The Cold, Cold Ground
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 72,600 EXP, which places it 3rd of the 6 Lv 35 Carpenter tradecraft leves that record EXP. The best of them, A Tree Grew in Gridania, returns 105,270 EXP for the same allowance, 45% more.
Across that rung the return runs from 25,910 EXP to 105,270 EXP per allowance — 6 distinct figures spanning 306%, so the wrong pick leaves 79,360 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 40 Carpenter tradecraft leve returns 102,600 EXP per allowance, 3% less than the best on this rung, while the Lv 30 rung behind tops out at 67,730 EXP.
At Lv 35 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 61,959 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 378,392 EXP, which puts this leve 17% above its own category's average.
Oak Pattens ×1 is a Lv 39 Carpenter recipe, 3 steps deep through 4 intermediates, costing 7 units of raw material and 21 crystals.
Handing that in returns 10,371 EXP and 68 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows, and the tree needs Carpenter, Leatherworker and Weaver.