Jumping into the world of FFXIV A Realm Reborn? New to the game, and need that extra hand to give you a headstart? You’ve come to the right place! The goal of this guide is to give you a birds eye view of what will help you get settled into FFXIV, providing you links to detailed information along the way! This guide may be long, but worth it!
Step 1: Pre-order / Buy the game
Can’t play a game without buying the game! You will need the base game, and at some point I imagine you would want to pick up Heavensward as well.
- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
(PC/PS3/PS4, Standard or Collectors) - Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (PC/PS3/PS4, Standard or Collectors)
- The above links are for Square NA (North America) Accounts.
(PC/PS3/PS4, Standard or Collectors)You can also use Playstation Network Cards
to buy!
Step 2: Download the Client and Patch
Bought it? Nice. Now to make an account for FFXIV (Square Enix Link) first. Then, you need to download the latest ffxiv client.(Link downloads the file) Run the client and patch if needed. All set?
Step 3: Create a Character!
Three choices in character creation: Class – Race – God.
Classes – who, what why?
The decision of your starting class will affect you in the early game only. Since in FFXIV you can eventually max out ALL CLASSES AND JOBS with one character. Check a brief description of the ffxiv classes here. We’ll also put each class guide here, for your reference.
Base Class (Advanced Job) General Guides
Disciples of War: Archer (Bard) | Gladiator (Paladin) | Lancer (Dragoon) | Marauder (Warrior) | Pugilist (Monk) | Rogue (Ninja)
Disciples of Magic: Arcanist (Scholar)(Summoner) | Conjurer (White Mage) | Thaumaturge (Black Mage)
Heavensward Jobs: Dark Knight, Astrologian, Machinist
Stormblood Jobs: Red Mage, Samurai
Again you’re not locked into your class forever. It simply determines your starting city: Archer, Lancer, Conjurer: Gridania. Thaumaturge, Gladiator, Pugilist: Ul’dah. Arcanist, Marauder: Limsa Lominsa.
Race – does it matter?
Our Racial Stats Guide will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about classes. Here are the main things you must take into consideration
- The difference between the best and worst race for your class is negligible. (But this wont stop min/maxers)
- Every race has a sub-race for Physical stats, and one for Magical stats. Choose appropriately.
- Aesthetics is the main reason to choose between races.
God – does it matter?
The final step is Choosing Your God. TL;DR God choice is pretty much irrelevant right now.
Server Choices – does it matter? Actually yes.
SERVER CHOICE is also very important. Testing your lag to various server groups should be one of your main concerns. If you have a JP server as your lowest ping, but are afraid of not having any English people to talk to, dont be afraid! Tonberry server is the “unofficial” non-legacy server for people like us. Masamune is the Legacy counterpart.
Alternatively, if you’re part of the Asian/Oceanic region and want to play on NA, Behemoth is the “unofficial” server for this. (Please comment if we are wrong)
Step 4: Leveling up
Seriously, check out the General Leveling Guide (Class specific links inside)
Get to level 10! If this is your first character, you must… and I mean MUST: FOLLOW YOUR STORY QUEST. Around level 10 you unlock your first new features, Levequests, Guildhests and the ability to Change Classes. FFXIV actually has a lot of unlockable content as you level up. Luckily we have come up with an ‘Unlockable content guide & checklist’ so you won’t miss out. For now do Guildhests! Queue up for them now and gain some quick & massive EXP.
What to do when you are Level 15? Reaching level 15 story quest also unlocks the airship pass – now is the perfect time to pickup your crafting & gathering classes, as you will be forced to visit the other cities anyway! Keep in mind there is no downside to unlocking ALL CLASSES at this or any point. (Except maybe main hand inventory space). You also unlock Duty Roulette, a key tool in leveling up quickly.
During this quest to travel around the main cities, make sure you unlock your Challenge Log while in Limsa!!! Make sure you check out a list of the unlocks. From here on I will only be mentioning the extremely important ones.
FFXIV Leveling Guides
You might want to refer to the Unlockables checklist now and then.
What crafting classes should I try? Here’s a quick and dirty list.
- Weaver makes armor for: Conjurer, Thaumaturge, Arcanist. (likely Astrologer)
- Leatherworker makes armor for: Pugilist, Rogue, Archer. (likely Machinist)
- Armorsmith makes armor for: Gladiator, Marauder, Lancer (likely Dark Knight)
- ALL CLASSES NEED SOMETHING FROM EVERY OTHER CLASS anyway. These are just the “main” ones.
Note that ever class can benefit from Goldsmithing (Accessories), Alchemy (Consumables), and Culinarian (Food Buffs)
What gathering classes should I try? Again, a loose list.
- Mining supports: Armorsmith, Blacksmith Goldsmith.
- Botany supports: Weaver, Carpenter, Alchemist, Culinarian.
- Fishing supports: Alchemist, Culinarian. (General guide oddly missing. Linked leveling guide)
- Leatherworker needs a little from all classes, and monster drops.
- ALL CLASSES NEED SOMETHING FROM EVERY OTHER CLASS anyway. These are just the “main” ones.
