Final Fantasy XIV Cosmic Explorations: The End Game

Final Fantasy XIV's Cosmic Exploration feature has just about run its course. All Japanese worlds will have completed the Auxesia Development Initiative in the next week if not sooner. In Europe, 14 of the 16 worlds have completed the final infrastructure tasks. In North America only the newest virtual data center, Dynamis, is still working on progressing the content. And the five worlds in Oceania are still grinding.

Patch 7.55 or 7.56 might have a surprise like occurred with Island Sanctuaries in Endwalker. I have to admit the final missions on Auxesia didn't really feel final for the conclusion of the event. Cosmic exploration began with patch 7.21 in April 2025. I think some big shots from Old Sharlayan need to come out and see what the project has grown into.

But I still have titles and mounts to earn. I am now doing the tool mastery missions. I know reaching 500,000 tool mastery points will grant a title. But I don't know if reaching one million points unlocks anything. My highest total is on carpenter but I had only reached 900,000 points or so when I switched to blacksmith. Before pushing on I'm trying to get all crafting and gathering classes to 250,000 points.

For the tool mastery points I wound up making a multi-part macro to do the lowest payout Master mission. In the case of blacksmiths that mission is Master: Ruin Restoration Supplies. Hint: look for the mission that pays out 240 exploration tokens.

I found I can craft 10 items in 15 minutes, which is the length of time a Cunning Craftsman's Tisane lasts. So what I do is 2 tool mastery missions, crafting 5 items for each mission. I found if I pay attention to the crafting I can earn 17,000 class points per hour. I figure at that rate I might have the Excavating Vacuum Suit earned by Halloween. 

For anyone interested, here are my non-specialist stats and the macros I came up with using Raphael. The macros don't guarantee 100% quality, but does a good enough job I only lose a maximum of 100 class points per mission. And yes, I know I can shrink this down to 2 macros, but by using 3 I'm able to click the macros faster in order to get that 10 crafts per 15 minutes.

I have the feeling I could make the process more efficient so let me know where I screwed up.

Craftsmanship: 5933
Control: 5470
CP: 649

Food: All i Pebre (HQ)
Medicine: Cunning Craftsman's Tisane (HQ)

Macro #1

/ac "Reflect" <wait.3>

/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>

/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Refined Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Duty Action II" <wait.2>

/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>

/ac "Hasty Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Hasty Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>

/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>

/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>

/ac "Waste Not" <wait.2>

/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>

/echo Macro finished (1/3) <se.1>

Macro #2

/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>

/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Trained Finesse" <wait.3>

/ac "Trained Perfection" <wait.3>

/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>

/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>

/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Trained Finesse" <wait.3>

/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>

/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>

/ac "Veneration" <wait.2>

/ac "Duty Action II" <wait.2>

/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>

/echo Macro finished (2/3) <se.1>

Macro #3

/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>

/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>

/echo Macro finished (3/3) <se.1>

Cosmic Exploration: First Day On Auxesia

Final Fantasy XIV's patch 7.51 dropped yesterday so I put everything aside to go to Cosmic Exploration's fourth and final zone: Auxesia.

Approaching the final zone

In each patch the developers add in some new content. Auxesia introduces us to Tool Mastery missions. The patch notes serve as kind of a spoiler as the mission doesn't even show up until a player levels up a cosmic tool to its final form.

Tool Mastery Missions

Tool mastery missions are special missions that can be undertaken on Auxesia by those who have completed the final stage of a cosmic tool.

Unlike normal stellar missions, the aim is to achieve the highest possible score within an allotted time.

Tool mastery points are granted upon completion of a tool mastery mission, in accordance with the final score.

As a quick aside I haven't qualified to do a tool mastery mission yet. I wonder if they are anything like a couple of the timed encounters from the recent holiday events we've done.

Tool Mastery Points

Tool mastery points are gained in accordance with scores from tool mastery missions and accumulate for each individual class.

Reaching certain milestones with a specific class will grant achievements and, in some cases, titles.

Current points can be checked via the mission selection list, or via an overview found in the tool mastery point section of the Cosmic Class Tracker, accessed from your exotablet.

However, these UI elements don't show up without having a max level cosmic tool. Either that or I found a bug.

Mission Scoring

There are two different score objectives in tool mastery missions.

You may choose to complete the mission at any point after reaching the first objective.

Mission completion will reward you with tool mastery points, a cosmic class score, and contributions to Starward Standings commensurate with your score. Cosmic credits, Auxesia credits, and Auxesia exploration tokens will also be rewarded.

Reaching either score objective will grant the following bonus effects:

• Time limit increase
• Score multiplier increase
• Duty action usage increase
• GP recovery

There are three tool mastery missions available per class, with a high score recorded for each completed mission.

The concept seems interesting but I first need to get my cosmic tools to their final form. I made my life a lot easier my ensuring I had maximized all my research so I could obtain the iLevel 770 version of the tools for all gathering and crafting jobs. I then headed out to do missions on my botanist, since botanist and mining missions to me are the easiest to do. I was able to level up hatchet up to iLevel 775, just one evolution away from qualifying to do tool mastery missions.

A much more normal looking starting place

But I did get distracted. A Red Alert occurred and I had to switch to miner to participate. I wanted the Auxesia credits in order to play the cosmic fortunes game. I didn't have much luck with the wheel, but I have a bit of time to play to try to get the prizes. At least I saw a good selection of prizes that will have me playing the mini-game a lot.

I did use up most of the cosmocredits I earned on Oizys. I managed to buy 3 of the 6 items in the Cosmic Explorer's set. I really only need to buy two more items as the outfit comes with two separate bottoms. I might even switch my gathering glamour to the Cosmic Explorer's set, although I really do like the Clint Eastwood spaghetti-western look I usually wear. With any luck I'll have the last two pieces purchased by the weekend.

Because I wanted to write about my experiences I wound up cutting my activities short in order to look for artifacts. Introduced in Oizys, I'm glad I did. 

I really do like the aesthetic of Auxesia 

By the time I was able to log in the server's crafters and gatherers had already set up the cosmosliner system, or at least the starting sections. Basically the cosmoliner system uses flying surfboards to move people around. And since I earned the mount, I travel around cosmic exploration zones like the second coming of Marty McFly.

I had to do some off-roading. Or, in this case, on-roading as the zone has a highway system that's really overgrown with vegetation. Very nice-looking stuff. But I did have 6 artifacts to find, the proceeds of my efforts leveling up my hatchet to iLevel 775.

