Brand new player growing extremely frustrated very quickly.

I just started playing the game today. It's doing a wonderful job of making me feel like I'm a helpless idiot. The first, and most immediate problem I'm having is that list of chat commands from this link appear to be non-functional. None of them work except for /say and /yell. Everything else tells me it's not available at this time.

I really need to join the novice network so I can ask for tips and help as I'm learning the game. But /n and /novice both failed to work. What am I doing wrong?

Additionally, I'm level 6 and am trying to complete Dressed for Call as a Marauder. I apparently need hundreds of gil worth of gear and I barely have 100 gil after 6 levels. If I have to kill stuff randomly to save up it's going to take me hours to finish this little low level nothing quest. And yes, I've sold everything in my inventory.

I was told by two friends who played in the past that I should only run unlock quests and main story quests. Were they wrong? Should I go back to the city and pick up a bunch of side quests to earn some gil? Or am I missing something else?

I want to like this game. I really do. But so far all it has done is make me want to quit and do something else. Any help would be appreciated. I'm going to bed in the meantime.

Hello, welcome to Eorzéa :)

For the Dressed for Call, you actually can wear your race gear - the one you were wearing at the start of the game - for it to work. It is the right ilvl and will do just fine. You might just need to buy one equipment to complete the set.

To join the Novice Network, you need to ask a Mentor to invite you there, if I remember correctly. Are you on the trial version ? If you are, then some commands might not work yet.

I hope I could be of some help to you, have a nice day !

Well, it depends on how you want to play. Do you just want to quickly get through the story to catch up with your friends, or do you want to take your time? Because you usually get all the gear you need for your current level from sidequests, so you barely have to spend any money at all on gear,

Yeah, you dont specifically mention if youre on the free trial or not. The trial locks some features of the game to make it less useful for RMT bots. The downside of that is that some actual players dont get a real feel for how the game works. As for novice, DarkMasa was correct that you need to be invited into the novice network for the chat channel to open. As a marauder, standing near the market board in Limsa and /say or /yell for an invite and usually one will be forthcoming right away. As for that quest, if i remember right its just kinda checking if youve figured out how to equip gear and making sure you have some. Assuming you didnt sell the outfit you started out in, just equiping the hat chest gloves legs and feet will meet the requirement for the quest, allowing you to continue. It is an incredible game if you can get into it, and feel free to ask if you have further questions.

First of all, thank you for the replies. I'm encouraged to receive feedback so quickly and for it to all be helpful. That speaks well of the community.

And I bought the full version of the game, used the registration code in my account page and installed the additional updates that come with that. So I'm in the full version, as far as I can tell. It came with a free month of subscription, so I haven't inputted a credit card yet, but I can if that's necessary to fully unlock all the features.

And I'm still in my race gear except for a pair of boots I got at the beginning of Dressed for Call. It's all showing as level 1 gear so apparently it's not sufficient. :(

If the answer is to run side quests, I'm happy to do that. I only avoided them because I was told they were a waste of time. I'm not in a rush to get to endgame.

Thanks again.

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Originally Posted by Torvin

I was told by two friends who played in the past that I should only run unlock quests and main story quests.

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There's so much to do other than main story in this game. Don't limit yourself.
No matter what you do, playing through A Realm Reborn and 3 full expansions is gonna take quite some time, and if you just try and blitz it down you're gonna burn out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Torvin

And I'm still in my race gear except for a pair of boots I got at the beginning of Dressed for Call. It's all showing as level 1 gear so apparently it's not sufficient. :(

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That's strange, I'm convinced that putting on your race gear is enough. I've always done that with my alts. Are you sure all the slots are equiped ? It's only head, body, legs and feet, so you should have everything— except the head.

Perhaps you need to get an helmet ? Or look around if a side quest gives you one as a reward :)

You're on Gigglemesh? I'm on Sargatarga.
Let me know when you're gonna be online.
We can meet up and I'll literally buy you a full set of gear ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Torvin

First of all, thank you for the replies. I'm encouraged to receive feedback so quickly and for it to all be helpful. That speaks well of the community.

And I bought the full version of the game, used the registration code in my account page and installed the additional updates that come with that. So I'm in the full version, as far as I can tell. It came with a free month of subscription, so I haven't inputted a credit card yet, but I can if that's necessary to fully unlock all the features.

Be sure to use the icon that tells you what you can equip and then gives you a 'ok, do it' button. It's above your picture when you look at your character.

And I'm still in my race gear except for a pair of boots I got at the beginning of Dressed for Call. It's all showing as level 1 gear so apparently it's not sufficient. :(

If the answer is to run side quests, I'm happy to do that. I only avoided them because I was told they were a waste of time. I'm not in a rush to get to endgame.

Thanks again.

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You will get most of the level 5 gear from the quests you get running around the starting city. Do those for sure. You'll have to spend gil on a pair of pants because ... why? I dunno, but there are no level 5 pants as quest rewards for some reason. Certain chat commands don't work until you get past the initial set of quests in the starting city. (Just like you can't do anything except take the elevator down from the Drowning Wench until you finish the initial MSQ quest.)

There are a few useful chat commands that you will use a lot: /say, /shout, /fc, /party ... the rest you may find out about later, they're not really useful to start out. /tell now appears to require the homeworld, so it's easier to right click on a name you see in chat and then select 'tell' from the menu.

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Originally Posted by DarkMasamune

That's strange, I'm convinced that putting on your race gear is enough. I've always done that with my alts. Are you sure all the slots are equiped ? It's only head, body, legs and feet, so you should have everything— except the head.

