Since its release, many have succumbed to the piece of land in FFXIV known as Island Sanctuary. Island Sanctuary is a deceptively deep and cozy island living simulator. Saving the world can be tiring, so it’s an excellent way to kick back, raise some farm animals, and tend to your crops on your farm—away from all the chaos. While it’s easy to unlock, the list of things you can do quickly piles up and becomes overwhelming. When dealing with a new piece of content in a game, getting to know a couple of tips and tricks can always be useful. It’s always helpful to know things that the game doesn’t outright tell you.
Enable Auto-Run
Back when Island Sanctuary was first announced, the exploring aspect of it became pretty clear—trekking long distances to and fro would be a part of your routine. There’s also an option for you to use your mounts to go to your destination faster, but when you go to the Island Palm Leaf for the umpteenth time, going back and forth can get tiresome.
If you’re too lazy to control your character, the auto-run feature is the best command to have at bay. Since playing Island Sanctuary involves a lot of repetition, streamlining the process of exploring will make your overall experience better and more efficient. I recommend mapping the Duty Action I keybind to a button you can easily access; doing so will enable you to activate Isle Sprint when gathering clustered nodes. It’s best to also keep your mount ready at all times.
You can use the Isle Teleport, but it’s only used to get back to your Cozy Cabin and nowhere else. So, if you need to go back to The Wilds, smash that auto-run button, call your mounts, and activate Isle Sprint to hasten the process of gathering resources.
Save Your Blue Seafarer’s Cowries
This is one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give you regarding the Island Sanctuary: save your Blue Cowries. Blue Seafarer’s Cowries are one of the exclusive currencies (the other is Green Islander’s Cowries) that are only available to the island. They function as the main currencies of Island Sanctuary; Gil is useless here. There is an option for you to make stuff to export for Gil, but we’ll talk more about that later.
You can trade in your hard-earned Blue Seafarer’s Cowries for the unique Island Sanctuary duds after building up your Cozy Cabin; however, I’d like to hold you off on that. That’s because Blue Cowries can also be used for several other expansions you can build on the island. This includes making your pastures and crop fields larger and funding foraging expeditions—the currency can expand new building sites. Trust me when I say this, but saving a little now instead of spending Blue Cowries like a one-day billionaire will save you a lot of long waits.
Take Advantage of Island Sanctuary to Get Easy Money
The Island Sanctuary is about taking the load off your shoulders and being the perfect place to relax. Overall, it’s a paradise where you shouldn’t think about work or quests to finish. However, Tataru’s spirit is all over the darned place. After spending some time prettying up your island, profit may become your next goal besides gathering and crafting. I’ve already touched upon this topic a bit when discussing the Blue Cowries, but allow me to elaborate further.
Earning that sweet, sweet Gil is only possible if you convert your earnings into items with the Horrendous Hoarder. The NPC can be found in your Cozy Cabin, and he sells items that you can flip on the regular market board. Think about it; you can make a killing by selling Craftman’s and Gatherer’s Materia—an item that players always look for to pentameld their gear sets.
The best part of this process is you don’t even have to spend your own money (Gil) to make a profit since you’re paying for them using Seafarer’s Cowries!
Build A Second (or Third) Workshop Early
When you first start Island Sanctuary, you’ll learn about the facilities and how some are crucial elements of your operation. During this time, you’ll be given a tutorial sequence of quests, and your Mammet compadres will help you build your first Workshop. The Workshop is where you produce Handicrafts you can sell for Seafarer’s Cowries. The time it takes to craft them takes several hours, but having a consistent production of Handicrafts will yield plenty of Cowries.
When you build your first Workshop, it fills one of the two available building suites. You might be tempted to leave the second plot open for another building in the future, but constructing a second Workshop gives you an extra set of workers to make Handicrafts. You’ll get more Cowries by establishing an early bevy of production in the long run. It also makes it easier for you to work towards building up your Island Sanctuary. If you’re focused on increasing your profits, having two Workshops early on your island is a worthwhile investment since it’ll be your consistent source of Island EXP and Seafarer’s Cowries.
Build Landmarks
Compared to the other early buildings of the Island Sanctuary, like Granaries or Workshops, Landmarks are unique because they don’t produce anything. Instead, they provide passive benefits. They’re not as vital as Workshops regarding generating resources or profit, but you should still build Landmarks whenever you can.
By establishing a Landmark, you’ll get a hefty serving of Island EXP—this is vital for ranking up your island. Plus, wouldn’t a tree fort look fabulous on your island? The difference between early Landmark options is purely cosmetic, so feel free to choose what you want!
Grind for Materials
I know, I know. You shouldn’t be grinding anything when it comes to the Island Sanctuary. After all, it is the pinnacle of coziness and relaxation in FFXIV. Still, if you’re keen on leveling up your island’s rank as fast as possible, grinding for materials is the best method to earn Island XP if you have no Visions to complete. It only takes a few minutes; you can earn up to 1,000 EXP easily, depending on your chosen grinding route.
In terms of where to collect these materials, you have two routes to pick from. The first is in the Northward Stream. You’ll find Island Sand/Island Tinsand nodes and Island Palm Leaf/Island Palm Log nodes in this route. Most nodes in this area are bunched up together, so you can complete the whole path in under a minute as long as you keep your Isle Sprint active.
The second route would be in the Eastward Stream. You’ll find Island Sand/Island Clay nodes near each other, some Island Limestone/Island Stone, Island Vine, and Island Branch/Island Log nodes around them.
Take A Look At the Handicrafts Market
When you’re at that point where we’re thinking of ranking up your island, you’ll most likely be focused on Handicraft production. But what if I tell you that to become a big shot from exporting island products, you’ll have to master the market of the Handicrafts first? Thankfully, doing so is simple; all you need to do is take advantage of your Isleworks Agenda.
First, talk to the Tactful Taskmaster to review your Workshop’s agenda, where you’ll gain access to the Isleworks Agenda. You’ll see at the upper right corner of the menu that there are some icons, with one of them labeled “Review Supply & Demand.” Use this function to be informed about each item's supply, demand, and popular trends that you can craft on the Island Sanctuary. That way, you can focus on crafting items that are high in demand instead of wasting your resources on other items that don’t sell for that many Cowries.
Take Everything You Find
Exploring the island won’t take long if you have auto-run enabled and a mount, but getting into the habit of picking things up as you trod along is a great way to accumulate nodes. It’s normal to venture out to The Wilds to look for particular items, and since resource nodes respawn after a set amount of time, you can pick up everything you see while looking for the right material.
The Most Important Advice to Follow
I’ve talked about many cool things you can do on your island, but the most important advice I can give you is to take in the sights. The Island Sanctuary can be slowly transformed into a machine for Cowrie production. Still, the pursuit of profit doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have the chance to find some relaxing peace on the island.
As your island prospers, you’ll have more Landmarks to visit and vistas to explore—it would be a shame if you didn’t take the time to appreciate it. Be sure to take time off between gathering materials to hang out on your island. The whole point of the Island Sanctuary is for you to take a load off, so why not do just that from time to time?
