Relic weapons, grinding and you: A guide to killing yourself slowly

[Warren Castille]

Relic weapons! Zodiac weapons! As far as prestige amongst your peers is concerned, only shiny weapons from SPOILER REDACTED can compare to showing off how hard you've worked. With that in mind, let's review what it takes to get the shiniest weapon Eorzea has to currently offer!

 

Getting Started, ilvl80

So there it is. You've hit level 50, you've done all of your class quests and you're thirsting for something else to make you stand out amongst the rest of your peers. You get clued in to going to seek out an old weapon maker, and what does he have in store for you? Why, a million tasks! It all gets started here.

 

So what does Gerolt want? Easy! You just have to deliver a couple of items as directed via quest, culminating in a double-melded i55 weapon. These weapons are crafted from items found in the earliest level 50 dungeons (Wanderer's Palace and I think Ampador Keep?) and take two class-relevant melds, always two of the same. The specific melds required change depending on your class, so make sure you read your quest details in your journal!

 

Gerolt then sends you to kill the fearsome Chimera. This is a level 50 fight with no item level sync and is generally curbstomped by currency-hungry overgeared folks.

 

The next step to forging your relic weapon is obtaining an Ampador Glyph. This is awarded upon exiting Ampador Keep (NOT Ampador City!) and is generally a formality at this stage in the game.

 

Next, Gerolt will task you will slaying a series of enemies. They are not difficult, though it might take some time depending on your class.

 

Gerolt's next task is to slay the formiddable Hydra. You MUST be wielding your unfinished relic at this point, so make sure you equip it! This is another level 50 non-synced fight and is routinely smashed in Duty Finder.

 

The next stage requires you to defeat each Hard Mode primal in sequence: Ifrit, then Garuda, and finally Titan. These are again all level 50 unsynced battles and, despite having some learning curve, are routinely defeated easily in Duty Finder. It helps to admit if it's your first run upon entrance, as many experienced players are happy for the currency bonus provided by new players.

 

After turning in the three key items obtained from the Primals, Gerolt will finally ask you for a Radz-at-Han oil. This is purchased in Revenant's Toll for a relatively cheap sum of currency, so take advantage of the pile you've obtained doing dungeons and primal fights!

 

Once you turn the item in to Gerolt, he returns to his force and finally grants you a new weapon and an achievement! Your relic is item level 80, but there's an easy upgrade available right away!

 

Continuing, ilvl 90

No one is satisied with an ilvl80 weapon. Let's make it better!

 

Purchasing three Thavnarian Mist items will allow you to improve your relic; Just "talk" to the forge next to Gerolt with the item in hand and trade it in! For you aspiring paladins out there, you still require 3 items to upgrade your sword and shield, but it's split 2:1 for your items. Yes, you can upgrade your shield before your sword for one Mist, but you're going to want to do both!

 

This is the easiest upgrade stage of your relic process. Breathe easy, it's about to get serious.

 

Atma! Item Level "100"

 

Progressing your relic is a "simple" matter of beginning this quest right near Gerolt. It will task you with obtainining a dozen Atma, crystallized essences of enemies obtained by completing FATEs with your relic weapon equipped in specific zones.

 

Central Shroud: Atma of the Maiden

Southern Thanalan: Atma of the Scorpion

Upper La Noscea: Atma of the Water-bearer

East Shroud: Atma of the Goat

Eastern Thanalan: Atma of the Bull

Middle La Noscea: Atma of the Ram

Western Thanalan: Atma of the Twins

Outer La Noscea: Atma of the Lion

Lower La Noscea: Atma of the Fish

North Shroud: Atma of the Archer

Central Thanalan: Atma of the Scales

Western La Noscea: Atma of the Crab

 

 

All you need to do is complete a FATE with your Relic Zenith equipped to have a chance at the item dropping. It isn't guaranteed, nor do you need to "win" the FATE. You don't need Gold medals or anything besides participating in a completing FATE to have a chance at your Atma!

 

Yes, you can farm multiple sets of Atma at one time! As long as you have ANY Zenith weapon equipped, you can obtain an Atma from a FATE.

