Today I wanted to talk about how to make your first one million Gil in FFXIV. There are so many Gil making videos out there but a whole lot of them require you to have high level crafters, endgame level combat jobs to farm activities, or millions and millions of existing Gil to spend in the effort of earning even more money.
FFXIV Gil Making
Your first 1,000,000 Gil.
In this article, I’m going to talk about how I specifically made my first million. One of the issues a lot of Gil making videos and guides have is there’s inherently an issue with sharing the ways you really make your profits. The true Gil-making schemes are oftentimes closely held secrets lest someone come in and ruin the whole deal.
But thankfully, this guide is aimed solely at new players which means I can share all of the exact details. To start I’ll talk about the different types of items you can specialize in, but at the end of the video I’ll share the numbers behind which items did the best for me. When I first started making Gil in FFXIV I was terrified of losing Gil and not realizing it so I kept a spreadsheet of my profits on a per item basis. Turns out I still have that so I can share it with you all!
If this video does well, it may crash the prices of some of these items and I apologize for that, but over a long time span these should help you build your bank.
And the best news is this method is almost entirely risk free. When you have less than a million Gil, you really can’t afford to spend 500,000 Gil on an item in an attempt to flip it elsewhere, only to have the market crash and now you’ve lost all your progress.
Instead, we’re going to talk about low-risk Gil making opportunities. Namely, taking advantage of people being lazy.
Dye Selling
Selling dye in FFXIV is low-risk and very profitable.
Did you know there’s an NPC vendor in the major hub cities that sells most dye colors? And they’re always a fraction of the cost they cost on the marketplace. Every dye costs either 40 or 216 Gil and sells for double or triple that amount on the marketboard. For example, as I’m writing this script, Midnight Blue Dye costs 216 Gil from the vendor and sells for 621 (on average) across all of the America servers. That’s a handy 405 profit per dye. That may not seem like much, but it adds up. 40,000 Gil per stack of 99 sounds better, yeah? (though you’re better off selling smaller stacks).
That’s one way of making some consistent Gil. Dyes are consumable so they disappear off the market and usually don’t return. Sure, people can print dye via crafting or these vendors, but the margins are small so most big fish aren’t worrying too much about them.
Check out your server and see how much the dyes are selling for, and which ones are selling the most frequently, there might be a tidy profit to be made.
Reselling Housing Items
Buy low, sell high.
Another that can be particularly profitable is housing items. This is especially true around major housing expansions. Thousands of people suddenly needing to decorate really makes prices skyrocket.
But again, there’s a Housing Merchant in each district that sells 255 different items, oftentimes at prices much cheaper than they are on the marketboard.
I recommend you head on over to the marketboard, pull up the web page for the Housing Merchant and compare the NPC’s prices versus those on your server. Make sure to also take note of how often these things sell. Though most prices are low, some are high, and there’s nothing worse than buying something only to realize it only sells once or twice a month.
As a whole, these items do sell slower than most others, but the profit margins can be much higher as a result. Back when I was doing this some items were selling for 10 to 30 thousand Gil profit each. You’d honestly be surprised how many people don’t check to see how much cheaper these items are at the NPC vendor.
Just don’t overcommit and buy a ton of these items at once. You’re better off listing one or two and when they sell trudging back to the vendor yourself. No need to put the risk on yourself by buying a bunch.
Crafting & Gathering Gear
People are lazy, time to capitalize.
Another thing you can make a killing off of is crafter and gatherer gear. NPCs sell that stuff, but they’re spread throughout the world. And people with a lot of money don’t really want to bother traveling to Ishgard or Crystarium just to save 15,000 Gil or whatever. On top of that, there are lots of players or alts who don’t have access to those areas yet but need the gear. So this is the only way for them to obtain it!
Sure, the HQ versions are always going to sell better, but there’s also a market for people who just want the bare minimum, standard gear, and don’t want to have to travel to do it.
So check around the major cities, particularly those in Ishgard, to see if there’s some profit to be made on your server. Of my first million Gil, this made up a good half of my profits.
Race Exclusive Gear
Time to sell some Viera gear.
The final one is pretty surprising but makes sense when you think about it. You’re a level 60 Viera now and you got rid of the level 1 starting gear forever ago, but now you want it again. You’re probably going to the market. Or maybe you took a Phial of Fantasia and swapped to a new race and don’t know where to get the gear so you’re just going to the marketboard. That’s incredibly common.
But each of the starting cities has a vendor where you can buy all of the level 1 starting gear for each of the races, including those outside your own. They’re incredibly cheap. And while they won’t sell like hotcakes, I earned a good 300,000 Gil from them when I started, and it involved zero risk.
How I Made 2,231,111 Gil
A tell-all breakdown.
Now, let’s get into the specifics. These 25 items were the most profitable items I sold. In total this earned me 2,231,111 Gil and that’s taking into account the expense of buying the items.
As you can see, my most profitable items were the housing items, probably thanks to the sheer number of items available to sell. It was followed closely by the crafter and gatherer gear sets. These were also the most expensive items to buy so the margins were higher. Food, starting gear, and dye had lower numbers but also involved significantly less risk.
These were the numbers I was looking at in late 2021.
| NPC Price | Market Price | Profit Per 99 | |
| Terebinth | 60 | 350 | 28000 |
| Ash Grey | 40 | 600 | 55000 |
| Gobbue Grey | 40 | 300 | 25000 |
| Slate Grey | 216 | 430 | 21000 |
| Charcoal Grey | 216 | 800 | 57000 |
| Rose Pink | 40 | 750 | 70000 |
| Rolanberry Red | 216 | 700 | 47000 |
The thing to keep in mind is that dye prices fluctuate rapidly. Sometimes Midnight Blue will sell for 651, but there were times where it was going to upwards of 1,800 per bucket.
Like I said, here were the going prices of some of the items from Norlaise in The Pillars. 20-30k per piece is generally what I was looking for. If something dropped below that, I generally wouldn’t bother trying to flip it.
| Norlaise (The Pillars) | NPC Price | Market Price | Profit Per |
| Holy Rainbow Shoes | 8110 | 30000 | 21890 |
| Holy Rainbow Coatee | 9884 | 14000 | 4116 |
| Holy Rainbow Hat | 7983 | 40000 | 32000 |
| Dhalmelskin Bush Hat | 12474 | 39000 | 26000 |
| Dhalmelskin Gloves | 11088 | 35000 | 24000 |
| Dhalmelskin Boots | 12672 | 35000 | 23000 |
And here are the margins on those housing items I mentioned. Look at those Stack of Documents and Tomes. They cost just a few thousand Gil from the vendor but were selling for 35-50k on the marketplace. Huge profit margins with very little risk!
| Housing Vendor | NPC Price | Market Price | Profit Per |
| Cedar Tree | 7500 | 33000 | 25000 |
| Deluxe Garden Patch | 48000 | 100000 | 67000 |
| Stack of Documents | 2000 | 35000 | 33000 |
| Stack of Tomes | 5000 | 50000 | 45000 |
Anyway, that’s about it. If these are your markets right now, I’m so, so sorry, but I want to help Sprouts get their funding off of the ground. For what it’s worth, it’s 100% possible that the markets I was using no longer work and there are similar ones to be taken advantage of.
Honestly, there’s really no substitute for doing your own research and figuring out what works. People online can’t really tell you the secrets because the FFXIV economy shifts every single day and what works now, might not work tomorrow.
Oh, and let me know how your Gil making endeavors go!
So check around the major cities, particularly those in Ishgard, to see if there’s some profit to be made on your server. Of my first million Gil, this made up a good half of my profits.
