Side Quests XP is a joke

Right now the awarded experience for side-quests is beyond laughable. For a level 90-99 synced quests you get between 300 and 480k experience. For a level 90 job, that means they have to do more than 40 side-quests to gain a single level up.
I tried to level along a second job from side-quests alone, and even with some 40-ish FATES in addition to the every single side-quest, the job only went to level 94.
Did someone set a comma wrong or something?

For comparison on level 90 a single elephant tribe quests gives 1.12 million XP, and rewards tomestones and a token on top.

Please increase the rewards for synced quests DRASTICALLY. Right now, with the exception of those rewarding items, they are entirely pointless. A single FATE is quicker to finish and rewards more XP, fills up the Shared FATE counter and gives bicolour gems to boot.
The rewards for side-quests were never exactly great to begin with, but with each expansion, they get less and less in relation to the XP needed for a single level up.
In Shadowbringers, IIRC I got a job to 77 from the side-quests of the .0 release, which is already very little, but still more than double of where the Dawntrail quests get you.

Don't let the work you yourself put into those quests go to waste by making them so unappealing to bother with, barely anyone will ever see them.

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Originally Posted by No_Nick_Needed

Don't let the work you yourself put into those quests go to waste by making them so unappealing to bother with, barely anyone will ever see them.

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This comes up all the time.

The side quests are not intended to be an alternate leveling patch. They are there to add additional lore for each zone. Those who like getting the side lore will do the quests (and the number is more than you seem to think). The XP reflects the minimal effort required to complete those quests.

Those who aren't interested in the side lore don't have to do the quests. They're completely optional. By keeping the XP earned low, no one in the position of feeling like they're mandatory to do.

As you point out, FATEs are still available for those looking to level in open world content. Join a good FATE group and you'll get about a level of experience every 40-50 minutes in zones appropriate for your level.

Hunt bills are another option. Completing a set of 3 DT hunt bills rewards approximately 6.5 million XP each day you do them (varies slightly depending on your job's actual level) and shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to complete (most of that being travel time).

You did not get that much experience from Shadowbringers side quests. We get this same complaint every expansion and Shadowbringers was no exception. Shadowbringers just happened to be the first time that XP on the side quests scaled to job level. The XP earned was still substandard in the eyes of players looking for easy ways to get additional XP. Here's an old reddit post to read on that very subject:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ide_quest_exp/

They're not intended to level another class, but why not? Effort?
There's lot's of instances on MSQ that we're taking the role of cameraman and are showered with exp.

It would be extremely nice if we could get at least halfway from cap with just side quest.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

This comes up all the time.

The side quests are not intended to be an alternate leveling patch. They are there to add additional lore for each zone. Those who like getting the side lore will do the quests (and the number is more than you seem to think). The XP reflects the minimal effort required to complete those quests.

Those who aren't interested in the side lore don't have to do the quests. They're completely optional. By keeping the XP earned low, no one in the position of feeling like they're mandatory to do.

As you point out, FATEs are still available for those looking to level in open world content. Join a good FATE group and you'll get about a level of experience every 40-50 minutes in zones appropriate for your level.

Hunt bills are another option. Completing a set of 3 DT hunt bills rewards approximately 6.5 million XP each day you do them (varies slightly depending on your job's actual level) and shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to complete (most of that being travel time).

You did not get that much experience from Shadowbringers side quests. We get this same complaint every expansion and Shadowbringers was no exception. Shadowbringers just happened to be the first time that XP on the side quests scaled to job level. The XP earned was still substandard in the eyes of players looking for easy ways to get additional XP. Here's an old reddit post to read on that very subject:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ide_quest_exp/

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If they are solely intended to flash out the lore, why do the give xp at all, and aren't of the no-xp variant, like the level 100 quests, or the Endwalker level 90 quests, ect?
Why does exploring the lore and grinding for XP have to be seperate activities? We currently have 21 jobs in the game that can go to 100: Is leveling a single one of those 21 jobs through to 100 with side-quests really too much to ask?

