Few questions from a new player

Hi guys, I am a newbee and I have a few questions about the game.
How does the party looting system work? Does the one who attacks first get the loots or all people get them?
I have achieved lvl 20 and i am unable to ride on my mount, is there a quest for it?
How do i use barding?
And what do minions do?
Thanks a lot

loot
1. for equipment = every1 can greed or pass but some jobs can need for some equipments (need overwrite greed)
2. for item = random person in the party

mount
go ur main quest

barding
under choco equipment

minions
nothing much, imo, for show only

Important loot drops are handled by a need greed pass system where jobs that can equip that gear can roll need, if multiple people roll need the drop is determined by a random generated number that is generated upon pressing need, the greed option is for players who can not equip the gear however need>greed so a need roll will beat a greed roll.
Mounts are unlocked by completing the storyline quests, you will be asked to join the grand company of one of the three nations, from there you can use company seals to purchase a chocobo.
To use a barding select it from your inventory and select use, then when you have a chocobo, go to your character menu and select companions, click it to open your chocobo menu where you can assign skill points, in the bottom right will be three equipment slots where you can now select and equip your barding.
Minions do nothing they are vanity items.

thanks a lot

Loot:
As erikdaae and Bingopajamas mentioned, dungeon loot is handled by Need/Greed/Pass for significant items and a random party member for minor ones. When you're on the open landscape and fighting monsters for drop items, it's a little different because you won't necessarily be grouped with other people who fight the same mobs. In that case, there's two ways of earning loot.

1) If you're the first person to strike a mob, you're guaranteed any loot it drops as well as XP and kill credit for quests, hunting log, etc. (Mobs you tagged this way are identifiable by a red health bar, and those tagged by other people by a purple one.)
2) If you're not the first person to strike it, but you do at least 1/3 of the damage to kill it, you also get full loot and kill credit (so mobs can end up dropping double or triple their normal amount of loot if multiple players are involved in killing them).

So helping never decreases the loot the first person who tagged it gets, even if the helper ends up getting loot as well.

Mount
The mount doesn't strictly come from the main quest line, but the main quest line will have you join a Grand Company. Once you do, there's a quest to get a Chocobo, but you'll have to earn a bunch of GC seals to do so (2000 of them IIRC). The chocobo quest itself is actually identified as a side quest rather than a main storyline one (presumably because they didn't want to stop the story there long enough for you to earn that many seals), but since it has a main storyline prerequisite and pretty much everyone starts working on the chocobo quest as soon as the main storyline unlocks it, people think of it as coming from the main storyline.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

2) If you're not the first person to strike it, but you do at least 1/3 of the damage to kill it, you also get full loot and kill credit (so mobs can end up dropping double or triple their normal amount of loot if multiple players are involved in killing them).

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This is true for XP, quest items, and kill credit, but not the normal items dropped by enemies. Normal drops only go to the person/party with the tag (the first one to strike). No matter how much damage you do, you will not be getting that Beast Sinew unless the enemy is red to you.