Request: Inventory Management Tips from Vets

I'm curious what the veteran players of this game do to manage their inventory.

• Are you making frequent trips to sell on the Market Board?
• Are you using the Chocobo Bag as a mobile inventory?
• Are the retainers your main source of added inventory even at end game?
• Is there another form of inventory I have yet to unlock through gameplay?
• Do you use crafting to create items often thus freeing up space?

I have been searching online for tips and ideas on inventory management, found a few sources but nothing beats the forums. I am currently new and working my way through the main story of A Realm Reborn. I'm using my two retainers but slowly drowning more and more each day. :confused:

Toss/sell any materials that can be purchased from vendors other than the four expensivish ones from Pasdevillet (Abalathian Mistletoe, Abalathian Rock Salt, Coerthan Tea Leaves, Dravanian Mistletoe).
Sell your HQs, craft with NQs.
If the HQs don't sell for much, downgrade them to NQ to save space.
Don't hoard materials unless you know they're used a lot in the upcoming levels (the most recent ore and log, for example).

Selling random mats you get from running content once per day will be enough to free up lots of space. I even do it once or twice a week and find I don't fill up. I do npc sell any mats that don't have a reasonably big enough profit margin on the market board, however. If I'm only going to make less than 100 gil on something then it's not worth the time or retainer space it takes to sell on the mb in my opinion.

If I'm not selling a mat at all, then I'll lower the HQ to NQ and combine the stacks unless I know that I'm going to need the HQ to be able to craft the item I want. 95% of the time I don't, since most of what I craft is furniture.

I also don't hoard materials, with the possible exception of leathers/hides since those can be a pain to get compared to other mats. I have all DoH to 70 with full scrip gear, so I have the luxury of being able to gather up almost any material I need at a moment's notice so if you know you're going to need a given material then go ahead and hoard it, but most mats are not necessary to hoard at all.

The biggest inventory hog for me is loot drops. I turn them in for seals for ventures and mb sales items, but the turn in place is a bit out of the way compared to a summoning bell so I either forget to do it or get lazy about it. That's just a bad habit I've developed on my own, though, so I recommend just doing it once a day and you'll be fine. You can also just pass on all loot drops to achieve the effect, but seals are a wonderful way to make money so it's totally worth rolling for them.

I only use my saddlebag for things like fishing tackle, extra food, various currency/upgrade tokens, etc. I.e. things that I don't necessarily use all of the time, but are nice to have at hand without needing to travel to a summoning bell.

The glamour dresser has also been a godsend for clearing up space in my retainers and armour chest.

You're only level 34, I'm confused as to what sort of things are clogging up your inventory this badly. Without seeing what your bags look like, I'm not sure how to help thin your bag space that hasn't been said yet. However, being low level I recommend holding onto any HQ materials you can get. Later levels of crafting give you plenty more tools to use so you can HQ most things without HQ materials.

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Originally Posted by Dhaid

You're only level 34, I'm confused as to what sort of things are clogging up your inventory this badly. Without seeing what your bags look like, I'm not sure how to help thin your bag space that hasn't been said yet. However, being low level I recommend holding onto any HQ materials you can get. Later levels of crafting give you plenty more tools to use so you can HQ most things without HQ materials.

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I'm overflowing with Crafting Materials, Weapons/Armor and various misc items. I'm bout to implement the above suggestions today.

Hope this helps. This method requires you to have 9 retainers. Retainers can get expensive but they pay themselves off with extra selling slots and ventures which help you generate more gil.

Saddlebag: Important collectibles
Retainers
#1 - CUL/FSH items
#2 - WVR/LTW/ALC items
#3 - CRP/BSM/ARM/GSM items
#4 - Finished products waiting to be sold on MB
#5 - Materias/Less important Collectibles
#6 - Misc Glamour equipment
#7 - Tank equipment/glamour
#8 - Mage equipment/glamour
#9 - Melee/Ranged equipment/glamour

Armoire - event reward collectibles can be stored here and accessed later or thru the glamour dresser.
Glamour Dresser - 200 slots so only put your favorite glamour items xD.

