So we bought FFXi. What are we meant to do?

[Dat Matt]

Steam sales, gaben took my wallet lol etc.

Seriously though, we've downloaded the game and I have absolutely no idea what we are doing. In our first hour or so of actual gameplay (Issues surrounding install took about 3 days to resolve) we jumped in. Killed some bees and now we are lost. I'd like to give it an honest shot during the free trial as I want to run through all the numbered final fantasy games.

Are there any beginners guides, quest checklists, anything that can tell us what we should be doing to start the game off until we have an idea of what we are doing?

[Shauna]

It was £10 for everything. Not too bad, although we definitely are severely late to the party. In another 10 years time we'll jump into FFXIV. ;P

So yeah, we started in Windhurst and have been pottering around not doing very much. We are spoiled by hand-holding in video games! There just doesn't appear to be any apparent direction, or indication of what we should be looking to do. xD Or is that the point? I don't do MMOs often.

[Dat Matt]

I don't do MMOs often.

"Often" is read as "Never" in this circumstance. I tried Rusty Hearts for a while, couldn't get into it as much as other free to play games at the time *cough* TF2/LOL *cough*

[KentaRawr!]

If it's anything like when I played (from what I remember since I was pretty terrible at FFXI), get to level 10 and then get to the Vulkurm Dunes, then ask people to help you with your subjob quest, then level up another job which is deemed an appropriate subjob for your current main job (and hopefully vice versa), and then stuff. Somewhere along the way be sure to secure routes for transportation.

I'm seriously the last person to ask about this though. I don't know why I'm posting.

[Jessweeee♪]

If it's anything like when I played (from what I remember since I was pretty terrible at FFXI), get to level 10 and then get to the Vulkurm Dunes, then ask people to help you with your subjob quest, then level up another job which is deemed an appropriate subjob for your current main job (and hopefully vice versa), and then stuff. Somewhere along the way be sure to secure routes for transportation.

I'm seriously the last person to ask about this though. I don't know why I'm posting.

Yep pretty much. You guuuyyysss get FFXIV and join us Fat Chocobos.

[Ayen]

What you do in any MMO, explore, kill things, level up and complete quests.

[WildRaubtier]

lol dunes

you guys are lucky no one does that anymore

The vogue thing to do these days, AS FAR AS I'M AWARE, is to solo to about 15 (12 if you're a WHM), then head out to gusgen mines and smash on some bones for a few days.

[Shauna]

If it's anything like when I played (from what I remember since I was pretty terrible at FFXI), get to level 10 and then get to the Vulkurm Dunes, then ask people to help you with your subjob quest, then level up another job which is deemed an appropriate subjob for your current main job (and hopefully vice versa), and then stuff. Somewhere along the way be sure to secure routes for transportation.

I'm seriously the last person to ask about this though. I don't know why I'm posting.

Yep pretty much. You guuuyyysss get FFXIV and join us Fat Chocobos.

Is FFXIV £10? ...No? Maybe later.

[Aulayna]

If it's anything like when I played (from what I remember since I was pretty terrible at FFXI), get to level 10 and then get to the Vulkurm Dunes, then ask people to help you with your subjob quest, then level up another job which is deemed an appropriate subjob for your current main job (and hopefully vice versa), and then stuff. Somewhere along the way be sure to secure routes for transportation.

I'm seriously the last person to ask about this though. I don't know why I'm posting.

Yep pretty much. You guuuyyysss get FFXIV and join us Fat Chocobos.

Is FFXIV £10? ...No? Maybe later.

Actually it's under £9 on PS3:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Final-Fantas...nal+fantasy+14

£15 for PC:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Final-Fantas...nal+fantasy+14

[Shauna]

Yes, we discovered that it is cheap today. Our assumptions were way off. Don't have a good enough PC to run it on, so next hurdle. xD

[Del Murder]

Bleys wrote a guide not too long ago that may help you:

http://home.eyesonff.com/final-fanta...ls-1-50-a.html

I'm tempted to give it one more go during the 'Return to Vana'diel' campaign but I don't know if I have the time.

