Hobbies & Crafting

Tired of fighting monsters and gathering gear?

Take a some time away and relax! The Hobbies and Crafting system in Final Fantasy XI is a career all onto itself. Head over to the !craft zone to sit by the beach, get support from our crafting expert NPCs, and more!

In addition the normal HELM activities, Nocturnal Souls offers players additional hobbies and crafting opportunities to participate in. These hobbies can be extremely rewarding by providing materials, rare upgrades, and player bonuses.

Fishing

Players can participate in the Fishing hobby similar to retail. Find a fishing rod, get some bait, and head to the water to relax and enjoy.

Community member D’Hoffryn provides a full guide for those new to fishing in Final Fantasy XI.

Synthesis

Synthesis (crystal crafting) works much like retail with a few quality of life bonuses.

• Players can level all crafting classes to 110!
• Crafting skill ups reward a slight amount of experience points to your current job and allows crafting to play a part in your leveling strategy.
• Crafting skill ups are tuned up a bit to allow faster leveling.
• A custom crafting zone, accessible with the !craft command, has crafting vendors with unique daily stocks and crafting synthesis buffs.
• The directional, day of week, and moon phase “rumors” of crafting are disabled (verified by SE a few years ago).
• Crafting guilds and shops are open 24/7–no closed hours or holidays. Crafting waits for no one!

Crafting Guilds

There are crafting guilds for each type of synthesis crafting. Players can join these guilds, complete daily turn ins for GP (guild points), and acquire items and key items necessary for some higher difficulty crafts.

• Players can join and change guilds, however, there is a 1 “real world” day wait between joining a guild and being able to participate in daily GP tasks.
• Players can turn in HQ versions of their guild crafting task for more GP per turn in, but cannot exceed the daily amount gained per day.
• Guild crafting tasks reset each day at midnight JST.

Synergy

Our custom Synergy crafting system allows players to create and/or upgrade existing items through using base components dropped by Voidwatch NMs, various “hunt registry” mobs, and open-world NMs found around the world. While the premise is similar to how synergy works on retail, our synergy crafting system is entirely unique and leveled independently of normal crafting.

Synergy is targeted at players level 99 as it requires participation in Voidwatch campaign NMs, farming aptant NMs, and most synergy recipes require drops from higher tier locations; however, many world and seasonal events will include synergy crafting for rare rewards, appearance items, and furniture.

Synergy Furnace Locations

Synergy Furnaces and Engineers are located all across Vana’diel. Here are some common locations.

• Bastok Markets
• Bastok Mines
• Port Bastok
• Southern San d’Oria
• Northern San d’Oria
• Port San d’Oria
• Windurst Waters
• Windurst Walls
• Port Jeuno
• Lower Jeuno
• !craft Zone

Unlocking Synergy

Synergy must be unlocked and requires a bit of crafting to do so.

Characters must be rank 1 (Recruit) in at least four crafting disciplines. This requires getting to skill level 10 and completing the first rank synthesis for the craft to complete the promotion.

Valid crafting disciplines are:

• Clothcraft
• Alchemy
• Smithing
• Goldsmithing
• Cooking
• Bonecraft
• Leathercraft
• Woodworking

Increasing your Elemental Capacity

To increase elemental capacity, trade the Synergy Engineer the following items to raise your elemental capacity. Capacity is consumed during synergy and you must meet the minimum requirements to attempt a craft.

Element	HQ Item (increase x3)	NQ Item (increase x1)
Fire	ifritear	ifrite
Ice	shivatear	shivite
Wind	garutear	garudite
Water	leviatear	leviatite
Earth	titatear	titanite
Lightning	ramutear	ramuite
Light	carbutear	carbite
Dark	fenritear	fenrite

Elemental “tears” are random drops off of Voidwatch campaign NMs spawned from Planar Rifts.

Elemental stones (“avatarites”) are random (~25% chance) drops off of level 75+ enemies based on the current game day. These items can drop off of all mobs in all zones. For example, defeating a qualifying enemy on Darksday has a random chance to drop a Fenrite.

