Materia
Materia can be used to enhance your gear. You can attach materia into a piece of equipment with socket(s) to improve its attributes.
Players can acquire materia by extracting it from pieces of equipment with 100% spiritbond. Spiritbond percentage increases as you use that piece of armor in battle, crafting or gathering.
Creating Materia
- Main article: Spiritbond
To create materia, you must first complete the quest: 
Forging the Spirit. The quest giver is Swynbroes, located at The Bonfire in Central Thanalan (X:23.9, Y:13.7).
You can create materia from your weapons, armors and tools with spiritbond of 100%. You can increase the spiritbond percentage of a piece of gear by earning experience through battle, crafting and gathering while wearing that piece. You can tell gear has reached 100% spiritbond from the green equipment dots turning white at the bottom right of the screen (by default), and there is an audio cue sound effect plus a white visual flash effect when 100% is first reached.
The type of materia you create from a piece of gear depends on the gear's intended class. For example, when you extract from a piece gear designed for a pugilist or lancer, you will receive materia that is ideal for physical, melee damage dealing.
Materia Tiers
Lower level gear produces lower-tier materia. Additionally, higher materia tiers require higher level gear for melding.
| Tier | Levels of Gear | Item Level Requirements for Melding |
|---|---|---|
| I | 1-14 for 100% 15-29 for 90% |
15+ |
| II | 15-29 for 10% 30 - 44 for 90% |
30+ |
| III | 30-44 for 10% 45+ for 90% |
45+ |
| IV | 45-50 i60 for 10% i60-i130 for 75%-80% |
55+ (DoH/DoL) 70+ (DoW/DoM) |
| V | 51-60 | 160+ |
| VI | 61-70 | 290+ |
| VII | 71-80 | 420+ (DoW/DoM) 430+ (DoH/DoL) |
| VIII | 71-80 | 420+ (DoW/DoM) 430+ (DoH/DoL) |
| IX | 81-90 | 560+ |
| X | 81-90 | 560+ |
| XI | 91-100 | 690+ |
| XII | 91-100 | 690+ |
Materia Conversions
Different types of gear produce different types of Materia.
| Gear Type | Types of Materia Extracted |
|---|---|
| Disciples of War |  Tenacity,  Skill Speed,  Direct Hit Rate,  Critical Hit,  Determination.
|
| Disciples of Magic |  Piety,  Spell Speed, Direct Hit Rate, Critical Hit, Determination.
|
| Disciples of the Hand |  Craftsmanship,  Control,  CP.
|
| Disciples of the Land |  Gathering,  Perception,  GP.
|
Types of Materia
- Main article: Types of Materia
| Name | Color | Stat Increased | Tier I | Tier II | Tier III | Tier IV | Tier V | Tier VI1 | Tier VII | Tier VIII1 | Tier IX | Tier X1 | Tier XI | Tier XII1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Savage Aim Materia | |
Critical Hit | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +6 | +16 | +8 | +24 | +12 | +36 | +18 | +54 |
| Savage Might Materia | |
Determination | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +6 | +16 | +8 | +24 | +12 | +36 | +18 | +54 |
| Heavens' Eye Materia | |
Direct Hit Rate | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +6 | +16 | +8 | +24 | +12 | +36 | +18 | +54 |
| Quickarm Materia | |
Skill Speed | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +6 | +16 | +8 | +24 | +12 | +36 | +18 | +54 |
| Quicktongue Materia | |
Spell Speed | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +6 | +16 | +8 | +24 | +12 | +36 | +18 | +54 |
| Battledance Materia | |
Tenacity | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +6 | +16 | +8 | +24 | +12 | +36 | +18 | +54 |
| Piety Materia | |
Piety | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +6 | +16 | +8 | +24 | +12 | +36 | +18 | +54 |
| Craftsman's Command Materia | |
Control | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +7 | +10 | +9 | +13 | +12 | +18 | +15 | +23 |
| Craftsman's Cunning Materia | |
CP | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +6 | +8 | +7 | +9 | +8 | +10 | +9 | +11 |
| Craftsman's Competence Materia | |
Craftsmanship | +3 | +4 | +5 | +6 | +11 | +16 | +14 | +21 | +18 | +27 | +22 | +33 |
| Gatherer's Grasp Materia | |
GP | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +6 | +8 | +7 | +9 | +8 | +10 | +9 | +11 |
| Gatherer's Guerdon Materia | |
Gathering | +3 | +4 | +5 | +6 | +10 | +15 | +12 | +20 | +14 | +25 | +20 | +36 |
| Gatherer's Guile Materia | |
Perception | +3 | +4 | +5 | +6 | +10 | +15 | +12 | +20 | +14 | +25 | +20 | +36 |
- 1Tier VI, VIII, X, and XII materia "cannot be melded onto a piece of equipment past the first advanced materia melding slot."
- NOTE: Several categories of materia have been discontinued, including
elemental resistance materia and 
status effect resistance materia during Stormblood. With Shadowbringers, 
core-stat materia was also discontinued.
Melding Materia
To meld materia onto a piece of equipment, the equipment must have at least one materia slot.
The easiest way to meld (attach) Materia is to find a 
Materia Melder NPC who will perform the service for a small fee. This method has no level requirement. You can find them near one of the Market Boards in major cities or player housing if the owner has purchased and placed a 
Materia Melder Permit.
To meld Materia yourself, you will need to complete the Waking the Spirit quest. The quest giver is F'hobhas, located at The Bonfire in Central Thanalan (X:23.5, Y:13.9). You will need to be level 19 or higher with at least one Disciple of the Hand (crafter) to accept the quest. Once completed, you will unlock the "
Materia Melding" action.
