You can easily get darksteel ore by buying it from NPCs in the different neighborhoods of FFXIV with voidrakes.
There are other ways to get darksteel ore, such as mining, desynthesis, and ventures, but using voidrakes to buy them seems to be the best way.
Material Supplier or Apartment Merchant are the names of the NPCs that sell these ores.
Here’s where they are:
Material Supplier Locations
- Mist, Limsa Lominsa Residential District (X:11.0, Y:11.0)
- The Goblet, Ul’dah Residential District (X:10.9, Y:8.9)
- The Lavender Beds, Gridania Residential District (X:11.9, Y:8.3)
- Shirogane, Kugane Residential District (X:10.2, Y:10.5)
Apartment Merchant Locations
- Topmast Apartment Lobby (X:6.1, Y:6.0)
- Sultana’s Breath Apartment Lobby (X:6.1, Y: 6.0)
- Lily Hills Apartment Lobby (X:6.1, Y:6.0)
- Kobai Goten Apartment Lobby (X:6.1, Y:6.0)
For each district, you must complete a fairly short quest to be able to get into it.
Here is a list of all the quests you need to do to get into each residential area, as well as where they are:
- Where the Heart Is (The Lavender Beds) – Central Shroud (X:21.7, 21.9)
- Where the Heart Is (The Goblet) – Western Thanalan (X: 26.0, Y:24.1)
- Where the Heart is (Mist) – Lower La Noscea (X:31.6, Y:20.2)
- I Dream of Shirogane – Kugane (X:12.0, Y:9.9)
Note that in order to do the last quest above, “I Dream of Shirogane,” you will need to be far enough along in the Stormblood MSQs to be able to go to Kugane.
Harvesting Voidrakes
The Gardening system, which was added to FFXIV in patch 2.2, is how you can get Voidrakes.
Players can use this system to plant seeds, care for crops, and then harvest them.
You need a house or apartment, seeds, and something to plant them in, like flowerpots, to start gardening.
But if you own a house, you can also buy garden plots in residential areas from Housing Merchants.
So, since we’re looking to harvest voidrakes, we’re going to need some voidrake seeds. Grand Company Quartermasters sell these seeds for 500 seals each.
Once you have everything you need to start gardening, just put your garden patch or flowerpots where you want them and click on them.
Then you should be able to choose which seeds to plant by clicking on them.
Once the seeds are planted, click the pot or garden bed again, and you should be given the option to care for your plants.
To make sure your crops grow, you need to do this at least once a day.
When I tried this, I took care of my seeds right away after I planted them. Less than 24 hours later, when I went back to check on my voidrakes, they were already ready to pick.
You can trade 3 darksteel ores for one voidrake.
Mining For A Miner Convenience
Gathering them as a miner is another way to get darksteel ore.
In fact, they need to mine darksteel ore to finish their class quest “Canyon of Regret” at level 50.
If you’re a miner, you’ll need to be at least level 46 and look for a specific unspoiled mining node to get this resource.
Unspoiled nodes are unique because you can only find them at certain times of the day when your “Truth of Mountains” skill is active.
The node that gives darksteel ore can be found between 1AM and 4AM Eorzean time in the Coerthas Central Highlands (X:27, Y:19).
In real-time, this is about a 10-minute window every 70 minutes.
Dabbling in Desynthesis
Desynthesis is a feature that lets you separate some things into their separate parts. This could be a different way to get more darksteel ore.
For this ore, you’ll need to desynthesize Crag weapons that drop from coffers after you finish “The Navel (Hard)” instance.
A Disciple of War or Disciple of Magic who is at least level 70 can win this fight on their own.
And these are the weapons that can be broken down to make darksteel ore:
- Cleavers of Crags (NIN)
- Culverin of Crags (MCH)
- Guillotine of Crags (DRK)
- Star Globe of Crags (AST)
- The Axe of Crags (WAR)
- The Spear of Crags (DRG)
You need to have an alchemist level of at least 30 and finish the quest “Gone to Pieces” in Ul’dah – Steps of Thal to be able to break these weapons down (X:14, Y:10).
Just remember that the item in the coffer and the items you get from desynthesis are both chosen at random.
So this way to get darksteel ore depends a lot on random chance and isn’t very reliable.
Ventures and Voyages
Sending your retainers on missions is another option to think about. You can make a retainer a miner, and once they reach level 50, you can send them out to collect darksteel ores.
The most time these things will take is an hour, but that can go down to 40 minutes depending on the level of your retainer.
The number of items they bring back depends on how good they are at gathering, so make sure they have at least decent gear.
Some level 50 Highland Exploration quests may also give you darksteel ore, but this isn’t always the case, and they take 18 hours to finish.
Most of the time, these quests are used to level up your retainers, so I wouldn’t use them to farm items.
And just like with ventures, once a Free Company has an airship or submersible, they can send it on a voyage.
On trips to the Stone Temple and The Rimilala Shelf, you can find Darksteel ore.
How long these trips take and how many items you get depend on the stats of the ship.
The members of your Free Company can talk about which trips to take and how things will be given out.
Crafting With Darksteel Ore
When you have enough darksteel ores, you can finally start making things with them.
They can be used to make darksteel nuggets or adamantite nuggets, which are both used in armourer and blacksmith recipes.
There are recipes for everything from lamps to armour, like the set of adamantite armour.
And since there are so many ways to get darksteel ore, I can’t say that any of them are as easy as going out and killing the same mob over and over or getting it from the same nodes.
Since this is the case, another thing I might do with the ore is put it up for sale on the market board.
You should first look at your server’s economy, though. If you do find a good market for this on your home world, then congrats, you’ve found another way to make gil!
