Starters Guide

This Article is a Community Guide
Guides exist as a community effort to help fellow players navigate the game. Opinions and strategies in their content may vary from editor to editor, but feel free to add new or correct out of date information. Guides are subject to the same editing standards of other FFXIclopedia articles.

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Starters Guide

~~Under Construction~~

Please check the talk page before editing, thank you.

What is the Starters Guide?

Welcome one and all to the starters guide, this is a guide for anyone who has no knowledge of FFXI (Final Fantasy XI) and as such attempts to be as thorough as possible in all instances where information is given. This guide will give basic information, straight forward descriptions and helpful hints for those with little experience of the game under their belts. So without further a-do, lets begin.

Welcome to FFXI

Final Fantasy XI(11) is an MMORPG, thats, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. First released on the PS2 in may 2002 in Japan, then the PC version was released in november 2002 in Japan, then a year later in october 2003 for North America (with the PS2 version releasing of march earlier that year) and a year later still in september 2004 for Europe (there has been no EU PS2 verion released,) and the game saw a release on the Xbox 360 in april 2006 for all regions. If you would like more information on some of the games statistics and a general passive over-view, read the wikipedia article. What you have is a game taking place over the expansive 3D game-world of Vana'diel, with its own economy, culture, weather system, conflict, history and future!emerse yourself as an 'adventurer' and explore this world on your own or get together and make new friends with people who are sharing your experiences!

The Basics

Welcome to the world of Vana'Diel!

Race

One of the first questions a new player will be prompted involves the race a player has to choose from. There are eight options available: male and female Hume, male and female Elvaan, male and female Tarutaru, Galka and Mithra. There are no gender options for Galka or Mithra, as Galka are primarily perceived as an all male race, and Mithra as all female. Below are basic descriptions of the gameplay stats each race possesses. All other features, such as face, hair and size are strictly cosmetic. Galka The Galka are a hardy race, well known for their physical abilities. They possess intense Vitality and HP. Tarutaru The short Tarutaru (sometimes simply called Taru) are capable of wielding the highest degree of magic. Their high Intelligence and MP are their keys to success. Mithra The quick Mithra are an all female race whose abilities include the highest Dexterity and Agility. Elvaan The Elvaan are a race primarily of warriors. Their peak attributes are Strength and Mind. Hume The versatile Hume are the most common race found in Vana'Diel. They have no notable weaknesses.

Job

(As a quick note, you don't need to go into great detail about the pros and cons of a job, I mean we are talking to a person who at this point wouldn't even know what a party is, so use a simplistic description, along with what role they play, and please be objective.)

Black Mage(BLM) Warrior(WAR) Monk(MNK)

Thief(THF) Red Mage(RDM) White Mage (WHM)

