Getting Zeta for Anima or Farming Crystals?

Ive been farming fates for the past three days and I only received 2 crystals. I could have progressed far through the original relic quests within those three days. I was thinking about going back to my Zenith and working my way up to Zeta so that i can trade it in instead of doing these long fate grinds, but im not sure if that would actually be saving time.

Also, lets say I have a monk zeta weapon, can I trade it for a dragoon anima? or does the zeta have to match the anima weapon?

Crystals is faster.

Especially if you're only on Zenith. You still have to do those horrible books (which the Fates still have awful timers). Plus you'd have to spend money/poetics which could instead be used to prep for step 3

Oh and no, Zetas don't have to match. Any Zeta can be used for any Anima

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Originally Posted by Ashelia_Ferron

Oh and no, Zetas don't have to match. Any Zeta can be used for any Anima

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That means I can start from my SMN Novus. Still think crystals would be faster right? I was lucky the first day I started fate farming. I got the ice crystal on my first fate and the earth crystal on my second fate but since then ive gotten nothing and its going onto my 4th day.

yea the crystal farm is a bit punishing but getting to zeta is going to cost a lot of poetics which can be used on phase three as mentioned above....it took me about four days to get all my crystals but that was only playing 4 hours a day cause of work so it's going to take some patients...but don't waste the money or tomes on zenith trust me phase three will require all of that stuff XD

If you have an overload of poetics now, spend them on the stuff you can get for step 3 of anima. You want to be as far ahead on poetic/law spending as you can so you don't have to start from zero when you actually get to that step.

edit: It's legitimately slower to make a zeta now than it is to just grind the crystals out. Think about the fates you need for books, and the light you need to grind, and the stupid crafted zodiac items that nobody makes anymore.

Ive heard crystals is faster. However, I haven't had a single crystal drop yet and I've been trying since day one. ><

I realized crystals are faster I ended up getting 11 crystals today o_o

Crystals will take you approx 6 hours give or take, 1 hour per map. If you got good RNG it could take half of that. Worst i've seen till now is 2 hours in a map for 3 crystals, approx 30 fates or so.

Crystals took me 3 1/2 hours to finish. Zeta... probably closer to 30 from whatever step it was that I actually started counting the hours...

Honestly I think it depends on what stage you are on. Just starting? Oh no, just go ahead and start gathering the crystals. If you're already on Novus? Then you can finish zeta decently enough. Just solo run Tam Tara or Sastasha NM. You get light quickly from that. The dungeon drops also drop immediately now. And then for the mahatma light? Same as before. But with mahatma it only takes 1-2 runs to finish one off now.

crystal farming sucks ive been fate running in the same area for two days and i havent gotten a single crystal yet. the drop rate sucks for it

I dunno. The way they've watered down the zeta quests, you could honestly probably finish one in a single day. A long day, but a day all the same. Crystals can be done in a day to, but if your luck is truly abysmal, it may take longer. I did the last 2 stages of my war zeta, the dungeon drops, and mahatma light farming in about 6 hours. Crystals, took me about 9 or 10 hours all together. But, I was leveling my mnk while I was fate grinding, so it made the process much less painful since I was killing 2 birds with one stone.

Definitely Crystals. Not sure how much they've nerfed the zeta's by now but only took a couple days of very casual fates to get all of the crystals for me. Really helps to get into a fate party and just mow them down. Azys La was a pain though. One person claimed they leveled from 52 to 58 on fates alone which makes me think there's either something influencing drop rate the community hasn't picked up on or the RNG is all over the place.

Do the crystals, they're way faster, don't cost money and don't cost poetics which you'll need for step 3

I suppose not being familiar with how much they've nerfed zeta I can't say "definitely" crystals, I just remember how much of a pain it was to get my zeta I don't want to attempt again lol. I didn't turn it in for crystals neither because I figured with all the work I put into it, I didn't want to just throw it away for the sake of just one or two day's work skipped.

