Guide to Gathering Shards, Crystals and Cluster in FFXIV

Shards, Crystals & Clusters are important materials in FFXIV, as they are the catalyst that allows crafting to occur, and used in every recipe in the game.

Shards are mainly used for crafting below level 50, while Crystals take the main stage after that, with Clusters being used mainly for crafts available at each expansions endgame. Each of the six elements in game has their own respective crystals to use while crafting.

It is not uncommon to use thousands of Crystals within a single crafting session, so the ability to easily have large stockpiles is important for both an endgame crafter and while leveling. You can store 9999 of each Shard, Crystal and Cluster in your inventory, as well as the inventory of any retainers you have and even your FC chest if you have that level of access.

This guide will go over the main methods available to farm these items. There are other options available, but no other methods are as efficient. Killing Sprites, for example, is so inefficient it is not even worth discussing.

This is by far the most efficient way to obtain Shards, Crystals & Clusters, but is more efficient for Crystals and Clusters than it is Shards. This is because Crystals and Clusters are very easily given to the player as a small bonus while farming for Aethersand, so many players have Crystals and Clusters in excess.

Therefore, these items have a very low price due to players not needing the vast quantities the game gives you while undertaking Aetherial Reduction. This makes it more efficient to spend your time making gil and using that gil to instead purchase the crystals that you need.

Gardening is a very passive, but easy way to gain Shards using either the Deluxe Garden Patch's available for outdoors or the smaller indoor flowerpots, such as Oasis Flowerpot, which you can place several of depending on the size of your estate. This makes it the best way to gain Shards.

Once you have garden plots available, plant one of the following:

• Earthlight Seeds - Earth Shards
• Firelight Seeds - Fire Shards
• Icelight Seeds - Ice Shards
• Levinlight Seeds - Lightning Shards
• Waterlight Seeds - Water Shards
• Windlight Seeds - Wind Shards

You can choose to gather these with the locations in your gathering log or you can obtain them passively via ventures.

Depending on what soil you use, your crops will gain more yield after 18 hours when fully grown. Grade 3 Shroud Topsoil is the best, but can only really be obtained through timed Unspoiled Nodes.

• 50 Shards - La Noscean/Thanalan Topsoil
• 65 Shards - Grade 1 Shroud Topsoil
• 75 Shards - Grade 2 Shroud Topsoil
• 100 Shards - Grade 3 Shroud Topsoil

Aetherial Reduction allows you the ability to break down specific collectables into Aethersands, Crystals and Clusters. Normally the goal is the Aethersands, used to craft endgame gear with, while obtaining the Crystals as a side benefit. This is the best way to gain Crystals and Clusters.

The methodolgy to farm Crystals and Clusters is the exact same as normal for those familiar. Your aim is to always go for 1000 collectability when you have GP to spend, otherwise 0GP to get 400-600 collectability instead. You can also sell any Aethersands for additional funds to spend on Crystals.

Your yield increases with your collectability in tiers with 1000 rating also giving you a chance at a bonus, roughly doubling your expected gains.

Check our gathering collectable guide below for further information on Ephemeral nodes and also rotations:

The final method is to simply gather Shards, Crystals & Clusters via Nodes. Shards and Crystals can be obtained through a range of normal Nodes whereas Clusters are only from Timed Nodes.

Locations can be easily found in the "26-30" pages of your gathering log. Any location is okay, but Nodes above level 50 have improved Node bonuses, which will improve things further.

To increase your yield, use The Twelve's Bounty and The Giving Land. The Giving Land should be used on cooldown, so make sure to always have GP to keep it on cooldown.