To see your current elemental capacity and level, “speak” to a Synergy Furnace.

Acquiring Aptants

Aptants drop from mobs part of the Hunt Registry on retail FFXI. These provide part of the consumable materials and are different for each craft. Not all crafts require aptants–especially low-level synergy recipes, but they are a core component of many crafts and will require time to farm an ample supply.

The drops and locations can be found by searching the Nocturnal Souls Item Database for “aptant”. There are currently 12 aptant items spread among numerous NMs across the world that are in the level 100 to 112 range.

Aptants can also be acquired from the Materials Moogle in the !craft zone by trading him 20 rusted coins and a small amount of gil to determine which aptant you want.

Leveling Synergy

At this time, the maximum level for Synergy is 50 at this time.

Each successful synergy craft has a 70% chance to increase your level 0.1 to 1.0 skill points as long as the synergy recipe level is no more than 5 levels below your current synergy level. Recipes that are more than 10 levels above your skill have a 90% chance to increase your skill level.

Successful Synergy

The base success chance for a synergy recipe is 55% for an even-level recipe (e.g. player’s synergy level matches recipe level). For every level above the recipe’s level, the player gains a 5% to the base success chance, for every level below, the player loses 5% base success chance.

Example: a player with a level 15 synergy skill would have a 100% success rate on a level 6 recipes and below, an 80% success rate on level 10 recipes, and a 30% success rate on level 20 recipes.

Recipes are not locked to a specific level. A player with a level 10 synergy skill can attempt a level 20 synergy recipe; however, the success rate will be exceedingly low (at 5% success) and difficult to augment.

Augmenting the Success Chance

The success chance of a synergy craft can be enhanced by applying ebur, furia, or ebon pigments to the craft. Pigments can be purchased from the Synergy Engineer using gil.

Multiple, unique pigments (up to one of each) can be added to recipes to increase the base success chance up to +23%; however, some higher level recipes will intentionally not have enough slots in the trade window to place multiple success augments.

Pigment	Increased Success %	Cost (gil)
Ebur pigment	+5% base success chance	250,000
Furia pigment	+8% base success chance	350,000
Ebon pigment	+10% base success chance	500,000

Example: a player with level 20 synergy is attempting to make a level 20 recipe for the blurred knife +1. At level 20, the player has a base success chance of 55% and, on failure, a 5% chance that they’ll lose one or more of their items (including, potentially, the blurred knife). To augment this, the player could add in an Ebon and Furia to the trade, increasing success rate by 18% in total. This gives the player a 73% base success chance, increasing the chance of a successful synergy and reducing the chance they’ll lose any items—including that prized blurred knife.

In addition to the success augments, all players receive +5% to their base synergy success rate on Saturdays as part of the Synergy Crafting Day event.

Synergy Failure

On synergy failure, the level of the player’s synergy skill is compared to the level of the recipe to determine the chance of loss for each item in the recipe.

The following rules apply:

• If the recipe level is less than or equal to the player’s synergy level, players have a 5% chance to lose materials.
• If the recipe level is between one and 5 levels higher, players have a 10% chance to lose materials.
• If the recipe level is between 6 and 10 levels higher, players have a 20% chance to lose materials.
• If the recipe is more than 10 levels higher, players have a 35% chance to lose materials.

Example: A level 10 recipe created by a player with a level 10 synergy skill has a 55% chance of success (un-augmented). On failure, each item in the recipe has a 5% chance to be lost on failure. If an item is lost, the entire quantity of the item is lost and, if not, the entire quantity is returned to the player.

Similar to synthesis crafting, the chance to lose materials cannot be modified except by simply raising the synergy level and/or using success rate augments to reach a point of 100% synergy success rate.

Recipes

For a full, current list of synergy recipes, visit the Members Portal’s Synergy List. In addition to the list, when viewing an item that can be created via synergy, the recipe appears on the item’s details page, such as the Bounding Boots.

