New Player Guide (2017) by Aysha

Aysha's Brand New Player Walkthrough 1-99+Endgame-Ready Guide
(Please note that this is a WIP <--todo: remove when finished)

Hello! I am Aysha of Slyph, and I've decided to write a guide aimed at completely new players, or players who once played, but for some reason or another do not have access to their old accounts, or they decided to start an entirely new character because they feel so lost with their old character.

This guide is designed to get someone from Level 1 with absolutely nothing to Level 99 in a reasonably fast and efficient manner.

This is a walkthrough, and I will provide step-by-step instructions at first, but as the guide goes on, I am going to assume that you're learning things as you go, though important things I will stress.

This website is rather good for most early-game content, though please be aware that some information might be outdated. I will be referring to this side as "the wiki" in this Guide.

I'm not going to provide step-by-step details on specific quests (unless I feel it is important to do so), because they can be found on this wiki. I will, of course, give you the names of the quest(s) in question so that you can search for them and find them.

-- todo: actually put in wiki links instead --

I also want to make a couple caveats about this guide:

You can choose whatever race you want, make sure you pick whatever race you feel the best about. Your race cannot be changed by any means. However, I am going to ask you to pick Windurst as your starting Nation, and Thief as your starting job. There are various reasons for this, having to do with ease of travel as far as Windurst goes, and Thief... well, Thief has so many awesome tools to help the first-time leveler that I seriously cannot recommend starting as anything else.

So, before we go further, let me explain "Why Thief?". Thieves are excellent solo jobs. They get Treasure Hunter, which makes items drop more often (this helps out a lot when trying to get a quest item to drop from a monster), they have high evasion and reasonable defense for a melee damage-dealer, they have Flee (which is a short-term large boost to movement speed), Hide (can sometimes save your life by allowing you to escape combat), Perfect Dodge (which is relevant in a couple different places), Steal and Despoil (good for making money later on).

With all of these tools in the toolbox, you will be well-equipped to take on the various challenges that await your path to Level 99.

This Guide is written so that 90% of all of this can be done absolutely solo with no help from the outside. I think the entire thing can be solo'd, but a couple of the things one needs to do to get to Lv99 will be incredibly difficult to do solo. Thankfully, the hard stuff is mostly rather quick and easy, it shouldn't be too much trouble to get help with, assuming you are prepared ahead of time (which I will guide you to do). The only exception is the Yagudo Crest, and I will be explaining that in the Guide. Everything else shouldn't be too hard to do solo.

So, let's get on with this, shall we!?

Glossary of Terms
For those of you who have never played FFXI before, or even an MMORPG before, I will include a small glossary of terms so you do not get confused when I use certain acronyms that are natural to FFXI players.

1). Aggro = When an aggressive monster senses you and proceeds to attack you. IE, "I got aggro'd" = "I got too close to an aggressive monster and it is attacking me." or "Does this monster aggro?" = "Does this monster attack players unprovoked?"

2). Mob = Monster/Enemy/etc. Anything you can attack or fight.

3). NPC = Non-Player Character, these have green names above their heads and can be talked to by targeting them and hitting the enter key.

4). "???" = Various objects in Vana'diel will simply read "???" when targeted. These are usually used in quests and have no purpose unless you're on said quest, or possess a certain item. They are usually examined for cutscenes, or sometimes one trades items to these to do something specific.

5). Link = When one mob sees another similar mob (usually, of the same type) in combat, it will join in. For example, if you see 2 bats near each other that will link, and they are not aggressive and you attack one, both of them will attack you. If a third bat wanders close enough, it will attack as well. When a monster links, it will attack whoever the mob sees was attacking.

6). Add = Additional Monster (in Combat). Whenever you are fighting one enemy, and another aggros, or links and starts attacking you/your group, we call that an "add".

