FFXIV Firmament and Diadem Guide (Endwalker 6.x)

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Joni hails from Virginia and currently resides in North Carolina, though she spends a large portion of her time in Eorzea these days. Of course, sh... Read more

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The Holy See of Ishgard suffered immense structural damage during the Dragonsong War, with parts of the city destroyed entirely by the Dravanian assault. If you’ve finished Heavensward, however, that period of Ishgardian history is behind you. The war is over, and the people need something to guide them into the future.

It’s time to rebuild. In this guide, we’ll be covering Final Fantasy XIV’s Firmament and Diadem in-depth. The Firmament is one of FFXIV’s best hubs for non-combat content, and we’ve got a complete guide to help you get started.

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What was the Ishgard Restoration?

The Ishgard Restoration was an in-game event that saw the reconstruction of the Firmament district within the Holy See. It ended in early 2021 with Patch 5.41, and now the district is completely built and fully explorable. The completion of the Firmament foreshadows the addition of the new Ishgard housing district, Empyreum, which will be coming in a future 6.x patch.

For those who are curious, the Restoration saw gatherers and crafters working together to contribute materials to rebuild the Firmament, a district that would help revitalize the city after the end of the Dragonsong War. Over a period of time, the in-game environment updated as players contributed to the reconstruction. The questline detailing these events is still playable and provides more lore and interactions with the characters involved. It’s a great bit of story for fans of the Heavensward expansion, but the district is fully built and the event has concluded.

Perhaps we’ll see another crafting and gathering event like this in future patches. For now, the Firmament still serves as the main hub for crafting and gathering content in Final Fantasy XIV.

What is the Firmament?

The Firmament is an area within the city of Ishgard that grants players access to special crafting recipes and turn-ins, fetes, a special scrip currency, the Kupo of Fortune scratch game, and the Diadem. In order to unlock the Firmament, you must have a job at Level 60 and have completed the main scenario quest “Litany of Peace.”

Check out the Recruitment Notice (Foundation x9.7, y11.5) to start the quest “Towards the Firmament”. This is the start of the Firmament questline, but you only need to go through the introductory quest and speak to Augebert before you can start participating in the crafting and gathering activities.

We recommend walking around and familiarizing yourself with all the locations and important NPCs once you’re free to roam around. They will introduce themselves and give basic explanations of how things work. In its completed form, the Firmament is a large area with many small districts, but the hub of all crafting and gathering activity is the Mendicant’s Court. Conveniently, this is the area you will load into whenever you visit the Firmament.

If you leave the Firmament, the quickest way to get back is by using the main Ishgard Aetheryte menu. Select the “Travel to the Firmament” option and you’ll be there in no time, no walking required!

Ishgardian Restoration Recipes and Turn-ins

The Restoration may be over, but its recipes and turn-ins are still available! Crafting and turning in Ishgard Restoration items is one of the best ways to level crafters in FFXIV. After you’ve been introduced to the many NPCs that occupy the Firmament, make sure to speak to Potkin again. If you have a crafter job at Level 20 or higher, he’ll grant you access to Ishgard Restoration Recipes. Crafting items from this list to the right specifications will net you huge EXP rewards, as well as Skybuilders Scrips and Kupo of Fortune Stamps.

Fetes

Fetes are like FATEs, but fun! Instead of being centered around killing enemies, fetes are a series of mini-games that take place during the Skyrise Celebration. This event takes place every two days and lasts twenty-four hours (in real time) inside the Firmament. Within that window, there are twelve sessions, each of them lasting thirty minutes. Each session will contain five fetes, and you can only participate as a Disciple of the Land or Hand (i.e., a gatherer or a crafter).

Participating in fetes grants you a wide variety of special rewards, including fete tokens that can be exchanged with Enie for even more exclusive rewards.

You don’t need to be a pro crafter to participate in fetes! The mini-games are more similar to the games you’d find in the Gold Saucer than actual crafting. Pop into the Firmament every now and then to participate in the celebration and have some fun!

Skybuilders’ Scrips

If you are crafting your life away in the Firmament, you’ll be racking up Skybuilders’ Scrips like nobody’s business. You can exchange these with Enie for a treasure trove of exclusive rewards like mounts, minions, hairstyles, dyes, emotes, furnishings, gear, and so much more. Most of the items available here can only be acquired with Skybuilders’ Scrips.

Many of these items are also able to be sold on the market board. Because they aren’t available anywhere else in FFXIV, this means you can make a ton of gil selling popular, Firmament-exclusive scrip items! Whether you’re a mount and minion collector or a market board manipulator, you won’t want to ignore the value of Skybuilders’ Scrips.

The Kupo of Fortune

The other highly valuable reward from crafting turn-ins are the Kupo of Fortune stamps! You can only get these stamps from turning in items that have stamp markers next to them on Potkin’s list. These are usually higher level and much harder to craft, but the reward is definitely worth it.

Once you collect five Kupo Stamps, you’ll earn a Kupo Voucher. This voucher allows you to play the Kupo Scratch Ticket game once, which can hand out some highly sought-after items. Like the Skybuilders’ Scrip items, many of these rewards sell high on the market board. Of course, some of them are super cool (like the Casual Attire Coffer). You’ll probably want to get them for yourself before you start putting them up for sale!

What is the Diadem?

The Diadem is accessible from one of the Firmament’s many booths. Speak to Aurvael to set off for this special gathering-centric instance! Back in the Heavensward days, the Diadem was originally a large-scale PVE instance, but it has since been retooled into a gatherer’s paradise.

