Anima relic weapons are, arguably, the nicest relic weapons available in Final Fantasy XIV. However, they do take one hell of a grind to acquire, and there are a lot of steps you need to go through in order to get your hands on one.
That said, there are some things you can do to make life easier for yourself and this far past the Heavensward expansion, during which these relics became available, some of the steps can pretty much be steamrollered relatively quickly.
To complete your first Anima relic weapon, you’ll need to complete a total of 11 quests. We’ll go over each of these in more detail later, but for now, here’s the checklist of Anima quests:
- An Unexpected Proposal
- Soul Without Life
- Toughening Up
- Coming Into Its Own
- Finding Your Voice
- A Dream Fulfilled
- Future Proof
- Born Again Anima
- Body and Soul
- Words of Wisdom
- Best Friends Forever
Some of these quests are much easier to complete than others, but the overwhelming majority of them come with their own variety of grind. On the plus side, you’ll at least have an epic weapon once you’ve completed the final step.
If you’re wanting to work on multiple Anima relics at one time, this is entirely possible. However, you cannot be working on the same quest for multiple relics at the same time, so you’ll need to progress one of the weapons at least one step before starting the grind for another Job.
How to complete An Unexpected Proposal in Final Fantasy XIV
Before you can get to actually beginning your Anima weapon journey, you’ll need to meet a couple of requirements:
- Complete the level 60 MSQ quest “Heavensward”
- Reach at least level 60 on the Job you want to get an Anima relic for
If you’ve done this, head to Idyllshire and go straight to Rowena (X:5.0, Y:5.1). After talking to her, she’ll send you off to Azys Lla, where you’ll need to find and talk to Ardashir (X:7.1, Y:10.9). Ardashir will be your go-to guy for all things Anima related, so you’ll soon get familiar with where to find him.
How to complete Soul Without Life in Final Fantasy XIV
Relic stage: Animated
Speak to Ardashir in Azys Lla, and he’ll send you off to Mor Dhona to talk to Rowena. In order to complete the first ‘proper’ Anima weapon quest, you need to get your hands on one Astral Nodule and one Umbral Nodule. You’ve got a choice of which way you go about this. Both options require a bit of a grind, but let’s look at each option in detail.
Complete FATEs
Before you can get an Astral or Umbral Nodule, you’ll need to gather up six different types of Luminous Crystals. Each Crystal has a corresponding element, and each can be gained through completing FATEs in a specific Heavensward zone. You don’t need to complete these FATEs as the Job you’re aiming to get an Anima weapon for.
The Crystals you need to create an Astral Nodule come from the following zones:
| Crystal | Heavensward zone |
| Luminous Wind Crystal | The Sea of Clouds |
| Luminous Fire Crystal | Azys Lla |
| Luminous Lightning Crystal | The Churning Mists |
The Crystals you need to create an Umbral Nodule come from the following zones:
| Crystal | Heavensward zone |
| Luminous Ice Crystal | Coerthas Western Highlands |
| Luminous Earth Crystal | The Dravanian Forelands |
| Luminous Water Crystal | The Dravanian Hinterlands |
It’s worth noting that you need to complete a FATE with a gold rating to be in with a chance of gaining a Crystal and even then, it’s far from guaranteed. You’re likely to complete a lot of FATEs before you have all of the Crystals you need.
Once you’ve gathered all of your elemental Crystals, you can take them to Syndony in Mor Dhona (X:22.5, Y:5.9) and exchange them for the two Nodules.
Trade in a completed Zodiac Zeta weapon
If you’ve previously been through the mammoth grind required to get a Zodiac Zeta weapon, you do have the option to trade this in for the Astral and Umbral Nodules. To do this, simply talk to Sydony and select the option to trade a Zodiac Zeta weapon.
I know this seems like a massive sacrifice after all of the hard work you put into getting the Zeta weapon, considering you’ll lose the weapon itself, but doing so will allow you to purchase replicas of every Zodiac stage weapon from Drake in North Shroud (X:30.3, Y:20.1).
You’re unlikely to be using the weapon itself, as it’s a level 50 weapon with a low iLvl, so if you’re only using it as a glamour then this option may be worthwhile to speed through this first step of your Anima weapon.
