I have had a lot of confused people asking about the jump to 4star, so I hope this helps. Please remember this is how I did it to get to 4star, I can't promise it is the best way but it definately works!

Firstly this is a lot of gil no matter how you cut it >_< If you are broke I would advise building up cash as you can with synths/ gathering you do know

Best stuff (as far as I know)
1 / Supra (very easy to get if you can afford the master materia)
2/ Ixal gloves (perhaps not the BiS but if you are poor these are great!)
3Artisan hq shoes and legs
4/Artisan hq offhand

When you have these (max rank gloves for ixal) you can buy artisan gear or! collect ehctal sealant which comes from 8 Oaknots. You are going to need a lot of this item but getting the glue from the beastmen will save you so much gil if you hoarde.

I would advise not getting the artisan gloves, they are expensive and ixal are almost as good

It is 6 glue for the offhand tool 3 for the shoes + 3 for the legs

Ways to get this hella expensive gear

Option one!
Wait til you see a legit crafter on the party finder, I recommend Ihate Catboys, most won't craft unless you give the mats.
Make sure you tell them hq only because nq is useless.
If you can find a crafter who will buy the mats this is less risky because you tell them you wont pay for nq but, it will cost you lots more for the finished hq item (I was charged 1.8 mill for my offhand mats included)
please note the artisan clothes are a 4star so be careful who you ask to hq as they are very difficult

What I would say is strike a deal with your crafter so if it comes out nq they hand it back for nothing, even NQ artisan gear sells for 1.2 mill so you can get most your cash back <3 legit crafters wouldn't scam you, they are rolling in dough and their reputation is important to them.

option two
Sell your sealant on the MB (roughly 230k) and keep an eye on prices for finished artisan products, this will make it so you have less of a hole in your bank and everything like that only comes down in price in the end :)

Melds: ( I don't know if these are optimal but they are cheap and get you to 4star)
Artisan shoes and Artisan legs Starting from meld 1
Ctrl +3
Ctrl +3
CP+3
Craftsmanship +1 (synced/ capped to 1) final meld
Max melded then for both

Offhand
This is customisable and can be melded to death. If you get stuck I would see Arch as his gear is more about quality. I personally went for craftsmanship because I make furniture so my goal is not hq.

Results!
With shark soup (nq)my stats are
485 craftsmanship
379 Ctrl
362 CP

My offhand is not melded much so you can see how you can really crank up control or whatever you want there. You need hq gear melded (offhand as much as you can afford) and food to try to hq the 4star items for the Master II books,

If you get to this stage come talk rotations with me and I will try help you work out one tailored to your stats to hq these items for the second book.

You must must have reclaim though, if you don't have CUL at 50 for reclaim I strongly recommend it because otherwise when these things break (and often they do) it softens the blow with a 90% chance of getting all your items back! :D

if you have all this and struggle still (RNG is horrid I got my last on 15%) let me know il put FC buffs up for you



Goodluck with Rngesus!

Wow ok I have a long way to go.
I'm very cheep Mastercraft Demimateria is the key crap your self item here and the only way not buying it is:

Artisan’s tools: needed 50HQ stuff traded to the gestapo Talan – Desynth of Blacksmith/Armorer (look and see) give you a 1 in 2 shot of getting Mastercraft Demimateria gives 1-3 of them

Forager’s Hat: needed 30HQ stuff traded to the gestapo Talan – Desynth of Weaver give you a 1 in 2 shot of getting Mastercraft Demimateria

Artisan’s Spectacles: needed 10HQ stuff traded to the gestapo Talan – Desynth of Goldsmith give you a 1 in 4 shot of getting Mastercraft Demimateria

If you go this way you'll like me will be thinking happy happy through's as you try to get the universe to give you the drop.

The rags make the Taru and so most likely will help make 4 star stuff.
I have been told and would go with Sky's post but:
Artisan's Mitts HQ - is Control III, Control III, Competence II
Artisan's Cullottes HQ - is Control IV,CP III, Control II, Competence I
Artisan's Sandals HQ - is Control IV,CP III, Control II, Competence I
Artisan's Off-hand HQ - is 15 points of Craftsmanship
So this part is cake and very easy which makes me think its wrong. Let me know if more can be stuffed in to each

Artisan's Mitts HQ - is Control III, Control III, Competence IIXanathan

This is correct, and the optimal meld for the gloves.

Artisan's Cullottes HQ - is Control IV,CP III, Control II, Competence I
Artisan's Sandals HQ - is Control IV,CP III, Control II, Competence IXanathan

Although these would work, they are unnecessarily expensive. No need to meld a Tier IV materia (each one is over 120k) when you can achieve the same result using lesser grade materia. Go for Control III, Control III, Cunning III, Competence I on both pieces. You will save so much cash.

Artisan's Off-hand HQ - is 15 points of CraftsmanshipXanathan

The cap on Craftsmanship is 25, the cap on Control is 14, the cap on CP is 3. It's impossible to cap them all so you get a LOT of choice with your HQ offhand. My personal recommendation would depend on the DoH class and what you intend to do with it.

For example:
Buff has a CRP tool and her focus is rarely ever to HQ things, it's furniture so it's all about just getting to the end. Because of that, it makes sense for her to focus hard on upping Craftsmanship as much as funds allow, and maybe make use of the 3 CP cap as well.

An offhand for CRP may look like this…
Slot 1 - Craftsmanship +6
Slot 2 - Craftsmanship +5
Slot 3 - Craftsmanship +5
Slot 4 - Craftsmanship +5
Slot 5 - CP +3

In my case of GSM, I only care for getting the minimum requirement to access the synths, which is 451 Craftsmanship. With my class, it's all about "HQ or bust" because no one ever wants NQ accessories. So long as I'm confident in my skill to complete a synth, the rest should be focused on upping Control to help me HQ more often. The 3 CP cap is an option that some people take, but personally I went for extra Control/Craftsmanship instead.

An offhand for GSM may look like this…
Slot 1 - Control +4
Slot 2 - Control +4
Slot 3 - Craftsmanship +5
Slot 4 - Craftsmanship +5
Slot 5 - Craftsmanship +5

I hope that helps!