How to get a Heavensward (Anima) relic weapon in FFXIV

If you’ve caught yourself twiddling your thumbs in Final Fantasy 14 between patches and you want some cool gear to glamour over your weapons, you can make a Heavensward relic weapon. Known as an Anima weapon, these flashy weapons don’t have any modern use for stats, but they do look pretty good.

As usual with relic weapons, there is a long grind ahead of you if you want the completed weapon, but the Anima relic grind isn’t too bad. A lot of it is just shoving Allagan Tomestones of Poetics and Grand Company Seals at NPCs to get materials, so an Anima weapon is a great way to dump extra currencies you have sitting around.

You actually need a ton of Poetics to finish this weapon, so if you wanted to min-max your relic experience, you could do this while also making your Stormblood (Eureka) relic weapon. Eureka gives tons of Poetics, so if you want a Stormblood weapon anyway… y’know.

Below, we explain how to make your own FFXIV Heavensward Anima relic weapon, and how to farm Tomestones of Poetics and GC Seals if you’re looking to speed up the process.

Heavensward Anima relic weapons, explained

Once upon a time, these Anima weapons were the best-in-slot, but now they’re only good for one thing: glamour. If you love the way these glowy special weapons look, you’ll need to complete the steps to get the weapon you want.

In order to get the completed Lux Anima weapons, you’ll need to complete all the steps below, but if you just like the look of the Reconditioned weapon or an earlier form, you can just do it up until there and stop whenever you want.

As expected with this old weapon, you can only make Anima relic weapons for jobs that were available when Heavensward came out: Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight, White Mage, Scholar, Astrologian, Monk, Ninja, Bard, Machinist, 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 the Restoration Node in Azys Lla in front of Gerolt. 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 without any major problems.

A lot of this grind is just currency dumping your Allagan Tomestones of Poetics and Grand Company seals, but I’d honestly recommend doing this grind on a job you have maxed out. You do have to run a handful of specific duties, and it’s easier and faster to just run them unsynced and overgeared. That being said, if you don’t have the gear or levels, you can always ask a leveled-up friend to escort you through the duties.

I also recommend that you’re Second Lieutenant rank or higher in your Grand Company in order to make some of the necessary purchases for this weapon. You can get around this by crafting and some other alternatives, but it’s much easier to just buy the stuff for seals.

Step 1: How to get your Animated weapon

In order to start the Heavensward relic at all, you’ll need to be at least level 60 in the job you want the weapon for and you’ll need to clear the main scenario quest “Heavensward.”

Once you’ve done that, you just need to do the following:

1. Talk to Rowena in Idyllshire inside the Center for Cultural Promotion to start and complete the quest “An Unexpected Proposal.” You don’t need to repeat this quest for subsequent weapons.
2. Head to Azys Lla and talk to Ardashir in Helix to start the quest “Soul without Life” as the job you want the relic for. (If you’re having a hard time finding Syndony during the quest, she’s on a balcony outside of Rowena’s House of Splendors. You can fly up to her from outside.)
3. Either bring Syndony a completed A Realm Reborn Zodiac weapon or bring her one of each crystal farmed from FATEs in Heavensward zones (more on that below).
4. Give the astral and umbral nodules that you get from Syndony to Ardashir back in Azys Lla to get your Animated weapon.

If you don’t have an ARR weapon or you don’t want to give yours up (despite that you can buy replicas for it, so you don’t really need it), you’ll need to get one Luminous Crystal from each Heavensward zone. You’ll need to complete a FATE with a gold rating in order for these to drop, and they’re not guaranteed to drop, so you may have to complete several FATEs before you get one. You can also do the FATEs as any job, as long as you have the quest active.

The locations and crystals are as follows:

• The Sea of Clouds: Luminous Wind Crystal
• The Churning Mists: Luminous Lightning Crystal
• Coerthas Western Highlands: Luminous Ice Crystal
• The Dravanian Foreland: Luminous Earth Crystal
• The Dravanian Hinterlands: Luminous Water Crystal
• Azys Lla: Luminous Fire Crystal

Step 2: How to get your Awoken weapon

In order to complete the next quest, there’s quite a few dungeons that you need to unlock:

Once you’ve done that, you can make your Awoken weapon by doing the following:

1. Talk to Ardashir in Azys Lla with your Animated weapon equipped to start the quest “Toughening Up.”
2. The quest will ask you to run through 10 different dungeons. You can do this with a different weapon equipped for the same job, but you have to have your Animated weapon equipped as you leave the dungeon to get credit.
3. Once you finish the 10 dungeons, unequip your Animated weapon and talk to Ardashir to get your Awoken weapon.

