Introduction
In the vibrant world of Eorzea, a skilled gatherer is much more than just someone picking flowers or mining rocks. Gathering food in FFXIV is essential for crafting powerful consumables, optimizing your character’s performance, and even earning a substantial profit. These edible items provide valuable buffs to your character’s stats, making challenging content more manageable, and increasing the efficiency of your crafting activities. So whether you’re a seasoned adventurer or a fresh-faced newcomer, mastering the art of food gathering will undoubtedly enhance your FFXIV experience.
Gathering in FFXIV primarily involves two disciplines: Botany, for harvesting plants, fruits, and vegetables, and Mining, for extracting minerals and certain edible resources. Both offer unique opportunities to acquire the necessary ingredients for crafting delectable dishes. This guide will provide you with everything you need to know to effectively gather food in FFXIV, from leveling your gathering classes and finding the best materials to maximizing your profit-earning potential. Prepare to transform yourself into a master gatherer and contribute to the culinary landscape of Eorzea!
Understanding Gathering in FFXIV
The Gathering Classes Botany and Mining
FFXIV’s gathering system is primarily built around two distinct classes: Botany and Mining. Botanists are responsible for collecting plant-based ingredients, including vegetables, fruits, herbs, and spices. They traverse the landscapes of Eorzea, identifying and harvesting valuable plants from various environments. Miners, on the other hand, focus on extracting resources from rocks, mineral deposits, and underground sources. While they primarily deal with ores and gemstones, they also unearth certain types of food, such as rock salt or underground mushrooms, essential for culinary creations. Understanding the difference between these classes is crucial for specializing in gathering specific food items.
Stats and Gear for Efficient Gathering
To become a proficient food gatherer, understanding the relevant stats and how they impact your success is paramount. Several key stats directly influence your ability to locate and acquire resources.
- Gathering: This stat directly impacts your success rate when attempting to gather an item. A higher Gathering stat significantly reduces the chance of failure, allowing you to efficiently collect the resources you need.
- Perception: The Perception stat plays a critical role in finding High Quality (HQ) items, which are often worth more and used in higher-level crafting recipes. It also increases your ability to discover hidden nodes containing rare and valuable resources, often containing rarer food items.
- GP (Gathering Points): GP acts as the energy source for performing special gathering actions that enhance your success rate, improve HQ chances, or increase the quantity of items gathered. Managing your GP wisely is essential for maximizing your gathering efficiency.
Equipping appropriate gear is crucial for boosting these essential stats. As you level up your gathering classes, invest in gear that provides bonuses to Gathering, Perception, and GP. Don’t underestimate the power of Materia; melding Materia onto your gear can further enhance your stats and significantly improve your overall gathering performance.
Basic Actions to Help You Succeed
Gathering in FFXIV relies on some basic actions to efficiently collect resources. Gather is the primary action used to attempt collecting a resource, and you can only perform this action if you have adequate Gathering stats to exceed the difficulty check for the specific node. Some creatures may become aggressive if they spot you collecting nearby resources, so Stealth is a core action that allows you to remain hidden from view. This will prevent the need to deal with unnecessary enemies while you are out collecting.
Gathering Logs and Resource Locations
The gathering log is your best friend when searching for specific food ingredients. Accessible through the main menu, it provides a comprehensive list of all gatherable items, along with their locations, level requirements, and optimal gathering times (if applicable). This will help you determine what level your Gathering and Mining must be, as well as the level of resource that you can efficiently collect.
Utilize the in-game map to pinpoint the exact locations of gathering nodes. Nodes are marked with distinct icons, and hovering over them will reveal the specific items available for collection. Familiarizing yourself with the map and the locations of key resources will greatly streamline your gathering process.
Leveling Your Gathering Classes Efficiently
Fast and Effective Early Leveling
In the early levels (Levels one-twenty), focusing on quick and easy leveling is key. Prioritize completing Levequests offered by the Gathering Guilds in each city. Levequests provide substantial experience points and are an excellent way to level up quickly. Stick to gathering items that are readily available and require minimal travel, optimizing your time and maximizing your experience gains. Quick Gathering sacrifices a little success for speed of collection, so feel free to use that if your goal is to level and not collect high quality items.
Mid-Game Gathering Progress
As you progress through the mid-levels (Levels twenty-fifty), continue to leverage Levequests for consistent experience gains. Incorporate gathering materials needed for crafting your own gear or consumables. This not only contributes to your leveling process but also allows you to develop crafting skills and become self-sufficient. Another great option is to complete Grand Company turn-ins for even more experience points and seals.