7). True Sight/True Sound = Every mob in the game has one or more methods of detection. Learning what detects by what is crucial, as there are various methods of Sneak (Sound) and Invisible (Sight) to avoid the monster detecting you. True Sight, and True Sound monsters, however, are immune to these effects and will still sense you even if you have these effects on you.

8). Magic Aggro = Certain enemies like Dolls, Pots, or Elementals will aggro a player whenever they attempt to cast a spell and are close enough. Sneak and Invisible will not prevent Magic Aggro, regardless of what other detection(s) these mobs have.

9). Blood Aggro = Certain enemies (usually undead) will aggro a player whenever they have Yellow, Orange, or Red HP. Lower HP = Further range they can detect you. Most undead detect by sound, and said undead will still aggro by Low HP even if you have a Sneak effect up.

10). RoE = Records of Eminence. You'll find out what this is shortly.

11). Zone = Each area of Vana'diel is a "zone". When used as a noun, it basically means "area". When used as a verb, it means to go from one area to another. Zone Line refers to the point where you transition from one zone to another. When a player zones, any mobs that were attacking them will stop doing so (because you're no longer in the area). Be warned, however, that should you get hit at the exact moment you attempt to leave the zone, you may get interrupted and the zone attempt will fail.

12). Game Day = Time in Vana'diel is split up into 8 different Game Days. In order, they are: Fireday, Earthday, Waterday, Windsday, Iceday, Lightningday, Lightday, Dark Day. This is indicated by a small colored dot next to the clock beside your compass. If you don't see a clock or a compass, type /clock. A good way to remember what the order is, is the phrase "FEW WILL D(ie)". The two W's are in alphabetical order, and Light/Dark are side-by-side.

13). JP Midnight / RL Day = Many things in the game reset every RL Day, or Japanese Midnight. This occurs at 3PM GMT. If you live in an area that observes DST, in Winter Months this will be 10AM EST and in the Summer it will be 11AM EST.

Before Doing Anything Else...
Before we do anything else, let's do some Config stuff.

Hit the - key twice to open Menu 2 and go to "Config".

In Gameplay: Inventory Sort: Set this to "Auto". In Chat Filters: Turn the following to "ON": -Special Actions started on/by others -Special Action effects on/by others -Attacks by others -Missed attacks by others -Attacks evaded by others -Damage taken by others -Special Actions started on/by NPCs -Special Action effects on/by NPCs -Attacks by NPCs -Missed attacks by NPCs -Attacks evaded by NPCs -Damage taken by NPCs -Missed Attacks by You (Optional!) In Misc: Damage Display: Both In Key Assignment -> Commands: Ranged Attack (highlight this and hit "G") Background Aspect Ratio: 16:9 or 16:10 (whatever your display is) Global: Auto-Disconnect: OFF

Also, in Config 2 and Config 3, look for these settings:

Status Effect Duration: ON Target Status Effect Display: ON

Some of these are preferences, and your preferences may differ from mine, but these are my recommendations. You may wish to tweak other things like windows and such once you get used to the game, but these will at least get the game to a playable state.[/spoiler]

Part 1: Getting Started
Again, as I said before, I am going to assume you are starting in Windurst, and are a Thief. Don't worry! You can change your job at any time. This guide, however, is going to assume that you are keeping your thief leveled. This guide also assumes that you installed the Seekers of Adoulin Edition of FFXI, which means you have all of the Add-On content registered. You will know you have all of the Add-Ons installed by looking at the various Add-On banners on the Title Screen. If they are all lit normally, then you have everything installed and registered.

If you started as a Mithra or a Tarutaru, you will start in Windurst Waters. If you started as a Hume, Elvaan, or Galka you will start in Windurst Woods. You will get some dialogue (it will be slightly different depending on your character's race), and an adventurer's coupon. The NPC will teach you how to use the map (you can type /map to bring the map up) and the Marker system (you will need to know this later, so don't forget!) to show you where the Jack of Spades is.

