Get Me the Hard Stuff

One allowance here buys 12,960 EXP, which places it 5th of the 6 Lv 20 Armorer tradecraft leves that record EXP — a figure 1 other leve on the rung matches exactly. The best of them, No Hand-me-downs, returns 21,600 EXP for the same allowance, 67% more.

Across that rung the return runs from 12,960 EXP to 21,600 EXP per allowance — 4 distinct figures spanning 67%, so the wrong pick leaves 8,640 EXP of the allowance unspent.

On whether to wait: the best Lv 25 Armorer tradecraft leve returns 69,150 EXP per allowance, 220% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 15 rung behind tops out at 18,910 EXP.

At Lv 20 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 17,352 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 113,304 EXP, which puts this leve 25% below its own category's average.

Ironclad Bronze Buckler ×1 is a Lv 20 Armorer recipe, 4 steps deep through 5 intermediates, costing 18 units of raw material and 13 crystals.

Handing that in returns 720 EXP and 10 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows, and the tree needs Armorer and Blacksmith.

The record carries a repeats value of 2. This site reads that as 2 further turn-ins on the same leve — an assumption, because the source data defines no meaning for the field — which would put the ceiling at 38,880 EXP and 552 gil for the 1 allowance it costs, or 38,880 EXP per allowance.