Island Sanctuary Farming Guide – Final Fantasy XIV

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Emily Medlock

Emily is our resident MMORPG specialist here at Final Fantasy Insider. While she has a soft spot for the FF main titles, it is FFXIV that has truly sank its hooks into her psyche, and as a result, her free time is usually spent grinding away online. Outside of FFXIV, she loves mainstream RPGS and survival games, with Ark Survival Evolved being her main squeeze.

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Final Fantasy XIV Island Sanctuary farming guide would have helped me on day one of 6.2. It took me a while to find out how to gather my crops and which crops I should plant.

But after I did, it opened up a whole new world on the Island Sanctuary. While the animals on the Unnamed Island are basically your pets, the crops are all for farming. Did someone say farming simulator?

Note: This guide refers to gardening and produce farming on the island. It does not refer to farming notes, which would be considered gathering which happens in “gather” mode on the Isleworks menu.

Island Sanctuary Farming FFXIV Roundup

While Island Sanctuary can be a lot to take on, try to chill and enjoy everything it offers. Farming on the island won’t make you any Gil, but you can feed your animals or sell the produce for island currency. 

To begin farming, take one of the vegetables you can gather in The Wilds and plant it in your Croplands. The Croplands are located up the path just before the wilds.

This is where you will sow seeds, water plants, and harvest them. When you have the food, you can make feed for your animals which will sustain them, ensuring they are well and bring you gifts. 

Steps To Farming In FFXIV Island Sanctuary

There are only a few things you need to do to get to start farming in FFXIV Island Sanctuary. There are ten plants that you can grow, but I recommend starting with whatever you have. For me, that was the pumpkin seeds.

Gathering Seeds

You will see a ton of pumpkin seeds outside the village to the right. That’s what I started with. The first seeds that you plant will need to be gathered in the wild. There are ten types of seeds, but not all of them can be gathered.

Some of them are purchased from the vendor gardener. But you can gather some to get you started. To gather seeds, just put yourself in “gather” mode, and you can harvest them. Vegetable and fruit plants give seeds in the wild.

Watering Crops

After you sow crops, you must water them. You can tell when crops need to be watered by looking at the dirt or talking to the gardener, who will tell you how much water each crop has.

As far as I know, crops will die after three days without water. I’ve never let this happen as I water them every day. The rain also counts as watering plants, so you don’t have to water them when it rains.

Planting Seeds

To plant seeds, set yourself to “sow” mode, and then click on the box to the right of that to pick what you will plant. From there, click on the arrows in the croplands. That’s all there is to it.

After you water them, you can leave them alone for a whole day, and nothing bad will happen. So enjoy the rest of the island, or gather more seeds while you’re waiting. The Island Sanctuary requires a lot of waiting.

Harvesting Crops

To harvest crops, set yourself to “gather” mode and gather them like they are wild plants. The plants will give you fruits and vegetables rather than seeds. This is how you get food to feed your animals.

There are three types of feeds you can make your animals. We’ll go over that later. But for now, you can either keep them in your inventory or sell them for Seafarer’s Cowries at your Hideaway. 

Tips For Island Sanctuary Farming

Farming isn’t straightforward, and the guide in-game is lacking. You can click the question mark at any time for help, but there isn’t much help there yet. The tutorial is also lacking, but these tips may fill in the gaps.

Crop Growth Times

Crops take two days to grow most of the time. The exact growth time of each plant is written in the seed description. Read the description to find out if the seeds you’re planting will take longer than that.

This is two real days, not two in-game days. So you really have to wait a full 48 hours for your plants to grow, which is a little more than 48 days in-game. This is still a short amount of time for plants to grow, as most will take around 90 in real life.

Unlocking More Cropland

To unlock more cropland, all you have to do is rank up your island and complete visions. You get your first cropland extension (with 1,000 Seafarer’s Cowries) early on and the second a few levels later. As of right now, there are only three cropland plots you can unlock.

These three together allow you to harvest up to 20 crops at a time. Since you also can have a max of 20 animals on your island at a time, this works out perfectly and even gives extra since you can make three feed at a time. 

Continue reading the following guide to learn more about Visions in Island Sanctuary.

Making Feed for Animals

The primary purpose of crops right now is to make food for your animals. You can mix and match the vegetables and fruit to make the food. The better the food, the happier your animals will be.

There are three types of food; your animals can eat any of them. But the happiness of the animals is affected by the type of good you give. They are happy with any of them, but their happiness increases more – and has a higher cap – with better foods. 

