Shadowbringers UPDATED! Blacksmith power leveling to 80! BSM Levequest Items comparisons and value moves per tier!
BSM Leveling Guide 64-70
MIN & BTN Leveling Guides updated. Other notes...
Botanist Leveling to 90, as well as Miner Leveling to 90 are updated for the Endwalker tier. Older tiers needs some fixing, although I modernized what I could quickly – I placed the important notes on the top of the aforementioned guides reflecting the major things that you need to take note of.
I will post a personal update soon, for those that are curious…
ShB 5.3 UPDATED! Dwarf Beast Tribe and Ehll Tou
Recent Update Log
5.3 Updates
- Dwarf Beast Tribe quests added in ShB tier as a notable EXP source.
- Ehll Tou added as Custom Delivery client option.
Previous updates
- Kai Shirr added as Custom Delivery client option in ShB tier.
- L70 to L80 section essentially revamped: New Skills & Rotations! 5.2ish was a clusterF. Skills changed TWICE in a short span of time. All is well now!
- L70+ Gear recommendation: Yellow Scrip gear is now recommended, for a number of reasons (Mainly, barely need stats for 70 to 80 leveling)
And so the grind continues!
Blacksmith Leveling- Navigation: [0-15] | [15-35] | [35-50]
[5o-60] | [60-64] | [64-70] | [70-80]
“Craft something. Press Hasty Touch. You are the material – I am the File.”
– Mahiko “Chkchkchk-chk” San
Blacksmith Leveling 64 to 66
Gear Check Reminder II
If everyone followed the guide, their gear will now be caught up. Here’s what you should be packing… (Copied from previous page, just to remind you)
Reach 409 CP. I don’t care how you achieve this, but do it.
CROSS CLASS SKILLS! FIX 'EM UP!
Here are the 10 cross-class skills you should have for all your classes.
| ALC | ARM | BSM | CRP | CUL | GSM | LTW | WVR |
| I2 | CZ | CZ | CZ | CZ | CZ | CZ | CZ |
| BB | ToT | ToT | ToT | ToT | ToT | ToT | ToT |
| SH2 | I2 | BB | I2 | I2 | I2 | I2 | I2 |
| Muscle | BB | SH2 | SH2 | BB | BB | BB | BB |
| Inno | SH2 | Muscle | Muscle | Inno | SH2 | SH2 | SH2 |
| WN | Muscle | Inno | Inno | WN | Muscle | Muscle | Muscle |
| MM | Inno | WN | WN | MM | WN | Inno | Inno |
| FS | WN | MM | MM | FS | Name | MM | WN |
| Rec | MM | FS | FS | Name | Brand | FS | MM |
| OPEN | FS | Rec | Rec | Brand | Rec | Rec | FS |
I hope you’re familiar with what these are. Muscle is Muscle Memory from CUL, MM and FS are Maker’s Mark and Flawless Synthesis from GSM.
Important Notes:
** CUL and GSM need to cross-class a “Name” and “Brand” of any element.
** All classes except ARM and WVR have access to Reclaim AND Maker’s Mark + Flawless Synthesis.
Since ARM and WVR have to choose between access to “MM+FS” rotations or “Reclaim“, I personally chose “MM+FS” since it’s very unlikely you’ll fail any manual craft with that. Reclaim on the other hand has its uses. Since most rotations require more than 55 CP to complete, you can choose to reclaim if you feel non-HQ is inevitable.
Up to you, buddy…
“Reclaim. *snicker*” –
Mahiko Sans Fukkius
L64 Unlocked Patient Touch
Patient Touch is pretty good, huh? Great for RNG gambling rotations. But for now, you can simply replace the first Hasty Touch II of any rotation with Patient Touch.
It’s optional, but a slight improvement IMO. While it increases your odds to fail by a tiny bit, it increases your HQ success chance but quite a huge margin.
Blacksmith Levequests @ 64
BSM 64 to 66: What I did in this tier
You need a lot of Oroshigane Ingots, man. A lot. The Oroshigane Ingot levequest is what’s going to carry you past the next tier, too. They’re also used in making Tama-hagane Ingots, which are HEAVILY used for ARM levequests.
So grind on as many of them as you can, and more. If you think you have enough turn ’em in. You can, alternatively, grind them on ARM – which is a small value move.
Actually, it would be a good idea to use up your previous High Steel Nuggets and materials for them – and turn them in for this tier. You won’t really be using them too much after this.
Grinding Blacksmith 64 to 66
O r o s h i g a n e I n g o t. This leads into Tama-Hagane Ingots which is still used in certain L70 crafts.
