What Do Commendations Do in FFXIV?

Using the Duty Finder lets you queue up for an instanced duty (like a trial or dungeon) and places you in a group of random players. Giving out commendations at the end of the instance is a way of letting these other players know that you appreciate their efforts during that run.

The reason for giving other players a commendation is all up to you.

Paladin in your party has a pull macro that made you laugh? Here, have a commendation.

The white mage saved your butt with a clutch Rescue during the final boss fight? Accept this commendation as my thanks.

Or maybe you just really like that samurai’s glam.

Again, it’s all up to you to decide who in your party gets a commendation. You can even choose not to give anyone a commendation if you don’t feel like giving one.

There are actual benefits to giving and receiving commendations in FFXIV. So let’s take a look and see what those might be.

Receiving Commendations

You can receive a commendation from each party member for every instance. This means that it is possible to receive a maximum of 3 commendations for dungeons, and 7 commendations for instances that run a Full Party like trials or raids.

If you enter an instance with a pre-made party, you can receive commendations from members of your pre-made group.

The game actually keeps track of how many commendations you’ve received and will reward you for certain milestones.

Here are the different rewards you can get from getting commendations:

The achievement “Leaving a Better Impression I” is one of the requirements for becoming a mentor in FFXIV.

You can check how many commendations you currently have by opening your menu and going to the Character section. From there, go to the reputation tab.

If you receive any commendations, the message “You received a player commendation” will appear in your chat window after leaving the instance. The message will show up once for every commendation received.

Giving Commendations

After the final boss of an instance is defeated, a pop-up notification will show up on the lower right corner of your screen for Player Commendations.

Clicking on this will open up a window that has a list of your party members from which you can choose who to commend.

Note: should a player leave the instance before you’re able to commend anyone, he or she will be removed from the commendations list.

While players won’t get anything as flashy as a golden mount, giving commendations to other players also has its perks. There is an entry in the Challenge Log called “Exercising the Right” that will reward players with a nice chunk of experience points (10% of the total amount needed from your current level to the next) and 1000 gil.

Completing this challenge requires you to give commendations to other players 5 times.

This can be done once a week and it’s reset every Tuesday at 1:00 AM PDT.

The challenge log is unlocked by completing the level 15 quest “Rising to the Challenge” from I’tolwann in Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks (X:11.5, Y:10.9).