* Little bit more info on Retainers *
Be careful with picking the class for your retainers. I picked PLD for all 9 since I got it to lvl 70 first. You can buy retainer boosts in the Mogstation which instantly levels your retainer up to lvl 60 which saves you a lot of ventures and time leveling them. But remember, retainer jobs are linked to your job levels. Example if your PLD is lvl 31, the maximum level a PLD retainer can get is 31. So if you picked 9 different classes for 9 retainers, you would have to level all of those classes before you can level your retainers.

https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Retainer_Ventures

Be sure to check the "Targeted Exploration" section to see a list of items your retainer can bring back every hour for 1 venture xD.

Depending on your main Crafts, a Battle retainer can benefit a WVR/LTW/ALC/CUL; a miner retainer can benefit a BSM/GSM/ARM and a Botanist retainer can benefit a CRP/CUL/ALC. Also, with a miner/botanist retainer you can just send them off to gather crystals which can help you in the long run.

One of my pitfalls as a hoarder early on was that I had items worth less than 10 gil even if it was high quality. Definitely check your items on the MB and toss anything that you can easily buy back for peanuts.

A good way to do it is when you go to sell things on your retainer, use the little button on the top right of the interface to see what the current prices are. You can then proceed to put the item on sale or toss it if it isn't worth anything.

Don't forget you can store equipment in your armory too.

I just avoid hoarding (too much).

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Originally Posted by Chromata

One of my pitfalls as a hoarder early on was that I had items worth less than 10 gil even if it was high quality. Definitely check your items on the MB and toss anything that you can easily buy back for peanuts.

A good way to do it is when you go to sell things on your retainer, use the little button on the top right of the interface to see what the current prices are. You can then proceed to put the item on sale or toss it if it isn't worth anything.

Don't forget you can store equipment in your armory too.

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Choose the option for your retainer to sell the item directly instead of tossing it. 10 gil is still 10 gil.

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Originally Posted by Chromata

One of my pitfalls as a hoarder early on was that I had items worth less than 10 gil even if it was high quality. Definitely check your items on the MB and toss anything that you can easily buy back for peanuts.

A good way to do it is when you go to sell things on your retainer, use the little button on the top right of the interface to see what the current prices are. You can then proceed to put the item on sale or toss it if it isn't worth anything.

Don't forget you can store equipment in your armory too.

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Pretty much this. I’ve started storing all crafting materials of 40+ on an alt. I use my mains retainers for housing items, glam, and gil/dyes. Everything else is tossed or turned into GC seals.

If you're paying for a "standard" account and are part of a FC. make an alt. Level that alt till you get your 2nd retainer and ask to have them join the FC and to have both characters have access to the FC chest (just one tab) . If you ABSOLUTELY cannot stand to part with something , stick it in the FC chest and pick it up on your alt, that's a heck of a lot of "extra" storage for free even though it's a bit of a bother to manage. Convert/turn in old equipment unless you like the glamour, even if you think you might level a job someday and are saving leveling gear for it.. it's super cheap to pick up equipment while you level. You don't need it.

That only works if your FC leader actually allows the chest to be used in such a way - we had to lock our chest to stop people making off with expensive furnishings we were storing in there (only my bf the FC leader has the authority to remove items and gil from it, not even I have access to it and I agree with his decision). So that is not really an option for most players I'm afraid.

Personally in regards to inventory and retainer management I've gotten myself into a routine now of getting rid of all gear I know I can get again, especially low level vendor equipment which as I have all my Disciples of War and Magic above level 50 now, is no longer necessary (why bother keeping that junky level 22 sword I never used and never will now that my GLA/PLD is at 70?). If it is fully spiritbound, I convert it to materia (which I then sell on the MB), if the gear itself can be sold on the MB I sell it there (even if it's for 500 gil, 500 gil is still 500 gil), and if it's pink/green/blue gear that I have no use for or desire not to use for glamour purposes (and which I know I will be able to acquire again if I wish) it goes straight to the Adder's Nest for GC seals.

