Best way to level IC skills?

[Calsetes]

I'm assuming the best (i.e. most cost-efficient) way to level these is by actually doing the skill ad nauseum, as opposed to using precious SP to level them up? Or is it more beneficial to spend points on maxing them out?

I just don't wanna be in a situation where suddenly I'm out of SP and haven't boosted more than a passive or two on some characters, and like no attack skills.

Thanks in advance.

[Mycrosys]

Most skills can't even level like that. You might get in 2-3 levels of crafting and 4-5 levels of Alchemy and actually a good amount of Smithing, but for the rest it won't even give you a single SP when using the skill.
Your best bed is to discover a new Talent, because that will give you 100 SP in that Skill, leveling it up a level. Otherwise, you will have to dump your actual SP from level ups and Skill Seeds into it.

[Xengre]

It is 100% not worth doing it via repeatedly using the skill. The first few levels are okay but at higher levels, level 7 for example, performing IC will take such a massive number of attempts and likely far more Fol than you can afford before late (or post game) without Fol grinding tricks just for a single level. It will also require an obnoxious amount of time and repurchasing resources every 20 attempts.

In addition, "retry" option does not produce exp for the skill. Only the first attempt does.

There is a skill "Teamwork" (iirc the right one) that grants a random +100 SP bonus. This is actually a huge bonus. Unfortunately, it is very rare. Don't be mislead if you get it 2x by luck, for instance. Let me give an example of why...
I dumped points into Laeticia to level 6 crafting. I then tried to manually grind her by crafting to level 7 with terrible progress until Teamwork proc occurred instantly pushing her the rest of the way to level 7 (I said it was a lot). I got lucky and this did not take many attempts. Then I tried to do the same from 7 > 8. I quickly got lucky after a few dozen tries for another +100 SP bonus. I've since crafted like 120-150 items I'd estimate and I've never seen it again. It was an awful waste of my time.

The only benefit to repeatedly crafting is to unlock talents but this is a separate matter and I'd look online to find out how the rules for this work as I haven't checked, myself.

I would also have each character main one IC type that way you don't have to worry about spending tons of SP on different IC per character.

[This PC]

I just dumped SP into making laeticia 10 crafting, raymond 10 smithing, albaird 10 alchemy, elena 10 engineering, etc...

Still facerolling battles np 20+ hours in. Hope this helps.

Edit: Just want to add, once you unlock alchemy and start making rarer ores, the gear you're able to produce with a little bit of luck will more than make up for the loss in SP lol. My Raymond is basically unkillable right now, that will taper off with time, but by then I will probably have access to new ores to make better gear.

[Rising Gale]

IC progression unless you brute force it spending SP is pretty much RNG hell. I have never seen a system as bad as this where you only get progression without wasting SP if you fail, but failing is harder than succeeding its kinda ridiculous lol. I have tried spamming both low and high grade ores and its maddening how frustrating it is at times.

[chris100185]

There's a skill that doubles sp gain. Not sure who else can get it, but i have it on nina. Makes brute forcing a breeze, especially alchemy.

[Mycrosys]

Originally posted by chris100185:

There's a skill that doubles sp gain. Not sure who else can get it, but i have it on nina. Makes brute forcing a breeze, especially alchemy.

If your crafting result is Gold and upwards, Alchemy awards you 0 SP.

[chris100185]

Originally posted by Mycrosys:

Originally posted by chris100185:

There's a skill that doubles sp gain. Not sure who else can get it, but i have it on nina. Makes brute forcing a breeze, especially alchemy.

If your crafting result is Gold and upwards, Alchemy awards you 0 SP.

Oh i bought the higher levels, but for the earlier ones, i just bought a full stack of iron and crafted till i ran out(scrap) or everything was gold and higher. Mats constantly bouncing between iron and silver was great for this

[Rising Gale]

Originally posted by chris100185:

Originally posted by Mycrosys:

If your crafting result is Gold and upwards, Alchemy awards you 0 SP.

Oh i bought the higher levels, but for the earlier ones, i just bought a full stack of iron and crafted till i ran out(scrap) or everything was gold and higher. Mats constantly bouncing between iron and silver was great for this

Thing is tho as you climb in levels iron/silver tier more and more frequently give gold tier crafting output and no sp lol. Once you hit level 5 it's absolute madness with the rng.

[Rising Gale]

Originally posted by Mycrosys:

Originally posted by chris100185:

There's a skill that doubles sp gain. Not sure who else can get it, but i have it on nina. Makes brute forcing a breeze, especially alchemy.

If your crafting result is Gold and upwards, Alchemy awards you 0 SP.

So far gaining skills has been completely rng for me tho I haven't found any way to teach characters crafting talents other than spamming crafting anything and just praying it give it to me before I run out of fol

[Mycrosys]

Originally posted by chris100185:

Oh i bought the higher levels, but for the earlier ones, i just bought a full stack of iron and crafted till i ran out(scrap) or everything was gold and higher. Mats constantly bouncing between iron and silver was great for this

I did that as well, but upgrading gets really expensive unless you buy Iron, upgrade them to silver, then sell the silver and repeat the process. That is actually the most inexpensive way to level Alchemy, but its boring and still costs quite a bit of money.

[garrettvg]

i ended up just dumping all sp into IC skills for characters i didnt use

[chris100185]

Originally posted by Mycrosys:

Originally posted by chris100185:

Oh i bought the higher levels, but for the earlier ones, i just bought a full stack of iron and crafted till i ran out(scrap) or everything was gold and higher. Mats constantly bouncing between iron and silver was great for this

I did that as well, but upgrading gets really expensive unless you buy Iron, upgrade them to silver, then sell the silver and repeat the process. That is actually the most inexpensive way to level Alchemy, but its boring and still costs quite a bit of money.

Why the sell the silver though? At lower levels, the silver is just as likely to get turned back into iron, if not morso.

[Mycrosys]

Originally posted by chris100185:

Why the sell the silver though? At lower levels, the silver is just as likely to get turned back into iron, if not morso.

Upgrading costs get higher, and chances for it to get back down to iron/scrap iron is not high enough. Best is really to just buy 20 iron, upgrade it, repeat. Additional Silver and Gold will get auto sold anyway.

[Calsetes]

Alright, good to know. Thanks, guys! I'll keep the other tips in mind next time I play.

[Rising Gale]

Is it me or is this the worst crafting system in the entire franchise? I mean don't get me wrong I like the game but this crafting system is miserable with its rng.