(FFXIV) Retainer Guide

Shade's Guide to retainers in FFXIV.
This video covers everything you need to know about retainers in absurd detail.
This guide is PACKED with information, so please let me know if you have any questions! ❤️
#FFXIV, #Guide, #Retainers

🌎 SGS website

❤️ Thanks for your support!

📄 Timeline 📄
(00:00) INTRO

(01:26) Retainer Uses (Overview)

(03:11) Unlocking / Creating Retainers

RETAINER USES (DETAILED)
(04:58) Storing Items / Gil
(05:44) Selling Items

VENTURES
(06:35) Venture Basics
(06:58) Unlocking Ventures

RETAINER CLASSES / JOBS
(07:21) Retainer Classes
(10:14) Retainer Jobs

(13:21) Venture Basics (cont.)

VENTURE TYPES
(14:12) Gathering Ventures
(15:21) Long Exploration Ventures
(15:56) Quick Exploration Ventures
(18:38) Recap of Venture Types

(19:52) How to Get Venture Coins

WHAT'S THE BEST CLASS?
(22:32) Best class: Fisher?
(23:54) Best class: DoW / DoM, Miner, or Botanist?

RETAINER GEAR
(25:16) DoW / DoM Gear
(25:31) Miner / Botanist / Fisher Gear

(26:00) Getting Additional Retainers

RETAINER LEVEL SKIP
(27:51) Retainer Level Skip
(28:41) My Thoughts on Level Skip

(29:08) OUTRO

🎵 Music Credits
- "Beyond the Darkness" (Final Fantasy X) - Masashi Hamauzu
- "Spira Unplugged" (Final Fantasy X) - Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu
- "Movement in Green" (Final Fantasy X) - Nobuo Uematsu, Junya Nakano
- "Luca" (Final Fantasy X) - Junya Nakano
- "Besaid Island" (Final Fantasy X) - Masashi Hamauzu
- "The Splendid Performance" (Final Fantasy X) - Masashi Hamauzu
- "Lulu's Theme" (Final Fantasy X) - Nobuo Uematsu
- "Braska's Daughter" (Final Fantasy X) - Nobuo Uematsu
- "Mi'ihen Highroad" (Final Fantasy X) - Nobuo Uematsu
- "Blitz Off" (Final Fantasy X) - Masashi Hamauzu
- "Underwater Ruins" (Final Fantasy X) - Junya Nakano
- "Phantoms" (Final Fantasy X) - Junya Nakano
- "Auron's Theme" (Final Fantasy X) - Nobuo Uematsu
- "Battle Theme" (Final Fantasy X) - Nobuo Uematsu

[ShadesGameSource]

✏️ ADDITIONAL INFO / CORRECTIONS ✏️

*1. Update: Quick Exploration ventures*
As of patch 5.4, Quick Exploration ventures now give fixed EXP based on the retainer's current level--it's no longer random. The amount of EXP you get from Quick Exploration ventures is very high--more or less about 1.5~2x the amount of EXP you would get from Gathering Ventures.

Retainers' gear/stats also have NO EFFECT on the amount of EXP they get from Quick Exploration ventures.
Patch notes quote: "Retainers equipped with more powerful gear will receive items in greater quantities, with a greater chance of obtaining high-quality items."

⭐ The best, fastest way to level up your retainers is now unquestionably to send them on Quick Exploration ventures. I suggest that you spam Quick Exploration ventures until your retainers reach the level cap and THEN give them good gear; don't bother with gear until then!

*2. Opinion: Usefulness of Fisher retainers*
Unfortunately, in FFXIV, fish aren’t really used for much outside of crafting a very small number of things—mostly food as a Culinarian. Check the marketboard in your server and you’ll see that the overwhelming majority of fish in this game—even the highest level fish—are basically worthless…
There are SOME fish that your retainers can gather for you that ARE in high demand, though… and you CAN make money from them… but those fish seem to be VERY few and far between.

For the sake of transparency, again, I want to make it clear that I DO NOT currently have a Fisher retainer, so I can’t personally confirm this next point I’m about to make.
*If this is wrong, please correct me in the comments:*
Apparently, as of patch 5.3, there are only five fish that are required for crafting the highest level food: King Salmon, Sweetmeat Mussel, Spearhead Squid, Platinum Herring, and Blue Crab.
According to Garlandtools, of those five fish, only two of them are actually obtainable by your retainer: Sweetmeat Mussel and Spearhead Squid. Even with the best gear, at most, a Fisher retainer will be able to gather 10 Spearhead Squid or 3 Sweetmeat Mussel per hour.

Besides that, you can make money by having your Fisher retainers gather fish that are required by Fisher leves. I’m sure this varies VERY heavily between servers, and it seems like a very volatile market to be in anyway… but yeah, it’s another potential money-making option for Fisher retainers.

Also, as far as I can tell, from everything I’ve read online, the best reason to have a Fisher retainer is that they’re able to get 2 or 3 minions that are moderately valuable from Long Exploration Ventures—the 18-hour ones. Again, though, what you get after 18 hours is completely random, and back when I had a Fisher retainer, I rarely got anything valuable from them. Maybe I just had bad luck—I don’t know.

I honestly think you’re better off investing in something that will DEFINITELY make you money as opposed to playing an 18-hour venture lottery. And if you really do want to gamble… just send your retainers out on Quick Exploration Ventures instead—they only last an hour, and there’s a possibility that you’ll get two Pure White or Jet Black Dyes (among other things that are probably pretty valuable in your server). In Gilgamesh, at least, two Pure White or Jet Black dyes are worth significantly more than even the most valuable minion that you can get as a Fisher—the Fat Cat.

