Cosmic Tools

By participating in Cosmic Exploration, players can obtain and upgrade class-specific level 100 Cosmic Tools for Disciples of the Hand and Land.

Lore

“

Searchingway wants you to join the Cosmic Exploration Initiative! Research and develop cutting-edge artisan's tools, all the while furthering the team's preparations for a maiden voyage to stars yet uncharted!

— Patch 7.2 Official Site

Obtaining Cosmic Tools

By using the   Cosmic Prototype Coffer obtained by completing A Cosmic Homecoming, players may obtain the first cosmic tool prototype of their current class. The base version of these tools starts at level 10 (item level 10) and can be upgraded through an eight-step process to achieve level 100, item level 720 tools. Additional upgrades will be made possible in future patches.

Players may obtain subsequent prototypes free of charge by speaking with Researchingway in Sinus Ardorum (X:21.1 Y:21.8) or Phaenna (X:27.9 Y:13.4), selecting "Inquire about cosmic tools", and choosing a class. If players ever lose an upgraded tool, they can speak with this NPC again to receive a free replacement (maintaining all research data) without needing to start from the beginning.

Research Data

By completing stellar missions, players will obtain research data points that are needed for tool enhancement. These tools do not need to be equipped to accrue research data, but completing missions with a tool equipped for the entire duration will provide a bonus to zone-specific credits, depending on the tool's upgrade stage (see this table). Research data is specific per crafter or gatherer class, and there are up to five types of data per class. As players upgrade their tools, additional data types are needed.

Each stellar mission will provide different quantities and types of data, with higher-level missions providing more data and more advanced types. Completing missions with a silver or gold rank will increase the data awarded, by 4x and 5x the base rewards, respectively. Missions that require two classes will reward research data for each. More challenging missions, such as those involving Expert Recipes or with tight time limits, generally provide more data, but are not required to fully upgrade a tool. Players will not be able to earn more advanced data types for a given class until they have sufficiently upgraded the respective tool.

Players can also complete certain Stellar Successes involving unlocking more advanced mission types per class to receive cosmic tool data rewards, but these are one-time only and are limited to type I data. They will not receive cosmic tool data from activities such as Mech Ops and Cosmic Exploration FATEs.

Players can confirm required research via "Cosmic Research" on the exotablet.

Upgrading Cosmic Tools

Once players have accrued sufficient research data, they may talk to Researchingway in Sinus Ardorum (X:21.1 Y:21.8) or Phaenna (X:27.9 Y:13.4) to upgrade their tools to the next stage. Note that upgrading a tool will reset its spiritbond to 0%. Each tool stage has a limit on data that can be stored before capping out, so not upgrading a tool when the cap is reached will result in lost data.

Unlike other relic tools, Cosmic Tools are unique in that they start at a low level, allowing to players to work on upgrading them while simultaneously leveling up crafting and gathering classes within Cosmic Exploration. One exception is during the level 80-90 range, where players will be unable to upgrade their tools to the v0.6 (level 80) stage because type III data, which is required for the upgrades, is only awarded from Class B (level 90) or higher missions.

The following table lists the data needed per upgrade stage. Note that the data needed are cumulative. For example, once players upgrade to a v0.2 tool with 200 type I data, they only need to obtain 300 more type I data for that class to upgrade to v0.3.

	Novice Tier								Intermediate Tier
Stage → Data Needed ↓	v0.2	v0.3	v0.4	v0.5	v0.6	v0.7	v0.8	Cosmic	v1.1	v1.2	v1.3	v1.4	Stellar
Type I	200	500	700	1000	1300	1700	2200	2800	3000	3450	3900	4300	4700
Type II			300	800	1200	1700	2300	2900	3000	3400	3800	4300	4700
Type III					500	1100	1700	2300	3000	3250	3650	4150	4700
Type IV							700	1500	2000	2250	2650	3200	4000
Type V										100	400	900	1500

Upgrading tools to the last stage within a tier will provide a global research bonus that allows players to upgrade subsequent tools faster within that tier:

• 1-2 tools completed: +50%
• 3-4 tools: +100%
• 5 or more tools: +150%

Therefore, when considering this bonus, it is beneficial to:

• Finish one tool before working on the next (if fewer than 5 tools completed).
• Upgrade crafter tools first before gatherers, as gatherer tools are generally slower to upgrade.

To begin upgrades for the Phaenna cosmic tools, a player will need to have 3000 Type I, 3000 Type II, 3000 Type III, and 2000 Type IV data. (This is the maximum amount of data a class can have before beginning the Intermediate tier.)
Once a player has reached these amounts, they will talk with Researchingway as with previous upgrades.

Recommended Missions

The following missions are recommended by the Icy Veins Cosmic Tool guide as of patch 7.31.

