When I first started playing FFXIV I somewhat rushed my character creation because I was too overwhelmed with how many options there were. Truthfully I get the same way each time I try to create a new Sim on the rare occasion that I pick up The Sims because editing body parts in particular always stresses me out. I can never seem to pick options that make me happy or feel organic to the character.
Hell, even now when I’m significantly attached to my main character there are moments when I question if I should go back and do some minor alterations, especially after 6 years I finally changed my character’s hair colour and I can’t say I love the colour of his eyes with the new hair.
At the end of the day, I know that I wouldn’t make major changes to my character, again because I am so attached to him, I can’t deny that I have thought about potentially playing another race. Admittedly, since I have an alt account I run Savage Raids on, I had the opportunity to play a Male Viera (while I normally play a Male Miquo’te) there is always an itch to play an Au Ra and more recently I made an adorable Lalafell retainer I wouldn’t mind playing in the future.
I must admit, a lot of my worry about changing races in FFXIV is the fact that there is no easy way to do this. That being said, players have reported changing races multiple times in a single week because they didn’t enjoy the feeling of the new race or wanted to make some small alterations to their new look that they didn’t notice they had problems with in the character creation.
The following post will cover everything you need to know about changing your race in FFXIV including what item you need and where to get it.
Note: If you have any questions about FFXIV that you want me to cover feel free to leave them in a comment below, you can also ask me while I am streaming on Twitch, YouTube or in our community discord.
HOW DO YOU CHANGE YOUR RACE IN FFXIV
To change your race in FFXIV a player will need an item called a Fantasia. Essentially a Fantasia is a consumable potion that will take a player back to the Character Creation menu, but don’t fret because you will not lose any of your character’s data.
At most, there are some pieces of clothing that you cannot wear on your new race or if you change your character’s gender there is a chance that certain pieces will not be able to be worn as well. Depending on how much space you have used in your Glamour Dresser you may or may not want to remove pieces of Gear you can no longer wear.
One of my friends not only race-swapped but gender-swapped multiple times and his biggest issue was the fact that many of his favourite Gear pieces were gender specific which sucked because he’s a glam-o-holic who has hundreds of pieces of Gear. As a player who has never capped his Glamour Dresser, I cannot relate, but I will say my husband has complained multiple times that he has run out of Glamour Dresser space, but he’s a mega-hoarder and will typically save a piece of Gear he may use in the future because it looks good.
Back to the Fantasia though. Once players have obtained a Fantasia, players must simply right-click on it and use it as if it were a healing potion, food or other consumable. This will immediately trigger the character creation screen as if a player is creating an alt job or a Retainer. Here players can either create their character from scratch or load a model they have already made. I may recommend you create your new character in advance so you don’t have to stress out, but realistically you can spend as much time on this menu as you want and the Fantasia will not be consumed until you confirm the changes.
If you cancel the character creation before you save your character this will not consume your Fantasia and this is a safe way to play around with different options without the need to commit. This is really useful when a player wants to see minuscule changes to their character such as eye colour, height or markings.
You see, even though Fantasias will allow a player to change their race, many players will utilize them to make small changes that otherwise cannot be changed at the Aesthetician. While there are several aspects a player can change at the Aesthetician, the base features of a character cannot be.
HOW DO YOU PURCHASE A FANTASIA FOR FFXIV?
For the most part, players will only be able to purchase a Fantasia for real-world currency at the Mog Station. As a warning the Mog Station is localized so make sure that you double-check that you are on the correct website while logging in and making your purchase.
I have to admit that the Mog Station is highly confusing and can take a good amount of time to navigate, quite frankly I’m surprised since FFXIV isn’t run by small developers or publishers, but it is what it is. Here’s the step by Step:
Use your e-mail as your Square Enix ID. The username you use for the FFXIV launcher will not work in this section.
Once in the Mog Station scroll down to the Optional Items (Online Store) which is under the Games & Additional Services header.