Important notes and events in this tier
Optional Rotation: L64 40DUR 1058DIFF
These were extremely hard at level 63~64! I TESTED THESE WITH A MINIMUM OF 934 CRAFTSMANSHIP (slightly above the gear check above). I suggest waiting until 65 to do any L64 “ingot” grinding.
Or I could be wrong in my notes – simply test it out first. If Name > Brand > Brand works for you, great. Waiting for the L65 shirt and Mainhand ensures this. Here’s the rotation:
/ac “Comfort Zone” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Inner Quiet” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Waste Not” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Steady Hand II” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Patient Touch” <me> <wait.3>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <me> <wait.3>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <me> <wait.3>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <me> <wait.3>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <me> <wait.3>
/ac “Master’s Mend” <me> <wait.3>
/ac “Great Strides” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Steady Hand II” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Innovation” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Basic Touch” <me> <wait.3>
/ac “Great Strides” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Byregot’s Blessing” <me> <wait.3>
/ac “Steady Hand” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Name of Fire” <me> <wait.2>
/ac “Brand of Fire” <me> <wait.3>
/ac “Brand of Fire” <me> <wait.3>
THIS CERTAIN “MACRO” HAS NAME AND BRAND OF FIRE. PLEASE ADJUST IT TO YOUR CLASS. CUL AND WVR HAVE NO BRAND OR NAME SKILL SO CROSS CLASS ANY ONE OF ‘EM.
L64 80 Durability?
If you’re hellbent on crafting a 64 or 65 with the “base set” described above, do so at your own risk. It’s VERY VERY doable using Maker’s Mark type rotations and manual crafting.
But like I said, I WOULD ADVISE HOLDING OUT UNTIL L65! If you plan on crafting for any sort of grind-like activities, the shirt and weapon help loads.
At L65 we will be having the 80 Durability “end-all” rotation.
L65 BSM Class Quest
Rewards are Manipulation II, which is a great skill. Our rotations will be based around it at L66.
You also get an NQ Main hand weapon (sucky), and Kudzu tier left-side NQ (also meh). They’re NOT worth it.
But HQ versions? Hmm…
L65 Gear Update: Kudzu Shirt & Main Hand
HQ Kudzu Robe of Crafting (Cheap Meld: Control III+ x2) This is a VALUE upgrade since it straight up annihilates our old shirt. It’s worth it. It also feels good buying this knowing all our classes can use it. The other left-side slots are technically optional.
HQ L65 MH: Doman Iron Lump Hammer (Cheap Meld: OPEN / Any)
Can’t complain here. The HQ 65 main hand completely obliterates previous tiers BiS weapon.
After buying these upgrades, you are functionally equal, or superior, to Heavensward “BiS” crafters that spent millions pentamelding their gear. It’s both a happy and sad moment, as the circle of a crafters life continues…
THE REST OF THE KUDZU TIER IS OPTIONAL: It will make HQing easier with zero HQ materials. It’s completely up to you. I did NOT upgrade gear but it’s easy to see how you will benefit from them.
L65 Rotation Update: 80 Durability
This is a TEMPORARY ROTATION mainly to show you how to complete recipes of this difficulty onward. It will be updated to its final form in ONE LEVEL (66), so it’s up to you if you wanna learn this one. It’s very similar to it’s final evolution.
L65 80 Durability “showcase”
/ac “Muscle Memory” <wait.3>
/ac “Comfort Zone” <wait.2>
/ac “Inner Quiet” <wait.2>
/ac “Waste Not” <wait.2>
/ac “Steady Hand II” <wait.2>
/ac “Patient Touch” <wait.3>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <wait.3>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <wait.3>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <wait.3>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <wait.3>
/ac “Manipulation II” <wait.2>
/ac “Steady Hand II” <wait.2>
/ac “Basic Touch” <wait.3>
/ac “Basic Touch” <wait.3>
/ac “Basic Touch” <wait.3>
/ac “Great Strides” <wait.2>
/ac “Byregot’s Blessing” <wait.3>
/ac “Ingenuity II” <wait.2>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <wait.3>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <wait.3>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <wait.3>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <wait.3>
But here’s the thing – I experimented with this rotation at L66, but I can only imagine extreme niche scenarios wherein “I2 CSIIIx4 + CSIIIx1” (my prior rotation) is better than “MM + I2 CSIIx4”. Lemme know. But, I’m pretty damn sure this works from 65.
L66 Gear Update: Offhand
HQ Doman Iron File is a massive stat upgrade, and you should be buying or making one of these. If you want to meld it, Control III+.
