I remember the first time I saw a loft in a house in FFXIV. It was one of Alice Lucis’caelum’s designs, and it took me days after that to figure out how she’d done it.
Back then, the only way to build a loft in a house in FFXIV was to use a stomach-churningly precise glitch to float a troupe stage. I spent hours constructing one in Shane’s small house, and told him to stop me if I ever tried to take it down.
When Shadowbringers came out, I could have sworn Square Enix had heard the cries of designers everywhere, because instead of yet again patching the loft glitch so it wouldn’t work, they created an item that actually made the loft glitch much, much easier.
Of course, it wasn’t perfect, and still needed glitches if you were to get any furniture onto it. But in general, here’s what you need to know about each of these loft techniques.
The troupe stage loft
This is the traditional approach, and requires you to work with the existing geometry in your house by floating the stage on top of windows or doors.
Advantages: It’s technically considered a table, so it’s typically much easier to place certain items on top of a troupe stage. It’s also a really good height for splitting a room vertically, and has a nice grain in the wood.
Disadvantages: It’s a tricky glitch, and it’s limited to certain parts of your home. Troupe stages are also very expensive on the market, and require three different level 70+ crafters to make yourself. Oh, and the glitch to float them gets patched and changed nearly every release.
How to make a loft with a troupe stage
The wooden loft
This is the new approach, and is much more flexible in terms of where you can put it.
Advantages: It’s considered a wall-mounted item, so placing a wooden loft is the easiest thing ever. You don’t need any glitches. It’s also a low-level crafting item, so it’s easy to make yourself and typically much more affordable on the market.
Disadvantages: Because it’s a wall-mounted item, you need to plan ahead to place items on it, and use the loft glitch to furnish it. It’s also thinner than the troupe stage, but it can make up for that when you pair it with the wooden beam.
How to make a loft with a wooden loft
Overall, the wooden loft approach is by far my favourite. It’s easier, less time-consuming, and more flexible in what you can build!
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