Before you do anything, open your menu up and go into Equipment. Unequip all of your gear by choosing the gear you already have equipped. Escape out of that screen and then go to Menu 2 (hit the menu key again) and select "View House". Select "Mog Wardrobe" and then click on all of the equipment to shift it over into Mog Wardrobe. Escape out of that, and go back into Equipment and then re-equip the gear you had on by going to each slot that you had equipped. Select the slot, hit enter, and then select the option on the right that says "Inventory Options" or some-such. Select that, then Select "Mog Wardrobe" and your piece should then appear in the list to equip. It will seem awkward at first, but you should get used to it quickly. The reason we did this, is because you have 4-5 pieces of gear (depending on what race/job you started as) that is taking up your very limited 30-slot regular inventory. Moving this equipment into your 80-slot Wardrobe frees these slots up.

With that done, go to the Jack of Spades, trade him your coupon to get a whopping 50 gil! Once you have done this, open your menu, and hit left or right on the arrow keys (NOT the number keypad!) to switch to the 2nd menu, and go to "Quests". Once in this menu, navigate down to the "Records of Eminence" section (the bottom half of the window) and select "Objective List". There will only be one selection available -- "Tutorial". Go in there, and select the only quest available (First Step Forward).

If you are a Mithra or Tarutaru, you will have a bit of a walk on your hands. From the Jack of Spades, go East and zone into Windurst Walls, and then go all the way East and then South to zone into Windurst Woods. Proceed South until you see a large fountain. This is where Galka/Elvaan/Humes start, so once you've gotten here, continue with the rest of the guide.

Once you've gotten to the Fountain (for Mithra/Tarutaru) or after you've traded your Coupon to Jack of Spades (everybody else), head East towards the Zone to East Sarutabaruta. As you come out of a narrow pathway, look to your right -- you'll see a Mithra dressed in red, and her name is Fhelm Jobeizat. Talk to her to get a cutscene and complete the RoE quest you just accepted.

Open your Quest Log up again and go back Objective List and you will see lots of new items there. Undertake the following:

Basics -> Synthesis: Speak to Culinarians' Guild Master, Speak to Bonecrafters' Guild Master, Speak to Weavers' Guild Master Basics -> Tutorial: Undertake an FoV Regime, Heal Without Using Magic, Vanquish One Enemy. Combat (Wide Area) -> Spoils 1: Earth/Water/Fire/Lightning/Dark Crystal Combat (Wide Area) -> Spoils 2: Bat Wing Combat (Wide Area) -> General: Total Damage I, Vanquish Multiple Enemies I, Total Damage Taken I Fishing: Speak to Fishermans' Guild Master

Once you've taken all of these (If you don't see the Combat ones, they might become available after "Vanquish One Enemy" is completed), it is time to take a tour of Windurst!

From Fhelm Jobeizat, turn East and target the big blue glowing crystal. This is a Home Point, and as the game will tell you, you can use this Home Point to warp to other Home Points that you've already visited at least once. These Home Point Warps will save you a ridiculous amount of time in everything you do, so always, always, always touch every one of these crystals that you see!

With this one touched, go south past the Chocobo Stables, and then towards the Auction House (AH). There's another Home Point on the roof of the AH. Once you grab that one, head West and then enter the Bonecrafters' Guild. In there, you will see two NPCs wearing a brown apron with a skull logo on it. One of them is the Guildmaster, who should offer to let you join the Bonecrafters' Guild. Joining the Guild will complete the RoE quest that you took earlier, which will probably give you a levelup (don't worry about which guild(s) you join: you can join all of them simultaneously). You will also get a crystal. Look around and you will see an Ephemeral Moogle -- talk to him and he will explain his crystal storage service. Agree to keep quiet about it and the game will tell you that you can now use crystal storage. Trade the crystal you just got to him, and he will store it for you. These Moogles are at all guilds, and they share the same storage inventory -- storing this crystal on the Moogle in the Bonecrafters' Guild will allow you to later retrieve it from any Ephemeral Moogle in any area.

