FFXI Inventory Management Guide

Having no extra wardrobes, I have been playing the inventory mini-game for some time. For players with only a few jobs, this won’t be as useful to you, but it’s worth knowing in advance. There are also some time savers here for any scenario.

First, I’d like to link to Inventory 101 on BGwiki, and another guide made by Spicyryan, called Inventory 201. I already do much of this, however, I'd also like to add own tips.

I’ll start with Organizer on Windower. You do not need to be using Gearswap to see the benefit. There is a simpler method of using it, much like we previously used Gear Collector (before it stopped being supported).

Spicyryan’s guide suggests to //org freeze, but this will make a screenshot of your entire inventory, which isn’t the way I do it. You should do the following before starting this:

1) Planning - Fill up the two wardrobes you have with as many “All Jobs” pieces as you can. You should also add Ambuscade mantles, but try not to have them all in the same bag. If you have three mantles, put one in inventory, one in Wardrobe 1, and the other in Wardrobe 2. Try not to have over one mantle in your inventory. You’ll see why later.

Next, if there's space after adding “All Jobs” equipment, slot in any crossover gear. For example, do you play RUN, THF and COR? You may have Meghanada Gloves, which can be used on all three. Do NOT waste slots on other job specific pieces like AF/Relic/Empy Reforged, or pieces you’re clearly using for one job. The more you do this, the less space you will have later. I also like to have a Warp Ring in a wardrobe, just because I use it often.

2) Organiser - Take your main job and bring in all the leftover equipment you have in your sets, in to your inventory. Consider whether some sets are necessary. For example, does your THF need a Curing Waltz set? What about Steal gear? How often are you using these? With limited space, you need to make serious decisions before the next step. You can always move Steal gear to storage and bring it back later if you need it.

Type //org freeze inventory

This will make a job.xml file for your inventory. This is great, because in future you can use this as many times as you want. You just have to remember not to freeze over it by mistake while you have equipment in for another job, or you’ll need to repeat the process.

When you want to use this file again, to bring in your equipment, use the following command:

Type //org o inventory

Now, I need to leave a disclaimer here. Sometimes, your equipment may not all move on over right away. There’s a chance your bags are too cluttered, or the game lags out. For whatever reason, you need to check your inventory to see if everything came in. If it didn’t? Repeat the above command.

There’s also something you should do before using //org o. Got any food, items, reraise, or random bits? Move them over to Case, or Satchel, anywhere really. Why? Because when you do //org o, it will throw these items anywhere, and you don’t want to go looking for them later. I designate my Case to my Food, Reraise, or anything else I feel I may use regularly.

You can freeze any job with any set of equipment or items you wish. I stick to equipment, because I might want different food depending on what I’m doing? But it’s entirely up to you. If it saves you time to bring in Sublime Sushi & Reraise Earring for your DD job, go for it. Also, know that this will move nothing currently in your bazaar. That stuff is locked in, no matter what you do. However, your bazaar items are included in //org freeze inventory, so consider this when freezing a job.

The last thing I will say is that every time your job gets a new piece of equipment, or you decide to take something out? You’ll want to refreeze. Type //org freeze inventory again, and it will rewrite your .xml file. However... it will not tell you it has done this! So make sure you type the command properly. You can always check this file out in your Windower folder if you want to browse what you have frozen.

3) Hoarding - You probably should have done this first, but for those who love to hoard and don’t know what to drop, this is for you. It’s crucial that you not only know how to make sets for your jobs, but you need to have a good idea of what equipment each job uses.

This means you can weed out those old pieces you don’t really need anymore. You could sell them. Store them on a slip. Send them over to a mule. However you do it, you need to clean up. Don’t hold on to things if you’re not planning on using it soon. Dare I say, you may even have to drop some pieces that can’t be sent or sold. I know that’s a scary concept, but do your research.

If you have a questionable piece of equipment, look it up on BGwiki or FFXIcyclopedia. How would you get this back if you were to drop it? Is it rare? Can you go out and get it again in 10-15 minutes? If that’s the case, you don’t need it. You can always get it back if it turns out you actually needed it. But if you know your jobs and sets well enough, you’ll know it won’t be missed.

