Character Shards

Character shards can be used to limit break units. Limit breaks will allow a unit to increase their maximum level and combo rate as well as access additional jobs and gear slots. You can also transmute a unit you don't own with character shards, although the cost rises with the unit rarity and this is rarely efficient for any unit above 2 star rarity unless they are a free event unit. In addition to character specific shards, there are also elemental shards that can be used as replacements for them.

Summonable Units

For units acquired through summoning, there are a few primary ways to acquire character shards.

Summoning Duplicate Units/Soul Summon

This will provide a quantity of character shards relative to the rarity of the unit. You receive 25 shards for a 5 star unit, 20 for 4, 15 for 3. Unit shards which are 1 or 2 star can be acquired via the normal summon. In addition, sometimes some summon banners provide shard selector or random shard tickets for specific units as bonus rewards for certain steps.

Farming Character Shards

Some units (typically older ones) are available for farming via hard versions of story quests that drop their shards. Each quest can be repeated up to 3 times a day and you receive one shard for that specific unit each time you complete it.

To see a list of units which are currently farmable, you can go to the hard section of the story quests and click "Select by Unit" or you can check the Farmable Character Shards list. Alternatively, you can go to a unit's limit break screen and if there is a quest available to farm their shards, you will see it listed there.

Over time, almost all non-collaboration units are expected to receive a permanent hard quest for farming shards (based on the JP version of the game). It is expected that we will not see farming for Balt, Mielikki, Lucretia, Eve and Fraise for a long time as those were just recently added in JP. Time limited units such as Uzuma are also not expected to receive farm quests for a long time as they were either recently added or don't have them yet in JP.

You do not have to have a unit to farm their shards, and if you have spare AP, it might be a good choice to farm some of the better unit shards prior to obtaining them so you will be able to limit break them further once you obtain them. It is also possible to transmute a unit from farmed shards, but it is typically not a good idea for any unit above 2 stars as the amount of shards required is so high.

Purchasing Character Shards

There are some character shards available for purchase via zeni or gems in the Normal Shop and sometimes the Secret Shop. In addition, some 1 and 2 star unit shards can be purchased via the Multi Coin Exchange.

Soul Exchange Shop

You can purchase 3 shards of older 4 or 5 star units via the Soul Coin Exchange shop if you have soul coins. These soul coins are only obtained by trading in excess shards for units you have already reached maximum limit break on, so this is typically only an option once you have been playing for more than a few months.

Other Coin Exchange Shops

In addition to the permanent coin exchange shops, there are often temporary event specific coin exchange shops which may make some unit shards available for purchase via those coins.

The Advent of Phantoms

The Advent of Phantoms event quest has different unit shards available each day through a very difficult quest. If all missions are completed successfully you can obtain 15 shards. You can repeat the quest, but you can only get the shards from each mission reward once, even on reruns.

Collaboration Units

Units acquired from collaboration events do not receive permanent unit shard farming, but some do receive temporary shard farming during their events (for example, the Final Fantasy XV collaboration provides a hard quest during the event to acquire tickets to summon unit shards). Collaborations also often provide bonus shards via other sources, such as login bonuses, special coin shops and challenge board rewards. Their shards can also sometimes be obtained via The Advent of Phantoms.

Free Event Units

For free units acquired via special events, you typically will receive enough shards to transmute the unit from the first stage of the event. Additional shards for the unit can typically be acquired via milestone rewards, drops within the event quests, or occasionally from mission challenge rewards. Typically free event units can be raised to maximum level (85) via the shards available in their events, although some events make the shards easier to acquire than others. Some special cases are not farmable but do give shards through milestones or other rewards and don't yet have enough shards available via the milestones to raise to 85, such as Soren from Magni Historia who can currently only be raised to 70.

Arena Coin Units

There are currently two units, Lotiyah and Yuan, which can only be acquired via the Arena Coin Exchange.

Elemental Shards

In addition to shards that are specific to a unit, there are also generic shards that are specific to an element which can replace a character shard for any unit of that element. In addition there are rainbow shards which can be used to replace a character shard for a unit of any element. These shards are not plentiful and can't be farmed in quantity, but they can be acquired from the more difficult event quests and occasionally from other sources. It is recommended that you save these shards for very good units which are limited (not part of the general summon pool), especially in the case of rainbow shards.

