The Unfortunate Retirony
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 647,060 EXP, the best of the 3 Lv 54 Goldsmith tradecraft leves that record EXP: the runner-up manages 299,380 EXP, 54% less.
Across that rung the return runs from 283,930 EXP to 647,060 EXP per allowance — 3 distinct figures spanning 128%, so the wrong pick leaves 363,130 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 56 Goldsmith tradecraft leve returns 379,930 EXP per allowance, 41% less than the best on this rung, while the Lv 52 rung behind tops out at 629,850 EXP.
At Lv 54 this data holds 54 leves paying EXP across 3 categories: the 24 Tradecraft ones average 400,590 EXP per allowance, the 3 Fieldcraft ones 938,680 EXP and the 27 Grand Company ones 205,186 EXP, which puts this leve 62% above its own category's average.
Hardsilver Bangle of Fending ×1 is a Lv 55 Goldsmith recipe, 3 steps deep through 5 intermediates, costing 35 units of raw material and 56 crystals.
Handing that in returns 18,487 EXP and 27 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows, and the tree needs Alchemist and Goldsmith.