Hi! I'm new!

[Yunel]

Hello! I am a new player! And frankly I am not sure what to do...I am on Shiva server, my name is Yunel so if anyone bored enough to help out. Well thanks!

[Economizer]

And frankly I am not sure what to do...

When you don't know what to do hit up BGwiki, FFXIAH, and FFXIclopedia. These will be your information sources. Run the game in windowed mode so you can do both at the same time.

You'll also want to hit up the Tutorial NPC for extra goodies.

Golden rule of being able to play FFXI is getting levels. Everything else is easier when you level.

Never level without Signet on (so you can get crystals). Generally for leveling you go to Gusgen Mines ~10~30+, then Crawlers' Nest to 60~70+, then either to Abyssea if you have stones or Bostaunieux Oubliette (you'll need to do some missions first to get to Rank 3 but you can easily do this around 40+) all the way to 99 cap. After 18 you can get your subjob in a quest in Selbina or Mhaura. After level 50, every five levels the first time you get to those levels you'll have to do a quest with an NPC named Maat in Ru'Lude Gardens to uncap your level. You should find all the details on either BGwiki or FFXIclopedia on how to do these. If you need new weapons and armor, consider using FFXIAH's advanced search function to find a level appropriate list, and to price match it (be sure to set it for your server).

At 30 hit up Port Jeuno to flag the Abyssea quests and start stone generation. Also consider unlocking new jobs, Dancer is probably going to be a major one for you as a beginner if you like THF, especially since /NIN's spells are a bit costly for new players in terms of either questing or buying them (both jobs provide a trait called Dual Wield which lets you hold two one handed weapons at once).

With leveling you'll want a source of gil beyond what you get from quests and pages. With the crystals you get you'll notice they sell for quite a bit on the AH, but you can also use them for crafting. One recipe that almost always makes money is to sit at a guild shop that sells Copper Ore, buy four, then take a Fire Crystal and craft it into a Copper Ingot. Repeat until you have a stack of 12, then sell it on the AH for the market price (check FFXIAH for reference). Repeat for more gil. You can also do something similar with Sheepskin. Once you've hit level 20 and have about three weeks of having your account you can also try fishing without the frustrating anti-RMT fatigue limits, and aim for Moat Carp (which also sell well in stacks on the AH). There are of course other methods, especially if you're aware of the markets in FFXI.

If you haven't already used your Chocobo Shirt/Hat codes on your character (if you bought the Seekers Ultimate Collection) you can also consider swapping servers (I hear Valefor is nice) or races (although race differences are small enough to not be an issue in the majority of cases with the exception of Tarutaru HP).

There is a pretty heavy guide, although it is targeted more to returning players. For your purposes what I wrote should be pretty useful though.

[Yunel]

Yeah okay that is a good help. I used my codes. I'll check to transfer to Valefor I can't figure out much stuff in Bastok and I see nobody here on Shiva.

[Economizer]

I'll check to transfer

Transferring to another server costs about $30 and can only be done about once every six months (if I remember correctly), so don't take the decision lightly. Whatever you do decide to do, best wishes.

[Yunel]

Well you seem like a nice guy and frankly nobody talks on the server I chose and i'd like to have friend. I understand what you told me but game still doesn't seem easy to get hang of. And you posted to several place so I think I will go join you on Valefor in the next days. I play on my own so it's not like I have a bunch of friends with me.

[Economizer]

On the starter gear that is tied to download codes, I kinda wish SE would either allow players to have a GM do a one time transfer for new accounts to another character, or at very least have a grace period for new accounts to transfer servers once (perhaps with some Gil limitation for free server transfers to prevent abuse).

What you can probably do if you don't mind risking wasting your time is hit up SE support and essentially beg them to let you transfer once for free since your account is so new, but since they're not obligated to do it I'd imagine the odds are fairly slim.

I understand what you told me but game still doesn't seem easy to get hang of.

Feel free to ask specific questions, but I'll try to explain a few things (it would probably help if I knew if you were on PC or Xbox, but if you're on the Xbox I strongly recommend a keyboard regardless). The first part will probably be stuff you already know however.

Before you exit your starter city, make sure to equip (via the Equipment menu) your weapon and Bastokan Ring, along with any other equipment you might have that looks better then what you're wearing. Then talk to the gate guard (in Bastok they're the NPCs with I.M. after their names, or Iron Musketeers) and get Signet. If you're in Bastok Markets you can also talk to Gulldago near the exit (D-11) as well for the tutorial quests which will explain some simple game mechanics.

Once you exit the city, locate the Field Manual and look at Individual Training (or whatever it is called) and select something you think you can do. Don't limit yourself to just killing whatever is on the page you selected because the time spent doing so will probably lose you more experience points then you would net, but try to do some pages to build up tabs so you can buy buffs from the book later. To attack something you merely target and hit attack, then when your TP is at 100 or more you should select Abilities -> Weapon Skills and use a Weapon Skill on a mob (for later reference, when you get the Dual Wield ability from using a subjob of Ninja or Dancer, or you level high enough that you get it natively, always remember to keep the higher damage weapon in your main hand). As a Thief you should also use Steal whenever facing off with Beastman mobs such as Goblins - Silver Beastcoins can occasionally be obtained, which are fairly valuable on the Auction House.