Six artifacts is a small sample size, but I hope I continue getting a 2 to 1 ratio of silver artifacts to bronze artifacts. Getting something like 60-70% bronze artifacts on Oizys made searching for artifacts more of a chore than anything else. While it probably helps I don't go out and actively collect minions, finding three I didn't have before did feel good. And just for my personal memory, the three I found were:

• Wind-up Shinryu 
• Wind-up Ravana 
• Wind-up Sadu

After turning in all the artifacts I headed off to sleep. I still have a lot of new content to see in addition to just grinding out my final cosmic tools. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get the final mount before Evercold launches at the beginning of 2027.

Status In Final Fantasy XIV Before Patch 7.5.1

In Final Fantasy XIV we are rapidly approaching patch 7.51 and more crafting and gathering content. Of course, raiders are also looking forward to 2 June as that is when the next Ultimate fight, Dancing Mad, releases. Everyone else knows in less than two weeks not only is the finale to Cosmic Exploration landing on the servers, but we get a new custom deliveries vendor as well.

In between writing about all the news coming out of Reykjavik and London and grinding the latest event in EVE Online I've managed to get all my classes up to a silver cup in Cosmic Exploration. I discovered that the only thing I received were achievement points for getting each crafting and gathering class up to 30% of the total needed to max out my points. Overall I am 30.4% of the way to getting the big mount at the end of the Cosmic tools grind. I have a little over 7 months to reach my goal.

Fishing, as always, was the class that gave me the most problems. I finally decided to just do the fishing missions at The Moros Well. There are a couple of other missions I liked, but since I'm moving on to the final planet in a couple of weeks I'll start taking careful notes then.

The final piece I'm looking forward to is the new custom deliveries vendor. Dawntrail is known for tacos, and the new vendor runs the most famous. I'm looking forward to learning more about Aunt Tii's Tacos.

I do have to conclude with one final note. I still haven't completed the Hell on Rails trial from patch 7.4. I think I'm going to switch from White Mage to Dancer the rest of the way through the MSQ until Evercold. Having a DPS die a lot is a lot less painful for everyone than having the healer repeatedly die. As such, I'm practicing on the dungeons until I can get back up to speed. And while I practice I'm gathering up new glamour pieces as the equipment I'm picking up is storable in the armoire. Might as well do two things at once.

Final Fantasy XIV Produce's Live Letter 92

We have less than two weeks to Final Fantasy XIV's next patch, Dawntrail 7.5. We are in a busy period as the first Fanfest of the current cycle will take place in Las Vegas on 24-25 April before patch 7.5 launches on 28 April. So of course we get a bit of a preview with today's Producer's Live Letter 92. The screenshots and any translations come from the FFXIV sub-Reddit's Discord server.

We did get a new trailer to tease the patch. The US trailer is below.

The MSQ will appear in two even-sized patches. The first half will appear on 28 April with the final bit of the Dawntrail MSQ appearing sometime in early September. The full schedule is in the slide below.

The new dungeon is The Clyteum, based somewhere in Garlemald. The dungeon is also supposed to show some some Garlemald technology to give the dungeon a proper feel.

The new trial, Enuo, is a boss who first appeared in Final Fantasy V. 

The Duty Support system is also being updated to support two non-MSQ dungeons, The Dusk Vigil and Shisui of the Violet Tides. The devs are also pushing out Unreal, Occult Crescent, Alliance raid, Hildibrand, and PvP content. Not all content, as usual, will come out on the first day of the patch.

Something that I am planning on coming out with patch 7.51 is the final part of Cosmic Exploration, Auxesia.

A world that looks relatively normal? I smell a trap. I'm just hoping I have all crafting and gathering classes with silver cups when looking at class contributions by then. If the past is any indication, finishing the upgrade of all the Cosmic tools should go fairly quickly if one has kept up with upgrading their tools.

Patch 7.5x will also bring a new Customs Delivery vendor, Tiisol Ja.

The background in the screenshot reminds me of the Wachumeqimeqi district in Tuliyollal, which makes a good deal of sense.

I should add some of the quality of life improvements that will make crafting a lot more convenient. 

The ability to consume food and drink as well as change classes would have been very welcome when doing the Cosmic Exploration content.

Other non-combat updates include an update of ocean fishing and the Gold Saucer. Don't expect the Gold Saucer update with the release of Patch 7.5.

Finally for this post, we will see the introduction of the new limited class, Beastmaster.

Beastmaster only goes up to level 50 upon release, meaning players can't go around with high level mobs trailing behind. To become eligible to play Beastmaster, one must finish the A Realm Reborn MSQ as well as own a copy of Dawntrail, meaning players on trial accounts cannot play the new limited job.

The live letter was still running with Yoshi-P and Foxclon showing off Beastmaster gameplay when I had to log off and go to work. But I wanted to get something out because I don't know when I'll be able to log out of work tonight.

Final Fantasy XIV Receives A Ratings Change In Japan With Patch 7.5

Last August when Square Enix forced Mare Synchronos to shut down, one of the reasons I gave was that regulators might upgrade the rating for Final Fantaxy XIV. While I took the ESRB and PEGI ratings into account, I missed out on Japan. With the deployment of Patch 7.5 the rating in Japan goes from CERO C to CERO D.

With the upcoming Patch 7.5, the CERO rating for "Final Fantasy XIV" will change from "CERO C" to "CERO D".

Currently, the "CERO C" rating necessitates restrictions on the Group Pose function. Therefore, to maintain the freedom of Group Pose and avoid these restrictions, we have decided to change the rating to "CERO D".

This change is only to the rating category; there are no changes to the game content, terms of service, or service fees. However, customers under 17 years of age should consult with their guardians regarding this change before using the service.

CERO, or the Computer Entertainment Ratings Organization, is the oversight organization in Japan similar to the ESRB and PEGI.

The reclassification means FFXIV goes from being approved for ages 15 and up to approved for ages 17 and up in Japan. The game will remain "T for Teen" in the U.S. (ages 13+) and PEGI 16 (ages 16+) in Europe.

I do wonder if the game will receive additional ratings updates in the West anytime soon.

Final Fantasy XIV Adding Inventory In Patch 7.5

On Friday Final Fantasy XIV's Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida hosted his 91st Producer's Live Letter. While many were looking at the new content coming in patch 7.5, what struck me were the changes to inventory coming in the final major patch of Dawntrail. Three major systems, dyes, the armorie, and player housing are receiving changes that will allow packrats like myself to store more items.