Perhaps you need to get an helmet ? Or look around if a side quest gives you one as a reward :)

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I think you are correct. I was looking at the green text below the Item Level in the hover over box when checking the items. I think I just need the head slot filled and I can move forward. Thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ItMe

You're on Gigglemesh? I'm on Sargatarga.
Let me know when you're gonna be online.
We can meet up and I'll literally buy you a full set of gear ;)

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Thank you for the offer, that's kind. But I'd like to make this work myself. I just didn't want to grind low level mobs for a hours to do it. Heh.

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Originally Posted by Torvin

Thank you for the offer, that's kind. But I'd like to make this work myself. I just didn't want to grind low level mobs for a hours to do it. Heh.

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Hey yo, I get that.
Though if you're just looking to come into some quick gil I believe that side quests are much more rewarding than grinding mobs.
Also, if you complete the Hall of the Novice you can get about 2k gil and a nice pile of exp. That should go a long way at level 6.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ItMe

Hey yo, I get that.
Though if you're just looking to come into some quick gil I believe that side quests are much more rewarding than grinding mobs.
Also, if you complete the Hall of the Novice you can get about 2k gil and a nice pile of exp. That should go a long way at level 6.

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Level 15 before you can do Hall of the Novice, but it'll gear you up for the first three dungeon instances in the MSQ, give you the gil, and perhaps teach you a little bit about what that orange 'tell' on the ground means... definitely worthwhile. Plus you get that nice ring that adds 30% to your XP until you hit level 30 [on every class you work on].

As an addendum to a previous post: do your Class Quests. Level 5 class quests gives you your chest piece.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ItMe

Hey yo, I get that.
Though if you're just looking to come into some quick gil I believe that side quests are much more rewarding than grinding mobs.
Also, if you complete the Hall of the Novice you can get about 2k gil and a nice pile of exp. That should go a long way at level 6.

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Yep. Just logged in and ran a few "go explore the city" quests and picked up a quick 200 gil.

I really appreciate all the helpful replies from everyone. I'm feeling much better about this than I was last night.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Torvin

And I'm still in my race gear except for a pair of boots I got at the beginning of Dressed for Call. It's all showing as level 1 gear so apparently it's not sufficient. :(

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Note that there are two level values for your gear. It's primarily level 1 gear (this you can equip it at level 1) but it's also "item level 5" in the black bar on the description panel and this is what the quest is actually looking for.

(Item level only really becomes important after level 50 - up until then it's usually the same value as the equip level.)

The only thing you actually need to buy - or ideally pick up from a sidequest - is a hat. I think the game intends that you've done all the level 1 quests around the town and collected gear from there as well. One of those quests will have a hat as a reward.

It's worthwhile doing sidequests - particularly your class/job quests (which are necessary for learning a lot of your skill set) and anything marked with a blue marker and plus symbol, which will unlock some kind of game feature.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Torvin

The first, and most immediate problem I'm having is that list of chat commands from this link appear to be non-functional. None of them work except for /say and /yell. Everything else tells me it's not available at this time.

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A number of those relate to game modes and features you won't have access to yet, so don't fret about that. They'll work when you can use them.

If you havent put in credit card info yet, another great piece of advice would be to snag a friend code. They get rewards for "recruiting" you, you also get free stuff to help you out. A hat that gives bonus exp, some gear coupons, free teleport tickets. That sort of thing. The thread at the top of this forum almost always has some current codes waiting to be claimed.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

If you havent put in credit card info yet, another great piece of advice would be to snag a friend code. They get rewards for "recruiting" you, you also get free stuff to help you out. A hat that gives bonus exp, some gear coupons, free teleport tickets. That sort of thing. The thread at the top of this forum almost always has some current codes waiting to be claimed.

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Thanks for this. And I wanted to thank everyone who chimed in here again. I'm really enjoying the game now and I'm glad I didn't let my early frustration taint the experience. This is a fantastic community.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Torvin

First of all, thank you for the replies. I'm encouraged to receive feedback so quickly and for it to all be helpful. That speaks well of the community.

And I bought the full version of the game, used the registration code in my account page and installed the additional updates that come with that. So I'm in the full version, as far as I can tell. It came with a free month of subscription, so I haven't inputted a credit card yet, but I can if that's necessary to fully unlock all the features.

And I'm still in my race gear except for a pair of boots I got at the beginning of Dressed for Call. It's all showing as level 1 gear so apparently it's not sufficient. :(

If the answer is to run side quests, I'm happy to do that. I only avoided them because I was told they were a waste of time. I'm not in a rush to get to endgame.

Thanks again.

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Try doing some more questing. Side-quests, and also the Main Story Quest (unless that is what you're hung up on). Some sidequests give you free gear, and I think what that quest is trying to do is get you to do other quests to get gear. It's been awhile, but I do seem to remember an early quest wanting you to do quests and I had to look around to find all the sidequests to do until I could pass that quest.

Early-game you don't want to skip the side-quests because they are a good source of gil and pieces of gear to fill slots, definitely wanna do the side-quests.

Perhaps around Level 20 or some-such you can back off on the side-questing some, because you will have dungeon roulettes available then and you'll get far more XP, gil, GC seals, etc out of those to get you whatever you need.

EDIT: Also, with side-questing... I suggest doing side-quests again early in an expansion. For example when you get to Ishgard in Heavensward quests (you'll know when you get there), you should do some sidequests to keep your gear current unless you ground up tomestones to fill all slots with ironworks gear (and same goes again when you start Stormblood, unless you're already wearing full Shire gear). Sometimes, the main story quest will leave you lacking in gear a little when it comes to jewelry and you might fall short of a required item-level to Q for your next dungeon. And I suppose that's another point -- as soon as you can, make sure you keep a steady stream of Tomestones of Poetics when you get to 50+. Probably the easiest way to get gil and gear. Until then, just keep at the dungeons, the daily Leveling Roulette and you'll easily keep ahead on XP.