Desynthesis Unlock and Levelling in FFXIV

Desynthesis is a system for Disciples of the Hand that allows you to break down items (e.g. dungeons, trials, and crafted) into the requisite crafting materials and other materials. This can allow you to passively obtain items whilst doing routine content such as roulettes. Additionally, you can desynthesize primal weapons (primarily Blacksmith/Armorer), making it a lucrative method for obtaining the primal materials. Both of which you can use to fuel your own crafted items, or for a passive source of income.

In order to unlock Desynthesis, you must reach Level 30 with any Disciple of the Hand class. Keep in mind that you can only desynthesize items where you meet this level requirement. For example, you can not desynthesize items on a Level 20 class even if you have it unlocked on a Level 30 class. So if you wish to desynthesize items on any class, you will need to have all classes at Level 30 or above. The full list of requirements can be seen below:

• Unlock Quest: Gone to Pieces
• NPC/Location: Syntgoht - Ul'dah - Steps of Thal (x14.0, y10.0)
• Level 30 on your desired Disciple of Hand
• Requisite Quest: Life, Materia and Everything

You can access the Desynthesis action from the Actions & Traits menu within the Character tab in the section General. Note: This action can be assigned to your hotbar

Items that are available to be desynthesized can be seen from the item information pop-up when you hover over an item. It will specify a recommended skill level which is not important for leveling but helpful in knowing when you reach the requirements for "Rare" drops.

If you wish to view your Desynthesis levels, then you can do so from the Character menu by navigating to Classes/Jobs and selecting DoH/L. The small menu-bar graphically shows how close you are to capping your Desynthesis level. If you click on a DoH class, then it will bring up the Desynthesis Skill menu.

Having your Desynthesis level be at or above the item level of the item you want to break down increases the chances of obtaining "Rare" items. This ultimately means a few things:

• Items now drop their HQ counterparts roughly 20-30% of the time.
• Increased drop rates of items which players may consider "Rare" such as Primal materials, demimateria and items you may not consider to be a crafting material for that item. There is no verifiable information of what items specifically count as rare.
• Many items which have a chance to drop multiple of themselves and will always give their maximum amounts. This is primarily crafting materials or demimateria at higher ilvs.
• There are no items which are only unlocked when you gain "Rare".

It is not worth actively levelling Desynthesis just to gain an increased rare chance on some items. It is rarely worth the cost and most items of value are at lower levels anyway. For example lv50 Big Fish.

At a first glance, Desynthesis XP seems almost entirely random but this is not actually the case. The game has a base amount (shown as good in the example) and then 4 other factors of that. The game will pick from any of those.

The base amount of Desynthesis XP is based on the following factors:

• Bacon Broth and Tinker's Calm buffs.
• What your Desynthesis level is (not relative to the item your breaking down).
• What your Desynthesis level is (relative to the item your breaking down).

What i mean by relative and not relative to the item your breaking down, is that before ilv279 you have a higher base XP gain. You also gain less XP once your desynth level is +10 to the items Ilv and gain 0XP once your +50.

There are a few methods to level Desynthesis each with their own benefits and downsides, these are:

• Passive Levelling (Recommended at Endgame, impossible on Culinarian).
• Mass buying items off of the marketboard or from vendors.
• Mass Levelling using the Highest ilv item that is cheap.
• Targeted Levelling using curated items at various ilv ranges in our guide below.

Passively levelling desynthesis means simply breaking down items as you get them from running other pieces of content. For example using gear dropped in dungeons or purchased via Allagan Tomestones. Because there are no experience point penalties or bonuses for your desynthesis level being below the level of the item your breaking down, you can simply use whatever items are cheap or convenient.

This method is of course slower but requires no real investment into desynthesis as you slowly level from completing roulettes and running endgame content. This is often the best method when your chosen class gets to endgame levels because items can become expensive.

Culinarian can not level via passive methods because they require big fish for the final desynthesis levels. This means you either need to buy the fish from the marketboard, farm big fish, or wait for a new expansion which has higher ilv non-big fish.