How To Use Tricks of The Trade in FFXIV

The action “Tricks of the Trade” is a crafter skill that can be used during “good” or “excellent” material conditions while crafting. This ability is learned at level 13 by all Disciple of the Hand classes.

Using “Tricks of the Trade” will restore 20 crafting points (CP) while crafting an item. CP works much like MP does for Disciples of War or Magic in that it’s a resource consumed when using certain skills.

“Tricks of the Trade” will not consume any durability upon use.

Materials Condition

You may notice early on that Materials Condition is pretty impactful in your crafting. Not only does it give you access to certain abilities like “Tricks of the Trade” in some cases, it also affects the effectiveness of other abilities.

There are four different conditions that may occur during crafting:

• Normal
• Good
• Excellent
• And Poor

Materials Condition has a chance to change after every action taken during the crafting process.

You can check the current condition by looking at the lower left corner of your crafting UI. It’s found right under the current durability of your crafting progress.

Let’s take a closer look at the different effects each Materials Condition can have.

Normal Condition

This is the default condition and offers no special effects or access to other abilities. Normal condition will always occur at the start of a crafting session or immediately after “Good” and “Poor” conditions.

Good Condition

“Good” will give a 50% bonus to your quality gain if you use a “Touch” action during this condition. It also allows the use of conditional actions such as “Tricks of the Trade”.

It has about a 25% chance to show up while crafting.

Excellent Condition

This condition will give a 100% bonus to quality gain when using a “Touch” action.

“Tricks of the Trade” and other conditional actions can also be used under this condition. It has about a 10% chance of showing up and will always be followed by the “Poor” condition.

Poor Condition

“Poor” is the only condition that has a negative effect.

It has a 10% penalty on quality gain and will always show up after an “Excellent” condition.

This condition will only take effect after “Excellent”, meaning it can’t randomly show up on its own. Materials Condition will always revert back to “Normal” after “Poor”.

Additional Notes on CP

As we’ve pointed out earlier, CP works a lot like MP does for Disciples of War and Magic. The same comparison can be made with GP for Disciples of the Land.

However, CP is unique in that there are no potions a player can use to restore it while crafting. Currently, the only way to restore CP during a crafting session is through the use of “Tricks of the Trade”.

You can probably tell by now that the “Good” and “Excellent” materials conditions can be utilized in more impactful ways, but this isn’t always the case. Being efficient at crafting in FFXIV means taking a look at your current crafting session and figuring out the best way to proceed.

It’s a big step away from the crafting systems of most other games that have you mindlessly clicking the same button over and over again.

If you find yourself still struggling in being efficient with your CP during crafts, you may also consider increasing your maximum CP through gear or food buffs. One of the earliest items you can eat to raise your maximum CP is the Frumenty – an item level 4 meal that raises your CP by 10% (10 raw points max).