Farming and You - Full GuideFollow

I have decided to remake this post with the contributions of many other members of the Caitsith family.

Below are some points to keep in mind when farming that will help you maximize your income. ^^

Locating a location - I personally believe that you should never farm in an area where mobs can aggro you. (Excluding NM Pops) Every mob within the area should be TWTBW (Too Weak To Be Worthwhile). Having to worry about EP or DC mobs slows down production and makes it quite a hassle.

Know your Area/Zone - Get to know every zone in terms of what spawns, when they spawn, where they spawn, and what they drop. With this, you can develop a game plan.

Travelling to and from your Area - Outposts. Use them. I like to farm zones that my country controls. Why? First, easy in and easy out. Second, when my inv fills up, instead of dropping items, I can run to the outpost and sell off items that I would normally unload onto an NPC. Got too many femurs or hides? Run to the nearest outpost and unload a few or teleport back to your city to move them to mule or AH.

Subbing THF - This is really a no-brainer. Make sure your THF is as least level 15 so you have both Gilfinder and Treasure Hunter 1. It does make a huge difference. If you are farming a wide area and are at least 50, Flee helps out a great deal as well so THF at 25 would also help.

Staying Alive - The worse thing that can happen is dying while you are farming. Know your limit. I would recommend that if you get deep into yellow, do something. Last resort is resting. If you are a mage, you know what to do. For other jobs, you could use bloody bolts with your Ranged Attack to pull HP, or if you are a MNK, make sure to Chakra often. As well, you should use abilities/spells like Utsusemi, Dodge and so forth if you have them to reduce your chance of getting too low.

Valuing Items - Know what prices your items are going for in the AH and from an NPC sell. This is also imperative for managing your inventory so you know what to keep and what not to keep if you run out of space.

Stealing Items - Did you know you can steal certain meat from tigers? Did you know you can steal tears from Ahrimans? You can also steal giant bird feathers from Tabars. Do your research and see what else you can get from these mobs to maximize your farming income.

Claiming your Mob - This really depends on how camped this area is. If it is not very camped, just SA and attack the mob from the back. But if it is pretty camped, then you definitely need some sort of mechanism to claim a mob quickly. For me, I swap between Chi Blast and Steal. Unfortunately, I have to get up close to the mob for Steal, but it is quicker then waiting for the attack delay. For mages, this should be cake since you can use spells like Dia, Flash, Stun, etc. As well, make sure you check the name of the mob, before you attack it. Many times there are locations where NM's will spawn and look identical to normal mobs.

Farming Courtesy - Really, this doesn't apply to the gil sellers. However, in some places I farm, I see people there regularly. I try to be courteous with them, like if I see them about to engage a mob and so forth, I will let them have it instead of trying to out-claim them. On the other hand, if the other farmer is being a prick, this doesn't apply either. But keeping this courtesy with the nicer farmers, they generally will do the same for you, at least in my experiences. Also, you never know if you get a link or if you start to get in trouble, you can either invite another farmer to party or call for /help.

Managing Inventory - For me, I have 50 slots available (still haven't done the last GB quest). I always, sort after every drop to make sure nothing is lost. As well, I always recommend to keep everything and sell everything. But if you are running out of room, drop the crappy items. This is where knowing how much the items go for in the AH and by NPC's comes in handy.

Patience Needed - On many game days, you will see that drops don't occur to often. Have patience. In the places I farm, the best days are usually Windsday and Waterday. So there may be periods where it is dry, don't stress. Just keep on trucking. Farming was not meant to be easy.

Long-term Farming - Don't expect to make a lot of money in one day of farming. However, I would make a goal depending on the area. Whether it is 10k or 100k. As well, you will probably need to farm for at least 3-4 hours to see a decent amount of loot. 30 minutes of farming won't get much at all.

NM Camping over Farming? - Why not NM camp and make the big bucks instead of farming for hours? Well, this has always been a toss up for me. But it depends on how you play. I have done both, and been successful at both. I have also failed miserably at both. With NM camping, expect not to get a dime for hours. But, if you are lucky (since NM camping is based on 90% luck, 10% skill and know-how), you could score a huge drop.

As well, if you are going to camp an NM, in between spawns, you could always farm mobs in the surrounding area to make something, so it is not a complete loss. For example, in Oztroja, you can farm Crabs, Crawlers, and Yags to make something while waiting for Mee Deggi or Quu Domi to pop.

Dealing with Gil Sellers - Dealing with Gil Sellers a.k.a. MOB monopolizers. This is a rough one that I have been going through a great deal. You really only have 3 options here:

a) Deal with it and try to farm what you can.
b) Pick a new area.
c) Bring another person with you to increase your chances of grabbing mobs. You may think, well, you don't want to share your farming. But it is certainly better then getting practically nothing from going with option a.

Diversification - Have multiple farming zones. Why? If a zone is overcrowded, you have backup plans. No need to waste a day that was planned for farming.

Special thanks to the following people for contributing ideas on the original posting of this: Heylee, Deadmeat, Narel, Galkalord, and hXcHillary.

Any comments or concerns? Please let me know. ^^

Edited, Tue Dec 28 15:41:25 2004 by DJSlyde

Anyone have any comments or suggestions? Can someone possibly stick this if you are a paying member of AK?

Another idea for thieves out there is to utilize hide while farming. Say there's one other person farming/camping use hide and let them think they're all alone and let them take their time, ie casting a strong spell or SA.

Can someone who has a paid account on alla, please sticky this thread? Thanks.

