Relic weapons have always been some of the most prestigious, beautiful, and sometimes painfully grindy weapons in Final Fantasy XIV. From the Zodiac weapons of A Realm Reborn to the Anima, Eureka, Resistance, Manderville, and Phantom weapon series, every expansion has introduced its own unique relic grind. However, the experience of farming these weapons has changed significantly over time.
With Dawntrail Patch 7.55, the Phantom weapon series is now complete, and players are at level 100. Older enemies and bosses can be defeated much faster than when their content was current, making many older relic steps easier. At the same time, some older group content has become more difficult to access because fewer players are actively running it.
There is also an important difference between relic series today: the first weapon and subsequent weapons can have dramatically different farming experiences. Some relics require a large initial investment but become extremely easy afterward, while others can be prepared almost entirely in advance. This guide, shared by Desperius on his YouTube channel, ranks the major FFXIV relic weapon series from easiest to hardest to obtain right now.
If you want to save time, our Relic Weapon FFXIV Boost services can help you complete your chosen relic weapon without having to handle the entire grind on your own.
1. Manderville Weapons – The Easiest FFXIV Relic Weapons
If the goal is simply to obtain a completed relic weapon with as little effort as possible, Manderville weapons are easily the best choice right now. Once the Hildibrand questline requirements have been completed, the Endwalker Manderville relic weapon series is remarkably straightforward. After the relevant Endwalker tomestones were converted, every weapon upgrade can now be purchased using Allagan Tomestones of Poetics. That's essentially the entire grind.
The Manderville weapon questline consists of four upgrade stages. Each stage costs 1,500 Poetics, meaning that one completed Manderville weapon requires 6,000 Poetics. Poetics are one of the easiest relic currencies to acquire in FFXIV. They can be earned from roulettes, older content, and first-time bonuses. Weekly reset trains can also provide a significant amount of Poetics. What’s more, there is no FATE farming, old book system, special exploratory zone, light farming, or difficult old raid that requires finding a full party.
The biggest drawback is the initial Hildibrand requirement. If you have never completed the Hildibrand questline, you must work through the relevant quests before you can begin the Manderville relic weapons. Watching every cutscene makes this a substantial time investment, although players who skip the dialogue can finish the prerequisite portion much faster. Fortunately, this only needs to be done once. Once the prerequisite is finished, every additional Manderville weapon follows the same straightforward process.
Manderville Weapon Farming Summary
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Main Currency: Allagan Tomestones of Poetics
- Cost: 6,000 Poetics per completed weapon
- Major Prerequisite: Hildibrand questline
- Farming: No FATE, book, light, or special-zone grind
- Additional Weapons: Just as easy as the first
- Best For: Players who want the fastest straightforward relic weapon
Some Manderville weapon stages also look exceptionally good, making them an even more attractive option for players who want both convenience and aesthetics.
2. Heavensward Anima Weapons – Excellent with Preparation
The Heavensward Anima weapon series has aged surprisingly well. Originally, the Anima relic questline involved a considerable amount of grinding. Today, however, Poetics can solve a large portion of the process because many of the required materials can be purchased ahead of time. This includes materials such as unidentifiable materials, Aether Oil, Umbrite, Singing Clusters and other required relic materials. One of the biggest advantages is that much of this stockpiling can be completed before actually starting the relic questline. Approximately 15,000 Poetics are needed for the initial preparation. There are also later requirements involving 2,000 Poetics worth of Pneumite and Archaic Ink-related materials, so keeping additional Poetics available is important.
Once the required materials have been prepared, the actual weapon grind becomes considerably faster. With a level 100 character running content unsynced, a prepared Anima weapon can be completed in roughly three to four hours, depending on the player's efficiency. Without preparation, however, the process can take significantly longer. Players who try to farm all the Poetics and materials only after starting the relic can potentially spend a week or more gathering everything. So, the key strategy is simple - farm the materials before you start farming the weapon.
Anima Weapon Farming Summary
- Difficulty: Easy with preparation
- Main Currency: Allagan Tomestones of Poetics
- Preparation: Highly recommended
- Prepared Completion: Around 3–4 hours
- Additional Weapons: Reasonably efficient after stockpiling
- Best For: Players willing to prepare materials in advance
The Anima weapons are particularly appealing if you already have a large supply of Poetics and like their designs.
