Preface:
Now, I have noticed a lot of people complaing about not being able to make gil to fund thier FFXI exploits. I have also noticed that several of these people are in the same boat as I: Working 40 hours a week, having several other responsibilities on top of that, or other time-consuming real-life necessities (School, family, etc.). These methods take very little time to do individually, or can be done concurrently with other activites to optimize your use of time.
These methods are what I have done to make gil for myself. This is not by any means an end-all-be-all guide, so please feel free to add any other suggestions you feel worth mentioning.
1. Reselling
My initial injection of capital came from this practice. I created mules for San'Doria, Bastok, and Windurst. For 30 minutes of my day, I would simply find items that were available via vendors in one city and sell them in another. The market rate will determine what kind of mark-up you can achieve and still sell the items in an ordinate amount of time. Ammunition, spell scrolls, and various high-consumption crafting items are common choices.
2. Bazaaring
Similar to reselling, except the Auction House is not involved. This is most effective when you combine it with crafting, reselling of crafting ingredients, or other consumables. Location and demand are everything when it comes to bazaaring. It wouldn't make much sense to sell metal ores in an XP'ing area, unless it was accompanied by Food and/or Ammo for the parties in the area. It also requires very little time... just enough to log on, stock up, go to the location desired, and log off whenever you feel like it.
3. Gardening
With my initial injection of funding from reselling, I did two things: Gardening, and Crafting (discussed later). Gardening requires very little time. Simply log on, plant/check/feed/harvest your plants, and repeat for each mule. Once you have enough starting capital to do this, I highly reccommend giving it a try. There are numerous guides for gardening available on this site and others, so I'll let you do the research on that. Also, keep in mind that it is better to grow what is in demand and noting on how long it takes to grow that item. Try to pick recipes that you may still be able to profit from (or at least break even or minimize losses from) failures. Keep in mind that you must check your plants once per real-life day.
4. Fishing
This is something that I have been doing for a little while now, and takes very little concentration to do. While I fish I can watch a movie, read a book, balance my checkbook, etc. You will skillup slowly, and you won't see much profit initially, but it can be done while studying or doing similar tasks. Again, many guides are available for fishing so I can only reccommend "fishing them out." ^^
5. Strange Apparatus'
This is a bit of a gamble, and requires an initial investment of at least 21k (The colored chip) + the cost of the Infinity Core. To make it easy on you I'll give you the easiest one to find and get to: Dangruf Wadi (low level Gobs are biggest threat). Buy a red chip from one of the goblin vendors (Port Bastok - Blabbivix [F-6], North San'Doria - Gaudylox [F-4], Windurst Walls - Scavnix [H-4]). Then go to Dangruf Wadi [F-11], the Western wall of the lower of the two areas on the map... you can walk right through it. Trade the apparatus inside a Red chip and Infinity Core (Easiest to get them in Auction House under Misc.). If you're lucky, you will get some nice stuff... if not, you will lose most of your investment ><
Keep in mind: This is a risky way to make money, but it's quick.
6. Auction House Manipulation
Per the suggestion of Subarru (thank you for the recommendation)... who had mentioned buying single items off of the Auction House and reselling them as a stack for profit. This is a perfectly good practice, but I would like to expand. Conversely, items sometimes sold as stacks will make more Gil if sold as singles. While this is few and far between, I have almost doubled my Gil investment doing this a few times. Also, if you're feeling lucky try bidding WAY under the value of an item to capitalize on an undercutter's mistake ^^ Also, (thanks to wckowalski's reminder) you can sometimes purchase items from the Auction House and sell them to NPC's for profit.
7. Long Term Investment: Crafting
Follow one of the crafting guides on this site, or reasearch your own path. Once you are able to craft effectively (read: High Quality synths are more commonplace, generally around lv. 60), it is a simple task to log in and craft away. Just sell the results on the Auction House or in your Bazaar. Using the above methods, I currently have my Alchemy at 54. Just look for what sells well, and is easy enough for you to get High Quality results from synthing.
