Alchemy Guide by Liihu 0-60

CAUTION!

This article is only a guide. Information expressed in a guide is usually more opinion than fact and should be taken as such. Guides are written by players, based upon their experiences, successes and mistakes, and are meant to aid other players. However, there may be differing opinions than those expressed in a guide. Strategies and information in guides may not work for everyone.

Here's the thing. All crafting can be benefit from looking ahead and buying things cheaply. Be that Chestnut lumber singles for woodworking or goblin mask singles for Alchemy. If you want to jump into alchemy start logging on once a day with a mule and buying the ah items you need a head of time so things are cheap.

You all know how to find the recipes for these and I make link all that in later but just putting in the list and the justifications for now.

Sub Crafts Needed with this guide

Goldsmithing to 11 to make Minnows, and leathercraft to 17 to make Lizard Cesti though this craft can be skipped.

goldsmithing to 11

GS 3 - Copper Ingot Fire + 4 copper ore (can buy copper ore for like 10 gil/per in the shops behind the airship departure gate (need rank 5)

GS 3-4, make copper hairpin (cap 7)

GS 4-7, Make copper hair pin, but also use lightnining crystal to desynth the hairpins you make. Can only skill up on desynth within 3 of cap (advanced support doesn't matter for desynth)

GS 7-9 make brass ingot from ore, 3 copper ore, 1 zinc

GS 9-11 make brass ingot -> brass sheet.

you CAN stop here

GS 11-13 make brass scales from the brass sheets you have (use up your materials. If you don't hit 13 it's fine anything 11 or higher is good enough for minnows.)

Things to buy a head of time

jelly fish to make mecury, fish these or buy. Also this isn't a bad thing to farm from heca eye mobs in the necropolis it's like 70% drop rate.

giant bee stinger buy these as singles cheap over time. You can SKIP these so long as yellow globe fish are still super cheap. Need one or the other.

goblin masks if you clam or farm wild onions you might have a source for these, everyone else buy these up as singles over time cheaply. You CAN by moblin masks as well but these have a different (higher) desynth level and are often more expensive.

light crystals needed for invisibiltiy powders and holy water. You can far these with low level jobs around windy, or with higher level jobs on magic pots.

magic pot shards if you farm magic pots for the light crystals, keep the shards as well.

treant bulbs can buy these cheap as singles over time.

scorp claws if you go my route at the end there is a 10 level gap from 51->61 that needs 2 scorp claws. That's like 10 stacks to get 1 level to 52, so consider bridging with magic pot shards. But you will need a lot of scorp claws anyway.

Levels

Tradition says to start with black ink (level 4) but high level crafters HQ this for profit so the profit margins are very thing. Better to look at something like Antidotes (3). Surprisingly enough winjuit is harvested in Giddus so LOTS of it on the AH. Truth is Tsurara (level 6) is often so cheap to make that you can skip right to it at level 6. Make until cap.

Tsurara level 6

Silencing potion level 8 Mecury and jellyfish are EXPENSIVE on horizon. skip that recpie and make it with the sobbing fungus which there is a lot of an AH because of gardening. This is sometimes a guild point item. Don't bother listing it on AH until it is a GP item (check general crafting thread on horizonXI discord for daily GP item list.) As it doesn't really sell on off times. Expect to make a profit, but for it to sell slow.

dont forget to turn in guild test items at 8, 18, 28, etc I assume you know this so I'll skip reminding you.

Poison dust (Giant Stinger) level 11 AH buy item these would be a bitch to farm as they are dropped rarely. The are often sold in singles for cheap (sometimes for less than npc resale price) so depeneing on the market this may be a good idea or not. I was able to slowly buy singles at 100gil and store them up until I needed them.

Poison dust (Yellow Globe) level 11 AH buy item / fish the market was Absolutely flooded with this AFTER I passed this level. something like 500 gil/stack. Do this if it's cheaper than the giant stingers.