Regardless of how you gained your Nodules, once you’ve got them, head back to Azys Lla and hand them over to Ardashir to complete this quest, rewarding you with your Animated Anima weapon and allowing you to pick up the next quest.
How to complete Toughening Up in Final Fantasy XIV
Relic stage: Awoken
Speak to Ardashir in Azys Lla again to begin the next step in the Anims journey. This stage of the Relic grind requires you to complete a long list of Dungeons with your first-stage relic equipped. Thankfully, the rest of your gear can be any iLvl and you can run the dungeons unsynced, so if you’re going back to this with a job at level 90, you’re going to speed through these dungeons without a problem.
These dungeons come in three ‘waves’, with you needing to talk to Ardashir in between the ‘waves’ in order to update him on your progress. Here’s the full list of steps needed in order to complete this quest:
- Complete Snowcloak (Level 50)
- Complete Sastasha (Hard) (Level 50)
- Complete The Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard) (Level 50)
- Talk to Ardashir in Southern Thanalan (X:25.0, Y:12.1)
- Complete The Keeper of the Lake (Level 50)
- Complete The Wanderer’s Palace (Hard) (Level 50)
- Complete Amdapor Keep (Hard) (Level 50)
- Speak to Ardashir in South Shroud (X:24.9, Y:24.1)
- Complete The Dusk Vigil (Level 51)
- Complete Sohm Al (Level 53)
- Complete The Aery (Level 55)
- Complete the Vault (Level 57)
Once you’ve completed these steps, equip any other weapon for your chosen Job and make sure that your Animated weapon is in your inventory before heading back to Azys Lla. Talk to Ardashir in his usual location to complete this quest and gain the Awoken stage of your Anima relic.
How to complete Coming into Its Own in Final Fantasy XIV
Relic stage: Anima
Talk to Ardashir in Azys Lla and, if this is your first Anima weapon grind, he’ll send you off to Mor Dhona to talk to Cristiana (X:21.4, Y5.4). If this isn’t your first Anima rodeo, you don’t need to talk to her again and can simply begin to hand in the items needed, which we’ll get into now.
To complete this quest, you’ll need to get four things:
- 1 Enchanted Rubber
- 1 Fast-drying Carboncoat
- 1 Divine Water
- 1 Fast-acting Allagan Catalyst
Unfortunately, getting them is far from simple and this stage is guaranteed to take you a little while, because you need to get multiple other items to trade in for these final ones:
| Final item | Unidentifiable items | Crafted items |
| Enchanted Rubber | 10 Unidentifiable Bone | 4 Adamantite Francesca |
| Fast-drying Carboncoat | 10 Unidentifiable Shell | 4 Titanium Alloy Mirror |
| Divine Water | 10 Unidentifiable Ore | 4 Dispelling Arrow |
| Fast-acting Allagan Catalyst | 10 Unidentifiable Seeds | 4 Kingcake |
Unidentifiable items
Thankfully, to get your hands on Unidentifiable items, you have a few options; but you’re unlikely to be able to purchase all of them in one spending spree and you’re probably going to have to grind at least a few duties to complete the set.
Unidentifiable items can be purchased for 150 Tomestones of Poetics each from Auriana in Mor Dhona (X:22.0, Y:6.0) or Hismena in Idyllshire (X:5.0, Y:5.0). If you’re wanting to buy all of these Unidentifiable items with Poetics, you’ll need a total of 6,000 Poetics.
