Why don't I find a site on Internet that explains what items are for?

In other games I've played, notably World of Warcraft, there are tons of sites that will explain what the different items are. For FFXIV the only sites I find are mostly just copying what is in the games flavor text, and maybe, if your damned lucky, the location of where to obtain it, but never have I found a site that explains anything in-depth. Am I wrong? Is it just that the garbage sites always comes on top of Google search? They might have comments from users, but that isn't very often, and depending on your users to supply you with the information, when you live high on ad's seems like a way to scam the players. Anyway, finished with the ranting, but if anyone knows of a good place to go, for real information, I would be thankful. :)

I thought Gamer Escape was excellent. Usually if you scroll down, you can see where you can get it, what it's used for, what you can craft with it, if it was a limited run, and more.

Garland Tools shows both sources where you can get the item and where you can use it for most items in the game (they stopped to list armor and minions gotten from dungeons since Stormblood for some reason, though). Along with this one, there's "gamer escape" and "ffxiv consolegames wiki" that have a lot of info.

There also was a very good and deep database called ffxivdb, but they stopped updating it not long before the end of Stormblood and eventually closed the website, too.

And last but not the least is the official database that has almost every possible info you would potentionally need.

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

what is in the games flavor text, and maybe, if your damned lucky, the location of where to obtain it, but never have I found a site that explains anything in-depth

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What do you need to know besides what the tooltip says and where to get it?

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Originally Posted by Rongway

What do you need to know besides what the tooltip says and where to get it?

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What you can trade it in for and where.

But yeah, Gamer Escape has the best information in my experience. Google the item/NPC/ect, and scroll down to look for their site’s return.

The Google you use must be a strange one if the first search results doesn't give you all the previous sites already recommanded to you, on top of the official Lodestone which also gives tons of useful information like how to craft it, where to find/buy it, which recipe it is a part of, how this mount/minion/armor/weapon look on some users screenshots, etc.

Literally this very website you're posting on has an entire database.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/db/

Like it's the official website even. While it may not be as feature rich as some other sites (garlondtools), or as easy to access due to LACK of features as some others (gamerscape), it's always kept up to date with the patches since SE updates it along with the game. You're not relying on a third party to ensure proper data.

All three options listed have exactly what you complain you couldn't find. Where things are procured, where the NPCs related to them are, what quests may be involved, how much it sells for, etc.
Also complaining about ads? Adblock is your friend. Though that's another plus to the Lodestone I guess. SE doesn't need to sell ad space since you already pay for it lol.

Edit: Dangit, Kleeya beat me to this.

I mean yeah, it’s usually within the first four or so, but as I’m on a phone, so anything beyond the first, maybe second result, and I have to scroll down.

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Originally Posted by AduroT

What you can trade it in for and where.

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I don't really count that, as the answer to "what can I do with this?" is really just the answer to "where do I get this other thing?".

At any rate, between Garland, Gamerescape, and Lodestone, I'm not sure what kind of info the OP wants. That's pretty comprehensive coverage there. Yeah there's occasionally an item entry with a missing source, but it's a far cry from the dearth of information the OP suggests.

About adblock.. webmasters are getting around that these days by putting in pop up windows instructing you to disable it and said window will just keep popping up until you do.

WowHead was (is) one of the best sites for WoW that I wish there was an FFXIV equivalent, especially this page:
https://www.wowhead.com/dressing-roo...U8uLa808zvU87M

It lets you build and see any outfit, and even lets you see the character on any mount.
This, and an in-game addon version is what got me into transmog (Glamour) there. The lack of an equivalent for FFXIV means I don't chase glamours because I just don't know what's available or what it would look like on my character.

The character in the link is mine, imported from the game, even though I don't have a current sub there.

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Originally Posted by SamSmoot

WowHead was (is) one of the best sites for WoW that I wish there was an FFXIV equivalent, especially this page:
https://www.wowhead.com/dressing-roo...U8uLa808zvU87M

It lets you build and see any outfit, and even lets you see the character on any mount.
This, and an in-game addon version is what got me into transmog (Glamour) there. The lack of an equivalent for FFXIV means I don't chase glamours because I just don't know what's available or what it would look like on my character.

The character in the link is mine, imported from the game, even though I don't have a current sub there.

