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20

Info Dump

Free trialTo level 80

Combat jobs22

Data centreCrystal

New or coming back

The info
dump

Everything worth knowing before you start, roughly in the order it stops mattering. Read the first two sections; treat the rest as reference you come back to.

Start the free trialNo time limitThree expansions, level 80 cap

Read this part

The basics#

The handful that change what you actually do. Everything further down is detail you can come back for.

The free trial is enormous

Available up to level 80 with unlimited play time, and it includes the first three expansions, through Shadowbringers — with the normal restrictions. It is not a demo.

Tell me before you buy

Buy the Complete Edition when you are done with the trial — but let me know before you activate your paid copy so I can give you my Recruit-a-Friend code and we both get rewards. :)

Trinity, but slower

FF14 is an RPGMMO where WoW is an MMORPG. Tank, healer, DPS. The early game feels slow because jobs have limited abilities, but they get very robust later — the starter jobs graduate into their full form at level 30.

One character, every job

You only need one character. You switch jobs by changing your weapon, so you can fully experience everything in the game with your main.

The story is the largest part

If you have ever played a FF game, expect that but in MMO form. The journey is meant to be enjoyed, not rushed. The MSQ takes you through the entire story of each expansion, in order. Side quests are totally optional and most people don't even do them.

Everything is behind a quest

Every feature in the game is locked behind a quest, either Main Story or a blue quest icon. If a system seems missing, you have not been sent to it yet.

Old content stays current

Every bit of content in the game can scale you to it, so it always stays relevant. Duties are the instanced areas — dungeons and everything like them.

Trouble making a character?

Click on Diabolos on xivstatus.com and get notified when the congestion ends.

Pick one, you can change later

The jobs#

Nine are available at character creation as a starter class that graduates at level 30. The rest unlock later, at the levels below — the last three in the table are not out yet, and carry the patch or expansion they arrive with instead.

JobRoleStarts asUnlocks at
PaladinTankGladiator, level 1At creation
WarriorTankMarauder, level 1At creation
Dark KnightTankLevel 30Level 50
GunbreakerTankLevel 60Level 60
BastionTankLevel 90Evercold, January 2027
White MageHealerConjurer, level 1At creation
ScholarHealerArcanist, level 1At creation
AstrologianHealerLevel 30Level 50
SageHealerLevel 70Level 70
MonkMelee DPSPugilist, level 1At creation
DragoonMelee DPSLancer, level 1At creation
NinjaMelee DPSRogue, level 1At creation
SamuraiMelee DPSLevel 50Level 50
ReaperMelee DPSLevel 70Level 70
ViperMelee DPSLevel 80Level 80
BardRanged DPSArcher, level 1At creation
MachinistRanged DPSLevel 30Level 50
DancerRanged DPSLevel 60Level 60
Not yet revealedRanged DPSAnnounced, unnamedEvercold, January 2027
Black MageCaster DPSThaumaturge, level 1At creation
SummonerCaster DPSArcanist, level 1At creation
Red MageCaster DPSLevel 50Level 50
PictomancerCaster DPSLevel 80Level 80
Blue MageLimitedLevel 1, caps at 80Level 50
BeastmasterLimitedLevel 1, caps at 50Patch 7.56, September 8th

Blue Mage is a limited job — a mini-game type job you don't take to endgame content. It has a boss fight carnival you progress through, and you have to learn spells from mobs to beat it. Think if WoW took the Brawler's Guild and went nuts with it. Beastmaster is the second limited job, arriving in patch 7.56 on September 8th: melee, capped at level 50, and it fights by capturing and summoning beasts. Unlocking it wants Dawntrail on the account and any combat job at level 50 with The Ultimate Weapon done. Limited jobs can't queue through Duty Finder, so anything instanced is a pre-made party or solo.

Bastion is the first of two new jobs in Evercold, the expansion landing January 2027 — a main tank carrying a pair of greatshields called skyltborgs, starting at level 90. The second is a physical ranged DPS that has been announced but not named or shown; the reveal is at Fan Festival in Tokyo, October 31st to November 1st. Nothing about it is known yet, whatever the falconer theories say.

Go to FFXIV Patch Notes

The rest of it

How the world works#

Everything else from the original dump, kept as-is. None of it is urgent; all of it comes up eventually.

  • The game has glamour (transmog) and dyes.
  • Free company's are the guilds of the game.
  • The mobile companion app lets you use the Market Board (AH) on the go.
  • Housing is a very big feature of the game, even guilds can have their own shared one.
  • FF14 does not support addons. There are very few secondary programs but the game does not have native support for them. The native UI customization is very well done.
  • The game is cross platform with the PS4/PS5/PC/Mac/Xbox.
  • You can play the entire game with a controller. It works pretty well.
  • The music is some of the best in any game, period. Boss fight phases have special music transitions.
  • The spell effects in parties can be toned down in the settings so you only see your own.
  • The ground enemy abilities can be moved into right after the initial graphic goes away, the animation after is not the part that does the damage.
  • The FF14 community is known as the very most welcoming in any MMO.
  • Characters can get married with a full fledged wedding.
  • PVP is not a focus in this game. Most ignore it but there are PVP seasons.
  • Materia (gems) are not important until max level. You can still play with them.
  • Every major town has a giant aetheryte crystal that you can attune to, you then can teleport to it from anywhere in the world for a fee.
  • Each major city have smaller aetheryte crystals that you can transport between only if you are inside the city.
  • The Golden Saucer is unlocked at around lvl 15 and is basically the chuck-e-cheese of FF14. This is a great hangout spot for mini games and more.
  • Those on the same data center (we play on Crystal/Diabolos) can play together via the cross realm like system. Playing across data centers is also possible.
  • Flying is available in old areas at lvl 50 and in expansions you collect aether currents in each zone to unlock flying in that zone. (no crazy meta achievements) All mounts fly.
  • Professions each have their own job with abilities, gear and even an end game.
  • When the development team remade the game with 2.0, they were required to play other MMO's like WoW, so coming to the game will feel very familiar but also foreign.
  • The game has a very robust RP community if you are into it.
  • The calamity that the story talks about is technically the terrible 1.0 game that Square Enix scrapped and rebuilt to create 2.0 (A Realm Reborn) within 2 years.
  • August 2020 FF14 removed a lot of quests to remove some of the grind.
  • My Character

The tabs that stay open

Named by what they replace, because that is how anyone coming from WoW looks for them.

