Cosmic Exploration

W'eylyn Mavourneen

Where to start?

Before anything else, i'd like to start with this disclaimer.

⚒️ Work in Progress

This guide is very very much a work in progress at this point.
Any additional info or tips are highly appreciated.

Requirements

To join in the cosmic exploration, you must have achieved the following:

  • Have a Disciple of the Hand (DoH) or a Disciple of the Land (DoL) at level 10
  • You must have completed the Main Scenario Quest Endwalker.

1. Go to Old Sharlayan

You can find Namingway at Scholar's Harbor (X:12.6 Y:13.6)
You must be in a DoH or DoL job before you can talk to them.
Follow the quest until you get to meet with Drivingway, this will be your loporrit uber from now on to get you into the instanced zone.

2. Going back in

If you leave the area and want to come back in, you will have to go to Mare Lamentorum inside Bestways Burrow and find our very cool driver Drivingway (X:21.9 Y:13.2)

Other starting info

You can cover the basics of everything Cosmic Exploration related in the support page available on FFXIV website here: Cosmic Exploration
More detailed information about all the systems and event stuff can be found within the game by clicking on the question mark icon on your Exotablet.

Progression

As you first go in, you will receive an Exotablet this will be your HUD for everything Cosmic Exploration related.
There is a global progress for the server that gets filled as people contribute.
When the gauge fills in, the project is completed and the Cosmic Exploration will progress to the next step.
You can check this progress in these places:

  • In-game: By opening the Infrastructure Index
  • Online: By going to the Cosmic Exploration Report here: Cosmic Exploration Report
  • Mobile: On the Companion App

The global progress will dictate what unlocks and improvements the base camp will have, however, this will have no impact on your own personal progress besides maybe giving you access to quality of life stuff.

Each job will have it's own point system which you can check in your Exotablet under the page Cosmic Class Tracker.

Exotablet

It's divided between different menus at the top and your cosmic exploration credits.

What are these?

Stelar Missions
These will be the standard requests you will be able to fulfill with each Job.
They are similar to normal crafting jobs collectables.
These crafting jobs have requirements such as Average Item Level and sometimes even a time limit.

Mech Ops

These will be special missions that spawn at random intervals within the exploration zone.
They will show up on the map and players can participate in two ways:

  • Mech Pilots
    • To participate as a Mech pilot, you have to submit an application in your Exotablet once the timer is up, only five players will be selected at random from all the applicants. These applications require a Pilot Application that can be purchased with lunar credits, players that are not selected will receive a refund of their application token.
  • Ground Support
    • Everyone else that is not piloting a Mech will still be able to participate as ground support. To do so, you can just check the map and go to where the mission is taking place, once you arrive click the Join Event button.
    • Ground Supporters also receive a participation bonus that will increase the rewards you receive from your Stellar Missions for a while.

Stellar Successes

Stellar Successes are contribution milestones you can complete. You can receive rewards upon completing these.
Think of them like achievements.

They are divided into two categories:

  • Daily
    • These will track your day-to-day achievements.
  • Standard
    • These will be track your overall contribution to the exploration initiative.

Infrastructure Index

As previously mentioned, the Infrastructure Index will be the page that will show you the overall progress of the Exploration Initiative and allow you to review all the unlocked things on the Development Log.
You can also view the cinematic for each unlocked step here if you were not online at the time that it was completed.

Cosmic Research

Under Cosmic Research you will find the data that is gathered during the course of your support to the Initiative.
Each job will have a set of analytical tasks that can be completed.
Once you have gathered enough data, the Exotablet will highlight this for you.
This section is all related to the Cosmic Tools, which are your crafter and gatherer relic weapons for Dawntrail.
As you complete relic weapons, you can complete additional ones making use of the 50% increased research rewards you receive after finishing the first one.

Cosmic Class Tracker

Here you will be able to see your Cosmic Class Score for each job you have used in the Cosmic Exploration.
Whenever you complete missions, you will earn points in your chosen class.
Reaching certain milestones will earn you achievements and titles.

Exploration Guide

For last, you have the Exploration Guide, here you will be able to find information and help about many of the different things regarding Cosmic Exploration.
It's your in-game wiki of sorts!

Currencies

Cosmocredits

Cosmocredits are earned through contributions to the Cosmic Initiative and can be exchanged at the Credit Exchange for various supplies and exclusive wares.
These are primarily earned through completion of stellar missions.

Lunar Credits

These are earned through contributions to the exploration of Sinus Ardorum.
They can be used to purchase Pilot Applications as well as used in Cosmic Fortunes which is a roulette type of reward system based in random chance.
They are primarily earned through missions, but also through competing critical missions during Red Alerts.

 

Crafting

The Stellar Missions will be your base way of getting stuff done in the Cosmic Exploration, however, it's better to stop whenever an event like Mech Ops or Red Alert is ongoing, as those will be much more rewarding, and probably less boring to do!

The main menu for crafting will be the Basic Missions, here you will have access to different missions divided by Class, starting from Class D Missions.
These have different DoH/DoL levels associated with them and can be repeated.
They will award you with Cosmic Exploration currencies and score for that job's Cosmic Tracker.

Under Provisional Missions you will find crafts that are limited to some condition (e.g. Current weather or a specific time).

Lastly, under Critical Missions you will find the crafts that can only be performed during Red Alert events.
It's recommended that you take part in these events and doing the crafts as many times as possible until the timer runs out as the rewards are significantly better than basic missions.

Gear

Just like any other crafting or gathering activity, you will need appropriate gear for the level of crafts you're trying to do.

While it will be smoother to get involved in this content with level 100 jobs with proper gear and materia, this content is available as early as level 10 and might be another tool to help you in your levelling.

There is a vendor within Sinus Ardorum that will allow you to purchase some very basic gear if you're levelling, however this gear will be the bare minimum to keep you going and crafts will be challenging.

The NPC name is Godgyth and you can find them at X:21.8 Y21.8.

Macros

While it´s definitely possible to come up with macros for these crafts, bear in mind that each mission has different requirements, with the crafts also having different quality targets and durabilities, making it hard to have a one size fits all macro for this content.

As macros usually require two parts and sometimes even three, due to in-game limitations, trying to save macros for every single mission from start to finish is not realistic and would not fit within the game's macro page.

Therefore, the best option when it comes to using macros for this content, is focusing on keeping the macros just for the specific Class of missions you're completing at the time, and replacing them as you progress.

I will do my best to provide below specific macros for every single mission I've completed just as a starting base.

⚠️ Crafting stats

These macros were made for myself using the highest possible gear available at patch 7.21 fully pentamelded, however they've been made to not require job specialisations.

The stats without any food buffs are:

Craftsmanship: 5408 (5428 with specialisation)
Control: 5216 (5236 with specialisation)
CP: 630 (645 with specialisation)

Your mileage may vary when following the below macros and it's highly recommended to use a tool like Teamcraft to do a simulation.

 

Macro Spreadsheet

To make it easier to filter through stuff and add new content quickly, you can find all the macros that I've recorded as I complete the missions. I'll keep adding the mission names and different items as I start working on new jobs.

Some of the crafted items are also part of missions for other jobs and some share the same name in different mission classes, however the important part is the craft requirements such as Difficulty, Durability and Quality as those might differ between items with the same name.

If you're able to find a comparable macro that was made for the same craft requirements as the one you're doing, you may use that and it will work.

Wey's Cosmic Insanity (Google Spreadsheets)

Teamcraft

I've added the same macros from the spreadsheet into Teamcraft as community macros which you can find here:
Teamcraft - Cosmic Exploration

Data collected from
  • In-game support material
  • Square Enix Website