My Completionist Playthrough Challenge

[Alchemii]

Ok I posted this over on reddit, because I forgot just how toxic it is over there. And thus posting it here.

So back at the beginning of the month I made a reddit post talking about returning to the game with a brand new character, and somebody asked me to keep every updated with the details of the challenge. So here it is, The Update!

Starting off, do to real life situations my run through the game has been rather slow. I'll talk about that as a reply to this post. I started the challenge as an Archer, so Gridania starting area, and began doing all the quests in the area. This has been mostly fine and uneventful.

Side note: Little thing I totally forgot about existed, and I'm sure most people have, is the Armoury Bonus. For any job that is below the level of your Highest Level Job, you automatically get a 100% exp bonus. This is just a feature of the game, and I don't think it can be turned off.

Around lvl 20 I decided to drop the "No Exp Boosting" part of the challenge for now. The reason for this is because of Real Life, and the fact that I really wanted to do the Moonfire Faire event, which means getting lvl 30 and making my way to Limsa. So with that in mind I went ahead and equipped Menphina's Earring and the Brand-New Ring, and purchased the Nezha Lord outfit. These items and food total a 93% exp boost, while under level 30.

Doing the Gridinia part of the MSQ, all the surrounding side-quests, and the Hunting Log (only enemies found in the Black Shroud) got me to lvl 27. I then took the MSQ airship quest to get to Limsa and Ul'dah completing the Hunting Log rank 3 along the way. This got me to lvl 29.

I then continued on the MSQ to the first dungeon. Once completed I was lvl 30, and went straight into the Moonfire Faire event. Got my Sunshine Savoir (aka Power Rangers aka Kamen Rider) Outfit, and am now doing the Jumping Puzzle, which I am bad at.

Moving forward I'll be heading back to Gridania and ensuring all the side quests there are done, then begin the crafting and gather to make new gear. After that I'll change jobs to Warrior and do all the side quests in Limsa and La Noscea, before moving to Ul'dah.

[Alchemii]

-------------------------------------Real Life Situation----------------------------------------

Now let's talk about the reason I dropped the "No Exp Boosting" rule, soft dropped the crafted gear only rule, and has taken me a MONTH to make so little progress.

My current job was going to make this a very slow run to begin with, but I got hired for a new job. Now as many of you know getting a new job is already a bit stressful, will slow down gameplay as you get everything in order, and planning is important, but this is a little more. See right now I live in Western Washington, but the new job isn't in Western Washington, it's in the middle of Alaska. So along with all the normal stuff for a new job, I'm having to plan a long distance move, again not unusual... Oh and the Ferry system that would usually allow you to get to Alaska, well the half that let's you get to the roads that lead to the middle of Alaska are closed do to a lack of manpower. So my only option is to drive through Canada. Yea, I don't have a lot of time, and if I didn't use those items I don't think I would have made it to lvl 30 in time for the Moonfire Faire. After lvl 30 I'll try and go back to the crafted only option, but yea.

P.S.: Side note I do stream over on Twitch (for now), and do plan on streaming parts of this challenge, but obviously not doing that right now. Once I get settled and everything is up and running I'll do another update post and include the link if people want to watch and follow along.

[Ath192]

-------------------------------------Real Life Situation----------------------------------------

Now let's talk about the reason I dropped the "No Exp Boosting" rule, soft dropped the crafted gear only rule, and has taken me a MONTH to make so little progress.

My current job was going to make this a very slow run to begin with, but I got hired for a new job. Now as many of you know getting a new job is already a bit stressful, will slow down gameplay as you get everything in order, and planning is important, but this is a little more. See right now I live in Western Washington, but the new job isn't in Western Washington, it's in the middle of Alaska. So along with all the normal stuff for a new job, I'm having to plan a long distance move, again not unusual... Oh and the Ferry system that would usually allow you to get to Alaska, well the half that let's you get to the roads that lead to the middle of Alaska are closed do to a lack of manpower. So my only option is to drive through Canada. Yea, I don't have a lot of time, and if I didn't use those items I don't think I would have made it to lvl 30 in time for the Moonfire Faire. After lvl 30 I'll try and go back to the crafted only option, but yea.

P.S.: Side note I do stream over on Twitch (for now), and do plan on streaming parts of this challenge, but obviously not doing that right now. Once I get settled and everything is up and running I'll do another update post and include the link if people want to watch and follow along.

It's not that I don't root for you and wish you the best of luck but you don't have to give IRL deets, explain yourself about what is going on in your life and why you can't play a video game as often as you'd like. It's just really awkward to be hearing this sort of update on official feedback forums. It's weird since this is an official SE platform to receive feedback and not a personal social media account where you come to develop a following. If I were you I would at least encourage you to submit some sort of feedback of things you'd like to see happen so it fits in better.

I feel like I'm reading a diary here.

That's all I'll say, but best of luck to you.

[Jeeqbit]

All I know is I've done 100% completion of side quests and other things since ARR more or less. It's nothing special to be a completionist in an MMO and wanting to look at every sidequest before progressing is not that uncommon. I've had many friends do that in MMOs before and in this one I see sprouts discussing doing it too. So determined are they to clear their quest journal, that they queue for ARR extremes.

[Saraide]

Somebody asked I guess but are they even reading the forum?

[Iscah]

If you're going to blog your journey – and there's nothing wrong with it as such, I've been thinking of doing something similar – you need to write something more descriptive and interesting than "I did quests X, Y and Z" because people can get that from reading a list on a wiki.

[Tanis_Ebonhart]

I do every quest that I can. Though I did skip out on finishing Eureka and Bozja as I didn't find them fun.

[Renalt]

Somebody asked I guess but are they even reading the forum?

Let's be real...no body asked. Definitely not here and extremely likely not anywhere.