I recently entered my full-time Crafter and Gatherer Era after I realized that there were Mounts hidden behind content in the Firmament. Though I have been both a Crafter and a Gatherer since I first started playing FFXIV, I never got as invested in it as I am now especially since in the past I mostly focussed on Crafting in Tribal Quests and not much more.
I’ll admit, the main reason I never got into Crafting full-tilt was because I thought every item crafted was going to be as difficult as the Expert Crafts I had attempted early on, but now that I’m full-tilt in I can’t imagine myself stopping anytime soon.
I personally play FFXIV with a semi-Iron Man mental state. What I mean by this is that I don’t buy anything off the Market Board that I can farm towards and do my best not to take shortcuts as a good portion of my joy in the game comes from knowing that the majority of things I have, I farmed and crafted. Although this is true for me, I completely understand and support players who buy anything they want on the Marketboard.
Listen, there are so many times I’m midway through a Master Craft or something that involves too many intermediate Crafts that has me standing at the Marketboard questioning if I should just give in that day and buy the necessary items I need in order to craft the goodie I want, but alas I think you know exactly why we’re here… it’s rare that I do.
Instead, this boy seems to always find himself out in the fields gathering resource after resource even though he can easily afford anything he wants to buy. Are you ready for the most massive kicker of all? Although I knew that Cordial existed I thought it would be a waste of Gil because… well… you can just hit a few more trees or rocks until you’re back at cap.
I acknowledge that after saying that I must apologize to all the players who have been gathering for years and have poured blood sweat and tears into the never-ending pain that is waiting for timed nodes or finishing Relic Tools, but to me Gathering was so simple since I was pretty much always over levelled and didn’t need a whole lot of resources to finish off whatever I was doing. I now know that the reality I thought I was living in was all a lie.
I now understand the pain it can be to try to get 500 of the same item and run out of resources regularly because I undershot how many I needed in order to complete whatever it was I was working on. I also understand the pain of thinking you had more time to wait for your GP to come back before a node disappears right before your very eyes. Listen I made the mistake of trying to get a full set of Gathering Scrip Gear with only a handful of regular Cordials in my bag. I’d say “What an absolute mistake that was” but realistically, what a disgrace.
It’s genuinely so easy to simply ignore the time tasks take when you’ve grown accustomed to things simply taking a while and don’t spare a thought on what better uses of that time could be. I can’t say that I always pick the best uses for my time both in-game and in real life, but I have learned my lesson on how important Hi-Cordial is and will be sharing with you the various ways you can obtain this Gatherer’s Gold.
Note: If you have any questions about FFXIV that you want me to cover feel free to leave them in a comment below, you can also ask me while I am streaming on Twitch, YouTube or in our community discord.
WHAT IS HI-CORDIAL AND WHY IS IT BETTER THAN CORDIAL?
Hi-Cordial is a potion in FFXIV that allows players to replenish 400 GP whenever they are Gathering. As GP is the resource that governs whether or not a player can use an ability while they are Gathering, Hi-Cordial becomes an extremely useful resource to have especially when they are harvesting Collectables or are attempting to farm large amounts of resources and would like to make use of the Boons each node can have.
Unlike traditional Cordial, Hi-Cordial has a 3-minute cooldown, meaning that players can use it more frequently as a standard Cordial only provides 300 GP and can only be used every 4-minutes.
The unfortunate reality of Cordial is that they all share a cooldown, meaning if you pop a Hi-Cordial you will have to wait for its cooldown to complete before you use the next one even if it is not the same type. This is pretty unfortunate, however, it helps reduce the risk of bots overwhelming the Marketboard and players from getting resources too quickly.
I personally use a mixture of both Hi-Cordial and Cordial and the type that I use depends on what content I am completing. If I am farming anything that has a time sensitivity I will always use Hi-Cordial, however, if I am farming something that is more relaxing or simply doesn’t need any rush I will simply use a Cordial.
Essentially if I think I can wait 4 minutes between needing the next boost of GP I use Cordial since I’ve collected hundreds for free over the months.