 

Once you obtain your twelve unique atma and turn them in back at Jalzahn, he will turn your weapon from Relic Zenith to Relic Atma! The item level will jump from 90 to 100 and it will get a nice new paint job, but hey, what gives? These stats are the same exact as they used to be! What's the big idea?!

 

Books! Study up! Item Level 100, for real this time!

 

Jalzahn's got big plans for your relic weapon. As nice as the new paint is, it's not making you do your job any better! To rectify this, Jalzahn supposes you should follow the path of the Zodiac Braves, and this means working hard! There's a long series of books containing the trials and travels of the Braves and you need to get cracking!

 

Each book can be purchased in Revenant's Toll for 500 Soldiery. It used to be 1500 Mythology and will likely be adjusted in the future as currencies change again, so get working! Each book is unique and will require you to kill 10 enemies from 10 families, totaling 100 kills, complete 3 FATEs that range from easy to rarely popping, complete 3 Levequests that are sometimes Grand Company Leves, and completed three dungeons.

 

This is a lot to digest all of a sudden! The 10x10 enemies are strictly "get credit for killing." The Leves can sometimes be hidden by other, lesser leves being offered. Similarly, FATEs are sometimes part of a chain that aren't immediately obvious. It is highly recommended you use a website like XIVDB to know exactly what is required of you. The dungeons require you to defeat a specific boss enemy, always appearing at the end of the dungeon, but be warned! You only get credit if you are alive at the time of death! Being KO'd will result in you not getting credit in your book, and this is no bueno.

 

You must complete NINE BOOKS, totaling 900 enemies killed, 27 leves, 27 FATEs and 27 Dungeons. You're going to need 4500 Soldiery to complete this stage and books are unique, so you can only hold ONE at a time! This is just a taste of the process, but completing each book will grant you a bonus to your Atma weapon. Once you've completed all nine books you can obtain your Relic Animus! This is an actually-statted-for-i100-weapon, but there's no time to celebrate because...

 

The grind is real! Item level 110!

 

No rest for the weary. Jalzahn's got an idea on how to upgrade your weapon, so there's no time to rest! He requires you to obtain a Sphere Scroll, which is easy! You just need to scrounge up 750 more soldiery to obtain 3 of these babies. You'll take them to Central Thalan and obtain a Sphere Scroll pertaining to your relic weapon. Paladins again take note: You'll split inks 2:1 for your sword and shield. You don't have to upgrade both at once, but you're going to want to. Trust me.

 

You're now going to need to infuse this Sphere Scroll with materia to increase the power of your relic weapon. In order to infuse a materia, you'll need an Alexandrite as a catalyst. Your bonding rates being at 100% but will quickly drop below that. If you explode a materia, you won't lose the Alexandrite but you will die a little inside as you lose your materia.

 

This is where you begin customizing your relic weapon's stats! Tired of inferior secondary attributes? Erase them! Every materia you meld to your sphere scroll will replace the stats on your Animus weapon. Players can upgrade additional stats such as Piety, Determination, Accuracy, Spell Speed, Skill Speed, Critical Hit Rate and Parry up to a total of 75 points. Accuracy, Spell Speed, Skill Speed, Critical Hit Rate and Parry cap at 44 points each. Piety caps at 33 points and Determination caps at 31 points.

 

If you stick to two stats, you're going to need several Tier IV materia to meld. Be warned, the success chance drops off very quickly on these materia and it is very possible to explode several million gil in materia gems as a result. It is possible to avoid Tier IV materia by doing a combination of three stats, and the stat difference is almost negligible in the long run. A "Budget" Novus weapon is more than sufficient! No shame in spending thriftly!

 

Alexandrite: An Exercise in Frustration

 

There are three and a half ways to obtain an Alexandrite gem.

 

1) Completing a FATE with your Animus weapon equipped will rarely (estimated 10% or less) give you an Alexandite, similarly to how you obtained Atma.

 

2) Alexandite are purchased with Allied Seals if you are stockpiling while doing Hunts.

