What you should spend Tomestones of Poetics on in FFXIV

As you play Final Fantasy 14, you’ll amass tons of a specific currency called Allagan Tomestones of Poetics. This currency has a cap of 2,000, so you should spend them rather than letting extras you get waste away to the aether. If you’re just starting out, it can be hard to figure out where to spend them.

Keep in mind that you are not going to make millions of gil in profit from Poetics. Every player above level 50 has Poetics, so there’s a massive surplus. Whenever a new expansion comes out, you’re able to purchase the previous expansion’s stuff with Poetics, so they’re just a unified way to buy old stuff. However, there are a lot of valuable personal uses for Poetics!

Where to spend Tomestones of Poetics in FFXIV

You can trade in your Poetics at every expansion’s hub town (Mor Dhona, Idyllshire, etc.) but Rowena’s Representative vendors sell everything up to the Stormblood expansion, saving you the trip. (You will still need to go to Eulmore to get Shadowbringers items, though.)

You can find these NPCs on the map in most of the hub cities near the main Aetheryte as marked by the blue sack icon:

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

Below, we list a few things you can dump them on, in order of our personal preference.

---

Leveling gear for combat jobs

You can get Augmented Ironworks (level 50) gear, Augmented Shire (level 60) gear, and Augmented Scaevan (level 70) gear from a Rowena’s Representative NPC. You’ll have to go to Eulmore to get Augmented Cryptlurker (level 80) gear, though.

This stuff is pretty strong and it’ll take you most of the way to the next level benchmark before you’ll need to upgrade.

Relic weapon materials

If you’re interested, you can buy the materials for some of the previous expansions’ relic weapons for Poetics. You’ll only need to buy Thavnairian Scalepowder for the Shadowbringers relic weapon, but the A Realm Reborn relics and Heavensward relics require a plethora of different materials.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

A Realm Reborn/Zodiac weapons require:

• 1 Radz-at-Han Quenching Oil
• 3 Thavnairian Mist
• 9 Brave Books (a quest item that is only purchasable when you’re on the step that needs these items)
• 3 Superior Enchanted Ink
• 15 Mysterious Maps (to get Alexandrite, which you can also get for Allied Seals)
• 4 Sacred Spring Water
• 12 Mahatma (another quest item that’s only purchasable during this step)

Heavensward/Anima weapons require:

• 10 Unidentifiable Ore
• 10 Unidentifiable Shells
• 10 Unidentifiable Bones
• 10 Unidentifiable Seeds
• 5 Aether Oil
• ~60 Umbrite
• ~150 Superior Enchanted Ink
• ~150 Thavnairian Mist (this and the ink are needed to craft into Crystal Sand, which can also be obtained in exchange for Blue Scrip Tokens)
• 50 Singing Clusters
• 15 Pneumite
• 1 Archaic Enchanted Ink

That said, you can stock up on a lot of this stuff if you’re ever planning on backtracking relic weapons. Yay!

Orchestrions

A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, and Stormblood all have orchestrion rolls to buy from Rowena’s Representative for varying prices, if you like to collect the game’s music.

Gear to trade for Grand Company seals

Okay, here’s the thing. If all your combat jobs are at max level and you don’t need that Cryptlurker (or older) gear anymore, you can buy it and then go turn it in to your Grand Company for company seals. It’s best to buy rings, as they’re the cheapest and still turn in for around 1,700 seals. You do need to be Sergeant Second Class rank or higher at your respective GC, though.

This way, you can use GC seals to buy things like Ventures, GC Aetheryte Tickets, Glamour Prisms, and even Materiel Containers, which are effectively RNG loot boxes for old minions and even mounts, if you’re lucky. If you don’t already have it, there are also emotes, orchestrion rolls, and chocobo bardings to buy.

Unidentifiable Ore to trade in for Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil

This is really the last resort. If you have everything above (or if you really don’t want that stuff), the soil market is always fine. To get it, you’ll need to trade your Poetics for Unidentifiable Ore (yes, the same ones needed for the Anima weapon) and then head to Idyllshire. Talk to Bertana inside of Mowena’s Center for Cultural Promotion and select “Uncanny Knickknacks” to trade your ore for topsoil.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

Most of the materials you trade Poetics for are extremely old and have little-to-no value anymore. However, topsoil is pretty much always in use (though the price does fluctuate) as you’ll need high-grade soil to cross breed specific plants (like the very valuable Thavnairian Onion).

Some players will note that they’d rather just let their Poetics overcap than to even bother selling soil, but it’s up to you.