Quote Originally Posted by REDace0 View Post
Invite some people to do your leves with you. Even if they don't have any or don't have the same ones, you'll get a bonus to SP just for having more people in the party.
I don't think this is right. You actually get less SP per mob when you have more people in your party. It's just that a) the mobs are much easier to kill, so you can run the leves on more stars; b) you can kill them more quickly; and c) if everyone is within +5/-10 levels, the SP you get is diminished in such a small amount that it's hardly noticeable. Here's a chart listing the SP you get per party size (link in text; chart from Kanican). Please note that this is from about patch 1.15, but I think it's still accurate for parties up to 8.

So if you have a party of 3 people, all of whom are within 5 levels of each other, then everyone will get 90% of the SP they'd get if they were soloing. But with a party of 3, you can run your leves on a higher number of stars, and you'll still have an easier time completing them. That means you'll end up getting more SP, instead of less.

If you're partying with players that are not within 5 levels of you, you'll see a pretty significant drop in SP. You'll lose about half of the SP you'd be getting if you were soloing.

As for the OP, Robert and Poppa are exactly right. The best way to level up is to get into a party. Most parties are groups of people in the same linkshell. So ask your linkshell mates if anyone wants to run leves with you. Of course, some linkshells are more active than others. So if you're having trouble finding people in your linkshell to run leves with, you can join up to 8 linkshells at the same time.

(Most talking in the game occurs via linkshell chat. I assure you people are talking to each other. They're probably just doing it by linkshell chat, or by /tell. Again, if your linkshell is pretty quiet -- and some are more quiet than others -- you can always join more than one linkshell.)

After leves, the next easiest way to level is behest. Like Robert and Poppa said, you can join behests every 30 minutes at any camp. They're like free leves that you can run every 30 minutes. I know people who, after they finish their leves, just sit at a camp and run behest every 30 minutes for the rest of the day.

You can also grind. Zam has a Wiki on good campsites that you can look up to find some good spots to grind. But, as usual, the best way to do it is in a party.

As for money, you've got 700K gil and you're only level 20. That's actually much better than I was at that point. And money is going to be easier to get as you continue to level up. The rewards you get from leves will actually increase as you level up. Rank 40 leves can sometimes give surprisingly high rewards. And faction leves can give shockingly good rewards. When you exchange leves, you can get over 50,000 gil from one leve.

So in terms of money, just be patient. You've got a surprising amount of money right now. If you continue to save, you'll have tons by the time you hit 50. And if you start leveling crafts and selling goods that people want to buy, you'll have more money than you know what to do with.

Welcome back to the game, and good luck!