FF14 Retainer Guide: How It Works, Best Retainer Classes, and Ventures

There has been an influx of new players in the recent months since Final Fantasy's latest expansion Shadowbringers has launched. The world of FF14 is vast, and if you're starting from level one, it can be completely overwhelming. 

That being said, I'm here to help figure your way around "Retainers." Retainers are crucial to helping you along your leveling path. And they become even more useful as you expand and grow them into companions while making a name for yourself. 

We are going to explore all the functions of a Retainer, how they can be useful, and some of the best possible ways to build them up to be badass confidants. Let's dive in.

What is a Retainer, and how do I unlock it?

In a nutshell, retainers are assistants you hire to help you manage your resources. Each retainer you hire can hold a total of 175 different items. Aside from regular items, retainers can also hold your gil and crafting crystals that are kept in various departments.

It's also the only source that allows you to sell things on the city markets boards to make gil. When you put an item up for sale, and another player buys your product, the money you receive will go directly into the retainer you used to put that particular item on the market board.

Retainers are like your personal assistant, maid, or manager (which term you prefer) that awaits your beckoning call. It truly is an excellent resource. 

Now, to unlock retainers, you must complete the main story quest, "The Scions of the Seventh Dawn." This quest is available at level 17, and since leveling is so fast in the earlier stages of FF14, it shouldn't be an issue.

Once you have completed the quest, you can then hire retainers in the three main cities that are available to you early on in the game.

How do I hire and build my Retainer?

To hire a retainer, you must visit the Retainer Vocate by the market board in any of the main cities. By default, you can only hire two retainers. Although, if you wish to have more than two, you can purchase retainers off the FF14's Mogstation website. Just remember that with every retainer you hire after the initial two, you will be billed monthly for. 

Creating your retainer is probably the most fun you'll have with the entire process. It's somewhat similar to designing your main character. You get to fashion your retainer to your liking. However, you get to go as far as choosing a personality type for them and how they will address and respond to you when interacting with them. 

When your retainer is created, you can equip gear that is suited to the job you picked. If you want to have high-level gear on a retainer but want to change the appearance; you simply glamour the gear piece the same way you would glamour your own gear.

Once the gear piece is glamoured, you can equip the item to your retainer and the glamour piece will show.

Retainer Jobs: Which are the best?

This is where it gets exciting. You can go as far as choosing a job for your retainers, and they will gradually level up as you send them on ventures.

You can pick a disciple of war or magic or even pick a gathering class such as botanist, minor, or fisher. The only jobs you can’t level on a retainer are crafting specialists such as weaver or carpenter.  

As great as all this sounds though, there is a catch. Any job you choose for your retainer, you must have that job leveled yourself on your main character first.

For example, if you have a ninja leveled at 10 and if you choose ninja on your retainer the max level it can reach is 10; until you further level ninja on your main character. In other words, your retainer follows your footsteps. 

Disciples of war and magic Retainers

For disciples of war or magic retainers, you can send them hunting for any materials that you can acquire by killing monsters.

All items you can acquire from disciples of war or magic jobs are all the same. There really isn’t any sort of defining factor between these jobs besides their appearance. The materials retainers can gather as a disciple of war or magic consists of animal hides, ingredients, feathers, and a variety of other random objects. 

When you send your retainers hunting you can either command them to get a specific item or just send them out for EXP and they will acquire materials at random.

The crafting materials that monsters drop are relatively easy to get on your own.

Botanist Retainers   

Botanist specializes in the attainment of all resources in relation to plant life. It’s a class that allows you to gather crafting materials and gardening items such as plants, seeds, and ingredients.

Having your retainer as a botanist can be helpful if you have a weaver or culinarian crafting class since the materials your retainer can gather directly correlate to these jobs. 

Your retainers can gather any item on your gathering log for this class. Just remember, that for all and any items, you must gather it once before your retainer will have access to it. 