If players do not see these missions in their list of available missions, they can "reroll" another draw of missions by accepting any mission, then immediately abandoning it. (Players may also reroll their missions by using Duty Finder to queue into Gold Saucer > Battlehall and then leaving. Re-entering a cosmic exploration zone will reroll all missions, and does not consume any of the ground ops bonuses.)

Crafters

All of the following recommended missions are on Phaenna.

Class	Data Types I, IV, V (Phaenna)	Data Types II, III, V (Phaenna)
CRP	Efficient Recycled Resource Utilization II	Phaenna Resource Utilization Research
BSM	Crafter's Tools	Experimental Alloy Samples
ARM	Crafter's Tools	Experimental Alloy Samples
GSM	Crafter's Tools	Experimental Alloy Samples
LTW	Efficient Recycled Resource Utilization II	Phaenna Resource Utilization Research
WVR	Efficient Recycled Resource Utilization II	Phaenna Resource Utilization Research
ALC	Refined Yeast II	Endangered Aquaculture II
CUL	Refined Yeast II	Endangered Aquaculture II
Data Rewarded (Gold Rank)	55 Type I/IV 35 Type V	75 Type II/III 50 Type V

Note: All of the missions listed above for "Data Types I, IV, V" use crafts with the same values, so crafters can use a single macro for all of these crafts as long as their stats are the same on the different classes.
The same is true for all of the missions listed above for "Data Types II, III, V" as well.

Miner and Botanist

Miner and Botanist are recommended to do "Stellar Repair Materials" on Sinus Ardorum until Data Type IV has been unlocked. Once that is done, it is recommended to do missions on Phaenna.

Class	Data Types I, II, and III (Sinus Ardorum)	Data Types I, II, and III (Phaenna)	Data Types II, IV, V (Phaenna)
MIN	Stellar Repair Materials (Class B)	Soda-lime Float Survey (Class A)	EX: Energy Panel Materials
BTN	Stellar Repair Materials (Class B)	Precise Iridized Rise Survey	EX: Optical Fiber Materials
Data Rewarded (Gold Rank)	45 Type I/II/III	30 Type I/II/III	40 Type II/IV 30 Type V

Fisher

To complete these missions quickly, see Archy's Guide to quick Fisher Relic Leveling, from the Fisherman's Horizon discord server ("Fishcord").

"Northwestern Water Inspection" and "Absolute Specimen" are located at the same fishing hole, so focus on those until data type I and II are finished for the current step. After that, move to the fishing hole for "Aquatic Inspection I" to finish type III and IV data for the step.

Mission	Data Rewarded (Gold Rank)
Northwestern Water Inspection (Class C)	95 Type I/II
Absolute Specimen (Class B)	45 Type II 75 Type III
Aquatic Inspection I	105 Type III 155 Type IV

Cosmic Tools Table

Tool Tier	Level	IL	Bonus	Bonus	CRP	BSM	ARM	GSM	LTW	WVR	ALC	CUL	MIN	BTN	FSH
Novice Tier
Prototype v0.1	10	10
Prototype v0.2	30	30	+5%
Prototype v0.3	50	55	+5%
Prototype v0.4	60	150	+15%
Prototype v0.5	70	290	+15%
Prototype v0.6	80	430	+15%
Prototype v0.7	90	560	+25%
Prototype v0.8	100	690	+25%
Cosmic	100	720	+35%
Intermediate Tier
Cosmic v1.1	100	725	+35%	+10%
Cosmic v1.2	100	730	+35%	+15%
Cosmic v1.3	100	735	+35%	+20%
Cosmic v1.4	100	740	+35%	+25%
Stellar	100	750	+35%	+35%

Bonus Effects

Upon reaching the IL 720 stage, each tool will also receive a bonus based on its class:

• Crafters: Increases to quality are 1.75 times higher than normal when material condition is Good. (Normally the Good condition only affects increases to quality by 1.5 times.)
• Miner/Botanist: Increases the chance to trigger Collector's Intuition by 20% when gathering  collectables.
• Fisher: Has a 10-15% chance to reduce the GP cost of   Powerful Hookset and   Precision Hookset by 50%.

Replica Tools

Once players obtain a Stellar Tool (phase 14, IL 750), they can obtain a Replica Cosmic Tool free of charge by talking to Researchingway. Replica tools are glamours of the IL 720-740 stages and do not provide stats.

Historical Notes

• Upon the initial release of patch 7.21, there were some text issues with Cosmic Tools. These were later corrected in patch 7.25.
• Some crafter IL 720 Cosmic Tools tooltips did not state additional crafting-related bonuses. Despite this, they still provided the bonus.
• The v0.6 miner tool was erroneously named "hatchet" and the v0.6 botanist tool was named "pickaxe".
• Upon the initial release of patch 7.31, gatherer tools in the intermediate tier had erroneous tooltip text that specified crafter tool effects instead. This was later corrected in a hotfix.

External Links

• Cosmic Research Helper - Sinus Ardorum only
• Icy Veins - Cosmic Tools Guide