We’re working on constantly adding new recipes to the list, so check the Synergy List and Update Notes frequently!

Chocobo Digging

Looking for a new hobby and tired of running around harvesting and mining? Chocobo Digging is operational and, of course, enhanced!

Players with a chocobo license and some gysahl greens in their inventory can use the Dig command while riding their chocobo to dig up items–sometimes very rare items!

In addition to the traditional “retail’ zones, we’ve added a more refined skill-up system to chocobo digging that informs players as they level up (up to skill level 100). Higher levels decrease the timeout between digs and allows players to access the new chocobo digging zones.

Details

Required Level: 20 (to acquire chocobo license)

Maximum digs per real-world day: 100

Players are restricted to 100 digs on their character per real world day–resetting at midnight JST. In the future, there will be items to enhance this number.

Abilities: Bore and Burrow

All players will automatically have both Bore and Burrow abilities since chocobo raising and training is not available. This may change in the future if custom chocobo raising ever becomes part of the server.

How do I skill up?

By digging! Every time you successfully dig, you have a 25% chance to skill up!

What kinds of items can I get?

In retail zones (no level restriction zones), the drops align with the drops in the wiki with a few additional tweaks. Some zones also have a chance, based on luck and the current Vana’diel day, to provide an elemental ore. For example, on Lightsday during a waxing crescent moon, players have a chance of harvesting light ores in Tahrongi Canyon.

In addition to normal drops, as seasonal events occur, players can dig up seasonal event items. For example, level 70 zones have a chance at leafkin grenades during the Fall Harvest event!

In level restricted zones, everything is custom and there’s some real hidden treasures out there! Give each zone a try and see what you find.

What affects loot drops?

The moon, the weather, the time of day, and the day of the week all affect loot drops.

• Chocobo digging success rate is reduces during the First and Last Quarter moon phases.
• During the early Waxing Crescent moon phase (between 10% and 40%), elemental ores can be dug up in certain zones based on the current Vana’diel day.
• Significant weather events will increase the chances of digging up elemental crystals.
• Equipping certain items can improve the success rate of a dig and/or make certain items available (coming soon).

How can I get more digs per day?

Players who have achieved Heroics Rank 3 or higher can purchase Chocobo Training Tokens from Lakeria. These tokens can be traded to Mapitoto in Upper Jeuno to train your chocobo and potentially allow for more digging attempts.

• Each token costs 750,000 gil.
• Each token has a chance to restore 5 to 10 digs for the player.
• Players can only train a chocobo when it has reached 90/100 digs for the day.
• Players can train multiple times per day; however, after the first training session of the day, excessive training can exhaust your chocobo and deplete all of its remaining digs.

Zones

As time goes on, we’ll be adding additional zones, drops, and maybe even a scavenger hunt mode to chocobo digging! Get that choco leveled up!

Chocobo Digging Scavenger Hunt!

Players with skill 100 in chocobo digging can now participate in a daily chocobo scavenger hunt.

Starter NPC: Finbarr in Upper Jeuno (Chocobo Stables)

Finbarr will provide players a hint for the first chocobo digging location. Follow the clue to the next location. Each hunt is a total of 6 spots with the final spot rewarding players with a treasure stash containing several items found in the zone as well as a cache of rare crafting materials and other items.

Does everyone get the same scavenger hunt path every day?

No, the hints received at each step are randomized. At this time, there are several hundred permutations of paths you can get each day. 😁 More hints, thus locations, will be added over time to keep things interesting.

How will I know when I’m close to where I should dig?

When you dig, you’ll receive a special message that you “should keep digging” if you’re close to the spot. The rest is up to you!

Does digs for the scavenger hunt count against my daily number of digs?

Yes.

Is the scavenger hunt timed?

No; however, you can only partcipate in a hunt every 20 hours from the last time you looted a treasure stash.

How do I find the Treasure Stash?

