Final Fantasy 14 guide: How to teleport and fast travel

The world of Final Fantasy 14 Online is large and grows with each expansion.

When you first start the game, you’ll have to travel on foot until you finally figure out how to get a mount like a chocobo. Thankfully as you run across Eorzea, you’ll encounter large and small crystals called Aetherytes. You can use these blue gems to teleport across the world.

In this FFXIV guide, we’ll explain how to fast travel. We’ll teach you about the different ways you can teleport in the game using Aetherytes. This guide will also detail the difference between teleporting across the world and between areas in cities.

What are Aetherytes?

Scattered throughout the world of Eorzea are large and small crystals called Aetherytes. These glowing blue objects are what you’ll use to fast travel in FFXIV.

Aetherytes act as portals that you can use to travel between the game’s expanses. In larger cities, you’ll find smaller Aetherytes called Aethernet Shards. These smaller crystals form transportation networks in cities called the Aethernet. Think of them like subway stops.

While you’ll find Aetherytes all over the world of FFXIV, you can’t travel to them at will. You first have to find and attune to them. Once you’ve attuned to an Aetheryte, you can travel to it. You basically have to build your own network of fast travel points before you can use them.

The first Aetheryte you’ll encounter will be the large one in the main plaza of whichever starting area you begin in when you choose a class.

Image: Square Enix

The large Aetheryte will act as your home point when you use the Return command. At any time when you’re not in combat, you can use Return to automatically teleport back to the large Aetheryte at your home base. In a dungeon, Return will bring you back to starting location of the quest.

Return has a 15-minute cooldown time, so keep that in mind when using it.

How to fast travel

If you want to fast travel in FFXIV, you’ll have to find an area’s Aetheryte first. You’ll have to do a lot of walking around until you encounter new Aetherytes.

Image: Square Enix

Whenever you run into a new Aetheryte, select it and interact with it. You will automatically begin attuning to it.

Once attuned, you can select an Aetheryte from your map screen and teleport to it. You’ll pay a distance-based fee, which changes based on on how far you travel away from your current location. While the costs may seem high at the beginning — especially if you do it a lot — the price is negligible in the long run.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

To fast travel to any Aetheryte you’ve attuned to throughout the world from the map screen:

1. Open up your map, and find the Aetheryte you want to travel to.
2. Highlight it, and you’ll see the distance-based fee you need to pay.
3. Select it, and then follow the prompts to teleport to that location.

After you confirm your destination, you will pay the fee and cast a Teleport spell. After a short cast time, you’ll flash over to your selected destination. Teleport does not have a cool down time like Return, so as long as you have money, you can teleport to Aetherytes freely.

Fast travel in cities

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

To fast travel via a city’s Aethernet, you must first attune to at least two Aetherytes in the area. (For instance, the main Aetheryte in a city’s plaza and one or more Aethernet Shards).

If you’re traveling from the main plaza Aetheryte and want to travel to an Aethernet Shard:

1. Interact with the main plaza Aetheryte to pull up its menu.
2. Choose Aethernet.
3. Choose one of the Aethernet Shards you’ve already attuned to.
4. You’ll teleport to that Aethernet Shard for free.

If you want to use an Aethernet Shard to travel to somewhere else within a city:

1. Interact with the Aethernet Shard, which will pull up its menu and display all the connected Aetherytes in the city you’ve attuned.
2. Select your destination.
3. You will then travel to there for free.

Once you’ve travel across most of Eorzea on foot — or via a chocobo or other mount — you’ll eventually connect to more Aetherytes. At the beginning of the game, you’ll do a lot of slow traversing over the same environments, but over time, you’ll be zipping across the map. After you unlock how to fly, traveling becomes even faster.