This past month, after years of putting it off, I dove headlong into Final Fantasy XIV. I’ve found the story to be on par with many of the past games in the series–and the gameplay isn’t half bad either. However, it wasn’t all easy sailing. Here are the things I wish I knew when I started playing the game in the wake of its Shadowbringers expansion.

Starting the Game

*Final Fantasy XIV is currently on its third expansion. However, the “trial version” of the game is free to download and try out on both the PC and PS4 (though it’s a little harder to find in the PlayStation store). In the trial version you have access to the full base game, A Realm Reborn, though with one big caveat…

*You can only level up a character to level 30 in the trial version–which is about halfway through the plot of A Realm Reborn. However, as you can class change at nearly any time after you hit level 10–and each class tracks its levels separately–you can level up every class in the base game to level 30 if you want before paying anything. Between fighting, crafting and gathering, that’s 20 classes in total.

Character Creation

*In the trial version, you can only make a Human (Hyur), Elf (Elezen), Cat-eared Person (Miqo’te), Dwarf (Lalafell) and Orc (Roegadyn). The other three races–Half-Dragon (Au Ra), Kilrathi (Hrothgar), and Bunny Girl (Viera)–require you to buy the base game and the expansions.

*You don’t get to remake your character’s appearance when you upgrade to the full game. Smaller changes, like hairstyles and tattoos can be done in game with the Aesthetician. But if you want to change your race and become a bunny girl, for example, you need to either restart with a new character or use a special item. While normally only available in the game’s real money store, you will get one of these for free upon completing the main story of A Realm Reborn.

*Bunny girls can’t wear hats. While they can be equipped, generally any headgear that would cover a Viera’s bunny ears is simply not displayed on the character model.

*Don’t worry too much about your starting class. Unlike many other MMORPGs where you need to start a new character to try a different class, in FFXIV, you only need one character to literally master every class. All you have to do is finish the level 10 class quest of your starting job (which will take you an hour or two at most) and then you’ll be able to seek out the trainers for other classes. All you have to do after that to switch classes is equip a different type of weapon.

Starting Out and Leveling Up

*Do only the main story quests (which look like an exclamation mark inside a fireball) and class quests (the quests you get directly from your job trainer). There are many other quests (those with an exclamation mark next to a plus symbol and just those with an exclamation mark), however, until you reach level 50, they’re almost always a complete waste of your time.

*Do your Hunting Log. By doing your first class quest, you’ll unlock the hunting log. It’ll give you ten new little missions to kill various monsters every 10 levels. You’ll know the monsters because they’ll have a squiggly symbol above their names when you see them wandering the field. Usually, you’ll need to kill around three of each target and then you’ll get a ton of experience points as a reward. (Remember, each combat class has a different Hunting Log so you can do it again and again for each class you try out.)

*At Level 10, start doing Guildhests. Guildhests are quick little 1 to 5 minute dungeons or boss battles that give both a good chunk of exp on their first completion and teach you the basics of playing with other players. To unlock Guildhests, you’ll need to do the sidequest Simply the Hest (Limsa Lominsa), Simply the Hest (Ul’dah) or Simply the Hest (Gridania) (depending on which of the cities you started in). From there you unlock 2 new ones every five levels up to level 40.

*At Level 15, do training at The Smith. At the inn in each major city, you’ll find a man called “The Smith.” He is a trainer of sorts who will teach you to be a damage dealer, healer, or tank through a series of short missions. Your reward for this? A good set of armor!

*At Level 15, unlock the Challenge Log. This is basically another version of the hunting log but it resets each week a gives rewards besides just normal exp. Unlock it by doing Rising to the Challenge.

*Use your Chocobo in battle. In the main story at level 20, you will be forced to join a grand company (it doesn’t matter which you join, you’ll be able to change at will later) and will get a chocobo as your first mount. What’s even better about this chocobo is that, after completing a level 30 quest, it can fight alongside you in battle. Buy and use Gysahl Greens (which can be obtained on the cheap at most major cities in the game) to summon it for 30 minutes a pop.

*Log off in an inn. Each major city has an inn. If you log off there by sleeping in the bed, you’ll get bonus exp when you start playing again.

*Eat food constantly–doesn’t matter what level it is, you get a 3% boost in exp earned for the next 30 minutes. And if you eat the same type of food item twice, the time limit increases to an hour.

*Do your dailies. At level 10, you’ll unlock the guildhest daily roulette (which is a random guildhest picked from those you’ve unlocked). At 16, you’ll get the leveling roulette (which is a random dungeon picked from those you’ve unlocked). As you level up, you’ll unlock more and more of these roulettes. Once a day these give you extra exp and often other bonus like cash or grand company points.

*For your first 90 days you’ll have the “Road to 70” buff which greatly increases the speed at which you level up–until you hit level 70 anyway.

*You’re going to be overleveled–even if you skip out on the majority of non-main story quests. However, for certain quests and in dungeons, the game will temporarily lower your level so there is at least some challenge (though it will still reward you the correct exp proportionally for your actual level).