In order to meld actual equipment, you need at least one Disciple of the Hand (crafter) of the same level as the piece of equipment you are trying to meld. Any crafter will work, and you do not change your class to the crafter while doing the actual melding.
Stat budgeting
Materia is used to increase "substats" (stats other than Vitality or the class/job's primary stat).
A piece of gear has a "budget" for how much of a substat it can give, depending on the gear's type and item level. For example, a 
Kirin's Osode of Fending (an item level 300 chest piece) can grant at most +110 of any one substat. This maximum is handled separately for each substat, and is listed in the materia melding interface.
Most gear (excluding Relic Weapons) increases at most 2 substats by default, with one of those substats already at the maximum allowed for the gear's item level. Therefore, the value of melding materia comes from maximizing the second substat, as well as potentially adding a third and/or fourth substat that would otherwise not be on the gear.
When a parameter value turns red in the Materia Melding interface, some or all of the benefit from the selected materia will have no effect. This is because the affected stat has exceeded its budget.
Removal and retrieval
Materia that has been melded to a piece of gear can still be removed later. Materia is removed one-at-a-time, with the most-recent meld being removed first.
When removing materia, there is also a chance of "retrieval", meaning the materia returns to your inventory. If retrieval does not occur, then the removed materia is lost.
Materia older than the current expansion have a 100% retrieval rate. During A Realm Reborn, all materia in the game at the time were "current" and this was not the case.
Forbidden melds or Overmelding
It is possible to meld more materia to a piece of gear than the available slots. Doing so requires completing the Melding Materia Muchly quest given by Mutamix, also located at The Bonfire in Central Thanalan (X:23.7, Y:13.6). You will need to be level 25 or higher.
The quest involves melding 8 materia to gear in front of Mutamix. To save time, you can use one piece of materia and one gear socket. Simply meld the one materia, then right click on the item and retrieve the materia you just melded. Then, meld that same materia back into the same slot. Repeat for a total of 8 times.
Once complete, the "
Advanced Materia Melding" action replaces the standard " Materia Melding" action. Advanced melds are better known as forbidden melds or overmelding.
Forbidden melds allow you to meld up to 5 materia (i.e., "pentamelding") to a piece of gear. However, the chance of success is low, typically starting at 45 or 35%, to 17% for higher grade materia. The probability of success decreases further depending on the number of materia already melded and the grade of the current materia you are attempting to add. Going for a full five melds (pentamelding) typically ends at about 4-8% for the final meld. Players attempting pentamelds often lose lots of materia during the process unless extremely lucky. Materia Melder NPCs cannot perform Advanced Materia Melding.
Certain grades of materia (namely, grades VI, VIII, X, and XII) have restrictions when overmelding: they can only be applied to the first overmeld slot. This restriction is indicated by the phrase "cannot be melded onto a piece of equipment past the first advanced materia melding slot." The remaining overmeld slots will need to rely on slightly-lower-grade materia (usually grades V, VII, IX, and XI respectively).
Due to its high cost, overmelding is not necessary in most gameplay situations, except when attempting savage raid progression in the first few weeks of a patch, for crafters attempting to make Endgame gear and consumables reliably or tackling Expert Recipes, or for gatherers who want to maximize gathering yield and efficiency.
Note that some equipment is not eligible for Overmelding - this is indicated by the phrase "Advanced Melding Forbidden" on the gear. Any gear that has no materia slots to begin with is also not eligible for Overmelding.
Historical
Carbonized matter catalysts were once used for Materia Melding. This requirement was removed in patch 4.06. 
Grade 1 Carbonized Matter remains in the game due to class quests requiring its collection, but is useless aside from completing these quests.
Interaction with Item Level Sync
- See also: Item Level
When level synced in a duty, any gear that exceeds the duty's maximum Item Level will deactivate all materia melded to it, and the gear's default stats are synced down to the maximum that the duty's Item Level allows.
A high-level piece of gear that's synced down may be able to maximize both of its substats for the target item level, despite not having access to materia. For example, suppose an 
Augmented Cryptlurker's Earring of Fending (item level 530, +99 Critical Hit, +69 Determination) is synced down to item level 300, which has a budget of +55 for each substat. The earring will now effectively grant +55 Critical Hit and +55 Determination.
However, a synced-down piece of gear will be missing out on the third or fourth substat that materia can offer. This gap of potential stats generally doesn't matter when running synced-down casual content, but can be important in high-difficulty synced-down content such as old Ultimate Raids. Gear that can maximize substats when synced-down also tends to not be available until 1 or 2 expansions after the release of the target content, meaning materia can hold importance for a while.
Materia Transmutation
Materia Transmutation was released in Patch 2.25. To unlock Materia Transmutation, players must complete the level 19 quest Marvelously Mutable Materia. Players can talk to Kokosamu in Central Thanalan (X:23.8, Y:14.2). Players must have completed 
Life, Materia and Everything before starting Marvelously Mutable Materia.
Mechanics
Players can trade Mutamix Bubblypots in Central Thanalan (X:23.7, Y:13.6) 5 pieces of any kind of materia and he will give you one random materia in return. The returned materia is guaranteed to be a different type than the starting five, which can be mixed to improve the odds of getting the type the player wants. Occasionally players will get materia that are higher grade than the ones they have traded in.
Removing Materia
You can remove materia from items using the item context menu. While doing so, there is a chance of preserving the removed materia for further use. As of Patch 7.0, this chance is 100% for materia grade X or lower.
Achievements
Main article: Materia Achievements
Materia are associated with several achievements.