Gardener Job and Utility

The gardener that stands near the cropland can provide seeds for you if you talk to him. He can also tell you how your crops are doing. But most importantly, you can hire him to plant and gather crops for you for a Seafarer’s Cowries fee.

They only require a few cowries per plant daily, so it doesn’t add up to much. But there are times when you have more time than you do cowries, and that’s when you do all the work on your own. 

Every Crop In Island Sanctuary

There are currently ten crops that you can plant and harvest in the Island Sanctuary. Some are rarer than others, but they can all be used to feed your animals on the Unnamed Island.

Isleberry

The isleberry is FFXIV’s version of a strawberry. These don’t grow in the wild and must be purchased from the gardener. They are the only traditional fruit on the island, so I think they will be special later. 

Island Popoto

The island popoto is the potato on the island, which is also another name for Lalafell. I’ve had the most luck finding popotos near the Chocobo in the very top left corner of the island.

Island Cabbage

Cabbage is a common vegetable that you can find if you travel the north river on the left side. Before you make it to the open area to the left, you should find a large cabbage patch.

Island Pumpkin

The pumpkin is probably the first food you’ll find. Harvest the seeds in the area to the right directly outside of the Hideaway. This is also an amazing place to farm nodes early on as the nodes spawn in again after you harvest nine of them.

Island Onion

I’ve never found onions in the wild, but you can purchase the seeds from the gardener. In case you’re wondering, you cannot feed them to your riding Chocobo, and they are not related to Thavnairian onions.

Island Tomato

The tomato is another piece of produce that doesn’t spawn in the wild yet. I imagine they will at some point, but you must buy them from the gardener if you want to plant them right now.

Island Wheat

It’s not common to call wheat kernels seeds, yet here we are buying wheat seeds from the gardener. They are also mixed in with the fruits and vegetables as the only nonfruit or vegetable.

Island Corn

Corn is another vegetable that you can’t find in the wild. This is a shame because in the past, I’ve often seen it grouped with potatoes in fruit/veggie classes. But in this case, you’ll have to spend some Cowries.

Island Parsnip

Parsnips spawn in the area to the northwest but not at the very top. So stop before you get there, and you will see them scattered about the ground. I gathered them without even noticing what they were.

Island Radish

Radishes are yet another vegetable that you have to buy. Each vegetable doesn’t have a special place in FFXIV yet, but perhaps they will in a future patch whenever new recipes are released.

Feed For Animals In Island Sanctuary

There are three foods you can make for your animals in Island Sanctuary. After you unlock all three, it’s best to stick to the best you can make, as the better the food, the slower the mood decreases.

There is also a cap on each food. The beginner food only allows the animals to be halfway happy, no matter how much you feed them. You only need to feed the animals once a day if you use the best food.

Island Sweetfeed

• Increases Mood: By 1
• Max Mood: 3/5
• Ingredients: 3x Island Apples
• Produces: 3x sweetfeed

Island Sweetfood only requires three apples. Apples cannot be planted but can only be gathered from apple trees. Apple trees are plentiful, so this isn’t a problem, but you can’t currently reproduce apples.

Island Greenfeed

• Increases Mood: By 2   
• Max Mood: 4/5
• Ingredients: 1x produce via farming
• Produces: 3x greenfeed

Island Greenfeed is the first recipe you’ll unlock. You can make it by using two of any vegetables that you farm. It will do you well for most of the game and will keep your animals happy.

Premium Island Greenfeed

• Increases Mood: By 2
• Max Mood: 5/5
• Ingredients: 2x produce via farming
• Produces: 3x greenfeed

Premium Island Greenfeed is the best feed in the game. If you give it to your animals once a day, they will be completely happy. Lucky that it makes three each time you craft it.

Island Sanctuary Farming Guide: FAQs

How Important is Farming in FFXIV Island Sanctuary

Farming is quite important in FFXIV Island Sanctuary if you want to cover your bases. Some content is locked behind it, so it’s best to keep up with every area of the Island Sanctuary, including farming crops. 

One thing I have learned on the Island Sanctuary is to take things slow and try not to get overwhelmed with all that there is to do. Check your crops once a day and use the veggies you have. 

No need to stress whenever the Island Sanctuary was built for FFXIV players to take a break from the grind of raids and relax. Gardening is one of the island’s many pleasures and should be a joy.