 

3) Completing a Mysterious Map objective.

3a) Mysterious Maps are awarded daily for completing this quest that requires you to run Expert Roulette.

3b) Maps are also available for purchase in Revenant's Toll for 400 Soldiery each.

 

Mysterious Maps are tricky fights; It is recommended you bring a friend to cover your butt while clearing them. Better safe than sorry, I say!

 

You will eventually obtain the 75 Alexandrite required to fully meld your Sphere Scroll and the materia used to slot inside of it. Once you've completed the process, you're back to Jalzahn to hand everything over. Once he's done, you'll obtain a shiny new Novus weapon!

 

Don't relax, though...

 

Grind! Grind! Grind! i115!

 

Jalzahn and Gerolt have a theory. You can increase the power of your relic by locking in souls! This surely has no moral quandry and will be juuuuuust fine.

 

Soulglazing your relic will allow you to obtain "lights" by completing almost every task in the game. Do a dungeon? Lights! Kill a primal? Lights!! Doing Coil? LIGHTS! Just killing time in PVP? LIGHTS!!11ONE

 

As long as you have your Novus weapon equipped, finishing instances will give you lights. PALADINS, MAKE SURE YOU SOULGLAZE BOTH YOUR SWORD AND SHIELD. It's possible to finish one and not the other and then you have to do the whole process over again. Values and threshholds are below.

 

 

Light Points

Light Levels Light Values

Feeble 2 points

Gentle 4 points

Bright 8 points

Brilliant 12 points

Blinding 24 points

Newborn Star 32 points

Light Tiers

 

 

 

Light Indicator Light Points

No Activity 0 – 199

Indistinct Activity 200-399

Faint Activity 400-599

Slight Activity 600-799

Modest Activity 800-999

Distinct Activity 1000-1199

Robust Activity 1200-1399

Vigorous Activity 1400-1599

Intense Activity 1600-1799

Extreme Activity 1800-1999

Bursting Activity 2000+

 

 

There are constantly areas that grant "Bonus" light. A hard mode Primal ordinarily grants Gentle Light, but if, say, Garuda HM is the Bonus window, it will grant one stage up, resulting in Bright light. The most common tactic is to find a farmable Bright window and demolish is as much as you can in the 120 minutes the bonus is live. It is random where bonus windows go and sometimes it won't move after 120 minutes, resulting in long, long sessions where madmen kill Garuda dozens and dozens of times.

 

There is now way to speed this stage along. Efficient grinding will only take you so far, and even at the fastest time you are still looking at eight hours of killing Garuda before you're finished.

 

Eventually, though, you WILL complete your lightshow. Turn that junk back into Jalzahn for a super-shiny, can't-see-the-weapon-anymore Nexus weapon.

 

Don't rest yet, though...

[Warren Castille]

Zodiac Weapon! i125!

 

First complete this quest. Finishing it will allow you to flag this this this and this quest.

 

To obtain all of the items required for these quests, players need: over 400k gil, 80k Company Seals, 6400 Allagan Tomestone of Soldiery, drops from 16 dungeons, Many 3 star HQ crafted items, many desynthesis items and some miscellaneous items.

 

 

 

Item Cost Where

 

4 Bombard Core 80,000 Company Seals (20,000 each) Grand Company Quartermaster

 

4 Sacred Spring Water 6,400 Allagan Tomestone of Soldiery (1,600 each) Auriana in Mor Dhona (x22,y6)

 

1 Bronze Lake Crystal 100,000 Gil Junkmonger in Upper La Noscea (x26,y26)

 

1 Allagan Resin 100,000 Gil Merchant in Southern Thanalan (x15,y29)

 

1 Furite Sands 100,000 Gil Merchant in Coerthas Central Highlands (x13,y16)

 

1 Brass Kettle 100,000 Gil Vendor in North Shroud (x29,y19)

 

 

Furnace Ring (HQ)

Perfect Firewood (HQ)

Perfect Mortar (HQ)

Perfect Pestle (HQ)

Perfect Vellum (HQ)

Perfect Pounce (HQ)

Tailor-Made Eel Pie (HQ)

Perfect Cloth (HQ)

 

 

Each quest will require one bombard core, one springwater, one 100k material, four dungeon drops (only obtainable when the quest asks for them, no farming ahead of time!) and two crafted items, requiring the entire gamut of desynthesis skills. Bombard cores are purchasable ahead of this portion of the quest.

