If you’re looking to proudly proclaim your allegiance to a group in Final Fantasy XIV, there’s no better way to do this than by joining a Free Company. However, if you want to create your tribe, so to speak, you can always create your own Free Company.
Creating your own Free Company (I’ll be shortening this to FC from this point forward) can allow you to group with other players who share your ideals. There’s no steadfast rule as to what your FC needs to be about, and you can choose the FC’s specialties when creating one.
Being part of an FC does bring some benefits:
- Access to a joint company chest where you can store Crystals, Gil and items that can be used by all members of the FC
- Company Actions, offering benefits such as EXP buffs and teleportation fee reductions
- Ability to own a Free Company Estate, which acts as a central hub for the FC
- Free Company chat, which allows members to chat freely and privately
- Exclusive items which can be obtained using Company Credits
An FC can have a maximum of 512 players. However, not everyone enjoys being part of a large group, and some may prefer to stick to their own circle of friends. If this is the case, let’s look at how to make your own FC from scratch.
How to create your own FC in Final Fantasy XIV
Before you can create an FC, you’ll need to do the following:
- Join one of the three Grand Companies (The Maelstrom, The Order of the Twin Adders, or The Immortal Flames)
- Reach at least level 25
With these conditions met you’re free to head to your chosen Grand Company and pick up a Company Petition from your OIC Quartermaster.
When you pick up your Company Petition, you’ll need to choose both a name for your FC and a “tag”. The name you choose must be less than 20 characters, including spaces. The “tag” must be less than five characters, and this is what will appear next to your name while outside of duties.
Having chosen a name, you’ll need to get three other players to sign your Company Petition. A Petition needs a total of four signatures, including your own, before you can hand it in and officially open up your FC. You’ll often see people asking others in Shout Chat whether they’re willing to sign their FC petition, but there is another way, which I’ll go over in just a little bit.
Once you’ve got four signatures, all you need to do is head back to the Grand Company and talk to the OIC Quartermaster again. You’ll need to pay 15,000 Gil, which isn’t all that much in the grand scheme of things, and you’ll have your own Free Company up and running!
How to use alts to open up an FC in Final Fantasy XIV
An alt is a secondary character that can be created to replay the story or otherwise just be someone entirely different for a little while. A lot of people create alts once they’ve reached the endgame, but they can come in handy when you want to make an FC.
With alts, you only need a minimum of two players in order to open up an FC. All you need to do is pick up the Petition, have a friend sign it and then log in on a different character to sign it as well. Once this is done, assign the friend as the Leader of the FC and then log in on your own alt, providing the fourth signature.
To promote someone to Leader of the FC, open up the FC interface via the Social menu and navigate to the members list. Right click on their name and select “promote”, giving them the Leader rank. Control of the FC can be handed back to you once you’ve fully established if you want the position back.