Controls

Well, everyone needs to start somewhere, we might as well start with what you can do to control your character and its actions in the game, We'll start with a basic description of each control and then show you how to perform them. Move Character Plain and simple, this is how your character will move around, this is a 3D game, but your character cannot jump (your character can however, fall down holes). In this game there are two modes of view which will be defined later, each mode of view adjusts the movement actions of your character. 3rd person view (looking down on the character) makes any movement of the control move your character in that particular direction, whereas the 1st person view (looking from the eyes of your character) will make you move forward and backwards with the respective keys, and pivot left and right. Action/Select closest target In this game everything that can be interacted with will usually fall under the category of 'target', which selects that object/character for further actions, some targets such as doors will only have one function, when the action key is hit, the door will open. However when a character is targeted and the action key is pressed, a whole host of other options are available. Cancel Plain and simple, Use cancel to un-target, close menus and other windows, and even exit a chat dialog (when interacting with a NPC). Open Chat Input Window This simple little button activates the text input box on things that require text input, such as macro boxes, chat, and so on. It prepares the game to receive the next text input, and after that is ready, the action key will input that text into the field. Move Camera This is what lets you see the wonderful world of Vana'Diel. The controls differ in each camera mode: in 3rd person view the camera will turn in that direction, in 3rd person view the camera will pivot from the axis which is the position of your character's head. Auto-run This is a very useful function, specially if you need to get somewhere in a hurry and someone starts talking to you. Auto-run, when activated, forces your character to continue moving in the direction you were moving in when it was pressed, and that movement could be either running or walking. While in auto-run you can move left, right, and of course stop. To stop while in auto-run, either hit the auto-run button again, or press backwards to whatever direction you are moving in. Toggle Walk/Run This is a simple function which toggles walk on/off. Your character's default movement on foot and while riding a chocobo is running; hitting this key will make you, or your chocobo, walk! Lock on / Heal Healing is most important in this game, specially for characters with MP, and early leveling. Healing is an action which regenerates your HP and MP over a period of time, however healing without signet active will reduce your TP by 10% with every regeneration (tick) of your HP/MP. Lock on is a feature which moves the camera over the shoulder when focused on a target, of course you need to be targeting something first in order to use Lock On. When lock on is active you will constantly face the target, any movement in any direction will only move you to the point where you are still facing the target (forward and backward will move slowly to and from the target, left and right will strafe around the target). Lock on has a limited range, and will deactivate when the target is out of range. Select Active Window / Options Settings This is handy for keeping up with conversations, with this you can keep track of everything that has been in the chat box; you can also use the same key to filter the chat box for specific chat channels for even less confusion! Isn't that handy? The same button is used to access the little options box on the right upper of the menu screen, its used to sort items and macros, basically whenever you see that little box in the top right corner you can use this button to access it! Menu This is how you access the game's finer functions, the menu will be described in detail further down; for now I'll simply state that this button accesses the menu, and when tapped again it'll access the secondary menu. To exit the menu, press cancel. Switch Target This is a handy little function, specially in a party situation. This function basically lets you scroll through all available targets on screen from left to right, this is perfect when hunting for chests or mining points. Zoom In Zooms the camera in, only available in the 3rd person camera mode. Zoom Out Zooms the camera out, only available in the 3rd person camera mode. Hide All Windows This simple function removes all visible function boxes and menus from the screen, so that you are left with a complete view of the game world from whatever perspective you're using. Strafe This key combined with left or right in 1st person camera mode will strafe the character left or right, instead of pivoting it on the spot. Strafe is common to other 1st person view games, but here it simply adds to the functionality of this camera mode. Fixed Third Person View This function simply centers your character in the middle of the screen and is a lot more rigid and set-in than the dynamic 3rd person view, this function is helpful indoors. Snapshot Say Cheese! This button takes a picture of the game screen and saves it to your photo album, which is accessed through the PlayOnline Viewer. You can only take a snapshot when "hide all windows" is active. PC Xbox 360 Playstation 2 Compact Keyboard (PC) Move Character 8, 2, 4, 6 (Num Pad) W, S, A, D Action/Select closest target Return Key (Enter) Y Cancel Esc N Open Chat Input Window Space Bar Space Bar Move Camera Arrow Keys I, J, K, L Autorun 7 (Num Pad) Toggle Walk/Run / (Num Pad) R Lock on / Heal * (Num Pad) H Toggle Camera 5 (Num Pad) V Select Active Window / Options Settings + (Not Spacific) F Menu - (Num Pad) - Switch Target Tab or 0 (Num Pad) Zoom In Page Up or 9 (Num Pad) , (Comma) Zoom Out Page Down or 6 (Num Pad) . (Period) Hide All Windows Scroll Lock Scroll Lock Strafe Shift Shift Fixed Third Person View Home Home Snapshot Print Screen Print Screen In addition to those basic controls there are a number of quick "shortcut controls" to save time with menu navigation, these are only available to those using a keyboard, and are displayed in the Purple Box. In the yellow box there are a number of useful target shortcuts and what not, particularly handy in battle situations. Action Command Start/Stop Auto Attack CTRL / ALT + A Check target CTRL / ALT + C Open Equipment Window CTRL / ALT + E Call for Help CTRL / ALT + G Open Item Window CTRL / ALT + I Open Job Abilities Window CTRL / ALT + J Hide/Show All Windows CTRL / ALT + ] Confirm / Auto-target CTRL / ALT + Y Toggle Walk/Run CTRL / ALT + Z Open Linkshell Input Window CTRL / ALT + L Open Party Input Window CTRL / ALT + P Open Tell Input Window CTRL / ALT + T Reply To Last Tell Recieved CTRL / ALT + R Open Say Input Window CTRL / ALT + S Toggle Camera Modes CTRL / ALT + V Open Weapon Skills Window CTRL / ALT + W Perform Ranged Attack CTRL / ALT + D Cancel CTRL / ALT + N Select Active Window CTRL / ALT + F Take A Screenshot CTRL / ALT + [ Action Command F1 ~ F6 Target party members in the order they appear at the bottom right corner of the screen, F1 being your character. F7 Target yourself (Same as F1) F8 Target the closest NPC or Monster F9 Target the Closest Player F10 Target the first character in your party's member list. F11 ~ 12 When part of an alliance, target the first member of the corresponding alliance's party. CTRL and ALT Press and hold to open a menu with your defined macro pallete.

Chat Functions

Explain different chat modes? /Commands? Macros?