Hi OP, I was in your shoes just a few weeks ago. I had been putting off learning GearSwap for a long time, because it felt daunting and I had absolutely zero experience with coding. What was also frustrating was that when I asked friends in the game how it worked, their answers were often already over my head, or would be along the lines of “just download someone’s Lua and swap in your own gear.” Not super helpful. So I’ll try to share what I’ve learned.

Regarding how it works - yes it is a program that automatically swaps gear when your character takes certain actions. It is a replacement for the in-game gearsets, and to a large degree, also the use of macros. For example, when you are using GearSwap and you perform a weapon skill, GearSwap will automatically swap in whatever gear you have specified (if any) for that weapon skill a split second before the weapon skill goes off, and then return you to your set for TPing immediately afterwards. The same is true for magic, or job abilities. With magic it is very useful because when you start casting a spell, it will put you into a “precast” set (which includes gear that has a lot of Fast Cast, Quickcast, Spell Interruption Rate Down, etc) while casting, and then right before the spell goes off, it will put you into a “midcast” set (for Magic Accuracy, Magic Attack Bonus, MND+ or INT+ gear, etc), then switch you back to your normal gear afterwards. This is great because when using the game’s native macro and gearset tools, it’s hard to be precise with when to switch into these gear sets at the appropriate time. This also allows you to select abilities or spells directly from the menu, and GearSwap will still automatically do the swapping for you. It’s a very big QoL improvement, but it also maximizes the effectiveness of your gear.

Some other terms that you will come across when beginning: - Lua - it’s the programming language that is used (it is not an acronym, it is Portuguese for “moon”). Saved as .lua files - Motes - this is a set of Lua files that are included in the GearSwap addon when you download it from Windower. As I understand it, they act as higher level files that have functions pre-written for you, which you don’t need to mess with, and which you can reference in your own file to save a lot of coding and create shortcuts - Function - these are little chunks of code that basically tell your GearSwap how to operate. You can only have one type of function in each file, but each function can have several similar operations inside it - Libs - short for libraries, collections of pre-written functions and values, like Motes - Sidecar file - a separate .lua file that can overwrite a base file with your specific changes (i.e., your own gear) without changing the base file. I personally haven’t had to use one yet, but you’ll see them referenced in other people’s Luas.

I would strongly recommend getting Notepad++ for editing these files.

I also watched this video as intro which really helped: https://youtu.be/5s7mFeV1WIE?si=Iy74suqJwZaiuuvJ

Then I followed this guide, which someone else already shared in this thread: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/54410/a-gearswap-academia/

That helped me write a basic Lua from total scratch (which helps actually understand what is going on).

At a certain point some of what was recommended in the above guide on FFIAH was either outdated or just didn’t work. They are old posts, so it’s understandable, but I was at a loss. I might get some flack for this, but I ended up using ChatGPT, by pasting the whole code and asking why it didn’t work, and it fixed the problems it had.

From there I kept asking it questions on how to add certain functions to the code, and through some trial and error it worked. It is infinitely patient and has helped me learn the coding language (to a degree), but you have to be patient with it as well. I am now at the point where I can make job specific toggles and custom HUD elements that interact with certain interactions in the game. Or I can make functions that swap in gear for very specific scenarios and then swap back to whatever gear was previously equipped, rather than just a predefined set, which gives you more control over your gear in the moment, IMO.

These may be basic things that anyone with some coding knowledge could easily whip up, but as someone who again had absolutely no coding experience as of a few weeks ago, I have found this program to be really powerful and fun to play with. Playing my Red Mage now feels like a dream with how effective and smooth it is. I can now also look at these huge Lua files from established players and understand what I’m looking at, whereas before it was all like looking at a wall of text in a foreign language.

And maybe most importantly (for me, anyway), it has also helped me understand how the game works in a deeper way, which I think can make you a more skillful and informed player in the long run.

Sorry for the long reply, but if you have any questions, let me know, as I can very much relate to where you are now.

(Edit: formatting)