Bronco the Warrior or Martha Stewart?

Welcome to the wonderful world of crafts...it's a good thing. Actually, it's an expensive, time-consuming thing. The crystals that you can earn by defeating monsters aren't just good for fertilizing your plants. They can also be used in conjunction with various raw materials to make items, a process called crafting. There are nine different crafts in FFXI, each with its own pros and cons. Fortunately you don't need to choose one (at least not for a long time), as you can dabble in any or all of them.

In most games, crafting is a great way to make money. In FFXI, you can make money crafting but usually not until well into the game. This is one of those activities where you invest millions to make millions. As such, it's pretty inadvisable to try doing them all at once...better to concentrate on getting better in one or two.















In this picture, I'm using a fire crystal to fuse some copper and tin ore together, creating a bronze bar. Most people use furnaces and other special equipment for this kind of thing, but apparently I can do it in mid-air with my bare hands. Magic!

For those curious about my gardening results, my first crop was a bunch of corn (which I immediately turned into Roasted Corn using Cooking craft) and my second crop was a truckload of potatoes. Not too shabby for a beginner!