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 or a high quality limited unit that is difficult to obtain via summons. 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
Most non-limited units and a few limited ones are available for farming via hard versions of story quests that drop their shards. Most quests can be repeated up to 3 times a day and you receive one shard for that specific unit each time you complete it. This is doubled during a 2x drop event for that type of quest, which typically is available for a week each month.

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. Some unit shard farms are in Babel Chronicles instead and are unlocked as you complete the chapter they appear in- they will not appear in the story quests section but under Babel Chronicles.

Most non-collaboration limited units (excluding Global Original, Genesis and Dark Phantoms) have a 1/day permanent hard quest for farming shards. These quests require that you own the unit to farm them.

In most other cases, you don't need to have a unit to farm their shards. So 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. If the unit is limited summon, it may make sense, but in those cases you should generally wait until you have enough shards to limit break/enlighten the unit to a useful level before transmuting. For more information about transmuting units, see the Unit Transmute Guide.

Memory Access
There is a special item Memory Access which can be used to reset the number of attempts on a unit shard farm. These can only be used on the 3/day farms (story hard quest or Babel Chronicles shard quest) and can only be used on a specific quest once a day. It is recommended you save these for during 2x drop events.

Event Shard Farming
Global Original units periodically receive special temporary shard farming events. Usually new units will also receive a temporary farming event. For the Global Original units, you must have the unit to complete the farm quest.

Genesis units have hard quests in the Godless Revolution event which can be done 3 times a day, but the drop rate for the unit shards is low.

Purchasing Character Shards
There are some character shards available for purchase via zeni or gems in the Normal Shop and sometimes the Secret Shop. The Bazaar will also sell character shards for units for gems. Some unit shards will only appear in shops if you already own the unit. In addition, some 1 and 2 star unit shards can be purchased via the Multi Coin Exchange. It is not generally recommended to buy unit shards with gems, but in some cases it might make sense for limited units if you can spare the gems (and in some cases you may transmute the unit with the purchased shards).

Soul Exchange Shop
You can purchase 3 shards of most non-limited 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.

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.

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 and you can farm additional shards for enlightenment, 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 (such as Fiona) and may have a limited number of shards available.

Coin Units
There are currently two units, Lotiyah and Yuan, which can only be acquired via the Phantom Battle Coin Exchange Shop.

There is one unit Blitz, who can only be acquired via the Summon Coin Exchange Shop.

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.

Note: Elemental shards can be used to limit break units but can't be used for Enlightenment, which means that for limited units without permanent shard farms, or with only 1/day shard farms, it is generally recommended to save the character shards for enlightening and use elemental shards to get the unit to 85.

Login Bonus
Elemental shards are rewarded on certain days each month as part of the login bonus. The element changes each month and rainbows are given at the end of the month.

Daily Missions
If you complete all the daily missions you get 1 rainbow shard a day. You will also get another 15 rainbow shards a week if you complete enough daily missions.

Element Specific Milestones
If you complete all the Element Specific Milestones you will get a total of 135 elemental shards of each element.

Coin Exchange
The EX Coin Exchange has 5 elemental shards of a random element available for 500 EX Coins every time the shop is refreshed (typically every 2 weeks). There are also elemental shards available in the TAC Coin Exchange. Other temporary coin exchanges sometimes reward elemental shards as well.

Box Events
Box Events such as Godless Revolution have event bosses that you can beat to acquire event summon coins. Those coins can be used for event summons which give a variety of rewards, including elemental shards. In addition, some box events have an Extra difficulty mode for their quests- these quests can drop elemental shards and can be cleared once a day when the event is active.

Raids
During Raids there are often rewards for clearing areas or laps that give elemental shard rewards, and there are often elemental shards rewarded from the alchemia port rewards as well.

Mystic Tower Veda
The Mystic Tower Veda event is permanently available 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. There is also Mystic Tower Veda - Fringe Dimension which provides another 15 shards of each element (not including rainbow).

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.

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.