Retainers Guide for FFXIV

Retainers are customizable non-player characters that offer a variety of services to the player. These include the capability of storing items, storing gil, and selling items to other players.

To unlock the ability to hire retainers, players must first complete the Main Scenario Quest "The Scions of the Seventh Dawn". This will allow you to accept and complete the quest "An Ill-conceived Venture" from the city you started in.

To hire a retainer, talk to a Retainer Vocate in any of the major cities. When hiring a retainer, you are able to customize their appearance and speech patterns, and give them a unique name. This name can be seen when you sell items on the marketboard.

Players can hire two retainers by default, but can add up to 7 additional retainers by purchasing them from the Mog Station. The FFXIV Companion App premium subscription also allows players to add one extra retainer.

The Retainer Vocate also allows you to dispatch the retainer to a specific city-state, which has tax implications when selling items on the marketboard.

By using a Retainer Fantasia, you can freely change the appearance of any of your retainers by talking to a Retainer Vocate. You can acquire these by opening a Venture Coffer, or purchasing them from the Marketboard.

To access your retainers, you can interact with a Summoning Bell. These can be found in every major city, housing ward, certain endgame hubs, and can be placed in housing as a craftable item. Doing so will bring up a list of your retainers. Clicking on one will bring up the retainer menu, where you can perform retainer-related activities.

Retainers are the primary method of item storage in FFXIV. Each retainer has 175 item slots where you can freely store any item. You are also able to store up to 9999 of each shard, crystal, and cluster.

Retainers can also be used to store gil. Each retainer can hold up to 999,999,999 gil.

Retainers are also the primary method of selling items in FFXIV on the Marketboard. Players can sell up to 20 items per retainer. To sell an item, use either of the sell item menu options, interact with the item, and select "Put up For Sale". You can select the quantity and price from there. Once you have confirmed your sale amount, you can confirm to begin selling the item on the marketboard.

There is a tax associated with selling items. This is based on the city-state your retainer is dispatched to. At times the tax for certain city-states is reduced, so if you change your retainer location you will be taxed less on your sales!

Ventures are missions that players can assign to their Retainers. These missions once completed have the chance to bring back rare and exclusive items. As Retainers complete ventures, they can equip gear, level up, and go on higher leveled missions.

You can read more about how the Venture system works on our dedicated page, which is linked below.

If you wish to reset your retainer's level and class, you can do so by selecting the option in the Retainer menu. The retainer cannot be undertaking a venture and you must unequip all their gear before you are able to do so.