FFXIV Culinarian Leveling Guide L1 to 80 | 5.3 ShB Updated

5.25 Shadowbringers UPDATED! CUL L70 to 80 segment updated to account for the new skills, and added new rotations!

CUL Leveling Guide 50-60

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)

Culinarian Leveling Guide – Navigation: [0-15] | [15-35] | [35-50]
[50-60] | [60-64] | [64-70] | [70-80]

So, you’ve made it to the Holy See with skillet in hand and knife in pocket? If you’re going to get to 60 fast, you’ve found the right guide! Ain’t muffin’ gonna stop you from getting there with our Culinarian Leveling guide: 50 to 60 edition!! For a quick reference, I’ll be putting the CUL Levequest Items and CUL Class quest Items up top.

“A Recipe has no soul. But WE, with knife in hand… Give them LIFE!” – Mahiko “Ramsay” San.

Culinarian Levequest Table 50 to 60

ClassLv.Type#Levequest NameItem NameRecipe Preview
CUL50S1Next to Last SupperStuffed Cabbage Rollhttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2813/Stuffed-Cabbage-Rolls
CUL50S1Little Orphan CandyFig Bavaroishttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2796/Fig-Bavarois
CUL50T2Baked Onion SoupBaked Onion Souphttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2809/Baked-Onion-Soup
CUL52S1Loving the Muffin TopIshgardian Muffinhttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2800/Ishgardian-Muffin
CUL52S5Such a Butter FaceFermented Butterhttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2821/Fermented-Butter
CUL52T2Persona non GratinDhalmel Gratinhttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2814/Dhalmel-Gratin
CUL54S1Nutcrackers SweetsRoyal Eggshttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2807/Royal-Eggs
CUL54S1Breakfast of ChampionsEmerald Souphttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2811/Emerald-Soup
CUL54T2Old Victories, New TastesDhalmel Fricaseehttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2816/Dhalmel-Fricassee
CUL56S1It Goes Down SmoothlyFrozen Spiritshttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2795/Frozen-Spirits
CUL56S5Saucy for a SuitorHollandaise Saucehttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2818/Hollandaise-Sauce
CUL56T2Persuasion For a Higher PowerBaked Pipira Pirahttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2805/Baked-Pipira-Pira
CUL58S5Let's not get SappyBirch Syrup x5http://xivdb.com/?recipe/2819/Birch-Syrup
CUL58S1Soup that Eats like a KnightClam Chowderhttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2812/Clam-Chowder
CUL58T2Dont let it Fall ApartLiver Cheese Sandwichhttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2801/Liver-Cheese-Sandwich

You can find a COMPLETE (all eight DoH classes) list of the above and below tables here: Full listing of DOH Leve/Class Quest Items.

Culinarian Class Quest Table 50 to 60

ClassLvItemRecipe
CUL53Ishgardian Teahttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2794/Ishgardian-Tea
Sohm Al Tarthttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2797/Sohm-Al-Tart
CUL55Kaiser Rollhttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2799/Kaiser-Roll
Beet Souphttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2810/Beet-Soup
Grilled Sweetfishhttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2804/Grilled-Sweetfish
CUL58Cockatrice Meatballshttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2806/Cockatrice-Meatballs
CUL60Morel Saladhttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2803/Morel-Salad
Deep Fried Okeanishttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2808/Deep-Fried-Okeanis
Marron Glacehttp://xivdb.com/?recipe/2798/Marron-Glace
CULQuest NPCMelkokoLimsa Upper (The Aftcastle)
>> Important: UNLOCK MOOGLE BEAST TRIBE! <<
Moogle Beast Tribe Quests (Daily): Help muscle past 50 to 53!

The introduction of Moogle Beast Tribe quests gives us possibly the “best” method to help our struggling crafters past the extremely difficult L50 to L53 phase.

Starting Quest: Tricks and Stones
NPC & Location: Seething Stonemason, Churning Mists (27, 34)
Prerequisite MSQ: Into the Aery
Prerequisite Sidequests: Laying the First Brick.

Why do Moogle Dailies? They’re EXTREMELY EASY, FREE, FAST, and provide A CHUNK OF EXP – especially useful for the early 3.0 levels, namely 50 to about 53 (before you get a complete set of 3.0 DoH Gear).

