Part of glamour being the real endgame is having cool new weapons to complement our swank outfits. A lot of player effort is purely spent on gear acquisition, running raids and dungeons, doing Crystalline Conflict, and even some players tackling Final Fantasy XIV’s hardest content. I see all you PVE raiders suffering through PVP for that Garo gear.
To that end, Square Enix kicked off a Weapon Design Contest back in August of last year. The team behind FFXIV has picked the winners of the contest, showing off some of the attentive designs crafted by players. There are two Grand Prize winners for each Job, with the general thrust being one design that fits the game’s normal aesthetics and another that’s there for fun.
There are some real champions on the list. The Warrior buzzsaw axe is an all-timer and will look fantastic with Fell Cleave. Dark Knight’s ‘fun’ sword is really an elaborate, pink Samurai katana but for a different job. There are two shark-themed weapons, one for Gunbreaker and one for Monk, with the Monk fists modeled after everyone’s favorite shark minion Major General. The main Monk weapon, Dragon’s Beard Fists, is a good enough design that I might almost play Monk.
There are also some excellent designs that didn’t make the cut. You’ll find the Finalists in the Lodestone blog post, for Square Enix wanted to show off some of the best of the rest. Some of these designs deserve to be in the game in the future, so we’ll hopefully see them again someday.
In regards to not making the cut, Reaper and Sage are notably missing since the Weapon Design Contest began in August 2021, prior to the Jobs’ reveals for Endwalker. The team hears you, however. “We are also planning to hold another Weapon Design Contest focused on the reaper and sage jobs, so please stay tuned for details,” said Square Enix.
You can see all of the Grand Prize winners below and a number of Finalists at the Lodestone blog post.
