Electrum Scepter

Taken all the way down to base materials, one Electrum Scepter is 2 crafting steps deep and needs 4 intermediates — Cobalt Ingot ×1, Electrum Ingot ×1, Eye of Water ×1 and 1 other — which resolve to 5 distinct raw materials totalling 10 units, plus 23 crystals.

That bill outweighs 5,754 of the 13,602 recipes tracked here and 801 of the 2,216 Goldsmith ones, and 4,464 recipes nest deeper.

Only 10 of those crystals go into the final step; the other 13 are burned by the intermediates, so the real crystal cost is 12 Wind Shard, 10 Fire Shard and 1 Water Shard.

The chain crosses three disciplines — Goldsmith to Lv 43, Blacksmith to Lv 42 and Alchemist to Lv 1 — so no single class can finish it unaided.

All 5 raw materials are gathered, and not one of their spots is timed, so nothing in the tree waits on the Eorzean clock.

Of the intermediates, Electrum Ingot has the widest use: 234 recipes call for it, spanning seven of the eight crafting classes.