Thank you. I am actually now a premier member. So usually, you have to submit something to request the sticky then?

Thanks so much!!! I have also added a blurb on that thread and hopefully they will sticky it. Again, thanks for your help. ^^

Another thing that helps during farming, is if you have a way to condense your farming items, to make more room.

IE:

1 yagudo necklace + 1 wind crystal = 3 grass threads.
3 grass threads +1 earth crystal = 1 grass cloth

It makes it so much easier to stack things, for profit, while you are farming.

Thank you very much guys. Feedback and recommendations appreciated! ^^

actually... i have to counter this. Personally I have find farming EP mobs is a plus. Keep in mind I'm a nin, so there is a slight soloing advantages. I have made over 50-60k of extra exp while farming, and picking the right mobs at the right levels you can make alot of gils while gaining some Xp as well.
Despite, ep exp is pretty low, but when you are faming them, you are killing tons of them... every little bit adds up. I thnk every 60-70k of gils i make farming I also get 1-2k of xp. However this is for the experience players I believe and have to have good soloing ability as well as knowing how to pull mobs based off how they behave.
Also having EP mobs that are good for farming may not always be available depending on your level range. This is just something good to keep in mind when deciding on what to farm.

On a side note: OutPost warp's how do they work? Ive looked for NPC's and found nothing. Im dumb-founded on this, someone clue me in please.^^;

Ah, ok. Thanks Slyde.

This could work well also, depending on where you are farming and how camped it is. Plus, you need to be PTing with people you trust so the loot is split evenly. ^^

One thing you may want to mention is that *most* of the time, the purpose of farming is to ultimately make gil.

If you're a nin/thf or a rng/thf, using up Shihei and Ammo, its not exactly the most productive farming. You're still burning Gil in order to kill the mob.

I understand that 60 rng/thf might be able to one shot everything, thus killing it faster, and from a distance, and thus also able to move on faster, but I think having the ability to farm WITHOUT using consumable materials is of utmost importance.

NM camping, however, I would see as different; You need every advantage you can get.

Good guide. Anyways i dunno about buying to use expendables like arrows and Shihei during farming, but i use whatever i have in my invintory left over from PTing. Mostly Fishkabobs or from lvl THF mithkabobs but i don't buy them for the purpase of farming, i just have them left over from PTing and they're wasteing space. Why burn extra gil while your tring to make it farming? I find though, if theres a EP in the area that i can fight example: Goblins or other Beastmen I fight them. Don't you make more Gil off them if they rate harder?

Thanks so much DJSlyde for doing this farming guide. It has helped me alot already and I rated you up in return for this great info. ^^

Slyde, If you could expand on this guide it would be great! I farm Goobbue in Pashow and i spent about 5 hours doing it and i took in: 4 Bags of tree cuttings, a stack of Boyahda moss, a stack of treant bulbs, 4 thunder clusters, 2 water (gave some to friend) and 12 silverbeastcoins i got from stealing from the higher tier gobs while wondering around. I think i got about 32k from it. I'm not too sure if thats all that great ><. I have to farm up a Gluttiny sword soon and anymore advice you have would be great.

Thanks Slyde, I'll try that when I get back on.

Remember that the moon phase has an influence on the drop rate. I've noticed a significant increase of drops during a full moon. For example, in an area I would usually have been getting 10k per hr I would suddenly go up to 20k or even 30k per hr on a full moon.

Not many ppl pay attention to the moon phase or the current day in FFXI, but those 2 factors have alot of impact on you whether you know it or not.

slyde,
all you need to do now is talk a few people into farming for me.... lol j/k ^^ nice guide for those that need to know! now, getting rid of gil farmers and beggars ><
{Take Care!}

Nazzy

Nice guide-ish thing.

This is true as I have experienced it first hand. Except for the gil sellers who don't care at all.

Places to Farm:

For tree cuttings go to Sanctuary of Zitah, best if u go around 50

For beastmen blood go to Pashhow Marshlands in the small little area in the top left corner of map, be around 30 to easily farm these.

For spider webs go to Korroloka tunnel, many spiders there.

btw, another easy way to make money is to level a level 1 job with signet, i mean ur leveling and making money at same time when u get crystals.

Moon affects almost everything.

Yeah, I took the food part out. Since the prices have gone up, food will cost too much to use while farming.

Stupid AK makes me triple post.
Stupid AK makes me triple post.
Stupid AK makes me triple post.


Edited, Wed Dec 29 03:02:53 2004 by DJSlyde

thought id mention a few places i like to farm^^
tahgroy canyon (spelling) lots of good low lvl stuff out here,
now a days i only go for wind, but between weather its stealing saruta cotton, killin bees, saplings, ghosts, and if i have a wind cluster, yags for beads. one hit kills with a boomerang make farming pretty easy^^

giddues: just take a few wind clusters and kill yags for beads and bees for honey (which u can steal) an beehive chips. also u can steal silver coins from the key dropping mobs, and can usually get atleast one pair of light soleas good for a couple k.

beaudeaux: check on all the NMs (got my first valkries mask few weeks ago^^) and bring a couple dark clusters, then kill the higher lvl sheep (cant remember name), they drop skins alot as well as selbina milk, teeth, and stealing wool etc.

these are some fun spots to waste a day and walk away with some good stack to sell or grow (save all my herb seeds for growing fire crystals^^)

i got a few more places, but im usin them alot lately so perhaps ill leave it at this for now =)

good luck and happy hunting -.0