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Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV has come a long way since the dreaded 1.0 days. We’re now in the final days of the Endwalker expansion, and with that comes the end to a multi-year storyline. Keeping that in mind, there’s simply so much to see and do within the confines of one of the most popular MMOs in the world. Despite being a modern game, it does a great deal to differentiate itself from its contemporaries.
It can certainly seem daunting to dive into an MMO like Final Fantasy XIV, with its overwhelming glut of content for all types of players. Whether you want to play card games, PvP, craft, or simply explore the world, the game definitely has something for you. The best part is that you can do it all with one character! The only reason to have alts is potentially to obtain more bank space or to start over with friends. Here’s what you need to know about starting FFXIV.
How to start playing Final Fantasy XIV
In Final Fantasy XIV, it all begins with picking a server and creating your character. While you can play on any server you want, they're essentially divided up into regions, so you’ll probably want to play where your ping will be the best. Servers are divided into Data Centers, which are basically clusters of servers.
North American Data Centers
- Aether
- Crystal
- Dynamis
- Primal
European Data Centers
- Chaos
- Light
Japanese Data Centers
- Elemental
- Gaia
- Mana
- Meteor
Oceania Data Center
- Materia
Furthermore, you can also pick your race/gender, customize them how you see fit, and pick a starting class. Final Fantasy XIV has a wide assortment of customization options and sliders for your characters as well.
Race and gender don't matter here, as any stat points that you might receive for a race are inconsequential. You can pick whichever you think appeals to you esthetically. Interestingly, several pieces of gear that were gender-locked are no longer so, significantly increasing the number of cosmetic options that a player has.
You must also pick your starting class in character creation, which is fairly important. Each class has a starting location in the world, so you must keep that in mind. You'll be able to travel between the starting main capitals by working through the storyline, so you’ll eventually be able to group up with friends in other areas.
Gridania
- Archer (Bard)
- Lancer (Dragoon)
- Conjurer (White Mage)
- Leatherworker
- Carpenter
- Botanist
Ul’dah
- Thaumaturge (Black Mage)
- Pugilist (Monk)
- Gladiator (Paladin)
- Goldsmith
- Alchemist
- Miner
- Weaver
Limsa Lominsa
- Arcanist (Summoner/Scholar)
- Marauder (Warrior)
- Armorer
- Blacksmith
- Culinarian
- Fisher
Interestingly, there’s another “base” class available in the game as well - Thief. It resides in Limsa Lominsa, and to unlock this, you must be at least level 10 in another class and then speak to Lonwoerd in the Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks (x8, y16) to obtain this quest.
In the past, each advanced job had two class requirements, but those days have come and gone in Final Fantasy XIV. If you decide that you don’t like your job, you can simply go pick up another. Players can unlock and use all the crafting and combat classes in the game with a single character.
Starting a character in Final Fantasy XIV
Strangely enough, the tutorial for Final Fantasy XIV is incredibly short. You’ll learn a bit about the town that you’re starting in, and then the game starts off. However, the first several hours of gameplay will essentially serve as a tutorial. Your quests will introduce you to important facets of the game, like the Aetheryte Plaza, teleporting around capital cities, and things of that nature.
You should always attune to every Aetheryte Plaza that you come across in Final Fantasy XIV, because that’s how you teleport from one city to another later on in the game. Furthermore, you’ll also want to attune to all of the lesser aethernet shards in a capital city. These cities are huge, and if you attune to all the lesser ones, you will have complete access to that city as well as its exits.
In the video above, you may notice that that the HUD layout looks different from your starting layout. While that’s the default layout that I use, you can simply head into the HUD Layout (Escape button) to configure yours however you’d like it to be. Furthermore, I highly recommend these settings in the “Character Configuration” menu, specifically, the item tab.
- Inventory Interface: Open All
- Retainer Inventory Interface: Expanded
- Store All Newly Obtained Items in the Armor Chest
- Store All Newly Crafted Items in your Inventory
This helps you to see as much of your inventory at once in Final Fantasy XIV. Furthermore, it prevents you from accidentally losing crafted gear that you plan on selling. The first several hours of the game will introduce you to combat, exploring the world, and getting set for your epic adventure.
You’ll notice a few quest symbols as well. The symbols with a fiery aura around them are your Main Story Quests. These are the ones that you must complete to push the story forward. Next up, there are regular quests with exclamation marks, which are nothing too fancy. These generally reward you with EXP and items, and are a great way to pass the time or earn additional EXP.
You’ll then notice the occasional quest icon that is blue. These always unlock some kind of feature or system within the game, and you must not skip these. If you do, you’ll miss out on several facets of the game.
If you’re ever unsure of what you’re doing, one part of your UI lists “Current Main Scenario Quest.” Clicking on this will open up what part of the map you should be in. If your current job or class has a class quest to undertake, it will be clearly displayed here.
Once you’re level 10, you can start unlocking more classes as well. This is because you require the Gear Set system. Every time you unlock a class, you can add another set of saved gear in your character sheet (C Key). It will also show you the recommended gear for your current class (and equip it if you’d like), and much more.
You’ll find these classes in their starting locations, and you’re free to play in whatever job class you want. Once you hit level 30 and you're up-to-date on your class quests, you’ll be able to upgrade to an Advanced Job, as listed above.
Once again, you certainly don’t have to do this, but it’s highly recommended if you want to be as strong as possible. It should be noted that not all Advanced Jobs are connected to current classes though. Each expansion added at least one new job, which all have their own requirements to unlock.
