How to unlock the Gold Saucer in FFXIV

The Manderville Gold Saucer is the home to many mini games and fun rewards in Final Fantasy 14, and you can unlock it pretty early into your adventure in Eorzea.

There’s a lot to do in the Gold Saucer, between racing chocobos, participating in fashion shows, and dodging the stinky and powerful breath of a Typhon in a mini game. Below, we explain where to start the side quest that unlocks the Gold Saucer in FFXIV, as well as some of the things you can do there.

How to unlock the Gold Saucer in FFXIV

To unlock the Gold Saucer, you need to be able to travel outside of your initial city, which unlocks once you complete the main scenario quest “The Gridanian/Ul’dahn/Lominsan Envoy” (depending on where you started from) at level 15. Once you’ve done so, you can talk to the Well-heeled Youth NPC in Ul’dah, Steps of Nald, in the location below:

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Square Enix

He’s standing right outside the entrance to the Ul’dah Aetheryte Plaza, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding him.

Once you do this quest and attune to the Aetheryte in the Gold Saucer, you can teleport there whenever you want.

What to do in the FFXIV Gold Saucer

The Gold Saucer is home to many mini games that reward specific currency called Manderville Gold Saucer Points (MGP). With MGP, you can buy special mounts, minions, outfit pieces, orchestrions, furnishing items, weapon glamour — the list goes on. That being said, visiting the Gold Saucer is a great way to kill time and get some sweet stuff.

While visiting the Gold Saucer, you’ll want to keep your eye out for limited-time Gold Saucer Active Time Events (GATEs) to earn quick MGP. These minigames can involve guessing where a boss enemy may attack and trying your best to avoid it, or maybe it’s a jump puzzle up the Leap of Faith maps.

There’s also a daily and weekly lottery system called Cactpot. You can play the Mini Cactpot by the Entrance Square every day and you can pick numbers for the weekly Cactpot in the Event Square.

There’s also Triple Triad, the card-based mini game from Final Fantasy 8, that you can play with various NPCs in the square. Notably, you can sell your extra Triple Triad cards for more MGP in the Card Square.

Most lucrative of all of the games is Fashion Report, which can give you up to 60,000 MGP a week, just for equipping certain armor pieces. Dedicated fashionista Kaiyoko Star posts the easiest solutions weekly, so you can rake in that MGP.

But that’s only the stuff that’ll earn you coin. There’s tons of other mini games, like chocobo racing and Doman mahjong. (FFXIV’s mahjong is a really good online version of the tile game. Very genuinely, it’s one of the best ways to play mahjong online.)

If you’re just starting out in the massive world of Final Fantasy 14, we have tons of guides to help you. We have a beginner’s guide to get you started, along with guides detailing when you’ll get your mount and which Grand Company you should join.

If you’re starting but are feeling overwhelmed, we have guides to help with picking a job and a guide that explains how long it may take to catch up to current content in FFXIV.

We also have guides on side content, like ocean fishing, relic weapons, and Island Sanctuary, for those who want to take a break from it all.