And it should go without saying that anything that can be stored in the Armorie is (indoor furnishings I have likewise put into the Storeroom as you'd be surprised just how much furniture you accumulate during the game, most of which I have no use for but can't bare to part with). ;)

I only hold onto gear if I still have a use for it or if I know I can't get that gear easily again. Hence I have quite a bit of free space left between my inventory, armoury chest, 3 retainers and the chocobo saddlebags.

I think those who have no space left are those who hold onto crafting materials so that does explain why I have a bit of space left (I don't bother with crafting as it bores me to tears).

I do this.

Inventory - consumables
Saddlebag - crafting mats (only valuable ones)
Retainers - tokens and miscellaneous

Got enough room for gear in armory chest, dresser, armoire.

I think the bottom line is just be selective about what you keep. If you have gear that you won't use any time soon or maybe never, then just sell it to npc / sell on market / deliver to GC.

Only keep items that you are actually using or are otherwise valuable or difficult to obtain again. Sell all the junk items you accumulate every day.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

That only works if your FC leader actually allows the chest to be used in such a way - we had to lock our chest to stop people making off with expensive furnishings we were storing in there (only my bf the FC leader has the authority to remove items and gil from it, not even I have access to it and I agree with his decision). So that is not really an option for most players I'm afraid.

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It's super easy to set one tab for FC use while the others stay secure. Never had a FC leader refuse this yet. Then again I've never given any FC leader a reason to distrust me.

I use my saddlebags for mats I need in the immediate future, materia (for either mutamix or melding), items I'll want to use (like maps, dyes, glamour prisms, fishing bait) but don't want to have to search the retainer for. For retainers, I keep anything that I know I craft with regularly that cannot be easily gathered (timer, folklore, bought with scrips/seals, only brought by retainers, etc.) If it's something like a furnishing you won't be using, doesn't fit in your storage, and you can make again relatively easy, vendor (or mb, if it's not bound). I highly recommend using the glamour dresser and armoire as storage, but as people have differing views on that, I'll just say that it's helped me immeasurably.

I do keep a lot of GSM materials (I'm the main GSM for our group, and I use the stuff a lot) and CUL, because oh my god you need so many, having to gather 24 things just to make a round of foodstuffs makes me want to quit the game. That's just personal, though.

what I do is I practically have ONE retainer for just matera (ok 5 tabs isn't all of it but it's most of the retainer) which is a mix of DOW/DOM and DOH/DOL. Other stuff on there is hand-ins for ilvl 90 gear I haven't thrown away, faded scrolls, a copy of the crafted music from t12 (by me; there because the market is below my break-even price). I have crafting mats spread across my other retainers along with gear. Some of it is food for use when lvling but most is mats. Saddlebag has equipment from armory chest/ moogle costume/glamor items (there or in armory chest; I will NOT put it in the glamour wardrobe as it's from the first fanfest stream). I think of the gear I have in armory chest, I can equip readily: RDM, MNK, PLD, maybe WAR, WVR, ALC (maybe ALC), CUL maybe, BTN, maybe FSH, SCH/SMN, BLM. Anything else is look through retainers for gear for it.

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Originally Posted by Laerad3993

Pretty much this. I’ve started storing all crafting materials of 40+ on an alt. I use my mains retainers for housing items, glam, and gil/dyes. Everything else is tossed or turned into GC seals.

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How do you get the items to your alt?

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Originally Posted by RareItems

Depending on your main Crafts, a Battle retainer can benefit a WVR/LTW/ALC/CUL; a miner retainer can benefit a BSM/GSM/ARM and a Botanist retainer can benefit a CRP/CUL/ALC. Also, with a miner/botanist retainer you can just send them off to gather crystals which can help you in the long run.

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Miner also supports leatherworker because you need a constant supply of alumen if you're converting hides into leather.

Botanist collects a lot of raw materials for weaver.