FFXIV Crystal Farming: Fastest Ways to Gather Elemental Crystals for Crafting

Crafting is a big investment to take on in Final Fantasy XIV. Not only do you need to level a crafting class to a high enough level to craft profitable stuff. You also need to either farm the materials you need or buy them off the market for high prices. Once you have all the materials and the level you need, you still need the crystals to begin crafting. While crystals are cheap, the price can add up if you are mass crafting for levels or profit. Let’s go over how you can farm crystals to fuel all your crafting dreams in Final Fantasy XIV.

How to Farm Crystals in Final Fantasy XIV

There are only a few ways to get crystals for crafting in Final Fantasy XIV. The easiest way to get the crystals you need is to buy them off the market. Crystals are relatively cheap for individual crystals, but you will want to buy in bulk which can be quite pricey. This can be rough on someone who is just starting out in crafting and hasn’t made those massive returns yet. However, there are a few ways for you to get the crystals by yourself for either free or at a much lower price.

The most obvious way is to go gather the crystals yourself. Get yourself a gathering class and get out there. If you spend time to actually level your gathering class you can get some massive returns on the crystals. stacking your gathering buffs like King’s Yield and The Twelve’s Bounty will give you upwards of seven crystals per swing, sadly your character race doesn’t really affect this gathering process.

You can also use the other materials you gather for pure profit if you sell them on the market, or you can use them in your own crafting to save yourself the cost of having to buy them. This can also help you if you are mass crafting for XP and not profit, as you won’t have to spend as much Gil per level.

Of course, that’s the active way of gathering crystals. There are some ways you can passively collect crystals while you do other things like crafting or fighting. One way is to send your retainers on ventures to gather the crystals for you. You assign your retainer a gathering class, get them leveled up on lower-tier expeditions, and then send them off to gather whatever crystals you need. As long as you have gathered the material before, your retainer should be able to go on a venture for them.

The other passive method you can use is only available if you have a housing plot, either guild related or personal. You can grow your own crystals, all you need are some seeds and soil. By placing a planter box on your housing plot, you can grow any crystals you need. Simply use a botanist gatherer to get seeds and topsoil, then plant and water in your own plot. After some time passes you will have nice bundles of crystals to harvest.

You can buy most seeds and topsoil off the market for a relatively low cost, then plant the seeds and let them grow. Combine this with sending a retainer on an hour venture and going and gathering some crystals yourself. You’ll have all the crystals you’ll ever need, maybe even enough to sell for extra profit. If you need any more help with Final Fantasy XIV make sure to check out our other guides.

Final Fantasy XIV is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.