Square Enix recently took the time to update players about some lingering issues plaguing the newly released Cosmic Exploration feature in Final Fantasy 14. Addressing player concerns, they acknowledged unclear instructions in gatherer missions, particularly regarding the Aetherial Reduction mechanic, and mentioned possible changes are on the horizon.
This new Cosmic Exploration feature, a highlight of the game’s 7.21 update, offers crafters and gatherers an exciting opportunity to collect resources and set up a lunar base for future space endeavors. However, access is gated behind the completion of the main story quest “Endwalker” from Patch 6.0. Though exploration is restricted to a player’s home server, collaborating on stellar missions will gradually unlock upgrades for the lunar base. New planets are set to be introduced in subsequent Dawntrail patches, expanding the cosmic frontier for players at level 10 or higher in crafting or gathering.
In a recent update, even more issues with Cosmic Exploration were identified. A Lodestone post from Square Enix delves into these problems, noting that future patches and hotfixes will aim to resolve them. One notable bug prevents players from closing certain menus after completing aetherial reduction objectives, though using Stellar Return or Teleport to reload the area seems to fix this by forcing menus to close. Another recurring issue involves mech ops, where timers sometimes don’t match on-screen displays, and there’s an unintentional item synthesis during these missions.
Further discussions highlighted concerns from miners and botanists. During mech ops, the actions Prospect and Triangulate sometimes become disabled, potentially due to a hotbar swap issue. Players can remedy this by switching classes and returning to miner or botanist, which should reactivate these essential abilities for finding gathering points and reaping Cosmic Exploration rewards.
Despite these updates, Square Enix hasn’t provided a timeline for when these bugs will be resolved. With the excitement of Cosmic Exploration and the Callback Campaign drawing players back to Final Fantasy 14, the community is eager to see how swiftly Square Enix can implement these fixes.