8. Long Term Investment: Fishing Rod Reparation
After leveling a craft to the appropriate level for the rod to be repaired (Alchemy for "fiber" rods, Woodworking for wooden rods; please correct me if I'm wrong or if there is another craft involved), simply buy the broken rods off of the Auction House and repair them for resale. With Alchemy, I have repaired countless Carbon Fiber rods for about 1-1.5k profit each.
9. BCNM Fights
Once you have a static party that can do these with you, it is an option. You just have to have the right jobs leveled to the appropriate levels. There are several excellent posts regarding strategies on these money-makers (I'm particularly fond of the lv 30 BCNM's, given my highest job lv ^^), and they are very easy to find. This may not be an option for everyone, but once you have a static that can do them it doesn't take much time to potentially make an excellent profit.
I sincerely hope that this information will help those of you who are becoming frustrated with earning Gil to get what you want out of the game. Just keep at it, and be patient. With a bit of research, practice, and small investments in time you may help to ease your FFXI financial woes.
Good luck to all of you.
S.
Edited, Thu Nov 4 20:01:18 2004 by azureseed
Edited, Thu Nov 4 20:04:18 2004 by azureseed
Edited, Thu Nov 4 23:13:09 2004 by azureseed
Edited, Fri Nov 5 14:05:08 2004 by azureseed
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How I made Gil as a part-time FFXI playerFollow
Excelent! I am glad to see the "slowly but surely" method being emphasised.
Bookmarked for further referance!
Thank you
Bookmarked for further referance!
Thank you
azureseed wrote:
1. Reselling
My initial injection of capital came from this practice. I created mules for San'Doria, Bastok, and Windurst. For 30 minutes of my day, I would simply find items that were available via vendors in one city and sell them in another. The market rate will determine what kind of mark-up you can achieve and still sell the items in an ordinate amount of time. Ammunition, spell scrolls, and various high-consumption crafting items are common choices.
Great post. I have one question about this though. Maybe you or someone else in the forum knows the answer. Didn't people get banned for this practice? Or was that because they were buying and reselling to the same NPC?
I'd also add on to your list with "AH Stack Creation." I've noticed that some items on the AH from time to time sell for much less than they do as a stack. For example if players are dumping single items for 100 gil and a stack is going for 1800, you can buy up 12 and resell the whole stack for a small profit. This also helps to sell your own stack if you are close (i.e. you have 9/12 and want to sell soon without farming for 2 more)
I must show this to everyone I know who wastes their time hunting NM's and blaming their lack of income on gil sellers/bots. You can either play the lottery, or work smart. Guess which one is far more likely to be profitable.
EDIT: Reselling is a perfectly allowable, and somehwat encouraged practice. There will always be a time when I absolutely need some saruta oranges in Bastok and I thank the people who provide them (and they get a nice profit too.) There were certain exploits that I really don't know the details of, but they involved practices that were blatently not supposed to happen (they generally won't ban you for NPC reselling, that's their mistake, not yours.)
Edited, Thu Nov 4 17:55:59 2004 by xNanakix
EDIT: Reselling is a perfectly allowable, and somehwat encouraged practice. There will always be a time when I absolutely need some saruta oranges in Bastok and I thank the people who provide them (and they get a nice profit too.) There were certain exploits that I really don't know the details of, but they involved practices that were blatently not supposed to happen (they generally won't ban you for NPC reselling, that's their mistake, not yours.)
Edited, Thu Nov 4 17:55:59 2004 by xNanakix
Quote:
Didn't people get banned for this practice? Or was that because they were buying and reselling to the same NPC?
Noone was banned over it, but #2.
some CoP NPCs sold stuff for less than they bought it for...but, since that was S-Es own fault, noone was banned.
What that was all about was item Duping.
Excellent post!
I currenlty use every method here to make gil. (except the Strange Apparatus', I find that a bit too risky)
I rarley farm, but sometimes do if im really bored, or looking to skill up a weapon etc. The truth is, there is no quick fix for gil. Everything takes time, or involves a certain amount of risk.