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There's a web model viewer at https://ffxiv.dlunch.net/model.html which does the same thing. It's not quite as true to the game as the WoW version is, but it's there.

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Originally Posted by Rasikko

About adblock.. webmasters are getting around that these days by putting in pop up windows instructing you to disable it and said window will just keep popping up until you do.

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Yeah you can just block that too.
If not with your adblocker itself, with something like Noscript there's little that can get in your way.

Yeah gamerescape has the best info in my experience. Lodestone has item info but very little that's actually useful imo... If I wanna know what something is for and where to actually get it, it's gamerescape or consolegameswiki that I go to
And then garlondtools for like. Crafting. And FFXIV gardening for gardening.

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Originally Posted by Rasikko

About adblock.. webmasters are getting around that these days by putting in pop up windows instructing you to disable it and said window will just keep popping up until you do.

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Yeah I pretty much just immediately close sites that do this. Not interested enough in their crap to whitelist them for whatever it is they want to show me. Gonna be real annoying if more bigger sites start doing that though.

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Originally Posted by Avidria

Yeah I pretty much just immediately close sites that do this. Not interested enough in their crap to whitelist them for whatever it is they want to show me. Gonna be real annoying if more bigger sites start doing that though.

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In my experience the more a site gets pushy about disabling Adblock, the worse it’s ads are and the more they should be blocked.

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Originally Posted by SamSmoot

The lack of an equivalent for FFXIV means I don't chase glamours because I just don't know what's available or what it would look like on my character.

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As well as the website Paladinleeds linked above, there's Eorzea Collection for glamour inspiration and XIV Style for a more straightforward gallery of equipment.

It's basically this. I tried to find out if chests exist in this game. I found they did, but there was absolutely no information anywhere I looked about how to use them. SO I bought one (it was actually a stack of 3 for around 1500 gil, which should have hinted that they were useless). I then went to a room in the in and tried to USE it, which wasn't possible. SO I still wonder, are chests a thing in FFXIV? I also got this new question that doesn't seem to be answered anywhere: Is it possible to skin animals in this game? Everywhere I look there are explanations of what the different gathering/crafting classes can do, but not a single place does it specify if skinning is possible, and if so, which class can do it. I have tried to find out many other things on the net, but have ended up having to find out myself, in-game, through trial and error. That such basic information is so hard to come by is seriously frustrating.

ps
How do I make this site send me e-mails when someone responds to my threads?

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

It's basically this. I tried to find out if chests exist in this game. I found they did, but there was absolutely no information anywhere I looked about how to use them. SO I bought one (it was actually a stack of 3 for around 1500 gil, which should have hinted that they were useless). I then went to a room in the in and tried to USE it, which wasn't possible. SO I still wonder, are chests a thing in FFXIV?

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What do you mean by 'chests'? You seem to refer to something with some specific functionality, but not having played exactly the same other games as you I have no idea what kind of items that might be.

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I also got this new question that doesn't seem to be answered anywhere: Is it possible to skin animals in this game? Everywhere I look there are explanations of what the different gathering/crafting classes can do, but not a single place does it specify if skinning is possible, and if so, which class can do it. I have tried to find out many other things on the net, but have ended up having to find out myself, in-game, through trial and error. That such basic information is so hard to come by is seriously frustrating.

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Skins and other body parts are random drops from animals you kill. There is little information about this because there is very little to write about it. Kill animals and you may get skins, horns, chunks of meat, etc.
If you want to know exactly what animals drop a certain type of skin, or what can drop from a specific type of animal, then there are plenty of websites that will tell you about it - all just a google-search away.

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

I tried to find out if chests exist in this game.

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It sounds like you're bringing experience of a different game and getting confused when this game doesn't meet your expectation of what it is supposed to be.

I think you should play and experience this game a lot first to understand what it offers before you dive into external resources. Those tools can't make sense if you don't have first hand experience of the game first.

The bringing a stack of 'chests' to an inn thing doesn't make sense in the context of this game.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

It sounds like you're bringing experience of a different game and getting confused when this game doesn't meet your expectation of what it is supposed to be.

I think you should play and experience this game a lot first to understand what it offers before you dive into external resources. Those tools can't make sense if you don't have first hand experience of the game first.

The bringing a stack of 'chests' to an inn thing doesn't make sense in the context of this game.

