Player Housing consists of three player built cities called Mist, The Goblet and Lavender Beds. Mist is located in La Noscea, while The Goblet is in Thanalan and Lavender Beds is in the Black Shroud. Housing was implemented in patch 2.1 with gardening arriving in patch 2.2. While it is possible to play the game without ever touching the housing system, we recommend that you take part in it because a lot of work has gone into making this a one of the biggest and best housing systems in an MMORPG ever.
Building a House
Housing costs a lot of gil. There were a lot of complaints about this when 2.1 went live but since then the prices have come down to a more reasonable level. Land prices will fall over time if the plot has not been bought up. Smaller Free Companies will find they are only able to afford a small house, but you have to ask whether they really need a large one. Those plots are huge and there are only three of them per instance. Housing is effectively a big gil sink; the rich will buy early and high while the less well off will wait until the prices are more in line with their savings.
Two types of housing will be available. These are free company housing as well as individual housing, however free company housing is the only one that currently exists. Individual housing is scheduled to be released around the time of patch 2.4.ill make it into the game first. The difference is that with FC housing players will eventually be able to create bonuses that apply to everyone within the FC. There is also a shared item safe within free company housing. Free companies can increase in rank and this will bring more housing features to them over time.
The Free Company leader begins by selecting a plot of land and purchasing a permit with the gil required for the house. This allows them to build a house on this plot.
Customising the House & Adding Bonuses
Houses are highly customisable and expandable. For example, you can change the styling and colour of the roof, you can move objects and furniture around, you can add trophies and decorations to the rooms and hang banners around. Each house has a yard which is also customisable. Eventually, you will be able to place a chocobo stable which will give you the ability to breed and raise chocobos. What’s more, is a lot of this will be player-driven, for example, a Carpenter can make furniture while another crafter could create a roof. These parts can be bought and sold.
In the future you will be able to build parks and towers in the houses, which are used to give bonuses to all members of your free company, or in the case of individual housing – yourself. This may be one of the most attractive parts of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn’s housing system as it gives it a sense of purpose. Some examples of possible bonuses that producer Naoki Yoshida has mentioned include a 25% bonus to experience points earned, making crafting faster to level, to aid in HQ crafting or to increase the rate of gil acquisition.
Gardening
In patch 2.2 Gardening was added, which allows players to cultivate plants. Players must first purchase a garden patch followed by some soil and seeds. They can then raise the crop through the use of fertilizer and eventually yield some items via harvesting the fully grown plants.
Private Chambers
In patch 2.3 Square Enix added private chambers to FC housing. What this means is that players within a Free Company will be able to purchase their own private room for 300,000 gil as long as they are at rank second lieutenant or higher with their Grand Company and have achieved level 50.
Private Chambers are customizable just like the house itself, and any furniture that can be added to the FC house can also be added to private chambers. There is a limit of 50 items per room however and any furniture placed will be bound to you, meaning you cannot sell it to another player.
Chocobo Training
Also in patch 2.3 SE added the ability to train your chocobo in a stable. This allows chocobos to exceed the level cap of rank 10 and achieve a rank of 20 after training it enough. In order to train your chocobo your FC must purchase a chocobo stable from the housing merchant NPC in a residential area and place in in the garden.