Final Fantasy XIV adds the Mountain Zu, a Mountain Dew-themed bird mount

Starting today, Final Fantasy XIV players in the US can unlock the Mountain Zu by drinking Mountain Dew. It’s exactly as it sounds, the Mountain Zu is just a soda-flavored bird mount, available now until July 14 by redeeming codes from the drinks.

In what is possibly the most gamer — meant in the best-worst way possible — collaboration since Halo and its array of Dew flavors, Final Fantasy XIV is getting its own bizarre partnership. According to the MMO’s most recent Letter from the Producer Live stream, you can unlock the Mountain Zu by redeeming codes found under Mountain Dew caps. Codes earn points, points earn the bird.

There’s other stuff in the FFXIV Mountain Dew-themed marketplace, too. Some of it is more in-game goodies, like pots of Metallic Green Dye or the new Sparkling Citrus Refreshment, but there’s tangible stuff included for thousands of points. Most of it seems to be recycled from older Taito merch, but there is an “I Drank Dew” gaming challenge t-shirt. It’s a reference to the Primal challenge shirts usually available at in-person events.

According to Yoshida, this was an idea from the North American Square Enix team. During the broadcast, the director jokingly explained his reaction, “When I saw the proposal from the team in America, and I saw the name Mountain Zu, I was thinking, ‘Wow, this sounds like a dad joke.’ You would hear that in Japan too.”

I can’t decide if I’m horrified or amazed, but at least the Mountain Zu isn’t painfully branded by the soda, so I’ll take it. If you’re familiar with the regular Zu mount in-game, then this thing looks just like it but colored green. It sort of looks like the same glow the Sephirot bird, the Warring Lanner, sports.

Final Fantasy XIV is no stranger to collaborations. Some of those have rewarded some pretty cool in-game goodies, while others, like the great GrubHub Eat Pizza Emote fiasco of 2021, did not go so well. The FFXIV x GrubHub mess famously did not send code to tons of players trying to participate, and auctions for those Eat Pizza codes later wound up on Ebay. If that happens with the Mountain Dew collaboration, don’t buy it, since the Pizza Emote is now on the FFXIV Online Store for $7.

How to get the FFXIV Mountain Zu mount

If you want to do the Dew, you’ll need to actually purchase a bottle of the soda to get the mount. The partnership begins May 16, at 9 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT.

• Purchase MTN Dew products, US-based customers only
• Look for the code on the inside of the cap
• Visit the MTN Dew Gaming site to register an account and redeem your codes
• Redeem 600 points for the Mountain Zu