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I have played MMO's since the time of Meridian 58 (or was it 59) - since Internet became available, more or less - and in most games there are several ways to store your items. Normally you don't have to carry them around, but can use banks or, if you have a house, a chest or similar. This game has retainers (which I have 3 of), a sadel pack, and your own inventory. To have to subscribe to additional retainers to be able to store your gods seems a bit wrong to me (since they have to fill different roles, like selling stuff on the market (an auction house would be great) gather stuff, and be your personal inventory. SO, basically, why have they made storing items so crazy in this game? I know it's a different game, and that it's made by Japanese people, who might not have been brought up in MMO the way westerners have, but it just seems such a crazy way of doing things. But that was NOT how this discussion began, it began with there not being any explanation online, that I can easily find, that explains what a chest (in FFXIV) is for.

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

What do you mean by 'chests'? You seem to refer to something with some specific functionality, but not having played exactly the same other games as you I have no idea what kind of items that might be.



Skins and other body parts are random drops from animals you kill. There is little information about this because there is very little to write about it. Kill animals and you may get skins, horns, chunks of meat, etc.
If you want to know exactly what animals drop a certain type of skin, or what can drop from a specific type of animal, then there are plenty of websites that will tell you about it - all just a google-search away.

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In your real-life home, what do you use chests for? But that's the BIG problem. People not explaining things because they don't exists. Isn't that what a good site is for? Informing you of what is possible and not possible? The problem is that most random posts you find are several years old. You can't rely on old posts about a game that is continuously updated, can you?

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

I have played MMO's since the time of Meridian 58 (or was it 59) - since Internet became available, more or less - and in most games there are several ways to store your items. Normally you don't have to carry them around, but can use banks or, if you have a house, a chest or similar. This game has retainers (which I have 3 of), a sadel pack, and your own inventory. To have to subscribe to additional retainers to be able to store your gods seems a bit wrong to me (since they have to fill different roles, like selling stuff on the market (an auction house would be great) gather stuff, and be your personal inventory. SO, basically, why have they made storing items so crazy in this game? I know it's a different game, and that it's made by Japanese people, who might not have been brought up in MMO the way westerners have, but it just seems such a crazy way of doing things. But that was NOT how this discussion began, it began with there not being any explanation online, that I can easily find, that explains what a chest (in FFXIV) is for.

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Retainers used to be sort of a manageable NPC. You gave them stuff to be in their inventory which they could then go sell in a giant marketplace you actually had to visit with your character to buy from. There were HUNDREDS of peoples retainers standing in a giant hall and you had to check each one to buy stuff from people.

Luckily this was revamped to what we have now where there's a GUI (the marketboard) and they also added some fun functions to the retainers like giving them jobs and "ventures" or quests to go on which might reward you with random items. However the old system is STILL THERE, buried under what they've layed on top. This is why our storage is linked to them. It's not a great reason and surely could use some redoing, but that's why.

What you can assume when looking up housing items is that if it doesn't SAY it does something in the description, it's decorative. Item descriptions are very specific about what they do and just for future information no item you can buy for your house/apartment/FCroom adds storage space.

To add to that, you get something like 550 inventory slots, plus over 400 armory chest slots. If you buy and apartment or house, you have the storeroom, which can hold as many housing items as can be placed inside or outside depending on size.

If you are hoarding everything, don't. There's no need.


There isn't much online because for the most part, any time you encounter a new thing in game, a tutorial pops up. If there's no tutorial, it doesn't do anything. And if you turned them off, well that's not on the game.

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People not explaining things because they don't exists. Isn't that what a good site is for?

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I was following you until this, at which point I couldnt anymore.

Unless its a staple of the MMO community, or a massively noteworthy feature (and even then, Guild Wars has perhaps the single best support wiki of any MMO, and im not sure it tells you anywhere that you cant jump. you just... cant jump and you can play the game and know you cant jump), people cant tell you its not in a game

Oh I see, so you were looking for information on item storage. Yeah once you are familiar with the names this game uses for things then you know what search terms to use for information.

We have the dresser (inn rooms) which stores equipment only. Also the armoire (inn and player housing) stores certain specialty equipment. Icons along the top edge of equipment tooltip window let you know if the item can be stored in those chests or customised with your fc crest (guild emblem).

