Final Fantasy 14 lets you roam the land with your Chocobo companion. You can level them up, customize their skills, and feed them tasty treats; Thavnairian Onions, for instance. These special onions are a Chocobo-favorite and will be especially useful if you plan on spending more time with your trusty companion.
If you're looking to get some Thavnairian Onions, bust out the gardening hoe and Punnett Square, because it's time to get dirty. These pesky onions can be difficult to get a hold of, so below you can find every way you can get them, and what exactly they're used for.
Updated May 5, 2023: The price of Thavnairian Onions has not dropped at all, leading more and more players to seek out more cost-effective options, like gardening. We've updated this guide to improve readability and make the exact steps you need to take to grow your onions more clear.
What Are Thavnairian Onions Used For?
Thavnairian Onions are used to increase the level cap of your Chocobo Companion. When your Chocobo reaches level 10, they will stop accumulating experience points from adventuring with you. You will need to increase their level cap by using Thavnairian Onions.
Every time your Chocobo reaches the level cap, you will need to feed them a Thavnairian Onion to increase the level cap by one. If you feed your Chocobo an Onion when they are not at their current level cap, the Onion will be wasted. Only feed them to your companion when they can't earn any more experience.
Additionally, you can only increase your Chocobo's level cap from a stable; using one outside of a stable will also waste the Onion.
The max level for Chocobo Companions is 20, so you will need 10 Thavnairian Onions to fully level them up.
Where To Get Thavnairian Onions
There are a few different ways to get Thavnairian Onions, listed below.
Quests
There are two quests that each reward one Thavnairian Onion upon completion. You'll probably want a few more than that, but these quests are a good way to get your first Thavnairian Onions.
Lv. 57 Sidequest 'A Hunter's True Nature'
- NPC Location: Hervoix - The Dravanian Forelands (X:31.6, Y:22.9)
- Pre-requisites:
- Complete the sidequest 'Pest Control'
- Complete the sidequest 'A Step in the Right Direction'
- Complete the sidequest 'Garbage Duty'
Lv. 50 Sidequest 'Landing a Stable Job'
- NPC Location: Mathye - The Pillars (X:6.2, Y:9.4)
- Pre-requisite:
- Complete the Main Scenario Quest 'The Better Half'
Gardening
The more reliable way to gather up Thavnairian Onions is to grow them yourself. To start gardening, you will need either a Garden furniture item for your housing plot or the flowerpot furniture item that can be used inside a house or apartment. The flowerpot is the more accessible option, but it only allows you to grow one seed per pot at a time. If you want to grow more Onions at a time, you'll need to get more flowerpots.
However, as you'll see later, you will need to crossbreed in order to get Thavnairian Onion Seeds. Crossbreeding can only be done in a garden in a housing plot, and is not available for apartments. If you get the seeds in another way, like buying them from the Market Board, you can still grow them in a flowerpot.
Crossbreeding is the process of breeding two different types of seeds together to get a third type of seed. By planting alternating seeds adjacent to one another, you will have the chance to receive a new seed when harvesting the plants after they finish growing.
The basic method for crossbreeding is to plant two different types of seeds in an alternating pattern, with Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil used as fertilizer to increase the chance of crossbreeding occurring. You will want to plant the seeds in a formation like this:
|
Seed 1 |
Seed 2 |
Seed 1 |
|
Seed 2 |
Scarecrow |
Seed 2 |
|
Seed 1 |
Seed 2 |
Seed 1 |
Be sure to use Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil each time you plant the seeds. After each seed is planted, water them every 24 hours until they are finished growing. Then, as you harvest the seeds, you will have a chance to produce a new type of seed.
If you fail to water your seeds in time, the plants will eventually wither and die. Be sure to log in and water your plants frequently to prevent them from withering!
To crossbreed Thavnairian Onion Seeds, you will need to plant two specific plants together. There are dozens of different combinations, and each of the parent plants for Thavnairian Onions requires its own crossbreeding.
To make things simple, here is one option for getting Thavnairian Onion Seeds, using Curiel Root and Royal Kukuru. Each of these seeds only needs one crossbreed, making them one of the simplest methods for getting Thavnairian Onions.
To get each of these seeds, follow the steps below.
- Crossbreed Krakka Root and Mirror Apple to get Curiel Root
- Krakka Root can be purchased from a Housing District Material Supplier
- Mirror Apple can be gathered in Coerthas Central Highlands
- Crossbreed Mirror Apple and Old World Fig to get Royal Kukuru
- Old World Fig can be gathered in Dravanian Forelands
- Crossbreed Curiel Root and Royal Kukuru to get Thavnairian Onion Seeds
Finally, once you have the Thavnairian Onion Seeds, plant them back into the garden or a flowerpot and they will eventually grow into Thavnairian Onions. They take 10 full days to grow, but you can use Fishmeal to speed up the growing process. Fishmeal reduces the total time it takes to grow the plant by a varying amount, with more time shaved off the earlier in the growth cycle you use the Fishmeal.
Use Grade 3 Shroud Topsoil to increase the number of Thavnairian Onion Seeds you obtain from the final harvest, which will drastically cut down on the number of seeds you need to grow to fully upgrade your Chocobo.
Remember, the process detailed above is specific to just one method for crossbreeding Thavnairian Onion Seeds. There are incredibly useful websites like FFXIV Gardening that list all possible crossbreed options, so be sure to utilize these tools if you want to use different seeds.
If you are in a big enough Free Company that owns a house, there's a chance that other members of your FC will grow Thavnairian Onions for everyone to use. Check the Company Chest for Thavnairian Onions, or ask other members if they plan on growing any.