The best part is.. after you get better, and become more adept at these kinds of things, you can make more money faster. I spent a good portion of my early days in game fishing, crafting, bazaaring etc. Many of my LS friends surpassed me in level.. however now they have to stop every few levels to farm for hours to earn enough gil for their new equipment and scrolls. Im catching up to them fast, and I havent had to stop leveling in nearly a month.
Best part is, I already have all my equipment upto level 40. I wont have to stop leveling my PLD till then if I dont want too. Im not trying to show off... or be arrogant here. Just trying to show that with a little work.. you can make yourself decent gil without alot of trouble down the road.
Another great method ive found is the various CHELM activities(Clamming, Harvesting, Excavating, Logging and Mineing) These can really add variety and fun to your farming, if farming is your prefered choice of gil making. Tohrongi Canyon for example. Lots of people like to farm beehive chips and what have you out there. Take some pickaxes and hit some excavation points while your there. Chicken Bones, Turtle shells and giant femurs can add a nice bonus to your farming haul, and require almost no extra work to obtain. Run back and forth between the excavation area's, farming along the way.. and before long you'll have a nice haul to bring home.
Whatever you choose to do, the Trade Skill Forum here is a great resource, and lots of great people willing to share advice. Be sure to check it out.
I currenlty use every method here to make gil. (except the Strange Apparatus', I find that a bit too risky)
I rarley farm, but sometimes do if im really bored, or looking to skill up a weapon etc. The truth is, there is no quick fix for gil. Everything takes time, or involves a certain amount of risk.
The best part is.. after you get better, and become more adept at these kinds of things, you can make more money faster. I spent a good portion of my early days in game fishing, crafting, bazaaring etc. Many of my LS friends surpassed me in level.. however now they have to stop every few levels to farm for hours to earn enough gil for their new equipment and scrolls. Im catching up to them fast, and I havent had to stop leveling in nearly a month.
Best part is, I already have all my equipment upto level 40. I wont have to stop leveling my PLD till then if I dont want too. Im not trying to show off... or be arrogant here. Just trying to show that with a little work.. you can make yourself decent gil without alot of trouble down the road.
Another great method ive found is the various CHELM activities(Clamming, Harvesting, Excavating, Logging and Mineing) These can really add variety and fun to your farming, if farming is your prefered choice of gil making. Tohrongi Canyon for example. Lots of people like to farm beehive chips and what have you out there. Take some pickaxes and hit some excavation points while your there. Chicken Bones, Turtle shells and giant femurs can add a nice bonus to your farming haul, and require almost no extra work to obtain. Run back and forth between the excavation area's, farming along the way.. and before long you'll have a nice haul to bring home.
Whatever you choose to do, the Trade Skill Forum here is a great resource, and lots of great people willing to share advice. Be sure to check it out.
Thank you for your suggestion, Subarru. ^^ I have made the appropriate editing, and further expanded on the idea.
S.
S.
Here's another idea: sometimes on certain items the ah price falls below the price an npc will buy it for. This can happen on common monster drops that are dropped more frequently than used in crafting (lizard tails and pugil scales for instance), scrolls commonly dropped by non nm mobs (like bind and blind), some equipment that is gained as a quest reward, etc. You won't be able to make a huge profit this way, but its near instant, just find items that work this way then whenever you get the chance buy however many are on ah for as cheap as you can and sell to npcs.
Thanks for your post wckowalski... I have not done that more than one or two times, but it is worth mentioning. I've added it to the "Auction House Manipulation" section.
S.
S.
From what I've seen price fixing will get you in trouble, but pretty much anything else goes. I know one player that was able to buy up some of the more popular NM drops, travel them to other cities, manipulate the price history with his mules, and then sell to the unsuspecting for a hugh profit. He basically got a slap on the wrist for this, was simply told not to do it anymore or the AH would be off limits. But it is intersting to know that they are watching things like that, he didnt get away with it for very long, few days maybe.