4) Mules! - Love them. Even if you have one mule, you can send many things over. Storing Alexandrite and Beitetsu for a Mythic? Send it over. Got tons of Lustreless items from Odyssey, but aren’t planning on using them yet? Send them over. Want to keep old nostalgia pieces? Send them over. Thinking about leveling a craft soon and hoarding materials? Send them over. You can send most things over nowadays. Is it a ball ache having to send things back and forth? Sure. Does it make it easier on your main character? Yes, so don’t be afraid to send things over.

5) Safe 2 & Storage - After doing all this, you will undoubtedly have some items & equipment you want to keep on your character, but you're not using them soon. This is where Mog Safe 2 and Storage come in to play. Here are examples of what I keep in there:

- Situational pieces for sets I rarely use.

- Mission/quest rewards you can’t re-obtain if you drop (like Hija Earring)

- Furniture

- Less than a stack of Alexandrite/Dynamis Currency/Heavy Metal, etc. When I’m not stocking up to build a weapon, I’ll keep these around, so if I make a stack of something, I can stick it on the Auction House. I could save a few more spaces by sending them over to a mule, but at the moment, I’m fine with this arrangement.

- Ultimate RMEA weapons I’m not using. Ragnarok. Aeonics. My old Redemption I never got around to finishing. I can’t store them, but I’m keeping them because I put the work in.

- Storage Slips

- Equipment for jobs I’m not currently playing, which I can’t send over (for me it’s Beastmaster)

- Abdhaljs items. Kupons. Omen job cards. Omen scales, etc.

6) Duplicates - Back to job specific mantles. The issue with switching equipment out of the inventory is that: equipsets will not remember, if you have over one, which mantle it’s using. Say if you have a TP & WS mantle in inventory, you set them accordingly in the equipsets, but then you switch jobs. Later on, after getting back on the previous job, you may find the sets are not bringing in the right mantles. Annoying, right?

So I keep duplicate mantles in Wardrobe 1 or 2, because the equipsets will remember which mantle to use. However... this only works if you keep the mantles in the same wardrobe. If you take a mantle out to change its augment, you have put it back in the same wardrobe and redo ALL the equipsets of each mantle in that wardrobe. This is my workaround for any job where I have over three mantles. With four or more, you will encounter this problem. With three mantles, you’re best off separating them, and this issue won’t happen because the equipset isn’t having to guess.

And this concludes my short inventory management guide. There’s probably more I could add, but I’d like to leave it to other people to give their suggestions. Thank you.

Another thing to note is that after the recent update, it's best to put items that you will often need access to right after zoning (such as movement speed gear, fast cast and buffing gear, regain gear, reraise earring, etc.) in lower bags so that they load faster. The more wardrobes you have, the more important this is to keep in mind.

Here's my take:

1) I choose not to use organizer or whatever because it's too much work.

2) Where you store items is a personal ascetic choice more than not. A poster was saying they liked to store by job, whereas I like to store by type of equip. Everything unusable during normal play including lockstyle pieces gets put off character into mog storage.

3) Never store items like beitutsu etc on mules because do you really want to send 100+ stacks to your mule, then back again? No way jose. Make room, I've done 5+ remas, which isn't really a lot by some of y'alls standards, and I just made room and it was enough. Generally when you start saving up those items like boulders etc, you are close to that stage and so store at most 70% before you reach a point where you can start turning in. Every single rema I've made I've had to finish the last 20 stacks or so by buying and turning in immediately.

4) Maybe I'm not understanding this part correctly, but I can't imagine storing duplicate mantle across wardrobes. If you use gearswap, from my experience this isn't a problem at all, as each is uniquely described in the lua. Also if you are using organizer... you are using gearswap also right? Some people here have 4-7 mantles, imagine when you want to add it in to a set you have to tab through 4-7 inventories to get the mantle you want or even just look at them...

Great advice pretty much all through your post (especially about hoarding, hell I threw away my Glory Crown) and thank you very much for putting some of your knowledge available to the public!

If you're using equipsets, specifically, like mentioned, you need to use different wardrobes so the game can tell them apart. (if relocating them)

Storing rema mats on mules; if you're planning on but not actively making. Then muling them in small batches can make sense. Instead of rushing to the finish.

The game can tell them apart just fine for equipsets if you keep them in wardrobes, even if you have several of the same job's in the same wardrobe (though moving capes between inventories can sometimes cause an equipset to point to the wrong one until you fix it). I've got four RUN capes (as well as other jobs') in Wardrobe 3 and have never had any issues with equipsets confusing them.

Kylos mentions an issue about the game being unable to tell them apart if you keep them in your main inventory, though I don't keep any ambu capes (or other duplicate items) in my inventory so I can't confirm that myself.

