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Artwork of Materia.

Materia (マテリア, Materia?) is a crafting system from Final Fantasy XIV implemented with patch 1.19 and carried over to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It allows players to upgrade their weapons, tools and armor by turning undesired pieces of equipment into materia, "crystallized memories of a piece of equipment that user possessed a spirit bond with", which can be melded to another piece of equipment to provide bonuses.




Artwork of Mutamix Bubblypots and his crew.

A strange goblin geomancer named Mutamix Bubblypots and his apprentices set up shop near the walls of Ul'dah, calling themselves the Carriers of the Cauldron, promoting a weird matter called 'materia', said to augment gear. Quickly, word about the new technology spread all over Ul'dah thanks to several adventurers who met the goblin. Merchants in town divided amongst those who welcome this new method, while others are vehemently against the presence of Mutamix near the city walls.

There are plenty of rumors about how Mutamix himself learned about materia. Some say that such advanced military technology could only have been developed by the Garlean Empire, while others believe it was born of Near Eastern wisdom that had long slumbered within the ancient tomes of the Great Library. What all agree, however, is that at some point, a fraternity of goblin scholars called the Illuminati acquired the secrets of materia, governed by a code of secrecy until Mutamix betrayed the order and, believing that materia should be allowed to benefit all folk rather than a select few, spread the word over Eorzea.

A Realm Reborn[]

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Items can be converted to materia as soon as Swynbroes (24, 13) is spoken to in Central Thanalan, as he teaches the adventurer to use it.

Spoilers end here.



To turn items into materia, players must equip said item and do activities like battling or crafting, which in turn will increase their spiritbond with it. Once this value reaches 100%, the item can be turned into materia using a key item called "materia assimilator", an apparatus which can be obtained via the quest "Forging the Spirit"; this process cannot be reversed. It should be noted that selling or trading an item, as well as storing it inside the innroom Armoire, will reset all spiritbond with it. Items that can be turned into materia have a "Convertible: Yes" tag in their tooltip.

Spiritbond speed can be increased by equipping high quality or Materia melded gear, jewellery with the Spiritbond+ subtstat, consuming a Spiritbond Potion or by having That Which Binds Us Company Action active, and will be reduced if the gear's Item Level is lower than the level of the encounter and gaining no spiritbond if the Item Level is too high compared to the encounter level.

The four original tiers of materia evolution.

There are several types of materia, divided into eight tiers ranging from I (lowest) to VIII (highest), and the same gear does not necessarily convert into the same materia, but the process follow certain patterns (i.e. INT materia will not be produced from swords and axes, etc.). An equipment's level will have an impact on what materia tier will be created, along with the chance of creating a higher tier materia.

When creating materia, the level of the item being converted determines the possible tier of the created materia.


Materia can be melded on all gear slots. Materia cannot be melded onto equipment that does not have any materia slots to begin with (Not even via advanced melding). Multiple materia effects on the same item or different items stack, but each piece of equipment cannot exceed a stat cap determined by their item level.

Melding materia requires the "materia melder" key item, an apparatus which can be obtained via the quest "Waking the Spirit" available to Disciples of the Hand (excluding culinarians) of level 18 and above. The apparatus allows players to meld one piece of materia per item. Players must fulfill the class requirement for crafting / repairing the target item.

A second requirement is using special item called Carbonized Matter as a catalyst. Finally, the item level of the equipment being melded must be equal to or higher than that of the materia.

Color Item level
Red/Yellow/Purple 15 30 45 70 160 290 420 420
Green/Blue 15 30 45 55 160 290 430 430
Cyan/Gray 15 30 45 70 160 290 - -
Orange 55 - - - - - - -

Players can also request materia melding from other players, providing the materia and catalyst required, as well as a payment in gil if desired. There exist Materia Melder NPCs in various locations as well, who will affix materia to any piece of equipment the player owns for a nominal fee.