Blacksmith Leveling 66 to 68
I’ll put it up here since it’s very important: The following rotations are “the final form” of both 40 and 80 durability crafts. You can use these “macros” to learn how to manual craft them.
L66+ “Obliterator Rotations”
L66+ 40DUR 'Annihilator'
As implied, this rotation will crush any 40 durability from here on out.
/ac “Comfort Zone” <me><wait.2>
/ac “Inner Quiet” <me><wait.2>
/ac “Steady Hand II” <me><wait.2>
/ac “Patient Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Basic Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Prudent Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Prudent Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Prudent Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Manipulation II” <me><wait.2>
/ac “Steady Hand II” <me><wait.2>
/ac “Prudent Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Innovation” <me><wait.2>
/ac “Prudent Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Great Strides” <me><wait.2>
/echo I am nothing without Mahiko Senpai <se.1>
/ac “Byregot’s Blessing” <wait.3>
/ac “Ingenuity II” <me><wait.2>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <me><wait.3>
/echo Macro #2 complete T-thank you M-Mahiko Senpai <se.14>
L66+ 80DUR 'It that Destroys'
And this one will eradicate 80 durability recipes from now onwards.
While I can’t say I tested every niche “under geared” scenario, this work of art CRUSHED every recipe at or near its level.
/ac “Muscle Memory” <wait.3>
/ac “Comfort Zone” <wait.2>
/ac “Inner Quiet” <wait.2>
/ac “Steady Hand II” <wait.2>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <wait.3>
/ac “Hasty Touch II” <wait.3>
/ac “Basic Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Basic Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Basic Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Manipulation II” <wait.2>
/ac “Steady Hand II” <wait.2>
/ac “Prudent Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Prudent Touch” <me><wait.3>
/ac “Prudent Touch” <me><wait.3>
/echo Macro #1 complete I am nothing without Mahiko Senpai <se.1>
/ac “Great Strides” <wait.2>
/ac “Byregot’s Blessing” <wait.3>
/ac “Ingenuity II” <wait.2>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <wait.3>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <wait.3>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <wait.3>
/ac “Careful Synthesis III” <wait.3>
/echo Macro #2 complete T-thank you M-Mahiko Senpai <se.14>
However...
I did not test these under all stress tests to prevent stupidity like “I have L62 main hand and L63 offhand and tried to craft L70 Ingot“. These recipes will carry you past certain gear upgrades at certain times. But don’t be greedy man, upgrade your damn gear to be safe.
I did not test these on recipes absurdly higher than my current level. Be responsible. They’re good rotations absolutely brimming with value but please… test it out first if you know you’re doing something dumb.
As long as your gear is up to date (the final mandatory gear upgrade is 67 main hand)
“Here… Now… Your ascendance is complete.”
– Mahiko “Deus Factorem” San
Leveling from here is mostly a formality, and it’s only a matter of time before you hit 70. Just a little more to go!
Blacksmith Levequests @ 66
BSM 66 Levequest discussion
A laughably bad tier that you might wanna ignore altogether.
Doman Steel Mortar grinds slightly above its peers – this is the one you want. Doman Steel Saw, it’s value can go to and fro depending on market prices. It’s always gonna be one of these two.
Doman Steel Tachi is horrifyingly bad as a levequest unless you can pick ’em up off the MB on the cheap. Don’t tachi this.
BSM 66 to 68: What I did in this tier
I just straight up pretended this tier didn’t exist. I continued with the Oroshigane Ingot grinding and submitting plan.
Tama-hagane Ingots are great to grind on here in BSM as they are the prime lategame levequest for ARM.
While in this tier, create all 66 off-hands and 67 main hands for all classes you use. This will be the final weapon tier upgrade as we will ignore 68 offhand.
Grinding Blacksmith 66 to 68
Oroshigane Ingots and Tama-Hagane Ingots for purposes fully obvious by now.
Important notes and events in this tier
L66 Off Hand Weapon
For BSM, that would be High Steel File. HQ version of this is mandatory.
L68 BSM Class Quest
The rewards are meh. You get a choice of any Tier V crafting materia, which is welcome I guess. Choose whichever you need (honestly, CP or Control is a good bet). Or what’s most expensive.
You also get the L68 NQ off-hand, which is pretty bad.
Finally, hitting 68 gives you Focused Touch, whose primary use is to squeeze one more touch unsupported by Steady Hand.
L68 Marid Leather Bolero? 68HQ Offhand?
L68 Marid Leather Bolero of Crafting HQ (Cheap melded with Competence III+ Command III+) I would say now it’s mandatory. It should spiritbond fast enough so you won’t feel too bad about it. I initially thought against it, but I’m gonna go ahead and recommend this.
