If you’re bored and feel like there’s nothing left to do in Final Fantasy 14, you may want to consider picking up a fancy weapon by completing the A Realm Reborn relic weapon, known as Zodiac weapons. These weapons are massively outdated stat-wise, but are worth collecting if you want them for glamour.
Unlike the Stormblood relic and Shadowbringers relic weapons, these weapons do not require any specific field operations duty. Rather, you’ll be sent around all the ARR zones and dungeons repeatedly to grind the steps for this relic weapon.
Below we detail everything you need to know about getting an A Realm Reborn Zodiac relic weapon.
A Realm Reborn Zodiac relic weapons, explained
These weapons are one of a kind. While they used to be best-in-slot many moons ago, the only reason you’d want to grab these now is as glamour. The weapons look great; the first few stages are the poster child weapons for their respective jobs from when A Realm Reborn came out. They’re a great addition to your collection if you want a classic look to your outfit.
In order to make this weapon, you have to follow a ton of complex steps. If you want the full Zeta weapon, you’ll need to do all eight steps we list below. However, if you like the look of the Atma weapon and want to stop there, you can do that, too.
As expected with this old relic, you can only make ARR relic weapons for ARR jobs: Warrior, Paladin, White Mage, Scholar, Monk, Dragoon, Ninja, Bard, Black Mage, and Summoner.
You’ll also need to be careful to never discard your weapon. You cannot get the weapon back without having to redo the entire process. If you want a version of your weapon for glam, you can buy level 1 replicas from Drake in North Shroud next to Gerolt, but you’ll need to have your weapon on-hand to buy them. You can’t put the actual weapons into your glamour dresser, so you will need to buy replicas if you want to use them in glamour plates.
You can do this relic process on the free trial, but some of the steps require level 1 materia, which is extremely hard to get as a free trial player, so I don’t recommend it.
I also really only recommend doing this grind once the job you want the weapon for is level 70 or higher. You will have to spam a lot of dungeons, and it’s best to be able to do them unsynced on your own, rather than queueing for them and waiting for that queue to pop.
Step 1: How to get your base Zodiac weapon
In order to make a relic weapon, you need to be at least level 50 in the job you want the weapon for, and you need to have beaten the A Realm Reborn main scenario quest “The Ultimate Weapon.” You also need to have the class and job quests for your selected job completed up to level 50.
You should also make sure to unlock the “Amdapor Keep” dungeon via the side quest “Ghosts of Amdapor,” as you’ll need it for this quest.
Honestly, this step is explained for you once you actually start the quests, but if you wanted to look ahead to see what the steps are, here they are laid out for you:
That’s it for the first step. It’s not too shabby!
Image: Square Enix via ProSpelare
Step 2: How to get your Zenith Zodiac weapon
As long as you have your Zodiac weapon in-hand from step one, you should be able to complete this part easy-peasy. To get your Zenith Zodiac weapon, do the following:
That’s literally it. Your weapon will now have a soft little glow to it, too!
Image: Square Enix via ProSpelare
Step 3: How to get your Atma Zodiac weapon
The Atma step can be grindy, as you need to complete FATEs in order to upgrade your weapon. To start it, you’ll need to do the following:
You need to collect one of each Atma, which comes from different areas. They’re located as follows:
- Atma of the Archer: North Shroud
- Atma of the Goat: East Shroud
- Atma of the Maiden: Central Shroud
- Atma of the Lion: Outer La Noscea
- Atma of the Water-bearer: Upper La Noscea
- Atma of the Ram: Middle La Noscea
- Atma of the Crab: Western La Noscea
- Atma of the Fish: Lower La Noscea
- Atma of the Bull: Eastern Thanalan
- Atma of the Scales: Central Thanalan
- Atma of the Twins: Western Thanalan
- Atma of the Scorpion: Southern Thanalan
You’ll need to do FATEs in these areas to get the specific Atma. It doesn’t matter which FATEs you do in the area, but you do need to have a Zodiac Zenith weapon equipped while you do them. The FATEs only have a chance to drop an Atma, meaning you may get unlucky and have to do quite a bit of FATEs to get your weapon.
Your weapon will lose its glow, but get a new colorway.
