The money category
Demand
Worth listing
The substat grades raiders meld into new gear. Highest volume, and it spikes right after a new raid tier or gear reset.
Updated October 11, 2026
Quick answer: You can turn gear you already wear into sellable materia through spiritbonding. The gear fills up as you use it, then converts to materia for free. Both combat and crafter/gatherer materia sell, with current-tier and top grades paying most. It's passive gil on top of whatever you were already doing.
Every time you craft, gather or kill something, the gear you're wearing is quietly earning you money. You just have to collect it.
Spiritbonding turns that progress into materia, and materia is one of the most reliable things you can sell on the board. It won't make you a millionaire overnight, but it's about as close to free gil as the game offers.
Every piece of equipment has a hidden spiritbond percentage. It climbs while you craft, gather or defeat enemies with it equipped.
At 100% you can pull a materia out of the piece, and its spiritbond resets to start over. That's the whole loop:
The rate depends on what you're doing relative to your gear's item level. For gil, what matters is that it happens while you do everything else. You were going to run those dungeons and craft those items anyway.
You only need to do a short quest once:
Once a piece is at 100% spiritbond, right-click it (or open its sub-menu on controller) and choose Extract Materia. You get one materia and the gear goes back to 0%.
The grade of that materia is set by the gear's item level. That's the key to the gil:
Not all materia is equal on the market. Broadly:
The money category
The substat grades raiders meld into new gear. Highest volume, and it spikes right after a new raid tier or gear reset.
Steady sellers
Craftsmanship, Control, CP, Gathering, Perception, GP. Bought by crafters who overmeld their tools and gear.
Usually pennies
Don't list the bottom grades one by one. They just clog your retainer slots.
Ratings are rough and general. Your world can differ, so price before you list.
Which grade is hot depends on your server and the patch cycle. You can also see what tends to move in what sells best.
Watch sales speed as well as price. A grade that "sells for a lot" but moves twice a week is worse than a cheaper one that clears every day.
These are starting points, not site filters. If a grade sells 6 a day, post about 6, and hold the rest back for later.
The vendor & item database works too if you'd rather browse.
If you want to farm materia on purpose instead of letting it build up:
Wear a full setEvery equipped piece spiritbonds on its own. A full set plus accessories is a dozen materia sources at once.
Free Company actionsSome can boost spiritbond gain. Worth having on if your FC runs them.
Do it while you'd play anywayLeveling roulettes, gathering runs, treasure maps. A dedicated spiritbond grind is rarely worth it.
Materia gets used up by melding, which attaches it to gear for extra stats. Basic melding fills a piece's guaranteed slots.
Advanced melding (overmelding) gambles extra materia into non-guaranteed slots, with a success rate below 100%. Players burn a lot of materia chasing perfect melds, and that failure rate is your steady customer base.
Melding unlocks with "Waking the Spirit", and overmelding with "Melding Materia Muchly."
Spiritbond the gear you already wear to 100%, extract a materia, and sell the materia you don't need on the market board. Current-tier combat and crafter/gatherer materia sell constantly because players re-meld their gear every patch. It's close to free gil for something you get just by playing.
Do the short quest "Forging the Spirit" from Swynbroes at the Bonfire in Central Thanalan. You need a class at level 19 first. After that, any gear at 100% spiritbond can be right-clicked to Extract Materia.
The item level of the gear you extract from. Higher item level gives higher grades, so current-tier gear produces the current top grades. Those are the ones raiders buy to meld their new sets.
It varies by server and patch. Current-tier combat materia (the substat grades raiders meld) sells in the highest volume and spikes right after a new raid tier or gear reset. Crafter and gatherer materia sells steadily to the crafting crowd. Check live prices for your world before listing.
For the effort, yes. It's a byproduct of playing, so the effort is close to zero. It won't rival focused crafting, but it's reliable, and current-tier combat materia around a new raid tier can be genuinely lucrative.
Meld what your own gear actually needs and sell the surplus. Most players pile up low grades and never touch them. Those belong on the board, not in your inventory.
Check live prices and units/day for your world, since the top grade shifts each tier. The live tools show both, so you're not guessing.
Put this into practice with live market-board prices for your world:
Vendor & item databaseEvery NPC's stock, and any item's live price.Open → Crafting profit calculatorCrafting earns spiritbond too. Make something that sells while you do it.Open → Retainer venturesMore passive gil to stack on top.Open →Check materia prices on your world → Every gil method, ranked →
More: how to make gil (all methods) · passive & AFK gil · what sells best
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