Updated October 11, 2026
Quick answer: Every patch, new recipes and gatherables spike hard because demand explodes while supply starts at zero. The gil goes to players who prepared before patch day: they stockpiled likely material bottlenecks, capped scrips and currencies, and were ready to craft or gather the moment servers came up. The steepest prices last hours to a few days, so sell into the early window.
A new patch is the most reliable, repeatable gil event in the game. It's a predictable gold rush that happens every few months.
The catch: nearly all the profit goes to players who set up before the patch drops. Here's how the curve works and how to be on the right side of it.
A patch adds new recipes, gear, gatherables and often a new raid tier. On day one everyone wants the new stuff at once, but supply is essentially zero. Different items rise and fall at different speeds:
Patch notes and trailers are out. Buy likely bottleneck materials while they're cheap and nobody else is looking.
New gatherables and raw materials spike first, because crafters need them right away and few people are farming yet. New crafted gear, food and potions get premium prices in week one.
Gatherers and crafters flood in, supply catches up, and prices settle toward their long-run level.
Raid food, potions and materia keep selling all tier, with a bump every Tuesday reset.
The whole game is being early: supplying the rush before everyone else does.
A material that already feeds busy recipes holds its value even if your patch guess is wrong. That's a safer bet than something nobody uses yet.
Brand-new items have little sales history yet, so their units/day can start low. Once the first week has passed, tighten to Min units/day 3.
Raiders want HQ food and gear in week one. If you can craft HQ, turn on Rank by HQ profit in Settings.
Sitting on a stockpile? The inventory crafter shows what you can make from it: tick your jobs, add what's in your bags, and leave Sellable only on.
When raw materials normalize, the durable earners remain. Current-tier raid food, potions and materia sell all tier long, with a spike every Tuesday reset.
Raid food & potionsBought again every week by raiders.
MateriaEvery new gear set gets melded. See the materia guide.
That's when you shift from the patch-day gold rush back to the steady sweet-spot grind. Use the crafting profit calculator to see which of the new recipes still clear a margin once supply settles. A good starting point:
Back to normal once the rush is over.
Raid food and potions, crafted in stacks.
More on presets: filter presets explained. Rule of thumb: don't list more than about a day's worth of units/day.
A new patch adds recipes, gear and gatherables that everyone wants right away, but supply starts near zero. Demand far outpaces supply for the first hours to days, so prices spike, then normalize as gatherers and crafters flood the market.
Materials likely to feed new recipes, especially crafting reagents and current gatherables that carry over, plus capped crafting and gathering currencies and scrips. Read the patch notes and trailers, which come out in advance, to guess the bottleneck items.
The steepest prices are the first hours to a few days. Raid food and materia stay strong for the whole tier, but raw material spikes normalize fast, so sell into the early window rather than waiting.
Start once patch notes and trailers are out, usually a week or two before. That's enough time to stockpile quietly while prices are still low, before other speculators pile in.
Most materials hold some value, so a wrong guess rarely means a total loss. That's why you spread bets and keep gil free. Check live prices before buying big.
No. Gatherers supplying raw materials, and pure flippers buying underpriced pre-patch stock, both profit from the same curve without crafting anything.
See what's spiking on your world → Crafting for profit →
More: the market board sweet spot · what sells best · flipping & arbitrage
XIV Profitability is a free, fan-made tool. Not affiliated with Square Enix. Prices via Universalis. FINAL FANTASY XIV © SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.