The EXP is gained on the class you triggered the quest with – you cannot switch class after completion and get exp on that one, so be careful.

Unlocking this can be a HUGE PAIN IN THE BUTT. There’s about 2.7 billion prerequisite quests – especially painful for those who didn’t quest in Churning Mists. Good luck.

I highly suggest saving these for your lowest level crafter, or to get past “difficult tiers”. Once all of your crafters are past 53, spend them freely or on your highest level crafter!

To those who are familiar with the previous tiers Ixal quests, MOOGLE QUESTS ARE MUCH SIMPLER. There’s no combat or forced gathering involved.

Before you begin CUL 50+

  • Go to the Culinarians’ guild in Limsa and get your quest to point you to your new quest giver.
  • Thankfully, it’s in Limsa, too. Melkoko (Limsa Upper – Aftcastle) is your new source of quests!
  • You get 3 Commercial Issue Crafting Manuals: Use them wisely! Read the damn tooltip.
  • Reminder: DO YOUR GC TURN-IN EVERYDAY. A muffin-load of EXP for your Culinarian, as long as it’s within your budget.
  • Go to Ishgard and complete the quest “Inscrutable Tastes“. It unlocks the Scrip turn-in system.

Crafting Scrips, turn-ins and your Culinarian:

So how does this all work? Basically, you craft Collectibles and hand them in for EXP, and later on, Scrips. This acts like a ‘free’ levequest! It’s infinitely repeatable – as long as you can afford to make the items. How do you craft a collectible? Using the skill Collectible Synthesis gives you a status effect wherein anything you craft will end up as a collectible.

UNLIKE NORMAL CRAFTING, HQ% doesn’t matter. An item’s collectability is defined by its quality upon completion. So you don’t need to “HQ” everything you craft – just make sure you reach the minimum collectability! When you’re done, you’re prompted to keep the item as a collectible, or complete the synthesis normally. These items cannot be stacked, sold or traded. You may also “lower” an item from a collectible to a regular item!


 

Culinarian Level 50 to 52

CUL 50 Levequest comparison:
  • Fig Bavarois: Limiting cost factor: 3 Old World Fig, 2 Yak Milk (This is a bad choice)
  • Stuffed Cabbage Rolls: Limiting cost factor: 3 Pearl Sprout, 2 Loagthan Chump (This is a bad choice)
  • Baked Onion Soup:(R) Limiting cost factor: Knight’s Bread, Cyclops Onion, Inventory Space.

I DIDN’T USE LEVEQUESTS IN THIS TIER. As you can see, they’re quite horrible. Honestly, I cannot recommend one of these while not feeling like I’m going to disappoint 66% of the readers of this guide. If I was forced to choose one of these, I’d painstakingly choose Stuffed Cabbage Roll (But a part of me says Baked Onion Soup…)

Instead, what I did was relied on 1 or 2 days of GC turn-ins, supplemented by grinding out on Highland Flour and Sour Cream. If you can HQ Ishgardian Muffin with your current gear reliably, GO AND CRAFT AS MANY OF THOSE AS YOU CAN WHILE LEVELING UP!!! This is a great place to use your Commercial Issue Engineering Manual, if you’re lazy.


Culinarian Level 52 to 54

CUL 52 Levequest comparison:
  • Ishgardian Muffin: VALUE OF HEAVENS. Cheap, relatively low level. You can choose to take this all the way to SIXTY.
  • Fermented Butter: Not so bad, now that I think about it.
  • Dhalmel Gratin:(R) This shouldn’t exist in your mind. The third levequest is a lie.

Yep, the infamous Ishgardian Muffin. It’s pretty damn cheap… It’s easy to make and doesn’t require a ton of inventory space. Basically, the reverse of the usual CUL leves we’re used to up to this point. You’d have to be CRAZY to use any other leve in this tier (and if you’re not in a rush you can just keep using this for the future levels!). I won’t even lie to you – the rest of this text in this entire guide is rendered 80% useless, thanks to Ishgardian Muffin, but keep reading anyway.

Oh, also, Ishgardian Muffin sometimes pops up as a collectible. If they weren’t good enough already.