Miner Retainers

Miners are in control of the mineral wealth of Eorzea. It’s a gathering class that allows you to gather crafting materials such as rocks, minerals, and ores.

Having your retainer as a miner can be helpful if you have a blacksmith or goldsmith since the materials a miner can gather correlate directly with these crafting jobs.

Your retainers can gather any item on your gathering log for this class. Just remember, that for all and any items, you must gather it once before your retainer will have access to it. 

Fisher Retainers

Fishers are in charge of procuring Eorzea’s marine and freshwater wildlife. It’s the last of the three gathering classes. This job collects crafting materials such as fish, corals, shells, and a variety of different sea creatures.

Having your retainer as a fisher can be helpful if you have a culinarian or alchemist since the materials correlate directly with these jobs.

Your retainers can gather any item on your gathering log for this class. Just remember, that for all and any items, you must gather it once before your retainer will have access to it. 

Maximizing your profits through your Retainer

The best retainer jobs that give the best results are, without a doubt, botanist, minor, and fisher. I know, most of you are probably grumbling at the fact of how boring it's going to be to level those gathering classes, however, it's worth the grind. 

Gatherers are notorious for bringing home the bacon; if you catch my drift. The materials you gather along with your retainer can make you a huge profit because gathering materials are always in high demand. The more you gather the more money you can potentially make.  

However, the most unique thing about gathering retainers is that they can acquire rare items on demand. That's right, this is something that regular jobs cannot do.

All gatherers have rare crafting items that can be acquired called “unspoiled materials.” Unspoiled materials are timed nodes that only appear for a matter of minutes. You cannot gather unspoiled materials outside of their spawning time. However, your retainers can! Retainers are the only resource that can gather these rare items outside of their normal spawning time. You can essentially get rare items on command.

The reason this is so beneficial is that unspoiled materials are in high demand. You can farm these limited materials and keep them for crafting high-level items, or sell them outright and make a fortune in gil.

Either way, it’s in your best interest to choose a gathering job for your retainers. There is no other resource in the game that can gather rare items so quickly as your retainers can.

How do I interact with my Retainer and What are ventures?

Interacting with your Retainer

The only time you can call your retainer is when a summoning bell is in your area. If you interact with a summoning bell, it will give you an option on which retainer to call. Summoning bells can be found in main cities or sometimes small towns, basically, anywhere there is a safe zone. 

Ventures

When you're interacting with your retainers, you have an option to send them on ventures. Ventures are what allow you to assign tasks to your retainers, and the tasks are basically gathering the items that you ask them too. Ventures are also what level your retainers, they will not level unless you send them on ventures regularly. 

Every venture assignment costs the player a currency named “ventures.” obtaining the currency is easy. This currency can be earned through beast tribe quest, level quests, or the most common way, purchasing them at your Grand Company with GC seals.

There are a couple of different kinds of ventures that you can send your retainers on. Explorations, quick explorations, and just your run of the mill hunting or gathering ventures. 

Explorations are an 18-hour venture that you can send your retainer on. This type of venture gives your retainer the most EXP. If your retainer is already a high level, they will bring back either high-level or rare items; such as minions, crafting materials and more. 

Quick explorations also have the potential of yielding rare items, however, they are much more expensive to fund versus other types of ventures. They only last 1 hour and give EXP depending on how valuable the item your retainer picked up is. It could be anywhere from a low-level fish to a high-level piece of gear; quick explorations are truly a gamble. 

Sending your retainers on regular ventures to gather specific materials will give you a steady amount of EXP. The cost, currency wise, is moderate and each one takes anywhere between 40 minutes to 1 hour. The time depends on the level of the item you want to acquire. 

What’s the point?

Retainers are valuable. You are basically getting materials for free and having extra space for various items you will get throughout your journey in the FF world. If you decide not to hire retainers, you will be at a loss and managing your inventory and obtaining certain items will be much harder in the long run. 

On that note, hire a retainer, level your gatherers, and make that mad gil!

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