Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles/Trades

There are eight trades in the game. Each trade has its own perks, which can be improved by raising the relationship level of your family through your responses to their letters. All families will grow fruit and vegetables for their caravanning children when sent Fruit or Vegetable Seeds in the mail, and are a good source of healing items for solo players who like these items. Additionally, your family may produce milk if your character buys a cow in the Fields of Fum.

Even though all of the family trades are helpful, the Merchant and Alchemist trades grant access to exclusive gear that can only be obtained from your town! While useful, these items require a high relationship level with both families, and many years of caravanning before they can be obtained. The relationship between the Merchant's exclusive products and the Alchemist's exclusive equipment scrolls is most easily taken advantage of in multiplayer mode, though can still be undertaken by solo players with lots of time and effort. Of the other families, the Blacksmith, Tailor, Rancher, and Fisherman are all good solo trades with various differing benefits, while the Farmer and Miller are generally inferior to the rest, relying on each other for their livelihood and granting very minor or negligible benefits.


 * Merchant: You will gain discounts on items if you gain favor in the family. At higher relationship levels, your Merchant father will get more useful items in stock that you can buy, rather than have to go out to dungeons to hunt for. At the highest relationship level, the Merchant will sell Ultimite and Dark Spheres, items that are used in the Alchemist's exclusive recipes which no other merchant in the game stocks.


 * Alchemist: You will receive a new scroll each year for a weapon, armor piece, or accessory. At the highest relationship level and no earlier than years 13-14, your father will give you exclusive scrolls for the Force Ring and Ultima Weapon, two of the best pieces of equipment in the game that can only be obtained through the town alchemist. Crafting these items requires the exclusive ingredients sold by the town Merchant only at HIS highest relationship level.


 * Blacksmith: They will craft your party specific weapons or armor, depending on the relationship level. A decent trade for solo characters, though the town's Blacksmith cannot craft equipment that requires monster parts, (such as Flame/Frost/Lightning gear or Mighty/Valiant/Victorious Weapons) which will require you to head to Alfitaria often if you want to upgrade your gear frequently. They can, however, craft Legendary Weapons.


 * Tailor: They will craft your party specific accessories. Can craft better accessories at the highest level. A great trade for solo characters, since the only other Tailor in the game is located in Shella, which is otherwise extremely remote and time-consuming to travel to.


 * Rancher: You will get free meat annually; a good source of healing items for solo players who have a taste for meat. In Multiplayer, healing items are generally more difficult to utilize, since going into your inventory will not pause the game as it does in single-player mode.


 * Fisherman: You will get free fish annually; a good source of healing items for solo players who have a taste for fish. As with Rancher, however, it is pretty much totally outclassed by Blacksmith or Tailor as a solo trade.


 * Farmer: You will get free wheat annually if you send your family a wheat seed in response to their letters. Wheat can be sold at shops for a small profit. When the town has a Miller and the Farmer is producing wheat, the mother of any players in the town may bake Bannock for her child. This is generally inferior to the Rancher and Fisherman trades, as Bannock takes more time and effort to obtain, and also provides lesser healing and no boosts like other healing items.


 * Miller: You will get free bags of flour annually if the town's Farmer is producing wheat. Flour can be sold at shops, and the collaboration between a working Farmer and Miller will result in all characters' mothers occasionally baking Bannock for them.