CUL 52, 53 Gear Check: Depending on your gear entering Ishgard, upgrading your Mainhand at L52 to Frypan Caliente, and Offhand at 53 to Mythrite Culinary Knife could prove to be a HUGE gain in stats. Same goes with an HQ Rainbow shirt. Most people would want to upgrade these three items for now, don’t bother with the other slots just yet…


Culinarian Level 54 to 56

CUL 54 Levequest comparison:
  • Royal Eggs: The best choice in this specific tier. Never said they wouldn’t be painful.
  • Emerald Soup: Bouillon Cube? There are better things to do with it.
  • Dhalmel Fricasee:(R) DON’T BOTHER WITH THIS, it shows up as a L56 collectible!!

AAAAAAAANNNND THE WINNER IS: Ishgardian Muffin!!!! Wait, what? Yeahp. Unless you’re sitting on top of a tower made of gil, that’s still the best choice for the population at large. Dhalmel Fricassee is useful for many things. It’s a great food for gathering, and it shows up as a higher tier collectible a little later. But I’ll talk about it in the next tier. It’s a sad thing to repeat a previous tier leve, but seriously, Ishgardian Muffin is that damn good.

CUL Level 56 – Scrip tier collectibles: Once you hit 56 you’ve now entered the scrip tier! Trust me on this, you’re going to need A LOT of these guys. Luckily, CULINARIAN is one of the best classes to amass blue crafter scrip with!! I’ll talk about this more in detail in the next tier.


Culinarian Level 56 to 58

CUL 56 Levequest comparison:
  • Frozen Spirits: Not the worst out there. Great if you have a Botanist.
  • Hollandaise Sauce: Can be equal to Frozen Spirits for some.
  • Baked Pipira Pira:(R) Don’t bother with this garbage.

I personally didn’t use leves in this tier. Frozen Spirits and H. Sauce are equally painful, for me, and would make a good choice if you’re sick of muffins. But before you go spending leves here, there is a better way. As long as you’re here, you may as well abuse the Culinarian COLLECTABLES. I don’t think I can drill it into your mind just how important these scrips are, and how you should get maximum value while acquiring them… Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Muffin Boy.

CUL Level 56 Collectible Discussion:

  • Dhalmel Fricassee: IS BETTER THAN YOU THINK. It costs a cube, yes, but you get MORE scrips back than you spend turning them in! Not a bad choice at all!!!
  • (forgot the other ones that popped up, but finding value in D. Fricassee is notable)

If you default back to Ishgardian Muffin – I don’t really blame you.

I don’t quite remember the CUL turn-ins this tier, but remember, ANY TURN-IN which requires cubes are still WORTH IT! Again, because you get ’em back in terms of scrip – and then some!


Culinarian Level 58 to 60

CUL 58 Levequest comparison:
  • Birch Syrup: Surprisingly Godlike! It’s pretty good, plus this item has another great use….
  • Clam Chowder: I’d rather make these for myself…
  • Liver-Cheese Sandwhich: It’s actually not too bad. But still, Birch or Scrip turn-ins are better…

Do yourself a favor and man up from Ishgardian Muffin. Birch Syrup is your last attempt at redeeming yourself of a memory that you abused muffins to 60. Keep an eye out for the turn-ins this tier, namely, the godlike Marron Glace!!!

CUL Level 58-59 Collectible Discussion:

  • Marron Glace: Is THE godlike turn-in item. Not just for leveling up but for grinding out the few thousand scrip you need! And yes, it needs Birch Syrup!
  • Let me get back to you after I get reminded of the other items in this tier… but Marron Glace should be enough!

Seriously for this tier, man up and CRAFT THE HELL out of any good turn-ins you find. You will regret it if you don’t! I personally waited for Marron Glace to pop up again before I finished off cooking and gained the chunky amount of Scrip I needed for at least all eight Master Books!


Well, that’s about it for the Heavensward tier! Enjoy your journey to Culinarian Level 60! And I hope you learned, as I did, from Melkoko… Cooking isn’t about binding ingredients – but binding hearts.

ON TO THE STORMBLOOD TIER!

