Steeling the Knife, Steeling the Mind
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 480,670 EXP, the best of the 6 Lv 52 Alchemist tradecraft leves that record EXP: the runner-up manages 331,500 EXP, 31% less.
Across that rung the return runs from 25,691 EXP to 480,670 EXP per allowance — 6 distinct figures spanning 1771%, so the wrong pick leaves 454,979 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 54 Alchemist tradecraft leve returns 647,060 EXP per allowance, 35% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 50 rung behind tops out at 334,080 EXP.
At Lv 52 this data holds 54 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 251,119 EXP per allowance, the 6 Fieldcraft ones 576,023 EXP, which puts this leve 91% above its own category's average.
Grade 1 Mind Dissolvent ×3 is a Lv 54 Alchemist recipe, a single step, costing 7 units of raw material and 4 crystals.
Handing that in returns 68,667 EXP and 125 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows.