I’m not going to lie, I struggle to remember to repair my Gear in almost every single game I play and my Twitch Community has witnessed me play games like The Witcher 3 where I always had broken Gear.
It typically gets to the point where I complete the majority of content with broken Gear, though as most gamers know, this is not only unideal, but in some games, broken Gear means you deal much less damage have less protection or even lose the Gearset that you have.
I’m sure most people agree that they prefer games where Gear doesn’t break and while I’ve gotten a lot better about keeping an eye on my Tools, Weapons and Armour in most video games I can’t deny that I still get called out for letting my Gear’s condition drop too low.
Realistically there is a threshold that is considered safe when it comes to the condition of one’s Gear in FFXIV and not only that, there are multiple ways a player can maintain their Gear to make sure that it doesn’t break while in the middle of a battle.
I will be taking you through everything you need to know about repairing your Gear in FFXIV including when it is important and when you can ignore the condition of your Gear.
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 DOES GEAR LOSE DURABILITY AND BREAK IN FFXIV?
There are a few ways that pieces of Gear break or lose durability in FFXIV. Although sometimes subtle, players may notice they have to repair gear more often depending on the content they participating in whether this is in battle or while Crafting and Gathering.
In terms of Combat, players will see the condition of their Gear deplete each time they damage. It doesn’t matter where the damage is coming from or what type of damage it is, a player’s Gear will take a small amount of durability loss each time they are struck. It is important to note that the amount of damage a player receives does not factor into how much durability is taken from their Gear.
Now, this isn’t where the majority of durability loss comes from and a player can typically run several Duties before they must repair their Gear. This does however mean that Tanks typically lose the most durability while running instances since they are the ones taking the most auto-attacks.
Though this is true, the most significant durability loss comes from a player dying in Combat and a player being resurrected will not affect the amount of durability lost in death.
It is worth noting that shields do not reduce the amount of durability loss from damage as well, though realistically it’s not worth even thinking about how much durability you are losing in an instance and players will simply need to accept that they will have to repair their Gear every so often.
The only suggestion I can provide is to simply make sure that you are not standing in AoEs when possible and to try to burst down mob packs as quickly as possible. Tanks, this means learning to pull wall-to-wall and letting your DPS burst down all the mobs. You will need to know how to mitigate well to do this and will need a decent healer, however, if you are at a risk for a wipe it’s not worth it.
Again, in my opinion, I would avoid thinking about durability loss and would simply focus on clearing content as quickly and efficiently as you can.
Before you enter an instance or Duty I strongly recommend you take a look at your Durability. Realistically you shouldn’t lose more than a few percent for a Dungeon, however, if you are trying to complete a new Raid, Trial or Alliance Raid, you want to make sure you’re as close to 100% as the chances of death or a wipe are generally high.
Players are given a warning each time they queue for a Duty if the condition of their Gear is beginning to get low and luckily a player will be able to repair their Gear in the instance. I will go more in-depth about how this can be done shortly.
Weapons, unlike Armour, take durability loss when they are used rather than when a player is damaged. This means that players will continuously lose durability on their Weapons no matter what content they’re completing even if they’re up against mobs that they kill in one shot. Healers and Red Mages, this means that each time you heal yourself even for the memes, you are losing durability on your Weapons.
As for Crafters and Gatherers, you lose durability on all your pieces of Gear each time you perform an action. This means Gatherers will want to use their Abilities any time they have some extra GP as not only will this provide you with many more resources, but it will help make sure that you aren’t breaking your Gear as often and will realistically save you a lot of time gathering.
As for Crafting, you won’t notice much durability loss when you are crafting a single item at a time, however, when you are using Quick Synthesis expect yourself to regularly need to repair, especially if you are completing stacks of 99 at a time.
I find when I’m getting prepared for my upper-tier crafts by making all of my intermediates I have to repair my Gear very frequently.
WHAT IS LOW CONDITION AND DOES IT MATTER IN FFXIV?
When players go below a certain amount of durability they will be notified that their Gear has low condition. This is simply a warning that they should start thinking about their Gear’s durability, though players will get a more severe warning when their condition has dropped below 10%.
While in reality, this doesn’t mean anything and a player can get through a full instance without any of their Gear breaking, it is not advisable.
If you are ever warned that any pieces of your Gear have dropped run get that ish repaired because as soon as you enter combat you won’t be able to stop and repair.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR GEAR BREAKS IN FFXIV?
When your Gear breaks in FFXIV you essentially lose all of the stats that are on that piece of Gear, meaning Crafters and Gatherers will lose stats like Craftsmanship, Control, Perception and Gathering and Combat Jobs will lose Vitaliaty, damage and potency.
I truthfully would never allow my Gear to completely break and while you can still use your Weapons and Tools, this is only useful if you are against mobs that are extremely low levelled or are Crafting or Gathering something that can be covered by your other Gear’s stats.