Otherwise, Unidentifiable items can be obtained in the following ways:
| Item | Methods to obtain |
| Unidentifiable Bone | -Tribal Quest tokens: 3 Steel Amalj’ok (Amalj’aa) 6 Vanu Whitebone (Vanu Vanu) 6 Black Copper Gil (Vath) 18 Carved Kupo Nut (Moogle) -3 Precision Gordian Bolts (Alexander – The Fist of the Father) -300 Allied Seals |
| Unidentifiable Shell | -Tribal Quest tokens: 3 Rainbowtide Psashp (Sahagin) 6 Vanu Whitebone (Vanu Vanu) 6 Black Copper Gil (Vath) 18 Carved Kupo Nut (Moogle) -3 Precision Gordian Lens (Alexander – The Cuff of the Father) -Obtained from Timeworn Wyvernskin Map |
| Unidentifiable Ore | -Tribal Quest tokens: 3 Titan Cobaltpiece (Kobold) 6 Vanu Whitebone (Vanu Vanu) 6 Black Copper Gil (Vath) 18 Carved Kupo Nut (Moogle) -3 Precision Gordian Spring (Alexander – The Arm of the Father) -Obtained from Timeworn Dragonskin Map |
| Unidentifiable Seeds | Tribal Quest tokens: 3 Sylphic Goldleaf (Sylphs) 6 Vanu Whitebone (Vanu Vanu) 6 Black Copper Gil (Vath) 18 Carved Kupo Nut (Moogle) -3 Precision Gordian Shaft (Alexander – The Burden of the Father) -300 Allied Seals |
Perhaps the easiest and most time effective way to get these items is through completing the required Alexander duties ten times each, especially if you have the option to unsync them at level 90.
Crafted items
If you don’t have a required crafting Jobs available to you, don’t panic. You can still complete this step. These items can also be purchased using Grand Company Seals, but they’re pretty expensive. Each item costs 5,000 GC Seals, so you’ll need 80,000 Seals in total. Alternatively, if you’ve got the spare Gil, you can purchase all of these items on the Marketboard at varying prices.
If you want to craft these items yourself, here are the recipes:
| Item | Crafting Class | Recipe |
| Adamantite Francesca | Blacksmith | 2 Fire Clusters 1 Earth Cluster 1 Birch Lumber 1 Adamantite Nugget 1 Pterodactyl Strap |
| Titanium Alloy Mirror | Alchemist | 2 Water Clusters 1 Lightning Cluster 1 Titanium Alloy Square 1 Holy Water 1 Hardsilver Sand 1 Vitriol |
| Dispelling Arrow | Carpenter | 2 Wind Clusters 1 Ice Cluster 1 Blessed Fletchings 1 Hallowed Chestnut Lumber 1 Hardsilver Nugget |
| Kingcake | Culinarian | 2 Fire Clusters 1 Water Cluster 1 Moogle Miniature 1 Highland Flour 1 Yak Milk 1 Okeanis Egg 1 Birch Syrup 1 Tiny Crown |
Once you’ve gathered up this collection of items, you can head back to Cristiana in Mor Dhona and exchange them for the four items you need to complete this quest. Once you’ve got them, make sure the Awoken weapon is in your inventory and go back to Azys Lla. Talk to Gerolt (X:7.0, Y:11.0) to upgrade your weapon to its Anima stage and complete this step.
How to complete Finding Your Voice in Final Fantasy XIV
Relic stage: Hyperconductive Anima
After the grind of the previous two quests, this one isn’t actually all that bad, though you will need a rather large pile of Poetics in order to complete it. You’ll also need to complete this quest with the Anima weapon equipped. Switching Jobs will prevent you from proceeding.
After speaking to Ardashir again, you’ll need to get 5 Aether Oils, which can be purchased from Hismena in Idyllshire (X:5.7, Y:5.2). Each Aether Oil costs 350 Tomestones of Poetics, so you’ll need 1,750 Poetics in total.
And that’s it for this quest. Once you’ve got the Aether Oils, make sure your Anima weapon is in your inventory and head back to Azys Lla. Talk to Ardashir to finish this quest and pick up your Hyperconductive Anima weapon.
How to complete A Dream Fulfilled in Final Fantasy XIV
Relic stage: Reconditioned Anima
After talking to Ardashir, head to Idyllshire to meet Ulan (X:6.4, Y:4.7), who will be your main contact during this quest. In order to help you enhance the stats (such as Critical Hit and Determination) of your weapon, Ulan needs two things – Umbrite and Crystal Sand – which can be combined to create Treated Crystal Sand. You’ll need roughly 60 of each item in order to create the 180 required Treated Crystal Sand.
The first of these items, Umbrite, can only be obtained by purchasing it from Hismena for 75 Tomestones of Poetics each. To get the required 60 Umbrite, you’ll need a total of 4,500 Poetics.
