How to get an ARR (Zodiac) relic weapon in FFXIV

If you’re bored and feel like there’s nothing left to do in Final Fantasy 14, you may want to consider picking up a fancy weapon by completing the A Realm Reborn relic weapon, known as Zodiac weapons. These weapons are massively outdated stat-wise, but are worth collecting if you want them for glamour. Unlike the Stormblood relic and Shadowbringers relic weapons, these weapons do not require any specific field operations duty. Rather, you’ll be sent around all the ARR zones and dungeons repeatedly to grind the steps for this relic weapon. Below we detail everything you need to know about getting an A Realm Reborn Zodiac relic weapon. Table of Contents A Realm Reborn Zodiac relic weapons, explained These weapons are one of a kind. While they used to be best-in-slot many moons ago, the only reason you’d want to grab these now is as glamour. The weapons look great; the first few stages are the poster child weapons for their respective jobs from when A Realm Reborn came out. They’re a great addition to your collection if you want a classic look to your outfit. In order to make this weapon, you have to follow a ton of complex steps. If you want the full Zeta weapon, you’ll need to do all eight steps we list below. However, if you like the look of the Atma weapon and want to stop there, you can do that, too. As expected with this old relic, you can only make ARR relic weapons for ARR jobs: Warrior, Paladin, White Mage, Scholar, Monk, Dragoon, Ninja, Bard, Black Mage, and Summoner. You’ll also need to be careful to never discard your weapon. You cannot get the weapon back without having to redo the entire process. If you want a version of your weapon for glam, you can buy level 1 replicas from Drake in North Shroud next to Gerolt, but you’ll need to have your weapon on-hand to buy them. You can’t put the actual weapons into your glamour dresser, so you will need to buy replicas if you want to use them in glamour plates. You can do this relic process on the free trial, but some of the steps require level 1 materia, which is extremely hard to get as a free trial player, so I don’t recommend it. I also really only recommend doing this grind once the job you want the weapon for is level 70 or higher. You will have to spam a lot of dungeons, and it’s best to be able to do them unsynced on your own, rather than queueing for them and waiting for that queue to pop. Step 1: How to get your base Zodiac weapon In order to make a relic weapon, you need to be at least level 50 in the job you want the weapon for, and you need to have beaten the A Realm Reborn main scenario quest “The Ultimate Weapon.” You also need to have the class and job quests for your selected job completed up to level 50. You should also make sure to unlock the “Amdapor Keep” dungeon via the side quest “Ghosts of Amdapor,” as you’ll need it for this quest. Honestly, this step is explained for you once you actually start the quests, but if you wanted to look ahead to see what the steps are, here they are laid out for you: - Talk to Nedrick Ironheart in Vesper Bay (Western Thanalan) to start the quest “The Weaponsmith of Legend.” Complete said quest and you should end up at Gerolt in North Shroud. You won’t need to repeat this quest once you do it once. - Talk to Gerolt as the job you want the weapon for to start the quest “A Relic Reborn.” He’ll mark a location on your map that varies depending on the job you’re playing as. Head to the marked location and bring him back the broken weapon. - Obtain the specific weapon that Gerolt requests (either by crafting or buying it) and meld two of the specified materia to it. Your quest log will tell you which weapon and which materia to meld. Turn the weapon in to Gerolt when it’s finished. - Complete the trial “A Relic Reborn: The Chimera” as the job you’re doing the relic for to get Alumina Salts. (If your selected job is high level, you can choose to do the duty unsynced, allowing you to defeat it quickly by yourself.) Talk to Gerolt again once you’ve finished the trial. - Talk to Rowena in Revenant’s Toll and enter the dungeon “Amdapor Keep” as the job you’re doing the weapon for to get an Amdapor Glyph. (You can do this unsynced again, if you’re a high enough level.) Give Rowena the Amdapor Glyph. - Head back to Gerolt and give him the book that Rowena gave you. He’ll give you an “unfinished” version of your weapon. Equip it and defeat the enemies listed. (The enemies are dependent on what job you’re playing as.) - After talking to Gerolt again, complete the trial “A Relic Reborn: The Hydra” with your unfinished weapon equipped. (Just like the other steps, you can do this unsynced.) - Unequip your weapon and hand it back to Gerolt. - You’ll now be tasked with grabbing three items from primals. Complete the trials “The Bowl of Embers (Hard)” to get a White-Hot Ember, “The Howling Eye (Hard)” to get a Howling Gale, and “The Navel (Hard)” to get a Hyperfused Ore, in that order. You will need to complete these trials as the job you’re getting the weapon for, of course. (And yes, you can do these unsynced, too.) Hand the three items over to Gerolt. - Buy a Radz-at-Han Quenching Oil for 15 Allagan Tomestones of Poetics from Auriana in Mor Dhona and give it to Gerolt. You can also buy these from the Rowena’s Representative NPCs in Ishgard, Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, and Ul’dah. That’s it for the first step. It’s not too shabby! [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25413766/ffxiv_dx11_2024_04_18_22_05_41.