 

Once you complete this substantial list of objectives, you'll be able to complete His Dark Materia and be able to kill God obtain your Zodiac weapon. It's been a long time coming, but you've got a new weapon to swing around!

 

...but you shouldn't rest easy...

[Aldotsk]

I am sorry for late response to this. But I really appreciate Warren's work to help new members out to get their Relic weapon.

 

Relic Weapon Guide Revised

 

This is the same guide that Warren made, and I've just added some images into them for people to understand they they look like.

 

Again, wonderful job.

[Gegenji]

It should be noted that while you can stockpile the Bombard Cores ahead of time, with the Sacred Spring Water you cannot. I was hoarding my tomes and went to dump 1600 of them on the first Water while I'm still collecting Light and they apparently aren't on the list at all. Unless my several passes through missed them and I'm just being a dumb.

 

I haven't checked on the other vendor-purchased items, but I should probably get on that.

[Warren Castille]

Chachanji is correct. Bombard Cores are purchasable once you get GC rank for them, but Springwaters require you to be on the current stage of the quest. Forgot to edit that in.

[Melodia]

+1 to the rep, friend. Great guide.

[Warren Castille]

For posterity!

 

Zodiac Zeta! Item Level 135!

 

So you've come a long way. You've beaten primals, collected tokens, read lots of books, killed more primals, ran dungeons, crafted things. Are you ready to all of that AGAIN, BUT THIS TIME IN THE LIGHTNING ROUND?!

 

The next quest starts when you return to Jalzahn and begin Rise and Shine. The quest ends up with you in Swiftperch speaking to a shady specter of Gerolt's past, and boy does he have a deal for you. Super-rare mega-atma called Mahatma! He'll bind them to your weapon so you can acquire more soul energy!

 

...Gee, this sounds sort of familiar...

 

All for the low, low price of 200 soldiery each! And there's only twelve of them!

 

There are different light values for doing the same tasks this time; Primals are going to be your go-to in terms of effort/reward ratio. Each mahatma requires 40 points to collect, but don't have a heart attack yet. The light value's been tinkered with a little.

 

Feeble: 1

Faint: 2

Gentle: 4

Steady: 6

Forceful: 12

Nigh Sings: 16

 

There's... Not a lot to this stage. You can grind in any of the same ways you did previously for Nexus, and you'll get a notification when it's time to buy a new Mahatma. It'll end up costing you a total of 2400 soldiery, but you'll likely make back most if not all of that just killing primals/doing dungeons.

 

When the grinding is all said and done, return to Jalzahn and let the cutscenes play. Congratulations!

[BlackmoreKnight]

Just a note, the Alexandrite drop rate from fates was buffed a patch or two ago. I think it's around 10% now, same as the atma drop rates. Certainly, if it was at 1% then I wouldn't have gotten it in about a week of 4-6 hours of fate grinding a night in Middle La Noscea.

 

Also I recommend not grinding fates for 6 hours a night for a week it makes your eyes bleed.

[Warren Castille]

Edited some patched info, spruced up the crafted items for Zodiac section.

 

AND NOW, WE WAIT FOR 3.1.

[Leanne]

I profoundly thank Warren-sensei to show me the path of true pain and suffering.

 

Aka, holy christ, I'm glad I'm done with it!

[Steel Wolf]

Lord help me, I'm going for Atma.

 

Just Atma.

 

Don't wanna dive too deep into this rabbit hole for a job that I'm ultimately going to shelve.

 

...pray for me, friends, though I may be an idiot. ><

[Gegenji]

Lord help me, I'm going for Atma.

 

Just Atma.

 

Don't wanna dive too deep into this rabbit hole for a job that I'm ultimately going to shelve.