I will sometimes continue to craft if I am running Quick Synthesis and the resource is a much lower level than I am, since there is already a chance that the resource is going to be NQ. Otherwise, I’m especially meticulous about my Crafter Gear because I hate when things fail.
In regards to instances where you iLvl sync, a broken piece of Gear is still very impactful. As the rest of your Gear is also iLvl synced you will be treated as if you are not wearing a piece of Gear that is suitable for your level. Please, please, please never let a piece of Gear break during an instance, no matter how easy it is.
HOW DO YOU TELL YOUR GEAR HAS BROKEN IN FFXIV?
Players can check the condition of their Gear by heading into their character menu. When playing with Mouse and Keyboard, this is opened with “C” and is where a player would switch their Gear. Beside each piece of Gear is a little bar that shows the condition of the equipment, when this line is Blue this means your Gear is at 100% durability or higher and anything other colour is less than 100%.
Players don’t need to keep their Gear at 100% at all times as they will only lose the benefits of their Gear if their Gear hits 0%.
I would strongly recommend that you check this screen often, especially before you enter a Dungeon, Trial or Raid just to make sure your Gear isn’t broken or is near breaking.
As mentioned, though you will be able to repair gear before a mob is pulled, as soon as combat begins you will lose this option and will simply have to deal with your broken Gear.
HOW DO YOU REPAIR GEAR IN FFXIV?
There are a few ways that players can Repair their Gear in FFXIV and the way you choose to will depend on what content you want to complete or Jobs you have levelled.
I will cover each of the ways and give you an estimate of their cost, though this varies based on level so you may see slightly different numbers.
USE AN INDEPENDENT MENDER
For players who want to take the simplest route to repair their Gear all they have to do is head to an NPC with the name Mender or Independent Mender.
Menders in nearly every area in the Overworld, though players tend to stick to using the ones located in major cities especially if they’re often hanging out or AFK-ing in one.
Players can locate Independent Menders in their map by searching for a Hammer Icon. When this Hammer is hovered over they will see the word “Repairs”.
Independent Menders charge small amounts of Gil to repair Gear which is based on the iLvl of the Gear and how much durability is depleted. This means a piece of Gear with 20% condition left will cost more to repair than one with 80% durability left. This means you can technically repair it after every single Duty you complete and still pay the same cost if you were to wait for it to lose more durability.
Admittedly, this is the route I took at the beginning of Endwalker as between streaming, writing guides and composing music I didn’t have much time to play the game, let alone level my Crafters and Gatherers.
When repairing early-game Gear you’re typically looking at a couple hundred Gil per piece, however, when you get to the late-game Gear, which is currently level 90 with an iLvl of 600+ you’re looking at about 2,000 Gil per piece.
Though this may sound like a steep price, I can’t think of any content that won’t pay for its repair costs other than spamming FATEs as most content is pretty generous with the amount of Gil the player receives.
The only other instance is if you keep wiping in the same duty such as an Extreme Trial or Savage Raid and don’t end up clearing.
REPAIRING GEAR BY YOURSELF
Now, for players who are doing long-form content such as Savage or Ultimate Raids, I would strongly recommend you unlock the ability to repair gear yourself, especially if you are using Party Finder or Duty Finder to complete this content.
As these fights are generally long and require multiple pulls it’s going to be useful to be able to repair while in the instance between pulls as it can be frustrating for a group to disband simply so a single player can repair. There has only been one instance where my Gear went from 100% to 0 within a Duty and that was when I was doing an unsynced version of Alphascape 4.0 Savage with one other player and we were trying to see what jobs you could Duo with to farm the Mount.
Luckily for us, I was able to repair our Gear so we didn’t have to leave, which was even more useful since we were in the second phase and wouldn’t have to repeat the first.
Self-repairs are not difficult to unlock and they tend to save you a good amount of Gil, the only “hard” task is to level your Crafters. Now, trust me, I understand not wanting to level up Crafters if you don’t intend to craft, but if you want a relatively easy way to do level with minimal effort you simply need to do a few Challenge Logs for crafting each week. I’ve outlined the best Challenge Logs to do that simply require you to use quick synthesis resources (automated crafting), I’ve even included a tip on what resources you can craft to make a bit of extra Gil.
When players hover over a piece of Gear they will see a section at the bottom titled Crafting & Repairs. In this section, players can see the Condition of their Gear as well as the Crafter they need to repair, the level the Crafter needs to be at and the lowest-level Dark Matter they need to use on the Gear.