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] Step 2: How to get your Zenith Zodiac weapon As long as you have your Zodiac weapon in-hand from step one, you should be able to complete this part easy-peasy. To get your Zenith Zodiac weapon, do the following: - Buy 3 Thavnairian Mists for 20 Allagan Tomestones of Poetics each (60 Poetics total) from Auriana in Mor Dhona. You can also buy these from the Rowena’s Representative NPCs in Ishgard, Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, and Ul’dah. - Interact with the furnace to the left of Gerolt in North Shroud to trade your Zodiac weapon and the 3 mists in for your Zenith Zodiac weapon. That’s literally it. Your weapon will now have a soft little glow to it, too! [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25413767/ffxiv_dx11_2024_04_18_22_09_47.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] Step 3: How to get your Atma Zodiac weapon The Atma step can be grindy, as you need to complete FATEs in order to upgrade your weapon. To start it, you’ll need to do the following: - Equip your Zenith Zodiac weapon and talk to Gerolt in North Shroud to accept the quest “Up in Arms.” After finishing your conversation with Gerolt, turn around and talk to Jalzahn at the building in front of Gerolt. - Farm 12 Atma from FATEs in from their respective areas with a Zodiac Zenith weapon equipped. It doesn’t necessarily need to be the one you’re upgrading. - Unequip your Zodiac Zenith weapon and turn in both the weapon and all 12 Atma to Jalzahn to get your Atma Zodiac weapon. You need to collect one of each Atma, which comes from different areas. They’re located as follows: * Atma of the Archer: North Shroud * Atma of the Goat: East Shroud * Atma of the Maiden: Central Shroud * Atma of the Lion: Outer La Noscea * Atma of the Water-bearer: Upper La Noscea * Atma of the Ram: Middle La Noscea * Atma of the Crab: Western La Noscea * Atma of the Fish: Lower La Noscea * Atma of the Bull: Eastern Thanalan * Atma of the Scales: Central Thanalan * Atma of the Twins: Western Thanalan * Atma of the Scorpion: Southern Thanalan You’ll need to do FATEs in these areas to get the specific Atma. It doesn’t matter which FATEs you do in the area, but you do need to have a Zodiac Zenith weapon equipped while you do them. The FATEs only have a chance to drop an Atma, meaning you may get unlucky and have to do quite a bit of FATEs to get your weapon. Your weapon will lose its glow, but get a new colorway. [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25413768/ffxiv_dx11_2024_04_19_13_15_48.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] Step 4: How to get your Animus Zodiac weapon This part is probably the sloggiest of it all, so brace yourself. Just as a reminder, making a relic weapon is a marathon, not a sprint (much like FFXIV as a whole), so remember to take breaks as necessary. Before you jump in, you should make sure that you have the following dungeons unlocked: * “The Lost City of Amdapor” via the side quest “One Night in Amdapor” * “The Wanderer’s Palace” via the side quest “Trauma Queen” * “Copperbell Mines (Hard)” via the side quest “Out of Sight, Out of Mine” * “The Sunken Temple of Qarn” via the side quest “Braving New Depths” * “Haukke Manor (Hard)” via the side quest “Maniac Manor” * “Halatali (Hard)” via the side quest “This Time’s for Fun” * “Dzemael Darkhold” via the side quest “Fort of Fear” * “Brayflox’s Longstop (Hard)” via the side quest “Curds and Slay” * “Cutter’s Cry” via the side quest “Dishonor Before Death” * “Pharos Sirius” via the side quest “Sirius Business” * “The Aurum Vale” via the side quest “Going for Gold” You don’t have to complete the dungeon or quest, just unlock the dungeon. (In fact, you will have to run these for this step, so you might as well wait and knock out two birds with one stone.) To make your Animus weapon, you’ll need to do the following: - Equip your Atma Zodiac weapon and talk to Jalzahn to start the quest “Trial of the Braves.” - He’ll tell you to go talk to Rowena, who will redirect you to G’jusana in Mor Dhona. - Buy a specialty book from G’jusana for 100 Allagan Tomestones of Poetics, open the book from your key item inventory, and take a look at what the book asks of you. The book will task you with killing 10 different enemies, along