For general item storage, yes hiring retainers is the answer. If you join an fc (guild) you also have access to the fc chest (in most cities and player housing) which is shared storage between the fc member with up to 5 pages to unlock based on fc rank.

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Originally Posted by Barraind

I was following you until this, at which point I couldnt anymore.

Unless its a staple of the MMO community, or a massively noteworthy feature (and even then, Guild Wars has perhaps the single best support wiki of any MMO, and im not sure it tells you anywhere that you cant jump. you just... cant jump and you can play the game and know you cant jump), people cant tell you its not in a game

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Not telling you that skinning isn't a profession? Well, anyway, I got the explanation I needed, and this forum is a good way to get the info, although it would be easier to be able to search it up. Like a place that lists all professions (without all the extra info, which can be placed in separate chapters), what they can do, and that's it, no one can skin, great, saw it at once. In stead you get sent to places with very good explanations, but where the basics are hidden away so you have to do an hours reading just to get things cleared up.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

Oh I see, so you were looking for information on item storage. Yeah once you are familiar with the names this game uses for things then you know what search terms to use for information.

We have the dresser (inn rooms) which stores equipment only. Also the armoire (inn and player housing) stores certain specialty equipment. Icons along the top edge of equipment tooltip window let you know if the item can be stored in those chests or customised with your fc crest (guild emblem).

For general item storage, yes hiring retainers is the answer. If you join an fc (guild) you also have access to the fc chest (in most cities and player housing) which is shared storage between the fc member with up to 5 pages to unlock based on fc rank.

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What does the icons mean? A shield of sorts, with a cross, something that looks like a basket, and something I can't make out (armoire?)

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

But that was NOT how this discussion began, it began with there not being any explanation online, that I can easily find, that explains what a chest (in FFXIV) is for.

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I think you're going about things the wrong way here.

You're starting from the assumption that "chests" must exist, therefore you go looking for information about chests and assume that an item called a chest must be the inventory solution you are searching for. If you can't find any information about chests (or skinning monsters), it must be that nobody is explaining how to use them.

That's not actually how it works.

We don't have storage chests, therefore there is no reason for anyone to explain how to use them. And people aren't going to provide detailed information about what features are not in a game, or not by a particular term, because that list could be infinite. No wiki or item database is going to explain where you can get something that isn't there.

If you've bought a "stack of three chests" then you must have Splintered Chests. It's a crafting ingredient for a housing item.

Inventory is, basically, a notorious mess here. They made deeply-embedded poor decisions when setting up their database that have become a problem as the game increased. They can't expand the main inventory so keep working around it with segmented things.

Your main inventory, retainers and saddlebag are the entirety of standard item storage available to you. You also have the glamour dresser at the inn for storing gear you only want to keep for its appearance, and if you have a house or apartment then there is a furniture storeroom but it can't be used for other types of items. If you're in an FC there is a shared company chest.

(And no, if you ever see it and get excited, the "storage bench" furniture item is not actually storage. That's just flavour text.)

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I think you're going about things the wrong way here.

You're starting from the assumption that "chests" must exist, therefore you go looking for information about chests and assume that an item called a chest must be the inventory solution you are searching for. If you can't find any information about chests (or skinning monsters), it must be that nobody is explaining how to use them.

That's not actually how it works.

We don't have storage chests, therefore there is no reason for anyone to explain how to use them. And people aren't going to provide detailed information about what features are not in a game, or not by a particular term, because that list could be infinite. No wiki or item database is going to explain where you can get something that isn't there.

If you've bought a "stack of three chests" then you must have Splintered Chests. It's a crafting ingredient for a housing item.

Inventory is, basically, a notorious mess here. They made deeply-embedded poor decisions when setting up their database that have become a problem as the game increased. They can't expand the main inventory so keep working around it with segmented things.

Your main inventory, retainers and saddlebag are the entirety of standard item storage available to you. You also have the glamour dresser at the inn for storing gear you only want to keep for its appearance, and if you have a house or apartment then there is a furniture storeroom but it can't be used for other types of items. If you're in an FC there is a shared company chest.

(And no, if you ever see it and get excited, the "storage bench" furniture item is not actually storage. That's just flavour text.)

