With Final Fantasy XIV’s new expansion, Endwalker, coming out in just a few weeks, you may be wanting to tackle the dozens of new hours of story with one of the two new classes: Reaper or Sage. Unfortunately, the main story quests for Endwalker require your job to be level 80 while Sage/Reaper are only level 70 when unlocked. This means you’ve got to spend your first few hours of the new expansion grinding 10 levels if you have your heart set on playing Reaper or Sage in the main story. Here’s how to do this as quickly as possible—along with what you can do ahead of time to make things even faster.
Pre-Endwalker Preparation
November 23, 3:00 AM (EST) – November 30, 2:59 AM (EST)
Wondrous Tails
Wondrous Tails is a weekly side quest that encourages players to tackle underplayed content through a bingo-style mini-game. After unlocking it via the quest “Keeping Up with the Aliapohs” from the Unctuous Adventurer (X:7.0, Y:5.9) in Idyllshire, you talk with Khloe Aliapoh (X:5.7, Y:6.1) in Idyllshire each week to get a book with 16 possible duties to perform. After completing nine of these (and seeing if you made a bingo or not), you turn the book in to Khloe and get your prize—along with half a level of exp.
Better still for our purposes, you have an extra week to turn in your completed book. This means if you complete your book from the week before Endwalker’s release and don’t turn it in until after Endwalker comes out, you get a free half-level just seconds after unlocking Reaper or Sage. (Then, if you want, you can get a new book and do 9 more duties for another half level right after!)
November 30, 3:00 AM (EST) – December 2, 4:00 AM (EST)
Weekly Challenge Log
The weekly challenge log gives large chunks of bonus exp for completing various tasks each week. Therefore, before the servers go down before the launch of Endwalker, you want to get as close as possible to completing these challenges so that you can get this bonus exp ASAP upon launch. There are three challenges you will want to prep.
- Feeling Lucky – Complete 3 dungeons via the Duty Roulette.
Do your duty roulette two times and two times only between November 30, 3:00 AM (EST) and December 2, 4:00 AM (EST). (This will overlap with Dungeon Master so be careful!)
- Dungeon Master – Complete 5 dungeons.
Do four dungeons and only four dungeons between November 30, 3:00 AM (EST) and December 2, 4:00 AM (EST). (This will overlap with Feeling Lucky so be careful!)
- In Your Fate I – Complete 5 FATEs with the highest rating possible.
Get gold rankings in 4 FATEs and only four FATEs between November 30, 3:00 AM (EST) and December 2, 4:00 AM (EST).
Anytime Before December 2, 4:00 AM (EST)
Get Your Menphina Earring
The Menphina Earring is a free item you get from Pre-Ordering Endwalker. Equipping it gives you an additional 30% exp from all enemies you kill while as a combat class under level 80—so make sure you have it! (If you have pre-ordered but don’t have your Menphina Earring, follow the steps at this page to redeem yours.)
Get Your Bozjan Earring
The Bozjan Earring is gained through the achievement Lost and Found IV (Have 1,000 forgotten fragments appraised) from the Bozjan Southern Front/Zadnor areas. As you can purchase fragments from the Market Board or easily farm them yourself, this shouldn’t be too hard to get before Endwalker’s launch.
As for the item itself, it gives an additional 10% exp from all enemies you kill while as a combat class under level 80. However, while that makes it a possible replacement for those who don’t have the Menphina Earring, that’s not why we want it. The fastest way for a solo player to get from level 71 to level 80 involves being in the Bozjan Southern Front/Zadnor. Inside these areas, exp boosting abilities—be it food, the Menphina Earrings, free company actions, or Squadron Manuals—don’t work. But you know what does have an effect? The Haste +3 on the earrings which lowers the global cooldown and ups your DPS.
Resistance Honors
Unless you have a pre-made group to grind dungeons with, you’re going to be spending the vast majority of your time from 70-80 in either Bozjan or Zadnor. Once you’ve beaten the story in Zadnor, you’ll be able to exchange your Mettle for Proofs of Mettle (at a rate of 20 million Mettle per 3 Proofs). With Proofs of Mettle you can purchase three types of Resistance Honors which massively power up your character in Bozjan and Zadnor—regardless of whichever class you are currently playing as. What you’ll want to get first is called the Sun of Valor. It increases damage dealt by 5%—and you can get up to 10 of them rising your total damage by 50%. Of course, it takes a staggering total of 200,000,000 Mettle to get 10 Sun of Valor—which is a massive time sink but if you have some extra time before Endwalker, this will absolutely make your Sage and/or Reaper grind that much faster.
