FFXIV Botanist Guide - Learn to Reap the Benefits from Botanist

Final Fantasy XIV botanist guide

Botanist (BTN) is one of the 3 gathering classes (also referred to as Disciples of Land or DoL) in Final Fantasy XIV. As a botanist, you’ll have a great synergy with the crafting classes such as weaver, carpenter, leatherworker, and culinarian they can create various items and food from the ingredients supplied by botanists. If you’re interested in some more general knowledge about gathering in FFXIV make sure to read our beginner’s guide.

So, you already know the basics and you’re set to become a botanist. This is exactly the right place for you to be right now. In this FFXIV Botanist guide, our main focus is leveling. We’re going to take a look at the class quests, skills, best Levequests and some additional sources of experience.

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The basics of botany

The Botanist’s Guild is located in Gridania. The base skills of that class are Triangulate and Auto Triangulate, they are used for finding the right trees and plants which will be sources of valuable materials. Botanists use hatchets and scythes while harvesting plants. The resources you’ll acquire as botanist will be mostly vegetables, fruit, grains, timber as well as all kinds of fibers and resins. There are two types of Botanist nodes: Mature Tree and Lush Vegetation Patch.

The class quests will require you to gather specific items, some of them can be bought from NPCs, so if you have enough Gil and want to ignore the questing, you can just buy them and turn them in. Even if something can’t be bought from NPCs, it usually can be acquired from other players. At the same time, remember that you have to get the experience somehow and actually performing those tasks will grant you at least some of it. They’re also designed in a way that is supposed to teach you a thing or two about the class and different skills.

That being said, it is best to prepare ahead for those class quests and, if it’s possible, have everything gathered before you even get the proper level to accept the quest. Gathering the items necessary for your class quest should always be at the top of your priority list. Do it as soon as you can and worry about other stuff later. The list of these quests and things you’ll have to bring looks like this:

The quest items after level 63 can only be gathered while having the proper quest active, so you won’t be able to prepare for those, but we recommend gathering ahead for the earlier ones.

Important skills on early levels

At levels 4, 5 and 10 you will get respectively Field Mastery, Field Mastery II and Field Mastery III. They increase your chance of successfully gathering an item. The rule of using them is really simple. You want to get close to 100% gathering success rate, but not overcap it. Don’t waste Gathering Points when it’s not necessary. Try to keep your gathering rate between 90% and 100%.

Level 8 gives you access to Stealth that will let you avoid unnecessary combat. At level 15 you will get access to Leaf Turn, it increases the gathering success rate for High-Quality items. It’s going to be pretty useful since the class quests for levels 15 and higher often require HQ items.

 Field Mastery – +5% success chance for 50 GP

 Field Mastery II – +15% for 100 GP

 Stealth – no cost, gives you the ability to surpass aggressive monsters but makes you walk slower

 Field Mastery III - +50% for 250 GP (when you unlock it will most likely be more than half of your GP pool)

 Leaf Turn - +10% chance of getting HQ item for 75 GP

Before we go into the best leveling tactics, we have to mention one thing. It’s a really good idea to exp a crafter class at a similar time, especially one that can make use of the items that botanists can gather. The statistics that you will be using and improving are called: Gathering, Perception and Gathering Points. At the beginning you only really need Gathering, but Perception will be useful later because it increases the chances of obtaining high-quality items.

Botanist leveling guide

If you decide to do that, then often instead of doing Levequests as the botanist, you’ll prefer to just go and collect the components necessary for your crafter. This way your gathering experience gains will be lower, but you’ll be able to make some extra Gil and accelerate your crafter at the same time. That’s also a great backup option for the times when you run out of leve allowances. Leveling most of the non-combat classes without leves is a lot of hard work though. 

At the same time, if getting levels on your botanist with the highest speed possible is what you’re after, then we recommend doing as many Levequests as you can. This way of leveling that requires the least amount of grind. Grand Company turn-ins are another great back up option, especially in the lower levels.

Level 1-5

Just gather the items necessary for the first two quests: 10x Latex and 50x Maple Sap in Central Shroud or North Shroud. You shouldn’t have to do anything else to hit level 5. If you somehow collected them all and still are lower level, just keep grinding Maple Sap.

