One upcoming feature in Final Fantasy XIV’s 3.1 patch that folks in my free company are excited for is the airship exploratory missions. These allow your free company members to group up and ride your free company airship to the floating island sectors that until now have been places only the ship itself has ventured. There are promises of an old-skool monster-bashing experience waiting on those islands with the possibility of some of the best gear in game to drop there.
So with all of this excitement surrounding FC airships, there’s still enough time before the patch drops in November to build your own. There are a few things that you’ll need before you start, however.
First and foremost, your free company will need a free company house in one of the housing districts. Thankfully, the size of the house doesn’t matter. However, this may be the one big snag that prevents a free company from starting on airship building since housing remains difficult and expensive to come by, depending on your server.
If your free company does own a house, the next thing you need is 800,000 gil to purchase the workshop. The workshop is a basement addition to your FC house that you can buy at the inside door where your free company members purchase personal rooms. Only the FC leader or members with authorization can purchase this.
Next, your free company needs to have a fairly good stash of free company credits. Not only does each ship you make cost credits for Flight Credits, but it also costs 100 FC credits for Ceruleum Tanks, which your ship uses for fuel. While this isn’t impossible for a smaller or less active free company to earn, keep in mind that every voyage is going to cost FC credits, and voyaging is the only way an airship can level up.
Finally, your free company will need crafters and gatherers with the proper levels to gather, craft, and apply the materials. Even the first type of airship parts you craft, the Bronco-type, requires several materials to be applied by a level 50 crafter.
Here’s the catch: it’s not good enough to have the proper crafted materials in your inventory. The workshop actually will not allow you to apply the material to the airship part unless you are a specific crafter class at required level. The game is clever like that. So, while you may be able to get by on purchasing the crafted materials, having higher level crafters to apply it to the ship is a requirement. The more advanced type airship parts require up to level 56 crafters!
The next thing to consider if you are a FC leader is airship building permissions. Not just anyone can walk into the workshop and start applying materials to ship parts. You have to set building permissions just like you set permissions to the FC garden or FC storage chest. Depending on how strict or lax your FC permissions are, you may need to consider creating a new FC rank just for the folks who need airship building rights.
One last requirement to take into consideration is progression points. Each airship part you craft will take three phases, each requiring different materials. When each phase is complete, you are required to gather a party of 4 crafters together in order to progress into the next phase. The level of the crafters doesn’t matter – so you can just grab someone with a level 1 crafting class and it will work. Also, the crafter doesn’t have to be in your free company. They just have to have to be allowed to enter your free company workshop. So, if you have friends from a link shell or outside of the FC helping you, make sure your FC house is set to allow visitors!
Whew. That seems like a lot of things to take into consideration… and it is. Building a FC airship is very much a long-term project that is meant for a FC to work on together. It’s great, rewarding content for folks who love to craft and gather, and with the upcoming airship exploratory missions, it’ll begin to benefit those who love adventure and battles, too!
One last time, here’s a quick summary of the requirements I listed above:
If you have all of the above, then it’s time to build that airship!
Go to the FC workshop, which is located at the same door within the FC house where your members purchase their personal rooms. In the workshop, you will find a Fabrication Station. Here, you can select 1 of 4 airship parts: hull, rigging, forecastle, and aftcastle. It doesn’t matter what order you build the parts, but you will need all 4 to complete the airship.
When you select a recipe from the Fabrication Station, you will then be able to apply materials to that part, which you will find floating in the center of the workshop. Clicking on the control panel will tell you what materials are needed to progress, and what level crafter is required to apply the material to the part.
Once you’ve applied all materials to the part, you will need to gather a party of 4 crafters of any level to complete the phase and begin the next. Complete all 3 phases to finish the part. Parts are like regular items and can be stored in the FC chest until you have all the pieces you need for your ship.
This is a great spreadsheet that provides information on the different airship parts, the materials each part requires, and the levels of crafters needed.
Once you’ve completed all 4 pieces of your airship, it’s time to fuse them together into a ship. For the first ship, you will need 1 Flight Credit, which will cost 10,000 FC credits from the Resident Caretaker located in your residential area. To assemble your ship, take the Flight Credit and all the airship pieces to the Flight Control Panel within your FC workshop.
You can now name your airship and, after applying Ceruleum Tanks as fuel (you can also purchase these at the Resident Caretaker), send your ship out on her first voyage! A voyage is like a retainer’s venture. The ship travels to a faraway floating island and, after a certain amount of time passes, returns bearing findings. Mostly, these findings are crafting materials used for future airship upgrades or materia. Sometimes, however, it can bring back rare items.
Depending on how far you send your ship, it will cost more fuel and take more time before your ship returns. However, your ship will level up over time and discover more sectors as you allow it to explore further afield.
Keep in mind that your ship will take damage over time and will need to be repaired. To do this, you must either purchase or craft Airship Repair Materials. This is a 2 Star level 50 crafting recipe, but can be made by any crafting class.
Also, as your airship gains ranks, you will unlock the ability to have more than one ship – up to 4 – and upgrade the parts of the airship for better performance. For more advanced information on sectors, loot, and everything the FFXIV community has discovered about FC airships, be sure to check out the Airship Guide thread on the official forums.
Good luck and may your FC take to the skies!
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