When i was new i sold stacks of Latheine Cabbage(found less then 20m from the AH in south sandy) for 1000g /stack, i would put them up for 340, enough to cover the cost for buying them and putting them up. but since the history was full of 1000g sales, people bought them for that, pure profit^^
But it got boring, so i went to gelshba to camp the 2 warmachines, feels so good to have 30k for the first time ^^;
Also, adding to #1 that would make it easier to find stuff to sell. The items that you can buy from vendors changes with whatever place your nation has. If one nation has been in last place for a while, the supply of mid lowlevel items is probably low, and in one nation wich has been in first place long, the supply is large. Might look like this:
Nation in first place can buy all armor from lv1 Bronze Subligar to lv24 Chain Mail.
Nation in second place can buy all from Bronze subligar to brass subligar(i think)
But the nation in last place can only buy Bronze Subligar
And another thing is making good use of the regional vendors.
Example: Cooking guild is in Windy, but almost all the regions selling the ingredients are controlled by sandy or bastok. Forcing the crafters to buy from AH(if guild is out, wich it probably will be a few minutes after it opens), or log onto their mules.
But it got boring, so i went to gelshba to camp the 2 warmachines, feels so good to have 30k for the first time ^^;
Also, adding to #1 that would make it easier to find stuff to sell. The items that you can buy from vendors changes with whatever place your nation has. If one nation has been in last place for a while, the supply of mid lowlevel items is probably low, and in one nation wich has been in first place long, the supply is large. Might look like this:
Nation in first place can buy all armor from lv1 Bronze Subligar to lv24 Chain Mail.
Nation in second place can buy all from Bronze subligar to brass subligar(i think)
But the nation in last place can only buy Bronze Subligar
And another thing is making good use of the regional vendors.
Example: Cooking guild is in Windy, but almost all the regions selling the ingredients are controlled by sandy or bastok. Forcing the crafters to buy from AH(if guild is out, wich it probably will be a few minutes after it opens), or log onto their mules.
Scholar
29 posts
Nice article. Rate up.....oops....I can't rate people up yet.
I usually do reselling, by buying cheap things from NPCs and sell it at higher price (which is normal price for AH) at the AH.
Usually put 7 items up before I log off, go to bed, or go out to school or whatever.
When I log back in, I can collect my little profit. :)
Edited, Fri Nov 5 05:10:32 2004 by Chocobum
I usually do reselling, by buying cheap things from NPCs and sell it at higher price (which is normal price for AH) at the AH.
Usually put 7 items up before I log off, go to bed, or go out to school or whatever.
When I log back in, I can collect my little profit. :)
Edited, Fri Nov 5 05:10:32 2004 by Chocobum
I also have a now-and-then playing schedule for FFXI. Over the last year, I've racked up level 48 fishing {w/o ever, *ever* botting} and have figured out basic gardening to aquire funds.
But.
As a BLM/WHM, I never find that I have enough. Maybe I'm missing something (or maybe that's the way the game is designed; more likely to be addictive when you're always a little bit behind) - but there is no simple way to *make gil*.
My ratio of LVL to CRAFT is 1:2. I spend 3 days leveling, 6 days farming/fishing in order to catch up with the funds I need to max out that level with spells and gear.
Is this standard? 'Tis my first MMO, so maybe that's the lure of the games ...
But.
As a BLM/WHM, I never find that I have enough. Maybe I'm missing something (or maybe that's the way the game is designed; more likely to be addictive when you're always a little bit behind) - but there is no simple way to *make gil*.
My ratio of LVL to CRAFT is 1:2. I spend 3 days leveling, 6 days farming/fishing in order to catch up with the funds I need to max out that level with spells and gear.
Is this standard? 'Tis my first MMO, so maybe that's the lure of the games ...
Quote:
I must show this to everyone I know who wastes their time hunting NM's and blaming their lack of income on gil sellers/bots. You can either play the lottery, or work smart. Guess which one is far more likely to be profitable.
I don't recommend hunting notorious monsters unless you invest the time to become better than the other people at it. If you decide to hunt Lizzy or the Emperor then you must not only have widescan and flee but you must spend hours to perfect the process and the timing of spotting the NM, tracking, fleeing, and pulling without stumbling for a fraction of a second. I camp NM's successfully. If I were not a thf however I doubt it would be worth the time.
