It's the question that plagues adventurers of all ages, jobs and time zones:  How can I make gil?!

For their August issue, the staff at ConnectOn!, a Japanese online gaming magazine, were determined to find out.  They conducted a massive survey to find out how their readers made gil, and conducted an experiement to find the best application of Treasure Hunter II, for those looking to line their pockets.

A translated presentation of the survey results from jpbutton.com is now available here for Allakhazam readers!

What were the results of their survey?  Read on to find out.

RAISING MONEY

Gil Makes the World Go 'Round

How to raise money is the question that has plagued the adventurers of Vana'diel more than any other. We collected answers in our survey from adventurers everywhere.

How can I start making money as a low-level player?

• Kill bees in Giddeus - Rebirebi of Titan
• Kill nearby monsters and sells stacks of whatever goodies they drop on the Auction House. Use the money you make to buy a fishing rod and some bait, and go fish up carp. - "Brothers Grimm" of Valefor
• Hunt down lots of Easy Prey, so you can get Experience Points, ingredients and crystals. Around Windurst, Bees and Crawlers are good. You can also de-synth Yagudo Beads with Wind or Lightning crystals (even at 0 skill). - Rakueru of Valefor
• Hunt sheep and craft with their skin. - "The Bearded Fisherman" of Valefor
• As a Sand'Oria, I did repeatable Quests for the gil rewards so much I thought I'd die! - Reinz of Bahamut
• Between the three nations, there are many repeatable quests that can net you some money. If you do them over and over, eventually you will level, and as you level, your income increases. - Anonymous

I have a high level back-line job, and no Treasure Hunter. Tell me how to make some cash!

• Back-line jobs (especially Black Mage), are useful in a variety of BCNMs... so, there you go. Go do "Up In Arms!". w - Furoku of Garuda
• Harvesting and gardening work well for everyone. - "King Metamorphosis" of Alexander
• Try hunting some Elementals. If you have Ranger leveled, Wide Scan can be useful. - Anonymous
• Why not bring along a friend with Treasure Hunter? (*'-') It's like a Fellow without limitations. - "Naneko" of Gilgamesh
• Go hunting for treasure on Chocobo. If you're diligent enough, you may be able to make a living. Even 10 minutes at a time is enough. - "Sharo" of Pandemonium
• A high level White Mage or Black Mage can open a Teleport station. You can charge for Retrace, too. - "The Black Knight" of Garuda
• I just do ENMs! You should schedule events with your LS. I tried many methods, but this is the best. - "Lights" of Ifrit
• With harvesting and mining, you don't even need Treasure Hunter. Teleports and Warps will help you get around, too. - "Rirakkuma" of Caitsith
• First, get your Thief up to level 37, and use it as your support job to kill bees. What a difference it makes! You'll see more Beehive Chips than you'll know what to do with! It's a pain, but if you level your Thief, you'll find it much easier to make money in a variety of ways. So, yeah. - Neight of Diabolos

Can I Make Money With Retrace?

In Vana'diel, Teleporting people for money is old news. The new big business is in casting Retrace. Starting at level 55, Black Mages are able to use Retrace to send players back to the world of the past. Since it only sends the target of the spell, the user can repeatedly send new customers while remaining in town. Spending 7 hours shouting in Aht Urghan Whitegate produced 71 requests for Retrace. That's about 10 requests per hour. Even at 1,000 gil per person, you can easily make an hourly wage of 10,000 gil; and that's not counting party members that might be along for the ride!

Recommended Quests

San d'Oria: Fear of the Dark At F-6 in Northern San d'Oria, Secodiand will reward players with 200gil for two Bat Wings. Buying a stack of wings off the Auction House and turning them in for this quest will produce a profit of over 1,200 gil.

Bastok: Gourmet At L-8 of Bastok Markets, Salimah requests that adventurers bring her cooking ingredients. Between 18:00~5:59 she needs Sleepshrooms, 6:00~11:59 she needs Treant Bulbs, and from 12:00~17:59 she requests Wild Onions. Even purchasing them beforehand will produce a profit of 100 gil and up.

Windurst: The Postman Always K.O.s Twice Rabbits in East and West Sarutabaruta, as well as Tahrongi Canyon, drop certain letters that can be turned into Ambrosius at J-12 in Windurst Walls. The more letters you turn in at a time, the more money you can make. Four letter will net players a reward of 500 gil.

I want 3 million gil to buy some expensive equipment. Is there any way to make earn this much within two months?

• It depends on the world, but you should try out ISNM battles. Selling Khroma Ore could get you the money, I think. - Chihaya of Diabolos
• Making the rounds through Rolanberry Fields can net you 50,000 gil a day! You have to work at it every day! - Dhuck of Bismarck
• To make 3 million gil within two months, you really have to focus your efforts. Forbid yourself from doing any leveling or missions. Do quests that reward gil without using thte Auction House. Gathering Tiger Fangs at the Glacier is a great place to start. Also, use points earned in Besieged to buy gold coins and sell them on the Auction House. - Ikigiren of Shiva
• Start by drawing up a graph with the 60 days for the X-axis, and 3 million gil for the Y-axis. Mark down your progress every day, and after two weeks you should have a good idea of your earning power. You have to be willing to change your methods if you seen a drop in productivity. - Anonymous

What's the best way to make money with Treasure Hunter II?

