FFXIV BEST Retainer Class: Unlock & Materials

FFXIV is one of the most popular MMORPGs in recent times. It gained massive popularity during its release due to its fantastic combat and exploration aspects. Players are required to go a step up and beyond to improve their characters and overall gaming experience.

Key Highlights:

• Retainers are very valuable as they allow you to sell items for Gil on the market board.
• They can also go on ventures to bring you valuable items.
• You can assign classes to your retainer too.
• If you assign a Disciple of the Hand/Land to your retainer, it will bring you crafting related materials.
• Similarly, if you make your retainer a Disciple Of War/Magic, it will bring weaponry and other tools.

You would be required to farm many materials and resources to enhance your characters and make your gameplay enjoyable. Farming resources can be a repetitive and tedious process; therefore, the game has introduced various Retainers that can allow you to farm materials efficiently and faster. So, in this guide, we will cover some of the best retainer classes that you can choose in FFXIV that can help you gather valuable materials.

Best Retainer Classes In FFXIV

Players can assign their retainers to various classes so they can perform multiple functions. You would be able to farm materials much faster for crafting purposes. Moreover, you can also earn a lot of Gil effortlessly by selling the items brought by the retainers in the market. While you’re at it, consider reading FFXIV Trust System guide.

Miner

The Miner is undoubtedly the best retainer class in FFXIV due to its excellent efficiency in ventures. This class is well versed in gathering a lot of helpful mineral resources. If you send this class on a venture, you can find various valuable rocks, ores, crystals, and minerals. The Miner class is invaluable, especially if you want to use the smithing features in the game.

The materials that miners gather can be used for both crafting and blacksmithing. Blacksmithing might allow you to improve your weapons for better combat. To unlock the Miner retainer in FFXIV, you must level up your mining job to 60. 

The Miner class can be leveled up quickly if you spend time mining and gathering materials on your own. This retainer class can then farm all materials that you have farmed previously, in addition to finding some rare materials. You would be able to gather many resources quickly that you can either sell for high prices or use in crafting.

Mining Materials

The Miner retainer class is about finding materials and resources from the rocks and minerals found throughout Eorzea. They can obtain various rare resources from mining and quarry nodes. You can get basic ores that can be used for smithing early in the game, such as copper, zinc, tin, and iron.

You would also be able to find various valuable elemental shards that are useful during crafting processes. In the later part of the game, when you have leveled up your miner to a great extent, you would be able to farm rare materials such as Annite, Manganese, and Bismuth. You can sell various ores for a reasonable price in the market to farm Gil faster.

Fisher

The Fisher class is a gathering retainer class in FFXIV. It is well known for its proficiency in gathering materials found in the marine world. Materials found in the water around Eorzea can be used for various purposes, including crafting. You can obtain corals, sea creatures, and multiple fishes if you dispatch your Fisher to gather materials. The Fisher class can use fishing rods and spears to collect resources from water.

Farming resources from the water would become much easier if you chose to convert your retainer into the fisher class. To unlock and convert your retainer into the Fisher class in FFXIV, you must first level up your fishing job to 60 and then visit retainer vocates in the market.

The Fisher class would require some patience to improve as the fastest way to level them up this retainer in FFXIV is by sending them on ventures. The more successful ventures they complete, the faster they would level up. Leveling up your fisher is recommended if you want more unique and rare items. Selling fantastic fish is one of the quickest ways to farm Gil in the game.

Fisher Materials

Many players prefer to use their retainer as the Fisher because the Fisher class can help players stockpile valuable materials in FFXIV. Most of the materials that Fishers can obtain cannot be gathered through other means. These rare materials can also be sold on the market for a high price.

One such rare material is the blue crab that players can sell for a lot of Gil. Fishers can gather a lot of blue crabs if you level them up to 80. You can also use these various fishes for cooking and alchemy during your crafting.

Moreover, you can obtain the fat cat companion that the Fisher class can only obtain. The Fat cat is a rare and valuable companion that can help you collect loads of Gil. However, players should not expect these Fishers to grab some rare materials each time you send them off on a venture, and sometimes it would even take longer to get valuable resources.

Botanist

The Botanists is one of the best gathering retainer classes in FFXIV because of its’s excellent features. This retainer class is well versed in farming materials that grow naturally. The Botanist class would allow players to farm useful materials faster and effortlessly.

They can gather various flowers, logs, seeds, and various natural resources. Using the Carpenter, Alchemist, or culinarian services, you can utilize these collected resources in crafting. You can use the Hatchet to gather materials from the ventures. 

The Botanist class can be leveled up quickly without much hard work. You can send them off on various ventures across the land to level them up faster. Though reaching a higher level would require much time.

The materials you can gather can be sold at a high price in the markets, especially if they are rare. However, rare materials are hard to pick during ventures, especially if you are at a lower level.

Botanist Materials

Since the botanist class is good at gathering materials related to plants, you would be able to find a lot of ingredients that you can utilize in cooking. They can pick a variety of excellent materials for crafting, such as Latex, Chamomile, Lavender, and Carnation that you can use in crafting.