There's a pretty easy way to make these still rewarding. Not to pull from WoW but a zone reputation system would be nice, make it have small benefits like faster ground speed to catch up during the MSQ or more bicolor gemstones per fate etc. Small enough that they aren't required but are a nice benefit to those who want to complete them.

I think from what I remember they nerfed the exp and put it into the MSQ so people wouldn't feel required to do the side quests, so they likely won't do that unless they become available after the MSQ is complete.

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Originally Posted by No_Nick_Needed

If they are solely intended to flash out the lore, why do the give xp at all, and aren't of the no-xp variant, like the level 100 quests, or the Endwalker level 90 quests, ect?
Why does exploring the lore and grinding for XP have to be seperate activities? We currently have 21 jobs in the game that can go to 100: Is leveling a single one of those 21 jobs through to 100 with side-quests really too much to ask?

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Ask SE why they give any XP.

Level cap quests give no XP because XP is useless at level cap. I don't know why they give the level cap MSQ from prior expansions the minute amount of XP they give. It feels pointless. Again, something to ask SE since only they know why in those cases.

Ultimately, they want players choosing group content for leveling additional jobs to keep queues filled. They do offer some solo content for those that prefer to avoid group content for whatever reason but those options are intentionally made less optimal for leveling than group content.

Keep in mind I'm not saying they shouldn't do it. I'm fine if they do, I'm fine if they don't. But they have shared some of their reasoning over the past decade and I'm passing that on. Primarily, they want group content to be the best way to level and so they leave other options less efficient.

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Originally Posted by Kalocin

There's a pretty easy way to make these still rewarding. Not to pull from WoW but a zone reputation system would be nice, make it have small benefits like faster ground speed to catch up during the MSQ or more bicolor gemstones per fate etc. Small enough that they aren't required but are a nice benefit to those who want to complete them.

I think from what I remember they nerfed the exp and put it into the MSQ so people wouldn't feel required to do the side quests, so they likely won't do that unless they become available after the MSQ is complete.

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They've never nerfed the XP from side quests. It's always been an extremely poor way to level going back to when I started just before HW.

The XP numbers did change at Shadowbringer's launch but that's because the numbers squish was being done across the board and XP was included just as much as player stats were. If you were to look at the XP number as a percentage of what was needed to gain a level, there was virtually no difference.

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Originally Posted by Balmung_Griffin

They're not intended to level another class, but why not? Effort?
There's lot's of instances on MSQ that we're taking the role of cameraman and are showered with exp.

It would be extremely nice if we could get at least halfway from cap with just side quest.

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I'm going to start leveling another side job soon. Being the curious type, I'll do my best to avoid all other content and see how far I get with just the side quests. I'll have to go back to see how much XP was lost by doing the side quests for Aether currents while working on MSQ. Fortunately, I haven't started Cornservant yet on this character so I don't have to worry about adding that in.

The whole argument about making side-quests unrewarding to encourage leveling up in groups is rather... dubious, in light of how many steps they also take, to make it possible to play more and more parts of the game solo. Not to mention that running TRUST dungeons, which by their very nature are also done alone with NPCs, is also considerably more rewarding in terms of XP than side-quests, and you can do them as often as you like, while side-quests are available once and then finished.

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Originally Posted by No_Nick_Needed

The whole argument about making side-quests unrewarding to encourage leveling up in groups is rather... dubious, in light of how many steps they also take, to make it possible to play more and more parts of the game solo. Not to mention that running TRUST dungeons, which by their very nature are also done alone with NPCs, is also considerably more rewarding in terms of XP than side-quests, and you can do them as often as you like, while side-quests are available once and then finished.

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It's what we've been told.

That we're a decade into the game and they continue leave side quest XP on the low side despite the steady string of player complaints year after year says they're not interested in changing the system.