 

...pray for me, friends, though I may be an idiot.  ><

 

Well, that shouldn't be too bad for you. They bumped up the Atma drop rate pretty significantly a little while back. Other than due to a string of bad luck, you should be able to do that part relatively painlessly.

 

Meanwhile, I'm on the Nexus stage. Getting to run full dungeons at a small chance for the dungeon item. And since I'm basically DFing all of them, I get to... "enjoy" the various other folks I get paired up with.

[Steel Wolf]

Urf...my condolences in advance.

 

Having had another look over the steps, it does seem that I'm doing this just for "the lulz" or to pass time until Heavensward without any real level of benefit, since the Atma is lower than the Conqueror.

 

....ah well, at least I can glamour away the Conqueror. I like the weapon, but I'm seeing it on a lot of backs and I kinda would like to stand out a bit, if possible.

 

Yes, I'm doing Relic quests for glamouring purposes.

Yes, I'm an idiot.

[Gegenji]

Hey, some of those models are pretty swank. Excalibur and... whatever the MNK weapon is called come to mind first and foremost. I went with SCH, so all I'm getting is a really fancy-looking book. :lol:

 

 

Meanwhile, I have the really neat pop-up future-book thing from Lightning's Return that I keep glamouring over it most of the time... :blush:

[Dogberry]

Lord help me, I'm going for Atma.

 

Just Atma.

 

Don't wanna dive too deep into this rabbit hole for a job that I'm ultimately going to shelve.

 

...pray for me, friends, though I may be an idiot. ><

 

If you want a Atma partner, let me know! I'm on the same phase.

 

Let FATE unite us!

[Cliodhna Eoghan]

and here i thought i was pretty dapper for having 5 atma gathered.....seems i best get myself in gear o______O;;;

*subscribes*

[Aris]

Very helpful guide, thank you.

 

I've just collected my atma for my WHM weapon and am working on my first book. The grind begins! Let me know if any of you are on your books, chances are we'll be waiting on the same fates together.

[Steel Wolf]

With 7 of 12 Atma collected, I'm pretty well set on the idea that I'll be continuing this ride when I get my Dark Knight. I'm not doing the kind of content that demands my WAR be kitted out with a big bad axe, no matter HOW sexy Ragnarok looks.

 

Instead, I'll bank the Atma for my pending greatsword and continue on from there. I just hope that the books and other steps wells don't run dry with players suffering the same thing, or if everyone will be too fixated on AF2.

 

Decisions, decisions.

[Melodia]

I just started my animus books for my dragoon. As it's now my main....I am stepping into the waters of the zodiac grind. Wish me luck.

[Gegenji]

I'm about two-thirds through my Nexus dungeon items. I basically just need the ones from, like, Halatali HM and all the no-level-adjust dungeons because I started at the "bottom" and worked my way up. Still need 1600 more Soldiery for the last water I'll need and a HQ Eel Pie to round out the HQ crafted items, but everything else is sitting in my bags waiting to be useful.

 

So far, I can pretty confidently set this at "as bad, if not worse than" the books. At least the books were just monotonous stuff - kill X enemies, wait around for the FATE, run a couple dungeons ONCE. And a lot of my hatred for it is how... contrived it is from a story standpoint. Stupid girl is gonna throw the books away but - Oops, you need those! - better force a Soldiery grind! This was before Poetics were out too, so everything was twice as expensive as it is now.

 

Meanwhile, Nexus stage has you needing four high-cost GC seal items (which you can pre-purchase, and the new i100 dungeon items "vendor" for over a thousand each, which would've been nice to have earlier :blush: ), four Soldiery-purchase items (which you CAN'T get until you're on that step, resulting in me dumping the Soldiery to keep away from cap while working on Lights), two HQ items each (that require a... two/three star crafter, I think? I just straight up bought them off the MB on Gogon), a 100k vendor item apiece...

 

And after all that, I've heard tale of people running a dungeon 20-30+ times before getting the drop they need. By comparison, I've been hella lucky, but I've also not been counting the number of runs I've done for my own sanity. Pretty sure I've done Halatali HM almost a dozen times in the past week-and-a-half, though.

