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:
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.
Let's have a look at what each of these parts are.
Stelar Missions
These will be the standard requests you will be able to fulfil 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.
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
The NPC name is Godgyth and you can find them at X:21.8 Y21.8.
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.
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.
I've added the same macros from the spreadsheet into Teamcraft as community macros which you can find here: Teamcraft - Cosmic Exploration
Phaenna
Our exploration into the stars and the unknown continues!
With the release of patch 7.31, a new zone has been introduced, we journey now, to Phaenna.
Representing the initiative's next great hop into the cosmos, the star boasts a striking crystalline landscape naturally rich in silicon. Although conditions on the surface are less than conducive to sustaining organic life, the abundant mineral deposits are a worthy prize for any potential hardship.
- In-game description
Where to start?
You need to have completed all previous patch quests for this content, namely:
After completing the unlock quest, you will be able to hop back to Phaenna by either speaking with Cruisingway in Sinus Ardorum, or with Drivingway in Bestways Burrow.
Additionally, you can also use the Bestways Burrow Aetheryte.
What's new?
Most of the systems in place before remain the same.
However, there's two new currencies available.
Phaenna Credits
The new currency for Phaenna. It exists in your Exotablet alongside the old Cosmocredits (Those remain the same and interchangeable)
Phaenna Exploration Tokens
A token that is exclusive to the new zone. You can get these by completing the EX+ stellar missions (These are really hard expert crafts that can't be easily macro'd due to craft conditions). You can exchange these for a mount, that can also be bought/sold on the market board.
What now?
Similar to how Sinus Ardorum was, this new area will feature a community driven progress tracker, that can be contributed towards in much the same ways as the previous zone was.
The goal? Improve the camp, so we can continue this cosmic journey.
Once again, I will try to devise a couple macros for progressing through the new missions.
This will be focused on Disciples of the Hand only.
Macros
⚠️ Crafting stats
These macros were planned under the following stat assumptions.
Without any food buffs the stats are:
Craftsmanship: 5608 (5628 with specialisation) Control: 5372 (5392 with specialisation) CP: 649 (664 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
Here goes, the new spreadsheet is separated from the first one, I might eventually add a single job's worth of these to Teamcraft as community Macros depending on how much my time allows.
PS: These will not include Time-restricted Missions as some of them require you to manage the craft condition and are somewhat reliant on luck to adapt your crafting decisions.
With the release of patch 7.41 a new zone has been introduced, we journey now, to Oizys.
First detected within the sights of the Stellascope, this mineral-rich planet lies five-and-a-half carrots from Etheirys's star system. Oizys is wracked with gravitational anomalies slowly tearing apart its surface, where shattered rocks float above strange ruins, seemingly left behind by some long-departed civilization.
- In-game description
Where to start?
At this point, this would very much be a repeat of previous zones, so I won't go into too much detail.
Square has done a pretty comprehensive job in explaining all of this, as well as everything that's new in their dedicated page you can find below.
Similar to the previous zone, you can always go back by talking to Cruisingway in the cosmic exploration previous zones, or with Drivingway in Bestways Burrow.
Additionally, you can also use the Bestways Burrow Aetheryte.
What's new?
As before, new currencies were released for this zone, but this time we also get a new thing to play around with called Artifact Tracking
A new type of token was also introduced.
You now also get a new kind of reward called Dronebits which is connected to the new Artifact Tracking.
Some quality of life improvements were added, such as the ability to use aetherytes within the star zones (these need to be atuned like usual), and being able to teleport to Red Alert locations by talking to Lefleda.
For more detailed information, you can check the link above.
Macros
New zone means new crafts, however, this would be more of the same as before.
Tracking all macros for every single quest is very time consuming and if you're really after the crafting relics, I'd recommend using a tool like Raphael instead.
You can tailor it to your own stats and account for your gear, much better than I would, by providing an extensive list of what worked for me before.
With the release of patch 7.51 the final zone has now been released for this content, the beautifully lush Auxesia.
With this zone being released, it will mark the end of the crafter zones for this expansion.
This content will remain being much better for new DoL/DoH players to level up than the previous ones, specially for crafters as the missions here will provide you with all the mats, cutting levelling costs dramatically.
Discovered via the Euhedron's navigational chart, this thickly forested star is home to the overgrown remnants of countless cities. Though the winding thoroughfares and ornate spires of Auxesia now lie silent, their architects were evidently capable of magnificent technological feats.
- In-game description
Where to start?
Square has done a pretty comprehensive job in explaining all of this, as well as everything that's new in their dedicated page you can find below.
Same as before, by talking to Cruisingway in the cosmic exploration previous zones, or with Drivingway in Bestways Burrow.
Additionally, you can also use the Bestways Burrow Aetheryte.
What's new?
Nothing dramatically different from the previous zone, a new currency and tokens as before.
All quality of life improvements apply to this zone, as well as the previous systems.
Macros
As before, I will not cover macros for this zone as it gets pretty extensive and time consuming, the recommendation to use a tool like Raphael stands, as it is much better to tailor the macro to your own stats and gear.
If you'd like to follow a list of macros, Fae Fiyaa did an excellent job of keeping up with these crafts, much better than I did.
Their document covers both high tier and mid tier, and you can find it here
Loot
As with the previous zones, you will be able to obtain various items in this content.
The items on the NPC vendors can be obtained transversally across every zone, while the items obtained with the specific zone credits/tokens are specific to them
Many of the rewards, specially from the Cosmic Fortunes roulette are fluff, however there's some good stuff out there too!
Now with all zones out, I'll list all the rewards you can get in one go.
Mesouaidonque
This NPC will sell you the same items across all different zones.
The items sold by them are all purchasable with Cosmocredits.
