These threads are always fun but after a play time of 170+ days you mind begins to get foggy on where to even begin. When I'm coaching someone on my server that is new to the game it's easy to remember things as they come up. This is much more difficult here as I would be able to write a dissertation on little things about the game.

Also considering my beginning would've been totally different due to the types of people, number of people and economy it's always hard for me to give sound advice to people just starting. But dagnabit... I'm gonna try ^^

1) If you are a packrat by nature (the people that kept everything in other games and never ever ever used a Megalixir because you thought you might need it later until you were done with the game) you should get a mule. Start another character on your server to hold your junk. More than just adding to your potential inventory space this will add to your income quite a bit as you will have added 7 Auction House spaces to youself essentially.

For people just starting out one mule is more than good enough. Use this mule to hold random crap you get from XP or anywhere else as you run out of room on your main. You can sell it for decent profit. Some people (especially endgame) don't hold on to this stuff. (i.e. "pffft it's just a crab shell they only go for like 1k... I can make that blowing my nose) Sure one goes for 1k but if you get 2 or 3 in a PT that's 3k. It all adds up quite substantially and if nothing else pays for your chocobos.

I'd suggest making the mule in a city other than your own home city to take advantage of different economies as well.

2) If you are gonna buy anything especially to craft with stay away from the Auction House. Go to http://ffxi.somepage.com/ and find out if the item is available from an NPC. Things often list on the Auction House at 500% or more markup. At early points in the game you can't afford that. If it's at an NPC cheaper get it there. If the NPC is in another nation only then if you happen to have a mule in that country you're in luck ^^

3) On the flip side of #2 if you find yourself actually not even using all of your AH slots which might happen rarely at lower levels you can do your research at http://ffxi.somepage.com/ and find things cheap in your home nation that you can sell on the AH at a huge markup. This is a nice money making method at the low end of importing/exporting. Later you can find scrolls in other cities... especially the outlands (like Selbina) and buy them to sell at huge profit on the Jeuno AH.

The reason this works is because people at the top have money and don't mind spending it to save themselves a few seconds in convenience. I'm among this and often buy things marked up 10x their NPC price because to me it's only a drop in the bucket compared to what my time is worth.

4) Get started on Missions and quests as early as possible. You can get some freebie armor from some quests even if it sucks sometimes. Sometimes quests totally aren't worth the reward but getting fame is a good idea so that you can get the better quests later on that are worth something. Also doing Missions for Rank (talk to a mission giver near the gate guards in your city) can help a lot. Sure being Rank 10 doesn't necessarily mean you are a great player (I played with the crappiest PT in the dunes recently... all Rank 10 people with 75 jobs that I've seen around... leveling like crap in the dunes even wearing their millions in gear). However, when it comes down to being between you and another person that higher rank they will probably get the PT spot.

Especially if you are a lowbie in the dunes and don't have a subjob people will tend to notice the effort you put forth. The fact that you are Rank 2 and not Rank 1 will tell people that have been through the dunes a few times that you actually care about more than just level grinding. Generally those that are too impatient to Rank up are the same types thare are too impatient to learn anything new about how to play their jobs well from people that know.


Alright.. I think that's enough for right now.