Info On Free Companies

Anyone have a link to a page that basically explains what a fc is, how additional rewards are obtained through one, and the such?

If not, anyone care to explain the ins and outs and benfits of one?

I haven't found anything on them, but I did start one yesterday, only for friends though, so some of the stuff I really don't care about.

You get Rank points (that unlocks Rank 2-5 rewards) for handing in Quests (both standard and story), and doing FATEs. As far as we've worked out, everyone who does something, increases standing with their own Grand Company (we're all allied with Ul'dah and our Ul'dahn standing is the only one that's increased), but I'm not sure what the "Standing" actually does.

One benefit is as the FC ranks up, they get the option of buying status effects that apply to everyone in the FC for a period of time (usually 24 hours), including 5% bonus exp from battle, 20% reduction in teleport costs, etc.

The big thing with Free Companies is that you get branded with the company's tag (Up to 5 letters), have access to their chat channel, as well as access to their bank and other perks. As your members do various ingame activities from FATE grinding / quest completion / leveling up and a few other things, your FC gains FC exp that can be used to level up and later on at Rank 5, purchase various buffs that last 24 hours. It's basically XI's version of Linkshells melded with WoW's guilds, and costs 15k Gil with a need to get 3 other members to sign a petition that you can get done by /sea and searching them, then right clicking their name to get the option, or just doing it in a Linkshell if you already have a freebie done up. They're very generous with these in XIV, as it seems to be acceptable for low number groups as well as usual giant mega groups.

Anyroads, Rank Bonuses are as follows.

Rank 1 - Grants the company a single chest in the bank, for 50 inventory spots, if I remember right. Banks can be accessed in any city, usually at the local GC.

Rank 2 - Ability to create a Company Crest, which is shown on the FC info page or when you /check someone's company.

Rank 3 - Bank is expanded with two additional chests, granting you 150 slots in total, and you can configure separate access for each one, making a crafter chest / newbie armor chest and the like as you wish.

Rank 4 - Grants your FC members the ability to put the FC Crest on various gear, even AF. They have to go to the main GC your group is endorsed by to do it, by talking to one of the OIC members that's usually standing off to the side.

Rank 5 - Ability to purchase and issue FC actions, like +5% combat exp / gathering exp / -20% teleportation fees and other goodies.

Currently, just having about 7-9 active players is enough to gain double the points to buy the daily buff, which you can only have one at a time applied. I'm sure SE is going to later on put in a big purchase like Guild Hall Permit or Airship Permit at later ranks with future patches, due to how insanely large some of these FC actually are. Here on Ultros, we got groups shouting they're 150-170+ members and still recruiting, since there's a cap of 514 members per FC.