The Firmament is a district of Ishgard in FFXIV’s Heavensward expansion ravaged by war. It’s the target of the Ishgardian Restoration, a server-wide activity for crafting and gathering classes working together to restore it.
Ishgard, the gloomy capital city of the Heavensward expansion, saw a lot of turmoil just in our time there.
The ravages of the Dragonsong War tore it apart. But thanks to the collective efforts of the Warrior of Light and their allies, peace settled upon the city and its people once more.
The city’s government then took the decision to focus on regenerating the city’s most battered districts, piling resources into The Firmament first of all. It sustained the most damage throughout the Dragonsong War’s long and terrible history, so fixing it up is the first step towards truly moving on from the conflict.
That’s the lore side of it, anyway.
From a gameplay perspective, The Firmament is part of XIV’s rich crafting and gathering activities, bringing players together across the entire server to aid in restoring Ishgard to its former glory.
It requires a ton of supplies.
The simple principle is that gatherers like Miners and Botanists will fetch the materials for the crafters (carpenters, blacksmiths, etc.) to use and rebuild.
There are also Concerted Works in which crafters and gatherers must work together to restore a specific section of the city on a scheduled basis.
The objectives can vary from transporting goods to raising buildings, and everyone’s activities contribute towards the progress bar. Plus these are permanent & visible changes to The Firmament. And as the overall restoration moves forward, these opportunities get bigger.
How Do I Access The Firmament?
It’s a long old road to the Ishgardian Restoration.
So if you’ve only just recently started your XIV journey don’t count on joining in any time soon.
You’ll need to have at least one job at level 60, and have completed the Main Scenario Quest “Litany of Peace”.
This is bang in the middle of the quests added with Patch 3.3, the content in-between Heavensward and Stormblood. So not only will you need to essentially beat the core Heavensward story, you’ll then need to push on a little bit further.
Once you meet both of those criteria, head to Foundation in Ishgard and find the Recruitment Notice pointing you towards the Firmament.
Head over and catch up with the NPCs there to learn where your server is at, and what you can do to help.
You can use the Skybuilders’ Board to get an overview of the restoration’s overall progress and upcoming Concerted Works.
Each server has its own unique instance of The Firmament.
Some are far more advanced than others.
The district is shaped by player effort in some very unique ways. The restoration has ranking periods, in which your participation will be rewarded with skyward points.
At this point you’re basically competing with other players in a collaborative setting to earn the most points.
You can earn these points on any crafting or gathering job, but the points will be divided between them. So it’s probably most efficient to just stick to one job and make the most of it.
Another simple note to keep in mind:
All of the materials to be crafted and gathered for The Firmament are unique to it, meaning you don’t need to spend any of your resources that might be tempting to use for other things.
The game keeps an ongoing tally of the points accumulated and organizes them into a leaderboard which you can see here – you can just change the Data Center and World to see your own.
You can also check the current scores out in-game by speaking to Ludovraint in The Firmament.
What Do I Get For Restoring The Firmament?
So what do you get for competing?
The top 100 players will receive a reward, delivered by Moogle Mail.
The top 12 players will also get a reward, along with some exclusive titles:
“Saint of The Firmament” and “Beatus of The Firmament”.
The crafting job that earned the most points will have a monument erected in The Firmament to commemorate their success.
You’ll also earn Skybuilders’ Scrips for your trouble, which can be exchanged for mounts, cool glamours, and other wares by speaking to Enie.
Tangible rewards aside, contributing to the Ishgardian Restoration is a fantastic way to level your crafters and gatherers.
It’s considerably more fun than grinding out gathering or crafting, standing in one spot for hours.
Not to mention the sense of community involved, with everyone chipping in and contributing their time to build something persistent.
If you feel like a change of pace from all the world-saving and dungeon crawling, check out The Firmament.
It’s rewarding, both mentally and practically, and you might make a few friends along the way.