In addition, you can gather a lot of rare materials such as Bomba Rice and Coffee beans when you level up your botanist to 80 or 90. Botanists can also find a rare companion named Bacon bits; this companion is a cute porxie that can be sold for a high price.

The Botanist class would also get you various seeds that you can use in your garden to grow ingredients and flowers. Some seeds include Almond, Honey, Lemon, Cosmos, and Dahlia seeds.

Disciples of War And Magic

The Disciples of war and magic, as the name suggests, is the best retainer class in FFXIV when it comes to combat and using magic. Players can use this class for hunting purposes that can yield valuable materials. The Disciples of War and Magic would go on a hunt to kill monsters to get helpful item drops. Players can then utilize these item drops in crafting. They can obtain certain ingredients, animal skins, and bird feathers.

You can level up the Disciples of War and Magic retainers just like all other retainers by sending them on ventures. If you want a particular material, you can specify and command it. Otherwise, this retainer class would gather materials randomly.

This class would allow you to get a lot of valuable resources that can be obtained from monsters effortlessly. Players would be able to save a lot of time and effort in killing monsters if they deploy this retainer class for material gathering. Also, check out the best DPS classes in FFXIV if you want to kill monsters quickly.

Disciples of War And Magic Materials

During field exploration, you can obtain various useful minions, such as Bom Boko, an adorable-looking raccoon. Players can even get Flag the deer if they are lucky in your encounter. You can get valuable ingredients like honey and Marmot Meat early in the game to use in cooking.

Players can also obtain various useful materials like Animal skin and Beastkin blood. During the later part of the game, once you have leveled up your retainer to the max, you would be able to obtain rare resources like Egg of Elpis and Kumbhira Skin. On the subject of endgame, check out our FFXIV Best End-Game Gear guide.

Retainer Class: Explorations

In addition to the usual ventures carried out by retainer, you can also send them out for exploration. If you send your retainer classes explorations, they will get much more Exp, and would level up much faster. Moreover, the retainer classes can also bring you valuable and rare materials.

Field Explorations take much longer than usual ventures, but players can expect to obtain a lot of Hp and various materials. Sending your retainer on explorations is the fastest way to level them up in FFXIV. You can sell the materials you gather at the market.

Each Retainer can be dispatched to specific fields which a class is well suited for.

• The Disciples of War and Magic can be sent for Field explorations to get materials from animals and monsters
• The Botanists are suitable for Woodland exploration to bring in resources from trees and plants.
• Fisher can be dispatched to Waterside exploration to gather valuable materials from the water.
• Miner can help collect various materials such as ores and rocks from the Highland Exploration.

What are Retainers in FFXIV?

If you are a dedicated FFXIV Player, getting some retainers is essential. Retainers are helpful characters that can help you manage your resources. Retainers are non-playable characters that players can hire to store their resources and items. In addition to holding various functional materials and Gil, they can also sell multiple items in the market to make more money quickly.

Selling different gathered materials in the market is crucial to earning money efficiently and faster. Each Retainer would have a total of 20 slots to sell various items. We discussed some of the best Retainer classes in FFXIV to gather materials in this guide.

There are various types of retainers to store different materials. Players need to get a few of them if they want to manage their resources effectively. If you hire a retainer, you will get an extra inventory that retainer classes would provide. Each retainer you hire can store 175 items in their inventory.

You can store and withdraw materials from the retainer’s inventory whenever you require those items. Moreover, you can also send various retainers on a venture to farm different materials automatically and quickly. Some great retainer classes include Fisher, Miner, and Botanist. Also, check out some of the best solo classes that can aid you in combat.

How to Unlock Retainers

To unlock retainer in FFXIV, you must first complete the quest “The Scions of the Seventh Dawn.” To achieve this quest, your player level in FFXIV must be 17. Once you have completed the quest, you can obtain various retainers from vocates located in major cities. They can be found in the Market Ward and interact with them to hire useful retainers in FFXIV.

Every player can get two retainer slots during the early game. However, you can hire more retainers after getting more slots from Mohg station. After choosing your desired retainer, you can customize them by changing their gender, appearance, and speech. You can use various addons Listed in our FFXIV Best Addons & Mods guide to improving their appearance.

You can give them a name after setting your retainer’s appearance. Players can use summoning bells to access retainers after they unlock them in FFXIV; summoning bells can be found all over the FXIV map and in popular locations.

How To Convert Your Retainer Class

Players can choose and convert various Retainer classes according to their needs and desires. To select and convert a retainer into a particular class, players must first increase their job level to 50 or 60 in that specific job they want the retainers to do. Check out our leveling guide to level up your classes faster. Players must have a mining level of at least 50 to 60 before converting their retainer class into a Miner.

Similarly, they need the required job levels for using all the other retainer classes. For the disciples of war and magic class, you can assign them the role of your main class; this will help them during hunting monsters and animals. You can use a training dummy to level up your main classes faster to unlock various Disciples of War and Magic retainers.

That’s all about our best retainer class in the FFXIV guide that can help you gather valuable materials and make farming easier. It’s essential to have a few retainers in your hand to make the farming process less tedious and exciting. You can also use the Novice Network in FFXIV if you want more tips regarding retainers.

Next: FFXIV Mystery Miners