Worth watching first

The videos#

The introduction set. Spoiler-heavy machinima lives on the Machinima page instead.

Watch this if you have not seen it. This is the calamity.

Beginner's Guide, very base stuff.

Optional 3 part documentary on how bad 1.0 was before realm reborn. Gives context into current dev team.

Needing help picking a job?

This is the video that made me start playing again in 2020.

Another one to try to sell you.

Curious in how raiding compares to other MMO's?

How the content is structured#

BIS (best in slot) is achievable. All dungeons/trials/raids sync you to the correct itemlvl/level so that you can keep running the content after. You can also choose to unsync the run or even set it to minimum itemlvl for a real challenge. Ultimates always scale, no unsync available.

  • Dungeons - 4 Mans that have a Normal/Hard level. No Mythic+, typically 3 bosses and trash.
  • Trials - Single boss, no trash, story progression linked
  • Normal - 8 Mans, most are required for main story.
  • Hard/Extreme - 8 Mans, FF14 changed the name in future expansions to extreme, have lore/story linked
  • Unreal - 8 Mans, old trials upscaled to current levels.
  • Raids - Alliances have trash where as normal/savage do not.
  • Alliance - 24 Mans, compared to a large scale dungeon and equivalent to LFR/normal in WoW
  • Normal - 8 Mans, equivalent to normal/hard level to WoW
  • Savage - 8 Mans, equivalent to hard/mythic level of WoW
  • Ultimate - 8 Mans, equivalent to nothing else in MMO's, for transmog/glamour items only, hardest content in game

Group content (dungeons/raids/trials) has a limit break meter shared among those grouped. If anyone uses it, the bars are spent.

The limit gauge gradually builds over time during combat. Light parties have access to one limit gauge, meaning they are only able to use Level 1 limit breaks when it is filled. A full party has two limit gauges. Reaching the last boss of a duty adds an extra limit gauge, making a total of two gauges for light parties and three gauges for full parties. During duties which have a single boss and nothing else the extra gauge is unlocked by default. Level 3 limit breaks can only be performed with a job crystal equipped, and each job has a visually unique level 3 limit break.

What the UI is telling you

The screens#

Annotated shots of the bits of the interface that are not obvious coming from another game.

It is recommended to focus on the Main/Feature/Novice quests. The Side/Leve/Guild/Lore are all optional and most use for second jobs.

Fates are like world quests from WoW. Just go to the area or icon and start doing it. You can level sync for more rewards.

This is the main story quest. It will always show you what is next. You can click it if you ever get lost on what is next. It also has the quest marker with the flame around the icon. The quest below it is your job quest, do these when they are available.

Showing the male races and their size options.

Showing the female races and their size options.

Third party, and technically against the TOS

The tools#

Custom launchers and third-party addons are against the TOS but everyone uses them, and as long as you do not mention them in game nobody cares. Even the development team has said as much.

XIVLauncher#

The original FFXIV launcher is slow, tedious, kinda ugly and cannot save your password. This project aims to fix that and add some QoL features to the game that were not there before, such as:

  • Auto-login
  • Fast patching
  • Discord Rich Presence
  • Fast in-game market board price checks
  • Chat filtering
  • Chat bridge to Discord
  • Discord notifications for duties, retainer sales, etc.

Download XIVLauncher

Advanced Combat Tracker#

Advanced Combat Tracker is the damage meter.

  • You can follow this until right when he changes the language to English. After that is done you do not need to follow the guide any further unless you want his minimalistic template but I do not use it.
  • I personally leave the meter up on another monitor and do not use any additional plugins for it except for the Meters. I make sure that combine pet with owners is enabled. From there it is up to you.
  • You can also unlock a DPS Dummy to test yourself without this.
  • Tip: If you use the XIVLauncher you can edit the settings to launch ACT by default. Just edit the launcher settings, go to auto launch and find the ACT exe. Make sure it's set to run as admin.

Every feature, and where to read more

Everything else in the game#

A dump of every feature in the game with a link to find out more. This might miss something but should give you the idea.

Jobs and professions#

Solo and NPC content#

Deep dungeons take you from level 1 to 60 and ask you to complete 100 floors without dying, for one to four players. The unlock quests are Into a Copper Hell, Tide Goes in, Imperials Go Out and Endwalker.

The Gold Saucer#

The Golden Saucer is a place full of mini games and events, basically the game's Chuck-E-Cheese, with a special currency. Click the link to learn more about each item below.

  • Chocobo Racing (think mario kart where you train your chocobo and ride it)
  • Triple Triad (card game where you can battle others and collect cards from many things in the world)
  • Doman Mahjong (I am terrible at this)
  • Cactpot (basically a scratch off and lottery system)
  • Fashion Report (compete with glamour (transmog))
  • Lord of Verminion (think if minion battles turned into RTS area control games)
  • Mini-games (jump puzzles, shooting games and more)

Things to collect and do#

Social#