625 <--Read me
 
Sculli said:
Also add "make a female char and cyber your day away" to the how-to-make-gil list. I think we have a few good threads about how well that actually works somewhere on this board.

it's soo true too. even a couple residents here at QCDN are guilty of this. One of our ls members had a japanese SMN practically stalk him in game cause he played a female character and was friendly(and wisely didn't mention he was a dude). He never took any gil from him but he did alot of our AF's in the end, lol. Personally, I feel better with my performance in game cause I know the crap I got is mine. But to each their own
 
Sculli said:
Also add "make a female char and cyber your day away" to the how-to-make-gil list. I think we have a few good threads about how well that actually works somewhere on this board.

This works better if you are a WHM doing teleports... 10k tip... okay!
 
GhostinmyShell said:
This works better if you are a WHM doing teleports... 10k tip... okay!
I think you vastly underestimate the clouded judgement of testosterone laden adolescent males. No self-respecting cyber slut would even drop a smile for 10k.
 
Well I kinda expected this to be crapped on rather than commended. I'm a bit shocked lol

1. Crafting is not on that list for a reason.

2. Legit methods sculli - legit
 
The only reason I was ever unwilling to share some info is moreso due to not wanting the competition. That or from some of their previous comments I knew that they really don't want to know and are just trying to imply that I bought gil. If you say farmed they assume that since they don't have the patience for it nobody does. Look at the AH under various crafting ingredients, see what sells for a lot, sells fast, or even better what sells for a lot and sells fast. Then think what mobs drop those items and go crazy (try to set up your farming area around a NM pop, you could get lucky). Everything in this game is a function of time invested and perhaps a little luck.

Also I've PM'd a couple people on the board about some gardening advice. I've made money doing it but I have had some horrible harvest before that just made we want to stop sometimes.
 
Since it's a hidden skill, there's no message, but your level effects how long in between digs you have to wait and how long after zoning you have to wait.
 
darkataxia said:
When your doing chocobo digging how do you know you got a skill up?

I hear you can only tell by the time it takes between digs gets shorter.
 
Lvl 1 60 secs after entering zone and 16 secs between digs
Lvl 2 60 secs after entering zone and 11 secs between digs
Lvl 3 60 secs after entering zone and 6 secs between digs
Lvl 4 60 secs after entering zone and 0 secs between digs
Lvl 5 50 secs after entering zone and 0 secs between digs
Lvl 6 40 secs after entering zone and 0 secs between digs
The rest I am sure you can figure out onyour own or find more info on the lvls.
 
Wow.. go fishing?
If you want, take cooking to 29 (19-29 on Insect Ball) then you can make your own bait at 1/3rd the cost if not less.
This tempts me to fish.
 
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