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I get it that I don't get it, but you don't get it either. I don't know of any game, and I've played a few, that has chests that don't have storage space in them. It's just so far out there that I couldn't imagine it being possible. Same with skinning. In most games I know of there's a skinning profession, so I couldn't imagine it not being a thing in this game, although when you see how all mobs you slay are auto-looted and they disappear afterwards, that would explain why it isn't possible. Also, when it comes to skinning, I get why the cost is high for hides. It took me (with a lvl 44 Pal) a very good half an hour to collect 100 hides from lvl 20-21 mobs, even though I ran around in a circle and basically slayed 1 or 2 every 30 seconds (or less). With a miner about the same level it took me 10-15 minutes to collect 100 alumen for my leather-worker to make leather with.

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

I get it that I don't get it, but you don't get it either. I don't know of any game, and I've played a few, that has chests that don't have storage space in them. It's just so far out there that I couldn't imagine it being possible. Same with skinning. In most games I know of there's a skinning profession, so I couldn't imagine it not being a thing in this game, although when you see how all mobs you slay are auto-looted and they disappear afterwards, that would explain why it isn't possible. Also, when it comes to skinning, I get why the cost is high for hides. It took me (with a lvl 44 Pal) a very good half an hour to collect 100 hides from lvl 20-21 mobs, even though I ran around in a circle and basically slayed 1 or 2 every 30 seconds (or less). With a miner about the same level it took me 10-15 minutes to collect 100 alumen for my leather-worker to make leather with.

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So when skinning wasn't a part of the 3 known gathering classes, what did you think was happening? there was a hidden skinning mechanic nobody was mentioning? The main thing I can think of telling you is that if it isn't listed or mentioned, it's likely not a thing in FFXIV.

Your best bet for farming MOB drops is having a retainer of adequate job level on one of the WAR/MAGIC jobs. They can do ventures for nearly any crafting mat an overworld monster drops.

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

Not telling you that skinning isn't a profession?

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Why would anyone say anything at all about skinning? It just isn't something one needs to do in FFXIV, so there isn't anything to say about it.
You seem to assume that because skinning is a thing in some other MMO it is a thing here. Bad assumption.

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Originally Posted by Krotoan

So when skinning wasn't a part of the 3 known gathering classes, what did you think was happening? there was a hidden skinning mechanic nobody was mentioning? The main thing I can think of telling you is that if it isn't listed or mentioned, it's likely not a thing in FFXIV.

Your best bet for farming MOB drops is having a retainer of adequate job level on one of the WAR/MAGIC jobs. They can do ventures for nearly any crafting mat an overworld monster drops.

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I didn't know what to think, so I searched and searched. I got the thing with the retainers doing the shitty jobs, but the 2 I had was busy selling stuff on the market. I got 1 new one and now have one selling stuff and 2 mining. I'll probably get 2 more to do skinning.

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

I didn't know what to think, so I searched and searched. I got the thing with the retainers doing the shitty jobs, but the 2 I had was busy selling stuff on the market. I got 1 new one and now have one selling stuff and 2 mining. I'll probably get 2 more to do skinning.

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Selling stuff doesn't supercede going on ventures. Both can be done at the same time. Even if they're on a venture, their listings on the market still are there and accessible. I would suggest if you're going to be into crafting to have at least one botanist, one miner, and one hunter retainer. Fishing retainers are kinda useless except for random items on the waterside explorations.

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

I get it that I don't get it, but you don't get it either. I don't know of any game, and I've played a few, that has chests that don't have storage space in them.

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New game, new mechanisms. I wouldn't go into any game assuming that design elements from another game must apply to this one - you can use past experience as a guide to what's probably available, but not a guarantee. Read the help text as it pops up. If it hasn't told you about a thing then it probably either doesn't exist or isn't available to you yet.

In any case I'm struggling to think of any game I've played (RPGs mostly) that even has chests as an inventory item.

Don't retainers look like they must be this game's answer to remote storage chests anyway? No other game I've played has anything like them either.

The materials that come from monsters have always been in a weird place. The drop rates for all of them are really bad, and the retainer ventures to get them only give you 10, yet the recipes requiring them want just as many of them as equivalent crafts with mining and botany materials. To compound this, monsters in the overworld give almost no exp and aren't really worth fighting, so there isn't much of a cushion of these items available on the market from people out grinding exp like you would see in other games.