How to unlock facewear in Final Fantasy XIV

Not sure how to unlock Facewear in Final Fantasy XIV? The solution differs slightly depending on a couple of things.

New for the Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail expansion is a new equipment slot tailor-made for items that have no effect on your character’s battle potential. Style potential, however? There’s lots of that. It’s the first new equipment slot to be added since launch, bringing us back to the same total as before belts were rendered obsolete in Endwalker.

How to unlock facewear in FFXIV

You don’t need to traditionally unlock the Facewear equipment slot like you would any other feature in Final Fantasy XIV. How you go about accessing the facewear equipment slot, however, will depend on what you unlocked prior to its release.

In most cases, an older player will have facewear ready to roll. These older items that were once part of the Fashion Accessories tab—which worked the same way as hopping on a mount—need to be converted to suit the new slot.

To do this, just head to a Calamity Salvager NPC in any of the three original major city-states (Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, or Ul’dah). Via the option at the bottom, you can exchange your old Fashion Accessory unlocks for items that can be placed into the Facewear slot

Doing so will let you wear the items on top of your existing clothing semi-permanently. You can tie them to glamour plates, wear them while mounted or in duties, and all that good stuff. They’re essentially part of your outfit now rather than something akin to the set-down specs you swiped from a friend in a moment of mischievous curiosity.

If you haven’t had the privilege of putting cool shades on your Warrior of Light’s face yet, you’ll need to jump through an extra little hoop to do so.

To unlock the Facewear feature, you just need to obtain applicable facewear. The easiest way to do this is through the vendors across the three main starting cities. They each have two different styles you can purchase for 3,000 Gil each: the Simple Spectacles and the Monocles. Both come in a dozen colours you can tweak whenever you want.

City-state glasses vendors locations

Each of the three starter cities has NPCs who’ll sell you the same two pairs of glasses:

• New Gridania – Black Rabbit Traders – X:11.4, Y:11.2
• Ul’dah – Independent Importer – X:10.6, Y:9.5
• Limsa Lominsa – Brugaire Consortium – X:9.9, Y11.4

How to get more facewear and glasses in FFXIV

You can get more glasses via the Gold Saucer. To unlock that, speak to the Well-heeled Youth in Ul’dah – Steps of Nald at coordinates X9.6, Y:9.0 and complete the quest they give: It Could Happen to You.

Once you’re there, head to the Prize Claimant NPC and use the third tab to buy any of the glasses from the Prize Exchange III tab. Use them from your inventory to add them to your Facewear collection.

Why can’t I convert my FFXIV glasses into facewear?

Traditional headgear (with stats) that just so happen to look like glasses do not count as facewear. A few select styles from before Fashion Accessories became a thing are available at the Gold Saucer and can be added as Facewear this way.

For more, check out how to unlock the Pictomancer class or how to unlock the Viper class to try out the new jobs in the Dawntrail expansion.