Since the implementation of cross-world party finder, statics don’t have to be on the same server anymore, much less the same FC. At least, if you aren’t going for hardcore, world-first progression. I think a lot of the hardcore FCs (e.g., Elysium, Entropy, etc.) generally want players to be in their FC, but if you aren’t in a hardcore group, it generally doesn’t even matter. There are hardcore groups that are cross-server, so it’s not a hard-and-fast rule. You will probably be required to have a Discord though; most statics organize things like schedules in voice apps like Discord.


Average item level is going to change come 5.0. Each tier that comes out has minimum requirements for each floors; these can be bypassed when you queue in with a full group, but it’s generally recommended to have at least a full set of HQ crafted gear for each new tier.

Deltascape came out with i320 crafted gear, with Savage dropping i340 gear and an i345 weapon.
Sigmascape came out with i350 crafted gear, with Savage dropping i370 gear and an i375 weapon.
Alphascape came out with i380 crafted gear, with Savage dropping i400 gear and an i405 weapon.

You can expect similar ranges to this going into 5.0, as well as the new tiers in 5.2 and 5.4 — each tier will introduce crafted gear 20 item levels below the Savage gear, and that’s generally what you should have going into it. Though the first two floors can be cleared in gear from the previous tier if your group is good, it’s generally recommended to go in with fully melded crafted gear—accessories should have Vitality melded into their first slot for survivability until you get Savage gear to bump up your DEF/M.DEF and HP.