How to Unlock & Level Culinarian in FFXIV
Final Fantasy XIV has an abundant variety of jobs for players to choose from, and they’re suited for all types of adventures in Eorzea from combat to crafting and gathering. The latter two especially go hand-in-hand, as gatherers are responsible for, well, gathering all the necessary resources that crafters need to make their desired items.
One such crafter is Culinarian, which is a job that you can start early on in the game and contributes greatly to the game as a whole, particularly for EXP and stat boosts. Granted, you may not know off-hand where exactly to started, but we’ve got your covered there. Here ishow to unlock and level Culinarian in FFXIV.
Where to Unlock Culinarian in FFXIV
Like many other jobs inFinal Fantasy XIV, Culinarian is first introduced and unlocked for the player by visiting their respective guild, in this casethe Culinarian’s Guild. It can be found inLimsa Lominsa, specifically in theUpper Decksarea at The Bismarck restaurant (X:9.7, Y:8.2). You can conveniently take a teleport from Limsa Lominsa’s Main Aetheryte straight there.
Speak to the Guild Receptionist namedCharlys(seen above) to pick up the Level 1 quest called“Way of the Culinarian”. Completing this will give you your first cooking skillet, and kick off the job quest line for Culinarian, which will help level and guide you with learning how to cook all of the game’s various meal items.
Also, while you may get better skillets and knives off theMarket Board, they can be overpriced due to seller inflation, and it can be rather inconvenient if you’re just starting out in the game, or are just low on gil in general. There is a nearby roegadyn vendor NPC at theLower Decksin East Hawker’s Alley namedIron Thunder(X:8.1, Y:11.7) who sells both crafting andgatheringgear all the way up toLevel 49. The higher level ones don’t go for more than a few thousand gil a piece, so make sure you don’t overlook your local merchants, as they’re typically the better bargain for basic necessities.
Meanwhile, to the right of Iron Thunder you’ll see theIndependent JewelernamedSorcha(X:8.5, Y:11.5), who sellscrafter/gatherer jobaccessories that go up toLevel 27. Across from her is theTradecraft SuppliernamedEngerrand(X:8.5, Y:11.7) who sells some basic cooking ingredients for cheap.
For well-pricedCulinarian Tools(Skillets, Knives) in particular, you’ll need to run further down toWest Hawker’s Alleyand talk to another roegadyn vendor namedSyneyhil(X:6.3, Y:12.0).
How to Level the Culinarian Job in FFXIV
Like other crafting jobs in the game (such as Leatherworker, Armorer, and Blacksmith), Culinarian has two primary, consistently reliable ways of gaining EXP, as well as some other miscellaneous methods that we’ll make note of as well.
Complete Your Crafting Logs
The first is literally picking up your skillet and cutting knife and getting some hands-on practice with the basics of crafting. On your hotbar, you’ll notice a couple of red boxes, which every crafter has by default. One is a quick access to your Inventory, while the other is yourCrafting Log(seen above). Open it up, and you’ll see all items that you can make for every crafting job you’ve unlocked, based on your current level for those jobs.
The items themselves have their own levels, and are tiered for every 5 levels. So for example, as Level 1 Culinarian starting out, you’ll be able to craft at least all itemsleveled 1-5at the beginning tier at the bottom. As you level up your Culinarian job, more tiers of crafting log items will unlock, and you’ll earn the most EXP for crafting the higher-leveled items in a given tier.
Make note that when crafting any of the items, you need to make sure you have the correct number of all required materials for it (seen on the right side of the Crafting Log menu), includingelemental shards(e.g. – pink-colored Lightning shards seen above). They can either beNormal Quality(NQ) orHigh Quality(HQ) materials, and the latter will help boost your odds of crafting a HQ item, which in turn yields even more EXP.
Material themselves can either be gathered or bought via the Market Board. If you prefer the second option, try and stick to the cheapest materials you may get. The last thing you want while leveling is to go bankrupt in the process.
Also, you can make any number of the items in your log that you want, to make the EXP grind more efficient. If you want to cook 50 plates of a certain meal at a time, and have enough materials to do so, nothing is stopping you. Just keep in mind that as your level goes up, the EXP gains for lower level crafts can hinder your progress.
Completing Your Job Quests
The second isyour Job Quests, which for crafting classes goes up toLevel 70. Upon completion they give you substantial chunks of EXP, as well as some supplementary items to help you along the way such as gear, primary/secondary tools, new abilities, DoH (Disciple of Hand) food buffs, and extra gil.
It is possible that you can pitstop during your quest grind and awkwardly forget where you left off, or how many quests are left for you to do. One VERY handy reminder tool added to the game isthe job quest notification at the top left of your screen(as seen above), right underneath the MSQ quest bar. It will tell you what your next/current quest for the job you’re currently equipped as is, and clicking on it will show the pickup location for it. Doesn’t get much better than that.
If you want a broader look at the entire quest line for Culinarian, here are all of them in order of Level, along with their NPCs, locations, and coordinates.
You can also sprinkle in someTradecraft Levequestsbetween these job quests, which you can pick up in various areas of every expansion up to Endwalker, depending on your Culinarians’s current level. They involve completing specific crafts, and upon turning them in you’ll get a good EXP boost, gil, and some materials.
Beyond the point of these quests,from Level 70 onwardyour next main source of EXP gain for your Culinarian comes from any or all of the following four methods:
That concludes our guide forhow to unlock and level Culinarian in FFXIV. We hope you find this helpful, and let us know which crafter you’ve leveled and enjoyed the most so far.
Be sure to check out all of our other guides for Final Fantasy XIV, such aseverything you should do daily and weekly in the game.