This one is pretty simple, especially since you can do the dungeons unsynced. If you’re not high enough level to blast through these quickly, you can always ask a friend to escort you through.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

Optional: How to farm Poetics and Grand Company seals

The steps ahead are largely currency dumps, and they’re all much easier if you have lots of Poetics on hand. While I don’t recommend grinding for either of these currencies, as they will fall into your lap over time from doing roulettes and usual content, if you’re rushing to get your weapon done, here’s how to farm some of this stuff quickly.

For Poetics, there are a few ways to grind the currency:

• Join hunt trains to take down A-rank monsters (You can use the Faloop Discord to get notifications about these hunt trains, as they’re organized by players and run at specific-ish times.)
• Take down Notorious Monsters in Eureka (which is part of the Stormblood relic weapon process, so you can kind of double dip the weapon processes if you’re feeling ambitious)
• Run Main Scenario, Normal Raid, and Alliance Raid roulettes
• Help new players run duties (or just do the other daily roulettes) since you get a hefty chunk of Poetics for any first-timers clearing the duty you’re in

For Grand Company Seals, the best way to farm them outside of running FATEs is by using the “expert delivery” option to turn in any gear you collect from dungeons. Roll greed for everything in any duty you do and fork it over to your respective Personnel Officer. High-leveled gear will net you a little under 2,000 seals, so this can add up fast. You will need to be Second Lieutenant to be able to unlock this option, but (as previously mentioned) you should be Second Lieutenant to buy a lot of the items you’ll need for your relic anyway.

Step 3: How to get your Anima weapon

In order to get the next weapon upgrade, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Talk to Ardashir in Azys Lla to start the quest “Coming into Its Own.”
2. After you end up in front of Cristiana in Mor Dhona, you can talk to her to exchange goods. Gerolt needs all four of the goods she sells, but you’ll need to get the other items she wants to exchange them with her (see below).
3. Once you have the Enchanted Rubber, Fast-drying Carboncoat, Divine Water, and Fast-acting Allagan Catalyst, talk to Gerolt in Azys Lla with the weapon in your inventory to upgrade it to an Anima weapon.

At this point, the easiest way to get these items is to buy them with Allagan Tomestones of Poetics and Grand Company seals.

You can buy the following from Auriana in Mor Dhona, Hismena in Idyllshire, or the Rowena’s Representative NPCs in Ishgard, Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul’dah for Poetics. If you have tribe quest currency sitting around, you can also use some of those to get these items. You’ll need:

• 10 Unidentifiable Bone (150 Poetics, 3 Amalj’aa tokens, 6 Vanu Vanu tokens, 6 Vath tokens, or 18 Moogle tokens each)
• 10 Unidentifiable Shell (150 Poetics, 3 Sahagin tokens, 6 Vanu Vanu tokens, 6 Vath tokens, or 18 Moogle tokens each)
• 10 Unidentifiable Ore (150 Poetics, 3 Kobold tokens, 6 Vanu Vanu tokens, 6 Vath tokens, or 18 Moogle tokens each)
• 10 Unidentifiable Seeds (150 Poetics, 3 Sylph tokens, 6 Vanu Vanu tokens, 6 Vath tokens, or 18 Moogle tokens each)

You can also trade in drops from Alexander raids, but it’s easier to just passively buy these when you notice your Poetic pile is filling up. You can also grab the shells and ore from Wyvernskin and Dragonskin maps, respectively. Unidentifiable Bone and Seeds can be purchased for 300 Allied Seals from your GC Hunt Billmaster, too.