Level 5-10

This is the tier where you’re going to have to gather 99 Crow Feathers. You can get them in Central Shroud. If you need more exp, you have a couple of options. You can check out your Gathering Log and complete some of the tasks you can find there. You could also check what materials you will need for crafting on your other classes and try to get them, if possible. The other option is looking at Levequests – the class-specific dailies, but you’re going to do a lot of them later, so there’s no rush.

Level 10-15

The class quest for level 15 requires 10x high-quality Marjoram. In this tier, you can actually wait until level 15 to start gathering that, because then you will get access to Leaf Turn that makes it a bit easier. The node is in a central shroud. Meanwhile, keep going through your Gathering Log and start doing leves. The recommended ones for this tier are The Heart of the Hedge, West Bank Story and A Chest of Nuts.

Level 15-20

For the next class quest, you’re going to need 99x Grade 1 Carbonized Matter. It’s obtainable in Western La Noscea. If you’re planning to also level Miner you can gather twice as much since it will also be necessary for that class. The best Levequests for those levels are Briar in the Hole and The Quick and the Dead.

Level 20-25

Now we go back to gathering the high-quality items, so we’re going to make use of Leaf Turn again. The chamomile can be found in Upper La Noscea. The only worthwhile leve in this tier is Nowehere to Slide.

Level 25-30

In this case, we’re going to visit the South Shard to gather high-quality Alligator Pears (of course using Leaf Turn). The best level 25 Levequest is Over the Underbrush. Of course, if you prefer to level up by gathering certain materials, instead of doing leves, it’s also good. Especially if you can make some use of those ingredients later.

Level 30-35

20x high-quality Laurel can be found in Southern Thanalan. Don’t forget about Leaf Turn, at level 35 you’ll get 

Leaf Turn II. It costs more Gathering Points, but instead of 10%, it increases the success rate by 30%. The Palm in Your Hand is the recommended leve here.

Level 35-40

Now we have to visit Eastern La Noscea and find some high-quality Ramhorn Zucchini. The new and improved Leaf Turn II will help with that. As far as the Levequests go, we recommend Catch My Drift and A Stash of Herbs.

Level 40-45

To complete the next Class Quest we have to gather 20x high-quality Mistletoe in Coerthas Central Highlands. The best leves in this tier are Sign of the Crimes and Plauge on Both Our Forests.

Level 45-50

For the all so important level 50 Class Quest you’re going to need three Spruce Logs. To gather them, you have to find an Unspoiled Node in Coerthas Central Highlands. Unspoiled Nodes are a unique mechanic that takes a moment to get used to.

First of all, you’re going to have to track Eorzea time, 24 hours in Eorzea equal about 70 minutes in real life. Unspoiled nodes spawn every 12 hours of Eorzean time and last for 2 hours. Which means roughly 35 minutes between spawns and 6 minutes lifespan. The best way to harvest them is finding a website that tracks those timers and using that information.

We recommend waiting till level 50 with gathering those because at that level you’ll unlock 

The Toil of the Pioneer, a skill that’s extremely important for botanists in harvesting Unspoiled Nodes. The best Levequests at level 45 are See How They Shine and Caught in the Long Grass.

Level 50-60

Level 50 used to be the level cap for Final Fantasy XIV but isn't anymore. Heavensward and Stormblood increased it first to 60 and then to 70. From this moment you will get new Class Quests and Levequests every two levels instead of five. Make sure you take the last quest from Fufucha in Gridania and go to Ishgard, now this is where you’ll get your Class Quests.

Level 53 Class Quest requires 10 high-quality Cyclops Onions that can be harvested at Dravanian Forelands. For the level 55 quest, you will need 10 high-quality Emerald Beans from the Churning Mists. The next one demands 10 high-quality Birch Logs from the Sea of Clouds and for level 60 you have to gather 3 high-quality Chysahl Greens that can be found in Coerthas Western Highlands. Remember to use the Leaf Turn II to make it easier.