Image: Square Enix via ProSpelare
Step 4: How to get your Animus Zodiac weapon
This part is probably the sloggiest of it all, so brace yourself. Just as a reminder, making a relic weapon is a marathon, not a sprint (much like FFXIV as a whole), so remember to take breaks as necessary. Before you jump in, you should make sure that you have the following dungeons unlocked:
- “The Lost City of Amdapor” via the side quest “One Night in Amdapor”
- “The Wanderer’s Palace” via the side quest “Trauma Queen”
- “Copperbell Mines (Hard)” via the side quest “Out of Sight, Out of Mine”
- “The Sunken Temple of Qarn” via the side quest “Braving New Depths”
- “Haukke Manor (Hard)” via the side quest “Maniac Manor”
- “Halatali (Hard)” via the side quest “This Time’s for Fun”
- “Dzemael Darkhold” via the side quest “Fort of Fear”
- “Brayflox’s Longstop (Hard)” via the side quest “Curds and Slay”
- “Cutter’s Cry” via the side quest “Dishonor Before Death”
- “Pharos Sirius” via the side quest “Sirius Business”
- “The Aurum Vale” via the side quest “Going for Gold”
You don’t have to complete the dungeon or quest, just unlock the dungeon. (In fact, you will have to run these for this step, so you might as well wait and knock out two birds with one stone.)
To make your Animus weapon, you’ll need to do the following:
The book stuff is pretty straight-forward, albeit grindy. There are nine different books to complete, each with their own set of stuff to do. Rather than listing all of the objectives here (there are a ton), I’d recommend consulting the Final Fantasy 14 Online Wiki to go down the list of books, keeping the page for your current book open and completing each objective area by area. For your sake, here’s a list of all the books with links:
- Book of Skyfire I
- Book of Skyfire II
- Book of Netherfire I
- Book of Skyfall I
- Book of Skyfall II
- Book of Netherfall I
- Book of Skywind I
- Book of Skywind II
- Book of Skyearth I
Note that if the levequest that you need to do isn’t appearing in the list of available leves, you can refresh the list by completing one. Some FATEs won’t spawn unless another FATE gets completed, which is why I recommend you looking at the Wiki list.
You will quickly realize that each book has you essentially running back and forth between the same locations, making this task extremely annoying, especially since you can’t have multiple books at once. Luckily, if you’re overleveled, the enemies, dungeons, and levequests should be quick work, and the FATEs still shouldn’t be too bad even when it forces you to level sync. (As a level 90 White Mage, I was able to complete all the books completely solo – and my gear is pretty outdated.)
This step is really rough but you will eventually get into the rhythm, realizing where you need to go with each book faster as you complete more books. We got all of the tasks done in Mor Dhona first, would then go to Coerthas for those steps, and then go straight to Camp Bluefog in Northern Thanalan for levequests, and then go through all the zones in Thanalan, Shroud, and La Noscea in that order.
Your weapon is glowing again!
Image: Square Enix via ProSpelare
Step 5: How to get your Novus Zodiac weapon
After the Animus step, this step feels like nothing, especially if you’ve been sitting on Poetics for a while.
To get your Novus weapon, do the following:
How to use the Sphere Scroll
The Sphere Scroll is a weird mechanic that we never really see again after this. You have to meld 11 materia of one tier in order to be able to meld the next tier. So if you’re starting out, you’ll need to successfully meld 11 Piety I materia before you can meld any Piety II materia and so forth. As mentioned, the stats here don’t matter, so we just bought a bunch of the cheapest materia we could off the marketboard.
Level one materia can get expensive since it’s a bit of a rarity – you can only get it from the marketboard or by extracting material from fully spiritbonded low-level gear. This is why this process isn’t great for free trial players.
Where to get Alexandrite
There are a few ways to get Alexandrite:
- Earning a gold rating in FATEs with your Animus weapon equipped (again!)
- Completing Mysterious Maps as any job with any weapon, which you can buy from Auriana in Mor Dhona for 75 Poetics each. To do this, you’ll need to have the Decipher and Dig skill, which unlocks from the quest “Treasures and Tribulations.” Each map drops 5 Alexandrite.
- Buying the Alexandrite for 50 Allied Seals each from your Grand Company Hunt Billmaster.
I honestly recommend doing a bit of everything. You can only technically carry three maps at once (one in your inventory, one deciphered one, and one in your chocobo saddlebag), so going back and forth to Mor Dhona can be a pain. That being said, I had a handful of Allied Seals to spend, so going half-and-half was nice.