with completing three dungeons, three FATEs, and three levequests. - Complete the tasks in the book and then head back to G’jusana to buy the next one. You need to complete nine books total to finish this step of your weapon (900 Poetics total). - Once you finish out the nine books, unequip your Atma Zodiac weapon, talk to Jalzahn, and select “Relic Weapon Atma Enhancement” to upgrade it to an Animus weapon. The book stuff is pretty straight-forward, albeit grindy. There are nine different books to complete, each with their own set of stuff to do. Rather than listing all of the objectives here (there are a ton), I’d recommend consulting the Final Fantasy 14 Online Wiki to go down the list of books, keeping the page for your current book open and completing each objective area by area. For your sake, here’s a list of all the books with links: * Book of Skyfire I * Book of Skyfire II * Book of Netherfire I * Book of Skyfall I * Book of Skyfall II * Book of Netherfall I * Book of Skywind I * Book of Skywind II * Book of Skyearth I Note that if the levequest that you need to do isn’t appearing in the list of available leves, you can refresh the list by completing one. Some FATEs won’t spawn unless another FATE gets completed, which is why I recommend you looking at the Wiki list. You will quickly realize that each book has you essentially running back and forth between the same locations, making this task extremely annoying, especially since you can’t have multiple books at once. Luckily, if you’re overleveled, the enemies, dungeons, and levequests should be quick work, and the FATEs still shouldn’t be too bad even when it forces you to level sync. (As a level 90 White Mage, I was able to complete all the books completely solo – and my gear is pretty outdated.) This step is really rough but you will eventually get into the rhythm, realizing where you need to go with each book faster as you complete more books. We got all of the tasks done in Mor Dhona first, would then go to Coerthas for those steps, and then go straight to Camp Bluefog in Northern Thanalan for levequests, and then go through all the zones in Thanalan, Shroud, and La Noscea in that order. Your weapon is glowing again! [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25413770/ffxiv_dx11_2024_04_21_00_08_59.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] Step 5: How to get your Novus Zodiac weapon After the Animus step, this step feels like nothing, especially if you’ve been sitting on Poetics for a while. To get your Novus weapon, do the following: - With your weapon equipped, talk to Jalzahn to start the quest “Celestial Radiance” and follow the steps to complete it. You will need to buy 3 bottles of Superior Enchanted Ink for 25 Poetics each (75 Poetics total) during this quest. You can buy these from Auriana in Mor Dhona or from the Rowena’s Representative NPCs in Ishgard, Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, and Ul’dah. - Talk to Hubairtin to start the quest “Star Light, Star Bright” and trade the ink for a Sphere Scroll for your weapon. You’ll now have a Sphere Scroll in your inventory that you can open freely. - You’ll need to infuse 75 materia into your Sphere Scroll. In addition to the 75 materia, you’ll need 75 Alexandrite, which is required to fusing the materia into the scroll. The stats and materia you attach to your weapon doesn’t really matter since these weapons are extremely outdated and you should only be using these for glamour. - Once you have your 75 materia in your Sphere Scroll, return to Jalzahn with your weapon equipped to complete the quest. - Unequip your weapon, talk to him again and select “Relic Weapon Animus Enhancement” to upgrade to your Novus weapon. How to use the Sphere Scroll The Sphere Scroll is a weird mechanic that we never really see again after this. You have to meld 11 materia of one tier in order to be able to meld the next tier. So if you’re starting out, you’ll need to successfully meld 11 Piety I materia before you can meld any Piety II materia and so forth. As mentioned, the stats here don’t matter, so we just bought a bunch of the cheapest materia we could off the marketboard. Level one materia can get expensive since it’s a bit of a rarity – you can only get it from the marketboard or by extracting material from fully spiritbonded low-level gear. This is why this process isn’t great for free trial players. Where to get Alexandrite There are a few ways to get Alexandrite: * Earning a gold rating in FATEs with your Animus weapon equipped (again!) * Completing Mysterious Maps as any job with any weapon, which you can buy from Auriana in Mor Dhona for 75 Poetics each. To do this, you’ll need to have the Decipher and Dig skill, which unlocks from the quest “Treasures and Tribulations.” Each map drops 5 Alexandrite. * Buying the Alexandrite for 50 Allied Seals each from your Grand Company Hunt Billmaster. I honestly recommend doing a bit of everything. You can only technically carry three maps at once (one in your inventory, one deciphered one, and one in your chocobo saddlebag), so going back and forth to Mor Dhona can be a pain. That being said, I had a handful of Allied Seals to spend, so going half-and-half was nice. [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25413775/ffxiv_dx11_2024_04_21_01_16_21.