The following are which Crafters repair each piece of Gear:
Weapons – Goldsmith
Heads – Goldsmith
Body – Weaver
Hands – Leatherworker
Legs – Weaver
Feet – Leatherworker
Ears – Goldsmith
Necks – Goldsmith
Wrists – Goldsmith
Rings – Goldsmith
The biggest benefit to repairing Gear yourself is that you get 100% durability back meaning that you can go over 100% condition. This greatly reduces the cost of repairs, so while a player may think that the cost of Gil for repairing at a Mender is comparable to repairing it by yourself, this is hardly true. For clarity’s sake, if your Gear’s Condition is at 99%, if you use Dark Matter to repair it the condition will become 199%. You will not be able to repair a piece of Gear that is in 100% Condition, so no 200% for you!
I should also state that while players can use higher-tier Dark Matter to repair lower-level Gear this is a waste of Gil and you should only do it if you have no other option. The only time this is worth it is if you have snagged the higher-level Dark Matter of the Market Board for cheaper than the lower-tier Dark Matter.
Finally, it doesn’t matter what job you are on when you are repairing your Gear. Players must simply right-click a piece of Gear and select Repair. This menu will appear much like it does when visiting an Independent Merchant, however, it will have a bit of extra information including the Dark Matter Grade necessary as well as the number of pieces of Dark Matter you have in your inventory.
I suggest always checking how much Dark Matter you have whenever you run these repairs, especially if you’re currently levelling multiple Jobs. If you’re someone who isn’t stressed about what Grade Dark Matter you are using, simply hit repair, but if you are concerned about spending the wrong type of Dark Matter or running out this is your opportunity to check.
WHERE TO BUY DARK MATTER FROM IN FFXIV
Dark Matter is one of the most invaluable resources in FFXIV and is something I always have on hand. Typically I will hold stacks of a hundred or more so I don’t have to think twice about if I have some with me. That being said, anytime I drop below 40 I will always buy another 99.
Now, you don’t need to hoard Dark Matter in large quantities, especially if you notice you’re not repairing too often. I burn through Dark Matter so frequently I’m regularly Crafting and Gathering and both tasks eat up the resource like it’s their job.
Unfortunately, players are unable to Gather Dark Matter, but it can be purchased from a Variety of Vendors as well as the Market Board.
Depending on where I am in the game, I will check the Market Board before heading to a Vender as there are times when a player dumps a stack of the Dark Matter I need for cheaper than the Vender sells it for. Realistically though, I most frequently buy the stacks from Independent Menders since they are always around and the cost is still less expensive than utilizing their services.
Vender names to look out for include:
Merchant & Mender
Apartment Merchant
Junkmonger
Independent Merchant
Blessed Merchant
Resistance Provisioner
Expedition Provisioner
Arms Supplier
There are many more variations of these Vendor names, however, it’s important to note that if an NPC just says “Mender” they won’t typically have the Dark Matter. They must always have a “…& Mender”. Merchants on the other hand tend to have them more often, though this is not always the case as the same can be said about Provisioners and Suppliers.
Players can also purchase all versions of Dark Matter with Company Seals and Wolf Marks (the PVP currency.)
While I don’t typically recommend this, simply because you can make a decent amount of Gil by selling resources that can be bought with both currencies, if you’re not planning on spending them any other way more power to you.
I will say, if you are using Wolf Marks to purchase Dark Matter, simply buy the highest tier Dark Matter available as all the tiers cost the same amount of Wolf Marks. That way you can also save inventory space.
HOW MUCH DOES DARK MATTER COST IN FFXIV?
All Vendors will sell Dark Matter for the same cost. It doesn’t matter if they are a Mender, a Vendor, or whatever they want to call themselves! The following are the costs for each tier of Dark Matter depending on the currency you are using:
HOW MUCH GIL DOES DARK MATTER COST IN FFXIV
Grade 1 Dark Matter – 4 Gil
Grade 2 Dark Matter – 12 Gil
Grade 3 Dark Matter – 24 Gil
Grade 4 Dark Matter – 48 Gil
Grade 5 Dark Matter – 80 Gil
Grade 6 Dark Matter – 120 Gil
Grade 7 Dark Matter – 200 Gil
Grade 8 Dark Matter – 280 Gil
HOW MANY COMPANY SEALS DOES DARK MATTER COST IN FFXIV
Grade 1 Dark Matter – 12 Company Seals
Grade 2 Dark Matter – 34 Company Seals
Grade 3 Dark Matter – 70 Company Seals
Grade 4 Dark Matter – 138 Company Seals
Grade 5 Dark Matter – 230 Company Seals
Grade 6 Dark Matter – 345 Company Seals
Grade 7 Dark Matter – 575 Company Seals
Grade 8 Dark Matter – 600 Company Seals
HOW MANY WOLF MARKS DOES DARK MATTER COST IN FFXIV
Unlike all other costs for Dark Matter, each tier will cost 100 Wolf Marks. This is why I say you should just buy the highest tier of Dark Matter as you will be able to use it on lower levelled Gear.
Honestly, this is the only Vendor I would think about buying Dark Matter from other than those who sell the resource for Gil. Still, some pretty decent selling resources can be sold for Gil.
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