Explain Cosmic Exploration to me like I am a toddler

Sooo I felt like subbing and trying the new content, but I don't understand at all lol. What's the point exactly of CE? Is it just for leveling? Because the rewards I saw (so far?) are kinda bland? And almost everything can be bought for cheap from MB anyway? What do I do besides just good old crafting...? I saw something something about Mech OPs, but not enough Lunar Credits because I wasted them on the silly fortune wheel. I have no direction. What am I supposed to do? Why are people getting upset about botting? I don't really see a reason to spend my day crafting away. What am I missing??

The basic thing about CE is it's Ishgard Restoration 2.0 and all the crafting everyone is doing there is going towards progress to unlock base upgrades where a special Fate appears to be able to upgrade the base. You can see the progress of your world's moon base here along with all the others.


https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ration/report/


The Mech Ops are mini games where you control a bulldozer or a mecha to destroy the objectives but you have to buy a pilot liscense for that and it's also RNG since a few pilots are chosen per Mech Ops. I find it fun as a crafter and I also enjoy the challenging A rank crafting since using macros all the time gets boring, so I find it really engaging. It's true that the MB is flooded with the prizes but give it a few months and those things will go back up like the things people won during Ishgard Restoration.



There will be more planets coming to build and more along with the steps of the relic tools until they are BiS by 7.5. For now, the upgraded tools offer a bonus towards getting the lunar currency for both the prizes and pilot license. If you are chosen for the Mech Ops, you will always get a Big Bang Ticket that is good for a spin at the gamba for prizes. The Mech Ops one that has you piloting the mecha also has a rare chance of rewarding you the mount itself too.



CE is for crafters and gathers and it may not be for everyone but I feel it's worth a try for anyone.

It basically is crafting, gathering and relic grind.

One thing I really enjoy is that somebody designed those missions who understand crafting and gathering. There are many interesting recipes to craft and fishing missions which ask you to use the whole repertoire of skills you have to get gold. GP shortage is a real problem tho.

I would even argue that the crafting recipes are the most diverse and interesting recipes ever.

Mech OPs is basically just a FATE. You also have the progress to build new stuff on the moon which is basically just isghard restoration.

You can get a lot of cosmo credits to exchange for materia to prepare a pentameld for final crafting gear in 7.3.

Besides that only thing coming to mind is red alerts. They happen around every 4 hours and are 20 mins long. Its basically mission spam. Doing the same thing over and over to get points and credits.

There is a 500k points (in all jobs) mount. Its the black version of the mech mount.

You do levequests on the moon to level DoH/DoL jobs and get relics for them. There's a leaderboard for bragging rights like Ishgard had, which bots will obviously place higher on. That's it.

I understand, thank you very much for the explanation.

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Originally Posted by Rinoa_353

but you have to buy a pilot liscense for that and it's also RNG since a few pilots are chosen per Mech Ops

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I gotta say that sounds like a huge bummer. I struggle to collect the credits for the license, losing them to RNG sounds like a complete waste of my time.

Switch to crafter/gatherer. Wait for red alert (3-5 hour waits). Click Steller Missions, then Critical Missions tab from the special UI, and activate a mission for your class. Then go to the marked area on the map and do it. Repeat.

Click Return (/return) and spend Lunar Credits at Orbitingway on random loot. Then if you cap on the other currency you can buy rewards from the vendors.

That's mostly it, really. If you get into it enough, you'll probably figure out the rest eventually.

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Originally Posted by yesnt

I understand, thank you very much for the explanation.


I gotta say that sounds like a huge bummer. I struggle to collect the credits for the license, losing them to RNG sounds like a complete waste of my time.

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The license isn't consumed if you lose the lottery.

It'd be pretty funny if they were though. I could only imagine the salt.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

You do levequests on the moon to level DoH/DoL jobs and get relics for them. There's a leaderboard for bragging rights like Ishgard had, which bots will obviously place higher on. That's it.

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theres no "leaderboard", it only shows the #1 of the day
It also has no rewards tied to it

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Originally Posted by ServerCollaps

theres no "leaderboard", it only shows the #1 of the day
It also has no rewards tied to it

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I guess (Though the base needs to be upgraded more), having your character on a hologram statue for 2 weeks, you name on a board and a special effect doesnt count as any flex.

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Originally Posted by yesnt

I gotta say that sounds like a huge bummer. I struggle to collect the credits for the license, losing them to RNG sounds like a complete waste of my time.

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You buy the licence for 1000 tokens, then enlist to the next mech mission.
When you do not get selected as mech pilot, you keep the licence, so you can use it for the next mission, and so on.
When you get selected, you loose the licence, but get one token for a special roll of the wheel of fortune.
So you don't loose anything for doing the mech missions (except when you get disconnected before boarding the mech).

Beat rock, cut leaf, build things, get ticket, lottery, boring, the end

Some of the crafting recipes are interesting, but didn't need Cosmic Explo to be introduced. The pseudo-group content (missions, red alerts) gets old really fast IMO.

The main thing I got out of it was the reminder that I quite like crafting, but dislike the lunar backdrop. Gathering is not for me on the moon - I can't see the nodes.

Had this been released in 7.0 it would have been tolerable leveling content. For those of us who have all crafters/gatherers at 100 I don't feel it offers very much.

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Originally Posted by NaoSen

I guess (Though the base needs to be upgraded more), having your character on a hologram statue for 2 weeks, you name on a board and a special effect doesnt count as any flex.

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well, theres nothing permanent about it. People will forget about you 1 or 2 weeks later, as if it never happened
For ishgard I can still look up who were the top 10 of any class 10 years ago

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Originally Posted by yesnt

I understand, thank you very much for the explanation.


I gotta say that sounds like a huge bummer. I struggle to collect the credits for the license, losing them to RNG sounds like a complete waste of my time.

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We're already past the huge rush we had first week where being chosen was a huge hassle. Currently odds to be picked are very high or 100% on my server, and it's not a dead server.

Depending on where you are, swapping to low pop instances also greatly raises your chances of getting picked for the pilot mech.

you work together with everybody on your server by doing your own stuff while never ever having a reason to interact with those other people you see standing around