End Game Leveling (Levels fifty-ninety)
Reaching the end-game doesn’t mean the end of leveling opportunities. Continue utilizing Levequests, but also explore Collectible Appraising. This system involves gathering specific items, turning them in for experience, and earning valuable rewards. Custom Deliveries are another great option as you can complete weekly delivery requests to NPCs. Finally, Rowena’s House of Splendors offers another avenue for gaining experience, specifically in the Ishgard Restoration.
Leveling Tips For FFXIV Gathering Food
To optimize your leveling process, always utilize experience-boosting items such as Survival Manuals or Company Actions. These items provide a significant boost to your experience gains, accelerating your leveling progress. Resting in an inn or sanctuary before embarking on your gathering endeavors provides a Rested XP bonus, further enhancing your experience gains.
Finding the Best Food Ingredients
Key Food Categories for Your Crafting Journey
Gathered food ingredients in FFXIV generally fall into these categories: vegetables, fruits, seafood, meats, and spices and herbs. Meat ingredients are often gathered through the hunting classes, but food gatherers are still important for collecting the required herbs and spices. Prioritizing which ingredients to gather will depend on your crafting goals.
Popular and Profitable Food Ingredients and Locations
Many crafting recipes require a wide variety of ingredients, and the value of each ingredient can fluctuate depending on their availability and the current crafting meta. Here are some examples to get you started. For crafting Calamari Ripieni, you’ll need Common Wheat, which can be found in The Dravanian Forelands. You’ll also need Black Pepper, found in Southern Thanalan.
The items are often broken down by level range:
- Level Eighty to Level Ninety Ingredients
- Level Seventy to Level Eighty Ingredients
Use this table to list ingredients, their location, and the level requirements to begin gathering. If you plan to focus on rare ingredients, you can use ephemeral nodes, unspoiled nodes, or others. These nodes will only appear in limited windows.
Using External Resources for Advanced Tracking
To more easily track node windows, you can use external resources like Garlandtools, Teamcraft, and the FFXIV Clock. These can significantly improve your efficiency.
Gathering Tips and Tricks
Rotations for High Quality Success
Using rotations is important to maximize your chances of obtaining high quality resources. An early rotation will prioritize using skills to increase the chance of a successful collection, and if that succeeds, then you can use further skills to increase the likelihood of a high quality result. Some skills such as “Boon” can increase high quality chances.
Food and Buffs to Improve Your Stats
You can also use food items such as Cunning Craftsman’s Tea to boost gathering stats. When you’re running low on GP, use Cordials to rapidly recover GP and increase your time out collecting.
Unspoiled and Ephemeral Nodes: A Deep Dive
Unspoiled and ephemeral nodes are special nodes that only appear at specific times. If you are interested in collecting the resources that appear here, you must familiarize yourself with the in-game clock and also be in the area prior to when the resource spawns.
Tips for Maximizing Custom Delivery Success
Custom deliveries require you to collect items as collectibles. Take the time to learn what the collection level of resources need to be so that you can collect the optimal number of deliveries.
Making Gil with FFXIV Gathering Food
Raw Materials on the Market Board
One of the simplest ways to make gil is to sell raw materials on the Market Board. Many crafters need these items, so they are regularly buying these items. The value of items will fluctuate based on the level of crafting and availability, so it is best to frequently check.
Crafting Food and Selling
Gathering food is only half of the journey, as you can also craft the ingredients into full meals. Check the market boards to see which food items sell for the most gil, and then adjust your gathering and crafting to match.
Understanding Supply and Demand
The market is very dynamic, so being able to predict the future of the market is critical to your success. You can focus on gathering materials or items that tend to be forgotten and increase the price of those rare items. You may also choose to sell to NPCs or complete Grand Company missions to obtain a guaranteed value.
Conclusion
In summary, mastering the art of gathering food in FFXIV opens up a world of opportunities, from crafting powerful consumables and optimizing your character’s performance to generating a steady income. By understanding the fundamentals of gathering, leveling your gathering classes effectively, and identifying the most valuable resources, you can transform yourself into a true master gatherer.
Don’t hesitate to embark on your gathering journey and explore the diverse landscapes of Eorzea. FFXIV gathering food provides an enjoyable and rewarding experience for players of all skill levels. Check out resources like Garlandtools for more specific information. Happy gathering!