At about level 10 you'll notice that mobs in North or South Gustaberg are Too Weak for you to get experience from in most cases, and you'll want to start heading towards Konschtat Highlands where mobs are tougher, and perhaps even to Gusgen Mines (around L-7 on the map) and put your party flag up for a "Book Burn" there (essentially someone invites you and you grab page 1 in the Grounds Tome and kill skeletons while Level Synced, and you get lots of Experience Points).

Between all this you'll notice that your inventory fills up very fast. Make sure to turn on Auto-Sort in the Config menu if it isn't already, and head back to town when it fills and you're not in a party. When you get to town, either dump your gear with your Moogle in your Mog House, or sell it at the Auction House or to an NPC, but price check via FFXIAH before just selling to an NPC. If you've had Signet on you'll have crystals, which are quite valuable. If you need Gil to buy better gear and selling your loot isn't enough you can make Copper Ingots using the method I suggested in an earlier post. Remember that Beehive Chips and Honey can sell for a decent amount (although probably not as decent as crystals).

On stats in the game you'll find that your equipment menu lists HP, MP, STR, DEX, VIT, AGI, INT, MND, CHR, as well as Attack, Defense, and elemental resistances. On gear you'll usually find a defense number, and on better pieces listed stat boosts. On weapons you'll usually find Damage, Delay, and occasionally other stats.

HP and MP are pretty obvious if you've ever played any RPG with them before, but for completeness sake HP is the value the enemy has to damage you before you die (and the maximum is the most of it you can have), while MP is used for casting many spells. As a Thief you should have an okay amount of HP and roughly no MP.

For the other stats (and this is not a complete list), STR indirectly boosts your Attack stat and how much damage your melee hits do, DEX increases your accuracy, and crit rate (and boosts the damage ratings of your Sneak Attacks), VIT indirectly boosts your Defense stat, lowers your enemy's crit rate, and plays a minor role in many healing abilities, AGI indirectly increases you evasion rate, parrying rate, shield block rate, and ranged accuracy (and boosts the damage of your Trick Attacks), INT indirectly boosts the magic accuracy and damage Black Magic spells do, indirectly lowers how much Black Magic spells damage you by a small amount (and boosts the effects of certain items like Bloody Bolts), MND indirectly boosts the magic accuracy and damage White Magic spells do, indirectly lowers how much White Magic spells damage you by a small amount, and plays a decent role in how powerful Cure spells are, CHR mostly affects Bard's Song accuracy, and Beastmaster and Dancer abilities, and plays a small role in resisting Bard songs from enemy mobs.

Damage plays a role in how hard you hit mobs, and Delay plays a role in how fast you hit mobs. One useful number to know is the DPS of a weapon, which is [(DMG rating of weapon) x 60] / (Delay of weapon), although you'll have an easier time of just looking at your weapon on the FFXIAH page for it to find the DPS. This is useful for comparing the balance of Damage to Delay on a weapon at a glance.

As you get very high in level you'll find that hitting faster without necessarily having to have a vastly lower damage weapon becomes more of a priority, which will introduce you to the single best stat in FFXI, Haste. Haste is amazing in that the more you have of it, the better it works, however it has caps (total cap is around 80%), even between sources of Haste. Haste from gear caps around 25%, and the other most common form of Haste, the spell Haste, gives 15% of it. Haste even lowers spell recast times, making it even useful for mages.

It's a bit lengthy, and could probably be formatted better, but I imagine it might be able to help. While self-research is the best way to get information on your terms in FFXI, asking questions when you can't figure things out (especially when you're in a party situation) is essential, so ask for clarification if you need it. I'm sure that even if I don't have the answer that someone else here will probably have it.

[Lithera]

People don't talk much in /say and the starter cities are mostly afk mules. Most of the chatting done on Shiva is done by those in /shout or /yell in Jeuno or Adoulin. Not sure if its been said yet but keep your crystals for when you rank up and your beastmen seals. Unfortunately Bastock doesn't have many easy to repeat quests that will raise your fame like Windrust and Sandoria. Try and get bounding boots off from Leaping Lizzy as you can wear them for a loooong time. Weapon upgrades tend to be more important than armor. For non mages I would say armor if you're lacking on funds can be upgraded every 10 lvs. For mages you can stretch it to every 20 at lower levels. Try and keep you skills near if not at cap, because if they are too low then you will have a whiff fest or hit for 0. Also if a Mage your nukes will do the same or your debuffs will wear faster. If a healer then you will run out of mp faster because your cures won't be at cap. Sell things that don't sell for much on the AH at npcs. Right now I hate to say it but a good reason why it looks like no one is on Shiva is because the new zones are still shiney and is crack to so many of the older players.

[Kolnan]

Some good advice in this thread! Thanks for the info guys =)

[Yunel]

A while later....

so i've done a few things... Now am blocke bacause of those limit break quest. Anyhow I've done most advise from here. Now I wish I would make more friend on that game. People are very close minded I think but those who do talk are nice.

Anyways I cannot transfer so I will stick to Shiva I guess....

[Lithera]

After looking at your character info it seems you are stuck on the lv 60 cap quest, correct? Those will need an escort who can sleep groups at a minimum and kill NMs at best. Also the part in Davoi will need someone with the key item.