L68 HQ Doman Steel File? Honestly, I didn’t bother and it didn’t affect me. At least we save one gear piece worth of upgrades.
Blacksmith Leveling 68 to 70
“There are two type of people who reach this hallowed place. Those who have Leves… And those who do not.”
– Mahiko “Did not” San.
How painful the final step is will largely depend on how FAST you clawed upwards. Having said that, if you took it easy and HAVE LEVES – abuse the living daylights out of them since they will serve you almost no purpose once your DoH levels are done.
Blacksmith Levequests @ 68
BSM 68 Levequest discussion
Obviously, Molybdenum Ingot is where it’s at. While, usually, final tier ingots can be expensive, I foresee these to be DIRT CHEAP for almost the entirety of Stormblood.
Molybdenum Rimfire ain’t so hot and Molybdenum Ball-pein hammer is downright peinful. Ignore these if you value your gil.
BSM 68 to 70: What I did in this tier
Well, it should be obvious. You thankfully have many options. If Molybdenum Ingots are really cheap you can just chump out and buy ’em to end your pain quickly.
If you wanna save some leves just grind on, maybe, 2 or 3 dozen Molybdenum Ingots as you’ll be using them anyway.
When you’re tired of that, submit or sell all previous HQ Oroshigane Ingots since you won’t need the HQ’s (or make ’em into Tama-Hagane Ingots for ARM leves).
Submit or grind Molybdenum Ingots until you’re topped off!
Grinding Blacksmith 68 to 70
Molydbenum Ingots are popular and useful for you and all other crafters. You will be making these well past 70, anyway.
Important notes and events in this tier
This tiers materials are heavily used
So always check the market board for cheap mats. Whether it’s for red or yellow scrip, lots of crafters use the 68-70 tier materials so they should be abundant and fairly priced off the market board.
L68 Optional Upgrades: HQing is hard
As I mentioned previously, the 68 Main Hand is OPTIONAL.
With the “Obliterator Rotations”, you should be doing very well still. However, do not think for one second that “100% HQ is possible from 0 HQ Mats”. That’s just silly, while leveling.
HQ raw materials in this tier are cheap since high level crafters don’t care about the quality of mats in this tier.
The first option is “Try to get 1/4th of your materials HQ”. So when you craft, you have a slight advantage.
You want more consistency? It’s time for optional upgrades, then, which are the rest of the Marid Leather / Serge Tier.
L70 BSM Class Quest
The rewards are quite good. You get ALL Tier V crafting materia, as well as the Stroke of Genius trait.
The class quests are pretty decent, so there’s that. Aside from lore, the hype on reaching 70 is more of a relaxed “Finally…”
Blacksmith Level 70 and Beyond
Welp! That’s about it for Stormblood content!
Blacksmith Leveling- Navigation: [0-15] | [15-35] | [35-50]
[5o-60] | [60-64] | [64-70] | [70-80]
ON TO THE SHADOWBRINGERS TIER!
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I’m so disappointed this website isn’t working anymore.. I get 403 errors on every guide and as a returning player that used to use this site religiously…. I sad now.
I’m sorry, please know I’m looking into it now that I’m back from holidays!
The 68 leves aren’t correct. Knock on wood, for the molybdenum ball-pien hammer, is NOT a triple Leve quest. it’s only a single. if there is a triple here I believe it would most likely be the Fire for hire, the molybdenum rimfire. I did find the knock on wood to be faster and better since I leveled the gatherers, but it does spend more leves
If anybody is having trouble with the L62 80DUR 379CP rotation because they lack the required CP, changing the second Steady Hand II to a Steady Hand saves 3 CP (in fact everyone should do that, because you hit 100% either way) and omitting it altogether saves 25 CP and only changes the Basic Touch and Byregot’s Blessing to 90%, which is still totally reliable. Doing this changes the CP requirement for the rotation to 354 from 379, which is a huge jump for low-geared crafters. Also, once you hit L63, Rapid Synthesis III with Steady Hand II should replace Careful Synthesis III in most cases (IMO). Especially if you cross-class Tricks of the Trade for the extra 20 CP ticks every once in a while, considering, once Comfort Zone falls off, there’s no reason to want to use unnecessary steps.