 

The atma grind was obnoxious, but its drop rate has been upped. Light were monotonous, by the light values have been upped. It's just the books and the dungeon items that have remained unchanged, and it bothers me a bit since they're the most annoying ones. :lol:

[Warren Castille]

It has long been my theory that the book portion and now the dungeon item portion are designed to keep people running through the Duty Finder. Nearly every book requires you to continually flag low, medium and (then) high level dungeons. The lights portions are typically done through primal farming. The new dungeon items keeps people going into dungeons no one wants to run (AV and DZ) as well as a number of entry-tier and farming-tier dungeons.

 

Remember, patch 2.1 forced players into Guildhests and made you forcibly run Qarn Normal. SE's been clever in masking how they keep people making the roulette run smoothly, but I don't think it's any secret these grinds are catered towards making sure everyone's got someone else to play with.

[Gegenji]

Remember, patch 2.1 forced players into Guildhests and made you forcibly run Qarn Normal. SE's been clever in masking how they keep people making the roulette run smoothly, but I don't think it's any secret these grinds are catered towards making sure everyone's got someone else to play with.

 

Which I wouldn't have problems with if it also didn't mean we get the OTHER Atma/Nexus-level folks that want to just rush through regardless of group composition and experience. It's cool (and pretty awesome) if it's a full group of us and we're all on the level - steamroll the dungeon, get done, hope for drops and move on. It's not so great when it's just me and either a.) the tank or b.) ONE of the DPS and the other half of the group is new. Because, invariably, the other experienced folk is going to want to rush and not explain things, which leads to wipes and them complaining about how it's our fault.

 

And... I feel kinda mad at myself at times when I've been running the dungeons for a while and get into a sort of "automatic coast" mode. I find myself not bothering with switching to Cleric Stance to help DPS as much, grumbling if the DPS/tank is doing stuff I don't like (except if they're new), and generally being a grump on autopilot. It's usually when I hit that point that I go "welp, I'm done for the day" and switch over to Chachan to try and get me some RPs. :blush:

[Uninstalldotexe]

With 7 of 12 Atma collected, I'm pretty well set on the idea that I'll be continuing this ride when I get my Dark Knight.  I'm not doing the kind of content that demands my WAR be kitted out with a big bad axe, no matter HOW sexy Ragnarok looks.

 

Instead, I'll bank the Atma for my pending greatsword and continue on from there.  I just hope that the books and other steps wells don't run dry with players suffering the same thing, or if everyone will be too fixated on AF2.

 

Decisions, decisions.

 

If I remember correctly, the ATMA you've collected now will only be towards the current weapon you're working on. SE made it that we cannot bank ATMA, unfortunately.  I had the same idea for my own Dark Knight and greatswordness.

[Gegenji]

With 7 of 12 Atma collected, I'm pretty well set on the idea that I'll be continuing this ride when I get my Dark Knight.  I'm not doing the kind of content that demands my WAR be kitted out with a big bad axe, no matter HOW sexy Ragnarok looks.

 

Instead, I'll bank the Atma for my pending greatsword and continue on from there.  I just hope that the books and other steps wells don't run dry with players suffering the same thing, or if everyone will be too fixated on AF2.

 

Decisions, decisions.

 

If I remember correctly, the ATMA you've collected now will only be towards the current weapon you're working on. SE made it that we cannot bank ATMA, unfortunately.  I had the same idea for my own Dark Knight and greatswordness.

 

Ah, unless they changed something, you could totally bank Atma. You just needed one of each type, so you could totally grind multiples to use for the next weapon in line.

[Melodia]

-snip-

 

If I remember correctly, the ATMA you've collected now will only be towards the current weapon you're working on. SE made it that we cannot bank ATMA, unfortunately.  I had the same idea for my own Dark Knight and greatswordness.

I disagree, politely. I had three atma earned on my Warrior relic. Then got my dragoon relic and got the remaining 9 atma with that and then used all 12 on the lance to get the atma weapon.