I made an alt and played for 10h.

[AstreaLove]

I decided to make an alt, play it for 10h just to see how far you can get in that amount of time, and what you can potentially unlock as if you were a new player.

And here are the results.

As I played the alt I decided that I would skip cutscenes, just to save some time. I also decided to play as an Arcanist, since that would give me the option to seamlessly switch between SMN & SCH later on, after all having more options is always good, I also decided to unlock Maurader since they also start in Limsa, just like Arcanist also do.

For the MSQ I stoped right before "The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak" meaning I cleared 3 dungeons Sastasha, Tam-Tara Deepcroft & Copperbell Mines, and I also cleared 1 trial The Bowl of Embers.
I think it's possible to have gone further than this within the 10 hours, however I also decided to check out some different things.

As for class quests, I did all of the Arcanist quests up until level 30, and unlocked both Summoner & Scholar, I also played Maurader up to level 8.

In 10 hours I was also able to unlock my Grand Company, and got my first mount, and the ability to use the chocobo as a companion in battle, and I also unlocked the Gold Saucer.

Basically, I was able to get quite much done in just 10 hours, obviously I have prior knowledge which is helpful, but I think it's neat that you can get quite far in such a short amount of time.
I was originally worried that you wouldn't even get to do the first dungeons in that time frame, or even get to unlock neither mounts nor get to do the Gold Saucer, I'm glad that I was wrong, since this means at least you get to experience some of the fun things this game has to offer quite early on.

I don't know if this is useful, but as a sample size of 1 person. I think that it's interesting to see that you potentially as a new player could get quite much done in a relatively short amount of time.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Testing how far you can get in a set amount of time with an alt is going to give a mildly inaccurate result as you will have more knowledge of the game than a completely new player.

[VeyaAkemi]

Testing how far you can get in a set amount of time with an alt is going to give a mildly inaccurate result as you will have more knowledge of the game than a completely new player.

The third line in the OP shows exactly this, I actually agree that starting as Arcanist is objectively the best start you can have, as the versatility between SMN and SCH is unmatched, and you can either pick up WAR or wait until 60 and pick up GNB and have all 3 roles, all at very little cost, only locking your starting city to Limsa, this will guarantee a much smoother experience, allow you to adapt to ques as they come, so on... and also it's something a new player would have zero clue to do.

It's an element that maybe wouldn't have shown in those 10 hours experience, but it highlights how just understanding the game will bias your behavior and lead to harshly different results, and if someone went further, that is say, "all of ARR", it would become very visible.

[CVXIV]

this seems like a very flawed test

[AstreaLove]

this seems like a very flawed test

Of course it's flawed. It's not like I could clone myself 100 times and get 100 different results, and it's not like I could pretend to not know what I was doing either.
Obviously a larger sample size would yield more possible outcomes.

But I also think you missed the point. The test wasn't made to be accurate, but to see what's realistically possible to do within the timeframe.

Like for instance I could have reached level 10, and then unlock Fishing and stay in Limsa and fish for 9 hours, or I could have started in Ul'dah get to level 15 asap, and then make a B-line to the Gold Saucer, and spend like 7h in there.
There is a lot of things I could have done differently, like for instance directly after Copperbell I could have done POTD, there's a lot of options that open up at the start of the first 10 hours. But I picked the one that I assume most new players will go for.

That being said, feel free to test this on your own, see what you can come up with.

[AstreaLove]

The third line in the OP shows exactly this, I actually agree that starting as Arcanist is objectively the best start you can have, as the versatility between SMN and SCH is unmatched, and you can either pick up WAR or wait until 60 and pick up GNB and have all 3 roles, all at very little cost, only locking your starting city to Limsa, this will guarantee a much smoother experience, allow you to adapt to ques as they come, so on... and also it's something a new player would have zero clue to do.

It's an element that maybe wouldn't have shown in those 10 hours experience, but it highlights how just understanding the game will bias your behavior and lead to harshly different results, and if someone went further, that is say, "all of ARR", it would become very visible.

Yes, that's what the test was about in the first place. It's not about getting the most accurate data, but to see what's realistically possible within the time frame.
A new player most likely wouldn't have played it the way I did, but at the same time it is one of many possibilities, and that's what I intended to show.

[Fatch38]

already did that test with an alt, took 20h per expansion to unlock and do every battle content (hildibrand included because there are trials tied to it). finished dawntrail .0 patch with a 9 days /playtime (because i am still playing that alt to keep it up to date)

[Rinoa_353]

I did this but I started slowly doing more like unlocking other classes and it led to my alt becoming my second main lol.


Now I have two endgame characters that are pentamelded omnicraters and each own their own personal homes :3


But it's a lot of work since I essentially have to do content twice such as the current Moon relics (22 total) xD

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

[…]But it's a lot of work since I essentially have to do content twice such as the current Moon relics (22 total) xD

Thou art brave.

-Ahem-

That’s a big reason why I feel reluctant to unlock too many optional contents on alts—I don’t want to feel the completionist urge anymore… once is enough xD

[Aidorouge]

Thou art brave.

-Ahem-

That’s a big reason why I feel reluctant to unlock too many optional contents on alts—I don’t want to feel the completionist urge anymore… once is enough xD

I feel like it would be the opposite with me, trying to see how much I could get away with on an alt while keeping things completely minimal.

Like never unlocking job stones, and by extension any group content past level 29, just to see if I could reach level 100 on all classes using only the finite amount of content available to me below 30, lol.