Mog Bonanza, Whatcha Getting (5 Days Away)?

Let's say you don't craft at all is the Kupo shield worth getting?

If you get it what craft would you level? And how would you level it?


It seems great but even for someone with 0 crafts?

I made an excel file of ten random numbers for each of the characters I should have bought on just to heighten the regret when one of them wins. Didn't buy any due to laziness/forgetfulness/not caring so much.

Let's say you don't craft at all is the Kupo shield worth getting?

If you get it what craft would you level? And how would you level it?


It seems great but even for someone with 0 crafts?

Depending on who else has a shield on your server, consider the following:

All Crafts: It is going to take you time to not only level the craft, but also get Guild Points and a torque. Leveling could take as little as a few days if you're focused on it (more so if the campaign is in effect). You'll need 205k GP to max out (required for some synths' profitability), which would probably take about a month and a half to two months. Torque is random, enjoy box hunting. Also, the improved skill from shield won't really help with Hexed synths due to how high level they are. While normally crafters can only HQ the feet from -1 at a 1/4 rate, with a shield you can do the same with head, hands, and legs of any set. HQ rate for any and all body synths are not improved with the shield.
Alchemy: Costs very little to level, with nearly all skill up recipe materials being bought from either NPCs or spark vendors. Doesn't really need most subcrafts. You can level this craft fairly painlessly without much funding. With Mog Garden KIs, you'd never have to pay more than about 600k + the cost of 4 Eschite Ores to create Carmine (crimson) hands/legs/feet HQ. If you have no competition (as in, other shield owners), you can effectively set the price to be very profitable for only yourself. You would need a bonecrafter friend of mule (90ish) to make the Dragon armor in bulk, however. Jinxed set (Amalric) is in extremely high demand still. Note that this is the most popular choice for shield owners, so you're most likely to have competition here.
Goldsmithing: A pain to level due to limited materials and it's also rather popular. A shield here would only really improve your HQ rate on Souveran (koenig), but I've noticed there's already a lot of that stuff floating around due to the fact that the materials used can be largely bought from NPCs, so people have already spammed the ***out of it. Also, Apogee (zenith) head, which is gold instead of cloth like the rest of the set. Jinxed set (Emicho) seems uncommon enough that you'd sell it for a good price.
Smithing: I understand it's a little easier than Goldsmithing to level, but not by much. With this, you can crank out the Argosy (adaman) in bulk, but I'm not certain there's much of a demand for this stuff, since it's very limited by jobs. The materials (except for the body) are not too crazy to get in bulk but I don't think you can get adaman from NPCs. I don't know much about the Jinxed set's (Ryuo) value, so I can't comment on that.
Bonecrafting: I'd say it's sort of easy-middlish in terms of leveling difficulty. You could crank out Lustratio (hecatomb) subligar in bulk, though you're limited by the availability of Angel Skins. Could also make the hands but they're far less useful. Just short on being able to spam the feet. Jinxed set (Adhemar) is very much sought after, but you only improve your rate on the hands (awesome) and feet (ok).
Clothcraft: On par with Bone in terms of leveling difficulty, I'd say. Sadly, the Zenith synths (body, hands, legs) are too high for the shield to make a difference, so you'd only be helping your rate of making Voodoo/Jinxed gear from HQ bases. Jinxed gear includes not only the Kaykaus set (which is of limited demand, from what I've seen), but also the Adhemar head and legs, both of which are in demand.
Leathercraft: Middlish difficulty to level. For some reason, instead of getting their own set, they kinda just steal a few synths the other sets. Like with cloth, with a shield you only get a boost to Voodoo/Jinxed gear when using HQ bases.
Woodworking: Unsure of the difficulty to level. Only synths that get a boost by shield are Shura legs and feet bases, which I understand has some demand for PUPs? No hexed/vexed set in Woodworking, sadly.

tldr; Arguably, Alchemy, Gold, and Bone are the crafts most profitable for shields right now. Alchemy is the easiest to level and Carmine is probably the easiest to both craft and sell in bulk, but it's also the craft with the highest rate of shield owners.

I should probably have added the GP item breakdown:

- 15k for Emblem, bought when you hit 90, used to make a Stall furnishing (synergy level 80). This grants a Mega Moglification for +5 skill. Should be your #1 purchase with GP unless you're leveling so fast that you need...
- 20k for "Way of the ____" KI, which is required to level up beyond 100, bought at 98+ skill after talking to the guild leader. A lot of people don't know about this and end up missing the tail end of a crafting skill-up campaign due to not preparing the GP. The leader also asks for you to sign a specific recipe, which may require a little extra GP to buy a signing crystal.
- 70k for the skill +1 item (mitts, specs, etc), can be bought at like 48 or something. Get this after you've acquired or set aside GP for the previous two things.
- 100k for the apron for +1 skill, this'll be your last purchase. With a shield, you can still turn a big profit before acquiring this or the 70k item.
- You'll probably want more GP to get some KIs, particularly the ones that let you craft in bulk.

Also bear in mind that to hit the needed amount of skill, you'll need to get Advanced Synth Support from the guild, in addition to equipping all this crap. With everything including the shield, you're at skill 125 in your main craft. Any synth that's 31 or more below your level is something you can HQ about 25% of the time. Note that HQ rings and food (rusks) are multiplicative, not additive. None of this matters cuz we're all *** on the Bonanza numbers anyway.

You'll need 205k GP to max out (required for some synths' profitability), which would probably take about a month and a half to two months.