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] Step 6: How to get your Nexus Zodiac Weapon Are you ready to do more ARR duties? Wahoo! To get your Nexus weapon, you’ll need to do the following: - Equip your relic weapon and talk to Jalzahn to start the quest “Mmmmmm, Soulglazed Relics” (this game is so unserious) to get a Zodiac Glass. - Talk to Jalzahn and select “Zodiac Relic Weapon Novus Soulglazing” and select your weapon to add the Soulglazed effect to it. - Fill your weapon with light by doing content, like dungeons, trials, and FATEs. You can check the light levels of your weapon by using the Zodiac Glass in your inventory. You have to complete the duty with your relic weapon equipped to gain light. - Once the Zodiac Glass says it has “bursting activity,” head back to Jalzahn with your weapon unequipped and select “Relic Weapon Novus Enhancement” to upgrade into a Nexus weapon. How to earn light to soulglaze your weapon Doing different A Realm Reborn content will give you different levels of light and some of the duties will give you bonus light. The duties that give bonus light rotate randomly every two hours and you can run any of the content unsynced, as long as your weapon is equipped at completion. The light values rewarded and needed to complete your weapon are invisible, but you need 2,000 light for it to have “bursting activity.” If you’re doing this solo, the fastest way to rake in light for your weapon is to run “The Bowl of Embers” unsynced. Since you can immediately obliterate Ifrit, you should be able to clear the duty in a matter of seconds, making it very fast, albeit grindy (again) to complete. With no bonus, normal gives 8 light. We were able to get through three Ifrit fights in a minute, netting in an easy 24 light per minute. If you have a friend who is willing to spend a few minutes helping you out, you can choose to run “The Bowl of Embers (Extreme)” with them. If your friend is geared up at level 90, they should be able to one- or two-shot Ifrit, allowing you to net in 32 light per run and around 96 per minute. If you don’t like running Ifrit, you can always kind of go down the list of content to keep things a little more engaging. Most ARR dungeons will give you 48 light, with a few giving less. Below you can see how much light each duty rewards. [Table: FFXIV Nexus weapon light values] Ultimately, you should do whichever you like best. If running “The Aurum Vale” quickly is the most engaging content for you, then all the more power to you. [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25413779/ffxiv_dx11_2024_04_21_22_46_01.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] Step 7: How to get your Zodiac Braves weapon This step is pretty material heavy and you’ll need to run a few more dungeons. In addition to being a Second Lieutenant rank in your Grand Company, you will need to have the following dungeons unlocked (in addition the ones that we’ve listed before): * “Hullbreaker Isle” via the side quest “King of the Hull” * “The Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard)” via the side quest “The Wrath of Qarn” * “The Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard)” via the side quest “Corpse Gloom” * “The Stone Vigil (Hard)” via the side quest “Blood for Stone” * “Sastasha (Hard)” via the side quest “It’s Definitely Pirates” To actually start making your Zodiac Braves weapon, you’ll need to do the following: - Unequip your Nexus weapon and talk to Jalzahn to start and complete the quest “Wherefore Art Thou, Zodiac.” - Complete the quest “One Man’s Trash” from Ealdwine, if you haven’t already. Ealdwine is sitting right next to Jalzahn. - Head to Mor Dhona. Talk to Papana to start the quest “A Ponze of Flesh,” Guiding Star to start “Labor of Love,” and Brangwine to start “A Treasured Mother.” - Head to Central Thanalan and talk to Adkin to start the quest “Method in His Malice.” - Turn in the required items (see below) and complete the dungeons required for each quest to get the specific item. The dungeons can be completed unsynced, as whatever job and with whatever weapon. You don’t need to be using your relic to clear get these dungeon drops. - Once you finish all four quests, make sure your relic weapon is equipped and talk to Gerolt to start and complete the quest “His Dark Materia.” - Unequip your weapon, talk to Jalzahn, and select “Zodiac Weapon Recreation” to upgrade your weapon to a Zodiac Braves weapon. There will be a prompt asking if you’re sure you want to proceed and that you will lose your relic weapon