FFXIV: Store Update, Sale & Updated Buy for Friend Feature

Key Takeaways

• Square Enix restored the "Buy for a Friend" gifting option on the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Store on April 2, 2026 after pulling it in October 2022 over fraud concerns.
• Seven categories are now eligible: Mounts (Single Character), Minions (Single Character), Emotes, Orchestrion Rolls, Face Paint, Chocobo Barding, Fashion Accessories.
• Account-wide mounts, account-wide minions, and any item flagged "Unavailable as Gift" on its store page cannot be gifted.
• Recipients must be on the buyer's FFXIV friends list for at least three real-world days before they qualify — the answer to most "buy for a friend not working" troubleshooting.
• The 2026 spring promotions referenced in early coverage — the Spring Sale and the Fan Festival 50% sale on editions — have ended; no live store-wide sale is running as of May 18, 2026.

The new gifting rules, the historical context behind the 2022 removal, and the recent sale calendar are all worth a closer read for anyone planning a present.

What Changed on April 2, 2026

The official Lodestone post reads verbatim: "As of Thursday, April 2 around 4:30 a.m. (PDT), more optional items can now be gifted to friends." The wording matters. April 2 is the day the seven-category eligible-item list went live with the safeguards Square Enix put around the feature on relaunch.

This is the restoration of a feature Square Enix originally removed in October 2022, a few weeks after Patch 6.2 "Buried Memory." The reason given at the time was fraud prevention: stolen credit-card data was being used to buy gift codes, and third-party resellers were undercutting official pricing. The 2026 return adds new safeguards instead of bringing the old loose system back wholesale.

With that visual in mind, the next section keeps the walkthrough moving.

The Seven Eligible Categories

Square Enix names exactly seven categories that can now be sent to a friend. These are the categories on the Lodestone post; the press recaps from Siliconera, GameRant, and GamingHQ all match this list.

1. Mounts (Single Character)
2. Minions (Single Character)
3. Emotes
4. Orchestrion Rolls
5. Face Paint
6. Chocobo Barding
7. Fashion Accessories

The "(Single Character)" parenthetical on Mounts and Minions is doing real work — it draws the boundary between what's giftable and what's not.

What You Still Can't Gift

Three explicit exclusions matter for anyone planning a present:

• Account-Wide Mounts and Minions. These cannot be gifted. The single-character variants can; the account-wide variants of the same cosmetic cannot.
• "Unavailable as Gift" items. Any item whose store page shows that label in place of the gifting button is excluded by design — the rule is visible in the Mog Station UI itself.
• Single-use-per-character consumables. Square Enix describes the exclusion as items that "can only be used once per character." Fantasia, Tales of Adventure (Story Skip), and Character Skip fall into that pattern based on how the feature works — they are not in the eligible list on the Lodestone post.

If the cosmetic mount your friend is chasing isn't on the Mog Station to begin with — Endwalker EX-trial mounts, Savage clears, FATE grinds — gifting won't unlock it. The only routes for those are the grind or a clear; one option is to skip the rare mount grind with a carry on the specific source.

The Three-Day Friends-List Rule

Most "buy for a friend not working" threads end with the same answer: the friends-list cooldown. The recipient has to have been on the buyer's FFXIV friends list for at least three real-world days before they qualify as a gift recipient. The rule is enforced in the Mog Station UI, not in the Lodestone post.

📌 Common mistake: adding the recipient to your friends list and immediately trying to gift. The cooldown is one of the new fraud safeguards. It is intentional, and there is no workaround. Plan the gift four days ahead of a birthday, not the morning of.

✏️ Quick check: if the gift button is greyed out even after three days, refresh your friends list, then re-open the Mog Station page. The cooldown clock reads the friends list at page-load, not in real time.

Each character can hold up to 200 friends, which is plenty of headroom for the cooldown to apply only to brand-new additions.

The Sale Calendar (For the Record)

The blog's original framing implied a live sale was running alongside the gifting update. As of May 18, 2026, no Square Enix sale on FFXIV Editions is live. Three distinct promotions ran across the spring and have all closed:

• Spring Sale (50% off Complete Edition + Dawntrail): ran on the Square Enix Store and Steam from March 12 to March 19, 2026; on Mog Station from March 11 to March 18; and on the Microsoft Store for Xbox from March 17 to March 31.
• Fan Festival Editions Sale (50% off Starter, Complete, and Dawntrail): ran on Square Enix Store and Mog Station through May 6, 2026.
• Fan Festival Optional Items Sale: the limited-time pricing on commemorative items (Hardy-Daytona mount, Wind-up Red XIII minion, Runway Walk emote, the Three-piece Set, and the THE PRIMALS + Pulse 2 orchestrion roll sets) ran from April 8 until Patch 7.5 maintenance began on April 28.

With those items mapped out, the next image gives the topic a visual anchor.

Banner: the March 2026 Spring Sale promotional artwork from the Lodestone — the sale itself ended on March 18-31 depending on platform.

If a new promotion goes live, the FFXIV news feed will post a fresh Lodestone announcement before any third-party recap. Until that happens, the safest framing is the dated-window summary above.

⚠️ Watch the wording: "Save 50% during the spring sale" is not currently true for anyone reading this article. Past-tense and date-stamped framing keeps the article honest as the sale calendar drifts.

That guidance in hand, the article moves on.

How Gifts Get Delivered

Gifts arrive in-game through the Moogle Delivery Service, the same system that handles other store deliveries. The buyer pays at the Online Store, the recipient logs in and opens mail at a moogle delivery node, and the gifted item lands in the recipient's inventory once they claim it.

FAQ

Why was Buy for a Friend removed in 2022?

Stolen credit-card data was being used to buy gift codes, and third-party resellers were undercutting official pricing. Square Enix pulled the feature to stop both abuse patterns. The 2026 restoration adds a three-day friends-list cooldown, single-character-only items, and account-wide exclusions specifically to make those exploits harder.

Can I gift a Fantasia?

Fantasia is not in the seven eligible categories on the Lodestone post. It is a single-character one-time-use consumable, which is the exact exclusion pattern Square Enix described. Treat Fantasia as ungiftable unless an updated official source says otherwise.

Can I gift Story Skip or Character Skip?

Neither is in the eligible list. Both are single-character one-time-use items, falling under the same exclusion as Fantasia.

Can I gift an account-wide mount?

No. The single-character variant of the same mount can be gifted; the account-wide variant cannot. The store page itself shows the difference — "Unavailable as Gift" appears where the gift button would otherwise sit on account-wide cosmetics.

Is the spring sale still live?

No. The 50% Editions promotions ended in March (Spring Sale) and on May 6 (Fan Festival sale). The Fan Festival commemorative-items sale closed at the Patch 7.5 maintenance on April 28. Wait for the next Lodestone announcement before quoting a specific discount.

How long until my friend can receive a gift after I add them?

Three real-world days. The friends-list cooldown is a deliberate safeguard against the stolen-credit-card pattern that took the feature down in 2022. There is no workaround in the Mog Station UI.

Where can I shop for FFXIV services beyond the store?

If you're already on the Mog Station for a sale and want carry-style services to round out the package, browse our FFXIV service lineup for current-patch raid, dungeon, gear, and mount runs.

Maintained by WowCarry's FFXIV team. Last reviewed 2026-05-18 against Lodestone post 2df1dd39 (gifting update) and the official Spring Sale + Fan Festival Lodestone posts.