On the left-hand side of the screen, players will see categories for purchases, here there is a section titled “Fantasia” click it.
Typically there are 3 options for Fantasia purchases these are for 1 Phail, 3 Phials and 5 Phials. There are some rare occurrences that more are sold in a bundle, but these are very rare occurrences.
HOW MUCH DO FANTASIAS COST IN FFXIV?
The price of a Fantasia will depend on how many Phails a player is purchasing and whether there is currently a sale specifically for Fantasia.
Sales are fairly regular on the Mog Station, happening every few months, but the items that go on sale tend to be random and I can’t say that there is a “time of year” which is best to make these purchases.
The price also varies depending on what currency your game is set in, so for me it’s about £6 per Fantasia and there isn’t much difference between buying 1 Fantasia or a 5 pack.
In my opinion, the only time it is worth buying multiple Fantasia at once is when there is a sale going on, not because the price of the larger packs is cheaper than buying multiple single purchases, but because the sale itself tends to be significant.
If you are on a different Mog Station than me and this info seems incorrect please let me know. As I cannot keep an eye on the multiple stores, being that you cannot simply peruse stores at your will or even change your currency,
Again, this is an unfortunate reality of the Mog Station’s limitations and players have varying levels of experience receiving assistance from Customer Service. Even with what little assistance I’ve required for Basically Average I’ve had varying levels of help and always end up being transferred between multiple employees.
As a final note, I must stress that any Fantasias you buy can only be sent to a single Character on your account. This means if you are planning to change the appearance of multiple characters you must process them as multiple purchases. Again, if for whatever reason this has changed since the time of publishing this article please let me know so I can update this.
I don’t see this changing anytime soon, given the way that Mog Station is somewhat trapped in the past, but on the off chance that it does and I don’t notice immediately, I’d appreciate being corrected.
HOW DO YOU GET A FREE FANTASIA IN FFXIV?
Players will have the opportunity to get a single free Fantasia when they have finished the A Realm Reborn storyline. The only time a player will not receive this Fantasia is if they pay for a story skip on that character.
Players can technically play through the story until the end of A Realm Reborn and then pay for the story skip as this will allow the player to claim the rewards from the quest.
I will say it is somewhat odd that you essentially lose your free Fatnasia for paying for a story skip as players receive it after finishing the quest The Ultimate Weapon. The reason I say this is since The Ultimate Weapons also provides players with a Mount that story skippers do get and at risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I wonder if it’s simply because it is likely that someone who pays for a story skip will pay for a Fantasia, thus being a bit of a marketing tactic. Whether or not this is for Marketing, do be aware of this and if you are hoping to change your character and have already completed A Realm Reborn, you can check if you still have the Fantasia by using /isearch Fantasia in your chat window.
This will tell you specifically where you have your Fantasia stored whether it is in your Saddle Bag, Main Inventory or hidden with a Vendor.
I got scared I deleted my Fantasia a few times over the years since I have the ridiculous habit of Discarding items I don’t recognize when my inventory is full. The /isearch function has helped me in plenty of situations, keeping my panic at bay as well as helping me when crafting in case I’ve misplaced resources I was planning on using.
CONCLUSION
At the end of the day, the only way to change your race in FFXIV is to use a Fantasia. While players will be able to change their Hairstyle, Haircolour and certain markings on their body at the Aesthetician, any further alterations must be done while using a Fantasia.
This is why I recommend that players take some time in the character creation before using their Fantasia. Taking some time to try out different options can prove to be extremely beneficial, especially if you save the options to view later.
You may be better at making decisions than me though as I have mentioned I am generally unhappy with my character creations and while at the moment I love most things about my character, I’m nervous that if I spend my Fatasia to fix one thing I’ll keep finding things I want to change in the future.
But there are a few things I’m curious about since you’re here. What race do you currently play and what race do you want to become? What made you want to change your character and do you think you’re going to use Fantasias often? Let me know in the comments below!
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