Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn – Early Leveling Guide

There are a good number of people who will be playing Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn who are either coming from Final Fantasy XI, coming from World of Warcraft or some other MMO, or are brand new to the MMO genre. No matter what your prior experience, there are a few key things you should know about the best ways to level up your character when you first start. If you haven’t already read our quick start and server selection articles, be sure to check them out as well!

For those coming from Final Fantasy XI, you’ll probably jump into the game, run out of your starting city, and start killing the local wildlife. While that was pretty much the only way to level during the prime years of FFXI, that won’t cut it in XIV. Sure, you’ll eventually level up, and the first few levels will even go pretty quickly, but it won’t be long before you realize that it’s taking longer and longer to hear that lovely level up jingle.

The best way to take your first class from level 1 to level 15 is to complete the main storyline quests and your class quests. You’re going to want to complete these two quest paths anyway because the main storyline quests get you an airship pass, access to inns, Guildleves, and retainers, and the class quest allows you to eventually start unlocking other classes. You can easily recognize the main storyline quests by their flame-like appearance. The icon appears to have flames sprouting from the top. You can also access the main menu, look at your journal and view the class or storyline quest log. In the journal, all class quests will have the class symbol instead of a normal quest icon.

As you complete these quests, you’ll gain more and more experience points, a decent amount of gil (around 12,000 gil by the time you get an airship pass), and gear to get you through the early levels. When you reach the storyline quest that asks you to don level 5 gear, you may have to buy one or two items from the shops in town, but you’ll have plenty of gil by that point.

Make sure you have completed the level 10 class quest before you take the airship for the first time. You can’t gain access to new classes until the level 10 class quest on your first class has been completed. Once this is done, simply speak to the receptionist at the guild of your choice to begin the quest and gain access to the new class. For example, if you want to become a Gladiator, once you complete the level 10 class quest of your starting class, simply head to the Gladiator’s guild in Ul’Dah and speak with the receptionist to begin the quest. It shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to get the sword and shield, change to Gladiator and be on your way.

The main storyline quest takes you to the other two cities. Once you’ve been to a city via the airship, you can go back to that city at any time with the airship pass (or simply align yourself with a crystal in the region and teleport). As you venture to the other cities, make sure to check out the guilds of any classes you wish to level. It doesn’t hurt to unlock the classes, even if you’re not planning to play them anytime soon.

Once you reach level 15, you’ll soon be instructed to participate in your first dungeon run. Most of your leveling will come from dungeons from this point on. However, if you want to level another class, in addition to dungeon runs, it’s best to complete the class quest line. You won’t have the main storyline quest anymore (at least not the lower level quests), but the class quests still offer good experience points and gear.

You can also party up with friends, or participate in F.A.T.E. battles that randomly appear in each region, but you’ll find that quests and Guildleves are the best source of experience points early on. Keep your eyes locked on Prima Games as we bring you more Final Fantasy XIV goodness all week long.