Materia ( Final Fantasy XIV ) Materia is a crafting system from " Final Fantasy XIV " implemented with patch 1 . 19 and carried over to " Final Fantasy XIV : A Realm Reborn " . It allows players to upgrade their weapons , tools and armor by turning undesired pieces of equipment into " materia " , " " crystallized memories of a piece of equipment that user possessed a spirit bond with " " , which can be melded to another piece of equipment to provide bonuses . Story . Origin . A strange goblin geomancer named Mutamix Bubblypots and his apprentices set up shop near the walls of Ul ' dah , calling themselves the " Carriers of the Cauldron " , promoting a weird matter called ' materia ' , said to augment gear . Quickly , word about the new " technology " spread all over Ul ' dah thanks to several adventurers who met the goblin . Merchants in town divided amongst those who welcome this new method , while others are vehemently against the presence of Mutamix near the city walls . There are plenty of rumors about how Mutamix himself learned about materia . Some say that such advanced military technology could only have been developed within Garlemald , while others believe it was born of Near Eastern wisdom that had long slumbered within the ancient tomes of the Great Library . What all agree , however , is that at some point , a fraternity of goblin scholars called the " Illuminati " acquired the secrets of materia , governed by a code of secrecy until Mutamix betrayed the order and , believing that materia should be allowed to benefit all folk rather than a select few , spread the word over Eorzea . " A Realm Reborn " . Items can be converted to materia as soon as Swynbroes ( 24 , 13 ) is spoken to in Central Thanalan , as he teaches the adventurer to use it . Mechanics . Creation . To turn items into materia , players must equip said item and do activities like battling or crafting , which in turn will increase his / her " spiritbond " with it . Once this value reaches 100 % , the item can be turned into materia using a key item called " materia assimilator " , an apparatus which can be obtained via the quest " Forging the Spirit " ; this process cannot be reversed . It should be noted that selling or trading an item , as well as storing it inside the innroom Armoire , will reset all spiritbond with it . Items that can be turned into materia have a " Convertible : Yes " tag in their tooltip . Spiritbond speed can be increased by equipping high quality or Materia melded gear , jewellery with the Spiritbond + subtstat , consuming a Spiritbond Potion or by having That Which Binds Us Company Action active , and will be reduced if the gear ' s Item Level is lower than the level of the encounter and gaining no spiritbond if the Item Level is too high compared to the encounter level . There are several types of materia , divided into four tiers ranging from I ( lowest ) to V ( highest ) , and the same gear does not necessarily convert into the same materia , but the process follow certain patterns ( i . e . INT materia will not be produced from swords and axes , etc . ) . An equipment ’ s level will have an impact on what materia tier will be created , along with the chance of creating a higher tier materia . When creating materia , the level of the item being converted determines the possible tier of the created materia . Melding . Materia can be melded on all gear slots . Materia cannot be melded onto equipment that does not have any materia slots to begin with ( Not even via advanced melding ) . Multiple materia effects on the same item or different items stack , but each piece of equipment cannot exceed a stat cap determined by their item level . Melding materia requires the " materia melder " key item , an apparatus which can be obtained via the quest " Waking the Spirit " available to Disciples of the Hand " ( excluding culinarians ) " of level 18 and above . The apparatus allows players to meld one piece of materia per item . Players must fulfill the class requirement for crafting / repairing the target item . A second requirement is using special item called Carbonized Matter as a catalyst . The grade of the Carbonized Matter used for the melding cannot be lower than the grade of the Materia being used . Players can also request materia melding from other players , providing the materia and catalyst required , as well as a payment in gil if desired . Should the player desire , it is possible to have equipment purged of materia by paying a fee of gil to Mutamix . This destroys all materia melded to the target gear , leaving the item intact . After completing the quest " Melding Materia Muchly " , players will become eligible to obtain the more advanced " augmented materia melder , " which allows the attachment of Materia beyond the normal limit of the gear , up to five per item . Players can never fail to meld Materia on the normally available slots . Melding on the extra slots can fail and each subsequent attempt has reduced chances of working . This process is called " Advanced Materia Melding " . Upon failure , the materia and the catalyst being used are lost . Success rates for Advanced Materia Melding changes based on the tier of the materia ( it is easier to meld two Tier I than it is to meld two Tier IV materia ) . As of patch 3 . 2 , cyan materia are no longer meldable in this fashion . Equipment dropped from raids or trials or bought with Allagan Tomestone s are also ineligible for advanced melding , regardless of whether or not they are eligible for normal melds . Types . The following Materia types can be melded onto equipment . Cyan . Cyan Materia increases the character ' s main attributes . Gray . Gray Materia increases the character ' s elemental resistances . This type of Materia has little effect and mainly used for Materia Transmution or speeding up Spiritbond speed of the gear they are melded into . Red . Red Materia increases the character ' s offensive properties . Yellow . Yellow Materia increases the character ' s defensive properties . Green . Green Materia increases the character ' s gathering attributes . Blue . Blue Materia increases the character ' s crafting attributes . Purple . Purple Materia increases the character ' s speed . Orange . Orange Materia increases the character ' s status resistances . These are not available beyond rank I , cannot be sold on the market board , and are typically not encountered at all in normal gameplay . Cracked . Due to the overhaul of the stat and Materia systems in " A Realm Reborn " , any Materia that was transferred from version 1 . 0 became cracked and useless . Players could originally trade these Materia for new Materia of the same rank ; however , this feature was removed in " Heavensward " . Etymology . The name of the goblin fraternity refers to the .