For crafters, gatherers, and anyone who wants to store items rather than throw them away inFinal Fantasy 14, retainers are very important. These helpful, handy servants can store your items, go out on ventures to collect useful loot, and have distinct personalities of their own.

They also have classes of their own, much like yours, and can level up with you to reach higher heights and take on tougher challenges for better rewards. With limited retainer spaces, however, you may have to think hard about exactly which types of retainers you want to hire.

A menu of eight retainers in Final Fantasy 14

Which Jobs Should You Pick For Retainers?

While retainers can choose from almost all of the same classes and jobs that you’re able to pick from, you should be aware that there are four distinct ‘types’ of retainer:

These types willdictate what Ventures the retainer can undertake. Combat retainers will acquiremonster parts, Miners and Botanists will acquireitems that you can gatherfrom nodes, and Fishers can acquirefish, naturally.

A retainer’s maximum level is limited by your levels- a Miner retainer, for example, cannot be a higher level than your current Miner level. This means you will have to actively level up your gathering classes if you want effective gathering retainers.

No matter how many retainers you have,we recommend making at least one of them a combat retainer. Monster parts are tedious to farm as they rely largely on luck.

You should consider the following when deciding on your retainers' classes:

In an ideal world, you would be able to have retainers of each type at the same time,though this is only possible through paying extra per month.

If you’re sticking with the default two retainer maximum, though,we recommend picking a combat retainer and a gathering retainer that isn’t Fisher, preferring those you are likely to level up yourself. This will allow you to acquire the widest range of items that are useful for crafting. While Fisher can be useful for getting rare items and exclusive Minions, it is less generally useful for crafters.

If you decide to pay for the Retainer Service for more retainers, we recommend first spreading your class selections out based on the number of retainers you hire:

of Retainers

3

1 Combat, 1 Miner OR Botanist, 1 Fisher

4

5

6

3 Combat, 1 Miner, 1 Botanist, 1 Fisher

7

3 Combat, 1 Miner, 1 Botanist, 1 Miner OR Botanist, 1 Fisher

8

9

10

4 Combat, 2 Miner, 2 Botanist, 2 Fisher

You can only acquire the maximum of ten retainers by paying for themaximum number of extra retainers using the Retainer Servicein addition to also paying for thepricey Companion App upgrade.