Poetics

*As you do dungeons and trials, you’re going to start collecting Allagan Tomestones of Poetics by the handful. These are used to buy some of the most powerful (and cool-looking gear) in the game. There’s the level 50 Ironworks set, the level 60 Shire set, and the level 70 Scaevan set. You can also buy strong materia and rare crafting materials with poetics.

*Don’t be afraid to spend your poetics. You can only save up 2000 Poetics at a time. Just by playing the plot and doing dailies, you’ll hit the cap in no time–especially as the level 50 story roulette offers 300 a pop. You can begin spending them simply by walking to Revenant’s Toll and talking to Auriana. You’ll easily have enough to buy a full set of Ironworks for your character–and even upgrade the armor and weapon. Hell, you’ll probably be able to buy a second set or a ton of powerful materia before you’re even able to buy the Shire set because…

*You won’t be able to buy the Shire set right away at level 60–you have to complete the story mission A Great New Nation near the end of the Heavensword expansion to gain access to Idyllshire where they are sold. So don’t think about skipping the Ironworks set because you’re afraid you won’t have enough poetics for the Shire set. You’ll easily get another 2000 poetics just by doing the story. The Scaevan set is likewise locked at first as you’ll need to completely finish Stormblood’s story before you can buy it.

Grand Companies and Housing

*You’ll eventually be able to change your faction so don’t worry about which one you choose. I personally chose the Maelstrom because 1) I like red and 2) I think the pirate-inspired gear looks cool.

*Rank up your Grand Company Rank as early and as often as you can. While you may be tempted to buy gear with the Grand Company Seals you get from doing your roulettes, it’s better to spend them leveling up your rank in the grand company of your choice because…

*Reaching second lieutenant lets you buy an apartment. Houses in FFXIV are problematic at best. Plots of land are rare, expensive, and your home will be deleted if you’re inactive for 3 months. Apartments, however, are only 500,000 gil and are yours forever.

*Reaching second lieutenant also lets you make your own squad of NPCs. By doing weekly challenges, you can recruit your own squad, train them up, and even take them to dungeons with you. It’s pretty cool.

Missable Content

*You can rewatch any cutscene you skipped at an inn. Just select the book next to your bed.

*There are dungeons and bosses you do not encounter in the main story. Some of these are entirely new. Others are remixed hard versions of dungeons from the main plot with new enemies, bosses, loot and more. On some, the visual redesign makes them borderline unrecognizable–and that’s not a complaint.

*There’s a lot of little things you might miss unlocking. Here’s a good outline for the first 50 levels.

*Don’t skip the Hildibrand sidequest chain. No seriously. It’s almost worth playing the entire game for this quest chain–and that’s not just because one section stars everyone’s favorite purple octopus.

Dead content

*There is a fair amount of dead content in the game and some of it is rather cool and important to the story. This includes old raids and other difficult content that was once endgame content and now provides nothing in terms of meaningful rewards. Even if you queue up in the duty finder, it’s unlikely you’ll ever find a party. However…

*There is still a roundabout way to do most dead content. There is a special item called Wondrous Tails (available at the same time and area as the Shire gear) that gives you a bingo sheet each week with great rewards–even if you’re max level. To mark a square on the sheet you need to complete a task–often one of the dead content dungeons. However, since no one wants to run it as intended, you’ll need to use the party finder (instead of the duty finder), make a party, and unsync your level (so that instead of capping you at level 50, for example, you can go in at your true level and curb stop the whole raid). Also be sure to note in your party request when it’s your first time–all members that join you will get a bonus so people will flock to help you.

Misinformation

*There’s a lot of out-of-date information out there. FFXIV has been constantly evolving ever since its release. Because of this, it can be hard to find helpful info for beginners–especially with the ton of outdated information that was once true but now will do nothing but confuse you. This is true for both wikis and YouTube videos.

*Your best bet for accurate information is the official website and YouTube videos made after July 2, 2019–the date of the newest expansion’s release–when it comes to your class, its abilities, and major gameplay systems. Of course, once the next expansion comes out, even those YouTube videos will likely be obsolete as well.

*But that doesn’t mean you should ignore what the wikis say. Wikis are still a great source for info on quests, dungeons, and item locations–as these things rarely change as the game updates. I personally have used the following sites with great results.

• https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/FF14_Wiki
• https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/

Just take everything they say with a grain of salt to be safe–especially when it comes to the many types of poetics and other collectible sub-currencies that have been phased out.

Final Fantasy XIV is a great game and a solid entry into the Final Fantasy series. Even if its intimidating to start–even if MMOｓ aren’t your thing–it’s still totally worth playing for the plot alone. Honestly, buying the main game and all subsequent expansions is the best $60 value I’ve gotten in a long time. Hopefully, the hard-learned information above will make your first chunk of hours with the game nothing but fun.