Final Fantasy XIV Submarine guide

With a Submarine in Final Fantasy XIV, Free Companies can take part in Subaquatic Voyages to explore the deep waters of Eorzea. You can pick up a wide array of rewards from these Voyages, typically in the form of crafting materials. With the right materials, you can then craft amazing gear, or simply sell the materials on the Market Board to try and amass a fortune for your FC. However, it will definitely take some time and effort if you want to make your own submersible.

If you’ve been unable to figure out how to get a Submarine in Final Fantasy XIV for your Free Company, much less how to use it, we’re here to help you get going. It’s certainly a frustrating process, but here’s what we know about it.

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How to unlock Submarine in your FC in Final Fantasy XIV

If you want a Submarine in Final Fantasy XIV, so you can go on Subaquatic Voyages, there are a few steps you need to be able to account for first and foremost. First, you need to have the ability/permission in your Free Company to add a Workshop. We’ve put the basic steps down below so you know what needs to be done before you can even get started:

• Must have a Free Company (Rank 6)
• Must have a House for the FC
• Must purchase a Workshop (800K gil)

It all goes down so to speak, in the Company Workshop (Image via Square Enix)

The hardest of those three steps has to be Having a House in Final Fantasy XIV. It’s one of the most frustrating things in the game, period. If you’re lucky enough to have all three of those aforementioned steps, you can get started.

This unlocks Company Crafting, which can be done by visiting the Workshop, and checking out the Fabrication Station. You need to make the following parts for your Submarine, before you can take part in Voyages:

• Submersible Hull
• Submersible Stern
• Submersible Bow
• Submersible Bridge

If you don’t have the permission to craft these things, donate materials in the same location once a player has set one of these as a crafting project. First, purchase the Airshop or Submersible Prototype 1 recipe from the schematics board. This unlocks the projects to create the parts you need.

It can take some time, depending on how much effort is put in (Image via Square Enix)

Then, pick one of the parts to work on at the Fabrication Station. Each part has three phases, each requiring certain parts. Have players (including yourself) donate the needed parts until you have enough. From there, finish a part and complete the project; keep it until you have everything built. However, you must have the proper proficiency with the materials donate them. So, if you need Woodworking materials, you must have at least Woodworking 50, and so forth.

When all the parts are done, head to the Voyage Control Panel in your Workshop, and select Submersible Management. Select “Outfit and register a submersible.” This requires Dive Credits, which you can purchase from the Resident Caretaker in your particular Housing District. Depending on the number of submarines you have in Final Fantasy XIV, it might take several Dive Credits. Then, just assemble your craft, and get ready to go on Voyages!

However, a lot of randomness comes into play when doing Voyages in Final Fantasy XIV, so the general consensus seems to be that the quality of your submersible doesn’t really matter, unless you’re really trying to min-max the “resource costs vs. profit per craft.”

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How to use the Submarine in Final Fantasy XIV

It's at this console where you send Submarines (and Airships) out on missions (Image via Square Enix)

Your Submarine’s stats affect how far it can travel, the time required for voyages, and your rewards; this can be adjusted by changing components, but mentioned, it’s likely not worth investing effort into, unless you’re really into min-maxing the system. The stats are as follows:

• Surveillance: Increases the ability to get rare/HQ items.
• Retrieval: Increases item extraction rating.
• Speed: Affects voyage duration.
• Range: Affects which sectors, and how many of them, a ship can reach in a single trip (cap of five).
• Favor: Increases chance that a ship may re-survey a sector.

As you send your submarine out on voyages in Final Fantasy XIV, its parts will start to wear down. You’ll need Magitek Repair Materials to fix this; the higher tier the component, the more materials you'll need. You technically don’t need to repair anything until it reaches 0%, though. You also need Cerulean Tanks to deploy your Submarine, and you can use Company Credits to purchase these from the Resident Caretaker, or the Mammet Voyager #004A in your workshop.

At the Voyage Control Panel, you’ll select a ship name and then Deploy Submersible on exploratory voyage to open the voyage map. Your ship will start at the blue circle at the bottom. So you just need to send it on a mission. By visiting certain sectors, you will unlock more sectors to explore, but unlocks are not guaranteed. These voyages also level up your submarine as well.

If your submarine doesn’t go out on the requested voyage, you might be too low level, or your ship may not have the range to get there. You could also be out of gas, so check your Cerulean Tanks.

You don't have to look far for Cerulean Tanks (Image via Square Enix)

The trouble with this system is that it’s incredibly complicated, when it comes to unlocking and exploring the seas. Each major update appears to add even more to it, making it more and more complex. That includes the most recent patch as of this writing, patch 7.3. There are two resources I highly recommend. One is on the Square Enix forums, in a thread by Legend-of-Mitsuki.

This submersible thread has an absolute mountain of information about the various areas, their rank, what they unlock, and the rewards you can get. I also highly recommend the Final Fantasy XIV Submarine Builders Discord. It is absolutely loaded with every bit of information you could possibly want about this system.

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Check out our other Final Fantasy XIV guides and features

• Final Fantasy XIV: A Calculated Evolution Walkthrough
• Final Fantasy XIV: Preservation Their Purpose Walkthrough
• Final Fantasy XIV: How to start San d’Oria: The Second Walk
• Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.3 Live Letter 88 recap