So I "speedran" 5 fresh characters to Endwalker+

[Syalyx]

As the title states, I was crazy enough to attempt to go for the fastest time possible for a full MSQ (ARR, Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, up-to-date patch 6.2 Endwalker) speedrun simply just for fun.

⚠ This post contains spoilers, click links at your own risk⚠

Here are my results:

First character was a Monk with a start-finish completion time of 4 days, 8 hours, 44 minutes up to patch 6.1.
Second character was a Ninja with a start-finish completion time of 4 days, 2 hours, and 24 minutes up to 6.1.
Third character was a Black Mage with a start-finish completion time of 3 days, 16 hours, 12 minutes up to 6.1.
Fourth character was a Paladin with a start-finish completion time of 3 days, 2 hours and 16 minutes up to patch 6.1.
And last but not least, a White Mage with (I'm pretty sure might be a world record) a staggering start-finish completion time of 2 days, 21 hours and 55 minutes up to patch 6.2.


The rules I made for myself since I couldn't find them anywhere on the internet:

1. Must be a fresh character
2. Must have proof of completion of the last dungeon per-expansion while still on the dungeon quest (can be a screenshot upon completion or video while running the dungeon) Check the youtube video link below as an example
3. CANNOT PURCHASE EXPANSION COMPLETIONS OR LEVEL BOOSTS
4. Solo Duty Finder Queuing ALL MSQ dungeons/trials EXCEPT for The Mothercrystal in Endwalker (My reasoning for this was: If you think you're "good" enough to speedrun an MMORPG or what I'd like to consider FFXIV, and RPG first with MMO elements, you're good enough to help/assist players along the way with ease without any issues) which is the only instance in which you can use Trust bots. Also, players are capable of pulling more than bots. The only negative from this rule is duty queue times, but that won't matter if you're a healer which I recommend.
5. Must be able to provide proof at will of having the Scion Adventurers/Travelers armor sets.
6. Must be able to provide screenshots of time completion times of the complete ARR, Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, up-to-date current patch of Endwalker (the point in which the music of QUEST ACCEPTED changes in-between progression of expansions if you think it's "world record" worthy) Check links below as an example
7. Job swapping is allowed. ie: WHM to Sage
8. Runs are purely based off of /playtime (please take breaks and don't try to do it all in one sitting)
9. Market is allowed.

Proof Examples:
⚠ SPOILER⚠
Paladin, Black Mage, Ninja, Monk 6.1 Completions ⚠(This is a Twitter link)⚠
WHM Expansion Completions Proof Example ⚠(This is a Twitter link)⚠
WHM 6.2 Proof Example ⚠(This is a Twitter image link)⚠
WHM Stormblood Last Dungeon Completion Proof Example ⚠(This is a YouTube link)⚠
⚠ SPOILER⚠

I hope this format can be used as a baseline for future speedruns, it's just a different way to play and enjoy the game. =) GLHF

[Clover_Blake]

This is awesome, hahahaha. I wish I had the time to do the same and just play FFXIV nonstop, sounds like fun!
(I'm a bit slow leveling my own alts).

[Syalyx]

This is awesome, hahahaha. I wish I had the time to do the same and just play FFXIV nonstop, sounds like fun!
(I'm a bit slow leveling my own alts).

It is fun! To me, it was just something else to do once I was weekly capped on my main character for the week.

[hydralus]

Did you grab aethercurrents? No idea if it's actually faster to grab them or just move onto the next area.

[Syalyx]

Did you grab aethercurrents? No idea if it's actually faster to grab them or just move onto the next area.

You're absolutely correct! Because you aren't in one zone for too long, it never made sense for me to grab any aethercurrents.
However now that I think about it, the only zone it would make sense to try that method at is the "Kholusia" area outside of Eulmore in Shadowbringers while waiting in queue for Mt. Gulg and The Crown of the Immaculate.

[Missbone]

Grats to that, here have a cookie. As next challenge you could try to find a job.

[Fhaerron]

Grats to that, here have a cookie. As next challenge you could try to find a job.