I see some people there for weeks (hours per day) without getting a single pair of boots. They could have farmed for 5 pair in the same amount of time.
I have camped quite a bit and I can tell you this: There are almost always people there that are very very good at hunting for those NM's. Don't run around killing lizzards for hours on end as a warrior or a dragoon (or whatever... anything other than thf/rng) and expect ot make a ton of money. However, if you do it for the excitement (like I do) with the added bonus of the chance to hit it big... the go for it.
btw- you can beat the best of the best simple by getting Thf up to lvl 25 and subbing a level 1 ranger for widescan. Just take the time to perfect the process. You will suck at first becuase its not easy to get a feel for the timing without trial and error. Anyway, the only better combination than thf/rng is a level 50 ranger with a level 25 theif subbed... they can beat you easily with Shadowbind.
p.s. Another tip: get up early in the morning and camp... hardly anyone will be there.
Edited, Fri Nov 5 08:34:03 2004 by Magesavvy
Great advice... rate up.
It's just too bad that we're "expected" to have a mule in each city (at an extra monthly cost) in order to maximize our profits. =/
It's just too bad that we're "expected" to have a mule in each city (at an extra monthly cost) in order to maximize our profits. =/
A real part time player would have about 2-3 hours per day. Everything in the post requires your time and for you to be there (legally anywayz), except doing your bazaar.
I really like your post BUT every example you put forth does not have a gauranteed time/profit. For example if you spend X amount of hours re-selling there is no gaurantee that you will come out with X amout of gill per try. I mean we can take into account undercutting and supply and demand as well and it could be a long process.
Not to menton a true part time player does not know vana' diel NPC's inside out, hell im a 57 palidan and i dont know where all the npc's that sell certain things are. It will take them a long time to do all this research then start playing the "game".
Anywayz look im not saying that this was not a great post, it definately will hlp some ppl...the ppl who really only have a few hours to play daily (part time players) can benefit from these steps BUT they will still spend alot of their time doing them.
I really like your post BUT every example you put forth does not have a gauranteed time/profit. For example if you spend X amount of hours re-selling there is no gaurantee that you will come out with X amout of gill per try. I mean we can take into account undercutting and supply and demand as well and it could be a long process.
Not to menton a true part time player does not know vana' diel NPC's inside out, hell im a 57 palidan and i dont know where all the npc's that sell certain things are. It will take them a long time to do all this research then start playing the "game".
Anywayz look im not saying that this was not a great post, it definately will hlp some ppl...the ppl who really only have a few hours to play daily (part time players) can benefit from these steps BUT they will still spend alot of their time doing them.
Great summary. This could help many people to save their time while they try to gain extra money. I do fishing and reselling, at the beginning Fishing took a lot of patience and was time-consuming. But as I get higher level at fishing, I can fish faster and get better successful rate. Gained lots of money, even enough to fund my cooking in power-leveling up to level 29 now.
I have yet to try Gardening. Should be fun. ^^
I have yet to try Gardening. Should be fun. ^^
In reply to DARKVIRUS:
I can understand your concern, but have you tried any of the above methods? I am a part-time player. It used to take me 30 mins a day to finish my reselling and gardening over 3 or 4 accounts (depending where I last logged with my main). If I only do gardening, it takes five minutes. There are not many substantial "guaranteed" returns on anything in this game (that I have found), because you have to sell in the Auction House/Bazaar to make substantial Gil. This makes your sale dependant on the whims of the buyers and undercutters.
I would profess, however, that if you find a handfull of things to resell/craft that it would be enough to make a profit off of. Once item A gets undercut to the point where profit isn't good enough, switch to another. It's very simple. You really don't need to know where every vendor (regional or otherwise) is. I've done this since I started partying in Valkurm for the first time... I hardly knew anything about the game at that time. In the end, it is a moderate means of supplementing your income. By no means is reselling going to make you rich. I currently make most of my Gil Gardening, Fishing, and Crafting. I NEVER farm or go NM hunting.