As for Trust/Duty Support, they were added to try to attract FF franchise fans that were used to playing solo with a group of NPCs. They came with the side benefit of helping players with anxiety issues and those wanting to avoid possibly long waits in queue.

You also have to do a lot more work in Trust/Duty Support. If you die, it's an automatic wipe. Your NPCs don't continue without you. Of course they're going to reward considerably more XP. There is your go-to option if you're trying to level faster and don't want to queue through normal Duty Finder for whatever reason.

I don't see you getting SE to add more XP on the side quests after a decade of players trying but good luck in your quest (pun intended).

Did the main city side-quests, and zones 3, 4 & 5 on my level 90 ninja. Got 1 level. It was pretty pathetic.
Given they're such a limited thing, they really should reward about 3x as much, making them about equal to MSQ quests.

It's all well and good to say "well they're not". Yes we realize they're not. That's why the thread suggests they should be.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

This comes up all the time.

The side quests are not intended to be an alternate leveling patch. They are there to add additional lore for each zone.

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If that is the case, I want the ability to hide all those annoying yellow bubbles on my map that block out aetherytes, vendors and such. The ones that seem to be getting more and more problematic due to ever increasing quantity each expansion.

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Originally Posted by AnimaAnimus

If that is the case, I want the ability to hide all those annoying yellow bubbles on my map that block out aetherytes, vendors and such. The ones that seem to be getting more and more problematic due to ever increasing quantity each expansion.

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I am 100% with you on this. We definitely need toggle options by icon type on the map.

I would even say it should go so far as adding a toggle to hide the side quest icons and other icons over NPC heads.

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Originally Posted by AnimaAnimus

If that is the case, I want the ability to hide all those annoying yellow bubbles on my map that block out aetherytes, vendors and such. The ones that seem to be getting more and more problematic due to ever increasing quantity each expansion.

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This. Give us a filter so we don't have to see them. You know how there are different quest bubbles for those quests that unlock content? Allow the filter to differentiate.

I'm just wrapping up EW quests on my sub-90 pictomancer. I do it after I do all dailies (roulettes, hunt marks, tribe quests). It is painful though. And I'm doing it mostly so I don't have to see the quest bubbles. I don't care so much about the lore at this moment. I care more about not seeing those quest bubbles.

I did every quest as it popped up while doing MSQ and I was able to level up multiple classes along the way. I feel like that’s the correct way to do these quests. By doing MSQ along with sidequests, and also grabbing nearby fates to unlock riding maps, I had to keep swapping classes to not outlevel the MSQ level. But I’m also a slower pace player so this process along with random daily duty finder I had one of each class type at max lvl by the time I finished MSQ.

I did all the sidequests on one job. Maybe it added up to 2 levels. Maybe. It is probably less painful if I cared about the lore. My wife reads some of the sidequests and she enjoyed them for what they are. I just wanted the icons off my map. So, it was painful.

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Originally Posted by dspguy

I did all the sidequests on one job. Maybe it added up to 2 levels. Maybe. It is probably less painful if I cared about the lore. My wife reads some of the sidequests and she enjoyed them for what they are. I just wanted the icons off my map. So, it was painful.

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I'm working on doing them all myself, though slowly since I'm also playing on my alts with friends. So far I have all the Tuliyollal side quests done. At level 90, it added up to a little over 4.4 mill XP or about one-third of a level.

That tracks with your estimate of about 2 levels.

I may end up spacing them out a bit with some other content in between so I can get the reward XP figures at each level. I want to confirm that they reward either a consistent percentage of a level or that the scaling changes based on level (at 90, it's about 2.8% of a level per quest). If the scaling changes, there may an efficient method to get the most out of them when it comes to XP.

Considering how many jobs there are in the game, I think side quests should give more XP if only to add a bit of variety to the leveling process. Maybe add xp for NG+ too. We’re going to get even more jobs in a few years.


I did all the side quests in FFXIV because I like lore but they are definitely not good for leveling.