How do you know he doesn' thave a job?
Maybe he's a collage student and did this during his vacations in between new study years.
Or maybe he has a job and did this during his yearly vacations?


In short you don't know.


Stop assuming, it's rude.

[Missbone]

...

Well i know how long it takes to level a new char from Zero to max level. Assuming he didnt used a leveling and story skip potion for each char and skipped all cutscenes he would needed min 1 week for each char, playing all day. A regular person would more likely need around 2 weeks or more (depending on how long she plays each day). Lets assume he really just needed 1 week, that this alone would be at least 5 weeks. You don't have time for this if you have a normal job. Even if he has 30 days and took them all at once it would be crazy to waste them for something like this.

Btw. beeing a student doesn't count as a job, you are still learning and doesn't earn your own money. Except you have a part time job, but then also your time would be limited if you want to get a good degree.

[Syalyx]

I would have found it interesting to see the time spent on a physical ranged DPS.

I have to wonder if the longer queue time for MNK/NIN is because there are more players who like to play the melee jobs, or if it's only because there are more melee jobs to be leveled compared to the other DPS roles (5 melee versus 3 phys ranged and 3 magic ranged).

I thought that in normal mode, which is all you need for a speedrun, a dps is a dps and the type doesn’t matter when queuing. I often get paired with the same type of jobs. Most likely the difference lies elsewhere, op learned some tricks to make a faster run and/or ran at busier times. I don’t notice a difference when I queue melee vs range dps.

In response to both: I think what the game tries to right off the bat do is group/pool you (if you're a tank or healer) with a single melee DPS and a ranged dps (whether it be ranged physical or ranged caster) first then depending on the queue time, eliminates that factor and just pools you with everyone after a certain amount of time but I'm not entirely sure.

Maybe I'm just bad at it but I leveled 24 alts to level 50 and that alone takes me 3 days despite skipping cutscenes. Although I do unlock quests like the aesthetician, glamours, gold Saucer etc. Things that I find necessary. I always get stuck on Heavenward because I find HW so boring

IMO the worst expansion to run was always Stormblood because it's the longest (around 12-14 hours)

Well i know how long it takes to level a new char from Zero to max level. Assuming he didnt used a leveling and story skip potion for each char and skipped all cutscenes he would needed min 1 week for each char, playing all day. A regular person would more likely need around 2 weeks or more (depending on how long she plays each day). Lets assume he really just needed 1 week, that this alone would be at least 5 weeks. You don't have time for this if you have a normal job. Even if he has 30 days and took them all at once it would be crazy to waste them for something like this.

Btw. beeing a student doesn't count as a job, you are still learning and doesn't earn your own money. Except you have a part time job, but then also your time would be limited if you want to get a good degree.

As already stated, it took me 4-5ish months to complete all 5 characters which (rounded out) equates to a character per month if you think about it. The runs are based off of /playtime so you're allowed to log out and not be penalized for taking a break. From my experience, ARR takes about 20-22 hours skipping all cutscenes and the following expansions take around anywhere near 10-14 hours to complete each. Remember, this isn't any different than just simply playing the game itself for fun which takes even more time. Everyone has different ways of enjoying many things.
Sorry to have had offended you.

[LianaThorne]

Well i know how long it takes to level a new char from Zero to max level. Assuming he didnt used a leveling and story skip potion for each char and skipped all cutscenes he would needed min 1 week for each char, playing all day. A regular person would more likely need around 2 weeks or more (depending on how long she plays each day). Lets assume he really just needed 1 week, that this alone would be at least 5 weeks. You don't have time for this if you have a normal job. Even if he has 30 days and took them all at once it would be crazy to waste them for something like this.

Btw. beeing a student doesn't count as a job, you are still learning and doesn't earn your own money. Except you have a part time job, but then also your time would be limited if you want to get a good degree.

Some people have the ability to no life the game and be financially stable, especially with work from home being a thing now. One of the people in my raid group literally progs while in meetings lol.