3. Dawntrail Phantom Weapons – Very Difficult First, Easy Afterwards
The Dawntrail Phantom weapons are perhaps the most unusual relic series on this list. They can simultaneously be considered one of the easiest and one of the grindiest relic weapon series in FFXIV. The reason is simple: your first Phantom weapon is a completely different experience from every weapon after it.
The First Phantom Weapon
First, players need to unlock Occult Crescent and its relevant questline. The early Penumbrae stages involve the Demiatma grind, which can take several days depending on how actively you play. Then comes the Aetherwell step, which can become another major time gate if players do not take advantage of the daily bonuses. The Crystal Paste requirement can also consume another significant amount of playtime. Patch 7.55 adds another requirement involving Phantom Dispellers - 100 Alpha, 100 Beta and 100 Gamma. Fortunately, this part is relatively straightforward and can be completed in around two to three hours in Occult Crescent North Horn.
After that, players have to complete the various Dawntrail dungeon, trial, and raid content requirements. The good news is that these major content requirements only need to be completed once. Altogether, the first Phantom weapon can easily become a one- to two-week project, depending on your playtime and preparation.
Additional Phantom Weapons
This is where the Phantom weapon series becomes dramatically better. Once the initial relic progression has been completed, each subsequent Phantom weapon requires only 6,000 Tomestones of Mathematics for the full weapon progression. That puts subsequent Phantom weapons in a similar territory to Manderville weapons in terms of currency requirements. The first weapon is painful, but after that, obtaining additional weapons becomes dramatically easier.
There is also another reason to consider farming them now: relic weapons can remain useful when leveling jobs through future expansions. Just as Endwalker relic weapons were useful while leveling level 90 jobs during Dawntrail, Phantom weapons can potentially serve a similar purpose when leveling jobs in the next expansion.
Phantom Weapon Farming Summary
- Difficulty: Very Hard for the first weapon, Easy for additional weapons
- Main Currency: Tomestones of Mathematics
- First Weapon: Requires extensive one-time progression
- Additional Weapons: 6,000 Mathematics each
- Major Content: Occult Crescent and Dawntrail content
- First Weapon Time: Potentially 1–2 weeks
- Best For: Players planning to collect multiple relic weapons
If you know you want several Phantom weapons, completing the first one sooner rather than later is a smart investment.
4. A Realm Reborn Zodiac Weapons – Easier Than Ever, But Still an Active Grind
The original Zodiac weapons from A Realm Reborn have obviously become much easier over the years. Being level 100 makes a huge difference. Players can fly through A Realm Reborn zones, destroy most enemies almost instantly, and complete older dungeons and trials unsynced. What once required a serious amount of combat time can now be cleared extremely quickly.
Unfortunately, character power does not solve everything. The biggest problems with Zodiac weapons are the activities that depend on specific objectives rather than combat difficulty. For example, you still have to deal with Atma farming, Nine Animus books, specific enemies, dungeons
FATEs and Levequests. The books are particularly frustrating because you can only work on one book at a time. This makes Zodiac weapons an active grind. You cannot simply stockpile everything in advance and then complete the entire relic in one uninterrupted session.
The good news is that some of the earlier Zodiac weapon stages already look fantastic. Certain jobs, such as Ninja and Black Mage, have particularly attractive designs. Players who love a specific appearance do not necessarily need to complete every stage. It is perfectly reasonable to stop at an earlier stage if that is the version you prefer.
Overall, Zodiac weapons are significantly easier than they were originally, but the final weapons still require considerable time and active participation.
Zodiac Weapon Farming Summary
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Main Problem: Active farming requirements
- Major Steps: Atma, nine books, FATEs, dungeons, enemies, and Levequests
- Preparation: Limited
- Unsynced Level 100: Makes combat portions much faster
- Best For: Players who particularly love the Zodiac designs
The Zodiac series is no longer one of the most painful relic grinds in FFXIV, but it still demands patience.
5. Shadowbringers Resistance Weapons – The Accessibility Problem
The Shadowbringers Resistance weapons are another relic series where the first weapon is much more demanding than subsequent weapons. Several of the major requirements are one-time quests or progression steps. As a result, once those initial requirements have been completed, obtaining a second Resistance weapon becomes considerably easier.