Culinarian Leveling Guide – Navigation: [0-15] | [15-35] | [35-50]
[50-60] | [60-64] | [64-70] | [70-80]

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74 thoughts on “FFXIV Culinarian Leveling Guide L1 to 80 | 5.3 ShB Updated”

    1. Shards are like “super RAW materials” that often get overlooked. They’re the crystal looking things in the upper part of your recipe. They’re not normally considered “part” of a recipe when talking about ’em, haha.

  1. Love the guide, but I have to say you should include doing the collectible Pixie Apple Pie at 74 if you have no leve allowances left. Mats are easy to obtain except for the yak milk for the butter, which I broke down and bought, but you could always use retainers to get enough. From 74-80 you only need roughly 100 collectibles using your 100% rotation.

  2. For the leg of 40 to 50, I have found the Rolanberry cheese to be the best option, simply because other players sells stacks of 99 for very reasonable price.
    If not on your own server, shop around.

    This tip is valid for those with limited leve allowances.

  3. Night Milk can be purchased from the Sahagin vendor for 84 gil each and if you gather your own rolanberries, that may make it the best for grinding from 40-45 and makes the leve even more attractable.

  4. Here to point out that with Shadowbringers, Yak Milk is now buyable in Crystarium for 617 gil. This makes Ishgardian Muffin *buyable*

  5. Unfortunately it’s true as of June 23, 2019. The Levequest is now called Gegeruju Gets Down with the objective of 3 pieces of cornbread to Ririphon.

  6. For the Lv 40 Leves, I would definitely reconsider doing the rolanberry cheese leves. You only need two resources, requires only 5 for a turn-in and one of the highest XP at 55,774 (NQ). Pastry fish need six resources, requires 9 pastry fish for a turn-in, and its XP is the lowest at 32,049 (NQ).

  7. For people lazy like me, for levels 45-50. You can buy mulled tea from a vendor in the Kugane markets. I got a stack or 99 for about 25k gil, which was about enough to get from 45-50. Only downside is that this costs more leves.

  8. I don’t understand why you would use hasty touch 2 over hasty touch 1, it’s only 10% more success for a whole 7cp i haven’t personally really found it worth the cp

  9. Should change lvl 20 Culinarian Guild Quest item name be Dried Prunes/Plums for some people who doesn’t know English or doesn’t read the dialogues.

  10. Did the triple walnut bread leve get nerfed? It only gives 5000 exp for me. Seems very wasteful when it’s asking for so much.

      1. When the muffin is the collectable it requires 1900 points to qualify. Using HQ Yak Milk starts you at 2040, so it is prime for using a macro to mass produce them while saving leves for other craft skills.

  11. So a quick Question: The 0-15 set only gets me to lv 12. That is with making half of everything by hand then quick synthing the rest. Also lacking the Company-issue Engineering Scroll.

    Recommend adding that if you fall short, buying some Tiger Cod off the market (can also be bought in Limsa for 36gil but market for me has always been far cheaper) and making salt cod helps close the gap, can also go for lavender oil and cider if you’re also BTN or if the lavender and apples are cheep on the markets.

    1. The math doesn’t add up for 0-15. You need 130,580 EXP for 0-15. The list calls for the creation of 260 items. That’s just over 500 EXP each as a reward. Half of these will not give 200, even boosted with the CG Scroll (Salt, Syrup, Sugar). You will be to level 5 before finishing the salt.

      I did this, exactly as described above, with the CG Scroll. I also completed each of the guild missions when they became available (crafting the additional Grilled Trout and Grilled Dodo…as well as a stack of Olive Oil. Still level 12.

      1. It’s not meant to get you there 100% of the time. RESTED + MANUALS + some good exp on manual crafts should get you up there (I cannot account for RNG). Also, it provides mats that weren’t buyable (I think you can buy table salt now) which you should have a stock of. It’s more of a value move.

  12. For scrips at Lv 58-60, if you’ve got botanist levelled up, and ESPECIALLY if you’ve been muffin spamming and so have way more yakmilk than you started with: Frozen Spirits actually is lower level than Marron Glace, and yields more scrips.

  13. So for the 20-25 tier, you suggest the walnut bread triple turnin. This will give about 15.5k exp nq. However, this also requires 9 walnut breads per turnin, making this option not at all material efficient. I found it best to continue to use the walnut bread courier from the 15-20 tier, as this option onky uses 1 walnut bread for turnin, and still gives 13k exp.

