Rarity

Rarity is an attribute present in every item representing the relative difficulty in acquiring that item. It does not represent the relative power of the item; for that attribute, see Item Level.

Rarity is as follows: AWhite → DPink → BGreen → CBlue → EPurple. As Square Enix has not officially named the rarity levels, these names are community-assigned.

• AWhite or ABasic gear is purchasable from NPC vendors or craftable by the player. Most of the time ABasic gear is also available as a  High Quality variant. Only the  HQ variant will have appropriate stats for the Item Level. Normal quality or NQ gear will have a -10% penalty in stats, which is huge. The only source of  HQ crafted gear for Gil is from other players via the Market Board. Players will also receive HQ  gear directly as well as via coffers from the Main Scenario Quests and certain Side Quests.

• DPink or DAetherial gear used to drop more commonly from dungeons. However, with various quality-of-life adjustments culminating in Patch 5.3, dungeons now very rarely have DAetherial items. The only real source for them now is Treasure Hunting maps and Guildleve bonus chests. All DAetherial gear has random secondary attributes, but the main stats are in line with  High Quality ABasic gear. There is no DAetherial gear after level 50, as the random secondary attributes were deemed too frustrating for players. (Diadem-associated Heavensward sets have been removed.)

• BGreen or BDungeon gear most often drops from chests in dungeons. However, endgame gear crafted with recipes in the Master Recipe Tomes will also usually be of this rarity. This is likely to reflect the fact that endgame gear requires materials from timed nodes, aethersand, and tomestone materials and is thus indirectly time-limited. Crafted gear is generally tradable via the Market Board, while dungeon drops are not. BGreen-rarity seafood may denote a Big Fish, or a Spectral Fish obtained during Ocean Fishing.

• CBlue or CTomestone gear includes anything currently or formerly bought with Allagan Tomestones, Scrips, or some items bought with tokens dropped from world boss encounters. This also includes weapons that drop from (Extreme) Trials and Raid gear, the latter of which was weekly capped when current. CBlue gear is never tradable.

• EPurple or ERelic gear represents the highest level of rarity. Though the exact procedure for obtaining relics can significantly vary between relics, they share a few common attributes.

• They involve a many-step procedure to acquire, including a dedicated quest, which is generally quite time-consuming
• They are not best-in-slot (until the final patch of an expansion, at which time the current completed relic has parity with the current savage weapon), and primarily serve as glamour
• They increase in rarity as they are upgraded (not all relic weapons do this, but many do, starting out as CBlue or even AWhite gear)

Relics may be divided into three categories:

• Relic weapons
• Relic armor, currently only consisting of Paladin-exclusive shields
• Relic accessories, currently only consisting of the Eternity Ring from the Eternal Bonding ceremony.

Though relics from previous expansions primarily serve as cosmetic status symbols, they do have niche use for some high-end duties due to their customizable secondary attributes.