You can get the following from your GC Quartermaster, as long as you’re a Second Lieutenant:

• 4 Adamantite Francesca (5,000 GC seals each)
• 4 Titanium Alloy Mirror (5,000 GC seals each)
• 4 Dispelling Arrow (5,000 GC seals each)
• 4 Kingcake (5,000 GC seals each)

You can also craft these, if you have a leveled up crafter.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

Step 4: How to get your Hyperconductive weapon

This step is just another small currency dump! You can buy the item before you even start the relic quest.

To get your Hyperconductive weapon, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Talk to Ardashir in Azys Lla to start the quest “Finding Your Voice.”
2. Buy 5 Aether Oils for 350 Poetics each from Auriana in Mor Dhona, Hismena in Idyllshire, or the Rowena’s Representative NPCs in Ishgard, Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul’dah.
3. Talk to Ardashir again to turn in the Aether Oils and get your Hyperconductive weapon.

That’s all there is to it for this step!

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

Step 5: How to get your Reconditioned weapon

This part is another resource dump, but you’ll need at least 3,750 Poetics to complete this step.

To get your Reconditioned weapon, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Talk to Ardashir in Azys Lla to start the quest “A Dream Fulfilled.”
2. Ulan will give you two items to go into your key item inventory: Ulan’s Note and Anima Glass. Talk to Ulan with your relic equipped to trade in items for Crystal Sand. (The Ulan’s Note item is just a grocery list, you can’t actually trade with it.)
3. Buy 50-60 Umbrite from Auriana in Mor Dhona, Hismena in Idyllshire, or the Rowena’s Representative NPCs in Ishgard, Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul’dah for 75 Poetics each.
4. Talk to Ulan with your weapon equipped and select to upgrade your weapon in order to trade in Umbrite and Crystal Sand to get Treated Crystal Sand. Each Treated Crystal Sand you get gives you 3-6 substat points to allocate into your weapon. You need 180 points total to complete this step. That being said, you need to collect at most 60 Crystal Sand and Umbrite since there’s an RNG element attached to it. (It cost me 56 Umbrite and Crystal Sand to get the full 180 Treated Crystal Sand.)
5. Allocate the points by talking to Ulan (on the same screen you use to get the Treated Crystal Sand). The stats you pick do not matter as this weapon is no longer used for combat and it’s only used for glamour.
6. Talk to Ardashir with your relic weapon unequipped and in your inventory to get your Reconditioned weapon.

The best way to get Crystal Sand is by trading in White Crafters/Gatherers’ Scrips for Blue Crafters’/Gatherers’ Scrip Tokens. With a little under 4,000 Crafters’ Scrips, I was able to get all the Crystal Sand I needed. These are easy to grab from completing things like custom deliveries or just from crafting items and turning them into scrip appraisers. Gatherers’ Scrips can also be earned quickly through ocean fishing.

If you don’t have any crafters or gatherers leveled up, the second best method is going to be by buying Superior Enchanted Ink and Thavnairian Mist for 25 and 20 Poetics each, respectively.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

Step 6: How to get your Sharpened weapon

This step is another currency dump, requiring you to grab 2,000 Allagan Tomestones of Poetics total, if you’re not keen on doing roulettes.

To get your Sharpened weapon, you’ll need to do the following.

1. Talk to Ardashir in Azys Lla with your relic equipped to start the quest “Future Proof.”
2. Obtain 50 Singing Clusters by either buying them for 40 Poetics each from Auriana in Mor Dhona, Hismena in Idyllshire, or the Rowena’s Representative NPCs in Ishgard, Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul’dah. You can also get them from doing the daily quests “Cut from a Different Cloth” or the weekly quest “Seeking Inspiration.”
3. Turn in the Singing Clusters to Blamprest.
4. Talk to Ardashir again with your relic unequipped to get your Sharpened weapon.

“Cut from a Different Cloth” requires you to do the level 50/60/70/80 dungeon roulette in exchange for one cluster and “Seeking Inspiration” requires you to do three leveling roulettes within the week to get 18 clusters. The latter is worth it if you’re running leveling roulette daily anyway.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

Step 7: How to get your Complete weapon

If you made an A Realm Reborn Zodiac weapon, this step will be pretty familiar to you, as you’ll be tasked with gathering energy via completing a bunch of duties.

