Want five Bronze Ingots and three Bronze Rivets left in your inventory? Treat both as final targets. Any ingots consumed while making the rivets are extra. That distinction prevents a common mistake: buying enough for one craft and then discovering the next craft needs the same materials.
You can plan the entire batch on paper with the steps below. The optional calculator simply compares stored market listings for you.
Before you buy
Open your Crafting Log and look up both items. Confirm that your crafting class, level, equipment and unlocked recipes let you make them. Check the output quantity per synthesis and every ingredient, including shards. If your objective needs high quality, use that requirement when choosing a method; this example and its shared-material calculator use normal-quality targets.
Look at materials already in your inventory and retainers. Also check accessible material suppliers. Low-level materials can have vendor alternatives, and a market-board listing is not automatically the cheapest way to get them. This calculator compares retrieved market supply and crafting; it does not search vendors or account for your existing inventory.
Write the final shopping objective
| Keep after crafting | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Bronze Ingot | 5 |
| Bronze Rivets | 3 |
First work backwards from the rivets. Divide the number you want by the recipe's output quantity, then round up to whole syntheses. Multiply each ingredient by that number of syntheses. Add the five ingots you want to keep to the ingots the rivet recipe will consume.
If you are making the ingots too, repeat the process for their ingredients. Combine repeated materials into one list. Keep surplus separate from the final objective so you do not accidentally count the same ingot twice. Subtract usable owned materials from your paper list before shopping; the optional calculator currently assumes you need to acquire the full batch.
Compare three ways to acquire the batch
Buy the finished materials. Price enough ingots and rivets to satisfy the final quantities. Compare the amount you actually pay for each listing, rather than multiplying the cheapest unit price by exactly the quantity you want. A cheap unit price can still mean spending more on an oversized stack.
Craft the materials. Price the full ingredient list, including shards and intermediate ingredients. Gathering an ingredient avoids buying it, but still takes time. Decide whether you would rather gather, buy, or use materials you already own. Check that you can successfully perform each synthesis before committing to a route.
Mix buying and crafting. You might buy ingots, keep five, and use additional ingots to craft the rivets. Or you might buy the rivets and craft the ingots. Compare the total cash needed for the whole batch; the cheapest individual ingredient does not necessarily produce the cheapest basket.
Do not count leftover materials as recovered cash unless you actually sell them. For such a small batch, a convenient local purchase can also be worth more to you than a small saving after travel.
Choose where to shop
Start with your home world. If the local total looks expensive, compare other worlds in your data center that you can visit. World Visit allows market purchases on the visited world, but access and restrictions must be checked before traveling. The official World Visit guide explains the system.
Write the world beside each purchase. Group your list by world so you can see how many stops you are taking on. Before leaving, check whether the saving is worth the journey; before buying, confirm that the listing is still available and its total price still suits your budget.
Try the comparison
The optional crafting planner starts with five ingots and three rivets. Choose your home world, purchasing scope and quantities. It compares buying finished targets, mixing purchases with crafts, and using fewer worlds. You can calculate without an account; saving a project is optional and uses a free Nexus account.
The result is based on stored observations, not a reservation of items. Missing data stays unknown. Stale observations and unavailable ingredients can prevent a dependable comparison. Your own materials, vendor prices, crafting success, labor and travel are outside this calculation, so keep those in your final decision.
Finish the batch
Once you have chosen a method, purchase the whole list, make intermediate materials first, and then make the rivets. Check that the five ingots intended for later use remain after crafting. Record your actual spending if you want to compare it with your plan next time.
For another batch, repeat the same process: final outputs first, whole recipe batches second, combined ingredients third, and total acquisition cost last. You do not need to save a goal or use a calculator to follow it.
Sources and related reference
Standard FFXIV crafting. A materials-planning example, not a leveling route or profit forecast.