The bigger problem today is accessibility. Resistance weapons are heavily connected to content such as Bozjan Southern Front, Zadnor, Memories, Critical Engagements, Castrum Lacus Litore and other older raids and farming methods. When Shadowbringers was current, these areas were filled with players. Today, the number of active players varies considerably. Your experience can therefore depend heavily on Data center, time of day, Party Finder activity and dedicated farming communities. A player who finds an active farming group may complete certain steps very efficiently. Another player entering the same content at the wrong time may struggle to find enough people for an instance. This makes Resistance weapons difficult to rank purely by completion time.
The weapons themselves are absolutely still obtainable, and several large grinds only need to be completed once per character. That makes additional weapons significantly more attractive after the initial progression has been finished.
Some final-stage materials can be accumulated passively through daily roulettes, but the final requirements may still depend on finding active communities. One of the major lessons from the Resistance weapon series is that content accessibility can be just as important as the actual grind.
Resistance Weapon Farming Summary
- Difficulty: Moderate to Hard
- Main Problem: Older group content
- Major Areas: Bozjan Southern Front and Zadnor
- Group Requirement: Can vary significantly
- Additional Weapons: Much easier after initial progression
- Best For: Players who enjoy Bozja/Zadnor and can find active farming groups
If you have an active community available, Resistance weapons can be surprisingly efficient. Without one, the same relic can become a frustrating waiting game.
6. Stormblood Eureka Weapons – The Hardest Relic Grind
At the bottom of the list are the Stormblood Eureka weapons. This ranking comes with an important caveat: players who have already completed Eureka may disagree. And they have a point. Once you understand Eureka and already have progression, the content is not necessarily terrible. The problem is starting from zero.
Your first Eureka weapon is not simply a relic weapon grind. You are effectively progressing through an entire separate game mode. Unlike many other modern exploratory zones, Eureka also places significant emphasis on group participation and progression within the zone. There is a lot of work to complete before you can simply say: "I want that shiny weapon." When Eureka was current content, players could spend enormous amounts of time living inside the zones, progressing from one stage to another and eventually producing multiple weapons for different jobs. Today, the age of the content makes the initial investment feel much heavier.
That said, Eureka still has a surprisingly dedicated community. Depending on your data center, there are Discord communities and organized farming groups that can help players complete the required content.
There is also another major advantage: Eureka offers some of the best-looking armor and weapons in FFXIV. So if you love the appearance of a particular Eureka weapon, the grind can absolutely be worth it. But if someone starts FFXIV today with zero Eureka progression and simply wants one cool glowing relic weapon as quickly as possible, Eureka would probably be the last series to recommend.
Eureka Weapon Farming Summary
- Difficulty: Hardest for new players
- Main Problem: Entire Eureka progression system
- Community: Still supported by dedicated groups
- Reward: Excellent weapon and armor designs
- Best For: Players who specifically want Eureka weapons or enjoy exploratory content
Final Verdict: Which FFXIV Relic Weapon Should You Farm?
The best relic weapon to farm depends heavily on whether you are looking for one weapon or multiple weapons.
If You Want the Easiest Relic
Go for Manderville weapons. If you have already completed the Hildibrand questline, the process is incredibly simple. Six thousand Poetics is all you need for a completed weapon.
If You Like Anima Weapons
Start preparing an Anima weapon before beginning the questline. Stockpiling Poetics and the required materials in advance can dramatically reduce the actual completion time.
If You Want Multiple Dawntrail Relics
Complete your first Phantom weapon as soon as possible. The initial grind is substantial, but every Phantom weapon afterward requires only 6,000 Tomestones of Mathematics, making the later weapons dramatically easier.
If You Want Zodiac Weapons
Farm them because you love the designs. The level 100 experience is much faster than the original grind, but the Atma and book stages remain active, time-consuming requirements.
If You Want Resistance Weapons
Make sure you can find an active Bozja/Zadnor farming group. The relics remain obtainable, but content accessibility can have a huge impact on the actual completion time.
If You Want Eureka Weapons
Prepare for the longest journey. Eureka is best approached as an entire piece of content rather than simply another relic questline. If you already enjoy Eureka or have a community to play with, the experience becomes much more manageable.