Truth be told, from what I have learned about gardening I have a guaranteed crop that yields me a profit consistently... and I can NPC a good deal of the results. You will not find the optimum methods to earn Gil overnight, so you will need to do research. Most of it is nicely documented on several websites in the form of databases and forum posts... all you have to do is find it and read it. It was easy enough for me ^^
Edited, Fri Nov 5 14:04:16 2004 by azureseed
I can understand your concern, but have you tried any of the above methods? I am a part-time player. It used to take me 30 mins a day to finish my reselling and gardening over 3 or 4 accounts (depending where I last logged with my main). If I only do gardening, it takes five minutes. There are not many substantial "guaranteed" returns on anything in this game (that I have found), because you have to sell in the Auction House/Bazaar to make substantial Gil. This makes your sale dependant on the whims of the buyers and undercutters.
I would profess, however, that if you find a handfull of things to resell/craft that it would be enough to make a profit off of. Once item A gets undercut to the point where profit isn't good enough, switch to another. It's very simple. You really don't need to know where every vendor (regional or otherwise) is. I've done this since I started partying in Valkurm for the first time... I hardly knew anything about the game at that time. In the end, it is a moderate means of supplementing your income. By no means is reselling going to make you rich. I currently make most of my Gil Gardening, Fishing, and Crafting. I NEVER farm or go NM hunting.
Truth be told, from what I have learned about gardening I have a guaranteed crop that yields me a profit consistently... and I can NPC a good deal of the results. You will not find the optimum methods to earn Gil overnight, so you will need to do research. Most of it is nicely documented on several websites in the form of databases and forum posts... all you have to do is find it and read it. It was easy enough for me ^^
Edited, Fri Nov 5 14:04:16 2004 by azureseed
Quote:
so you will need to do research.
That's exactly where the time aspect get challenged for a part-time player. You're absolutely right about gardening but you still have to research and experiment (time, day, moon) with factors that could consume a big portion of the little time you have.
You can go out and be lazy (i do it all the time myself) and look everything up but then again you're taking the experience away from finding it yourself. Much like ppl like to argue that gill-buying is an easy wasy to adventure, i myself feel that looking up information on premium websites (in other words you payed for that info) does the same thing.
Anywayz dont wanna go off topic here, lol. Very nice post and im sure it wil help alot of ppl, which is what counts.
/salute
Edited, Fri Nov 5 14:34:42 2004 by DARKVIRUS
In reply to DARKVIRUS:
The research will take time, you are correct. I would like to point out that in the amount of time it takes to go farming once, perhaps twice, you can glean enough information to carry through with most of the procedures above.
Experimenting with gardening results is not covered in this topic, however. I chose not to "reinvent the wheel", as it were. Any class you have EVER taken for school at any grade level involves the same kind of effort... you learn the information to complete tasks. I certainly appreciated learning TCL/TK programming scripts and Physics from a teacher, rather than having to invent the script myself or derive all of Newton's (among other scientist's) formulae.
There is nothing wrong with using the web to find gardening/crafting recipes, vendor sales lists and locations, BCMN strategies, or any other information pertaining to the game. I have never payed for any of the information, either.
By the way, I rated you back up since I found nothing wrong with your post. Thanks for your input ^^
S.
The research will take time, you are correct. I would like to point out that in the amount of time it takes to go farming once, perhaps twice, you can glean enough information to carry through with most of the procedures above.
Experimenting with gardening results is not covered in this topic, however. I chose not to "reinvent the wheel", as it were. Any class you have EVER taken for school at any grade level involves the same kind of effort... you learn the information to complete tasks. I certainly appreciated learning TCL/TK programming scripts and Physics from a teacher, rather than having to invent the script myself or derive all of Newton's (among other scientist's) formulae.
There is nothing wrong with using the web to find gardening/crafting recipes, vendor sales lists and locations, BCMN strategies, or any other information pertaining to the game. I have never payed for any of the information, either.
By the way, I rated you back up since I found nothing wrong with your post. Thanks for your input ^^
S.
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