Once you've done this, head south and then further west to find another Home Point. Touch it and then go into the western building with the Weaver's Logo on it. If you see two shopkeepers behind a stall, you have the wrong building. Go into the other building and you should see people working on various cloth-related machinery. This is just like the Bonecrafters' Guild; talk to the person wearing the Weaver's Apron and agree to join the Weaver's Guild. This will complete the RoE quest for the Weavers' Guild. Store the crystal on the Ephemeral Moogle just like you did with the last one.

Once you've done this, head North, and then West to zone into Port Windurst. Stop by the Mog House Entrance near you (take the first right) to touch the Home Point crystal there, and then go south again and head all the way West, until you see the Fishermans' Guild (and also the Home Point crystal near it). Touch the Home Point, and then talk to the Fishermans' Guild Master to join the Fishermans' Guild (which also completes an RoE objective). You will not get a crystal for joining this guild, because fishers do not craft using crystals. After doing this, head North and then West over to the West Sarutabaruta zone.

Over here, you will see another Home Point (this one is VERY important!) and even more importantly, over against the south wall, you will see two books floating in the air. The black one is called a Survival Guide; touch it like you did the Home Point crystals. They essentially do the same thing: you can warp between Survival Guides, though they are more expensive gil-wise, but offer to let you use tabs instead (you will get some here soon).

Once you've done this, use the Home Point to warp back to the Home Point near the Fishermans' Guild (Windurst -> Port Windurst -> Home Point #1 IIRC) and once you have control of your character, head North to zone into Windurst Waters. Keep heading North and you should pass a Home Point (check it) and eventually the map will change even though you didn't zone. Many areas in FFXI have multi-map zones (usually dungeons), but this is one of the few examples of a town having a multi-map. Once you're in Windurst Waters (North), head over to the Culinarians' Guild, check the Home Point beside it, and enter the west-most building and talk to the little taru wearing the cooking apron and hat to join the Culinarians' Guild. Store the crystal you just got on the Ephemeral Moogle.

Head out of the Culinarians' Guild, and then go North to the West Sarutabaruta zone for another Home Point, and then head back South and then East to the Mog House entrance for yet another Home Point. If you are a Mithra or a Tarutaru, this should look familiar: this is where you started. Keep going East to zone into Windurst Walls. Once in Windurst Walls, head east until you have a choice to go North or South; go North and grab the Home Point (it's marked on the map as a blue crystal) and then go South, and get the Home Point on top of the Auction House. Go south into Windurst Woods, and on your way down there, stop by the Mog House entrance for another Home Point and then head East across the wooden bridge pasture area, and then head South for the last Home Point! You now have every single Home Point in Windurst, which will make travel a lot faster and easier.[/spoiler]

Part 2: Level 1-10
Examine the Home Point Crystal you're standing beside, and warp to Windurst->Windurst Woods and select the crystal with the (E) after it. E means Entrance/Exit, M = Mog House, and A = Auction House. Home Points that have no letters after them are usually near guilds or other various points of interest. Hovering over an option for a couple seconds will display a map to help you understand where these home points will take you.

Anywho, once you're at Windurst Woods (E), talk to Fhelm Jobeizat (remember her?). Since her name is a little annoying to type out, I am going to call her "Sparks NPC" from now on. Since we now have several hundred (or even a thousand+!) Sparks of Eminence, we can get ourselves some equipment! Buy the following from her:

From "Equipment (1-9)": -Bronze Knife -Brass Dagger -Luaun Shield

From "Equipment (10-19)": -Knife -Bone Mask/Harness/Mittens/Subligar/Leggings

These should come to a total of 515 Sparks, which you should easily be able to afford if you did all of the above.

