Quick answer: Retainer ventures are passive gil: send a retainer out for an hour and it returns items. Payouts swing a lot by item, so point each retainer at the venture whose haul is worth the most at current market prices, not just the highest quantity. Match a retainer's stats to the venture, and send them every time they're free.
Retainer ventures are the closest thing to passive income in Final Fantasy XIV: you send a retainer off, go do anything else, and they come back with items on a timer. Done well, your retainers quietly earn gil around the clock. Done carelessly, they haul back vendor trash.
Each retainer has a class (a combat job, Miner, Botanist, or Fisher) and can be sent on ventures that return a batch of items after a set time. The quantity they bring back scales with the retainer's relevant stats — item level for combat, gathering/perception for gatherers — so leveling and gearing your retainers directly increases their haul.
Two ventures can take the same amount of time and return the same quantity, but if one brings back an item worth 50 gil each and the other an item worth 5,000 gil each, the difference is enormous. The whole game of retainer income is pointing each retainer at the ventures whose output sells for the most on your world right now.
That's exactly what the Retainers tool does — it ranks ventures by the current market value of what they return, so your retainers come home with the most valuable haul available to them, not whatever was first in the list.
Ventures come in a few types, and they are not equal earners. From best to worst for gil:
| Venture type | Retainer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Highland / Woodland Exploration (18h) | Miner / Botanist | The steady champion. Returns big stacks of current-tier mats and crystals/clusters, and grants the most retainer EXP. Fire once, collect next day. |
| Field Exploration (18h) | Combat (DoW/DoM) | The combat equivalent — monster parts and materials in bulk for near-zero maintenance. |
| Quick Exploration (1h) | Any | Returns one random higher-tier item. Streaky, but occasionally lands something valuable; good when you're checking in often. |
| Targeted (Hunting/Mining/Botany/Fishing) | Matching class | Returns a specific item you choose. Only worth it when that exact item is selling high on your world — otherwise the Explorations win. |
For most players the winning layout is simple: one Miner or Botanist retainer on 18-hour Highland/Woodland Exploration, one combat retainer on Field Exploration, fired once a day. Use Targeted ventures only when the retainers tool shows a specific item beating the exploration haul on your market.
Retainers are also your market-board footprint, so the count matters for selling as much as for ventures:
This is why serious sellers run extra retainers: the ventures pay for themselves, and each one adds 20 slots for the sweet-spot items you're flipping or crafting. Level and gear each retainer too — higher stats mean bigger venture hauls from the same timer.
Ventures won't out-earn active crafting or flipping, but they're free gil for near-zero effort — the perfect background layer while you play. Stack them on top of the active methods in the main gil guide and they add up over a week without you thinking about them.
Put this into practice with live market-board prices for your world:
See the best ventures on your world → All gil-making methods →
XIV Profitability is a free, fan-made tool. Not affiliated with Square Enix. Prices via Universalis. FINAL FANTASY XIV © SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.