Introduction:
Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) offers a diverse crafting system, with Smithing standing out as one of the most engaging and rewarding professions. As a dedicated smith, you'll forge powerful weapons, durable armor, and essential tools for adventurers. This guide aims to provide a detailed walkthrough of the Smithing skill in FFXI, covering essential concepts, leveling strategies, and tips to maximize your proficiency.
What Is Smithing
Smithing is a crafting skill in FFXI that allows players to create various metal-based items. It is also a solid source for your in-game money in FFXI. The primary materials for Smithing are ores, ingots, and other metallic items obtained through mining or monster drops. The crafted products include weapons, armor, and tools that can greatly enhance your character's capabilities.
Getting Started
To start Smithing, you need to buy a Smithing Kit from a Guild Merchant. The Smithing Kit contains a Fire Crystal, a Bronze Ingot, and a Bronze Sheet. You can use these items to make your first synth: a Bronze Dagger. To do this, you need to find a furnace, which is usually located near the Smithing Guild or in some towns. You can also use a Portable Furnace, which is an item that you can buy from the Auction House or craft yourself.
To perform a synth, you need to open the Crafting menu and select the Smithing skill. Then, you need to select the Fire Crystal and the other ingredients from your inventory. You can also use the Auto-fill option, which will automatically select the ingredients for you based on the recipe. Once you have selected the ingredients, you can press the Synthesize button to start the synth. You will see a progress bar and a message indicating the success or failure of the synth.
There are many factors that affect the outcome of a synth, such as your skill level, the difficulty of the recipe, the quality of the ingredients, the direction you are facing, the day of the week, the moon phase, and your support level. You can increase your chances of success by using advanced equipment, such as Anvils, Hammers, and Smithy's Mitts, which you can buy from the Guild or craft yourself. You can also get support from the Guild by paying a fee, which will temporarily boost your skill level.
As you perform synths, you will gain skill points and increase your skill level. The maximum skill level you can reach is 100, but you need to pass a test every 10 levels to unlock the next rank. The test consists of crafting a specific item and delivering it to the Guild Master.
To learn new recipes, you can buy Smithing Guides from the Guild, which will show you the ingredients and the skill level required for each synth. Some recipes are hidden or exclusive in the game, which means you need to discover them by yourself or obtain them from special sources, such as quests, events, or NPCs.
Items You Can Craft
Weapons:
You can craft various types of metal weapons, such as daggers, swords, axes, scythes, great swords, katanas, great katanas, and polearms. Some of the best weapons you can craft are the Relic Weapons, which are legendary weapons that require rare and expensive materials, such as Dynamis currency, Ancient Beastcoins, and Relic Iron.
Armor:
You can craft metal armor for different jobs, such as Warriors, Paladins, Dark Knights, Samurai, Dragoons, and Ninjas. One of the best armor sets you can craft is the Artifact Armor, which is job-specific armor that requires rare and expensive materials, like Kindred's Crests, Ancient Beastcoins, and Relic Steel.
Tools:
You can also craft metal tools for various purposes, such as fishing rods, pickaxes, sickles, hatchets, and lanterns. You can try to craft Lu Shang's Fishing Rod, which is the ultimate fishing rod that requires a lot of fishing skill and patience, and the Magnifying Spectacles, which are glasses that enhance your crafting skill and success rate.
Ammunition:
You can craft metal ammunition for ranged weapons, such as bullets and bolts. Some of the best ammunition you can craft are the Silver Bullets, which are high-damage bullets that require silver ingots and beastcoins, and the Sleep Bolts, which are bolts that inflict sleep on the target.
Synth Materials:
You can craft metal materials that are used for other crafts, such as ingots, sheets, chains, rings, and nuggets. Crafting Darksteel Ingot is a good idea, as it is a rare and expensive metal, which requires darksteel ore and a high smithing skill. Besides, there is Gold Ingot, which is a precious metal that requires gold ore and a high goldsmithing skill.
Leveling Up Tips
- Begin your journey by crafting basic items such as ingots and sheets. These materials are fundamental for advanced recipes.
- Join the Smithing Guild in your city to access exclusive recipes and tools. As you level up, you can also explore other cities and join regional guilds to access additional recipes.
- Complete guild-specific quests for additional skill points and rewards.
- Focus on recipes that provide the most skill points per synthesis.
- Experiment with different combinations to discover efficient skill-up recipes.
- Collaborate with other crafters to gain synergy bonuses, increasing your chances of successful synthesis.
- Join a crafting community or guild to find collaborators and share insights.
- When you fail a synthesis, you may be able to recover some materials using the Desynthesis skill.
- Breakdown items you no longer need to obtain materials for new syntheses.
- Take advantage of the Level Sync feature when crafting with higher-level players. This ensures that the recipes are still challenging but not impossible.
- Unlock the Materia system to add additional bonuses to your crafted items. Experiment with different materia combinations to discover powerful synergies.
- Leveling up Smithing takes time, patience, and persistence. Don't get discouraged by occasional failures.
Conclusion
Smithing is a challenging but rewarding craft that can help you create powerful and profitable items. Smithing requires a lot of dedication, resources, and skill, but it can also provide you with a lot of satisfaction and fun. If you want to become a master smith, you need to practice a lot, learn new recipes, and invest in your equipment and materials. Hope the above content helps with your Smithing journey.