    Loce your guides! This is probably the 4th or 5th I’ve used for crafting/gathering. Keep up the good work!

    1. During the 20-25 tier, the walnut bread turn-in [H] works really well in conjunction with Grape Juice [H] since they’re picked up from the same NPC and turned in to the same NPC. It nearly doubled my speed. Not to mention grape juice is very cheap to craft, making the material to EXP cost fairly low. The bread, as you mentioned, is not though. I turned in left-overs for dat easy exp.

    1. I’m going to assume you were able to HQ Ishgardian Muffins at 52? I’m finding it a bit hard ;( (I have the old 2.0 gear) 359 Craftsmanship/344Control 340CP

  14. For levels 15-20 the Leve called Rustic Repast in Aleport is by far the best way to go. You can buy the Chicken and Mushrooms from an NPC for 37 gil. The leve gives 12218 exp and 185 gil and is a quick run from the leve giver to the receiver.

  15. ok so from what im noticing, courier leves are the best EXP of any tier, meaning if you were to have someone helping you level rather than doing it alone, would you consider purely sticking to couirer leves as they give the most bang:buck ratio in terms of leves:exp?

    1. For the most part, yes. If cost is not an issue, courier leves are great. One thing courier sucks at? TIME. At level 35 onward, courier leves are slow as hell since they are NOT NEAR ANY AETHERYTE, and can increase “time spent” to level by up to 10 times.

      1. I tried cornmeal but I find dark vinegar to be better. It uses the same grapes I was making juice out of and pays over 90k for hq

  16. In the level 1-15 guide you need 99 rye to make 33 rye flour not 33

    awesome guide man really helped me out keep up the good work

  17. With Night Milk purchasable from the Reputation Vendor (Sahuagin) now, it makes Rolanberry Cheese for level 40-45 and the Rolanberry Lassi for 45-50 great choices. Highly recommend doing those now.

    1. ABSOLUTELY!!!! I was going to comment this, I have been using this guide and I was looking at Pastry fish and I cannot see how that is going to be easy whatsoever. Good guide but I really didn’t have to follow it exactly as I had lvled botany and had kept many things handy with retainer space especially HQ items.

  18. Haven’t made any comparision with the others, but the Gridanian Walnut’s has severely jumped up in price (at least on my server), especially since they long back ago (10/15/2013) removed them from the Shopkeep in Drybone. Is it still the best, and most valid choice to skill up on (lvl 15-20)?

    1. First off sorry for the super late comment! I also noticed the oddly high price of the walnut, making walnut bread a less ideal choice for those without (or too lazy to fetch with) botanist.

  19. Salt Cod Puffs aren’t as bad as the guide makes it seem, since NQ salt cod can be bought from either the potwatch or independent culinarian npc near each town’s market board for 15g.
    Other than that, great guide!

  20. I’m not sure what/when it changed, but the levemete in St. Coinach’s Find for level 45 leves asks for “cups of Rolanberry Lassi” instead of Tomato Pie. The description still sounds like Tomato Pie, but the objective itself states otherwise.

    1. Also! Thank you for the awesome guide =) With it’s help, and 99 leve allowances, I got from 1-50 in about 3 days and a total of ~12 hours.

      On my server, I was actually able to MAKE money buying leve items off the market boards and just running leves from 25-50. I literally did not have to craft a single thing during that time and I made ~15,000g profit. Crazy.

    2. It could possibly have changed in a recent patch due to the difficulty of tomato pies craft. I will investigate!

  21. Even while using a scroll and manually crafting every single thing I still only made it to the very start of level 12. (Second to last pie made me level) I think they may have changed some stuff around in the latest patches.

    1. Crafting the same item won’t yield the same EXP each time! The more quality you manage to get, the higher exp you will receive! In the case of not reaching 15, you may want to use the Courier leve of your tier, and the “reverse courier”

    2. I was lvl 11 and just got on my pie dough grind. I bought enough material’s to make 99 of them (less then 2000 gil). I’m now lvl 14 about to run it back.also I’m not using scroll’s

  22. This is superb, thank you for spending the time to compile and write this up. Very much looking forward to the guides for other trades. Just hope that it’s not too affected by the Leve XP changes in 2.1 (some singles bumped up, triples bumped down?).

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