The NPCs that sell these ores are called either Material Supplier or Apartment Merchant. Here are their locations:
Material Supplier Locations
Mist, Limsa Lominsa Residential District (X:11.0, Y:11.0) The Goblet, Ul’dah Residential District (X:10.9, Y:8.9) The Lavender Beds, Gridania Residential District (X:11.9, Y:8.3) Shirogane, Kugane Residential District (X:10.2, Y:10.5)
Apartment Merchant Locations
Topmast Apartment Lobby (X:6.1, Y:6.0) Sultana’s Breath Apartment Lobby (X:6.1, Y: 6.0) Lily Hills Apartment Lobby (X:6.1, Y:6.0) Kobai Goten Apartment Lobby (X:6.1, Y:6.0)
To gain access to these areas, you must complete a relatively quick quest for each district. The following list shows all the quests required to enter the different residential areas, as well as their locations:
Where the Heart Is (The Lavender Beds) – Central Shroud (X:21.7, 21.9) Where the Heart Is (The Goblet) – Western Thanalan (X: 26.0, Y:24.1) Where the Heart is (Mist) – Lower La Noscea (X:31.6, Y:20.2) I Dream of Shirogane – Kugane (X:12.0, Y:9.9)
Note that for the last quest listed above (“I Dream of Shirogane”) you will need to progress the Stormblood MSQs enough to have access to Kugane.
Harvesting Voidrakes
Voidrakes can be obtained through FFXIV’s Gardening system, which was introduced way back in patch 2.2. Through this system, players can plant seeds, tend to crops, and then harvest them. To get started with gardening, you must have a house or apartment, seeds, and something to plant them in like flowerpots. But if you have a house, you can also purchase garden patches from Housing Merchants in the residential areas. So, since we’re looking to harvest voidrakes, we’re going to need some voidrake seeds. These seeds can be bought from Grand Company Quartermasters for 500 seals each. Once you have everything you need to start gardening, simply place your garden patch or flowerpots where you prefer, then click on it. You should then be given the choice to plant seeds by selecting the ones you want to use. Once the seeds are planted, click the pot or garden bed again – and you should get the option to tend to your plants. You need to do this at least once a day to make sure your crops grow. When I tested this out, I immediately tended to my seeds right after planting them. When I checked back on my voidrakes less than 24 hours later, they were already ready to harvest! One voidrake can be exchanged for 3 darksteel ores.
Mining For A Miner Convenience
Another way to get darksteel ore is to gather them as a miner. In fact, mining darksteel ore is a requirement to complete their level 50 class quest, “Canyon of Regret”. To get your hands on this resource as a miner, you’ll need to be at least level 46, and look for a specific unspoiled mining nod. Unspoiled nodes are special in that they only show up during a specific time of the day while you have your “Truth of Mountains” skill is active. The node that yields darksteel ore can be found in the Coerthas Central Highlands (X:27, Y:19) between 1AM and 4AM in Eorzean time. This translates to about a 10-minute window every 70 minutes in real time.
Dabbling in Desynthesis
Desynthesis is a feature that lets you break down certain items into different components. This can serve as another means to obtain more darksteel ore. The items you’ll want to desynthesize for thi ore come in the form of Crag weapons dropped from coffers after completing the instance “The Navel (Hard)”. This fight can be completed solo by a Disciple of War or Disciple of Magic class of at least level 70. And these are the weapons that can produce darksteel ore after being desynthesized:
Cleavers of Crags (NIN) Culverin of Crags (MCH) Guillotine of Crags (DRK) Star Globe of Crags (AST) The Axe of Crags (WAR) The Spear of Crags (DRG)
To be able to break these weapons down, you need to have your alchemist leveled to at least 30, and to complete the quest “Gone to Pieces” in Ul’dah – Steps of Thal (X:14, Y:10). Just keep in mind that not only is the item inside the coffer random, but so are the items obtained from desynthesis. So this method of getting darksteel ore is heavily reliant on RNG and not very consistent.
Ventures and Voyages
Yet another option to consider is to send your retainers out on ventures. You can set a retainer’s class to miner, and once they hit level 50, they can be sent out to gather darksteel ores specifically. The duration of these ventures will take an hour at most, and can go down to 40 minutes depending on your retainer’s level. The quantity of items they bring back will depend on their gathering stat, so make sure they’re at least geared decently. Some level 50 Highland Exploration ventures also have a chance of producing darksteel ore, but these are not guaranteed and take 18 hours to complete. These ventures are mostly used to level up your retainers so I wouldn’t suggest using these as a means to farm items. And similar to ventures, once a Free Company obtains an airship or submersible, they can send them out on voyages. Darksteel ore can be found on voyages to the Stone Temple and The Rimilala Shelf. The duration of these voyages and the number of items obtained depend on the vessel’s stats. As to which voyages to take and how items will be distributed, that can be discussed amongst the members of your Free Company.
Crafting With Darksteel Ore
After you feel you have enough darksteel ores, you can finally start using them for crafting. They can be used to create darksteel nuggets or adamantite nuggets, both of which are used in armorer and blacksmith recipes. The recipes range from lamps to armor, including the adamantite armor set. And with so many different sources for darksteel ore, I can’t say that any of them are as simple as going out and repeatedly killing a specific mob or gathering from certain nodes. This being the case, another use for the ores I would consider is to simply put them up for sale on the market board. You should check the economy on your server first, though. If you do find that there’s a healthy market for this on your home world, then congrats – another source of gil!