Image: Square Enix via ProSpelare
Step 6: How to get your Nexus Zodiac Weapon
Are you ready to do more ARR duties? Wahoo! To get your Nexus weapon, you’ll need to do the following:
How to earn light to soulglaze your weapon
Doing different A Realm Reborn content will give you different levels of light and some of the duties will give you bonus light. The duties that give bonus light rotate randomly every two hours and you can run any of the content unsynced, as long as your weapon is equipped at completion.
The light values rewarded and needed to complete your weapon are invisible, but you need 2,000 light for it to have “bursting activity.”
If you’re doing this solo, the fastest way to rake in light for your weapon is to run “The Bowl of Embers” unsynced. Since you can immediately obliterate Ifrit, you should be able to clear the duty in a matter of seconds, making it very fast, albeit grindy (again) to complete. With no bonus, normal gives 8 light. We were able to get through three Ifrit fights in a minute, netting in an easy 24 light per minute.
If you have a friend who is willing to spend a few minutes helping you out, you can choose to run “The Bowl of Embers (Extreme)” with them. If your friend is geared up at level 90, they should be able to one- or two-shot Ifrit, allowing you to net in 32 light per run and around 96 per minute.
If you don’t like running Ifrit, you can always kind of go down the list of content to keep things a little more engaging. Most ARR dungeons will give you 48 light, with a few giving less. Below you can see how much light each duty rewards.
FFXIV Nexus weapon light values
Light given | Light given with bonus | Duty |
---|---|---|
Light given | Light given with bonus | Duty |
Feeble (8) | Gentle (16) | The Bowl of Embers, FATEs, treasure maps |
Gentle (16) | Bright (32) | Alexandrite maps, Hard Trials, Urth’s Fount, The Porta Decumana, The Howling Eye (Extreme), The Minstrel’s Ballad: Ultima’s Bane, Binding Coil of Bahamut T4 |
Bright (32) | Brilliant (48) | All Extreme trials except The Howling Eye, Binding Coil of Bahamut T1, 2, and 5, All Second Coils of Bahamut, All Final Coils of Bahamut, The Wanderer’s Palace, Amdapor Keep, Pharos Sirius, Copperbell Mines (Hard), The Lost City of Amdapor, Halatali (Hard), Brayflox’s Longstop (Hard) |
Brilliant (48) | Blinding (96) | Sastasha, The Tam-Tara Deepcroft, Copperbell Mines, Halatali, The THousand Maws of Toto-Rak, Haukke Manor, Brayflox’s Longstop, The Sunken Temple of Qarn, Cutter’s Cry, The Stone Vigil, Dzemael Darkhold, The Aurum Vale, Castrum Meridianum, The Praetorium, Hullbreaker Isle, The Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard), The Stone Vigil (Hard), Snowcloak, Sastasha (Hard), The Keeper of the Lake, The Borderland Ruins (secure), The Labyrinth of the Ancients |
Blinding (96) | Newborn Star (128) | Syrcus Tower, The World of Darkness |
Ultimately, you should do whichever you like best. If running “The Aurum Vale” quickly is the most engaging content for you, then all the more power to you.
Image: Square Enix via ProSpelare
Step 7: How to get your Zodiac Braves weapon
This step is pretty material heavy and you’ll need to run a few more dungeons. In addition to being a Second Lieutenant rank in your Grand Company, you will need to have the following dungeons unlocked (in addition the ones that we’ve listed before):
- “Hullbreaker Isle” via the side quest “King of the Hull”
- “The Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard)” via the side quest “The Wrath of Qarn”
- “The Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard)” via the side quest “Corpse Gloom”
- “The Stone Vigil (Hard)” via the side quest “Blood for Stone”
- “Sastasha (Hard)” via the side quest “It’s Definitely Pirates”
To actually start making your Zodiac Braves weapon, you’ll need to do the following:
Zodiac Braves weapon item requirements
You’ll need a handful of different types of currency to get past this quest. Notably you need to obtain these items from these merchants:
- 4 Bombard Cores (20,000 Grand Company seals each) from your respective GC Quartermaster (80,000 GC seals total)
- 4 Sacred Spring Water (200 Poetics each) from Auriana in Mor Dhona (800 Poetics total)
- 1 Bronze Lake Crystal (100,000 gil) from the Junkmonger in Upper La Noscea (26, 26)
- 1 Allagan Resin (100,000 gil) from the Merchant & Mender in Southern Thanalan (15, 29)
- 1 Furite Sand (100,000 gil) from the Merchant & Mender in Coerthas Central Highlands (13, 16)
- 1 Brass Kettle (100,000 gil) from the Tool Supplier & Mender in North Shroud (29, 19)
You will also need some items that are specifically crafted and high quality. You can buy them from the marketboard if you have the gil, but if you have level 50+ crafters, you can make them yourself. However, to get the base materials for these crafts, you have to buy and desynth specific items sold by the Merchant and Mender in Western Thanalan (15, 29). Each desynth only has a chance to drop the relevant goods, and you may get other items instead. The items are as follows:
- Desynth an Aged Spear to get an Aged Spear Shaft to make a Perfect Firewood.
