This will kick off the Crystal Tower arc, and all you need to do is follow it to reach “The Light of Hope”. Clearing the wings won’t be much of an issue: they’re part of the Alliance Raid roulette, meaning high-level players dominate the alliances. While you shouldn’t ignore mechanics entirely, you’re likely gonna get carried. Considering a lot of the lower level stuff now has at least something of an ilevel floor, I'd be inclined to believe you could the same way people have been cheesing the alliance raid roulette. But it'd require testing. Alliance raid roulettes really need to be split. For example 50-60 / 70-80. Requirements for queuing need to be changed as well, like no queue without soul crystal or without piece of gear. I have met more than once lvl 50 and even 60 conjurers, lancers, archers in level 50-60 raids.

High level players know that part of the endgame of FFXIV involves melding a lot of materia onto your equipment to push your stats as high as you can. This is true for both combat and non-combat Jobs, which use different types of materia. In fact, crafters and gatherers are even more likely to need the extra points, and require a ton more materia to overmeld their gear.

By the time you reach level 80, you may have built yourself up a hefty stack of various materia, but never put them to use. Well I hate to break it to you, but while you might think you’re rolling in it, that ain’t nothing compared to what you’re going to need.

There are three types of materia: combat (red, purple, and yellow), crafting (blue), and gathering (green). To save gil, many players will use some lower grade crafting and gathering materia to lessen the impact overmelding has on their wallet. For the most part though, the valuable materia everyone uses are grades VII and VIII, so that’s what I’m going to talk about in this post.

I’ll cover the various activities that yield high level materia, which ones are easiest, most efficient, or most reliable. Some of these sources are efficient but limited daily or weekly tasks, while others are less efficient but grindable. See which ones make the most sense for you based on how much time you have and what activities you find enjoyable.

Materia Transmutation

One really important system to know about is materia transmutation. It allows you to trade in 5 unwanted pieces of materia for a different materia of equal or greater tier.

To unlock materia transmutation you’ll need to complete the level 19 quest ‘Marvelously Mutable Materia‘ in Central Thanalan. This is a sidequest available as soon as you meet Mutamix Bubblypots in the Main Scenario Quests, so I recommend doing this as soon as you get there. You do not need a crafter levelled, but you do need to return here and have Mutamix transmute the materia for you.

The materia you get as the end result from the transmutation will never be one of the varieties you used in the input. There are eight varieties of combat materia (Critical Hit, Direct Hit, Determination, Skill Speed, Spell Speed, Tenacity, and Piety). There are three varieties of crafting materia (Craftsmanship, Control, and CP), and three varieties of gathering materia (Gathering, Perception, and GP).

Use this knowledge to your advantage to try to steer your transmutations towards your goals. Get rid of many unwanted varieties at once, and don’t use valuable materia that can be sold on the marketboard instead. I often put in five combat materia to try to get any non-combat materia, which has a higher market value.

Combat Materia

While some sources drop random individual pieces of materia, other sources drop tokens which can be traded for materia of your choosing. These tokens are Cracked Stellaclusters (for grade VIII materia) and Cracked Planiclusters (for grade VII materia). Take these tokens to Cholline in The Crystarium [10.6, 13.2] or Thex in The Canopy in Eulmore [10.7, 11].

Shadowbringers FATEs (Bicolour Gemstones)

Shadowbringers introduced the Shared FATEs system, which allows you to earn a new type of currency by completing FATEs in Shadowbringers zones.

There are <Gemstone Traders> stationed in Fort Jobb (Lakeland), Lydha Lran (Il Mheg), Fanow (The Rak’tika Greatwood), Twine (Amh Araeng), Tomra (Kholusia), and The Ondo Cups (The Tempest). If you’ve already reached the max rank in all these Shared FATEs zones, then there will also be traders in Eulmore and The Crystarium.

I’ll be honest, this is not an efficient means of getting combat materia. You get 12 bicolour gemstones from one FATE. The grade VII materia costs 120 gemstones and the grade VIII materia costs 240. 20 FATEs for a single piece of VIII materia (the one you’ll actually want most of the time) is far too many.

Even if you’re not interested in the cosmetics from these vendors, there are other consumables that are a much better value. Grab some Cordials, Dark Matter, Glamour Dispellers, or Glamour Prisms. Just don’t bother with the materia here.

Shadowbringers Hunts (Sacks of Nuts)

This is another currency that you can use to buy some materia, but it’s pretty inefficient. At 150 Nuts for a grade VII, and 400 (why did they break the trend of simply doubling the price? I don’t know) it’s just not worth the amount of time you’ve put in to earn them.

Of course, it kind of depends on how you’re earning and spending Nuts. If you’re really hardcore into Hunt trains, then eventually you’re going to have more Nuts than you can carry. There are no other reusable consumable items available, so materia is the best sink to avoid overcapping.

You should also keep in mind that depending on where we are in the expansion, upgrade items for tomestone gear can be purchased using Nuts. Don’t spend them all on materia if you think you’ll be looking for those items later to augment your equipment.

Fairy Beast Tribe (Fae Fancies)

Beast Tribe quests might be tedious, but they’re a steady, easy way to have a supply of materia at the ready. One day’s worth of quests is enough for a VII combat materia, and two days of quests gets you enough for a VIII combat materia. These quests are pretty short though. They don’t take too much time and can easily be done while waiting in a queue.

If you’ve been using the Fairy Beast Tribe quests to level your combat Jobs through the 70s, then you may already have a stack of Fae Fancies waiting to be used. The best thing to dump them on is definitely the materia, assuming that you either already have or are just not interested in the other items, which are all cosmetics.

Even if you aren’t currently levelling any Jobs through this level range, I still recommend getting the quests done on a level 80 Job. That way you’ll always have a source of materia here, and it helps you earn your weekly Tomestones of Allegory a little bit faster.

Treasure Hunting (The Dungeons of Lyhe Ghiah)

If you’ve never gone out Treasure Hunting before, the first thing I’ll tell you is that it sees ups and downs of popularity. More people will want to do this content when there are shiny new drops added to the dungeon, so keep an eye on the patch notes in case they add new crafted glamour items.

Ffxiv Alliance Raid Roulette Requirements Guide

This is important because it’s not really a solo activity. You need other people to join you for the Treasure Hunt dungeon delving. If you don’t have a willing and able group of friends, you’ll want to head to Party Finder or a dedicated linkshell where you rely on others’ interest.

If you are running the dungeon you’ll be rewarded with random VII and VIII materia dropping into your inventory. You can also earn materia from the treasure maps themselves after defeating the overworld enemies, regardless of whether a portal opens or not. Since it’s random which varieties of materia you get, you’ll probably want to either sell or transmute some of them afterwards.

Max Level Dungeons

All of the level 80 dungeons drop VII and VIII materia from the treasure chests you pass by. Be sure to open them all up to maximize your loot. Looting everything also gives you more equipment to Desynthesize, so I always recommend hitting all the chests.

Since the varieties of materia are random, and it’s mostly grade VIIs, it’s not hyper efficient to farm these duties for this purpose. Just enjoy the materia dropping into your inventory as you run your Expert Roulette or your Level 80 Dungeon Roulette. Remember to sell or transmute them afterwards to pick up the varieties of materia you actually care about.

Wondrous Tails

A lot of people sleep on the Wondrous Tails, and to be honest I can’t be bothered to do it every week either. However, the rewards are decent and give you a few options, so definitely pick up a journal after Tuesday’s reset to see if it’s worth working on slowly throughout the week.

Some of the options available are Khloe’s Certificate