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 a 16-step process to achieve level 100, item level 765 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), Phaenna (X:27.9, Y:13.4), or Oizys (X:17.4, Y:23.9); 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), Phaenna (X:27.9, Y:13.4), or Oizys (X:17.4, Y:23.9) 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.

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.

NOTE: With the release of Phaenna in Patch 7.31 and Oizys in Patch 7.41, players were required to completely max out their Type I through Type IV data before upgrading from Novice to Intermediate and Intermediate to Advanced. As such, the current maximum for each data type as of the release of Oizys in Patch 7.41 is also listed in the table.

	Novice Tier								Intermediate Tier					Advanced 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	v1.1	v1.2	Hyper	Max
Type I	200	500	700	1000	1300	1700	2200	2800	3000	3450	3900	4300	4700	5500	6300	7100	8000
Type II			300	800	1200	1700	2300	2900	3000	3400	3800	4300	4700	5500	6300	7100	8000
Type III					500	1100	1700	2300	3000	3250	3650	4150	4700	5500	6300	7100	8000
Type IV							700	1500	2000	2250	2650	3200	4000	4300	5500	7100	8000
Type V										100	400	900	1500	1800	2550	3150	4000
Type VI															600	1600	2000

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.

Recommended Missions

As of patch 7.41, the Icy Veins Cosmic Tool guide generally recommends doing specific classes of missions on Oizys, depending on current relic progress:

• Novice: class D and C
• Intermediate: class C and B
• Advanced: class B and A

For Advanced: Data Type VI is only on class A missions (additionally, it is present on all of them), but the large amount required means it is probably the longest data to complete. Therefore, advanced tier progress is mostly focused on class A missions.

• However, Data Type V has few options among class A missions, so class B missions may be helpful if data V is lagging behind.

With the gold star chain system introduced in patch 7.4, "rerolling" missions to get more-efficient ones is no longer recommended. Instead, just complete one of the available missions to maintain the chain.

• "rerolling" refreshes the list of available missions. To do this, accepting any mission, then immediately abandon it. Alternatively, players can 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.

Note that most missions are identical across classes in terms of values and the rewards, just with different names - so crafters can use a single macro for all of these crafts as long as their stats are the same on the different classes.

• For example: The mission "Additional Enhanced Fiber" is identical for Carpenter, Leatherworker, and Weaver. It is also identical to "Enhanced Alloy Component Resupply" for Blacksmith, Armorer, and Goldsmith, and identical to "High-purity Water" for Alchemist and Culinarian. Therefore, a single macro can cover all 8 versions of this mission.

Miner and Botanist

Miner and Botanist are recommended to do the class A mission "Mineral Gravitational Stabilizers" (MIN) and "Fibrous Gravitational Stabilizers" (BTN) on Oizys, due to the large payout of Data Types II and III.

Otherwise, prioritize batches of missions that are located close to each other, to reduce travel time. Class A missions are likely best to ensure progress on Data Type VI, but dipping into class B for progress on Data Type V may be helpful if it lags behind.

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

Icy Veins does not have a recommendation for Phaenna-based missions to upgrade the rod to i750. For this, PerryTheFridge's video guide is effective.

PerryTheFridge's Phaenna fisher relic guide

Cosmic Tools Table

Tool Tier	Level	IL	Bonus	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%
Advanced Tier
Stellar v1.1	100	755	+35%	+35%	+10%
Stellar v1.2	100	760	+35%	+35%	+20%
Hyper	100	765	+35%	+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. However, as of patch 7.31, Cosmic Needle and Round Knife v0.1-0.8 are still missing the "Prototype" in the name.
• 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".
• Prior to the release of Phaenna, players in the level 80-90 range were be unable to upgrade their tools to the v0.6 (level 80) stage because type III data, which is required for the upgrades, was only awarded from Class B (level 90) or higher missions on Sinus Ardorum. Phaenna added class C missions that awarded type III data, working around this oversight.
• 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