First up are the changes to the dye system. The change will free up a maximum of 102 inventory slots as the devs will collapse 105 dyes down to 3. The largest chunk of dyes are the 85 dyes introduced in A Realm Reborn.  The next chunk are the dyes introduced in the Ishgardian Restoration and available for sale on your Island Sanctuary. Those dyes are:

• Ruby Red Dye
• Cherry Pink Dye
• Canary Yellow Dye
• Vanilla Yellow Dye
• Dragoon Blue Dye
• Turquoise Blue Dye
• Gunmetal Black Dye
• Pearl White Dye
• Metallic Brass Dye

The final group were added as part of Cosmic Exploration.

• Carmine Red
• Neon Pink
• Bright Orange
• Neon Yellow
• Neon Green
• Azure Blue
• Violet Purple
• Metallic Pink
• Metallic Ruby Red
• Metallic Cobalt Green
• Metallic Dark Blue

Of course, dye colors available from the cash shop and their in-game variants will still take up their own slots. But that's only 40 different dyes. I checked and personally I will save 73 inventory slots once patch 7.5 is released late next month.

Next up are the changes to the Armoire. The eventual home of all cash shop and event glamour items, in patch 7.5 the Armoire will also store all job specific (artifact) armor. If anyone is like me, that means freeing up slots in both my glamour dresser and amongst my retainers. The developers are going one step further and allowing the storage of gear from patch 7.x dungeons. I hope that means from the main Dawntrail dungeons also. 

A hopeful sign is the intention to go back and make the dungeon gear from earlier expansions placeable in the Armoire. As bad of a combat player as I am, I can do previous dungeon content solo. Plus, I'll have enough space for all the Nier cross-over event gear. I'm pretty sure I can run that now.

Finally comes the expansion of both item limits in both housing and housing storage. I know a lot of people disregard housing but all players have access to apartments. I was able to decorate an apartment fairly well with less than 100 items. Now the limit goes up to 150. But perhaps more importantly the number of housing items I can store goes up to 150 as well. Add in the outdoor housing item limits and I believe I can clear out most of the outdoor items I have on my retainers.

I don't know how many people looked at the Producers Live Letter and thought of all the additional things they could hoard. But I'm looking forwards to the addition to the inventory game coming in patch 7.5.

Final Fantasy XIV Cosmic Exploration: Oizys Complete

Early Tuesday morning in my time zone my world, Hyperion, completed the last stage in the development of Oizys, the third zone in Final Fantasy XIV's Cosmic Exploration content. The last two worlds on my logical data center, Primal, should have Oizys finished early next week if not over the weekend.

Working on the roof of Terra Firma 

I only had the chance to work on finishing up one of the 17 stages on Oizys, but I made the chance count. I logged in late to do a little class point grinding on armorer and zoned into Oizys a few minutes before the event began.

For those still working on the content (and more than half the worlds still are) I've put down the full list of facilities on Oizys below.

Oizys development complete

While the world development project was complete I still needed to complete a couple of quests to finish the story for the third stage of cosmic exploration. Two quests, including the now traditional Namingway tour, popped up immediately. Two more missions involving Mumukko and her crew were available once I had completed 50 cosmic missions and the tour of Oizys with Namingway. 

The last addition to Oizys

I have to say I am enjoying the cosmic exploration story so far. So much so I'm glad I was able to complete the Oizys story before Letter from the Producer LIVE XCI is broadcast on Friday, a few hours after this post is published. Now I just need to crank out the class points in an effort to get the big Cosmic Exploration mount before the next expansion hits the live servers.

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 7.45 Coming On March 3rd

I finally managed to finish the grid to acquire the Cosmic Armored Weapon late last night. A good thing because literally two hours later Square Enix announced on the Lodestone that patch 7.45 would launch next Tuesday. 

Patch 7.45 will bring two major pieces of content to FFXIV next week. The first is the new variant dungeon, the Merchant's Tale. As a reminder, Dawntrail's version of the variant dungeon was divided into three flavors:

Variant Dungeons

Explore branching paths to uncover the dungeon's mysteries. Starting from level 90, you may enter solo or with up to three other players, and the difficulty scales with party size. You will also be rewarded with experience points.

Variant Dungeons (Advanced)

Fight even more powerful versions of a variant dungeon's three bosses. They can be fought in any order, and each boss will offer its own rewards. Defeat all three bosses for even greater spoils. Two to four players may enter, and difficulty scales with party size.

Criterion Dungeons

Face the dungeon bosses at their most formidable. Will you best them all, or be buried by their wrath? Parties must consist of four players.

The other is the next installment of Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures. We get to continue to track down the latest bad guy, an old enemy of Detective Hardiboiled. I might be able to wait for a couple of weeks to finish up a few other things, but I definitely need to finish up the Hildibrand story before patch 7.5. Then again, I also need to finish the MSQ and run Hell on Rails as well.

While we wait for the patch the next holiday, Little Ladies Day arrives in the game. The event may take a bit more time as players can obtain four t-shirts, six emotes, an orchestrion roll, three wall-mounted posters, and a cherry tree. From what I've seen, if the cherry tree is tall enough I may plant some in the yard of my cottage.

Just a quick post today because work is keeping me from logging into video games at my usual time at night. But I do have some things I need to do that will keep my busy in FFXIV for a couple of months longer. 

FFXIV Cosmic Exploration - An Oizys Update And Token Grind

Over in Final Fantasy XIV I'm hearing speculation on whether patch 7.45 for Dawntrail will launch on 3 March or 10 March. Time to look around at the progress players have made building up Oizys as a base.

Aether is far ahead of the other logical data centers

For this segment of cosmic exploration North America is far ahead, with three worlds already finishing building the base on Oizys and three more close to doing so. The only world outside North America close to finishing is Tonberry over on Elemental. 

The spread of progress is really wild, with worlds on the newer logical data centers like Dynamis (North America) and Materia (Oceania) still on level 12 of the 28 step journey. I think the shorter cosmic tool grind on Oizys has had a greater impact than before. But as patch 7.45 is still 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 weeks away all worlds are still on track to finish the third segment of cosmic exploration by the time patch 7.51 rolls around this summer.

On a personal note, I've only managed to get 36 of the 60 Oizys Token Booklets needed to get the Cosmic Armored Weapon mount. One of the rare mounts that hides the rider, I like the idea of running around in a mechanical spider. But that's for outside cosmic exploration. Inside the content I still like my Cosmoboard.

