The legendary sword Excalibur is one of the most iconic weapons in Final Fantasy and is one the best mid-game weapons in Final Fantasy 16. Even though Excalibur is an optional weapon in the game, you won’t have to go too far out of your way to obtain it.
You’ll have to complete a certain side quest to obtain the plans for crafting the Excalibur in FF16. While obtaining the crafting ingredients shouldn’t be an issue as you may already have all of them by progressing this far into the game, the real time-consuming part will be getting access to the side quest itself.
So, let’s walk you through the entire process of obtaining Excalibur in Final Fantasy 16.
How to unlock Excalibur in Final Fantasy 16
The process for obtaining Excalibur in FF16 begins around the time you complete the After Black Light Burns and start the Fire and Ice main quests before traveling to Drake’s Breath.
When you return to Cid’s Hideaway you can start the Blacksmith Blue’s I side quest by speaking to the blacksmith, Blackthorne. Blackthorne is visibly distressed, and this quest will revolve around you finding a way to regain his passion for blacksmithing.
The second part of the side quest doesn’t begin until you have completed the Letting Off Steam III main quest, which has you complete some tasks for Mid.
After your talk with Mid, you’ll unlock the Blacksmith Blue’s II side quest. You can start this side quest by heading to Clive’s room.
There you’ll need to read his Missives to find a note sent to you by August reading “About Blackthorne”. You can accept the Blacksmith Blue’s side quest after reading the letter here.
You’ll need to go and talk to Blackthorne who informs you that he can’t stop thinking about a blade that is so sharp and can help arm Cursebreakers, that he can’t stop thinking about it.
You’ll then head out to find out more about this sword. You’ll need to talk to Charon who’ll inform you that you’ll need to find a man named Ignac in Dalimil.
Fast travel to the Dalimil Inn using your World Map and head right inside the first inn closest to you.
As you climb the stairs and head toward the end a cutscene will commence and you’ll be introduced to Ignac who has been robbed by thieves and had his sword stolen.
You’ll need to hunt down these thieves who are in the desert. You can use the Velkroy Desert obelisk to fast travel there. Follow the quest marker to head to the location, you can use a Chocobo to get there quicker.
Once you reach the quest destination, you’ll find a bunch of thieves whom you’ll need to slay to complete the objective. Once you defeat the Inn Keeper, you’ll pick up the stolen luggage and automatically find yourself at the inn where you started.
You’ll be rewarded with a Whetstone for your help which will help you create very sharp weapons. You decide to take it back to Blackthorne, so use your map to fast travel to the Hideaway and talk to him.
Blackthorne will be impressed with the Whetstone and tell Clive that he will make you a brand new blade.
Once the side quest is completed and you receive the reward items for completing it, notice that you also receive an Excalibur Design Draft. This design draft will help you craft the Excalibur in Final Fantasy 16.
How to craft Excalibur in FF16
With the Excalibur Design Draft in your possession, you can begin crafting the Excalibur in FF16. To see the design talk to Blackthrone once more and select “Use the Forge”.
You can now hover over the weapon Excalibur to find the exact ingredients you need to craft it. You’ll need all the following items.
- Wyrrite x300
- Grimalkin Hide x1
- Bomb Ember x1
- Scarletite x1
If you look closely at the Grimalkin Hide and Bomb Ember, you’ll notice that they have a specific symbol on them indicating that they will be obtained specifically from certain hunts.
The first item Wyrrite is one of the most common drops in the game, all enemies fought in the main story quests, side quests, and hunts have a high drop rate chance for the item. You can even find them in the material section at shops after you have progressed further enough in the game.
How to get the Grimalkin Hide
The next item the Grimalkin Hide can be obtained by completing a rank C hunt in the Hunting Board. The location for this hunt will be The Cattery in Dhalmekia.
You’ll need to complete the 44th main quest, Out of the Shadow to unlock this hunt first. Since in order to craft the Excalibur, you need to be on the 47th main quest, you should already have this hunt available to you.
In order to hunt the Grimalkin, you’ll need to open your World Map and fast-travel to the obelisk, The Jaw. Proceed forward in this area and head straight before making a sharp turn at the area, The Sickle.
When you come out of this area, make sure to immediately turn right and head down the pathway from here. Continue on this path, following the roadway where you’ll find a bunch of ruins along the way.
Make your way past the Wild Nakks and continue to follow the road by turning left. Once you reach a secluded area within the ruins you’ll realize you are in the right location for the hunt to begin.
As soon as you get there your Chocobo will react and as you hop off you’ll find the Grimalkin looking down at you from the ledge. The hunt will begin and you can start off by taking out the Wild Nakks below.
They should be very easy to blitz through. You can use Ignition to group them together and take out multiple of them in a single blow. After you defeat the first pack of Nakks another one will show up.
This hunt has several waves of Nakks spawn, and you just have to rinse and repeat the process of blitzing through them again and again. Eventually, when you have taken out every last one of the Nakks, the Grimalkin will finally leap into the fight area, and you can focus on defeating it.
The Grimalkin isn’t too difficult to take out so just try to defeat it using counters and precision dodging.
After defeating the Grimalkin you’ll get a message that the Notorious Mark has been slain and you’ll receive the Grimalkin Hide as the spoils.
How to get the Bomb Ember
The hunt to obtain the Bomb Ember in FF16 becomes available after you complete the Letting Off Steam III main quest. Luckily you would have already progressed to that point to complete the Blacksmith Blue’s II side quest.
Now you need to head down to the laboratory area where you also find Mid at the Hideaway. Here you’ll find Owain the engineer and you’ll need to talk to him to continue.
Owain will give you a quest to take down a creature who produces fireballs and you can accept to begin the Weird Science side quest. Head to the Hunt Board and find that the creature you must hunt is the Bomb King who will be found at The Crock in Sanbreque.
Defeat the Bomb King to receive the Bomb Ember as spoils, and collect the bomb ash and return to Owain to complete the side quest.
How to get the Scarletite
Most of you will realize that you have a Scarletite in your inventory already. This is because before starting Blacksmith Blue II, you had to complete the Blacksmith Blue’s I side quest that also had you complete a Rank B hunt that had you fight a Dozmare. This Dozmare that you fought drops Scarletite as spoils.
If for some reason you have sold or got rid of the Scarletite you can try the following three alternative ways to acquire it again.
The first is to complete the hunt for the Fastitocalon, which you can fight at the Velkroy Desert in Dhalmekia. You can unlock this hunt after completing the main quest Riddle of the Sands.
If you are further in the game, you can attempt two other harder hunts that are for quests that you start later on the line.
One of them is Rank B, level 35 hunt of The Ten of Clubs, whom you can defeat in Vamare in Dhalmekia. You’ll also need to complete the Things Fall Apart main quest to unlock the hunt itself.
The other option is Rank B, level 36 hunt of The Man in the Black alspo called the Holy Trumpitour. You can defeat them at the Lostwing in Sanbreque. You’ll need to complete the Cloak and Dagger main quest to unlock this hunt.
Now, once you have all the items needed to craft the Excalibur, return to Blackthorne at Cid’s Hideaway and open the Use Forge option. Now select Excalibur to craft it.