Should the player desire, it is possible to have equipment purged of materia by paying a fee of gil to Mutamix. This destroys all materia melded to the target gear, leaving the item intact. Players can also retrieve individual materia from equipment with a chance that the retrieval may fail. Higher level materia has a lower chance of success, and if the retrieval does fail, the materia will break and will be lost.

Advanced Melding[]

After completing the quest "Melding Materia Muchly", players will become eligible to obtain the more advanced "augmented materia melder," which allows the attachment of Materia beyond the normal limit of the gear, up to five per item.

Players can never fail to meld Materia on the normally available slots. Melding on the extra slots can fail and each subsequent attempt has reduced chances of working. This process is called Advanced Materia Melding. Upon failure, the materia and the catalyst being used are lost.

Success rates for Advanced Materia Melding changes based on the tier of the materia and the quality of the item being melded. As of patch 3.2, cyan materia are no longer meldable in this fashion. Equipment dropped from raids or trials or bought with Allagan Tomestones are also ineligible for advanced melding, regardless of whether or not they are eligible for normal melds.

Normal quality
Advanced Meld# 1 2 3 4/5
Tier I 80% 40% 20% 10%
Tier II 72% 36% 18% 10%
Tier III 60% 30% 16% 8%
Tier IV 48% 24% 12% 6%
Tier V 12% 6% 3% 2%
Tier VI 12% Cannot meld
Tier VII 12% 6% 3% 2%
Tier VIII 12% Cannot meld
FFXIV HQ Icon.png High quality
Advanced Meld# 1 2 3 4/5
Tier I 90% 48% 28% 16%
Tier II 82% 44% 26% 16%
Tier III 70% 38% 22% 14%
Tier IV 58% 32% 20% 12%
Tier V 17% 10% 7% 5%
Tier VI 17% Cannot meld
Tier VII 17% 10% 7% 5%
Tier VIII 17% Cannot meld

Current Materia Types[]

The following Materia types can be melded onto equipment.


Red Materia increases the character's offensive properties.

Name Attribute Tier I red materia.
Tier II red materia.
Tier III red materia.
Tier IV red materia.
Tier V red materia.
Tier VI red materia.
Tier VII red materia.
Tier VIII red materia.
Heavens' Eye Direct Hit Rate[note 1] +2 +4 +6 +9 +12 +40 +20 +60
Savage Aim Critical Hit +2 +4 +6 +9 +12 +40 +20 +60
Savage Might Determination +1 +3 +4 +6 +12 +40 +20 +60


Yellow Materia increases the character's tank- and healer-exclusive properties.

Name Attribute Tier I yellow materia.
Tier II yellow materia.
Tier III yellow materia.
Tier IV yellow materia.
Tier V yellow materia.
Tier VI yellow materia.
Tier VII yellow materia.
Tier VIII yellow materia.
Battledance Tenacity[note 2] +2 +4 +6 +9 +12 +40 +20 +60
Piety[note 3] Piety +1 +2 +3 +6 +11 +40 +20 +60


Purple Materia increases the character's speed.

Name Attribute Tier I purple materia.
Tier II purple materia.
Tier III purple materia.
Tier IV purple materia.
Tier V purple materia.
Tier VI purple materia.
Tier VII purple materia.
Tier VIII purple materia.
Quickarm Skill Speed +2 +4 +6 +9 +12 +40 +20 +60
Quicktongue Spell Speed +2 +4 +6 +9 +12 +40 +20 +60


Green Materia increases the character's gathering attributes.

Name Attribute Tier I green materia.
Tier II green materia.
Tier III green materia.
Tier IV green materia.
Tier V green materia.
Tier VI green materia.
Tier VII green materia.
Tier VIII green materia.
Gatherer's Guerdon Gathering +3 +4 +5 +6 +10 +15 +12 +20
Gatherer's Guile Perception +3 +4 +5 +6 +10 +15 +12 +20
Gatherer's Grasp GP +1 +2 +3 +4 +6 +8 +7 +9


Blue Materia increases the character's crafting attributes.