Mercury 16 this is a bitch. You can camp the stores, one in windy and one in biki bay near the efts and docks, but I promise you that 6 mules "log in" right before the store opens and every single one of them is trying to buy this too. If we didn't need the skill I'd say farm this from the eyes in the necroplis or buy from ah. But you need to make it so buy the jellies and make the mecury. In the future if you need it, farm it or buy it as people HQ this for profit and doing it yourself often costs more than paying for someone else to HQ it.

poison potion 18 combine dust + mercury. These sell okay on AH in stacks for events like COP, etc

echo drops 20 if these are selling well or not many on ah make them.

glass fiber 21 (goblin mask desynth) You can skill up on desynth when within 3 levels of the level cap. crafting support doesn't matter for this math. so at 21 you can beging to skill up at 18 this is an ah buy item as it's not really able to be farmed unless you do the clamming hobby in which case set these aside for when you need them. you will use glass fiber a lot in the profitable minnows.

silent oil 24 this is a profitable item as there is literally a conspiracy to keep the prices locked on horizonXI (there is a ls you can join full of alchemists who set prices on stuff.) you can of course undercut this and sell damn near instantly.

minnow 26 this requires gold smithing 10 guides have different numbers but we tested and this is about 10. This is a bait used to catch fish that are needed for the ebuso fishing rod or whatver. They sell well and for a profit. you are start making this at 21 if wax is too expensive, you can get brass ignots from desynthing moblin helms and moblin armor 1 and 3 respectively (assuming you have gs levels) These sell in large numbers. Try not to undercut the first time you put them on ah and see how many sell in 1 day. I've sold well over 200 of these in a single week/ there are a lot of other people making them and the price does move around a lot 700-1000 gil per sale. But these are still a go to when i have extra brass or copper (next recipe) laying around.

minnow 31 this Should require gold smithing 2 as it uses copper ingot, the air/sky/boat code shows it requires 11. This is broken on horizon we submitted a bug report but who knows if that stuff is changed (it is wrong on ASB as well.) so make sure you have gold smithing 11 buy copper ingots from ah or make or desynth yagudu necklaces.

Poison Cesti 33 to make lizard cetsi you buy the normal cesti in sandy and add lizard skin, these are super cheap to make, if you dont have ls get the mats to a buddy nad have him make 30-40. This is a guild point item, and sells well on days it is a gp item and doesn't sell otherwise. you can skip this if selling slowly or on GP days isn't something you are intrested in.

Artificial Lens 34 make these to cap and wherever you got with 30-40 cesti start on these at 31 with no issues.

potion 40 this is one of the super cheap synths if you can find lizard tails on ah (they sell so cheap most people just npc them.) these don't really sell to players. So npc them.

Prism Powder 41 this requires light crystals something most people don't have so watch the ah for cheap stuff, or farm from magic pots or low level cardians in windy.

Vitriol (treant bulb) 43 ah item I bought these at 100 gil per single over time and had way too many of them when i got to this stage lol.

Acid Bolt Heads 45 this is in every guild for a reason it sells fast and easy to make... that being said there is little to no profit on it. I still suggest doing this.

Carbon Fiber 45 (bomb ash) another route to take ah item. I bought bomb ash in singles on the ah for a long time and the price moves all over. You absolutely can get these as cheap singles if you buy a head of time.

holy water 51 6 level jump, some people don't like that gap there are other things to bridge but none too great. This is HQed by the higher ups so don't expect too much profit. That being said SELL THESE as is, don't make bolt heads, which is a major gil loss.

Holy Bolt Heads 53 DO NOT MAKE THESE I'm listing this just in case you compare this guide to another and think I forget this. I didn't check prices this synth is a MAJOR gil loss. if you want to bridge closer to 61 for venom dust, do cerment chunks which can at least breka even.

Cermet Chunk 56 magic pot shards this is a choice to make check prices I personally skipped it because I could farm scorp claws so eaisily as I leveled bst. I would suggest doing this synth until you hit level 54 and then moving on to venom dust.

DO NOT TURN IN TEST ITEM IF YOU ARE STOPPING AT 60

high potion 60 (morbol vine) this is another thing that doesn't sell well, but there are no great choices here.

Venom Dust 61 even if you are stopping at 6 this was the synth I did all the way from level 51 holy water. Why? I had stacks and stacks of scorp claws from solo exping on bst. The shells sell for profit and I synthed the claws. I would guess I used upwards of 40 stacks to go 51->61 I would suggest the magic pot shard snth if only to get you to 54