HOW DO YOU GET HI-CORDIAL!? I CAN’T GET IT ON THE MARKETBOARD!
I was honestly surprised that Hi-Cordial cannot be bought on the Marketboard because it seems like a resource that would have a really great Market Value and would probably be one of the most essential purchases Gatherers make. Unfortunately, this is an untradeable item that can only be bought from certain Vendors that require unique currencies.
The best a player can purchase on the Marketboard is High-Quality Cordial, though this is a lot less useful than Hi-Cordial as it provides 350 GP and has a cooldown of 3 minutes and 36 seconds.
The following are all of the Vendors that will sell Hi-Cordial as well as my opinions on which are the most worth it to buy from. The choice will be up to the player to utilize as realistically these Vendors sell a good amount of Variety when it comes to resources and they are diverse enough that a player may want to utilize them for Gil instead.
GATHERER’S WHITE SCRIPS
Gatherer’s White Scrips are a player’s best friend when it comes to getting all the Hi-Cordial you need as they are one of the fastest currencies to acquire if you have unlocked all of the timed collection nodes, however, I have to be forward with the fact that I find this process incredibly boring and recently did it to unlock all of the Folklore associated with Gathering in a single day.
Realistically, no amount of White Scrip farming will be as time-consuming as farming for Folklore Tomes and now that I have acquired all of them I will never need to do it again. As players will only need 20 Gatherer’s Scrips to purchase a single Hi-Cordial this is easily done with very little effort.
Essentially, players will want to go on a round of Collectables, focusing on only those that provide White Scrips and ignoring those that provide the current highest tier of Scrip. If for whatever reason you don’t have the highest tier Scrip Gear take this opportunity to acquire that unless you already have the highest Tier Crafted Gathering Gear as that will always be more powerful.
Although players would be under the impression that only nodes from the most recent expansion provide high amounts of White Scrips, this is not true. Though still less than the highest level nodes from the most recent expansion, many from the expansion right before will provide a substantial amount of White Scrips even being a bit more than the lowest nodes from the newest expansion.
Players will want to bounce between the nodes available as they are all up at different times and a non-stop train is going to be the most efficient way to get this done. Your goal would be to try capping out your White Scrips in one go or at least completing as many nodes as you can before you want to rip your eyes and arms off because trust me it’s boring. I personally choose to not completely hyper-optimize when gathering White Scrips, focusing mostly on the highest yield nodes, but ensuring that there is at least a 15-20 minute break in my route so I can do something else like FATEs.
I manage to do this with Garland Tools which will help you select what resource you are trying to collect show you the timers and simply give you a better understanding of which nodes are up at the same time so you can figure out a route that best suits your needs.
In my personal experience, each node will provide a few hundred White Scrips meaning that you won’t have to worry about “wasting” Hi-Cordial when trying to farm it. In fact, if you are not using Hi-Cordial between the nodes you are really missing out on a fair amount of White Scrips as you will be relying on your abilities to get the most collects on the nodes.
For players who are below the maximum level as a Gatherer, I would still recommend starting this farming early as White Scrips can also help you get better Gathering Gear for each expansion.
With all this being said, you can also get White Gatherer’s Scrips from Custom Deliveries. Although an extremely useful way of getting Gatherer’s Scrips I tend to complete Custom Deliveries on Crafters because they are much simpler to complete than any of the turn-ins that you can complete for Crafter’s Scrips. If you have no need for Crafter’s Scips and simply need Gatherer’s Scrips I would recommend trying to only complete Custom Deliveries that have a Bonus on them as this will land you the most Scrips each week.
As Gatherer Relic Tools only need White Scrips to purchase the base Tool, you never really need to worry about “wasting” Gatherer White Scrips and these can simply be used for Hi-Cordial. By far this is the best utility for White Gatherer’s Scrips as the only other things worth buying are registerable collectables.
SEAFARER’S COWRIES
I can’t deny, that even though I have hundreds of Thousands of Seafarer Cowries, I’ve never spent them on anything to sell or any Hi-Cordial. A lot of my hesitation with this is the inevitable reality that there will always be a high-ticket Mount that comes out. This fear however will subside after next week’s patch as we are going to see some big changes to the way Island Sactuary works and the addition of a new currency.