Personally, I don’t see many compelling reasons to invest in a Fisher retainer, but my opinion isn’t so much that Fisher retainers absolutely suck—it’s more that I just think you would get a lot more value out of the other retainer classes.

*3. Opinion: Miner, Botanist > DoW / DoM*
First off, Miners and Botanists both have access to a LOT of useful materials. I would say that Miners have access to slightly more useful materials than Botanists, so I would say Miner is the more useful of the two. Don’t get me wrong—weavers go through a LOT of cotton and carpenters go through a LOT of wood… but Blacksmiths, Armorers, and Goldsmiths all go through a hell of a lot of ore.

Combat classes also have access to a good number of useful materials, but not quite as many as Miners or Botanists do.

Aside from that, Miner and Botanist retainers are usually able to bring back more materials than combat retainers. If your gear is good enough, Miners and Botanists can bring back a stack of 30 of most items, whereas combat retainers are limited to a stack of 10—no matter how good their gear is.
Also, Miners are able to gather elemental shards, crystals, and soil for gardening.
Botanists are able to gather elemental shards, crystals, and seeds for growing elemental shards (among other things). Combat retainers can’t gather any of those things.

A lot of people would say that it’s more of a pain in the ass to run around and kill a bunch of enemies than it is to run around and gather a bunch of materials, but I kind of disagree. Personally, I think running around the same area gathering things OR killing things over and over again are both pretty boring, but if you know exactly where to go and what to kill (which is very easy to search for online), it’s usually not so bad—especially if you switch to an agile class with fast attack speed like Machinist.

Also, once you get into higher level crafting, you’ll begin needing materials that come from Miner or Botanist timed nodes. Those are especially annoying because, not only are these nodes often way out in the middle of nowhere, you have to wait until a certain time of day in-game for a single gathering node to appear, and then you can only gather from the node once before it disappears again. And if you didn’t get enough from that one node, you’ll usually have to wait about 30 minutes—sometimes even an hour in real time before a new node spawns for you to gather more.
If you’re new to FFXIV and have no idea what the hell I just said, just know this: Timed nodes suck, and, with good planning, Miner and Botanist retainers can help you avoid having to deal with them as much.

And, again, if you want to get into crafting, you’re going to need a lot more Miner and Botanist materials than you’re going to need items that you get from killing enemies.

[jeremyjones]

One of the best guides I’ve seen yet on this topic. Clear, concise, thorough. Thank you for being what the people of Eorzea need.

[BarnesStevey]

This was a really useful, informative guide, thank you! hope to see more from you!

[afc]

i can not thank you enough for making this Guide.
10/10 sir,
you answered all my questions.

[staxxius]

Literally the best guide on this I've seen. Just needed a Retainers For Dummies guide like this. Everyone else assumed I knew more than I did.

[deodexedsoul]

Probably the most clear FF14 guide I've ever watched. Well done good sir

[casualnerdjason]

One of the best guides I've seen for FFXIV. Thank you for putting so much time and love into this one.

[uruhiir]

You're an incredibly underrated youtuber! A very well explained, humorous and understandable guide for a complete sprout! Would love to see an updated beginners guide video at some point. What do keep in mind, what to focus on and general gameplay tips!

[mushufasa]

Fantastic guide! New player and this helped me to understand so much that I was confused on. Thank you!

[mkng]

Possibly the best guide I have ever watched. Thanks a lot for making retainers easier to understand and get a grasp of!

[offperception]

Great guide and quite informative! My only remark here would be that the purpose of storing gil with your retainer is like having as savings account. Especially if you're an impulse buyer or when you need that glam now, it helps you reconsider.

[JonathanAgoot]

Very thought out and well put together. And no, you shouldn't be sorry for how long this guide is. It's well researched.

[Riffraffgames]

Good guide - thanks for making it! The retainer boosters were on sale (50% off) for the last couple weeks so I did take advantage and added many retainers to my characters. I do think the boosters save a lot of hassle keeping their gear up to enuff while leveling retainers. (or trying to remember if you were saving a piece of gear for retainers while turning them into your GC for seals).

[SamBoi]

As someone totally new to the concept of ventures (even after playing this game for almost 2 years), this guide was brilliant! Much appreciated Shade

[mekikoromanova]

Great guide, and so far all your videos have been super useful for a new/returning player.

[scotivis]

Dang dude this is the must useful video for any FFXIV content I have ever seen. I have played since ARR launch and this has even helped me understand the retainer system better. Thank you!

[tdle]

You have one of the best guides for new players that I've seen so far. They're very thorough. Keep it up!

[DominusVaal]

This video answered all my questions on retainers. Thanks for all the hard work!!

[mauricio]

I´m from Brazil and started playing FF XIV last month. I was looking for a guide about retainers ventures (specially what jobs to choose) and yours helped me a lot. Thank You. =)

[insanitieswolf]

i have been trying to figure out which retainer jobs are best and since most reason you need them to do things (not counting quick exploration) best options are as follows (imo) Adventure > Fisher > Miner > Botanist. reason is most items you need that are a form of rare are from mosnter drops which only DoM/DoW can do and Fishers have certain things only they can do and help negate some of the RNG of fishing when wanting a certain fish, Miner soil for gardening, BTN just to have one. otherwise anything that can be gathered is much easier and faster to do as player than retainer when at end game level. (i have given this many moons of thought, lol)