This is also the time when you get some more possibilities of leveling your botanist. The first one of them is turning in collectibles in the scrips system. This is how it works for botanists. First, you have to complete the quest Inscrutable Tastes given by Morgayne in Ishgard. After that, you need to check what items are the most desired in Rowena’s House of Splendor. Then you have to harvest them from Unspoiled Nodes while making use of 

Collector’s Glove and 

Methodical Appraisal. Finally, you have to turn them in for your rewards. This is by far the most efficient way of getting experience on gatherers, but it requires chasing the Unspoiled Nodes.

You can always default to Levequests, but post 50 they’re just not that great, especially since you simply have a much better option in gathering collectibles for scrips.

Level 60-70

At this point gathering, collectibles are still your go to experience source. The other one that’s worthwhile is the Namazu Beast Tribe Quests. You will have to complete a chain of side quests to unlock them, but they are definitely worth it, especially if you don’t have the luxury of playing whenever you want and can’t (or don’t want to) really chase the Unspoiled Nodes. Namazu dailies are really simple and they give worthwhile rewards.

You will have to harvest more Unspoiled Nodes and Ephemeral Nodes. The latter act like Unspoiled Nodes that can be refreshed by harvesting other, surrounding nodes. They’re mostly useful for gathering collectibles to later turn in for scrips. Ephemeral Nodes also last twice longer, which makes it 4 Eorzean hours which is almost 12 Earth minutes.

The level 63 Class Quests requires gathering three Wild Popotoes, you can find them in the Vegetation Patches in the Fringes. Level 65 quest demands five Walker’s Popotoes that you can gather in the East Othard Coastline. To complete the level 68 quest you have to harvest eight Nanoriso by Rasen Kaikyo. Finally the highest level 70 Class Quests requires harvesting five Rhalgr’s Streaks in the Royal Hunting Grounds.

That's it for our FFXIV Botanist leveling guide if you followed our tips you should reach 70 by now. Good luck harvesting different kinds of plants in all the wonderful regions of Eorzea!

Non-combat classes in FFXIV

This is one of the quickest roads to level 70 for a botanist in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. The way that Square Enix designed the non-combat professions might seem a bit extreme to some of the players. You get a total of 11 different crafting gathering classes that are entirely focused on the economy and if you want access to them you have to level up all of them. They're great if you want to make some in-game money without having to farm monsters. An important thing about crafters is the fact that leveling subsequent ones is always easier than the previous because most of the gear is the same for all the DoH. The same goes for gatherers. 

Eight of those professions are Disciples of Hand (DoH). They are Alchemist, Armorer, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Culinarian, Goldsmith, Leatherworker and Weaver. The gathering classes are Botanist, Miner, and Fisher.

They have their own class quests and side quests, upgrading gear on them is also super important to get access to some of the high-level components. Botanist is a great choice if you want to make some more Gil spend on all kinds of endgame content. This class synergizes well with multiple crafters and can prove to be incredibly useful.

Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is an MMORPG developed and published by Square Enix. Since its re-release 6 years ago, in 2013 it managed to create a huge community full of friendly and helpful players. A great number of people enjoy traveling through the realm of Eorzea 

Players can choose from a number of combat classes and later advance them into jobs. In FFXIV equipping another weapon is enough to easily switch class or job for free. The combat classes are Gladiator, Marauder, Archer, Lancer, Rogue, Pugilist, Arcanist, Conjurer and Thaumaturge. 

Jobs that they can later advance into are Dark Knight, Warrior, Paladin, Scholar, White Mage, Astrologian, Dragoon, Ninja, Monk, Samurai, Bard, Machinist, Summoner, Black Mage, Red Mage, and Blue Mage. Every one of them has it's special actions and tools which enforce learning different playstyles. It's especially true in dungeons where role-playing is extremely important. Tanks have to absorb damage, DPS have to kill enemies and supports the need to keep their teammates alive.

Pick your favorite classes, jobs, and playstyles, to have even more fun in this MMORPG. There's always a new update or expansion pack being introduced to the game, as developers continue to improve and expand the game, so there's a lot to do in Eorzea. 

If you're interested in more Final Fantasy XIV content, check out all of our posted FFXIV Guides and News!