Get Your Augmented Scaevan Armor
The Augmented Scaevan Armor set will easily carry your Reaper or Sage to the mid-70s before you need to think about switching it out for better gear. The Reaper uses the Augmented Scaevan Armor of Maiming set while the Sage uses the Augmented Scaevan Armor of Healing set. A full set (not including the weapon, earrings, or belt) can be purchased from Rowena’s Representative in Kugane (X:12.2, Y:10.8) for a total of 3,175 Allagan Tomestones of Poetics. You’ll also want to save an additional 600 Allagan Tomestones of Poetics for launch as the Reaper and Sage Augmented Scaevan weapons should go on sale at the same location.
The Heat of Battle III or Squadron Battle Manual
If you are in a free company, make sure they will be using The Heat of Battle III free company action (gained via the Grade 3 Wheel of Confrontation) upon the release of Endwalker so that you’ll have an additional 15% exp from all enemies you kill while as a combat class. If your free company isn’t planning on using it, you can instead stockpile some Squadron Battle Manuals. These give you an additional 15% exp from all enemies you kill while as a combat class for a period of two hours. (This overwrites any The Heat of Battle actions active so they won’t stack.) Squadron Battle Manuals are gained via the Squadron Missions “Imperial Recon” and “Infiltrate and Rescue.” For a full guide on raising your own squad of NPCs to get these and other useful items, click here.
Rested Experience
By logging off in a sanctuary (i.e., inside a city or next to any Aetheryte), you gain Rested Experience. While rested, you gain a 50% bonus to experience earned. You can have a maximum of one full level’s worth of Rested Experience. It takes seven days of logged off time to gain a full level of rested exp. Of course, as max level characters don’t use up your rested exp, it shouldn’t be hard to save up for Endwalker.
Food
Each piece of food, regardless of the quality or level, gives a 3% exp boost for 30 minutes. Make sure you have a stack of 100 or more so you can keep it going all the time.
Endwalker Launch
December 3, 4:00 AM (EST)
Getting from 70 to 71 (Solo or with a Group)
- Unlock Reaper or Sage.
- Equip your Augmented Scaevan Armor.
- Equip your Menphina Earring.
- Buy your Augmented Scaevan Weapon from Rowena’s Representative in Kugane (X:12.2, Y:10.8) and equip it.
- Turn in your completed Wondrous Tails to Khloe Aliapoh (X:5.7, Y:6.1) in Idyllshire
- Eat food.
- Make sure The Heat of Battle III is on or use a Squadron Battle Manual.
- Do one 50/60/70 Roulette (This should complete the “Feeling Lucky” and “Dungeon Master” weekly challenges and your Sage/Reaper should reach level 71).
- Do one FATE to complete your “In Your Fate I” weekly challenge.
- Do your three Pixie daily quests given by Uin Nee (X:12.4 Y:32.9) in Il Mheg.
Getting From 71-80 (Solo)
Basically, from this point on, you’re going to be in the Bozjan Southern Front or Zadnor (whichever you prefer). Just throw on your Bozjan Earring, speak to Sjeros (X:5.5 Y:5.4) at Gangos and enter either instance. Do every Skirmish and every Critical Engagement you can (except maybe Castrum Lacus Litore and The Dalriada as an unexperienced group could turn either into a massive waste of time) all the way to 80. Be sure to try and make a party with any other solo players you see running from skirmish to skirmish. In a party, you will almost certainly get a gold ranking and thus more Mettle.
*It’s important to remember, inside these areas, exp boosting abilities—be it food, the Menphina Earrings, free company actions, and Squadron Manuals—don’t work. So save your resources and grind on to victory. But on the plus side, you will never need to swap out your gear as you’re already synced up to level 80!
Getting From 71-80 (With a Group)
With a pre-made group and a set strategy, you can just run the highest level dungeon you can over and over until you unlock the next one. At some point in your mid-70s you will need to buy/craft a new set of gear for yourself (you may even need to do this again around level 77 or 78). This is the fastest way to level to 80 but finding a tank willing to join in might be harder than you think given that there’s no new tank class this expansion.
Getting From 71-80 (Holy shit, I am so bored of Bozjan/Zadnor/the same dungeon again and again. Please, can I do anything else?)
While not as fast, here are a few other things you could do to mix things up:
- A new week’s worth of Wondrous Tails – 50% of a level
- Do the rest of your first-day daily roulettes – various amounts of exp
- Complete five more FATEs (gold rank) for “In Your Fate II” – 15% of a level
- Complete five Guildhests for “You’re the Hest Around I” – 5% of a level
- Complete five more Gildhests for “You’re the Hest Around II” – 10% of a level
- Do your three Pixie daily quests given by Uin Nee (X:12.4 Y:32.9) in Il Mheg after they reset at 11:00 AM (EST) – 33% of a level.
- Do your daily roulettes again after they reset at 11:00 AM (EST) – various amounts of exp
So there you have it. While it is still a serious grind, doing preparation beforehand and following this road map should cut a few hours off—and get you into the main story as a Sage or Reaper all the more quickly.
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