One of the biggest draws for the millions of Final Fantasy XIV players around the world is the avid, never-ending pursuit of mount rewards, which give you easier and quicker transportation across the many regions of Eorzea, and in style. The game has literally hundreds of mounts to collect and choose from, all with varying degrees of difficulty when it comes to obtaining them. If you’re still fresh in the game, and are wanting to get your hands on a few different flashy options for getting around, here is our list of the top 15 easiest mounts for beginners to get in Final Fantasy XIV.
*NOTE: Unlike our ‘Most Difficult Mounts’ list, this roster is NOT ranked in a particular order of any difficulty. Our choices are a cumulative group of mounts that are all easy to obtain from various aspects of early FFXIV gameplay (apart from Mog Station), up to Stormblood at the very latest, which is now available in the latest version of the Free Trial.
Top Easy Mounts to Get Early in FFXIV
Mog Station Mounts
Our list begins with the unconventional but still technically easy option to obtain a good number of unique mounts for your character. The Mog Station is the go-to online shop for all FFXIV players that provides hundreds of purchasable items to use in-game, including a few dozen mounts that go for a variety of prices (some more expensive than others).
Some are unique additions, while others are referenced from iconic moments in the game’s storyline (e.g. The Cruise Chaser, The Shadow Wolf), and even other iconic games (e.g. the SDS Fenrir from FFVII). Also, mounts provided during limited time, annual seasonal events are traditionally offered on the Mog Station the following year. While most are one-person mounts, there are a handful that can seat 2 players or more, if you enjoy adventuring with friends and/or FC mates.
Depending on your personal gaming budget and how you like to spend it, you could certainly buff up your collection early on with some of these special mounts.
Company Chocobo
As is with Final Fantasy tradition, it all begins with your very first Chocobo. This is technically the very first mount you can obtain and use in the game, and you won’t be able to summon any other mounts you have until you’ve fulfilled the required quest to acquire your feathery companion.
The quest itself is not exactly made obvious to you during the first steps of the game, but as soon as you decide which starting class you want and subsequently which city-state you’ll begin in, and reach at least Level 20 with that starter class, you can pick up the quest titled “My Little Chocobo” from the NPC respective to that city-state’s Grand Company:
- Twin Adders – Vorsaile Heuloix – New Gridania (X:9, Y:11)
- Maelstrom – R’ashaht Rhiki – Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks (X:13.1, Y:12.8)
- Immortal Flames – Swift – Ul’dah, Steps of Nald (X:8, Y:8)
Once you’ve completed the quest, you’ll receive your own Chocobo Whistle that will summon your Chocobo to you at any time (outside of a duty instance). This also unlocks the ‘Mount’ gameplay mechanic, which will allow you to freely summon and ride any other mounts in your possession.
Not only that, your Company Chocobo almost becomes your official Companion that you can level up through battle, allocate abilities for it, and even dye it various colors and dress it up in Chocobo Barding outfits.
Moogle Treasure Trove Event Mounts
Since its first introduction during the Shadowbringers expansion in early 2019, the Moogle Treasure Trove event has become a somewhat regular opportunity for players to come back together during quieter periods of the patch content release schedule, and acquire special rewards by earning unique Moogle Tomestones from specific duty instances. These often include various older raids, trials, Frontline PVP matches, and both The Praetorium and Castrum Meridianum extended dungeons. You then take your earned Moogle Tomes to the floating Moogle NPC in any of the three main cities to exchange for your desired rewards.
Among those rewards are usually several mounts that are normally acquired through other methods in the game, including beast tribe mounts from A Realm Reborn, and even primal trial mounts you can normally only get from clearing and farming the extreme version of trials. While it started with the Lanner bird mounts from the Heavensward trials, nowadays you often see the Kamuy wolf mounts from Stormblood as well.
If you’re worried that you’ve missed out on past chances to get some of these easy mounts, there’s no need to fret. The Moogle Treasure Trove event happens two to three times a year on average, and each one often lasts for at least a few weeks, typically until the release date of a major patch.
Gold Saucer (MGP) Mounts
One truly easy place to get some unique mounts early on is without a doubt the Gold Saucer, an iconic and vibrant amusement park that’s long become a fixture in the franchise. In FFXIV, you’ll first be able to unlock access to the Gold Saucer when you obtain and complete the Level 15 quest pertinent to the class and city-state you started the game with. The quest will be called either, “The Gridanian Envoy”, “The Lominsan Envoy”, or “The Ul’dahn Envoy”.
