FFXI: Essential UI Add-ons

Vanilla FFXI out of the box is missing some basic QoL features that can present a hurdle to new players. Luckily, there are a ton of fan-made plugins, add-ons, and more that make the experience significantly better. In this post, I'll focus exclusively onUI upgrades, but there are gameplay, bgm, inventory management and other types of addons available as well as graphics enhancements.

Note: The add-ons and plug-ins listed here are safe in my experience, but you should use common sense when adding plugins and downloading from personal repositories. Additionally, while these add-ons and plugins are not hacks, cheats, or exploits, 3rd-party plugins in general are a gray area not condoned by Square Enix.

Windower and Ashita are launchers that come with a variety of add-ons and plugins. I would consider having one of them essential to a good game experience. I use Windower, and many of the plug-ins I list below are available through the launcher options.

• Balloon

  • not Windower

  • Displays text in an FFXIV-style chat bubble in the center of the screen, much nicer in just reading the log in my opinion

• Config

  • Windower

  • critical plug-in that gives you extra config options

• Debuffed

  • Windower

  • simple but powerful add-on that tracks debuffs on your target

• DistancePlus

  • Windower

  • also simple, but very convenient--shows the distance to your target

• enemybar/enemybar2

  • Windower

  • shows the target's hp and other options if you install the newer version

• FFXIDB

  • Windower

  • the absolute best in-game minimap solution

• giltracker

  • Windower

  • simple display of your current gil in FFXIV's style

• xivparty

  • not Windower

  • powerful tool that gives you control over your party list

  • can choose from FFXI and FFXIV layouts, or create your own

• zonename

  • not Windower

  • purely cosmetic and displays the name of an area in a big title across the screen when you zone in

Using all of the above, my custom UI looks like this.

I intend to mess around with it a bit more, but it's getting pretty close to where I want it to be.

What tools do you use to design your FFXI UI? Share in the comments below!