Having an alt in FFXIV is not a very popular thing, but people still do it, and you may wonder why – as you can play all your jobs on one character. If you’ve been wondering what the reasons are, or you’d like to justify making an alt to yourself, this is a great read for you, as we’re deep diving into all the reasons why someone would want to put themselves through the trouble of playing an alt in FFXIV!
The first reason might be Data Center restriction. Let’s say maybe you have friends who play on a different Data Center, and you may want to have a character over there so that you can hang out in game and play together, or do something intricate like attend a wedding. Now, this issue is being addressed with the Data Center travel that we are now able to experience, but there are still plenty of people who have alts they won’t be giving up on due to this quality of life change.
Some people create alts due to roleplay. Maybe they have their cute Au Ra as their main, but their inner nature is a hairy Hrothgar who they’re dying to put into a cute dress and parade around the Lominsan square. If you don’t want to fantasia every time you get an urge to jump into a different skin or hide, this might be a good reason to create an alt!
Another reason is endgame raiding on multiple jobs in the current content. This is a pretty niche thing to be doing, but because of how the endgame content cycle is designed, you can only gear up your main job while proging through the most recent savage raid. Of course, you can get multiple jobs to the item level needed to enter the content, but when it comes to the higher level weekly locked loot and tomestones, you’ll have to make a choice about which job to spend them on. If you’re the kind of person who really loves raiding and you want to experience it on different roles while the content is still relevant and fresh, then you might benefit from having a second character. That way you won’t have to wait the month or two it takes to start getting spillover gear for your secondary job. This also lets you raid in two static groups while still maintaining two chests of loot for the first clears of the week.
Some people will have their alts for the purposes of gil making – having more Retainers to post on Market Board and dumping all the gil into the FC chest to be picked up by main or other people, running a side FC with a house and more airships, submarines and other gil making stuff, and so on. If you’re savvy like that, alts can be a good way to make some extra gil. Also, if you’re ever planning on replaying the story, all the gil you make through MSQ can be put into your FC vault, so there’s that – and not to mention that your alt is a source of all the extra bag and retainer storage, where you can move items around through your FC or a friend who will trade back and forth for you… I mean, you two! Oh, and I haven’t forgotten about you crafters, with access to more Specialist crafter jobs that are, erhm, absolutely necessary!
This one might be more intricate, but if you’ve got a child and you’d like to show them around and teach them how to play without them totally messing up your character, you can make an alt to teach them the basics before you decide to buy another game. But I guess you don’t have to do that yet anyway, because how quickly can a child realistically go past Heavensward?
Also, some people like to test character creation without buying Fantasia to even see what their character will look like. Or, if you’re thinking of using a Fantasia on your main, you might want to test those changes on a new character before you drink. You can play around on a different race in order to test out voices, animations, and emotes before going through with the potion, so, you know – why not make an alt for that?
If you happen to have an FC house, what you can also do is create an alt who will buy a room within the FC house and turn it into somewhat of a themed experience, making the house feel bigger. Eventually, you can add special rooms to your house like a kitchen, a bathroom, or a place for your own kinks I won’t be getting into in this post!
Another reason to have an alt is just to be able to escape everyone. If you’re tired of your FC or friend’s pings, but you still want to play the game, nothing is stopping you from going undercover and experiencing the game on your own terms if you’re always somehow ending up doing something you don’t want to be doing!
That’s pretty much all I could think of when it comes to reasons why people create alts in FFXIV. I must have left something out, as I don’t have an alt, but I’m dying to hear about your reasons for dedicating yourself to this project. Let me know in the comments, and if you’re more of a visual person, and you don’t mind getting easy wins in-game, you can check out all of this in my video – and subscribe for more awesome FFXIV stuff!
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