You will need to unlock these optional dungeons in order to finish this step, so you might as well do that before starting:

To get your Complete weapon, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Talk to Ardashir in Azys Lla with your relic equipped to start the quest “Born Again Anima.”
2. Complete the three dungeons with your weapon either equipped or in your inventory: “Lost City of Amdapor (Hard)”, “Great Gubal Library (Hard)”, and “Sohm Al (Hard).” You have to do the dungeons as the job you’re making the relic for.
3. Give the loot you got from the dungeons to Gerolt, who is hanging out next to Ardashir.
4. Talk to the nodes as requested as part of the quest.
5. Using the Enhanced Anima Glass in your key items, you can track how much aetheric density your weapon has. While the values are invisible to you, keen players have worked out that you’ll need 2,000 density total to finish your weapon. You can earn varying amounts of density by participating in specific Heavensward duties. You need to make sure your Anima weapon is equipped while you kill the final boss in each duty in order to get density. (More on that below.)
6. Talk to the Processing Node to start the quest “Some Assembly Required.”
7. Get 15 Pneumite by either paying 100 Poetics to Auriana in Mor Dhona, Hismena in Idyllshire, or the Rowena’s Representative NPCs in Ishgard, Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul’dah. You can also trade 4,000 GC seals to your Grand Company Quartermaster each or get them from Timeworn Archaeoskin, Dragonskin, or Wyvernskin Maps. (Doing the GC Seals or Poetics is going to be your best bet.)
8. Give the Pneumite to the Processing Node to get a Newborn Soulstone.
9. Turn in the soulstone and your weapon to Gerolt once it’s filled with aetheric density to get your Complete weapon.

This step is possibly the most annoying, depending on how quickly you’re able to farm aetheric density.

How to farm aetheric density

Just like the ARR relic weapon’s light farm, you’ll need to farm density from running specific duties. Unlike the time-based bonus that Zodiac weapons had, the Anima weapon will get a bonus completely randomly when completing the duty. The duties give aetheric density as follows, according to the Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki:

Checking the Enhanced Anima Glass will give you a hint as to how far you are in finishing your weapon. The more glowing glyphs circle around the sprite, the closer you are.

The fastest way to farm aetheric density is to run “Alexander – The Eyes of the Creator (Savage)” unsynced. This can be done if you’re geared up at level 90, but if you’re not, you can also team up with another friend to help you clear this quickly. At most, this will take 21 runs to complete your weapon, if you never get a bonus. If you have not unlocked any Alexander raids, you can start doing so with the quest “Disarmed” from Slowfix in Idyllshire.

Huge text will hit the screen that says “Aetherial Condensation Complete!” once you finish your weapon, so you don’t really need to pay attention to the Anima Glass very much.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

Step 8: How to get your Lux weapon

Before you get started, you’ll need to make sure you have the optional Warring Triad bosses unlocked (Sephirot, Sophia, and Zurvan). If you don’t have them unlocked, you can start that quest line with “Gods of Eld” by talking to Torsefers in Ishgard.

To finish off your Anima weapon, upgrading it to Lux, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Complete the quest “Body and Soul,” given by the Automation NPC near Gerolt and Ardashir in Azys Lla. You don’t have to repeat this quest for subsequent weapons.
2. After finishing that quest, complete the quest “Words of Wisdom” from Ardashir in Asyz Lla. Again, you won’t have to do this quest again for any more weapons you want to make.
3. Talk to Ardashir in Azys Lla with your relic equipped to start the quest “Best Friends Forever.”
4. Complete the trials listed in game with your weapon equipped. You can do all of these unsynced.
5. After you finish taking down all those bosses, buy one Archaic Enchanted Ink for 500 Poetics from Auriana in Mor Dhona, Hismena in Idyllshire, or the Rowena’s Representative NPCs in Ishgard, Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul’dah.
6. Turn in your weapon and the ink to Ardashir to get your finalized Lux weapon!

And that’s it! You are all done with your Heavensward relic. You can start the process again if you want another weapon, or maybe you want to move on and make a Stormblood relic weapon? Or a Shadowbringers relic weapon? Or maybe you just want to take a long nap, because that’s what I wanted to do once I finished.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

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 takes to beat FFXIV and catch up to current content.

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.