Nonetheless, players will only need to turn in 60 Seafarer’s Cowries to obtain a single Hi-Cordial. Though this might seem like a big amount for players who are just starting their Island Sanctuary, I personally get around 35,000 Seafarer’s Cowries a week while my Island is fully automated and I am paying off all the worker Mammets.
If you are curious or have any questions on how this is done I strongly recommend joining our discord as not only do we have a very helpful FFXIV community, but we have a bot that tells you the best things to put into your Workshop each week so you can make the most out of your hauls.
With some short math, if you take into consideration how many Seafarer’s Cowries I get in a week, you could get over 580 Hi-Cordials in one week, which is more than enough to supply you for weeks.
As a final note, many players use Seafarer’s Cowries to subsidize their Gil income. There are a number of rewards players can purchase that have high Market Values for extremely little effort. Recently my fears of using Seafarer Cowries for Hi-Cordial subsided because it seems we are at the end of updates for the Island Sanctuary. Though this might not be true and we may be surprised with a large update that will provide players with more to do, I am confident I will have more than enough Seafarer’s cowries by the next major patch, even when buying as much Hi-Cordial as I do using this currency. Still, I would recommend that players who are new to the Island Sanctuary save up this resource especially if they want the Mounts, the reality of making Gil from items exclusive to Seafarer’s Cowries is becoming more unrealistic since the addition of the loot crates which provide these items.
At this point, I am confident in saying not only is it the best use for your Seafarer’s Cowries if you are a full-time Gatherer, but it is also by far the easiest way to farm Hi-Cordial in the game.
ISLANDER’S COWRIES
In my opinion, the better Cowrie to spend is the Islander’s Cowrie. Now, I am admittedly in a bit of a unique position as I was extremely adamant about getting my Island Sanctuary up to maximum as soon as I unlocked it and ended up doing loops of resource farming when I had nothing else to do and ended up with stacks of 999 of multiple resources.
I have to believe that having stacks of 999 resources is generally common though as my husband who refuses to complete tasks that make no sense has admitted that he frequently caps when his Island was automated long before mine, though he said he never converts his resources into Islander’s Cowries because he is simply too lazy to.
Luckily for players who are not as lazy as him, there is actually a way to do this quickly at the bottom of the Exports module. Players will be able to sell resources that are in stacks above any number of their liking and I tend to do this at 500 as there will never be a week where you need nearly that many of a single item.
I would only convert items to Islander Cowries as the resources you turn in for the Seafarer Cowries are much rarer and if you ever take time off or don’t send your Mammets on the right Granary runs this can heavily set you back for weeks.
I will say, that even though I have stopped making loops for resources, I still end up with stacks of 999 resources. I typically always have all the resources I need for my Workshop and don’t need to farm anything other than Lavar and Rock Salt as these were the two resources whose routes annoyed me the most, causing me to simply not want to gather them in ways that weren’t passive.
I highly discourage players from going out of their way to get Islander’s Cowries, however, if you are only a few loops away from a level and are as obsessive as me when it comes to optimizing experience, loops are extremely useful when you’re a few thousand EXP away from the next rank, especially if it unlocks a Workshop slot that will essentially help you get more experience in the long-run. I will say, although I did this previously I cannot see myself doing it again as I have way too much content I want to complete at the moment. I guess a lot of that also has to do with the fact that I was 16 levels behind when I first started Island Sanctuary.
I digress, players will need 150 Islander Cowries to get a single Cordial and while I must say that this is a significant amount of Cowries, there are significantly fewer items players can purchase using Islander Cowries and doing a quick skim of my server’s Marketboard, they don’t sell too frequently though they do sell for a good amount of Gil. As is with all Gil-related ventures you will want to balance quick-selling items and slow more expensive items in order to maximize your profits and I personally don’t have issues having access to expensive slow-selling items, meaning I can rely less on my Island making me this Gil.
