As a botanist, you can get dragon peppers from areas of lush vegetation in the eastern part of La Noscea (ideally leveled up to 35).
Take the aetheryte to Costa del Sol and head west toward where your map says “The Garlok’s Lair” (X:25.8, Y:30.2).
The gathering nodes that make dragon peppers will appear in this area.
The first time you can go to Costa del Sol is during the level 30 quest “The Lominsan Way” in the MSQ.
And if you send your Retainers on certain missions, they can also get you some peppers.
But if your retainer isn’t very high level in Botany, it might be best to collect them yourself near the Garlok’s Lair.
Dragon Peppers: Pointers for Procurement
Before you go out and start gathering dragon peppers to become the top supplier in Eorzea, there are a few things to keep in mind.
First of all, it’s not very far from the Costa del Sol aetheryte to the area mentioned above.
However, there are some level 31 wild buffalo in the area, and they’re mean.
This should be taken care of by your “Sneak” ability, but make sure it’s on if you want to stay out of trouble.
And second, when you get to the right place, you’ll be looking for “Lv35 Lush Vegetation Patch” gathering points.
Since these are level 35 nodes, you must be at least level 31 for them to show up on your map.
The dragon peppers, on the other hand, are considered to be level 35 items.
So you might want to be closer to 35 to get them more easily.
These areas of lush vegetation will be marked with blue dots on your mini-map.
Here’s what one of them looks like up close.
Ventures For Dragon Peppers
You can also farm these items by sending retainers out to gather dragon peppers for you.
To do this, your retainer’s botanist class needs to be at least level 35.
If your trusted NPC friend meets the level requirement, choose the option to send them on a botany exploration trip and choose the one for dragon peppers.
One quest can take anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes and give you anywhere from 15 to 50 dragon peppers.
The level of your retainer will determine how long it takes to finish a mission, and their perception stat will determine how many items they can bring back.
Most peppers will come from having a perception of at least 229.
Cooking with Dragon Peppers
Dragon peppers are mostly used by chefs to spice up their dishes.
Dragon peppers are used in eight different recipes by chefs:
- Ema Datshi (Level 70, Master Recipe)
- Jerked Jhammel (Level 69)
- Lava Toad Legs (Level 50, Master Recipe)
- Peperoncino (Level 60, Master Recipe)
- Rarefied Peperoncino (Level 58)
- Sauerkraut (Level 36)
- Shakshouka (Level 70, Master Recipe)
- Shakshouka Pot (Level 80)
Except for the Shakshouka Pot, all of these items are meals that can be eaten to get the “well fed” buff.
Depending on what you eat, this will give you a boost to your stats, and it will also give you an extra 3% experience points.
This buff lasts for 30 minutes, but you can use multiple items to make it last for 60 minutes.
And unlike the other recipes above, the Shakshouka Pot is a piece of furniture that you can put on a table inside your home or apartment.
Once you find a place for this in your house, you can use it up to 10 times to get the “well fed” buff.
At level 35, your Grand Company Quartermaster can also ask for dragon peppers for the daily Botanist Supply Mission.
In exchange for 10 of these peppers, you will get a lot of experience points and Grand Company seals for your work here.
