Released over 3 years ago now, the Gold Saucer in Final Fantasy XIV incorporated the concept of a leisure park into the online game, inspired by that of the establishment holding the same name if the famous Final Fantasy VII. For players who have not yet set foot in this complex, here are the important points to know to start the Gold Saucer!
Unlocking The Gold Saucer
To get to the Gold Saucer, go to Ul’dah, across Aetheryte Plaza where a young man offers the “Well-Heeled Youth” quest. For it to be available, one of the following quests must have been completed beforehand: “The Gridanian Envoy,” “The Ul’dahn Envoy,” or “The Lominsan Envoy.”
The quest will ask you to go to Ul’dah’s Airship Landing, via which you will be entitled to an entirely free and direct access to the Gold Saucer! Following your first access, you will no longer need to use this means of transportation to get there, the Gold Saucer zone containing its own Aetheryte Plaza to which you can teleport at anytime.
Currency: Manderville Gold Saucer Points
At the Gold Saucer, everything revolves around Manderville Gold Saucer Points (MGP). On your arrival in the area, you will be offered a small amount of MGP (around 100) so that you can try out the various games available there.
There are two different ways to earn MGP:
- You can exchange for your Gil for MGP: 1 MGP = 10 Gils. Please note that there are a few restrictions on this system. First of all, you cannot use the exchange service if you have more than 500 MGP. This is to encourage you to play the games rather than just farm for Gil and trade those. Secondly, the exchange only works one way. As such, you may not trade your accumulated MGP for Gil.
- You can earn MGP by playing in the various games and activities of the Gold Saucer casino. In most cases, you will be required to gamble a certain amount of MGP for various returns depending on your results.
Presentation of the areas
The Gold Saucer is a large un-instanced complex with a number of areas. The global map is defined like this:
We can quite easily visualize the different areas of generally circular shape with corridors between each of them.
Entrance Square (Lobby)
The Entrance Square serves as the Gold Saucer’s lobby, where players will find various NPCs:
- Gold Saucer Attendant (MGP Exchange)
- Gold Saucer Attendant (Information)
- Gold Saucer Attendant (Prize Claim)
- Mini Cactpot Broker: Allows you to take part in the daily Cactpot scratch card game where you can earn up to 10,000 MGP.
- Independent Arms Mender: Repairs your gear for a price.
- Tap Keeper: Sells a variety of items such as food and furniture.
- Triple Triad Trader: Sells Triple Triad cards.
To the north-west of the Hall is the entrance to Chocobo Square, where the chocobo races are held.
Card Square
The Card Square of Final Fantasy XIV’s Golden Saucer can be compared to the card games section of online casinos like Blackjack. But instead of games like Blackjack or Poker, you’ll find an original game called Triple Triad. You will start by creating a deck to play with the Triple Triad Master as a sort of tutorial.
Once that is done, you will start acquiring new cards to challenge NPCs or other players through random matches or tournaments.
Minion Square
In Minion Square, players will have access to the Lord of Verminion game. Put simply, it is a competitive event where players pit their minions (pets) against each other. It is not exactly a straightforward fight, however, as they are placed over a map with objectives to defend or destroy.
Chocobo Square
The Chocobo Square is tailored for those wishing to gamble their MGP on races, more precisely Chocobo races. The catch here is that players must own a Chocobo, which they must then register into the race.
Wonder Square
Finally, in the Wonder Square, players take part in a number of random minigames, although I wouldn’t suggest doing those for any reason other than entertainment, as the MGP payout tends to be rather low.