[Mirage]

If you bought the game at this point in its life cycle, I think the most fun you guys could have in it is to do all the story content in it as a duo. That alone will keep you occupied for quite a bit of time, considering there are a lot of storyline missions to do. To make things easier, you should start out in the same nation, because the three nations have different storylines that converge at certain places. Being from the same nation will make it a lot easier to get them done as a team.

I am kind of reluctant to telling you to go out and grind to the max level as fast as possible, because aiming for that can be a bit draining, and might make you feel like it is too boring. I'd say just try to kill the enemies that are in your way when you go out to finish quests and missions, and see how far that takes you. If you hit a brick wall in difficulty, you might want to spend a bit of grinding.

Beware of certain strange monster spawns though. Certain enemies in certain starter areas are made a lot stronger than you'd expect them to be. These enemies might have the same monster model, but a different name, and will destroy you in one or two hits. Always take care to /check enemies whose names you do not recognize, no matter which are you are in, or what they look like. Monsters of the exact same name will usually be roughly within the level range you might expect, but sometimes vary from area to area.

Example: Borer Beetle in area A might be levels 28-30, while Borer Beetle in area B might be lv 30-34. However, a Borer Beetle will never be level 50-56 regardless of area. However, you might find situations where you have a Borer Beetle and Bloodbath Beetle both in area A, and the Bloodbath Beetles are level 70+ even if it looks the same.

Note: Even though the game loves alliterations, I don't think Bloodbath Beetle is an actual enemy name. It was just an example.

Now, missions and quests. Almost everything that advances the story are classified as missions, while other quests are classified as... well, quests. There are a ton of missions to do. To begin with, you have your nation's missions which can be started right away even at level 1, but completing them as a duo might prove difficult until your levels approach 10. The mission rank corresponds to which levels the game expect you to be able to clear them at. rank 1 should be easily doable by someone at level 10, rank 2 should be easily doable by level 20. Some missions can't be done solo at those levels, though, but a duo of level 30 should be able to do the rank 3 battlefield, if they have decent gear and tactics. the rank 5 mission fights were designed to be cleared by a full party of level 50 characters, because level 50 was the game's level cap at that time. However, now you can clear them at a higher level if you wish to. Two characters at level 65 might be able to handle that fight now, if the gear is good.

Then we also have the Chains of Promathia missions, where the first mission is designed to be clearable by full parties at level 30, the second mission at 40, and so foth until lv75. As a duo, adding 10 levels to your characters should be suffuficient to beat them (except perhaps one, let's take that when you get there).

Treasures of Aht Urghan start at a bit higher level. You'd probably want to be level 50+ just to do the first one. The difficulty level rises sharply and you'd probably want to be level 75 before getting halfway through the storyline, and maybe level 85+ to duo the final fight. The final fight was clearable by a full party of lv75s when it was released, as that was the game's level cap at the time.

There's also Rise of the Zilart, where I don't really remember how the difficulty progresses, but also that was released in a time where lv75 was the maximum.

The add-on scenarios (crystalline prophecy, shantotto ascension, moogle kupo d'etat) are also designed for a lv75 cap (but some parts can be completed at a lower level). The Abyssea add-ons are designed for lv75 to lv90. Seekers of Audolin is intended for lv99.

On top of this, you are also free to change allegiance and do the missions of the two other nations as well.

As a duo, you might want to select jobs that complement each others. An attacker and a healer, for example. You could probably get away with two classes that can both attack and heal, such as red mage, as well.

At level 30, the game will let you start quests to unlock other jobs. Some jobs can be unlocked through quests that don't even require combat, while other jobs might require you to clear enemies that are somewhat brutal at lv30, and wouldn't be possible to do at that level without a well coordinated and well geared party. For those, you might just want to wait until you are a higher level, or ask somebody to help you.

Which server is it you are playing on?

[Dat Matt]

I beleive we are on Siren. We are trying to play for about an hour a day to getting the swing of things.

[LocoColt04]

Dang! I was gonna say, if you were on Shiva, I'd hop on with my 99 WHM and play the escort game when necessary. I still keep my subscription live.

[Mirage]

Ah, the escort game. A white mage's favourite past time.