Don’t worry – you’ll eventually want 50 in all classes, so it’s more of a “What do I get first” than something you lock-in to forever.
Very soon after, you’re going to be doing the newbie dungeon trio. Sastasha, Tam-Tara Deepcroft and the last ‘tutorial dungeon’, Copperbell Mines. Don’t act like a newb fighting the Copperbell Ooze. Since you’re around Copperbell, Unlock the armor Dye system. For characters who didn’t start in Ul’dah, this is a good time to get it. Don’t worry though, you’ll be visiting Vesper Bay A LOT.
Key unlock reminders
Materia – Level 19 (story quest): You’ll have a quest “Life, Materia and Everything”. This would be the best time to unlock the Materia System. Keep an eye out for the quest Forging the spirit. For melding materia you need to Level up a DoH, and it’s unlocked in the same camp.
Chocobo Mount – Level 20: (See: our Chocobo Guide) Getting your first mount isn’t a main story quest actually. But it’s arguably the most worth-it sidequest ever. Increasing your travel speed does wonders for leveling speed, and sanity. The starting quest is My Little Chocobo, found in your GC base. Speaking of GC’s…
Which Grand Company do I choose??
Ah, the good old question. Basically there isn’t much difference between each GC game wise. They dont currently offer anything game-breaking end-game wise, so it’s purely aesthetic. The clincher? It determines which city you’ll personally be visiting a lot. So it’s in your best interest to choose the city you like best. Are all cities equal? In my opinion, No.
- Limsa (Maelstrom): Marketboard is next to Aetheryte. GC Base requires an extra load screen.
- Gridania (Twin Adders): Marketboard requires an extra load screen. GC Base is next to Aetheryte.
- Ul’dah (Immortal Flames): Marketboard requires an extra load screen. GC Base is next to Aetheryte.
In this point of view, Gridania and Ul’dah are similar, and Limsa is the outlier. It’s not a huge difference, since people usually hang out in their FC houses anyway.
Key unlock reminders
Chocobo Battle Companion : (See: our Chocobo Guide): At level 30 you can unlock your fighting chocobo via the quest My Feisty Little Chocobo. Very useful little guy to have. Just a reminder, you can mount your battle chocobo by right-clicking it.
Level 30: Advanced Job (soulstone quest)
Do NOT delay getting your ‘soulstone’ any more than you need to. Check the Job Requirements Guide. Becoming an advanced job requires a few things:
- Level 30 in the primary base class (Finishing all class quests).
- Level 15 in the secondary base class.
- Sufficiently progressed in story line.
- (Heavensward classes act differently – to be updated)
From here you should be able to handle yourself. Make use of our guides! Check the main menu above, or use the search functionality in the upper right. Don’t be afraid to ask us questions either (Twitter is best for this)!
Good luck starting out, and making progress! Make sure to Like us on Facebook, Follow us Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube – all great channels to geat awesome FFXIV updates!
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Thank you so much for this site. The actual game site is just confusing rubbish.
i just bought ffxiv and im confused. is there a story mode? ive been running around doing quest like take this letter and collect this. im level 10. am i missing something? when i bought this i was expecting a ff like the originals where you have 1 goal and that is defeat the main boss. i could use some help. so far i havent run into a story, just mini quest.
The “main scenario” is the story quest. It’s marked by a fiery quest icon.
Yes, the main scenario quests are marked by a fiery quest marker. This isn’t really like a traditional console RPG. The “final boss” gets updated along with the story every months.
can you guys do a guide for acn, all I’ve gotten is ppl (tanks) acting like lil kids based on wat carbuncle I use, the way I c it I use the topaz to lessen the DMG done to the tank which in turn is less stress on the healer also I heal my own pet (sustain + acn version of cure), I keep gettin wined at about the carbuncle taking aggor?, well so is the other DPS, the healer, and even me directly just for healing, could you please help this arcanist turning summoner?
You’re main role is to dps not support the tank with carbuncle. Yes it is a pain having to deal with shit tanks who can’t hold aggro, but unless the whole party is getting wiped then there’s no point in using topaz. More then likely you’re doing low level dungeon runs and can’t tell much of a difference but in higher level dps is more important.Use the low levels as training for higher level dungeons.
What lvl would i be by the time i become a white mage?
Please refer to our White Mage guide here: http://64.227.107.16/ffxiv-a-realm-reborn-white-mage/
For reference, you need to be a level 30 Conjurer and a level 15 Arcanist to become a White Mage.
Hello, I just found this website and I find it very useful. Just wanted to add about “Step 3: Create a Character!” in addition of choosing class/job is that they are bound to different cities which you see int he background as you switch between classes. In my case I chose Marauder since I want to have Limsa Lominsa as my starting city, I can always change to whatever class I desire after leveling the first to level 10.
Made the change and thanks for pointing this out!
Awesome! Can’t wait for the updated guide. Thank you guys, helpful as always!
Thanks, We hope this helps as much players get a head start! On a side note… cant wait to login later!!!