In the token booklet grind I learned something about how to do two time-restricted missions, EX+: Survey of Rare Aetheric Flora for botanists and EX+: Survey of Rare Aetheric Minerals for miners. Each requires collecting 100 items. Each mission has 3 groups of 2 nodes, one with a duration of 5 and one with a duration of 6. I've learned to do the three 6 duration nodes first because the mission action Greater Reach is guaranteed to proc at least once, returning 200 gathering points per proc. Before gathering from these nodes I either activate Blessed Harvest II (botany) or  King's Yield II (mining). That way I only spend 300 GP at each of the nodes. If I don't have the 100 items gathered yet the next node usually gets me to the mission's goal.

I also learned to do two weather restricted missions that grant token books. The EX+: Rare Alchemical Reductions (botanist) and EX+: Crucial Initiative Reductions (mining) require gathering collectables and reducing them to 45 items. I use the Collector's Stellar Standard mission action as the first action for the first two collectables. I usually have enough GP to use Scrutiny twice on the third collectable and once on the fourth collectable. Usually by this time I have between 10-12 collectables gathered. I then reduce the items and, depending on the random number generator, I usually succeed with a Silver result. Eating Nasi Goreng gives the most GP, which is the stat I most look for now that I have all my cosmic tools up to iLevel 775 and my gear fully pentamelded.

FFXIV Cosmic Exploration: A Fishing Hyperrod Delayed

The title of the post might be a little misleading when looked at a certain way. I felt like I really started flying through the grind of leveling each of my cosmic tools once I received the 150% progress bonus for having upgraded 5 tools. Going into last night I definitely felt I could complete upgrading my last two tools, the Cross-pein Hyperhammer for blacksmiths and the Fishing Hyperrod. Of course something had to come up to delay those plans. That's right, server maintenance. 

The maintenance began at 9pm Pacific/midnight Eastern time. That's right, right in the middle of prime time for those who live west of the Mississippi (and some of use who live east of the river as well). But unlike the 5-10 minutes of downtime the poor EVE players in Australia have to put up with, these updates usually take hours. While annoying, an EVE-style shortage today gives me time to go downstairs and fill up my drinks. With Final Fantasy XIV updates I just go to bed (or log into EVE).

I really can't complain too much because a couple of issues with Cosmic Explorations were fixed. The first one is an annoyance and hasn't affected me let on Oizys: the screen would fail to fade out during the cutscene after completing Cosmic Exploration Projects. I haven't been online to see that bug in patch 7.4.1 but I have another 13 opportunities to do so.

The second bug is a lot more serious, I think. Cosmic Exploration Projects and Red Alerts would occur simultaneously. Yikes! Failing to finish off the exploration project would delay progress for the whole server. I'm not sure for how long, but usually its harder to get everyone back together for a second try, especially for the smaller population worlds. At least, that's what I've heard.

As for my progress last night? I finished off upgrading the blacksmith cosmic tool. As for the Fishing Hyperrod? I'm two Class A fishing missions away from completing the set of Hypertools. I should have that completed tonight. Then on to grinding for the mechanical spider.

FFXIV's Cosmic Exploration: First Three Days On Oizys

Three days ago Square Enix released patch 7.41 for Final Fantasy XIV. I finally got the chance to play on the new planet in cosmic exploration, Oizys. In addition to new levels for our cosmic tools a new system using drones to find artifacts on the planet was introduced. And of course a bunch of new mounts and minions was added to the zone.

After leveling one tool

For this patch the tools can only be increased three times, from iLevel 750 to iLevel 765. Because I spent time collecting class points I already had enough research to get the first level of tool. I spent a few minutes upgrading the 11 crafting and gathering tools. I then started leveling the botanist tool. An added bonus is that I already had enough Cosmic Botanist V points for the second tool, making the upgrade go that much faster. To my surprise I had the Hyperhatchet in my hands when I logged off on Wednesday night.

My first hyper tool

I like the looks of the tool with the decoration resembling the floating rocks located on Oizys. The purple color on the head of the tool I think is a nice touch.

The drone found an artifact

The new system involves buying drone modules. Crafters and gatherers now gain drone bits by successfully completing Type A and higher cosmic missions at gold level. Once a player has a drone module, the drone is used to find one of three grades of artifacts: gold, silver, and bronze. I've used 14 drones so far. Below is what I've received after turning in the artifacts.

Gold ancient records

Ufiti Horn - 2

Silver ancient records

Private Moai

Wind up Dullahan

Bronze ancient records

Adventure Basket

Coblyn Larva

Gigantpole

Wind-up Aldgoat

Wind-up Qiqirn

Pastoral Dot Parasol

Craftsman's Cunning XI

Gatherer's Guile XII - 2

I have a limited sample size but I think gold artifacts provide mounts, silver artifacts provide the higher level minions, and bronze artifacts provide lower value minions and other items.

The Volatile Gravity Vacuum Suit

While I already had a Ufiti, I have acquired two new mounts so far. The first, Rapid-fab Vacuum Suit, cost 20,000 cosmocredits. The other, Volatile Gravity Vacuum Suit, I managed to win playing Cosmic Fortune. Patch 7.41 introduced three other new mounts:

Alert Red Warp Loader - a red version of the yellow mount acquired on Phaenna, the mount costs 20,000 cosmocredits.

Cosmic Armored Weapon - a mechanical spider mount used in mech ops missions. Acquired by turning in 60 Oizys Token Booklets.

Cosmic Countenance - A larger version of the Private Moai, the mount is acquired by turning in a Gold ancient records. Assuming the RNG gods cooperate.

So far I've managed to upgrade a tool once per night. Hopefully once I get my pickaxe upgraded the bonuses will help the grinding portion go faster as the research bonus increases from 50% to 100% with 2 tools upgraded to iLevel 765. But I still need to do all the little mini-games until I can buy or win all the items I want. I'll probably type a few more posts as I progress through the content. 

Viewing Final Fantasy XIV's Warrior Of Light As A Samurai Daishō

Final Fantasy XIV is a story-driven game in which the player is The Chosen One. But as I spent time in Dawntrail taking care of and leveling my retainers, companion chocobo, squadron members and Trust NPCs, I thought more of taking care of a household more than saving the world. Then the thought hit me, "Am I acting like a knight?" Knights weren't just solo armored fighters. They each had their own men-at-arms and followers on campaign to take care of the non-military parts of life. More importantly to the analogy, the knight was responsible for keeping them properly trained and equipped. Or, in the case of a video game, properly leveled.

