Getting started with the Island Sanctuary in Final Fantasy XIV requires you to have finished the Endwalker expansion main scenario quests. Then in Old Sharlayan, the Clueless Crier NPC slightly north of of the aetheryte will have a blue quest titled ‘Seeking Sanctuary’. Following the quest objectives will lead you to the Moraby Dry Docks in Lower la Noscea. Basically next to the aetheryte is Baldin, the NPC ferryman who will take you too and from your new island home.
The first few quests with the Felicitous Furball will guide you through the basics and provide some pretty straight forward goals. Once you’ve learned the basics, its up to you to create the perfect paradise! Take your time and go at your own pace! This content isn’t meant to be rushed or optimised!
Always. Be. Gathering.
Island Sanctuary is all about gathering materials used in crafting. Luckily you don’t need any of the games gathering or crafting classes to take part. Gathering on your island comes down to having the right tool for the job and what you gather from. Explore the island to find where certain groups of nodes are so you know where to head too when you need a specific material. Once you’ve gathered an item, it will be recorded in your Island’s Gathering Log and a general area for it will be marked on your map. Note that it won’t mean that is the ONLY place you can gather that material.
Try to prioritise more useful material to gather the most of.
Upon ranking up your island, you will gain access to craft more tools, which in turn let you gather a greater variety of materials. Some important materials that are used in useful or frequent crafts include:
- Island Stone – Gathered from Smooth White Rock nodes early on, and later from various stone/ore related nodes
- Island Log / Island Palm Log – Gathered from various trees and Island Palm nodes.
- Island Vine – Gathered from Sugarcane and once you have a Stone Hatchet, Apple Tree nodes.
- Island Copper – Gathered from Blueish Rock nodes once you have a Stone Hammer.
- Island Hemp – Gathered from Agave Plant nodes once you have a Copper Scythe.
- Island Clay / Tinsand – Gathered from Mount of Dirt nodes and Submerged Sand nodes respectively once you have a Shovel.
You might have seen some gathering macros floating about to ease the pain of gathering. I made my own, which I feel offers a few advantages over others I’ve seen such as using the Island Sprint action over the regular Sprint action, setting the /autofacetarget setting to on, so it doesn’t toggle with every use.
The gathering maccro I sometimes use.
Maintain a Healthy Pasture
Once you obtain the ability to craft Makeshift Nets, you can start capturing some of the islands natural inhabitants. Each animal will provide you specific materials each time you gather from them. So while having a pasture full of your favourite type is perfectly valid and rewarding, having a variety of animals will give you various materials used for different crafts. Some of which might be more profitable than others, if you care about that sort of thing.
Some varients are slight visual differences, others, more so.
Every common animal on the island has a rare variant. These rare variants only show up when certain conditions are met. Anything from the weather, to the time of day, location, or a combination of all three for even rarer animals such as the Beachcomp that have no common versions. This is why its important to keep a healthy supply of capture tools ready, as they are also harder to catch. If you miss one though don’t fret. They aren’t as rare as other games rare spawns and you will likely see them again over the course of your islands expansion.
Some varients are slight visual differences, others, more so.
Feeding your animals is important to help increase their happiness and in turn, their material yield. Happier animals produce more material, which leads to more profits more quickly! Animal materials cannot be gathered any other way, so it’s important to keep on top of looking after them so you can keep your production line of rarer exports going. Animal materials usually export for slightly higher profits than regular materials too, if you end up with a large surplus of material you won’t be crafting with.
Facilities and Construction
The main way to grow your island is constructing facilities. This ranges from building landmarks to upgrading your Cozy Cabin! However, you’ll want to focus primarily on getting max three Workshops up and running on your island, as they are the main avenue for collecting Seafarers Cowries (The blue ones). Some of these Cowries will then be invested back into the island and it’s facilities to fund expansion of various areas and Granary expeditions. More on that in the next section.
Workshops and Granaries will be your main source of income for materials and cowries.
Landmarks are also important to build alongside your Workshops, as they increase the export value of the items produced by them. They also do the most important thing, which is to make your island look pretty! Don’t fret if you build a facility and it doesn’t feel like it’s in the right place. You can move buildings already built around the available plots free of charge! You can have a maximum of four Landmarks!
Whenever you see a quest marker appear, that means there is a construction mammet NPC ready to expand a part of your island! You should check your crafting menu for Mammet-Sized Tools. Gather the materials needed, and present them to the mammet in need, along with some Cowries to access a new part of your personal paradise.
Fulfil Supply And Demand
Workshop exporting is a simple process. You schedule cycles in which to produce items called ‘handicrafts’. To maximise efficiency you’ll want to produce items that have the same category as the first handicraft that was made. For example, the Isleworks Potion is in the Concoctions category. Craft other handicrafts in this category to chain a ‘Efficiency Bonus’ and earn more from your exports! These agendas can be saved and re-applied easily if you wish to mass produce the same handicrafts over and over.
Make sure to set out your workshop schedules!
As to not make the mammets sad, you can check your surplus of materials in the Cozy Cabin. If there are any items in the red, that means you won’t be meet the demand of handicrafts you’ve planned for the cycle/season.
Different days have different efficiency bonuses, and these reset each cycle. If you want to totally optimise your efficiency, I recommend you look up how to read the ‘Supply and Demand’ window. Then learn how to maximise your Island ‘Groove’ as quick as possible. Earning more Cowries will help you fund more Granary expeditions, and to get to those desired items such as mounts and glamour gear faster!
Take Your Time And Smell The Flowers
Relax in the landmarks you worked to build!
This guide was aimed at helping you gain a thorough understanding of the main island mechanics, not on how to optimise everything thoroughly. Island Sanctuary is intended to be enjoyed at your own pace between your adventures, and is likely not to be updated for a while with new content. If grinding it out and optimisation is your preference then go forth and be rolling in Cowries in no time. Just don’t forget to enjoy the little things once in a while!
