Final Fantasy XIV Cosmic Exploration On Phaenna - All Stellar Tools Acquired

I went a little crazy crafting in Cosmic Exploration on Phaenna this weekend. On the positive side, I acquired the last of the 11 Stellar crafting and gathering tools on Tuesday. For me, getting all my tools leveled from Cosmic to Stellar two weeks after the launch of Final Fantasy XIV's patch 7.31 was lightning fast.

All tools research to intermediate level 5

Now to go over the details. The leveling process goes faster for the final 6 tools due to the research bonus for reaching level 5 for other tools. The bonus is:

• 1-2 tools - 50%
• 3-4 tools - 100%
• 5+  tools - 150%

Order: I think I found an order to level my tools. First, I start out with botany followed by mining. I think those two gathering sets of missions are the easiest so I do those to get the 50% bonus for the first crafting tool. Next, I work on the three tools used by my specialist crafting classes. In my case those are Culinarian, Leatherworker, and Weaver. Those classes get the specialist bonus stats which makes completion a bit easier. I then work on the remaining 5 crafting classes and finish up by fishing.

Resources: I used the following resources during my Stellar tool grind:

• Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki - My favorite reference site, whenever I needed help with a gathering task I just typed in the name of the mission. Most of the time I found the information I needed, especially with fishing.
  
  
• Raphael - This site was invaluable for doing crafting missions. The site creates macros even if you only know the name of the mission. The mission feature is something new since I used the site during the first phase of Cosmic Exploration. I personally plugged in the lowest set of stats for all my crafting classes and Raphael produced a workable macro.
  
  
• Teamcraft - I used both the Teamcraft Crafting Melding Guide and Teamcraft Gathering Melding Guide to determine how to overmeld my gear and tools.

Overmelding: Yes! Overmelding makes things much easier. I did Sinus Ardorum using the mid-tier Teamcraft sets. This wave I didn't have everything pentamelded but using the top gear plus as many melds as possible made Phaenna feel so much easier. Which is the point of overmelding gear in the first place.

Gathering: Feel free to do all the weather-restricted and time-restricted missions if interested in getting the 60 books required for the Cosmoboard. Just make sure to have as much GP as possible to make things easier. Gathering requires a lot of travel so remember use of the aetheryte is not restricted.

Crafting: I found the fastest way to level was to craft items I could make macros for. Also, when crafting try to pick the missions that only give 2 crates of materials as those go by really fast. If one really wants to grind class points, I understand Sinus Ardorum is still the fastest place to do so.

Mech Ops: Mech Ops either grant bonuses to the next 20 missions if done on foot or between 1200 and 1800 Cosmocredits if performed in a mech. I usually alternated between doing one in a mech and one on foot.

Red Alert: I love doing Red Alerts. The missions are easy which means racking up large amounts of class points. I think I'm up to doing two fishing missions per minute during a Red Alert. Overmelding large amounts of gathering point materia really comes in handy.

Cosmic Fortunes: Do at least one every day as just doing one gives a daily reward. Also, spending Phaenna credits on spins just to not lose the excess credits can prove profitable. Right now I still need to win the Warp Loader mount. I have just about everything else and have even sold items on the marketboard.

Spending Cosmocredits: I started spending my Cosmocredits to get the glamour items from the shop. Which, in hindsight wasn't the best move as I won a set playing the Cosmic Fortunes roulette. I then began buying all the materia I needed to complete overmelding my gear. My crafting gear is now fully pentamelded and I just need to add one more materia to each of the eight secondary tools I own for my crafting classes.

Of course I had to treat myself once I reached that point in my melding grind, so I spent 29,000 Cosmocredits to purchase an Interstellar Dhalmel. That's right, I'm now riding around on a giant space giraffe while I grind out the last materia needed to finish off my crafting sets.

That's it for now. I need to go out and grind for the larger prizes like the Cosmoboard and the mount available when a player finishes grinding out 500,000 class points on each crafting and gathering class. I also need to finish off getting the last intermediate research points so I can upgrade my tools as soon as patch 7.41 drops. Really, I'm only at the halfway point now. Two more patches to go.