But the analogy didn't quite fit. So I did what I hope is a natural progression. I looked at Japanese history. Reading a lot of internet drama over the past few years, I think a lot of people don't realize that Square Enix is a Japanese company and that the people writing the story are Japanese. I found the comparison I was looking for not in Europe's medieval period but in Chūsei (or feudal) Japan.¹

The title, or I should more accurately say rank, is samurai daishō.² No, not the set of matching long and short swords worn by samurai. During the Chūsei period a samurai daishō served as a commander ranked between the commander-in-chief and a commander of troops. Think of the Warrior of Light's position of authority between the rulers of the city-states (Kan‑E‑Senna, Merlwyb, Raubahn/Nanamo) and the Grand Companies. By the time A Realm Reborn ends the player reaches that position.

Another similarity is the tendency of the Warrior of Light to serve many masters. In history the samurai daishō tended to serve many masters as the European model of "one master per land" didn't strictly exist in Chūsei Japan. So that feeling players can get of feeling passed around from the Grand Companies to the city-states to the Alliance to Hydaelyn has a historical precedent. Which makes the title of "adventurer" rather apt.

I really went down the rabbit hole on background so let me head back to the surface by discussing gameplay elements. The Warrior of Light's authority comes from reputation, not bureaucracy. That little fact is hammered home by the final efforts made to send the Warrior of Light and the Scions to Ultima Thule at the end of Endwalker. But another comparison emerges -- the Warrior of Light's household.

Called samurai‑shū (侍衆), these were the elite retainers who accompanied a samurai on campaigns, handled specialized tasks, and acted as trusted companions. In FFXIV, the samurai‑shū aid the WoL in getting through the MSQ. Here's how the the Scions and retainers wound up mapping to a samurai‑shū:

Except for Tataru I've leveled all the characters and retainers to max level. The developers haven't thought about requiring the Scions' secretary/quartermaster to level.

When I began this bit of research I was searching for a historic/fantasy framework in which to put what turned out to be a rather large number of NPCs I'm responsible for in FFXIV. Not only is the player's character "The Chosen One" in word but the developers give the player all the trappings of that fame as well. Throw in a language barrier and I'm left hoping I got everything correct. Hopefully I'm close enough that I can use this framework to take a deeper dive into exactly what benefits and responsibilities the Warrior of Light carries in Final Fantasy XIV.

End notes

1. “Chūsei Japan” (中世日本) is the term used in Japanese historiography for the country’s medieval or “feudal” period, spanning roughly the late 11th to the late 16th century and encompassing the rise of the samurai, the establishment of warrior governments, and the era of clan warfare. A clear academic overview appears in James L. McClain’s course description, “Medieval Japan — Creative Energies in the ‘Dark Ages’,” Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies, https://www.kcjs.jp/pdf/courses02/28/medievaljapan.pdf. (kcjs.jp in Bing)

2. “Samurai daishō” (侍大将) was a mid‑ranking samurai commander, positioned below a daimyo and responsible for leading troops under higher generals. The Japanese Wiki Corpus notes that a samurai daishō “commands an army under [the] Dai Shogun” and held a rank between the commander‑in‑chief and infantry captains during the Sengoku period. For an accessible overview, see “Samurai Daisho,” Japanese Wiki Corpus, https://www.japanesewiki.com/title/Samurai%20daisho.html. (japanesewiki.com in Bing)

Last Grinding Sessions On Phaenna And DDoS Attacks

Over the weekend I had two main goals in Final Fantasy XIV. The first was grinding my class points in Cosmic Exploration to reach 20% of the way to obtaining the High Mobility Vacuum Suit. I need 500,000 points in each of the 11 crafting and gathering classes. The other was to try to avoid getting kicked off the servers while I did so.

What 20% looks like

I had to work on my weakest class, Fisher. I think the amount of RNG involved in Cosmic Exploration fishing missions really slows me down. But over the last week I started getting a lot better and found a handful of missions where the RNG didn't really affect me. The good news was that a couple of those missions have big payoffs. The bad news was that those missions relied on weather conditions. I never enjoyed rain so much, though cloudy skies were even better.

But one of the most frustrating things I encountered was getting knocked out of the game while reeling in a 3 exclamation point fish to complete a mission that would have given me 1100 class points. At that point I broke down and tried out ExitLag. I learned that routing through ExitLag's New York servers to go to servers located in California was up to 50ms faster than connecting through the company's Sacramento location? Did I mention the FFXIV North American data center is located in Sacramento?

I actually had a way to check if lag improved in the game. I was using a fishing macro that counted from 10 to 20 seconds I used to help determine which fish were biting. Before I could see the lag when the numbers didn't appear smoothly in my chat window. With the software turned on the macro functioned much better.

I know DDoS attacks occurred over the weekend because the Square Enix posted a status update on the Lodestone stating an attack took place lasting from Friday at 10:25am PST to Saturday at 10:10pm PST. I didn't get kicked out of the game on Saturday, The only time I was kicked occurred on Friday because I forgot to turn ExitLag on.

I have to admit I'm not entirely convinced ExitLag is causing that much of an improvement. I need to run a couple of dungeons and see if the lag is gone. I really hate when lag makes me appear worse than I am. If I feel comfortable I might even try to run through Hell on Rails next weekend.

Gaining The Will To Live (And Run Solo Dungeons) In FFXIV Dawntrail's Patch 7.4

Over the weekend I marched on playing the new content in Final Fantasy XIV's patch 7.4. After crafting the Courtly Lover's healing set and cooking some food I was ready to enjoy the new MSQ that will introduce the story for the next expansion. I stopped Saturday night at the new trial, Hell on Rails. But not for the usual reason. I spent some time on Sunday exploring the new mechanics introduced in the patch for those running through dungeons using the Duty Support and Trust systems.

I usually run the 4-character dungeons solo because I'm so bad. Usually I take an hour or so to complete a dungeon my first time through because I die so much and have to start boss fights over. Apparently I'm not a small minority because the developers added in a feature called "Will to Live".  The patch notes described the feature this way...

When undertaking duties via Duty Support or the Trust system, players will now receive the Willful status effect after being incapacitated by a boss and rechallenging the encounter. The Willful status effect is expended when a player would take lethal damage, allowing them to survive with 1 HP.

When the effect is triggered, the player will be temporarily immobilized and the Will to Live status effect will be granted, restoring HP to full.

Stacks of Willful are granted in accordance with the number of times a player is KO'd, up to a maximum of five. Each stack allows the player to survive lethal damage once. The Willful status effect and any remaining stacks are removed upon defeating the boss.