Crystal Sand, on the other hand, can be obtained through exchanging items with Ulan. Each item (or group of items) can be exchanged for 2 Crystal Sand:
| Exchangeable item(s) | How to get |
| 5 Blue Crafters’ Scrip Tokens | 25 White Crafters’ Scrips each (125 total) |
| 5 Blue Gatherers’ Scrip Tokens | 25 White Gatherers’ Scrips each (125 total) |
| 1 Garlond Steel 1 Celestine 1 High Allagan Chimera Leather | – Crafted (Blacksmith, Goldsmith and Leatherworker respectively) – Purchased on the Marketboard |
| 1 Amber-encased Vilekin | Heavensward Levequests |
| 3 Battlecraft Demimateria I 2 Battlecraft Demimateria II 3 Fieldcraft Demimateria I 2 Fieldcraft Demimateria II | – Desynthesis – Purchased on the Marketboard |
| 5 Moonstone | – Deliverance (Ixali daily quest) – 4,000 GC Seals each (20,000 total) – Timeworn Goatskin Map – Timeworn Leather Map – Purchased on the Marketboard |
| 1 Inferno Horn 1 Crag Heart 1 Diamond Tear | – Level 50 Extreme Trial drops (Bowl of Embers, Navel and Akh Afah Amphitheatre) – Purchased on the Marketboard |
| 1 Vortex Feather 1 Barb of the Whorl 1 Large Levin Orb | – Level 50 Extreme Trials drops (Howling Eye, Whorleater, Striking Tree) – Purchased on the Marketboard |
| 5 Superior Enchanted Ink 5 Thavnairian Mist | 25 Tomestones of Poetics each (125 total) 20 Tomestones of Poetics each (100 total) |
| 5 Allagan Catalyst | – The Labyrinth of the Ancients – Syrcus Tower |
| 1 Unidentifiable Bone 1 Unidentifiable Shell 1 Unidentifiable Ore 1 Unidentifiable Seeds | Any of the methods used in the “Coming into It’s Own” quest |
Once you’ve gathered all of the items (or periodically in stages, if that’s how you want to do it) talk to Ulan to create Treated Crystal Sand. You can then use this Treated Crystal Sand to modify the Stats of your weapon. Once all 180 points have been allocated, make sure your Hyperconductive Anima weapon is in your inventory and return to Azys Lla to talk to Ardashir. This will complete this quest and reward you with a Reconditioned Anima weapon.
How to complete Future Proof in Final Fantasy XIV
Relic stage: Sharpened Anima
Talk to Ardashir, who will tell you that you need to gather 50 Singing Clusters. This quest is pretty straightforward, and thankfully there are multiple ways to get Singing Clusters.
The first way is by purchasing them from Hismena in Idyllshire for 40 Tomestones of Poetics each. In order to get all 50 this way, you’d need 2,000 Poetics. However, to cut the cost (and the grind) there are a couple of quests which can be repeated weekly to gain Singing Clusters:
| Quest name | Quest giver & location | Information |
| Cut from a Different Cloth | Angelet Idyllshire (X:7.9, Y:5.8) | Complete Duty Roulette: Level 50/60/70/80 Dungeons to receive one Singing Cluster |
| Seeking Inspiration | Amphelice Idyllshire (X:7.9, Y:5.8) | Complete Duty Roulette: Leveling three times in order to receive 18 Singing Clusters |
Once you’ve got all 50 Singing Clusters, deliver them to Blamprest in Idyllshire (X:7.9, Y:6.0), and then return to Ardashir in Azys Lla to receive your Sharpened Anima and complete this quest.
How to complete Born Again Anima in Final Fantasy XIV
Relic stage: Complete Anima
After talking to Ardashir, he’ll send you off to complete three dungeons. You do not need your Sharpened Anima weapon equipped as you complete these dungeons, but you do need to complete them as the Job which you’re getting the weapon for:
- Sohm Al (Hard)
- The Great Gubal Library (Hard)
- The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard)
Once you’ve done this, you’ll need to complete a side quest called “Some Assembly Required”. To do this, you’ll need to collect 15 Pneumite, which can be purchased for either 4,000 GC Seals or 100 Tomestones of Poetics each. Once you’ve done that, we can move on to the main part of this quest — Aetheric Density collection.