• Gather up items used to make popular medicines. Ingredients for Silent Oils and Prism Powders are especially good. - Pichip of Kujata
• Hunt Ladybugs in Ronfaure [S]. You can use them to get a reward from the Ladybug wing Quest. - "Gucci" of Fenrir
• Buffalo meat. And skin! - "Clear Skies" of Kujata
• Hunt Bugards in Lufaise. Sell the spoils to NPCs. - Bea of Caitsith
• Ask anyone, and they'll tell you: Fang Finder! - Necorn of Lakshmi
• Kill Cockatrice and Octopi in Onzozo. The skins and meat are sweet money-makers. - "The sub-less Taru" (Rola) of Kujata
• Hunt Domo-kun in Zi'tah. - Anonymous
• Wouldn't Demons in Zvahl Castle get you some cash? I wish someone had taught me that... - Tadasi of Midgardsormr

Survey Results: How to make the most money in 45 minutes!

Professor Bekunai gives a run-down of the results!

Reading the results of our survey, we have found the 4 best monsters to hunt, in order to make some fast cash. The parameters were as follows: THF75/NIN37 with Treasure Hunter II and a Thief's Knife. With 15 minutes alloted for travel time, one would get a total of one hour to gather the goods. Dropped items would then be sold (not crafted) as is on the Auction House or to NPCs.

Who does Professor Bekunai think will come out on top?

So how did they fare when put to the test??

Jelly		As an ingredient of Silent Oil, Slime Oil is used with Beeswax, which is made from Beehive Chips. To get these oils, I headed to Korroloka Tunnel to take down some Slimes. It's a very convenient hunting ground, being that they can be found soon after entering from Bastok Mines. Basically, you just follow the long and narrow road. There's 2 at the roundabout on the Altepa Desert side, another pop nearby, and you can hit them all by making a circle, so it's easy to make a hunting route. For Thieves, you can check out the whole pop area with Flee. I was lucky, and there wasn't be anyone else around trying to take my Jellies when I started. After about 30 minutes, a Dragoon showed up, but thanks to my smooth hunting skills, I still got 37 Jellies and a total of 29 Slime Oils.	~19,333 gil
Bugard		Bugards will drop Bugard Tusk, Bugard Skin and High-Quality Bugard Skin. A skin will normally go for 500~1,000 gil on the Auction House, while a Tusk or High-Quality Skin will get you around 3,000 gil. Yeah, the regular skins are kind of cheap. Selling them to NPCs will guarantee 459 gil. However, if you use Dark Crystals and fashion some leather out of them, you can raise that profit up to 2,000 gil. Still, we're selling drops as is for this experiment, so I can't use that tactic to change the results. If you've got 20 or more Leathercrafting skill, you can take a shot at it. Don't forget that if you continue to kill off Bugard, you may see the NM Megalobugard pop. He drops a Hercules' Ring, which sells for over 100,000 gil! However, over the course of my Bugard massacre, I only found 29 regular ol' skins.	9,500 gil
Buffalo		Now it's time for the Buffalo, the only one of the contenders that will aggro level 75 players. I took great care to pay attention to my surroundings, so as not to end up with multiple monsters attacking me. After killing about 10 of these, I noticed something different. One of these creatures was named Bonnakon. That's right, an NM! Thinking back, I remembered that this particular monster dropped Cure Clogs, a special foot piece for White Mages. I also remember this particular monster kicking my butt... All right, let's do this. Hmm, he's stronger than a regular Buffalo, but still weaker than I remember. Aha, it must be the buffs from having Signet active. After about 7 minutes, I claimed a decisive victory. And no drop. In the end, I took out 17 Buffalo, including Bonnakon, and went home with 7 Uleguerand Milk and 3 Buffalo Meat. Not a single skin was dropped.	22,000 gil
Ladybug		Finally, it's time for my favorite to win it all: the Ladybug. Jugner Forest [S] also has some stronger Ladybugs that will aggro to level 75 players, but if possible, I want to try out East Ronfaure [S], where they are higher in number.These Ladybugs have a peculiar trait. They usually aggro players, but at night they won't. Also, they only use their special attack, Spiral Spin, during the daytime. As a level 75 player, going during in the daytime or nighttime made no difference, but if these still con as giving experience for you, you might want to wait until night. I killed the most of these out of the 4 monsters tested, racking up a body count of 60 bugs. Since the ones in East Ronfaure [S] are a lower level, they also have a lower drop rate. I still managed to get 24 Ladybug Wings and I turned them all in to the "Seeing Spots" Quest NPC.	18,000 gil

And the winner is...

I said it was too strong, the battles too long, the drops too few and far between... but still the Buffalo took home the gold! Even despite the NM popping and eating into my hunting time, it clearly came out on top. Imagine if Cure Clogs had dropped, it would have blown everything else away. For those looking to get the most out of their Treasure Hunter II, the Buffalo is your man. The Ladybug, which I picked as my clear favorite, ended up coming in third. However, since the chance of being K.O.d is low, getting drops from this monster is relatively safe, and is a still a fairly good option for earning gil in general. The 4th place Bugard isn't so bad if you consider the possibility of NMs, and the fact that you can craft skins into leather. Speaking of which, Jellies up in 2nd place become even better if you craft Silent Oils yourself from the Slime Oil they drop. 45 minutes of work could end up netting you over 20,000 gil in those cases, so really, every monster in this experiment comes out a winner.

For more Final Fantasy XI articles and interviews from Japan, be sure to visit jpbutton.com !

Source: ConnectOn! August 2008 issue

Translated by: jpbutton.com