I surprised myself and did not trigger the Will to Live in my initial run-through the MSQ. I only died once to the second boss and the only new thing I noticed is that upon returning to the boss area I received all three lillies and a Blood Lily on my healing gauge. A nice benefit since I no longer needed to build up resources every time I died to a boss.

Sunday night I returned to run Mistwalker in order to farm gear and Allagan Tomestone of Mnemonics and Mathematics. While my Courtly Lover's gear gave me item level 770 gear, if I want to run any other job through the patch 7.5 content I'll need to upgrade their gear. The requirement to run Hell on Rails is item level 745 gear, which means my previously crafted gear no longer suffices. And honestly, I do like running around as a warrior.

On Sunday I reverted to form and died on the final boss. Then I triggered the Will to Live mechanic. Instead of dying on the spot, I was immobilized for a couple of seconds, then was able to continue fighting the boss. While not having control of my character was annoying, I felt a lot better than having to start the fight from the beginning. Turns out, I didn't die anymore.

I should also mention the Will to Live also works on the raids players can do solo as well.

When using Duty Support, the Will to Live status effect granted in the following duties will now also grant healing over time:

• The Mothercrystal
• Worqor Lar Dor
• Everkeep
• The Ageless Necropolis

Instead of spending an hour trying to complete the dungeon, I took less than 40 minutes. A big time savings, and food savings as well. I'm sure some will complain about making the game too easy. Others will complain about turning the game into a single player RPG. But I'm all for making combat content required to craft a bit less painful and, more important, less time consuming.

Choosing White Mage Food In FFXIV Patch 7.4

Final Fantasy XIV's Patch 7.4 was only released three days ago, but already I've crafted the Courtly Lover's healing set and melded all the open slots except those on the weapon. Next up is how to use the over 10,000 orange crafting scrips I collected before the latest patch dropped. Yes, I'm including the 45 collectable tacos I can't turn in yet to that title. As much as I would like to turn the tacos into Nachos, I need to make a food I find useful for a white mage. I think the developers tried to give me a clue based on which food would taste best in real life.

The first two foods are Prune Ponzecake and Prune-packed Fruitcake. Besides being high in fiber, prunes apparently are high in piety. Piety increases a healer’s magic point regeneration while in combat, so for white mages the stat reduces the chance of running out of MP but provides no direct healing or damage power. Beyond the amount needed for comfortable MP sustain, extra Piety is effectively wasted and is usually traded away for damage stats. Which means if someone needs more MP regeneration, a player is likely to look at food for the stat.

All high quality food introduced in patch 7.4 provided up to 297 Vitality, so when choosing a food the other two stats offered are really evaluated. Prune Ponzecake provides up to 151 Piety and 91 Determination while Prune-packed Fruitcake provides 151 Spell Speed and 91 Piety. So the choice is based on playstyle. 

Spell Speed shortens cast times and the global cool down (GCD) and raises HoT/DoT tick potency (so you cast more heals per minute but burn more MP), while Determination raises the baseline potency of every heal and damage instance (a steady, multiplicative increase). The Fruitcake is designed pretty well, with the increase in MP usage from the increased spell speed offset by the increased MP regeneration. But with the food made up of prunes, I get the feeling the developers aren't really sold on needing Piety.

Next up on the taste scale is Popoto Potage. A thick, creamy soup made with fresh rroneek milk and plenty of potatoes, I get the feeling I'd like the potato soup more than prunes. Because instead of piety, Popoto Potage contains a healthy amount of Critical Hit (up to 151 points).

Critical Hit makes White Mages heals hit harder and more often in big bursts, increasing average healing output and clutch save potential; it’s the go‑to stat for min‑maxing White Mage, balanced against MP needs and personal comfort. And the increased spell speed helps hit a little harder as well.

But the food I think most people will want is Caramel Popcorn and not just because most people have a sweet tooth and like to munch on popcorn when drama pops up.  In addition to adding up to 91 points to Critical Hit, the popcorn adds up to 151 points to Determination. 

Determinaton raises a White Mage’s healing potency and damage consistently, increases the amount healed by spells and the damage of attacks. But unlike Critical Hit that provides big spikes in healing and damage, Determination is a steady, multiplicative stat that is generally less impactful than Crit for peak throughput. But when the two are combined, the floor is raised so the spikes get spikier.

I think by now, the reader has guessed I've started making the Caramel Popcorn. I didn't get to make much last night but I should only have to make two or three more in order to have enough to go straight through the patch 7.4 MSQ. Armed with bowls of popcorn I'm ready to face the start of the next expansion's story.

Crafting The Courtly Lover's Healing Set In Final Fantasy XIV's Patch 7.4

For Final Fantasy XIV's newest patch, 7.4,  I decided to craft the latest healing gear before starting out on the MSQ journey. I figured that having gear at item level 770 would guarantee I wouldn't run into a gearing block for either the patch 7.4 or patch 7.5 MSQ. I had done my prep and thought I was set to easily craft everything provided nothing went wrong.

The Courtly Lover's Healing Set

The crafted set for patch 7.4 is the Courtly Lover's sets. As a white mage main I naturally chose the healing set along with the white mage weapon. As usual I could only prepare so much. Of the nine crafted components needed to make the set, I could only gather the materials for three before the patch hit the servers:

• Black Star (5)
• Ra'Kaznar Ingot (2)
• Thunderyards Silk (4)

Honesty, I had enough materials in my inventory just through normal gameplay. In addition, I also could gather up the needed Levinchrome Aethersand through doing the leveling grind of Cosmic Exploration. The materials needed to make the first set of items is:

• Levinsilk (20)
• Magnesia Powder (22)
• Ra'Kaznar Ore (10)
• Raw Black Star (15)

Now for the five new items. They are:

• Double Duraluminum Ingot (4)
• Fulgurpine Lumber (4)
• Grade 4 Gemsap of Mind (17)
• Mastodon Leather (9)
• Rose Garnet (7)
• Urqopacha Linen (10)

The new required component items are sourced from two different places. The first group are the new timed nodes. For reference I found them at the following times and locations.

Rose Garnet Ore - Hhusatahwi, Shaaloani - midnight-2am / noon-2pm

Windspath Water - Leynode Aero, Living Memory - 2am-4am / 2pm-4pm

Carnauba Leaf - Ok'hanu, Kozama'uka - 4am-6am / 4pm-6pm

Urqopacha Flax - Wachunpelo, Urqopacha - 6am-8am / 6pm-8pm

Fulgurpine Log - Leynode Aero, Living Memory - 8am-10am / 8pm-10pm

Dense Aluminum Ore - Electrope Strike, Heritage Found - 10am-noon, 10pm-midnight

Here were the amounts I needed. I just made my life simpler and hit each of the nodes twice. I'm pretty sure that will get enough materials for any of the Courtly Lover's sets.

