New Player guide (By a kinda new-ish player)

TLDR: Just read the bold print to find what youre looking for.


Ok, so my join date isnt so "new" but I solo'ed like 90% of all the things I've done in FFXI so far.

Make use of both of the following websites, as neither are 100% correct.

http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

https://www.bg-wiki.com/

I tend to feel for "older" before Adoulin content, Cylopedia is best, and for more recent Unity, sparks, item level gear etc, BG-Wiki works best.

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Getting started:

First and foremost, make sure you are clicking on every crystal, and Survival guide, as this will help you travel the game so easily.

In the menu click:

Menu > Quests > Objective List > Tutorial > Basics > First Step

Begin completing the "RoE" objectives.


As you do your RoE, you will want to also be doing as many "Rhapsodies of Vana'diel" or "RoV" quests.

If you ever get "stuck" in Rhapsodies quests, please see my post below "Additional Information" I link a post by the developers of which NPC will lock you out of progressing etc.

Go to

Menu > Missions > Add-ons > Rhapsodies of Vana'diel

These grant more trust companions, but as well as 30% bonus to experience points gains, as well as other awesome bonus' to other gains, and reduced item/teleport costs.


Next:

You will want to join a Unity

Do this by completing 10 different Records of Eminence quests such as:

Menu > Quests > Objective List > Combat (Wide Area) > Combat (Spoils) 1 > Spoils (Fire Crystals) 10/10
or
Menu > Quests > Objective List > Combat (Wide Area) > Combat (Spoils) 2 > Spoils (Bat Wing)
etc. Just any quest really.

Then, completing RoE quest:

Menu > Quests > Objective List > Tutorial > Basics > All for one

Here is a list of the unity's, as well as additional information:

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Unity_Concord



I personally joined Apururu's Unity, because she is a good healer.
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Travel:

Interact with all "Home Point" Crystals, and "Survival Guide" floating books. You can travel between these.

Obtain a Mount: (Part 1)

(which requires level 20 character or higher)

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Chocobo%27s_Wounds

Obtain a mount: (Part 2)

(Might require a map of Jeuno?)

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Full_Speed_Ahead!



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Trust's:

As you progress, you will want to gain as many trusts as possible.

Leveling:
-Gessho (tank that takes low damage)

-Valaineral is a powerful tank. Can be obtained as one of your first trusts.

-Apururu (Best healer in the entire game in my opinion, used almost everywhere.)

-Zeid II (Beast in single target damage)

-Semih Lafihna (Beast in both single target and Area of Effect damage, watch out as she could overwhelm your party when leveling if she AoE's additional mobs.)

-Ayame (Because she can skill chain with you every single time if youre a melee, maybe even a mage, havent tested it.)


Other useful trusts include:

-Selh'teus (Uses HP/MP restoration abilitiy/weaponsklll?)

-Koru-Moru (RDM that puts refesh on all magic casters including trusts and players.)

-Cherukiki (Healer/WHM that uses Regen, which helps with high damage fights when coupled with another healer, or just for enmity reduction/MP conservation.)

-Mihli Aliapoh (because she is a healer that will use spells such as Cursna/Poisona and will melee with a club, which helps with enemies with shields such as "Pil" in voidwatch)

-Prishe II (Blunt melee fighter/Monk, that can use Curaga spells)

-Joachim (Bard that helps with accuracy when fighting much harder fights when you miss constantly)

-Shikaree Z (Is a dragoon which helps dealing damage to dragons)

So on so forth.

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Gil:

This is actually quite easy. Since by using this guide, you will never have to spend sparks on anything except for gil, I will tell you how to get 28,000 gil per 2750 or whatever sparks.

Sparks Merchant/Vendor/NPC:

Equipment (Lv 71-98)

on the third page

Buy:

Archeron Shield

Sell:

To any Merchant/Vendor that you can sell items to.

You can also purchase "Prize Powder" with unity accolades, and sell for an additional 1 million gil.

Boom, all the gil.

Another way, is I farm:

Dynamis
Voidwatch
Ambuscade even!

****Please save your AMAN Copper vouchers for anything but sparks.***
This is a super easy way to obtain obsidian, Cruor, Bayld etc.



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Questing:

You will want to focus on RoE, and RoV the most, but aside from those, you should be focusing on doing your nations missions.

The reason for this is your nation helps you gain access to many other quests, as well as items such as

**"Empress Band" which grants bonus gains to experience points.**

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Empress_Band

Also, if you have any accumulated "Log in points" which appear in the chat log stating how many you have each time you have in during a campaign, make sure to visit Greeter Moogles in each starting nation to obtain a Caliber Ring

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Caliber_Ring

Once you obtain level 99, I suggest focusing on getting "Skirmish" items with your log-in points, as this will help you get additional item level 119 weapons and or gear. More on this later.

Other quests you will want to focus on, are any "locking" quests you hit as you progress through RoV.

These include Seekers of Adoulin, Treasures of Aht Urghan quests, etc etc.


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How I level:

(Obviously if this is your first 99, you will need to do to Level cap/Limit Break quests to progress at each respective interval. In which case, some, I find much more effective to get help from a seasoned player/character.)

For leveling you should mostly focus on having an appropriate weapon, (which you can very easily obtain with any sparks merchant/vendor.

If I am not incorrect, your weapon helps calculate your accuracy. Other gear could and should include any kind of accuracy, and or defense. Other than that, dont worry too much about gear until maybe around level 68, 78+ those types of intervals.

My gear kinda goes, level 1, then 30 then 50, 68, 78, then 119.

Some probably very helpful accuracy items include:
Focus Collar
Venerer Ring
Archers Ring
Life Belt
Accura Cape


***For each area, you need to look for a book called "Field Manual"***
You can find these books by going to the

Menu > Map > Wide Scan

then search the list until you find "Field Manual" as it does not appear on the map itself.