The last clue will lead you to the stash. For now, the chests will appear when you find the right location and dig.

Mog Gardening

Mog Gardening provides players access to the Mog Garden zone and all the wealth of its harvesting locations. Many of the items provided by these nodes are not available in the game as the harvesting nodes in Seekers of Adoulin zones do not exist.

Requirements

Required Level: 99

Starter NPC: Kithvalio in Western Adoulin (Pioneers Coalition)

To begin, players must be level 99 and complete the quest provided by Kithvalio. Once unlocked, players can enter the Mog Garden by speaking with Westcolina in Western Adoulin (!relax).

What can I harvest?

There are 5 primary types of harvests in the Mog Garden:

• Mining (Mineral Vein)
• Logging (Arboral Grove)
• Harvesting (Garden Furrow)
• Pond Fishing (Pond Dredger)
• Sea Fishing (Coastal Sea Net)

Mining, Logging, and Harvesting have multiple nodes that require a certain skill rank to be able to harvest. The higher level the node, the better, more rare harvests available.

How do I harvest?

To harvest the mining, logging, and harvesting nodes, speak with Atelloune in the Mog Garden and purchase pickaxes, hatchets, or sickles. These unique harvesting tools only work in the Mog Garden and are consumed on use like normal harvesting tools.

Players can harvest each node every 4 hours and cannot fail a harvest.

How do I gain skill levels?

Players start out with a skill level of 0 in “Mog Gardening”. This allows players to interact with the first level of the mining, logging, and harvesting nodes as well as the pond and sea nodes (which have no level requirements). As players harvest from each node, each successful harvest item provides a chance to skill up in Mog Gardening.

The chance of skilling up on each harvest is scaled based on the current level of the player, ranging from 70% at level 0 to 45% at level 71+.

For example:

A skill level 0 player harvests 4 items from the “Mineral Vein”. This provides 4 chances to skill up at 70%. If all four are successful, the player can gain as much as 4.0 skill levels for that harvest. This can occur on every node.

You can speak with the Green Thumb Moogle at any time to see your current Mog Gardening skill level.

How do I increase harvest amounts?

Players have two potential ways to increase harvests–by increasing the harvest slots (items dropped) per node and by increasing the harvest quantity (each item drops multiples) per node.

Harvesting Slots

Players can acquire wearable gear that will increase the potential harvests “drop slots” for a node. This gear is acquired through events, reaching certain mog gardening levels, and other means.

•     Overalls 
  • +1 to mining and logging
  • Note: there are Male and Female versions of this item.
•     Straw hat 
  • +1 to all
  • Note: there are Male and Female versions of this item.
•     Hoe 
  • +1 to harvesting

More gear items will be added over time.

In addition, players harvesting on the Mog Gathering Bonus Day (Wednesday) will receive +1 to their potential harvests for the whole day.

Harvesting Quantity

Players can purchase augments from Atelloune to increase the quantity of items in their harvest. These items are consumed on use and will increase the quantity of items by 1. Players can only augment harvests that require trades (mining, logging, and harvesting) and must include the augment along with the harvest tool in the trade.

In addition, each crop has a unique Vana’diel day that they should be harvested and will increase the quantity of items by 1.

What’s this “flotsam” thing?

Flotsam is a random item that has washed up on the shores of the Mog Garden. This includes potential furniture items, pop items for ZNMs and Reisenjima Henge monsters, or even rare upgrade items.

This item can only be picked up every 20 hours.

What do the other NPCs do?

The other NPCs in the zone can perform harvests for players and even find rare items based on what you pay them.

FEATURE COMING SOON

How do I leave?

To return to Western Adoulin, click the Mog Dinghy.

What else can I gain by leveling up?

Players who reach level 80 and level 100 in Mog Gardening will gain access to two new mounts.

• Level 80: ram
• Level 100: morbol

Players also gain access to the Garden Strongbox as they level up. The higher level access will provide players with more items they can purchase from the strongbox.

FEATURE COMING SOON