• Rose Garnet Ore - 28
• Windspath Water - 51
• Carnauba Leaf - 36
• Urqopacha Flax - 40
• Fulgurpine Log - 16
• Dense Aluminum Ore - 16

There were also three items I could already gather required to make the new items. They are:

• Pearl Grass (17)
• Yak T'el Spring Water (17)
• Levinchrome Aethersand (30)

I also needed to visit Zircon in Solution Nine to get the last of the materials I needed. He wanted payment in Tomestones of Mathmatics. After visiting Auriana in Mor Dhona to turn in the now discontinued tomestones, I had 1379 Tomestones of Mathmatics. My shopping list cost 1360. Just enough tomestones as long as nothing went wrong. My shopping list was:

• Double Duracoat - 8
• Everkeep Resin - 14
• Insulating Varnish - 8
• Mastodon Pelt - 18
• Turali Pigment - 20

Other sets will have different numbers but I'm pretty sure the tomestone cost is the same amongst all the sets.

Notice I said I had enough if everything went right? Of course everything didn't. Oh, I made all the component items required with very little issues. But instead of waiting until Wednesday to make the finished items, I tried to craft them on Tuesday night. Yes, you guessed it. I was crafting the Courtly Lover's Pantaloons of Healing when I was kicked off the server due to one of the DDoS attacks FFXIV seems to get hit with on every patch day. I lost 3 Urqopacha Linen and 2 Mastodon Leathers, meaning I needed to get another 6 Turali Pigments and 4 Mastodon Pelts. I looked at the queue to log back in and called it a night.

Oh I finished on Wednesday after buying replacements for the lost materials off the marketboard. At that point I just wanted to finish crafting and try out the new gear. I ran The Meso Terminal and things felt a little easier. Now I just need to craft some food, meld some materia, and I'll be all set to tackle the next section of the MSQ.

Prepping for FFXIV Patch 7.4

For me this weekend will be nuts. I want to jump into EVE Online to partake in the Winter Nexus, EVE's end of year holiday event. I want to jump into EVE Frontier because a lot of the new content is in the starter areas and I really want to look at how unlike Online Frontier has become. I also am close to completing Ball x Pit. But I do have to spend a lot of time in Final Fantasy XIV preparing for patch 7.4.

Over the last month or so I've spent a lot of time in Cosmic Exploration, specifically on Phaenna. All data centers have completed the content with a little more than a month to go before patch 7.4.1 in January. Right now I've just leveled class points working towards the big mount for earning 500,000 points in all crafting and gathering jobs. But for this weekend the big thing is earning cosmocredits.

Cosmocredits are big for two reasons. First, a lot of the materials I need to make the new combat gear in patch 7.4 is available on Phaenna. But perhaps the biggest reason are the glamour changes coming next week. With the ability to wear any piece no matter class, job, or level restriction lots of people will need dye. And where is the biggest source of the new Dawntrail dyes? Phaenna. If I have a couple of hours to spare I'll finish leveling Culinarian to 100,000 class points.

Of course, continuing with crafting I need to make a lot of tacos. Specifically Tacos de Carne Asada. These tacos are collectables and give out the most Orange crafting scrips. I figure if I take a few hours I'll have enough crafting scrips to buy all the new materials I'll need. One thing I've learned is that one can never have enough orange scrips.

A source of materials I'm behind on is the Allagan Tomestones of Mathematics and Allagan Tomestones of Heliometry. Since these currencies mainly require running dungeons I usually don't have a lot. But I can top off at 1300 Tomestones of Matematics and get near 850 of the Tomestones of Heliometry before the patch hits.

I'm not hopeless where combat is concerned. I'm only one or two FATEs away from reaching the cap on bicolor gemstones of 1500. Also, with my free company probably changing the buff schedule so our crafting group can make the new combat gear for members, I won't need to worry about getting a food buff. But I will need to use more of my aetheryte tickets than normal. Thankfully I still have 375 tickets in my inventory or I'd have to go out and start killing things again.

If I have the time I also need to make up a list of items to gather. I hear I'll need to make a bunch of level 98 intermediate items. Something that shouldn't take too long with fully pentamelded crafting gear. But I do need to make sure they are high quality items.

Other high quality items I need to make is crafting food. My stack of All i Pebre is getting low so I need to do a little fishing to make another 30 portions of the eel and potato stew. Unless, of course, the developers are introducing even better food, in which case I need to figure out what I need to do on day one of the patch.

Not a lot to do but I do need to hurry. Not only do I need to finish the patch 7.4 MSQ before patch 7.41 introduces the next section of Cosmic Exploration, but I need to make a new set of combat gear as well. Because I'll probably need the gear to get through the new duties and trusts.

I Earned Star Contributor In FFXIV's Cosmic Exploration

Sometimes I decide to do something that doesn't make a lot of sense. I took this week off of work and one of my objectives was to get all crafting and gathering classes up to 50,000 cosmic class points. But then a pop-up appeared about a server shutdown from 10:00 p.m. Monday to Nov. 11, 2025 2:00 a.m. (PST) Tuesday to install Dawntrail patch 7.38. If the evaluation period for becoming a Star Contributor was being shortened by 3 hours, why not try to obtain the title?

Standing in front of the hologram of Star Contributors

The benefits of becoming one of the seven current Star Contributors aren't permanent, or even very impactful. According to the wiki:

Star Contributors will be honored for fourteen real-life days in the following ways:

• A hologram of the player will be displayed in Phaenna (X:27.9, Y:12.7).
• The player's name will be displayed on the starward standings stela on Phaenna (X:28.0, Y:12.6).
• A visual effect will be applied to them when they are in a Cosmic Exploration zone. They can click off this buff if they do not want it displayed.

Players who receive Star Contributor will be ineligible to receive it again for 14 days.

In contrast to the limited-time ranking titles in Ishgardian Restoration, Star Contributor is a permanent competitive feature to prevent "fear of missing out". There are no achievements, titles, or item rewards tied to Star Contributor.

So why chase becoming a Star Contributor? Because I could. Also, the evaluation period would end at midnight meaning I wouldn't have to screw up my sleep schedule too much. I'd just need to wake up a few hours early Monday morning. 

