June 9, 2007

FFXI Mining Tutorial (Final Fantasy viii)

FFXI Mining Tutorial

All there is to know about Mining in FFXI

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Mining is a very worthwhile profession to undertake in. Probably the biggest advantage with mining is that it is a “no skill” job, which means that everyone and anyone who mines does so at the same level, since there is no skill you can gain in the job. Unfortunately, not many people know how easy it is to mine.

The first thing you need to start mining is a pickaxe. Pickaxes are easy enough to obtain at the Auction House, and as I write this guide, a stack of twelve goes for about 3000 gil. If you find yourself paying more than 3000 gil for a stack of pickaxes, you are paying too much. Chances are that spending more than 3000 gil will mean that you will not gain a profit from mining. However, the best, and I repeat, best way to get a pickaxe is to have a friend make if for you cheaply, or better yet, to make it for yourself. Making one requires both blacksmithing and woodworking, at low levels however, so it might be a good idea to gain in both if you really want to turn a profit. Of course, if you are already a smith, mining will profit you massively since you will not need to buy your ores from others.

One final note: make sure you have room in your inventory for ore before you go out mining. Ore does NOT stack.

Now you are ready to mine. I recommend for beginners and low level characters to mine in the mines at Bastok, since most of the creatures there are easy, and only a few are aggressive. The hardest/most boring part of mining is finding a mining point. Basically, all you can do to find one is to randomly run around the mines, hitting F8 (Target nearest object/person which isn’t a PC) as you run along. Be sure to check behind monsters, since they might be blocking your macro from finding mining spots that may be behind them. This process may take a minute or so.

Once you find a mining spot, get near it and open up your inventory. Select your pickaxe(s) and “use” it/them. Then, with the mining spot targeted, hit enter. A very short mining animation should ensue. Once this occurs, one of four events may happen:

1) You obtain an ore, or other item such as pebbles.
2) You obtain an ore/item, but your pickaxe breaks in the process.
3) You obtain nothing.
4) You obtain nothing, and your pickaxe breaks.

When you first begin mining, you must be aware of one thing, pickaxes break often. When I say often, I mean OFTEN. It was not uncommon for me to be mining and have my pickaxes break on me after only two or three uses. In fact, in one occasion my pickaxes broke on the first use. I do not know whether or not this breaking is random, or if pickaxes have a durability which wears away over time. Either way, they break.

Also, a mining spot may become exhausted fairly quickly too. If you are lucky, you may be able to get five or six good swings in before the mining spots disappears, meaning there is no more ore to extract there. Once this occurs, you must again run through the mines, looking for another spot as you did before.

Once you obtain a fair amount of ore, you can go sell the ore, or use it yourself. From my experience, the ore that I profit from the best is iron ore, which I was able to sell for 600 gil. However, as the supply/demand for the ores changes, so will the price. Therefore, the best way for you to determine the regional price for ore is to check the Auction House. As a side note, mining may seem tedious, but remember that making it easy would only lower the demand, and therefore the price, of ores. And there you have it, mining 101. Now go out there and make some money! Have fun!