After you complete that, you can go find an NPC named the Well-heeled Youth in Ul’dah (X:9.6, Y:9.0), who will give you the quest “It Could Happen to You”. Fulfill the objectives, and you’ll have full access to the Gold Saucer and all of its activities.
As you explore and try the incredible variety of mini-games there are to do, you’ll notice that many of them give a currency called MGP as a prize. This currency is unique to the Gold Saucer, and can only be spent there. Simply pay a visit to one of the Prize Attendants in the Entrance Square area, and you’ll see long list of various prizes, include several eccentric mounts.
If Lady Luck frequents your company and you manage to rack up some MGP rather quickly via the Mini-Cactpot game, the Fashion Report, or even the weekly Cactpot drawing that can net you a whopping 1 million MGP, you can get one of the mounts (the Adamantoise) for as little as 200,000 MGP. Other mounts go up into the millions, so it’s simply a matter of being patient, consistently participating in activities daily, and saving up your coins.
To make things even easier, every year there is a special Gold Saucer event called the “Make It Rain Campaign”, which boosts the percentage of MGP earned from every qualifying activity.
Unicorn Mount
The A Realm Reborn section of FFXIV definitely isn’t shy about its love for horse mounts, and there’s one in particular that some beginner players likely wouldn’t expect, as it’s rather unusual compared to other classes/jobs (aside from tanks).
If you choose the Conjurer class at the start of your adventure in Eorzea (or at any point), upon reaching Level 30 and completing the class quest, “In Nature’s Embrace”, you’ll then be able to pick up another quest from Braya at the Conjurer’s Guild in the Stillglade Fane area of Old Gridania called “Unicorn Power”. Essentially it involves finding an injured Unicorn in the nearby Gridanian wilderness and tending to its wounds. You’ll head to the most southwestern area in the Northern Shroud to find the “Injured Mare”, and then use a Cure spell on it.
You’ll then head back to the Conjurer’s Guild, talk to Braya again, and the Unicorn Whistle will be yours as a reward to summon the mythical beast whenever you wish.
Achievement Certificate Mounts
Another very simple and easy to overlook way to obtain not just one but multiple mounts is via Achievement Certificates. As you start on your adventure and take part in various duty instances, side quests, and progress through the Main Scenario, you’ll notice achievements pop up at the bottom of your screen from time to time. They’ll also have a number next to them, which indicates the number of achievement points earned.
If you go and visit your ‘Achievements’ menu, you’ll see not only the various types of achievements you can complete, categorized by content type, but also the total amount of achievement points you currently have in the top right corner. You can use these to redeem for Achievement Certificates from an NPC in Old Gridania named Jonathas (X:10.6, Y:6.2). You can then use those Certificates to exchange for various reward items, including three mounts:
- Ahriman – summon via the Voidal Resonator
- Behemoth – summon via the Behemoth Warhorn (seen in screenshot above)
- Magitek Deathclaw – summon via the Magitek Deathclaw Identification Key
These cost just 6 Certificates each, and can be a very easy method of adding some very unique mounts early on to your collection.
Main Scenario Quest Mounts
Probably the most organic way of obtaining several free mounts is simply by playing through the Main Scenario questline of FFXIV. As you complete quests and progress through the story to meet new characters in new areas, you’ll discover that a select number of those quests actually contain mounts as completion rewards. Granted, they’re not all found early on. They’re scattered throughout each expansion (except for Shadowbringers), and serve as crowning achievements for reaching monumental points in the storyline.
While your Chocobo technically counts as your first Main Scenario mount, there are multiple others that are obtained throughout the game’s entire MSQ. We won’t disclose the quests they’re obtained from for the sake of spoilers, however we’ve noted their respective expansions.
- Magitek Armor – A Realm Reborn
- Midgardsormr – Heavensward (seen in the screenshot above)
- Manacutter – Heavensward
- Black Chocobo – Heavensward
- Yol – Stormblood
- Argos – Endwalker
Beast Tribe Mounts
One particularly unique type of sidequest content in FFXIV are known as Beast Tribes. You won’t find them at the very beginning of the game, as you do need to reach Level 41 and progress through the Main Scenario in A Realm Reborn up to the point of a quest called “In Pursuit of the Past”. Once that is fulfilled, you can seek out the first of many beast tribes found throughout the game. There are five tribes alone found just within the regions of A Realm Reborn, and over a dozen more appear in later expansions.
