Welcome to State Alchemist's Guide to Alchemy. Here you will find the answers to many of your questions about Alchemy, Alchemical Tools, and Recipes. Specifically I strive to make your learning and leveling in the field of Alchemy a bit easier, so that you can move on to enjoy the benefits of being a Master Alchemist! I'd like to say to begin with, that this is just a guide. I have written this based on my experiences, and opinions. More importantly, you may find that some things work for you while others may not. If every aspect of the guide does not help you, I apologize, and implore to you to either help improve the guide, in a constructive and polite manner. And most importantly, remember to have fun!
The Frondale's Phrontistery(or more commonly known as the Alchemist's Guild) is located on the 2nd Level of Ul'dah. There you will find the basic tools of alchemy for sale, along with a handful of basic ingredients. You can also spend earned guild-marks here to acquire new abilities or purchase certain items. Laboratory Support is also available here in varying degrees: Common, Guild, and Master. Common Laboratory Access is the cheapest, whereas Master Laboratory Support is the most expensive. Prices for support vary based on level of support wanted, as well as your current Rank of Alchemy. Frondale's Phrontistery plays a part in Ul'dah's main storyline quests, as well as being the starting location for your first Alchemy Guild-quest, available once you reach Alchemy Rank 20(other requirements must be met as well, which will be discussed below…)
This section is short, but sweet. There are two tools in FFXIV that an alchemist uses: the Alembic, and the Mortar. When your ranking up, there is little difference, from what I have seen between using your Primary and Secondary Tool for synths. The only noticeable difference I have seen so far is the type of HQ result you receive, although the type of item you get from an HQ result may also change, however I have not witnessed this yet for Alchemy. For now I recommend just upgrading your Alembic as you level. Here is a link to the list of Known Alchemist's Tools available in the game so far:
An alembic (from Arabic al-inbīq الأنبيق, from Greek ambix (ambikon) possibly from Semitic) is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube. Technically, the alembic is the lid with a tube attachment (the capital or still-head), which is placed on top of a flask, the cucurbit, containing the material to be distilled, but the word is often used to refer to the entire distillation apparatus. If the lid and flask are in one piece, it may be called a retort. The liquid in the first flask is boiled; the vapour rises and flows into the tube, where it cools and condenses, running into the second flask. A modern descendant of the alembic (used to produce alcohol) is the pot still. The earliest appearances of alembic are to be found in the works of ancient Greek alchemists.
The word "alembic" has taken on a metaphorical meaning, anything that refines or transmutes, as if by distillation (as in "the alembic of creative thought"). The word, as does most alchemical terminology, comes from the Arabic: al-inbīq, meaning "still". The French spelling alambic is also commonly used, especially as the apparatus is often associated with Cognac where it is known as alambic charentais (Charente alembic). In Shakespeare's plays the older variant "limbeck" appears.
Your Alembic will be your primary tool in most Alchemy synths, and as such it is vital that you try to equip the optimal Alembic available to your Rank. Starting out you will begin with a Weathered Alembic, if you began the game as an Alchemist, or you can purchase one from various NPCs throughout the game, or at the Alchemist's Guild in Ul'dah.
Here is some helpful information regarding the effect attributes, elements, and gear, while performing Alchemy.
Attributes: So far the only known modifier to Alchemical synthesis is Intelligence. How influential it is, however, is still unknown, although there is a noticeable effect, so if your adamant about having every advantage you can, dump all your attribute points into INT.
Elements: The most common, and often the strongest present elements in most alchemy synths are(from order of importance:) Water, Fire, and Lightning. Water is the basis of a huge percentage of synths that you will perform so it is recommended for synthing purposes to keep your Water Element Attribute high. Fire is the second most predominant element in Alchemy, followed by Lightning. We recommend at least spending a moderate amount of points on these two elements. The rest of the elements, Earth, Ice, and Wind are used mainly for converting Crystals to Shards, or other similar recipes, and it is not necessary to put very many, if any, points into these attributes.
The Amount of points you have in an element increases your affinity with that element. By affinity I mean, your success rate with synths involving that element will be increased, and maybe more importantly, the drop rate of Shards/Crystals of that element is increased, whether your Mining, Fishing, Harvesting, or killing Creatures.
Gear: The equipment you use and wear also greatly effect your alchemy synths. I tend to lean more towards gear with Control, or Magical Craftmanship. However until there is more knowledge on how these mechanics work, just try to stay equipped with crafting gear that is optimal for Alchemist, at whatever your current Rank is. I will try to update this section as we learn more about synthesis mechanics.
Here is the section many of you are wanting to look at. I have changed the format of listing recipes since my major revision of this guide, and instead of telling you exactly what to synthesize, I will list recommended recipes for skill ups, and what Rank you can expect to start them at.
Some recipes in the list below can be used for a while. For example, Distilled Water can be used to go from Rank 1-10 very easily. However, I decided to list certain recipes that may be easy to do depending on your location in the game, and your typical play-style. Just because you reach Rank 5, for example, doesn't mean you now have to synthesize Honey. You can continue with your prior synthesis if that is easier, until you find a synth on the list that will work for you. These recipes are picked for a few reasons: Low Shard/Crystal cost; Cheap ingredient; Easy to find ingredient; or Ingredient purchasable from NPC. Ingredients in higher rank recipes that are obtained from lower ranked recipes mentioned here will be in bold, ingredients available from Alchemy Local Levequests will be underlined.
Rank 1: Distilled Water(x3): Fire Shard(x1) + Muddy Water(x1)**
**Muddy Water can be purchased from the NPC Tataroga, located in Ul'dah's Sapphire Exchange, for 153 Gil each.
Rank 5: Honey(x12): Fire Shard(x1) + Water Shard(x1) + Beehive Chip(x3)
Rank 6: Table Salt(x12): Fire Shard(x2) + Wind Shard(x2) + Distilled Water(x1) + Rock Salt(x1)**
**Rock Salt can be purchased from the NPC Jemimi, located in Ul'dah's Alchemist's Guild(Frondale's Phrontistery), for 921 Gil each.
**Malm Kelp and Tiger Cod can be caught easily at Rank 1 fishing around Limsa Lominsa, or on the ferry. Tiger Cod can be used in a Rank 1 Culinarian synth to make Sea Sand. While this requires you to fish and cook, the upside is, that this makes your skill ups almost free. I highly recommend this, if you don't want to synth Crystals into Shards. Alternatively, you can most likely find both of these in the Market Wards of Limsa Lominsa for a very low price.
Rank 27: Maple Syrup(x12): Fire Shard(x1) + Water Shard(x1) + Maple Sap(x1)
For now this is as far as I will go, Square Enix has announced that some synthesis levels will be adjusted in future version updates, as well as the addition of new recipes. Until then, I hope this list serves you well on the path to becoming a Master Alchemist.
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769 weeks ago