A Well-rounded Crew
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 18,910 EXP, the best on the Lv 15 Armorer tradecraft rung — matched exactly by 3 other leves of the 6 there, with the rest trailing at 13,040 EXP or less.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 20 Armorer tradecraft leve returns 21,600 EXP per allowance, 14% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 10 rung behind tops out at 13,090 EXP.
At Lv 15 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 16,554 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 78,432 EXP, which puts this leve 14% above its own category's average.
Gil ranks it differently: 259 gil per allowance is 6th of 6 on the same rung against 1st on EXP, with the best there paying 402 gil.
Iron Hoplon ×1 is a Lv 17 Armorer recipe, 3 steps deep through 3 intermediates, costing 15 units of raw material and 9 crystals.
Handing that in returns 1,261 EXP and 17 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows, and the tree needs Armorer, Blacksmith and Carpenter.