Belot’s shot at a guide to cooking …..
Throughout this guide I make references to allakhazam’s cooking guild recipe list … a wonderful resource found at the following link….
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/dyn/guilds/Cooking.html
A little bit about Belot … 47 WHM 27 BLM every other job above 10, Pandemonium
Belot’s goal … Level cooking skill to 60 as fast as possible with as little gil spent…
Reasons: ability to make Meat Mithkabobs, Meat Chiefkabobs, Fish Mithkabobs, Fish Chiefkabobs, Pineapple Juice, Melon Pies, Yagudo Drink, Roast Mushrooms, and Witch Kabobs (Witch kabobs are UBER white mage food J)
Why 60 … Because after 60 you begin to spend your all important craftsman mastery points of which you only have 40 (Fishing Excluded)
Crystal Usage
To make +1 items craft on the day opposite to your crystals element or the day before your crystals element… this lowers success % but increases +1 % ie; Fire Crystal used on Iceday or Darksday (Fullmoon/Newmoon helps) (Paid guild support helps)
Chart:
Crystal ----> Day
Water ----> Firesday
Wind ----> Earthsday
Lightning ---> Watersday
Ice ----> Windsday
Fire ----> Iceday
Earth ----> Lightningday
Dark ----> Lightday
Light ----> Darksday
To have the highest % success at crafting something craft on the day of your crystal ie; Fire Crystal on Firesday (Paid guild support helps)
To gain the most skill craft an item on the day before your crystal using and ensure the item your crafting is above your current cooking level ie Fire Crystal on Darksday
Belot’s Cooking Philosophy ….
First Always craft in Windurst at the cooking guild located in Windurst Waters using the Paid advanced Imagery Support!
Here is where I see many people make a huge mistake that delays the leveling of their cooking skill. They make expensive food because they can sell it on the auction house!
Do not do that …. The only expensive food you should make is food that you will either eat yourself in the NEAR future or food that you will IMMEDIATELY sell to friends.
MAKE CHEAP FOOD AND SELL IT TO AN NPC OR THE COOKING GUILD
MAKE CHEAP FOOD AND SELL IT TO AN NPC OR THE COOKING GUILD
MAKE CHEAP FOOD AND SELL IT TO AN NPC OR THE COOKING GUILD
Second Rule
BUY INGREDIENTS FROM VENDORS IN ALMOST EVERY CASE
BUY INGREDIENTS FROM VENDORS IN ALMOST EVERY CASE
BUY INGREDIENTS FROM VENDORS IN ALMOST EVERY CASE
Use alakazham’s item lookup feature to search ingredients to determine which NPC sells said ingredient…. Many ingredients are sold off regional NPC’s for much less than the auction house or the cooking guild …. Use “Region Info” under your FFXI menu to determine which realm currently controls in which region … use your other characters located in Bastok, Windy or Sandy to buy ingredients from the regional vendors and ship them to your main character … if you don’t have other characters conveniently located in the 3 main cities join a guild and make friends with airship passes who can schlep over to the 3 cities to ship you ingredients. This will save you thousands of gil …..
Having your cooking money tied up in food on the auction house or bazaar or food in your inventory slows your cooking down phenomenally!
Keep your working capital liquid so you can constantly cook …. Cooking skill is gained through cooking a lot … it is a process of many repetitions …
For example … I went from 12-16 cooking skill making Roast mushrooms (Level 16) …. Big Mistake … Roast mushrooms are a fire crystal = 200, 2 sleepshrooms = 500, and a piece of rocksalt = 40… so for 1 repetition to make 1 roast mushroom (Maybe) I incur a cost of approx 740 gil ….
And I had failures ….
Instead I should have at level 13 cooking skill made Selbina Butter(Level 20)… Ice Crystal = 80 roocksalt = 40 selbina milk = 60 for 1 repetition that YIELDS 4 sticks of selbina butter at a cost of 180 … Granted I will fail a lot more … but I can afford to … I can perform 4 repetitions of making selbina butter for what it would cost to perform 1 repetition of roast mushroom …. Furthermore Selbina Butter can be sold to NPC’s for a decent price … minimal loss and immediate recovery of your cooking working capital…
LEVELING COOKING SKILL IS ABOUT PERFORMING REPITITIONS ABOVE YOUR CURRENT LEVEL , MAX YOUR REPITITIONS… (Think of it like weightlifting)
Whenever possible opt to cook items that involve Water Crystals or Earth Crystals … these crystals are cheap J
OK now a the guide ( A GUIDE OF MY EXPIERENCE )
ALWAYS USE ADVANCE IMAGRY SUPPORT (PAID SUPPORT) IN THE COOKING GUILD IN WINDURST
Level 0-2.8
Make Carrot Broth and sell to NPC … buy carrots from your respective NPC
Level 2.8-9
Water Crystals are cheap, oranges are cheap, vendors buy OJ for minimal loss … Make Orange Juice ..