Name Attribute Tier I blue materia.
Tier II blue materia.
Tier III blue materia.
Tier IV blue materia.
Tier V blue materia.
Tier VI blue materia.
Tier VII blue materia.
Tier VIII blue materia.
Craftman's Competence Craftsmanship +3 +4 +5 +6 +11 +16 +14 +21
Craftman's Command Control +1 +2 +3 +4 +7 +10 +9 +13
Craftman's Cunning CP +1 +2 +3 +4 +6 +8 +7 +9

Deprecated Materia Types[]

Through various simplifications of the stat system, types of materia are rendered useless. When this happens, they are no longer obtainable through normal means, and are changed so that they grant 0 to their respective attribute.


Cyan Materia increased the character's main attributes. Due to a rework of equipment that makes all gear come with their maximum allowed Vitality and main damage attribute in patch 5.0, this type of Materia was rendered useless and no longer obtainable.

Name Attribute Tier I cyan materia.
Tier II cyan materia.
Tier III cyan materia.
Tier IV cyan materia.
Tier V cyan materia.
Tier VI cyan materia.
Strength Strength +1 +2 +4 +7 +15 +25
Vitality Vitality +1 +2 +4 +8 +15 +25
Dexterity Dexterity +1 +2 +4 +7 +15 +25
Intelligence Intelligence +1 +2 +4 +7 +15 +25
Mind Mind +1 +2 +4 +7 +15 +25


Gray Materia increased the character's elemental resistances. This type of Materia has little effect and mainly used for Materia Transmution or speeding up Spiritbond speed of the gear they are melded into. Due to the removal of elemental resistances in patch 4.2, this type of Materia was rendered useless and no longer obtainable.

Name Attribute Tier I gray materia.
Tier II gray materia.
Tier III gray materia.
Tier IV gray materia.
Tier V gray materia.
Tier VI gray materia.
Fire Fire Resistance +1 +2 +4 +6 +9 +12
Ice Ice Resistance +1 +2 +4 +6 +9 +12
Wind Wind Resistance +1 +2 +4 +6 +9 +12
Earth Earth Resistance +1 +2 +4 +6 +9 +12
Lightning Lightning Resistance +1 +2 +4 +6 +9 +12
Water Water Resistance +1 +2 +4 +6 +9 +12


Orange Materia increased the character's status resistances. Originally designed for use in PvP modes until several successive overhauls of how equipment worked in PvP made materia melds pointless, these were not available beyond rank I, and can no longer be obtained.

Name Attribute Tier I orange materia.
Cactuar Foot Slow Resistance +2
Coeurl Eye Blind Resistance +2
Aurelia Kiss Poison Resistance +2
Bison Hoof Stun Resistance +2
Funguar Shriek Sleep Resistance +2
Treant Root Bind Resistance +2
Chocobo Down Heavy Resistance +2


Due to the overhaul of the stat and Materia systems in A Realm Reborn, any Materia that was transferred from version 1.0 became cracked and useless. Players could originally trade these Materia for new Materia of the same rank; however, this feature was removed in Heavensward.



The name of the goblin fraternity refers to the Illuminati.

In Japanese the materia tiers are named in a way similar to spell tiers throughout the series, at least up to tier V, due to running out of spell tiers to use and shifting over to Potion tier naming schemes instead. From lowest to highest, the tiers are called Materia (マテリア), Materira (マテリラ), Materida (マテリダ), Materiga (マテリガ), Materija (マテリジャ), Hi-Materija (ハイマテリジャ), Mega-Materija (メガマテリジャ) and X-Materija (エクスマテリジャ).


  1. Heavens' Eye Materia boosted Accuracy prior to patch 4.0.
  2. Battledance Materia boosted Parry prior to patch 4.0.
  3. Piety Materia was cyan prior to patch 4.0.