Stick all of these items in your Mog Wardrobe, and take note of their level so you know when to equip them (you can equip the shield and the bronze knife right now). Before you exit into East Sarutabaruta, note the Tarutaru with the "W.W." after his name. Talk to him and ask him to cast Signet on you. This is very important! Never fight without signet. You won't get crystals, and enemies will do a lot more damage to you than they should otherwise. When you receive Signet, you will notice a little icon at the upper area of your screen. It should have the time remaining underneath it (if it doesn't go into Config 2 or Config 3 and look for the setting for Status Effect Durations and turn it on). Keep track of this, and don't let it wear off. Thankfully, it lasts for several hours depending on what place rank Windurst is in the Conquest (this changes every Sunday at 3PM GMT). Third Place will add 2 hours, and Second Place will add 1 hour to your Signet duration, and each Rank you attain (you'll do this later) will add 1 hour to the duration as well.

Now that we have Signet, step out into East Sarutabaruta. Immediately after you get control of your character, look to your right. You'll see a floating book, only this time it is white. This is a Field Manual. Check it, and read about Individual Training and choose Page 2 and when it asks you if you want it to repeat, say Yes. This should fulfill the RoE objective for FoV Training Regime.

Now that we have that set up, target the nearest Bumblebee, hit the enter key and you will see a small menu on the bottom-left of the screen. The top button says "Attack". This makes your character draw their knife and lock on to the mob you've chosen to attack. Run up to it and kill it (it should not be hard at all; if you have Signet, it should be doing 0s and 1s to you). Keep fighting Bumblebees until you've attained Level 5 or completed the FoV Regime (6 bees) at least once. If the game day changes or is about to change (the game day uses a 24-hour clock!), do the FoV Regime twice. You will get XP, Tabs and Gil once per game day -- if the game day changes, you can get the Tabs and Gil twice, but I wouldn't wait any more than a few minutes, it isn't that big of a deal.

Once you are Level 5, go back into Windurst Woods and open up your Quest Log and go into the RoE section. Under Basics->Tutorial, you should see a new quest called "Call Forth an Alter Ego". Undertake this quest, and head West from the entrance to the area with the big fountain. Near the fountain is an NPC named Wettata. Talk to her, and she will explain the Trust Magic system. Once she's done with her explaination, walk North to the Mog House Home Point and use it to warp to Windurst Walls #1 (the one near the center of the zone). After warping to this Home Point, get up on the bridge that leads to the huge tree in the center of the area, and walk into the doorway to be teleported into Heaven's Tower. Once there, head straight in, you will see two doors (it doesn't matter which you take). Once you enter the doors, behind the counter is Kupipi (who you were told to talk to). Speak to Kupipi about a cutscene having to do with Trust Magic and Alter Ego. She should then give you a Key Item (this does not appear in your inventory; it's stored under a separate area of your character called Key Items in Menu 2) and ask you to try summoning her in Sarutabaruta.

Exit Heaven's Tower the way you came in and use the Home Point crystal to warp to Windurst Woods (E) again, step out into Sarutabaruta. Press F1 to target yourself and then hit Enter to get that little menu to appear at the bottom-left of the screen. Go to "Magic" and then "Trust" and you will see "Kupipi" listed. Note the wand icon next to her name -- this means that she is a healer. Hit enter, and don't move while you cast the spell, and *POOF!* You now have Kupipi in your group, and this will also complete the RoE objective, and also reward you with an item (you can't use it quite yet). Turn around and zone back into Windurst Woods, and use the Home Point to warp back to Windurst Walls #1, and then go back into Heaven's Tower and talk to Kupipi and tell her that it went well. This will complete the quest.

