Gathering (DoL) Collectables Guide for FFXIV Patch 6.5

Collectables have several purposes. They unlock scrips that can be used for materia, gear, and endgame nodes. They also help support crafting by allowing you to obtain aethersands by using Aetherial Reduction, which is the act of breaking down specific collectables into sands you can craft with.

While leveling, collectables are an easy method to gain experience points. While this is not the fastest method, because collectables grant scrips, it is the most efficient after around level 70.

To unlock the collectable system at level 50, you must first complete the main story quest "The Better Half" and the side quest "Inscrutable Tastes." Additionally, there are side quests for each scrip exchange that are located beside said NPC for each expansion.

Unlike crafting classes that use their regular skills to make collectables, Mining and Botany instead have unique skills that are only used for collectables. Fisher toggles an action called Collect, which turns certain fish into collectables based on their size.

As mentioned above, Mining and Botany have unique skills with the sole purpose being for gathering collectables. Some cost GP. Others do not and have various effects which impact your Integrity and Collectability.

The skills can be pressed inside this collectable menu, meaning you can even move those skills off your hotbars and save some space. If you hover over the skills, the circle above will show you your predicted Collectability rating, and there are also toggle buttons below to see the prediction with certain buffs applied.

The top of the menu shows your Collectability out of the max rating of 1000 and predicts ratings when you hover over skills. For the skill Brazen Prospector, it shows the range your rating can be between.

After that, there is the blue primary actions area, which is comprised of the regular buttons you would use to gain Collectability. Scour is the basic skill, with the other skills being based on that as mentioned on the tooltip. Brazen Prospector gives you a random rating of 50%-150% of Scour and Meticulous Prospector gives you 75% but has a chance to give you extra attempts.

Below that is the red secondary actions and bonuses region. This houses skills and bonuses that increase your Collectability rating. One skill is Scrutiny, which costs 200 GP and gives you up to 250 additional rating. The second skill is Collector's Focus, which increases your chance to trigger intuition by 75% of its current chance.

The bonus intuition rate gives you a chance to gain an extra 100 Collectability, while Collector's Standard has a random chance to buff Brazen Prospector and Meticulous Prospector to be 100% of Scour instead of the percentages they originally are.

For a more in-depth explanation of FFXIV's Mining and Botany skills, check out our dedicated guide linked below.

Ephemeral nodes hold items that you also have to gather as collectables in a similar way to other collectables. The difference is that their only purpose is for the items to be broken down using Aetherial Reduction to turn the items into aethersands, crystals, and clusters for crafting. It is the equivalent of desynthesis. Fishing classes can also reduce specific fish into aethersands using the same methods.

To unlock reduction, you need to complete the level 56 quest "No Longer a Collectable" and the quest "The Better Half" that unlocks the scrip exchange.

Once you hit 400 Collectability rating on these items, you have a chance to obtain aethersands. At 1000 Collectability, you have a chance to gain a bonus that can grant you up to 10 sands per item. You always want to aim for either 400 or 1000 - there is no need to waste GP aiming for anything different.

With there only being a few collectable skills, you can easily use similar rotations at any level. The skill Collector's Focus has not been very useful, meaning these rotations are perfectly valid from level 50 all the way to level 90.

There are low stat and high stat rotations. To be able to use the high stat rotation, you need to be close to hitting 200 Collectability on Scour.

While leveling, 600 rating is enough for quests and Custom Deliveries but is only the minimum for Rowena's Splendors. Instead, try to aim for 1000 for those items.

This is the generally used rotation if you reach the stat requirements mentioned for the item. Lower stats can also use this rotation, but you might need to spend more GP on collectable skills.

This is the lower stat rotation if you do not hit close to the max Collectability rating. It trades off yield for rating because the max rating (1000 in most cases) is always better. Depending on your stats, you will need either 400 or 600GP.

This is simply an example of an ephemeral rotation you would use to hit 400 rating when you have no GP. 400 is required to be able to get a chance at sands.

Fishing uses very different skills compared to Mining and Botany. The collectable rating of the fish relates to the size of the fish and is relative to each fish, meaning a large fish with a rating of 700 might not give any rewards because the fish is normally much larger. A commonly small fish with a rating of 50 might instead give the highest possible rewards. Fisher can also reduce certain fish into aethersands like the other classes.

For certain fish, you also have to consider bait, weather, and time alongside the correct type of hookset to be able to catch it. This can make certain fish give huge rewards at the cost of the fish being rare or hard to catch.

To gain a higher Collectability rating on your Fisher, you want to be using Patience II because it increases the chance of landing larger fish. Aside from that, you also want to use Identical Cast to be able to hook the fish a second time easily. Double Hook will not give you two collectables at once.

The main differences in gathering collectables using Spearfishing are the skills available to collect fish and the ability to isolate the fish based on the speed and size of the fish you want. Nature's Bounty is the main way to gather collectables while Spearfishing because you can easily catch the fish.

To learn more about the various skills available to Fisher, check out our guide linked below.