Valuable Sub Crafts for Cooking
Below you will find a list of sub crafts that I personally found to be important to being a cook in FFXI. While you do not need sub crafts to enjoy cooking, they come in very handy when you get into a sticky spot leveling or you are looking to make some gil.
Bonecraft
You will find that many Cooking recipes require the ingredient Gelatin. Gelatin caps at level 28. I found it to be really annoying when there was no supply in stock at the AH. At some point I found it easiest to just level Bonecraft up to level 28. It really was simple and cheap. Once I got to level 22 I stopped leveling the craft and just made Gelatin as needed for Cooking supplies. Sometimes I had breaks, being under the cap, but it was still well worth the effort. (Super Quick BC Guide: 1-4 Bone Hairpin, 4-9 Bone Arrowheads, 9-14 Cornette, 14-17 Bone Ring, 17-25 Beetle Ring -- May not be the best path for you, suggest research first).
Alchemy
I leveled this subcraft for one item in particular: Snoll Gelato (Alchemy Level 11 sub). It is also used as a sub in some of the lower level recipes. You may not find this sub to be valuable if you look over the list of items and do not find any interest in synthing them.
Woodworking
This sub is used in only a couple of recipes and none of which I tend to synth. However I do find this sub to be valuable use for making Maple Sugar when NPCs are not selling it. Because Maple Sugar is used in so many recipes that I use, it is very valuable to have this sub handy when it is not available. Maple Sugar caps at level 21 WW. I power leveled this craft making arrows all the way up with my husbands WW providing me all of the lumber.
Fishing
Sushi is huge. Gigantic. Enormous. I have still yet to get my fishing up to a high enough level to catch the best of fish for sushi, but when I do I know it will be worth it. I have made deals and bought fish to make sushi and the profit is incredible. With the ability to fish your own fish, the gil will flow like a river. There is no easy way, except go a little bit each day and with time you will find it to pay off. Friendly advice; do not bot. Just do not do it. Do you really want to have your hard working cook to be deleted because you are feeling a bit lazy today? Fish with friends, fish while on the phone, fish and listen to music, fish and play your Playstation with your toes, fish and look at your email on another computer, fish and read - and time will fly. I have never cheated and I never will, there is not any point to it. Just relax... and fish.
Gardening
This is such a wonderfully easy way to save gil and time. Set up 10 pots in the mog house of every character you have and get them growing. Target your results carefully. Look for ingredients that you commonly farm or buy from the AH and try to grow them. You can also grow crystals from seeds. This can be especially helpful when AH crystal prices are too steep on your server. My best advice is to ensure your plants grow is to check them at least once a day, but idealy check them twice a day. I try to do so once in the morning and once in the evening before I go to bed. With just a few minutes every day you could save a whole lot of gil in ingredients for your cooking recipes. This is perhaps the easiest sub craft because you only need to think about it for a couple minutes every day. It is often an overlooked sub craft, but I highly recommend it.
Other Subs
Leathercraft and Clothcraft are in some subs for a few recipes. I do not make any of the items that need them, however you may want to look over the list of recipes and see if leveling them is the right thing for you.
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