Talk to the Verification Node and you’ll be given an Enhanced Anima Glass. You can use this at any time to check the Aetheric Density of your weapon. When you use the Glass, you’ll see a sprite surrounded by 10 glyphs and completing certain duties will reward Aetheric Density, slowly filling these glyphs and making them glow.
Aetheric Density gathering
Every duty that was introduced as part of the Heavensward expansion rewards Density, as long as it is completed while the Sharpened Anima weapon is equipped, but some offer more than others. Occasionally, you may receive a bonus amount of Density, but I wouldn’t recommend hoping for this. You’ll need to get a total of 2,000 Density in order to complete this quest.
Here’s a quick rundown of all duties and how much Density they offer:
| Density rewarded | Duties |
| Vague (4) | Heavensward FATEs |
| Meager (8) | The Limitless Blue (Hard or Extreme) Thok ast Thok (Hard or Extreme) |
| Vigorous (16) | Containment Bay S1T7 (Extreme) The Minstrel’s Ballad: Nidhogg’s Rage Alexander Raids |
| Robust (32) | Heavensward Dungeons A Realm Reborn level 50 Dungeons (Excluding Pratorium and Castrum Meridianum) Alexander Raids (Savage 1-4) Containment Bay Z1T9 (Extreme) |
| Sturdy (64) | Heavensward Alliance Raids Possible bonus from anything which offers Robust Density |
| Hardened (96) | Alexander Raids (Savage 9-12) |
| Stalwart (128) | Possible bonus from Alexander Raids (Savage 9-12) |
The easiest and quickest way to gather Density is through completing Alexander – The Eyes of the Creator (Savage), also called A9S, 21 times (or less if you’re lucky enough to get a Stalwart bonus).
Once you’ve completed this step, head back to Azys Lla and talk to Gerolt to complete this quest and obtain your Complete Anima weapon. But don’t celebrate yet. You’re not finished. Yes, you have the ‘complete’ Anima weapon, but there’s one more stage which turns your weapon into the Lux variant. Does it help if I tell you that you get a cute minion, too?
To unlock the next stage, you have to complete two one-time quests. The first is called “Body and Soul”, which is pretty straightforward and, when completed, will unlock the quest which allows you to upgrade your weapon to the Lux version. You only have to complete this quest for your first Anima weapon.
The second is “Words of Wisdom”. You need to complete this quest before you can upgrade to the Lux variant of your first weapon, but on the plus side, you won’t ever have to do it again. It’s a simple back and forth quest between Ardashir in Azys Lla and Rowena in Idyllshire. Once completed, you can move on to the final quest.
How to complete Best Friends Forever in Final Fantasy XIV
Relic stage: Lux
After the grind that you’ve already gone through to get here, this will be easy. Speak to Ardashir and he’ll tell you that you need to complete 12 Trials. These 12 Trials come in sets of three and can be completed in any order, but must be completed with your Complete Anima weapon equipped, and the first three must be completed before moving on to the next three, and so on:
Set 1
- The Bowl of Embers (Hard)
- The Howling Eye (Hard)
- The Navel (Hard)
Set 2
- Thornmarch (Hard)
- The Whorleater (Hard)
- The Striking Tree (Hard)
- The Akh Afah Amphitheatre (Hard)
Set 3
- Thok ast Thok (Hard)
- The Limitless Blue (Hard)
Set 4
- Containment Bay S1T7
- Containment Bay P1T6
- Containment Bay Z1T9
Once you’ve completed these Trials with your Complete Anima weapon in hand, head to Hismena in Idyllshire (or any Sundry Splendor) and pick up one bottle of Archaic Enchanted Ink for 500 Tomestones of Poetics.
With that in your inventory, drag yourself back to Azys Lla for the final time, talk to Ardashir once more, and pick up your very pretty Lux weapon before deciding not to do another relic for a while – at least until you’ve mentally blocked out how much of a grind this actually was and another weapon makes you go “ooh, that’s pretty”.