My best guess on crystal farming is currently around three hours per zone, though it can easily be much less or much more depending on the whims of the RNG. Assuming I'm doing this on a sub-60 job, it looks like over half of my leveling xp between 50 and 60 will be from running fates to get crystals for the previously leveled to 60 job.

3 hours per zone is generous.
Sea of Clouds took me 7 1/2 hours.
Currently at 5 hours in Azys, only 1 of 3 so far.
Too much f-ing RNG in this.

Go for the crystals. To everyone that reads this: go for the crystals. You're up against a Gil wall on step 3, it will cost you millions, and I'll be honest, I'm making a killing on the market board with the old relic items because people don't listen. Seriously, if you're spending 150-200k a piece on the old relic things you're only hurting yourself in the long run.

Took me about an hour per zone while levelling another class.
Definitely better returns than making a Zeta.

I think it honestly depends on how lucky you are. Crystal farming can be infuriating if you're unlucky.

In-between waiting for PF's for Thordan EX, DF Q's for Wolves Den/Frontlines, or other random things during which I have a lot of down time I have been farming FATEs for crystals, and over approximately 20 + hours spread across 2 weeks of log-in's (2 or 3 hours a night, depending on how fast my parties filled up) I've only had ONE crystal drop. The one crystal that I have was from when I was in a FATE party. The members of that party swapped out, in full, twice before I got my single crystal drop. That's pretty demoralizing.

By comparison, I started another old relic 2 days ago and I'm already a quarter of the way through the books without even spending the full time grinding it out. That's pretty good considering that Books is the longest stage. By the end of it, I don't think it will be that much faster, but it's comparable. It's certainly better than a 1 drop in 20 hours grind rate because I actually feel like I'm progressing instead of just wasting my time. I'm also making more poetic tomes by doing lvl 50 dungeons and and more gill by selling the loot drops, especially on solo runs where I just get everything out of the boxes. So, I'm making more progress in the final step of the Anima weapon in advance.

What is the use of the Zeta at this point? I read you can buy a replica somewhere, so if it's only for the glamour, why not just trade your Zeta for the Anima and buy the replica? But for the crystals farming, I think I've been very lucky, because it took me around 6-7 hours to get the 18 crystals. I got the 6 crystals of the Sea of Clouds and Western Coerthas in one hour and half.

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Originally Posted by Nephisto

I read you can buy a replica somewhere

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You can only buy the replica from Drake if you have finished a Zeta, specifically the quest the Vital Title.

The way I see it there are benefits and drawbacks from both methods

• Zeta: Well for starters, you have to do the entirety of the first relic, which makes it rather time consuming and you will need plenty of gil, fates and poetics, which adds something of an opportunity cost given how Step 3 of the Anima relic, but you get 9 cheap glamor pieces at the end of it all, as well as several achivements
• Crystals: generally less time consuming unless you have horrid luck, but still time consuming and still depending on RNG, the Zeta is guaranteed to get you your nodes, but you have to dedicate some time to it

Personally I'm doing Zetas for my alts for the glamor pieces anyway and Armory storage issues makes it difficult for me to work on both relics for the same class at the same time, but if you're not interested in the glamors, I'm recommend getting the crystals


Side note is that the Zeta and Zodiac replicas ARE dyable

I really hate long bouts of Fate farming, I got all my crystals in relatively generous time (I would say 5-7 hours or so) but the raw nature of the RNG aspect means that some will get their crystals super quick and others will get squat for the same level of work, which is pretty shitty. The drop rate is leagues ahead of Atma, but its still low, doesn't scale and if you are really unlucky, could spend hours or even days without a single crystal.

I'll admit I am quite lucky, but I dislike the step overall, the third step I don't mind, considering you get most of the items just by playing the game, the crafted ones I will wait a bit until they go down in price.

I just pray we don't get another god forsaken Novus stage...