Character

I think this is the question that have been asked the most to me, in my friend group. So once and for all, I'll list (and probably edit) everything you need to know to level up your crafters and get the last best in shot at each expansion. This article is in construction. I published it to pass down knowledge to the friends that has been asking me. Yes, this guide can help you also during Downtrail even if I wrote it back in post-Endwalker :)


1- From 0 to 100 levels

Case 1: If you don't have any lvl 60 so you don't have access to the Firmament/Azurée
This case 1 can be done even if you have the Firmament access (in case you're sick of it).

Your objective will be to get one job at least at level 60. I'm not talking about crafters/gatherers! My advice would be first to get a battle class to level 60 and follow the step on case 2.

But if you don't want to wait and start now, you have still several options to do:
Eat food
I'm not even joking, it has +3% xp. If you can eat something else like a scroll with bonus XP (you can drop this from some missions with squarons of grand company) do it.

Levequests/Mandat
If you are frenchspeaker, you can use this list. If you're not, but still curious, everything that is a colored cell is a crafters or gatherer levequests. It starts with the cities of Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah and Gridania at lvl 1 for crafters and gatherers.
The only list I found was on this website for englishspeakers.
We often forget about levequests, but starting Shadowbringers, it really is a useful information to have. It gives a lot of XP in a short amount of time for each classes crafters and gatherers. I did my leveling from lvl 70 to 90 almost only with that in hand.

Job Craft Quests
This is an obvious but mandatory must-do thing. It won't give you only XP, but also gearing, traits and action you'll need in the future. Even after lvl 60 you should complete them. Know that after Stormblood they changed the recipe for those quests. Starting Shadowbringers

Tribal quests
It starts in ARR with the Ixals, and good news for you: it starts lvl 1. So please unlock this at least, and get to it! It gives you XP but if you complete the entire tribe quests, you'll get access to their exclusive shop with some dyes that can be expensive on the market board. No more buyting 1000 gils a pot when it's supposed to be only 200 gils or so to the tribal NPC.
Tips: you can go to your menu > missions > calendar to have access anytime to the Ixal's delivery table to know what to craft before going there.

Crafters => After ARR, for HW it's the Mogs. For SB it's the Namazu. For ShB it's the dwarves. For EW it's the Lopporits.
Gatherers => It starts at SB, with the Namazu. For ShB it's the Qitari. For EW it's the Omicrons.

Grand Company Delivery
You should do this as soon as possible, as it gives grand company seals but also a fair amount of XP. The list will change everytime. I think you can go to your Menu > Missions > Calendar. Try to deliver everything in HQ for double XP, and be sure to do the ones with the star in front at least! They have buff XP on them upon delivery

Custom Deliveries/Commandes Spéciales
Tip: you can see each week the special deliveries and the rewards in Menu > Missions > Calendar (2nd tab). Please refer to the 2nd chapter for this. If you have it unlock, it gives you a lot of XP each week. You can complete a total of 6 delivery per NPC.

If you're part of an FC and they have one, the FC workshop
This works only if you're lvl 40-50 unfortunatly. But if your FC have a project, or you want to launch one, please do so and deliver everything. But be careful, it was supposed to be group content craft project. So the amount of things it ask is well... for group content. Still a bit of XP, maybe not worth the other options.

Weekly objective log
I'm almost sure you can grab a bit of XP there. But for me it has been now years I can't see what gives XP or not. Sorry about that, I cannot confirm. Normally, with all the options, you should be able to complete this along.

For fishers only: Ocean Fishing
You need to complete a blue quest to unlock the Ocean Fishing.
EN - https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/db/quest/9cfc87fd0d0/
FR - https://fr.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/db/quest/9cfc87fd0d0/
The boat at the Limsa deck will depart every 2 IRL hours. You'll need 3 baits only that are rather cheap: ragworm, krill and plump worm. You can buy them to the NPC at the Limsa Deck or directly on the boat. Please refer to this tool guide to know what bait to use :)
This is a really important thing to do for fishers that wants to level up very quickly. This will give you scrips as well (refer to part 2 - exclusive currency).

Case 2: If you have level 60, complete this quest. So you have access to the Firmament/Azurée

Firmament. The Holy place for leveling. Exclusive shops and rewards, exclusive FATEs you can do as a crafters/gatherers, exclusive place for gathering with bonus XP, exclusive recipes for bonus XP at each craft. In one day, you can level up from 1 to at least 40 (I did it for alchemist back in the days). Be sure to read everything there. The mats for the craft recipes can be bought from MB but it's better for you to gather them yourself to get bonus XP. With everything else from Case 1, you should be able to level up quickly.
Personal note: I notice that starting near level 70-80 the XP gain slow down a lot. Use that to unlock the scrips and pass to chapter 2:

2- Exclusive currency: scrips & custom deliveries
Assignats & commandes spéciales

It starts at Ishgard. Before doing this chapter, please at least level up one crafters and/or one gatherer at lvl 50 or you won't be able to access this mandatory quest.

This is something very important if you want to grind materias and gear for both classes, but also more XP with the custom deliveries. It also will help you craft more advanced recipes obtainable like expert books or legendary tales for the gatherer. This is a whole new world and level.
Most of the time, at each expansion, we have several gears. Some of the best content gear is behind the scrips NPC and that's what you need to level up and doing recipes from your own level. If you're going to have the best of the best you will still need scrip gear.

Now you did the quest I linked earlier, you'll learn a new trait: Collect. The collectable items are specific genre of items you can deliver for scrips and XP. But be aware of something: it gets a little bit harder through time to obtain those. Some of them will get you very small amount of scrips and xp, but some of them will get you great amount. Often, those last items comes from master recipe tomes.
For the two of them, you can start at Mor Dhona. The first books needs you to deliver HQ items to get this. Then you can go to Idyllshire to get the HW master tomes. Then to Rhalgr's reach. Then to Eulmore. Then to Rads-At-Han.
For more information, I'll link this page. It countains everything you need to give and where to get it.
Here is for the Regional Folkore tomes, for gatherers.

For unlocking the custom deliveries, you will need to be at least lvl 60. Please follow the second table of this page to know where to unlock each custom deliveries. The tribe quests reset timer is everyday at 5pm, while the custome delivery timer reset is every Tuesday at 10pm.

[More to Come]
- Gearing properly, what matters?
- Best-in-shots? scrips > craft HQ last recipe from latest update > pentamelding
- How to do my own macros?

Link to part 2 here