****Before leveling please be sure you read "Getting Started" as well as Questing, because there is a chance you could be missing out on massive experience points bonus items/Key items.****
1-15 West Ronfarue- Page 5
15-25 Gusgen Mines - Page 1
25-35 Lower Delkfutt's Tower- Page 1
35-48 Crawlers Nest - Page 1
48-57 Bostinex Oubliette - Bats Page 2
57-66 Bostineux Oubliette- Leeches Page 4
66-75 Zehrun Mines - Page 4
76-80: Maze of Shakhrami -Chaser Bats and Bleeder Leeches (take north route) Page. 7
**Bring Empress band to Crawlers Nest already charged to prevent page exp boost loss** Use Empress band 2 times from 80-92, then the other 5 times from 92-99. (At least thats what I do.)
80-92: Crawlers Nest - King Crawlers and Vespos- Page. 7
92-99: Kuftal Tunnel - Kuftal Delvers and Machairoduss- Page. 8

(The reason for timing your usage of your rings, is so you "level quicker" when you reach a new zone, as it will take you longer per kill at the start, then once you level up, you will then kill quicker. The focus is getting EXP faster at the start, instead of EXP faster at the end, when enemies are easier.)


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Getting 119 gear:

This is actually much much easier than most new players would think.

You can purchase a full set of 119 equipment with "Bayld" from the NPC "Vesca" and "Craggy Bluff" in Eastern Adoulin (F-7).



Once you obtain full 119 you should be able to solo as a starter character with the minimum gear:

-Very easy to easy Ambuscade
(which can be farmed for montly 119 gear sets solo with trusts, as well as other rewards)
Make sure you purchase equipment using the "Total Hallmarks" list of options, as these are essentially "free gifts" for obtaining the said amount of hallmarks.

-Very Easy High Tier battles
(I do Ifrit, Titan, Shiva, etc for Rem's Tale chapters as they require the least amount of merits per fight, and can readily defeated as a 119 player.
My trust set up includes:
As 118/117 NIN: Zied II, Selt'heus, Koru-Moru, Karaha-Baruha, Cherukiki (if you have Apururu, you can sub 1 or both Karaha, or also Cherukiki. I suggest Karaha, only at first until you get your beings.)
As probably any 119 job: Gessho Zeid II, Semih Lafihna, Koru-Moru, Apururu(unless youre a tank job, you can sub out Gessho for a dd/dps)

-Normal "Hard mode story battles"?
Not sure what to call these, but you do them by trading 20 sacred Kindred Crests to Shami/(and his brother/friend cant remember his name, but they are right next to each other) in Port Jeuno H-8 for a Macrocosmic Orb.

-Unity Wanted Battles
These are very easy to do and can help at getting an array of items/gear/accessories. All you need to do, is find an Etheral Junction and have the required amount of Unity Accolades. (Accolades are absurdly easy to obtain.) Some might be a bit more difficult or impossible at anything below item level 119 and a large array of trusts. Here is a list of the wanted battles (Of the 122 and 125 most likely you will need full 119 and a specific set of trusts, if not a light to full party of 119 players.) https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:...Wanted_Battles

-Skirmish, including Yorcia Alluvion
(at least the first floor, using the AMAN vouchers to obtain obsidian, then accessing the book on the first floor. Convert 1000 Obsidian into Pussiance, then summoning 1 crap, and 5 Colibi's) Note* Summon the book monsters before summoning any trusts, as the longer you wait to summon the Crab/Colibri's the more enemies will span, resulting in a lower chance of success.
To obtain items to enter Skirimsh, you can sometimes utilize the log-in campaign's to buy the Eudaemon, Yorcia Visage, Torso, and legs. Do this to get gear drops as well as "Mellidopt Wings" which can be traded for 119 weapons (3 wings per weapon) or gear (1-2 wings per gear. I suggest 3 per wing and doing ambuscade for gear.)

Alluvion Skirmish equipment is augmentable, and quite useful.

From here, if you so wish, you can now join end game content with parties. I think? Maybe!?


All of which can help you get even more 119 gear for multiple jobs.












Thank you for reading, and I would like to think this guide could potentially help at least 1 person, saving them many many headaches and confusion, and guide them to getting their first, if not many jobs to level 119 gear!

If you have any to the point and cut to the chase type tips please feel free to add them, and if I remember, I will adjust the original post.

A big big thank you to everyone who has helped me, as well as specifically:

Unctgtg

For helping me not only on the forums, but as well as being a helpful player ingame, and being in a linkshell together!





TLDR: Just read the bold print to find what youre looking for.

Additional Information:


Getting stuck in Rhapsodies because of another expansions NPC/quest?
Check out this developer post:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...light=rhapsody

I updated my original post some to reflect more up-to-date information. I also condensed/removed the more useless information.

I am grateful that FFXI is still available to play, as I no longer enjoy FFXIV at all, and play only FFXI now.

FFXI has the things I enjoy, such as interesting and meaningful character stats and character progression.

I think it's important to know that unlike some games with an "item level" mechanic, not all i-119 gear is created equally- there's a substantial difference between the i119 gear you can immediately purchase at lv99 and things like the +3 JSE sets and other 119 gear from endgame content.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

I think it's important to know that unlike some games with an "item level" mechanic, not all i-119 gear is created equally- there's a substantial difference between the i119 gear you can immediately purchase at lv99 and things like the +3 JSE sets and other 119 gear from endgame content.

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This is the truth!

FFXI only starts with 119 Bayld gear. You can use this Bayld gear to raise the level of your trusts capabilities. From there you will want to increase your own skills, equipment, and potential.