- Desynth an Aged Pestle to get Aged Pestle Pieces to make a Perfect Pestle.
- Desynth an Aged Mortar to get Aged Mortar Pieces to make a Perfect Mortar.
- Desynth an Aged Ring to get an Aged Eye of Fire to make a Furnace Ring.
- Desynth an Aged Grimoire to get Aged Vellum to make Perfect Vellum.
- Desynth an Aged Robe to get a Stained Cloth to make Perfect Cloth.
- Desynth an Aged Phial to get Dried Ether to make Perfect Pounce.
- Desynth an Aged Decanter to get Vintage Cooking Sherry to make Tailor-made Eel Pie.
To craft these yourself, you will also need the Master Recipes I book for each crafting job, too.
Image: Square Enix via ProSpelare
Step 8: How to get your Zodiac Zeta weapon
This is the last step. You’re almost there, you just have some more duty grinding to go!
To make your Zodiac Zeta weapon, you’ll need to do the following:
How to earn light for Mahatmas
This is almost exactly the same as the Nexus step, though the values are different. Again, the amount of light rewarded and gained is invisible, but players have deduced that each Mahatma needs 40 light. There is also still a bonus that rotates every two hours (and the Nexus bonus duty is the same as the Zeta bonus duty). As per usual, you do need to have your weapon equipped when you finish the duty, and duties can be completed unsynced.
The duties also give different amounts of light now:
FFXIV Zeta weapon light values
Light given | Light given with bonus | Duty |
---|---|---|
Light given | Light given with bonus | Duty |
Feeble (4) | Faint (8) | FATEs, The Bowl of Embers, The Navel, The Howling Eye, A Relic Reborn: The Chimera, A Relic Reborn: The Hydra, The Dragon’s Neck |
Faint (8) | Gentle (16) | The Porta Decumana, The Chrysalis, Battle on the Big Bridge, Battle in the Big Keep, all Hard Trials, Urth’s Fount, The Minstrel’s Ballad: Ultima’s Bane, The Howling Eye (Extreme), Alexandrite maps |
Gentle (16) | Steady (24) | All ARR Extreme trials (except The Howling Eye and Ultima’s Bane), All Bahamut raids, Pharos Sirius, Copperbell Mines (Hard), Brayflox’s Longstop (Hard) |
Steady (24) | Forceful (48) | Sastasha, The Tam-Tara Deepcroft, Copperbell Mines, The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak, Haukke Manor, The Sunken Temple of Qarn, Cutter’s Cry, The Stone Vigil, Dzemael Darkhold, The Aurum Vale, Snowcloak, Castrum Meridianum, The Praetorium, The Keeper of the Lake, Sastasha (Hard), The Wanderer’s Palace (Hard), Amdapor Keep (Hard), The Borderland Ruins (Secure), The Labyrinth of the Ancients |
Forceful (48) | Nigh Sings (64) | Syrcus Tower, The World of Darkness |
If one of the steady dungeons is on bonus, you can complete a Mahatma with a single run, making it pretty worthwhile. Otherwise the same rules apply from the Nexus step: Spam “The Bowl of Embers” if you’re running solo to get about 12 light per minute. Run “The Bowl of Embers (Extreme)” if you have a high-level friend willing to two-shot the boss for you.
Image: Square Enix via ProSpelare
And that’s all there is to it. You are now finished with your ARR relic weapon grind, but you can always start from the beginning if you want another one. Or you can move on to making a Stormblood relic or Shadowbringers relic weapon if you miss that grind.
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