What am I Missing?

[RiversideGuy]

Aren't "ephemeral" nodes the ones called "unpoiled" in the game?

Looking at this:

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Ephemeral_Nodes

I visit 2 particular spots (looking for reducing collectibles for firecrystals) I am there, on the right class, during the time period and one I was there as the clock turned over. No was spawned or did spawn. What am I missing??

[Kirika-]

Ephemeral Nodes are not like Unspoiled or Legendary ones, as they only show on your mini map when you are near them, like regular node.... As in they do not give you a directional indicator from anywhere in the zone like Unspoiled/Legendary, so you need to be at the general area of the spawn location to see them on your mini map.
The Ephemeral nodes will also have a special icon on your mini map, different from the regular nodes or Unspoiled node, having a couple stars around the node type icon, but not "glowing" like Unspoiled/Legendary.

They generally will spawn "in the middle" of a "triangle area" between the three sets of regular nodes in the general area, and they are linked to those nodes as explained below.
They will also disappear after you collect from them, but will reappear after you open 2 or more of the regulator nodes nearby, as long as you're in the time frame of it's spawn window.
This is why you will see gatherers hit the Ephemeral node for the collectables, fly off to 2 or 3 other regulator nodes and open then close them, and then fly back to where the Ephemeral node spawns, as that "resets" the Ephemeral node to respawn.

Finally, once their spawn timer runs out, they poof even if you have the node open, unlike Unspoiled/Legendary nodes which you can "hold open" past their timer, so make sure you have plenty of time left when working the collectable rating up, so you don't waste your GP for a poof.

This website is great for tracking the spawn windows for gathering locations:

https://garlandtools.org/bell/

[RiversideGuy]

Ah, was missing a whole lot... thanks for clearing it up!

Uh, still a bust... followed your advice to a T, the wiki told me the time and location of the e-node, I flew there, scouted out the surrounding nodes, yes a pair at each point of the triangle around the spawn location. Nothing ever showed up on the minimap, I even flew around opening several of the regular nodes at each point on the triangle.

I even tried messing with garland tools... had no clue what I was doing but got a list that seemed to show me what I was looking for, except in a totally different location and time than what the wiki told me (just same zone). AND it was on an island with no other "regular" mining nodes. AND garland said it was only active for 36 mins... AND the listed local time did not match with the ET... off by half an hour.

Wasted hours trying to find this "ephemeral node" and I see it's accurately named...because it doesn't actually exist!

[Kirika-]

Hum... OK, can you list the node(s) zone/location you were trying to track down?

As for Garland Tools, the timers are fairly accurate, maybe just off by 1~2m EzT (Eorzea Time) for the description times, but the Timer/Tracking bar is in your local real world time.

For example:





In this example, the node will spawn in game at 4am EzT.
If the Galand Tool progress bar is Green, then it is currently spawned and will last until the duration timer reaches 0:00, in image it is 2m 30s left in real world time before it poofs.
If the progress bar is Gray, then the node is in it's cool down phase and will spawn after the duration timer reaches 0:00.

The real world time shows your current real world time.
If progress bar is Green, the time is just your current time, whatever time zone you are in and assuming your PC/Console has it's time set to match your current time zone.
If progress bar is Gray, the time is when the next spawn will happen, in your real world time.

EzT doesn't equal real world time.
One real world minute = about 20 minutes EzT, so a "24 hour EzT day cycle" is 1 hour 10 minutes real world time.
In the case of this specific node, it spawns in game at 4:00AM EzT, lasts about 2 hours EzT, then poofs.
This translates in real world time too it spawns every 1 hour 10 minutes and last about 6 minutes, then poofs.

Basically, Garland Tools does the work of calculating the snyc between EzT and real world time, so it displays per your local real world time when something spawns and for how long in game.

[RiversideGuy]

Thanks for hanging in there... let's start with this:



then this:



I tried the wiki location several times, right location, right timing, it did have 3 pairs of regular nodes in a triangle around the location. No spawn during the 4 hour time slot. I even went and opened each of the regular nodes, no luck.

Like I said, I seem to have little idea how the garlong interface really works, I had to fuss with it quite a bit... I finally did a search for Churning Mists and came across this. The location is wildly different from the wiki, BUT it was an island way at the bottom of the map... I went looking for the "triangle," didn't find it but now I see they might be underwater! I still hung at the location for the time period (12-4 EzT)... nothing ever seemed to spawn.

I've never known the wiki to just simply be wrong... supposedly always a possibility.

[Kirika-]

Ah, OK I see the issue.... it's one of the wonky node sets.

That Ephemeral node set was added/moved after a rework on Ephemeral nodes in general, so its a bit different.
The reason it is "wrong" on the Wiki is because the Wiki shows the old pre-rework location.

In it's case now, the node is actually three nodes, of which only one is spawned at a time.
As in, once one spawns, you must gather from it in order to have the second spawn, and gather from it for the third to spawn, and then repeat until the timer has expired.


The general gathering location is shown via your Gathering Log, under the L56-60 Quarrying tab.




In this one's case, it is its own "triangle".
The spawn locations are:
The Churning Mist - The Lost Landlord

• 19.4 x 36.4
• 17.7 x 17.3
• 23.5 x 5.7

If you come into the zone while it is already spawned, or are above one of the spawn point but it's not showing during it's spawn timer window, then check each of the above locations to find the "#1" point to start the gathering cycle.



If I remember correctly for this node's collectables, you get Fire crystals and clusters when reducing the collectables with "Fire" in their name and Water crystals/clusters from the Radiant Astral Moraine (along with the Aethersands assigned to the specific collectable)
And FYI on reducing, you will always get a number of Crystals, but you only get Clusters if the collectable rating is high enough and it doesn't product Aethersand (Aethersand and Cluster take the same loot slot, so its one or the other, never both - EDIT: With the exception of newer content collectables)
So, if you are after Crystals and don't care about Aethersand, then work the collectable rating to around 70~80%, that way you are less likely to get a Aethersand proc and more likely to get the most Crystals and some Clusters.