Yes you will fail but you will also gain skill fast
Oranges can be purchased in windurst waters extremely close to the cooking guild at the exit to W. Saru. Across from the W.W. from an NPC named “Baehu-Faehu”
Creative and practical use for all this OJ you will generate …. Buy a “Pumpkin Pie” for 400 gil (+40 MP +3 INT) and Level all your jobs from 1-7 in an hour buy subbing your level 4 BLM and using “Stone” and “OJ” to nuke monsters at a NONSTOP rate … it is funnnn chaining MOBS by yourself at level 2
(NOTE: AT LEVEL 8 TALK TO THE COOKING GUILDMASTER BUY A SALMON SUB FROM THE COOKING GUILDSHOP NEXDOOR AND PASS YOUR FIRST COOKING TEST, REPEAT THIS PROCESS AT 18, 28, 38, 48, and 58…. You don’t have to cook the examination item yourself .. you can just buy it )
Level 9-10.7
Sliced Sardines Buy sardines from NPC or your fellow fishing fool
Level 10.7 – 19
SEE DISCUSSION OF ROAST MUSHROOM VS SELBINA BUTTER ABOVE
Make Selbina Butter a lot … BUY SELBINA MILK FROM NPC
OR
Make Apple Juice using juice philosophy above …. WATER CRYSTALS ARE CHEAP >>> REPITITIONS ARE GOOD >>>> JUICE LEVELS SUBJOBS AND CAN BE SOLD TO NPC’S
Level 19-28
MAKE INSECT BALLS
The ingredients for this fisherman staple are INSANELY CHEAP the yield is 12 insect balls per synth
Earth Crystal = 30 gil
Little Worm = 5 gil (Fishing Guild Port Windurst)
Distilled Water 11 gil (Npc near the pickle lady in windurst waters)
Millioncorn = Cheap anywhere you buy it … sold in sandy or from regional NPC
You can walk around Windurst with this stuff in your bazaar and tell ppl fishing the following
<Hello!> my <Bazaar> <Please check it> <Thank You>
that methods sells 30 stacks in about 10 min when priced slightly below the current Auction or fishing guild going rate
If done right you can even profit here albeit slowly given that this stuff is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP
Level 28-30
PINEAPPLE JUICE
Buy pineapples as soon as you get off the airship in kazham at the little shop there…. Or from the regional vendor for whoever controls elishmo lowlands
NEVER pay 1000 gil for a stack of pineapples .. they sell for like 600-700 a stack
Again Water crystals are cheap
1 water crystal 40 gil 2 kazham pineapples 140 gil = 180 gil per synth …. This stuff sells in jeuno bazaar mode relatively fast for 250 a bottle and almost immediately for 225 a bottle
or .. just sell to vendors
Level 30–34.7
Make Meatballs
Again ingredients are cheap EARTH CRYSTALS sell using same method as insect balls you can profit a little here also … this takes longer a bit because sandoria flour does not stack ,,,, usually you can buy sandoria flour cheaply from cooking guild never pay more than 80 gil per bag … buy from sandoria or from regional merchant Windurst’s regional merchant is Bin Stejihna right outside windurst woods mog house exit
Having the gobbiebags helps a lot in all coking endeavors and especially here
NOTE: YOU WILL NOW BE TEMPTED TO MAKE MEAT MITHKABOBS >>>> CAUTION: MEAT MITHKABOBS COST 2000 per SYNTH …. THAT IS EXPENSIVE >>> WAIT UNTIL YOU CAN COMFORTABLY MAKE THEM AT LEVEL 39 ON FIRESDAY J
Level 34.7 – 37
BUBLE CHOCOLATE Relatively cheap … I made it because I ate it while leveling my BLM for the mana regeneration bonus …. I always keep this food on me to GIVE FREELY to mages in my lower level parties who don’t have food … 1 synth yields 12 pieces J CHEAP … sell extra to NPC at MINIMAL LOSS … buy ingredients from respective NPC vendors
Level 37-39
Melon Juice - I made Melon Juice because I used it for my White Mage …. It is relatively expensive even though it uses water crystals … if you don’t want to use it yourself sell it in jeuno at a slight loss and it will roll out of your bazaar at a rate of about 1 per minute ….
/shout <Melon Juice> my <Bazaar> xxx gil <Position> <pos> <Thank You!>
CONGRATULATIONS NOW YOU CAN MAKE MITHKABOBS THERE ARE MANY WAYS WHICH I WILL NOT DESCRIBE HERE THAT YOU CAN MAKE, IN MY EXPIERENCE, UP TO 15,000 GIL AN HOUR SELLING THESE
Level 39 – 43
Tomato Juice … Juice philosophy … sell bazaar or fast to NPC
Level 43-47
I made Apple Pies … they sell decent in bazaar in jeuno or on auction house … commonly used by mages ….
Level 47-52
Crayfish Balls YAY FOR EARTH CRYSTALS AND CHEAP FISHING INGREDIENTS
USE CRAYFISH X 3 NOT LOBSTER
crayfish can be bought at fishing guild and at auction house and from your local fishing buddy (He got a promotion from fool to buddy because he sold you crayfish)
these sell fast on Auction House and semi fast in bazaar
Level 52-55
Beaugreen Sautee (it is the only practical thing to make … sell it to vendors)
DO NOT MAKE YAGUDO DRINKS UNTIL YOU ARE LEVEL 59 THE INGREDIENTS ARE EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE
Level 55-60
STONE CHEESE – I sold this to the vendor at a profit of 72 gil a stack woot
CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE NOW A MASTER CHEF YOU CAN MAKE WITCH KABOBS AND CHIEF KABOBS AND JUICE WHILE FIGHTING
