Patch 3.3 in Final Fantasy XIV brought a lot of great battle content. It also introduced what has been the most important thing for crafters who are still struggling to level from 50 to 60 – the Moogle Beast Tribe Quests.
Heavensward Crafting
Prior to patch 3.3, crafters were left with only a few options in that long uphill battle to level to 60 in Heavensward. The most common method was to figure out which crafting levequest was most lucrative, go out and acquire all the materials needed, and craft one item over and over again. Every two levels, you gain access to a new set of leves, you pick a new one, and do that until your fingers and brain go numb.
Not only is this extremely dull and time-consuming, but not every crafting class is made equally. Some classes can get through the leves without breaking a sweat or the bank – I’m looking at you Culinarian. Some require lots of hide drops, deepeye tears or materials that can only be found on timed gathering nodes.
By the time I’d finished leveling the bulk of my crafting classes, I was burned out on leves. I had three classes left, one which was only 4 levels from 60, but I just couldn’t muster the energy to keep moving. Then the Moogle beast tribe quests came to my rescue.
Crafting with Moogles
I can’t express how awesome the new Moogle beast tribe quests are, especially when used as an alternative method to levequest leveling. There’s just nothing that even comes close to the amount of experience you get for the time and materials you put into them. In fact, you don’t put any materials into Moogle quests at all – they provide you with everything you need to craft, and then dump crafting crystals and kupo nut currency on you as rewards.
To make the deal even sweeter, the kupo nut currency can be used to purchase the new high level crafting material and unidentifiable items used in the relic weapon quest. At max faction rank with the Moogles, you earn 3 nuts per quest. Compared to the other beast tribe quests, which only award 1 currency per quest, this is pretty huge.
The quests themselves are tuned downward so that any level 50 or above crafter in just about any gear can easily complete them. Sometimes the quest requires riding around on a mount and interacting with things. Sometimes a quest requires finding and antagonizing Moogles or dragons. Often, the quests require you to either gather materials, craft a few easy items, or both. Rarely do these quests take more than 15-20 minutes to complete.
Upon turn-in, it's not unusual to get nearly half a level of progress on a crafting class, depending on the class’ current level. This is crazy – 15-20 minutes of easy questing for near half a level of progress? Needless to say, I’ve been leveling my remaining crafters in a much more satisfying and less time-intensive way.
Not to mention, earning faction with Moogles gives all sorts of rewards, just like other beast tribe quests do. There’s a dandelion puff mallow mount, a Moogle couch and slippers, and a special Moogle dance. So even beyond leveling crafting and getting items for the relic weapon, there are some neat things to earn.
Sure, the Moogle quests do have a few pain-in-the-tail requirements. You have to complete the Heavensward Main scenario quest "Into the Aery," which requires at least a level 55 adventurer class. You also must complete the level 56 quest chain that ends with "Laying the First Brick," which requires all kinds of moogle side quests. Of course, you must also have a crafting class that is at least level 50.
Getting a Crafter to Level 50
So what if you want to try the Moogle quests, but you don’t yet have a crafter that’s level 50 yet? There’s actually a number of options for you, none of which are quite as fast as the Moogle quests themselves but still viable to get you where you want to be.
Of course, there’s always the level-appropriate levequests. You may need to do a little research on where to find these, and they vary depending on your class, as well. You’ll need to gather or buy all the materials and craft items to turn in to whomever the quest sends you. High quality items are always worth much more. You can also ask a high level crafter you know to help you out as you don't need to be the one who crafted the item to turn it in.
Another great option is the Grand Company provisioning and supply turn-ins. This is a list of items that your Grand Company is requesting, and it refreshes and changes every day at the same time. To check out what your Grand Company is asking for, check out the Timers menu and click Next Mission Allowance. This is the option that has your grand company flag next to it. A window will appear with both Supply (crafting) and Provisioning (gathering) requests.
These items are usually right within your level range, so they tend to have some challenge to them. You should shoot for crafting high quality items as they give a much greater reward. Also, the items with the stars next to them are somewhat harder to craft or obtain, and give bonus experience and seals. So, if you can high quality those items, you’ll really get a great return!
Just a note – if you are also leveling your gathering classes, these turn-ins are a great boost too. Just take the time to gather high quality materials for the turn-ins. It’s very worth it!
Then, there are the crafting weekly challenges. It’s a good chance that you’ll easily hit the “Crafting up a Storm” challenge naturally. Just make sure that when you get the warning that you’re about to finish the challenge, that you’re crafting on the class that needs the bonus experience the most.
Finally, you can complete daily Ixali beast tribe quests in the North Shroud. These quests are formatted after the old style pre-Heavensward beast tribes, and they are not quite as easy to complete as the Moogle quests. However, as you work up your faction and more quests become available, they are a good source of extra experience and crystals, as well as Ixali Oaknot currency.
Anytime you are crafting a large number of items, you may want to consider using a Company-issue Engineering Manual. You can get these at your Grand Company headquarters using company seals. These give a boost to crafting item experience for a certain amount of time, or until you reach a maximum number of bonus experience points.
This is just a very wide overview of things you can do to get your crafting classes to 50. Once you’re there and you’ve completed all other quest requirements, you can start enjoying the quick and painless experience the Moogle quests give. It’s also a cute storyline and just fun to get back at all those Moogles for their endless pranks!
Good luck crafters!