The only preparation I did was go out and make 60 All i Pebre. The food based on Goldentail eel is a superior version of the Rroneek Steak, which would matter because the crafting classes I intended to play were not specialists and need all the stats I could give them. I went out and fished for 30 minutes and caught 25 Goldentail (pro-tip - use red maggots and double-hook/triple-hook). I wound up only needing 24, but running out of food was something I didn't want to do.

I should add I was also using Squadron Rationing Manuals. As part of the leveling I've done for my personal squadron I run a mission that provides 10 of the manuals. Perhaps I should take up PvP to get them also.

I actually logged in at 3am local, the start of the evaluation time. I was in for the long run so I did a few things and began the crafting grind at 3:20am. The strategy was simple: do sequential missions and abandon missions that don't lead to the three sequential missions that gave 1100-1200 points for crafting four items. 

These missions will become available after completing certain stellar missions with a gold star rank. Sequential missions are created from a variety of missions, and completing them with the highest score possible will cause more to appear. Failing or abandoning a sequential mission will require the player to complete the prerequisite mission again for another attempt.

I also wound up making a small macro to do missions during Red Alerts. While I have no evidence besides vague hints, I think missions done for Red Alerts get a bonus when the Star Contributor points. 

My first problem occurred shortly before 5am when Steam gave me a message saying my auto-pay didn't work. I figured out I had failed to delete something the last time the issue occurred. Getting everything back to normal took 30 minutes.

But then something happened that should have told me I had Star Contributor in the bag. Despite the payment issue knocking me out of the game, I went from being in the top 30% of players to top 20% of players. Getting up early was paying off.

I went on a roll from 5:30am to 7:15am and got into the top 10%, the highest category. Then I got a headache. A video game grind is not worth pain, so I took some aspirin and laid down for a half-hour until I felt better. I really started feeling good when I checked the math. I was averaging 6100 points per hour and in the top 10%. If I stepped up my efforts I could definitely come close.

But I was still looking to take care of myself. I didn't hesitate to go brew tea or eat lunch when the time came. I also would walk around for a few minutes each hour whether I needed to stretch or not. Over the next 10 hours I averaged 8400 points per hour.

I also learned something about my server. Players didn't start rolling into the zone until 1:30pm my time (11:30am PST). Basically I had an 8 hour head start on any potential competitor. So when I started getting sleepy I felt okay about taking a nap. 

After my nap I wound up finishing strong, managing to get all my crafting classes to at least 50,000 class points.

Final class points at the end of the night

Each of the bronze cups in the picture above represents an achievement earned for getting 50,000 points in a class. During the grind I completed the achievements for Alchemist, Armouer, Blacksmith, Carpenter, and Goldsmith. Perhaps more importantly I racked up 155,662 overall class points, running my total up to 602,000 points. For those who want some more metrics, I averaged 7400 points per hour with a maximum of 11, 988 points in an hour after I took the nap. In the two hours after I took my nap I averaged 11,100 points per hour.

And perhaps that's the point. Long play sessions grinding out cosmic exploration content isn't the optimum use of a player's time. Shorter sessions spread out over a longer time is a more efficient way of doing things. Based on yesterday I'm going to try to spend two hours a day grinding out class points. Because while the point total sounds impressive, my 600,000 overall class points means I'm only 11% of the way to getting the High Mobility Vacuum Suit.

Finishing Up In Final Fantasy XIV's Patch 7.35.

With patch 7.4 due to drop in less than 6 weeks, I've spent my time trying to tidy up the place and finish tasks before the next story arc begins. I don't think I'm like most players as I haven't touched major content like The Occult Crescent, Pilgrim's Traverse, the FFXIV x Monster Hunter Wilds crossover event, or any savage or Unreal dungeons. Except for the crossover event none of the major content really interests me, especially with my lack of combat skill. So how have I spent my time in the game?

Cosmic exploration receives some oversight

The first event was working on Cosmic Exploration content. My home server finished the last bit of construction on Monday and I ran through the end quests last night. Looking at the special site I see that as of now three of the four logical data centers in North America have completed Cosmic Exploration. No world in the game is slower than level 20, meaning everyone will complete the Phaenna content before patch 7.41.

Also, as far as I know the Phaenna end quests revealed a very important lore fact. Y'shtola has eleven sisters. Well, her entry in the Final Fantasy wiki tells the story, but I think this was the first time mentioned in the reborn game. The big question is whether players will accept Y'shtola not appearing in a future expansion if one of her sisters plays a major part.

Pleasing the spirits

Next up was reaching bloodsworn with the Yok Huy. On Monday I also finished up Dawntrail's third and final allied society questline. The Yok Huy is the 20th allied society I've reached max reputation with. I'm now ready for the final set of intersocietal quests that should come out in patch 7.5x.

I so want this glamour

I also finished the current installment of the Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures. Personally I think I like the Dawntrail Hildibrand story the best so far. I've never used New Game Plus, but I'm tempted to go back and do the entire set of Hildibrand adventures sometime in the future.

My chocobo companion

The last task finished was 6 years in the making. I finally leveled my chocobo companion to level 20. I'm not saying that's a long time but my neighbor who also plays FFXIV was a bit surprised I hadn't done so yet. Leveling a companion from level 10 to 20 takes a Thavnairian Onion for each level. Back when I began the price, at over 1 million gil each, was a bit too rich for my pouch. But I now have over 160 million gil and the price has dropped to around 100-200 thousand gil so I finally got the task out of the way.

I do have two more tasks I hope to complete by the end of the month involving dungeon runs. The first is finally getting all my Trust characters up to level 100. I currently have 7 of the 8 active NPC avatars in Dawntral to max level. I am currently running through Vanguard with Urianger, who will reach level 98 after the next dungeon completion. 

My squadron roster

The next is finishing up some very old content. I never did max out my squadron. Once I made Captain in The Order of the Twin Adder I didn't see any reason for continuing to play an abandoned game system. Fast forward a few years and the completionist in me was screaming to finish the job. Between squadron missions and running a group through The Vault once a night I figure I can check this off my todo list before Thanksgiving. The squadron version of The Vault requires a minimum of level 57 and last night I reached that with my lowest ranked squadron member.

With the next patch so close I won't have to worry about things to do. When all else fails I still have the class point grind in Cosmic Exploration to work on. I would really like to get the hardest to get mount from the content. the High Mobility Vacuum Suit. But I won't earn that for a few months yet. In the meantime I'll pick through things and try to do some catching up on content.