As to what a Beast Tribe is, they’re actual tribal communities of various sentient creatures who reside in different locations, and upon interacting with them you can embark on a variety of task-type quests to gain respect and affinity from them. Each Beast Tribe you encounter will have its own affinity meter in your Character Menu, and it will increase with each completed quest related to that tribe. You’ll unlock new ranks of affinity, and gain access to rewards at each rank offered by that tribe’s vendor. Among those rewards is usually one or two special mounts.
Make note that in both A Realm Reborn and the Heavensward expansion, the rewards offered by the Beast Tribes must be purchased with gil. From Stormblood onward, rewards are instead obtained via the exchange of special currency tokens awarded for the completion of Tribe quests.
Here are all the Beast Tribes found within A Realm Reborn and their respective mount rewards (and the requirements to unlock). For the sake of spoilers, we encourage you to continue the MSQ through each expansion to unlock the rest of the Beast Tribes.
- Sahagin Tribe – Calvary Ebst Mount (120,000 gil at Rank 4)
- Amalj’aa Tribe – Calvary Drake Mount (120,000 gil at Rank 4)
- Sylph Tribe – Laurel Goobbue Mount (120,000 gil at Rank 4)
- Kobold Tribe – Bomb Palanquin Mount (120,000 gil at Rank 4) (seen above)
- Ixal Tribe – Direwolf Mount (120,000 gil at Rank 4)
Magitek Sky Armor
This particular mount comes from embarking on some adventures in the PVP area of the game, and is very likely the first one you can and will unlock there. To take part in PVP-style duty instances, you first need to reach Level 30 with any combat class, and then seek out the quest titled “A Pup No Longer” from your respective Grand Company.
Completing this will unlock the area called the Wolves’ Den Pier in Limsa Lominsa, which serves as the quintessential hub for most PVP-related activities. However, to further unlock the various PVP modes, you’ll need to complete another quest or two. To unlock Frontline mode, you need to speak to the NPC at your respective Grand Company HQ to get and complete the “Like Civilized Men and Women” quest. This will also add Frontline to your list of daily duty roulettes.
Likewise, to unlock the more recently released Crystalline Conflict mode, you’ll need the quest “The Crystal (Line’s) Call” from NPC Gungi Zelungi back at the Wolves’ Den Pier. To unlock Rival Wings mode, go and speak to Softknox who is also at the Wolves’ Den to complete the “Earning Your Wings” quest.
As you participate in matches in any and all of these PVP modes, you’ll start to obtain two different curriences: Wolf Marks and Trophy Crystals. These can be exchanged for various rewards from the vendor at the Wolves’ Den, including a mount called the Magitek Sky Armor which costs 20,000 Wolf Marks. It may seem like a lot, but if you consistently complete your daily Frontline roulette and jump into a few matches here and there, this unique mechanical mount will be yours in no time.
Gilded Magitek Armor
If you’re a fan of the classic Magitek Armor, but would prefer to have it in a much shinier coat of paint, well you’re in luck. This special version of the original Magitek Armor mount is obtainable quite early in the game, and requires you to do only one thing: participate in duty instances. At the end of duties such as dungeons, trials, and raids, you may notice that someone in your party gave you a ‘Player Commendation’, which is essentially a gold star from your teammates for providing great support, be it as a DPS, healer, or tank. Sometimes you can receive multiple commendations in a single duty, and eventually they do pay off in turn.
This particular mount is obtained by receiving at least 500 Player Commendations in total during your playtime. If you’re playing consistently daily or at least a few times a week, and make sure to complete your duty roulettes and then some, you’ll find yourself likely piling up the commendations quicker than you realize. This mount can very well be yours in a matter of a few weeks or so on average, making it one of the shiniest mounts you can get in A Realm Reborn. Once you’ve unlocked the achievement “Everyone’s Darling”, you can go into your Achievements menu to claim your new, gilded mount.
Even better, there is another mount you get for getting even more commendations, along with chocobo barding, a title, a minion, and a very ornate set of glamour. So leaving good impressions with the players you adventure with does pay off handsomely. Do make note, however, that you cannot give player commendations to anyone in a pre-formed group, and vice versa.
That concludes our list of the top 10 easiest mounts for beginners in Final Fantasy XIV. We hope you find this helpful in quickly building up a hefty mount collection, and let us know what your favorite mount that you possess is, so far.
Be sure to check out all of our other guides for Final Fantasy XIV, such as where to turn in all Endwalker trial mounts in Patch 6.5.
Published: Oct 13, 2023 07:34 pm