You’ll also likely see characters in the world with the name “Levemete” as their title. Each day, players gain three more leve allowances. These are essentially daily quests, and you can do them as crafters, gatherers, or combat classes, to gain extra EXP. Beast Tribe Dailies also focus on these, but they are always for specific types of characters. For example, some Beast Tribes are only for gatherers.
Gathering/Crafting
Speaking of classes, you also have Gathering and Crafting (Disciple of the Land/Disciple of the Hand) classes in Final Fantasy XIV. Unlike other MMOs, you can play every single one of these. Nothing is stopping you! You don’t share gathering nodes with other players, so there’s no stress about it.
These classes also have specific gear they use, quests to take on, and leves to undertake for extra EXP/rewards. While your gatherer/crafting classes can out-level your combat classes, it’s not especially recommended. You’ll often have to go into zones where the enemies are quite dangerous and these classes have zero combat abilities.
Crafting can often feel quite complicated, but gathering is a relatively simple process. Thankfully, it’s easy to see all the recipes that you have access to, and many of the early game materials can be bought for pennies on the dollar.
Crafting and Gathering could very much be its own article, but I wanted to point out that you can do all of them with one character because it’s such an important aspect of the game.
FATES/Dungeons/Trials/Alliances in Final Fantasy XIV
While the vast majority of Final Fantasy XIV can be played solo, there is group content in the game that you’re able to participate in. Some of the group content is required though. Specific dungeons and trials, for example, are a part of the main story.
FATES are almost always optional, though, and can be seen on nearly every overworld map. These are group quests with specific objectives that you can see upon arrival. If you’re too high of a level, you can level down, and if you’re too low, your contributions won’t be as important. You'll want to participate as much as possible, so you receive the most rewards (EXP and items).
Final Fantasy XIV’s dungeons are generally four-person affairs, comprising one tank, one healer, and two DPS. While most of these unlock as you play the MSQ, there are also optional dungeons and more challenging versions of these available throughout the game.
Normal Trials are four-person, while the harder ones are eight-player affairs and tend to have better rewards such as rare mounts. These Trials in Final Fantasy XIV are one boss, typically a powerful Eidolon/summon from Final Fantasy’s past.
Raids, unlike World of Warcraft, are tiered, with each one featuring a single boss and maybe a few monster packs along the way. This is fairly rare, however. Final Fantasy XIV doesn’t waste players’ time in a raid by making them grind through tons of fights before the boss.
Furthermore, Final Fantasy XIV’s raids are eight-player tasks. The biggest activity that you can do are Alliance Raids, which comprise 24 players (three groups of eight each), and are among the biggest challenges in the game. Truthfully, the hardest content has to be the occasional “Unreal” difficulty trial, and there’s only one of those available at a time.
However, not everyone is going to feel comfortable grouping with other players. The community might be friendly, but that's not always enough. Players will be able to unlock the Duty Support System as well, where you can have NPCs join you in select dungeons. It has been greatly expanded upon ever since the original version was released. This can be unlocked after getting to Sastasha in FFXIV.
Exploring the world
For most of Final Fantasy XIV, you’re going to be on foot or teleporting places (which costs Gil). At around level 20 of the MSQ, you’ll be able to access a side quest to unlock your Chocobo as a mount when you’re asked to join one of the world’s factions. Since it doesn’t matter which one you pick, simply pick the esthetic that you desire or the faction with the coolest name. You can then work towards getting your mount.
There are tons of mounts in the game you can get for free and some that you can spend real money on in the Mog Shop. Many of the harder bosses drop mounts, and all Beast Tribes reward you with a mount, if you earn reputation with them.
Heavensward introduced flying mounts and the concept of flying. Before you can fly in the current world, you’ll need to unlock flight in the Heavensward content by getting all the Aether Currents in each zone. Fortunately, this is easy enough to do, as simply exploring and completing blue quests will easily net you all of them.
Thanks to patch 5.3, players can fly in the old world, once they’ve completed the “The Ultimate Weapon” Main Scenario Quest. It makes traveling across the world so much easier, and many of the special mounts have fun music to listen to.
Simply so much to do
Final Fantasy XIV is just chock-full of stuff to do. You can go gamble and play card games at the Gold Saucer or you can PvP for a more interesting experience. The PvP mode is fairly active, but it isn't a major part of the game. You can collect transmogs to create cool outfits, or participate in frequent holiday events and collaboration events.
Thankfully, holiday events in Final Fantasy XIV only take a few minutes of your time instead of grinding through them every single day for weeks, only to be frustrated if you didn’t complete it. You have optional dungeons to grind EXP in, such as the Deep Dungeon and Relic Weapons to grind.
Each expansion has a Relic Weapon quest chain to complete, and while many of these are out of date, they still boast unique appearances and are great in transmog outfits. That’s one of the best things about Final Fantasy XIV, there is simply so much in the game, and you’ll never be short of content to complete.
In conclusion
Final Fantasy XIV is an amazing MMO, and is arguably one of the best in the world. Since you only need one character, you can play a wealth of the RPG's content without worrying about alts. You can swap classes whenever you see fit - as long as you’re not in the middle of a dungeon or something similar.
It’s a gorgeous game with a friendly community, and if the game doesn’t answer your question with the tutorial quests, the players themselves are generally quite happy to aid a newcomer and get them started, answer their questions, or occasionally group with them. There’s never been a better time to dive into the world of Eorzea.