Although I’d say in the long run a player will be able to obtain a lot less of this currency I’d say it’s most useful for subsidizing the amount of Hi-Cordial you need versus being the primary source.
STEEL SKY PIRATE SPOIL
I’m really hit and miss about the Steel Sky Pirate Spoil being the main source of Hi-Cordial and a lot of that has to do with the fact that every so often things that can be sold using Skybuilder’s Scrips can be sold for healthy amounts.
Realistically, depending on what Gear you have on your Crafters and Gatherers, you can make a remarkable amount of Skybuilder’s Scrips in a matter of hours, however, this is boring and is going to be extremely niche content for players to complete.
Essentially players will need to turn 40 Skybuilder’s Scrips in for a Steel Sky Pirate Spoil and then must trade this currency to a Spoils Trader for Hi-Cordial.
I have to admit that I’ve done this a few times, but it really didn’t feel worth it. Even though I am rarely out of Skybuilder’s Scrips, I’d rather just buy other things with this currency.
Realistically given the fact that there are so many other ways to get Hi-Cordial a player will not need to use it as a source unless they are currently completing achievements in the Firmament.
LEVEQUESTS
At first, I didn’t know whether or not I would add Levequests to the list of places you can get Hi-Cordial, but I think it’s worth mentioning. Though I wouldn’t recommend that players try to get Hi-Cordial by simply farming Levequests it is a decent source when you are trying to level up your Gatherers.
If players enjoy doing Levequests with Gatherers, they can continue completing them for a decent amount of Gil after they have levelled their Gatherers fully.
I did this for a while and though I made a significant amount of Gil, I simply realized that with the same amount of effort, I could be doing things that benefitted me further. Still, this is an option, especially for players who don’t have an idea of where to start when it comes to making Gil.
CONCLUSION
At the time of updating this article I only use Seafarer’s Cowries for Hi-Cordial since I get more than enough for each time I redeem them for a month of farming. I do go through a lot of Hi-Cordial a week, especially when I’m doing resource runs for things like Aethersand or while trying to finish off my achievements in the Diadem, but it feels like neither of these things are making much of a dent in my stockpile.
At the moment, I have 41,500 Seafarer’s Cowries and have purchased every exclusive item and though I’m not as religiously Gathering as I was a few weeks ago I have 283 Hi-Cordial sitting in my inventory ready to use. I realistically could have had much more Hi-Cordial using Seafarer’s Cowries if I hadn’t spent all of my Seafarer’s Cowries on pentamelding Gatherer Gear recently since I was fed up with using food for the latest resources. This was by far the most costly endeavour for me when it came to Seafarer Cowries, to the point where I was glad I waited to pentameld since I had stockpiled so much of this resource.
Otherwise, if you’re someone who doesn’t enjoy Island Sanctuary or are still saving up for those expensive Wares, I would recommend doing Collectable Runs. While yes they do take a bit of time to complete, they can help boost your Hi-Cordial stockpile while you are waiting for Custom Deliveries to reset for the week. By far, Custom Deliveries will always outweigh Collectables simply because you get so many more Scrips for the time spent. That being said, you may also want to think about stockpiling Materia with Scrips instead especially if you are thinking about Pentamelding in the future.
If players are regularly farming the Diadem/Firmament then I would strongly recommend using the Skybuilder’s Scrips to buy Steel Sky Pirate Spoils. This will heavily depend on whether you are using the Diadem to make Gil as the items purchased with Skybuilder’s Scrips truly vary in price depending on how many players are levelling and what server you are on. I’ve heard reports of an item costing 2,000,000 Gil on one server and only 1,000 Gil on another. The main reason I stopped selling things from the Firmament was that the Market board got flooded with bots that would undercut immediately and were farming Scrips at an ungodly speed. Though there are times in between that don’t have this problem, I will often spend my Skybuilder’s Scrips on obscure resources I can use for myself rather than for making Gil.
But I’m curious, what has been your go-to method to get Hi-Cordial? Of course, a lot of the choices you make are going to be based on what forms of content you enjoy as at the end of the day no matter what you do, it’s going to take a bit of effort.
