Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

tower

Golden Knight of the Realm
375
155
So, if you are newcomer to the game, here are some hard won tips and tricks. I really hope my memory as to what level and time things unlock are correct, it's been awhile..

Goal #1 = Unlocking Guildleves

Guildleves are a kind of repeatable quest. They unlock at level 10. Upon unlocking these, They can be used and accumulate at the rate of 4 every 12 (I think) rl hours. THESE WILL ACCUMULATE DURING DOWNTIME, INCLUDING BREAKS IN THE BETA. HAVING THESE STOCKED HIGH WILL BE AMAZING FOR FUTURE PROGRESS.


Goal #2 = Completing Ifrit on my main class. Preferably at level 18 or 19.

This is part of your main quest chain. This unlocks your Grand Company (after several run around cutscene quests), which is different from a Free Company (guild). Grand Companies are kind of like factions in WoW, you join them, and doing fates and various other tasks after you have joined reward you with seals that you can spend on equipment, and more importantly, your chocobo. This means that you can achieve your chocobo this weekend.

I want to get this done by level 18 or 19 so I don't waste any XP fate grinding for seals. Once you hit level 20, you can do the chocobo quest for your first mount.

Rest XP:

It's a bit backward, but you DO NOT GET REST XP IN THE MAIN CITIES. I learned this one the hard way. Rest xp also accumulate during downtime, including gaps in beta, so you can come back with a FULL rest xp bar between the Open Beta and early access.

The Teleport System:

FF14 has three different types of teleport systems. One is "Return" - you bind at any Aetheryte Crystal (big blue glowing gems in certain cities/hubs) and you can click this to effectively "Hearthstone" for free once every 15 minutes.

The second is "Teleport" - using this you can instantly teleport from anywhere in the world to any Aetheryte Crystal you have ever visted. This costs gil to use, and has no cooldown. You can also "Favourite" up to 3 locations to teleport to them at a reduced price.

The third is the teleport system within cities. This is called the Aethernet. Smaller Aetheryte crystals are scattered throughout the city and clicking any of them let you teleport from any Aethernet crystal to another Aethernet crystal. Aethernet exists in the 3 main cities. When you unlock all of the Aethernet locations in a city you gain the ability to teleport out of the cities main exits (into the quest areas) from the Aethernet as well.

Starting City, Starting Races, Jobs and Stats:

Your starting city is determined by your class and class alone.

Gridania: Conjurers, Lancers, Archers
Ul'dah: Thaumaturges, Gladiators, Pugilists
Limsa Lominsa: Marauders, Arcanists (and most likely Musketeers coming next, the 2nd Dex class)

Expect Gridania to be the most crowded as 3 popular classes start there and Beta 3 was Gridania only, so more people are familiar with the area.

Limsa Lominsa will also be crowded as Arcanist is a new class that hasn't been playable yet and people will be trying them out en mass.

There is no difference in stats or anything else by race. Go with your personal preference.

Each level after level 10 (I think) gives you stats. These are seperated by class, so adding stats to one class won't affect the stats of a secondary class. Far as we know, just dump these in your primary stat (VIT for Marauders and Gladiators, DEX for Archers, STR for Pugilists and Lancers, INT for Arcanists and Thaumaturges, MND for Conjurers.

Jobs come at level 30 and cannot be used for this Beta, so don't worry about them.

Fates:

Fates are mini-quests that activate out in the quest areas. No one is quite sure how they activate, it may be tied to people completing quest, or it may be random.

Fates usually have some story basis (Enemies raiding, people trying to steal stuff, swarms of enemies due to environmental conditions, or large boss monsters, etc) Upon entering a fate area, you are prompted to temporarily reduce your level (if you are over the maximum level of the fate) if you want to participate.

Doing fates will grant you Grand Company Seals (used to purchase items in their shop, like the chocobo) as well as hefty chunks of XP and Gil. You can receive up to 3 levels of reward (lets call them bronze, silver, gold) depending on your contribution.

I go out of my way to hit all that I see, they're really money for jam. They show up on the map and minimap with icons and shaded areas showing which area the fate covers.

Speaking of De-levelling, it happens in single player instances (important quests) and regular 4 man instances as well. For these it is automatic if you are overlevelled - it will scale you down to the highest level possible, including skills, and stats on your equipment. Out in the field, for fates, it's optional, but if you choose no, you won't get any fate rewards. This allows you to ride through a fate and not get delevelled if you are not interested in doing it.

I may have made some mistakes here, I'm working off my memory. If anyone else has any questions, post them here and I will do my best to answer them.
I'll add some Addendums:

1 - Do not spam the additional guildleves immediately during early access or release. You will need a stockpile to progress in the Grand Company hunting logs (if you want to complete the GC huntings logs while leveling. Otherwise, do what you wish)
2 - You can only get rest xp in the main city if you retire to your inn. You get this at some point in the story quest.
Starting Race/Job - there are minor differences in stats, but yes they are very minor. and you can view them at the selection screen so nbd. Arcanist may have INT/MND allocation issues depending on if you want to play Scholar/Summoner/both

re: your job, once you reach 20 in phase 4 you may want to spend time leveling the secondary class your job requires to level 15

I also think the Ifrit instance requires level 20 but I may be wrong. I do know that I read they wont have Chocobos in the game for Phase 4, which is pretty lame.
 

Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
12,359
11,759
Download speed fluctuating now, looks like the mass of people realized it was patchable.
 

bixxby

Molten Core Raider
2,750
47
Here let me clear up a few things for you:

- Pre-order codes will be available to enter next week (20th of August). This will give you early access.
- Only those who are Legacy or have been in the P3 of beta will be able to start playing this Friday 5AM EST. (Open beta)
- Anyone else, even those who pre-ordered, can start playing this Saturday 5AM EST (register for open beta like anyone else).

They have a site where you can enter your email address, and they will email you with instructions once the codes are available to be entered. Seems people are confusing the Open beta with the actual launch of the game.http://preorder.na.finalfantasyxiv.com

And i seriously think they will be losing potential customers due to such an atrocious system.
Any idea if my SE account and my whatever FF14 beta account screen was are the same email that my game key is tied to my beta account? It's weird as fuck that there's more than one accounting system
 

Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
12,359
11,759
I just tried logging in tohttp://na.square-enix.comand got the following:
You have successfully logged in. We have found another account with your email address, but that one is unverified. In order to continue, we need to link these accounts together, but if the other one was created by someone else, they would be able to hijack your account. Please confirm that this is in fact your account:
Email:
Nickname:
Birthday:
Country:
Registered on:
Was this account created by you?
[Yes] [No, delete it]
That site was the meaningless facebook site previously, although it appears to have cleared my FFXIII codes since I have nothing registered now?
edit: christ it cleared most of the profile information and checked the box for receiving emails from Square, this is shitty.

As far as I am aware the only one that matters ishttps://secure.square-enix.com/
 

Chysamere

<WoW Guild Officer>
3,322
2,940
In Beta Phase 4 we've added a feature that will allow you to craft NQ items continuously. The feature will be unlocked once one of your crafting classes reaches level 10, and then it can be used on all your other classes.

Thank god
 

fletch101

Lord Nagafen Raider
58
1
In Beta Phase 4 we've added a feature that will allow you to craft NQ items continuously. The feature will be unlocked once one of your crafting classes reaches level 10, and then it can be used on all your other classes.

Thank god
I presume you will lose the bonus XP you could get from making even base items slightly higher in quality.

Definitely a good feature, either way.
 

Chysamere

<WoW Guild Officer>
3,322
2,940
I presume you will lose the bonus XP you could get from making even base items slightly higher in quality.

Definitely a good feature, either way.
Yeah sometimes I just want to make 50 iron bars, sometimes I want 50 HQ iron bars
smile.png
 

Korrupt

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,832
1,228
Ive been having the same issue. When I went to DL patch it said I had suspicious account logins and I need to change PW but it wont send the email.

Im sure it will be fixed by tomorrow, they had the same issue during the other betas.
 

Heallun

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,100
1,073
My beta client is downloading just fine. I was not in P3 (though I registered before p3, iirc. I just didn't get around to playing it.)
 

Droigan

Trakanon Raider
2,497
1,164
BETA CLIENT IS UP, GET TO DOWNLOADING
Based upon recent suspicious activity, we have identified that your account may potentially be at risk. For your protection, we have temporarily suspended login access to this account.
Instructions for lifting this restriction have been sent to the email address registered to your Square Enix Account.
WTF

I get that message trying to log in, but there is no email sent to the email tied to my account.

Is the suspicious activity that I actually bought the game or what?
 

Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
12,359
11,759
The Final Fantasy XIV - A Realm Reborn folder is 8.54 GB on the hard drive after patching
 

Chysamere

<WoW Guild Officer>
3,322
2,940
WTF

I get that message trying to log in, but there is no email sent to the email tied to my account.

Is the suspicious activity that I actually bought the game or what?
I had the same problem. It sent an email to my account, I clicked it, reset password, and was instantly able to download
 

Vorph

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
11,007
4,751
I'll add some Addendums:

1 - Do not spam the additional guildleves immediately during early access or release. You will need a stockpile to progress in the Grand Company hunting logs (if you want to complete the GC huntings logs while leveling. Otherwise, do what you wish)
Are you saying this because of bounty mobs being in hunting logs? Because that was changed. All the dungeon mobs were moved from regular hunting logs to GC hunting logs, and bounties are gone entirely.

Either way, definitely don't waste guildleves on your main class. Save them for class 2+ or crafting/gathering shit.
 

tower

Golden Knight of the Realm
375
155
Really? That seems lame. The bounty mobs weren't that bad after they put in the patch to make them appear more often.

And yea, I would also suggest saving them for crafting logs if you want to level a crafting class.