Solo story as a new player

[Era_]

Hi all

I am a returning player, not played for some years. I read that shadowbringers brought a new system the 'trust' system which allows you to run dungeons with NPC's rather than having to group with randoms.

My question is simply, as I will make a new character does this mean you can run the group dungeons in the main story with this new trust system?

I read most places saying this is only available for the new shadowbringers dungeons, then some saying there is an unlock for this system also which is level 71?

I always liked this game, but am not interested in joining a FC or random groups for the story, simply interested in playing it as a solo game and wondered if this was now possible.

Thanks

[HyoMinPark]

Trust NPCs are only available for Shadowbringers dungeons, which start at level 71. They will unlock automatically during the Shadowbringers MSQ.

Keep in mind that you will still have to party with random players for 8-man trials. Trusts are only for 4-man dungeons.

[Era_]

Thats a shame, thanks for the reply though.

[Chyro]

An MMO doesn't seem the best place to go when looking for a single player experience.

Though guess aside from dungeons and trials, the story is single player.
But with the duty finder you can just queue up for the dungeon you need to do, no need to actively find other players to go with - it just puts you in with 3 other players that want to do the dungeon. (guess that's what you meant with random groups)
Could try to pretend that the other players are NPC's, if that helps. Most of the time there isn't much player interaction in the dungeons, aside from a 'Hi' at the start and a 'bye' or 'gg' at the end.

Though if you're like .. super determined to do the game in single-player, there is theoretically an option to do the dungeons / trials on your own (.. not sure how realistic it is though).
It's possible to enter a dungeon 'unsynched', which means the levels of the player(s) don't get reduced to the dungeon's level.
Theoretically if you outlevel a dungeon far enough you could clear them alone in this manner. Would need a lot of out-of-dungeon grinding though since dungeons themselves are usually the fastest way to level.
(not recommending this and probably really isn't fun.)

Also, wasn't there this thing where you could enter low level dungeons with the grand company squad?
Never did it myself, so someone else would need to explain it in detail. And not sure in how many dungeons it is possible, or if clearing the dungeons first the normal way is a requirement.

[Era_]

Yea i understand 'MMO's are not single player'. i have played many, and been in guilds/FC etc in lots of them over many years.

I simply enjoy FF for the style and story, not really bothered that its an MMO, nor doing dungeons/raids etc. Most of the story, levelling, crafting etc is all solo, would be nice just to not be blocked story wise with having to PUG for the 4 man ones in the questline.

Played my last one through in a FC, was just hoping i could come back and not have to as im not really interested in grouping and so forth at the moment.

Yea i thought that about the grand companies also, but not sure if its possible for the story ones etc

[Shema_Sheko]

but you will get stuck on the trials.. iam wating since saturday mornig for my HADES run... think i wont finish Shadowbringers this weekend. its a shame... all trials took at least 4 hours to fill them up

[HyoMinPark]

I mean, most dungeon or trial runs go by without anyone in the party saying much of anything, outside of “Hi o/“ and “Tyfp”. So it’s already like you’re playing with NPCs.

[Frizze]

Yea i thought that about the grand companies also, but not sure if its possible for the story ones etc

About half of the story dungeons are actually represented by the squadron, but the problem is unlocking them. You need to get up to 2nd lieutenant rank. One of the requirements for that is completing the level 47 dungeon. Thats an awful lot of grinding plus having to do a dungeon just to skip running some of the story dungeons with other players.

but you will get stuck on the trials.. iam wating since saturday mornig for my Dying Grasp run... think i wont finish Shadowbringers this weekend. its a shame... all trials took at least 4 hours to fill them up

Not that everyone cares about spoilers, but this is the new players help forum. Not the reason im responding though. What you describe isnt normal. A story-mode trial que shouldnt ever take 4 hours to fill - the trials roulette exists to fill these ques and mentor roulette feeds into them as well. Makes me wonder if theres something that can be done to fix. Your server is on one of the european data centers. Are you playing during euro-centric times? I would imagine you would get faster matches if you had other languages flagged. I believe the chaos center has more french speakers, and the light one has more german speakers(though i admit i could have those backwards). If you have any tank or healer friends who could que with you that would also speed up match making. The final bit of advice i always give is to try the party finder tool. Youd be surprised sometimes by how quickly a group can fill for any random content if you have a first time bonus to offer.