Login Bonus

If you log in every day, you will receive 5 elemental shards of each color, including rainbow every 30 days from the login bonus. In addition there are sometimes elemental shards rewarded as special event login bonuses.

Mystic Tower Veda

The Mystic Tower Veda event returns roughly monthly and has elemental shard rewards for completing some floors for the first time. From clearing all 100 floors you can gain 75 rainbow shards and 75 of each element shards.

Event Quest Rewards

Some harder event quests (primarily EX but not always) provide elemental shards as rewards from mission challenges or occasionally from milestone rewards. Most of these events are only available for a short time (typically 2 weeks) but some are permanently available.

Permanent Event Quest Elemental Shard Rewards

Event	Quest	Reward	Type	Requirement for Reward
Blue Flame & Scarlet Blood Tide	Episode 5	Light Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Clear without mercenary
Nightmare Memories	Episode 5	Dark Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Clear without mercenary
Young Sweeper	Episode 5	Thunder Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Kill all foes
Everlasting Love and Small Adventures	Episode 5	Water Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Clear without mercenary
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 1	Entrusted Justice [EX]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 15	Mission Challenge	Clear without continues
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 1	Entrusted Justice [EX]	Fire Soul Shard x 20	Mission Challenge	Max 30 skills used
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 1	Entrusted Justice [EX]	Light Soul Shard x 20	Mission Challenge	No deaths
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 2	Demonic Spearman [EX]	Fire Soul Shard x 20	Mission Challenge	Clear without mercenary
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 2	Demonic Spearman [EX]	Dark Soul Shard x 20	Mission Challenge	No items used
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 2	Demonic Spearman [EX+]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 15	Mission Challenge	Clear before reinforcements
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 3	Arrow of Destiny [EX]	Wind Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	No deaths
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 3	Arrow of Destiny [EX]	Thunder Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	Clear without continues
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 3	Arrow of Destiny [Bonus Rewards] [EX]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	No deaths
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 3	Arrow of Destiny [Bonus Rewards] [EX]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	Kill 3+ foes in one blow
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 4	Inherited Cause [EX]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Kill all foes
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 4	Inherited Cause [EX]	Water Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Clear with only Water type units
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 4	Inherited Cause [EX+]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Kill all foes
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 4	Inherited Cause [EX+]	Water Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	Clear with only Water type units
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 5	Fallen Sun [EX]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Kill 3+ foes in one blow
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 5	Fallen Sun [EX]	Water Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Max 15 skills used
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 5	Fallen Sun [EX+]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Kill 3+ foes in one blow
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 5	Fallen Sun [EX+]	Water Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	Clear without mercenary
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 6	Two Swords, Two Wills [EX]	Water Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	Clear with max 4 units
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 6	Two Swords, Two Wills [EX]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Clear without mercenary
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 7	Laws of a Fluctuating World [EX]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	No deaths
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 7	Laws of a Fluctuating World [EX]	Dark Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	Kill 4+ foes in one blow
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 8	Lion Monarch's Charge [EX]	Thunder Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Clear with max 4 units
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 8	Lion Monarch's Charge [EX]	Wind Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	No deaths
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 8	Lion Monarch's Charge [EX]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Kill 3+ foes in one blow
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 9	The Destiny Harbored by the Lion Monarch [EX]	Dark Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Clear with max 4 units
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 9	The Destiny Harbored by the Lion Monarch [EX]	Fire Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	No deaths
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 9	The Destiny Harbored by the Lion Monarch [EX]	Light Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Kill 3+ foes in one blow
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 10	After the Deep Blue Sky [EX]	Water Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	Clear while killing the last foe with Kagura
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 10	After the Deep Blue Sky [EX]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	Complete all quest mission conditions in a single try
Sacred Stone Memories - Chapter 11	A Wish that Transcends Space and Time (Part One) [EX]	Dark Soul Shard x 5	Mission Challenge	Clear while using Chloe as a main member
Shadow Plane Karma - Little Serpent Princess	Little Serpent Princess [Extreme Hell]	Rainbow Soul Shard x 10	Mission Challenge	Clear while keeping Undead Familiar alive

Other Sources

In addition to the more reliable sources of elemental shards, you can sometimes get them from alternative sources, such as bonus rewards from certain steps of summon banners, bundles, or for gems or special coins from event specific shops.