This is super informative. Pretty much have rethink things how I have things stored now (switch earrings/rings from 6 to 1) maybe just "all things need fastest on zone".

And by lower bags, you mean lower in number right, like wardrobe 1,2 etc.

Would of been nice if they added a load order setting in config, then you would state which order you wanted the mog wardrobes loaded in. Depending on job you could swap it around each time.

Edit: I just wanted to quote bomb you Eiryl like you do, no harm intended ^^

They're separate tips, so no one doesn't imply the other, as alluded to

I think using organizer does imply using gearswap, don't know why it wouldn't... in for a penny in for a pound..

Technically, you need the Gearswap folder set up for Organizer, but you don't need to be using the technical side of it to play jobs. I have the folder but do not use the more complicated Gearswap lua files. So for those who don't want to go down that route, they don't have too.

Its worth looking into, and in the end its not as much work as it seems. It can save you money if you look at it that way, the new wardrobes aren't really necessary with organizer and porterpacker usage.

You could certainly send 10k rocks in an instant, but unboxing these might take you an hour. =)

Japes aisde, I actually would not mind if SE gave the Ephemeral Moogle the ability to convert singles into boxes for my cross-server dumps.

Also at Kylos, your first link to BGWiki seems to link to FFXIAH instead.

That's not a bad idea, storing just boxes away. Seems like a good compromise.

They kinda are.
Maybe not all of them.
I was using porter packer and I was 80/80 on almost everything and I still have many things to finish. Ofc I play a lot of jobs, so for avg person with 6 jobs it should for sure be doable. Maybe I could do it too, by sending away everything beside gear (pop items, trial items, some currency etc.) But then I would need to mule items few times per day, which is too much of a QoL and playtime drop for me.

The game can't tell them apart if you use them in macros, but equipsets can save the correct cape from your inventory just fine, provided it does not move from that bag. However, I have seen a few instances where I saved an equipset cape from my inventory, moved it out of my inv, then back in and it chose the correct cape among a few others every time I used the macro.

My theory is that equipsets "save" the line position in the bag, and if there are multiple capes in said bag, so long as that line position in your bag stays exactly the same when you move/sort, the equipset works fine.

i.e. 2 capes:

DA cape
cure potency cape

move the cure potency cape out of bag, then put it back in, if the list looks this again:

DA cape
cure potency cape

then your equipset works just fine

If the list looks like this:

cure potency cape
DA cape

the equipset does not pick the correct cape.

Since the other thread has been deleted I will add my hot tip here for inventory!

You can use any Mog Wardrobe you don't actually intend on purchasing for long term storage. Open a mog wardrobe and fill it with lockstyle pieces, old REMAs, and any other gear that you can't mule but for whatever reason can't bear to throw away. Then cancel the wardrobe. Boom. 80 extra storage.

You can also just purchase one the day before the billing cycle ends and cancel immediately after filling it. You pay the prorated amount, which is like 14 cents or something. Though, I’m not sure what you would put in there that you would want to fill and never have access to, that can’t just be put on slips or mules.

Wardrobes have a minimum cost even if you're purchasing them an hour before rollover. I think it's a dollar.

46 cents for one week, might go lower, that's the closest one I currently have

That’s not true. It cost me 26 crysta each to activate two new wardrobes the day after it was released. My billing cycle ended two days later. Crysta is the same as pennies essentially, so it was 52 cents to activate two wardrobes a couple days before billing cycle ends

I have so many things.

#1 - Lockstyle pieces. You can still lockstlye L1 stuff from an inactive wardrobe.
#2 - Old quest gear like Raaja Ring/Griffon's Ring/etc
#3 - REMAs - particularly Aeonics. I have all 16 but have no intention of using most of them.
#4 - Volte pieces I would otherwise mule just so I don't accidentally lot on a piece I already have.

I activated wardrobe8 the last day of my sub. Costed me 6 crysta, canceled right away. Didn't even have to logout, I just zoned, went into mog house, moved all my lockstyle stuff in there, then when sub rolled over the wardrobe went unavailable and bam, 80 slots. Awesome.

Costs more if you pay with card, crysta is the way to go.

Forgot I made this guide, lol. But yes, you can activate a wardrobe for as long as it takes to throw in lockstyle pieces and other equipment you can't store or send, but want to keep, and then cancel its sub for minimal cost.