In a franchise filled with iconic locations, The Gold Saucer stands out as one of the most recognizable in Final Fantasy history. Given its popularity, it’s no surprise that Square Enix added the theme park to its MMO entry of the series, Final Fantasy XIV. But how do you unlock this land of fun, and what can you do once you’re there? This guide will tell you.
The Gold Saucer is unlocked by completing a quest called “It Could Happen to You.” This can be found in Ul’dah, after completing one of the three Main Scenario Quests that unlock the Airship—“The Gridanian Envoy,” “The Lominsan Envoy,” or “The Ul’dahn Envoy,” depending on the city your chosen class started in.
This quest is fairly easy to complete. To accept it, talk to “The Well-Heeled Youth” which will also give you the Gold Airship Ticket. Then, go to the Ul’Dahn Airstrip and present the ticket to Elyenora. The game will then bring up a prompt asking if you want to go to the Gold Saucer. Select “Yes,” and after a short cutscene, you will be able to turn in the quest and arrive at the Gold Saucer with a notice that the Manderville Gold Saucer has been unlocked.
As you might expect, FFXIV’s version of the Gold Saucer—titled the Manderville Gold Saucer—has a collection of minigames for you to play. In order to play these games and purchase many of the prizes available, you need Manderville Gold Saucer Points or MGP, just in case there weren’t already enough currencies in this game. One MGP can be purchased for 10 Gil, though it can also be obtained by winning these minigames. And it’s a good job too, as prizes can cost up to one million MGP, and you are limited to only being able to purchase 500!
I’d advise you to talk to the AirShip Ticketer, who offers a quest as soon as you land, entitled “World of Wonders.” This will have you talk to multiple NPCs and introduce many of the features and games available in the Gold Saucer. Below is a walkthrough of how to complete the quest, as well as a brief introduction on the feature that is introduced. I’d also suggest you interact with all the crystals, to open the many fast travel locations as you work your way through this quest.
Talking to the attendant at the main counter will introduce the general concept of MGP, and how to obtain them. After that, you will talk to the Triple Triad Trader at the Card Square. The popular game from Final Fantasy VIII returns here, and can be unlocked by speaking to the Triple Triad Master. He will also give you five cards for completing this incredibly fast quest, which can be added to a deck to play this minigame.
Before they can be registered to your account, they need to be used from your inventory. Once that is done, you can create a Deck by bringing up the menu, and under the “Character” tab, select “Gold Saucer.” Scroll down until you see the Deck Options and add your new cards there. You can also challenge the Triple Triad Master and he will explain the rules of the game.
You will then need to talk to Veleda at the Cactpot Boards. There are two Cactpot Lotteries, and by talking to the Jumbo Cactpot Broker, you can buy up to three cards per week with four digits of your choosing. Winners are revealed on Saturdays at a specific time according to your server, and if your numbers are drawn, you will win! Note that you actually need to check your numbers at the Cactpot Cashier (right next to the ticket vendor), as the rewards are not given automatically.
You have a week to do this, and if you don’t pick them up in time, you forfeit your winnings. Even if none of your numbers match, you will receive a consolation and you also gain a bonus if you check in the first hour after numbers are called, so always check the winners, and try to do it as close to the designated time as possible.
There is also a Mini Cactpot Broker that can be played daily. You can buy a card with a grid on it, with all spaces covered except one. You can then choose an additional three squares to reveal and then pick any row, column or diagonal you want to bet on. You can see the payout for each sum of numbers, so the goal is to get the three numbers that will provide the largest payout. Talking to the Broker for the first time also rewards you with a MGP voucher, which can be used from your inventory for 100 MGP to get you started on your first card. You can buy up to three per day, so you should take advantage of this relatively easy way to generate MGP.
The last spot before we return to our attendant is a GATE Keeper. GATEs are basically minigames which rotate every 20 minutes. They are generally pretty short and different from most content in FFXIV, and are fun diversions even if you aren’t grinding for MGP. They can be anything from a platforming obstacle course to a shooting gallery, and worth checking out. You also don’t need to talk to this specific Keeper to partake in the events, as there are several Keepers scattered around the Gold Saucer, and speaking to any of them will teleport you to the location of the next event.
After speaking to the GATE Keeper, you can speak to the attendant to turn in the quest. You will be rewarded with five Gold Saucer Tickets. These are different from the MGP vouchers! This means they can generally only be used for the smaller carnival minigames scattered around the park, which only cost about 1 MGP and don’t offer very high rewards.
While “World of Wonders” will show you a lot of the content the Gold Saucer has to offer, it doesn’t show you everything. There’s a NPC in the main area named Lewena who will offer you two quests that unlock additional games at the Gold Saucer. The first is a quest named “Passion for Fashion.” It will task you with talking to a character named the Masked Rose which unlocks Fashion Report. This challenge is available from Tuesdays to Fridays and requires you to equip a different piece of equipment in each slot that fits a given theme, and are then judged on your ensemble with a score from 1 to 100. If you receive a score higher than 80 you get MGP.
The other quest Lewenna offers is “Everything Little Thing She Does is Mahjong.” By talking to the Mahjong Tutor you can complete this quest and unlock Mahjong Duties, which allow you to play the famous game for MGP. They can be accessed from the Duty Menu.
In order to unlock the final two features of the Gold Saucer, you will need to talk to the Lift Operator, which will give you access to the Minion and Chocobo Squares. At the former, you can unlock and play “Lord of Verminion,” which pits your minions against others for MGP. At the Chocobo Square you can pick up a quest to unlock Chocobo Races.
To do so, talk to the Race Chocobo Registrar to unlock “So You want to Be a Jockey?” This quest will have you travel to Bent Branch Meadows (near Gridania) to speak to Katering. This completes the quest and you can choose a male or female Chocobo for racing as a reward. Talking to her again will accept the quest, “So You Think You Can Ride This Chocobo?” To turn it in, talk to the Chocobo Trainer to register your new bird, and then talk to the registrar to try out the training course. After you pass, you will have Chocobo races available in the Duty Finder.
There are a ton of things to do in the Gold Saucer, and it’s incredibly easy to lose track of time. Whether you are there specifically to buy one of the awesome prizes, or just spend time mastering Triple Triad, it’s worth it to check out one of the coolest locations in Final Fantasy XIV and see what it has to offer. You may just find yourself sinking hours acquiring the area’s unique currency. After all, the Fenrir Mount is only one million MGP.
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