if the process fails – say yes anyway. It will succeed 100%, don’t worry. Zodiac Braves weapon item requirements You’ll need a handful of different types of currency to get past this quest. Notably you need to obtain these items from these merchants: * 4 Bombard Cores (20,000 Grand Company seals each) from your respective GC Quartermaster (80,000 GC seals total) * 4 Sacred Spring Water (200 Poetics each) from Auriana in Mor Dhona (800 Poetics total) * 1 Bronze Lake Crystal (100,000 gil) from the Junkmonger in Upper La Noscea (26, 26) * 1 Allagan Resin (100,000 gil) from the Merchant & Mender in Southern Thanalan (15, 29) * 1 Furite Sand (100,000 gil) from the Merchant & Mender in Coerthas Central Highlands (13, 16) * 1 Brass Kettle (100,000 gil) from the Tool Supplier & Mender in North Shroud (29, 19) You will also need some items that are specifically crafted and high quality. You can buy them from the marketboard if you have the gil, but if you have level 50+ crafters, you can make them yourself. However, to get the base materials for these crafts, you have to buy and desynth specific items sold by the Merchant and Mender in Western Thanalan (15, 29). Each desynth only has a chance to drop the relevant goods, and you may get other items instead. The items are as follows: * Desynth an Aged Spear to get an Aged Spear Shaft to make a Perfect Firewood. * Desynth an Aged Pestle to get Aged Pestle Pieces to make a Perfect Pestle. * Desynth an Aged Mortar to get Aged Mortar Pieces to make a Perfect Mortar. * Desynth an Aged Ring to get an Aged Eye of Fire to make a Furnace Ring. * Desynth an Aged Grimoire to get Aged Vellum to make Perfect Vellum. * Desynth an Aged Robe to get a Stained Cloth to make Perfect Cloth. * Desynth an Aged Phial to get Dried Ether to make Perfect Pounce. * Desynth an Aged Decanter to get Vintage Cooking Sherry to make Tailor-made Eel Pie. To craft these yourself, you will also need the Master Recipes I book for each crafting job, too. [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25413780/ffxiv_dx11_2024_04_22_15_20_31.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] Step 8: How to get your Zodiac Zeta weapon This is the last step. You’re almost there, you just have some more duty grinding to go! To make your Zodiac Zeta weapon, you’ll need to do the following: - Talk to Jalzahn with your weapon equipped to start and complete the quest “Rise and Shine.” Get used to talking to Remon in Swiftperch (where the quest ends). - Talk to Remon to buy a Mahatma for 50 Poetics. Just like the Nexus step, you’ll need to imbue this Mahatma with light by completing duties. - Fill in your first Mahatma, and then talk to Remon to buy the next one for another 50 Poetics and fill that one in, too. You’ll need to repeat this step many times, as you have 12 Mahatmas total to fill (600 Poetics total). - After you fill in all 12 Mahatmas, talk to Jalzahn again with your weapon unequipped and select “Zodiac Weapon Awakening” to get your final Zodiac Zeta weapon. How to earn light for Mahatmas This is almost exactly the same as the Nexus step, though the values are different. Again, the amount of light rewarded and gained is invisible, but players have deduced that each Mahatma needs 40 light. There is also still a bonus that rotates every two hours (and the Nexus bonus duty is the same as the Zeta bonus duty). As per usual, you do need to have your weapon equipped when you finish the duty, and duties can be completed unsynced. The duties also give different amounts of light now: [Table: FFXIV Zeta weapon light values] If one of the steady dungeons is on bonus, you can complete a Mahatma with a single run, making it pretty worthwhile. Otherwise the same rules apply from the Nexus step: Spam “The Bowl of Embers” if you’re running solo to get about 12 light per minute. Run “The Bowl of Embers (Extreme)” if you have a high-level friend willing to two-shot the boss for you. [Image: https://platform.polygon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25413784/ffxiv_dx11_2024_04_22_18_59_16.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] And that’s all there is to it. You are now finished with your ARR relic weapon grind, but you can always start from the beginning if you want another one. Or you can move on to making a Stormblood relic or Shadowbringers relic weapon if you miss that grind. If you’re just starting out in the massive world of Final Fantasy 14, we have tons of guides to help you. We have a beginner’s guide to get you started, along with guides detailing when you’ll get your mount and which Grand Company you should join. If you’re starting but are feeling overwhelmed, we have guides to help with picking a job and a guide that explains how long it may take to catch up to current content in FFXIV. We also have guides on side content, like ocean fishing, relic weapons, and Island Sanctuary, for those who want to take a break from it all.