Once you reach Level 10 with a gatherer job (Botanist or Miner) you can enter the Diadem much like you would a dungeon. However, you can freely switch between gatherer jobs while you are inside. The instance runs on a 180-minute timer, so there’s no need to feel rushed. The Diadem is comprised of a circular series of floating islands connected by wind currents that will propel you from one to the next. You can also fly on a mount and go wherever you want, but sometimes using the wind jumps is easier.

The Diadem is the best method to level gatherer jobs in Final Fantasy XIV. You don’t have to worry about running into aggressive monsters, and it provides you with a never-ending supply of nodes. On top of all this, it’s a great way to fill your pockets with gil if you don’t want to use your gathered materials for crafting.

The Aetheromatic Auger

You will automatically be equipped with the duty-specific Aetheromatic Auger, which replaces your Limit Break bar. Using this action will allow you to one-shot any of the enemies wandering around the Diadem (which don’t attack you, by the way). You can charge up the auger simply by gathering. Every item gathered adds to the charge bar, and one filled bar is one shot.

Enemies will drop rare gathered materials, and it’s pretty easy to figure out which ones will drop what. To break it down for you:

• Rocky-looking enemies will drop Miner materials.
• Plant-based enemies will drop Botanist materials.
• Sprites drop crystals.

Once you blow up a few of these docile creatures, you’ll start to get a sense of what they give you. If you can’t tell, just fire away and see what surprises are in store! Enemy materials from the Diadem tend to sell for higher on the market board, so don’t ignore these wandering monsters.

Gathering Rotations

Don’t worry — this is nothing like learning your rotation for a combat job. We’re talking about literally rotating around the Diadem as you gather. This is a very simple process that most players pick up on without even knowing it exists.

The Diadem is a big circle of islands, and you follow a path of gathering nodes as you work your way around it. There are technically two paths (inner and outer), but it’s not crucial that you follow either of them to the letter (unless you are trying to maximize your gathering yields at higher levels). New nodes spawn when old ones are depleted.

The Diadem won’t run out of nodes to gather from. If you find yourself unable to find anything nearby, you have actions that will locate the nearest nodes, which may be on another island. You can use Arbor Call and Lay of the Land to find new nodes with Botanist and Miner, respectively.

Diadem Weather

Keep your eyes on the skies when you’re gathering away inside the Diadem. Special nodes will spawn during certain weather conditions. These are Level 80 nodes, so you will need to be at least Level 70 with the appropriate gatherer job to take advantage of them.

Here’s a quick cheat sheet for the sky colors, weather conditions, and nodes:

• Red (Umbral Flare): Spawns Umbral Flarestones (Mining) at x12.9, y79.7
• Yellow (Umbral Duststorm): Spawns Umbral Earthcaps (Botany) at x29.4, y33.1
• Green (Umbral Tempest): Spawns Umbral Galewood Logs (Botany) at x9.5, y30.3
• Purple (Umbral Levin): Spawns Umbral Levinshards (Mining) at x33.9, y13.2

Fisher

Before you prepare for a Diadem fishing trip, be aware that you will have to have Cloudfishing unlocked. This is a trait you acquire at Fisher Level 53.

Pack Versatile Lures if you’re goin’ fishin’ in the Diadem under Level 80. At Level 80 or higher, you’ll want to switch to the various kinds of Diadem Bait, which you can purchase from the Merchant & Mender (x8.6, y18.7) inside the Diadem. There are four kinds of bait that correspond to the rare fish that will appear at the four different fishing holes. Let’s revisit that sky cheat sheet:

• Red (Umbral Flare): Spawns Cometfish at the Blustery Cloudtop (x32.5, y9.2); use Diadem Balloon Bug.
• Yellow (Umbral Duststorm): Spawns Anomalocaris at the Calm Cloudtop (x29.5, y33.4); use Diadem Red Balloon.
• Green (Umbral Tempest): Spawns Dragon’s Soul at the Windswept Cloudtop (x.27, y15.7); use Diadem Hoverworm.
• Purple (Umbral Levin): Spawns Rhamphor-hynchus at the Swirling Cloudtop (x12.2, y24.2); use Diadem Crane Fly.

The Diadem might be great levelling content for Botanists and Miners, but it is not the ideal strategy for levelling Fisher. We recommend Ocean Fishing for that purpose. However, the Diadem does offer up some unique fishing content once you hit higher levels, so don’t ignore it completely in favor of those relaxing boat trips!

How to Make Money in The Diadem

You’ve gone, you’ve gathered, and you’ve returned to the Firmament. What do you do with all the stuff you have?

First, make sure you visit Flotpassant once you exit the Diadem! He stands right next to Aurvael at the same booth, and he inspects your gathered materials and approves them in batches of five. This process will also give you Skybuilders’ Scrips. If you don’t submit your materials to him for approval, they can’t be sold or used for crafting. Do not forget this step!

After that? If you’re also a crafter, you can use those materials to make Ishgard Restoration Recipes to get all those sweet rewards we mentioned earlier. If you’re not a crafter, head on down to the Jeweled Crozier and put those materials up for sale on the market board! Players levelling crafters often don’t want to gather materials themselves. As long as other players are levelling crafters in the Firmament, these materials will always sell on the market board. The actual prices they sell at is determined by your server, but you will profit no matter if they sell for 5 gil or 500 gil.

The Diadem is actually one of the easiest ways to make gil quickly if mindlessly gathering materials doesn’t bother you. Just make sure you don’t gather more materials than your retainer(s) can handle. One retainer only has space to sell twenty stacks of items at a time.

Join the High Ground

We hope that you pay a visit to the Firmament in FFXIV after reading this guide! You’ll certainly want a break from the pressure of being the Warrior of Light every now and then. Pick up a crafting or gathering hobby, or kick back and relax with some good ol’ sky fishing! Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media for more FFXIV crafting and gathering guides.

Happy gaming!