I'm at a loss for what to do really. Back in 2005 I remember selling crystals would generally make enough to get some basic gear to get moving to dunes at level 10. But now, stacks of crystals don't sell for anything hardly.

Sooo... how are we supposed to gear up early on, before we really have the levels to go out and do real money making stuff?

Check my sig!

_________________
Returning/Existing Player? Trouble logging in? Click here |~| New player Gil guide |~| More Troubleshooting

oh good lord you're a life saver! Do you know of any specific points in sarutabuta to farm crawlers optimally?

If you walk out of Windurst Waters to West Sarutabaruta, and head West, you'll come to an area with ~4 crawlers packed together. South of there are 2 more, and just north of the NW spawn is another.

This is the most dense concentration of them.

Cheers. I just helped tank Silk Thread stacks further.

I've leveled 2 classes to 14 or higher (Thf, RdM) and have obtained level appropriate gear just by selling to vendors (mostly things in Navutso's guide ironically enough) and buying from AH. Between that and the sig rewards from guards you should be able by even if AH sales arent moving for you.

Thanks again for this. I tried it out last night and there were crawlers everywhere. Particularly ontop of the big hill at the north part of the map, there are like, 3-4 crawlers on that hill just chilling out. I think I made a good choice going with thief as my first job. I'm only level 11, but I imagine at level 15 I'll be a lot more valuable.

Hey! I'm playing solo leveling my WAR to lvl 12-14 and my RDM too. I want to go to the Dunes but first I want to be sure I have at least a decent gear equipment. However I don't know where to start. Many people say that with warriror you have to build 2 gear settings, one for tank and the other for DD, but I have arround 6k gil, so I have to take care with my buying's decision. I'm playing with the same sword and gear from the beginning of the game and didn't bought anything because I don't want to throw away my money (it was hard to amount those 6k...hahaha).

Any tips?

Ty!!

Focus on doing damage. Basically, you should gear the same whether you are the tank or just another DD, as a low level WAR. Doing more damage will mean the enemy dies faster and you take less damage. For early levels, get Attack, Accuracy, STR and DEX wherever you can, and focus on DEF anywhere else. For weapons, you're looking for high DMG, low Delay and any bonus stats on the weapon itself.

You should consider switching your jobs and levelling up to 12-14 again to build more gil. Also, you can use this second job as your subjob once that is unlocked. I would switch WAR to MNK and RDM to WHM, if I were you. Buy a level 1 Hand to Hand weapon for MNK and a Club or Staff for WHM then level up all over again.

As for gearing your current characters on a budget: WAR should keep weapons up to date, use Conquest Points on a few pieces and buy cheap DEF pieces where you can't get DD stats. Also, you should budget for food. WAR is most proficient in Axe and Great Axe, but you can still be effective with other weapons. RDM should mostly invest in spells, I'll cover the most important ones.

WAR:
Weapon: Bone Axe, Light Axe, Greataxe or Bee Spatha
Sub: cheap shield for DEF and blocking
Head: Legionnaire's Cap* or Royal Footman's Bandana* or Faceguard
Neck: if on a budget, can skip until Fang Necklace/Spike Necklace
Earrings: Bone Earring (or Bone Earring +1)
Body: Legionnaire's Harness* or Royal Footman's Vest* or Scale Mail
Hands: Legionnaire's Mittens* or Royal Footman's Gloves* Guerilla Gloves or Scale Finger Gauntlets
Rings: Sardonyx Ring (or Courage Ring)
Back: Rabbit Mantle
Waist: Warrior's Belt
Legs: Scale Cuisses
Feet: Scale Greaves

Food: for a budget, cheap Meat like Grilled Hare (3 hour food), Roast Mutton (3 hour food) or Meat Jerky (30 minute food). These temporarily give a lot of +ATT and +STR.

*If you are from Bastok or San d'Oria, you can use your conquest points to buy these items, saving your gil for other slots

Priority is Weapon, food, then Hands that give +ATT or +ACC, then Rings/Earrings for STR/ATT, then DEF pieces, IMO. Some of the DEF pieces are super cheap, so be sure to get those ones.

As you level, you'll progress from Scale Armor to Bone/Lizard Armor at 16/17, to Beetle Armor at 21. You could get by with the weapons until 20ish.

RDM:
Your role is likely going to be healer/debuffer at low levels. At an absolute minimum, you should have Cure, Cure 2, Dia, Paralyze, Slow and Bind. From WHM sub you should have Poisona, Paralyna and Protectra. After the essentials, the other debuffs, buffs and nukes are all useful. When you can afford to, your goal should be to have all of your spells. 95% of the time, the cheapest spot to buy spells is from an NPC vendor.

For gear, I'd try to get MND rings, INT rings, a MND/INT wand and cheap DEF elsewhere. Try to make room in your budget for Ginger Cookies to use before you rest MP.

Hey!

Currently as a San d'Orian, a great option for making money is stacks of fire crystals from Orcs. 2-3k gil / 12 crystals on the Auction House. Level up on these and make gil at the same time.

Just focus on damage for warrior, and really only focus on having a good, level sync appropriate weapon (great axe for war). As long as you have level appropriate weapon and are using foods (cheap attack food are perfectly fine) you are set, get whatever cheap armor you can from AH after that.

As far as some suggestions for gil, there are many repeatable turn in quests that can actually net you gil just by buying off the AH. This won't work if too many people are doing them, so check the AH price at the time and see if you can net some free gil. They will also help you max out your reputations so really worth doing IMO, even if they are tedious.

Couple examples:
Thick Shells quest, turn in 5 beetle shells 750 gil reward. (can buy stack off AH for ~1k gil)
The All-New C-3000: turn in 1 beetle shell + 1 hecteyes eye for 600 gil reward. Should net you a few hundred gil each turn in if you buy off AH.

Theres a few others that are worth looking up, one to turn in honey, bat wings, etc. Other than that, as others suggested, just farming crystals while leveling is probably your best bet. Just focus on low EP mobs that can kill quickly