Am I crazy or does the level 60, 40 dur rotation just not work? Let me know if I’m wrong but:
Comfort Zone = 40
Inner Quiet = 40
Waste Not = 40
Steady Hand II = 40
Hasty Touch II = 35
Hasty Touch II = 30
Hasty Touch II = 25
Hasty Touch II = 15
Hasty Touch II = 5 (i assume this was left out by accident, because there’s absolutely no reason to go all the way to 40 in this rotation as opposed to 35)
Master’s Mend = 35
Steady Hand II = 35
Great Strides = 35
Innovation = 35
Basic Touch = 25
Great Strides = 25
(there’s a space here, I don’t know what for)
Byregot’s Brow = 15
Ingenuity II = 15
Careful Synthesis II = 5
Careful Synthesis II = 0
Careful Synthesis II = ???
Again, leave a reply if I messed it up somewhere, but I’m pretty sure this just doesn’t work. Unless of course the space before Byregot’s Brow is supposed to be Master’s Mend or Waste Not or something, in which case, that makes much more sense, but requires a ton of CP to pull off. I’m sitting at 342 CP and if I use waste not there (which is the only way I’ve gotten it to work) i can’t even use Byregot’s Brow afterwards cause I’m left with 6-9 CP.
Hmm i put many notes there that this rotation should be edited depending on your stats- lemme fix it up in such a way that it will “almost surely not fail”
Well how good is 342 at this point for someone who’s a tiny bit behind on gear? Seems like I just end up a tiny bit off. Also, is it Waste Not that’s being used there to squeeze out the 3 CS2s?
Nice guide but there is an error with your Lv60 40 DUR macros. As is it leaves you at -15/40 DUR which means you can only do two careful synthesis at the end and have to complete any further is impossible
HT -35/40
HT – 30/40
HT- 25/40 W?N wears here
HT – 15/40
HT – 5/40
MM – 35/40
BT – 25/40
Byregots – 15/40
CSII – 5/40
CSII – -5/40
CSII – -15/40
Ah, I forgot to put a note on this one… This one is meant to be “changed” depending if you are able to snag the progress in 2xCSII, I forgot to put that caveat. I guess the safer call is to edit the rotation to accommodate 3xCSIII instead (better for weaker crafters). The final BT (or the 5th HT) is what’s causing the error, and should be omitted for crafters that need the CSIII – I forgot to mention it!
Oh Cobalt File leve… I wish I knew where you were. Alas I shall have to content my self with another leve.
should be in limsa
FIXED ALL of the leve confusion when they changed the PLD and NIN weapon names and cause a huge confusion. Lemme know if one slipped past.
First off, great series of guides. They have really helped out a lot.
Wanted to point out for BSM 56+: Titanium Nugget is a potential collectible item with a starting collectability of 2500 to start. it gives 103680 exp and 10 blue scrip (starting) making it hands down the best way to level from that point on as nothing can compare to its value, or at least, nothing that I can see (since you always need nuggets for something).
This is great! I never got Titanium Nugget while I was leveling. I’ll update.
I’m confused. You say that using levequests at 0-15 isn’t recommended, but then you go on to tell how to use them without really addressing what to do instead. Nothing here that describes what recipes are the best “bang for the buck” so to speak, in order to power level out over 15. Am I missing something here?
I doomed myself with that line didn’t I? haha. The shopping list method is the most LEVE EFFICIENT (since you don’t use any). Courier Reverse Courier might be FASTEST and most BRAINLESS (but uses a bit of leves). This honestly depends on how rich you are with leves. I will be fixing all of the DOH leveling guides up to the new standard – it just so happens BSM is one of the “not yet fixed” ones. (CHeck out weaver).
Yes, we’re currently in the process of updating all 2.0 (pre-50) DoH leveling guides! Please look forward to it.
um… there is no levequest involving a bronze saw at level1 by the way
Have you checked in Red Rooster Stead? The Levequest “The Unkindest Cut” (NOT FROM LIMSA) involves submitting Bronze Saw for roughly 860 EXP and 94 gil as the reward. Kindly double check if it exists or not, because I see it.
“The Unkindest Cut” from Red Rooster Stead
I will, however, I am putting this edit and other “general” fixes to older guides when heavensward comes out to see if there are any new things to consider while leveling up.
Ever thought of making a master list?
What I am saying is if someone wanted to level -everything- in one go. Much of crafting uses parts made from other jobs… so if you wanted to lv it all in one shot you could say go out, gather x amount of this this and this, craft x of this from this job, use it to craft this from this job. This job and this job make the same things, craft x from this job and y from this job (I.E. smithing and armoror can both make bars/rivits of the same kind) next lvs go gather x of this this and this etc etc etc.
It just be something I’d love to see. I maxed my gathering out first and stockpiled a buncha stuff but having a proper means to lv everything else together be nice instead of having to pause and check the market, or scan though my craft log to see what makes this item I need, or if I even know it yet, or going out and gathering even more. Just sit back and have everything and go.