Go back to the Home Point, and warp to Windurst Woods (M) and then head south to Wettata. Trade the Cipher:Valaineral to Wettata for a short cutscene and you will learn Trust: Valaineral! Open your RoE objectives, and under Basic -> Tutorial, you will now see an objective called "Alter Ego: Valaineral". Grab this quest, and then run East to go back out into Sarutabaruta, and summon Valaineral. Note the Shield icon next to his name. This means he is a tank (someone who is highly armored and keeps enemies attacking him to protect everybody else). Once you've summoned him, you will fulfill that RoE objective and you will gain another Cipher (Mihli Aliapoh). Go back to Wettata and trade her this cipher, and open your RoE objectives again and you will see a new Alter Ego quest. This is probably going to get a little annoying, but thankfully it won't last too long. Joachim is the last NPC you will get in this manner, so you know that when you get his quest, you're on the last quest. This quest-line will give you a decent tank, a rather good melee DPS (Tenzen), a magic DPS (Adelheid), a combination DPS/Healer (Mihli), and a support character (Joachim). Note the icons next to their names; this is how you tell who can do what. Note that if you gain a level, your Trusts will not get stronger until you release them and call them back out. There's a short cooldown (2 minutes?) from the time you called them out, so there's really no penalty to calling them out again. They will automatically be at your level when you call them, and they will learn all of their spells and abilities. A Trust NPC will never do anything until you physically swing at a mob (at which point they will enter combat against that enemy). If you switch enemies in mid-combat, your Trusts will also switch enemies. If you sheathe your weapon, your Trusts will do the same, and will not react to enemies hitting them. Healers like Kupipi and Mihli will never cast spells while not in combat.

Now that we have all of that done, go back out into Sarutabaruta, and call Kupipi out (Mihli has less MP and will do too much damage and kill enemies too fast). I would not bother calling anybody else out. As you may have noticed earlier, you were gaining Dagger and Evasion skillups while you were fighting those bees. You do not want to level up too fast, or your skills will fall behind and you will have to stop and skill up later on weaker enemies. You and Kupipi should be able to handle nearly anything in East Sarutabaruta; by the time you get up north to enemies that are actually dangerous to a Level 5-6 character, you should easily be Level 7-8 by now which is easily strong enough to kill anything in E.Saruta. Note that Yagudo and Goblins will attack you unprovoked if they see you, this is called "aggro" (if you didn't read over the glossary section above).

Keep fighting in Sarutabaruta until about Level 10-ish. If you are confident, you can move on at 10. Or, if you think the rate of XP is good enough for you, you can keep going until 12-ish. At some point, enemies will stop giving XP altogether (you can do a /c while targeting something to figure out how strong it is relative to you. "Too Weak" means it will not give XP when killed). One thing I would suggest doing, is cancelling your Field of Valor (FoV) training regime and replacing it with #5 (Crows/Crawlers) because this one gives slightly more XP/Tabs/Gil. I do not recommend buying any of the field support options; you will desperately need those tabs later. Don't use them on this stuff; Kupipi is all you need. You can, however, use the Meat Jerky that you were awarded from the RoE quest earlier. This is a 30 minute food that makes you do slightly more damage. Don't forget to equip your new weapon at Level 8.

You will get several items from doing this; I would peek at your inventory every so often to make sure you are not filling up (you only have 30 slots!). Here's a short list of what to do with said items:

-Yagudo Necklaces: Keep these! -Yagudo Feathers: Sell them to a vendor NPC (the one near the Bonecrafters' Guild in Windurst Woods works) -All Crystals: Keep these, and store them on the Ephemeral Moogle later. -Beehive Chip: Keep them for now -Honey: Keep them for now -Crawler Calculus: Keep -Smooth Stone: Sell to NPC if possible, drop if not. -2 Leaf Mandragora Bud: Sell to NPC -Cornette: Keep (you can store this in Mog Wardrobe because it is considered equipment) -Yuhtunga Sulphur: Keep! -Bird Feather: Sell to NPC -Goblin Armor/Mask/Mail/Helmet: Sell to NPC -Fishing Poles: Sell to NPC -Silk Thread: Be very happy if you get any of these. Definitely keep. -Rock Salt: Sell to NPC -Land Crab Meat: Sell to NPC -Rarab Tail: Sell to NPC -Letters (of various kinds, torn/soggy, etc): Keep

Once you're done leveling out there, head back to town!