Crafting: Living off the Land

We spent a lot of time this past weekend gathering materials for Kiki's bonecraft and Grym made some sheep leather for future projects. I headed to Tahrongi for some excavation, but there were a couple other people with the same idea, so I headed into the Maze of Shakrami and killed lots of skeletons as well as hitting the excavation points I ran across. I also farmed 4 or 5 Wind Elementals, getting a bunch of wind clusters, which I really needed at this point.

Meanwhile, Grymalkyn was off in the Konstadt Highlands, killing sheep to get sheep teeth for me and sheepskins for leather for herself.

We got enough sheep teeth and bone chips for Kiki to cap her skill on bone rings (level 17), and then it was time to switch to Carapace Powder. Each synth for that requires two beetle shells, so we headed off to Jugner Forest, which always seemed to have the best drop rate for beetle shells. This worked pretty well for a short while. We were running back and forth between the two spawn locations for Panzer Percival, the NM beetle that drops Neckchopper, killing the 5 beetles in each area, and any we'd see in between, along with Thunder Elementals for the lightning clusters. The respawns were quick enough that the beetles were back by the time we got to each spot. Then the Percival campers moved in and spoiled our beetle supply. So we tried farming in Carpenter's Landing and then East Altepa. Those just weren't as good.

Sunday morning we tried the Hurototo Ruins, but again, just didn't get many shells, so we headed off to Jugner again. I managed to get to nearly level 20 on the farmed shells, and since the carapace powder sells pretty well to clothcrafters leveling on Hunters Cloth, I opted to buy the rest of the shells off the Auction House (as long as I could get them for 1000 gil or less), and was able to get to the level 21 cap for Carapace Powder.

Next up is Beetle Rings, which are made from Beetle Jaws. We got quite a number of these while farming for the shells, so I should have enough to make some good progress towards the level 25 cap on the rings. What I find funny is that I can use a wind crystal to carve a beetle jaw into a beetle ring, and then take a lightning crystal and "split" the ring back into a beetle jaw. That just doesn't make sense, but it makes it easier to stretch the materials further, getting more skillups in the process.

On the woodworking front, my demon arrows just aren't selling, so I'm going to have to turn in to one of those undercutting jerks that sellers hate and buyers love. I can undercut quite a bit and still make a profit, so I don't feel too bad about it. I've had 31 quivers of arrows for a week and a half now, and not a single one has sold yet. The next one back from the AH is going up at a discount!