Tips & Explanations for New Players, Newbies, and n00bs

From HorizonXI Wiki

Welcome to FFXI!

Lots of us old timers play it to relive the glory days of the early- to mid-2000s, so it's great to see people who are completely new to FFXI come and play it. There's a pretty steep learning curve, so having a relevant guide can save you an enormous amount of frustration and days of wasted time.

For reference, also make sure to check out the fantastic Beginner's Macro Guide and the Intermediate Macro Guide

Keyboard Commands

A couple quick tips for keyboard commands that can help immensely when creating macros (vital for playing the game) and communicating with people:

/s = say. This will speak publicly to people within a certain radius around you

/t = tell. This will send a message to someone privately. Try /t madsheep hi there. If I'm on, I'll get a message that says 'hi there.'

CTRL + R = Respond to a /tell from someone

/cm = chatmode. If you get a linkshell (guild or chat group) in slot 1, type /cm l (that's a lowercase 'L') to set your chat to default to linkshell1. It needs to be done each time you log in. If you want it set to ls2, do /cm l2. Then /cm p will set your chatmode to party, /cm s will set your chatmode to say, and so on.

/c = check. For your safety you MUST check every mob you engage. If you don't, you will die because of it, guaranteed. You can check players and see their gear too, but it's considered rude by some people to be randomly examined. They're just being prissy, but it's a thing.

Searching for Players

If you want to see if someone's online, type /sea all NAME. Look for me by typing /sea all madsheep

/sea = search current area

/sea all = search all areas

/sea inv = search current area for people seeking a party

/sea all inv = search all areas for people seeking a party

/sea inv 12-22 = search current area for people seeking a party in level range 12-22

/sea all inv 12-22 = search all areas for people seeking a party in level range 12-22

If you need to leave a party, it can be very helpful to find a replacement for yourself before you go. Using these commands will help.

Enemy Difficulty

too weak to be worthwhile = you won't get xp or crystals, but will still get drops and they might still be a challenge for certain jobs.

easy prey = you'll get a small amount of xp. If you can kill them quickly it can actually be a good strategy when low lvl.

decent challenge = below your lvl, but getting tougher. Be careful.

even match = this mob is the same lvl as you. You will likely either struggle to beat it or it will kill you. When you're new, stick to EP and DC as much as possible.

tough = you may luck out and scrape by a confrontation if it's a worm or something, but it'll be tight.

very tough = you will die.

incredibly tough = you will die before you can even unlock and start trying to run away.

Drops / Loot

Percentage drops Loot drops from creatures based on a percentage. Some drops are 100% These are often for quests. Some drops are 100% drops so long as you don't already have the item being dropped. These two situations are rare, most items do not have a 100% drops rate.

Drops on death Loot will drop from creatures when they die, even if they don't award experience points. A level 75 killing a level 1 monster cannot gain experience points for the kill but can gain items. This is often called Farming.

Chests / Coffers- Chests and Coffers can give Gil, KI (Key Items), Artifact Gear, or treasure items. If a person with an active quest for AF (Artifact Armor) opens a coffer they personally will get the AF, even if in a party. If someone opens a chest/coffer and has a quest to receice a KI (BST AF1 bell for instance is a chest.) only that player will get a KI, even if in party. If a member of a party opens a chest/coffer and it awards gil, the gil will be evenly divided among all members of the party currently in the zone. If the chest/coffer awards an item, it will be added to the party's treasure pool to either be lotted on or randomly passed out.

Beastmen's Seals will drop at a 20% drop rate (unaffected by Treasure Hunter) once one has dropped there will be a 5 minute (300 second) window of time where another Beastmen's Seal Cannot drop. Therefore it is a very popular method when leveling low level jobs to kill monsters until a seal drops and then go and fight in the next zone. E.g. West Sarutabaruta then zone into East Sarutabaruta or Giddeus and fight monsters there until another seal drops and zone again. In this way you can Farm seals while also earning experience points.

Treasure Hunter is a Job Trait, earned by Thief @ level 15. It will increase the percentage chance of drops occuring. Meaning that as a Thief lvl 15+ you will get more items per kill (averaged out over multiple kills) than another job. This trait exists when Thief is set as a Sub Job as well. So many methods of farming items rely on being 30+ on main job with Thief set as jub job. Treasure Hunter II is a Thief level 45 Job Trait and further increases the drop chance percentages. THF can further increase this with a Horizon Only Neck Item Nanaa's Lucky Charm that gives TH+1 (for TH3) and a Dynamis drop for TH+1 to achieve TH4. In-era, TH4 is the highest level of TH attainable.

Crystals will only drop if a member of the party who did damage (or attacked and missed) has signet.

Conquest points Conquest points are earned without a record showing how much per kill. These are earned only if the kill awards experience points and you have Signet.

Mechanics & Commands

/ja = Job Ability. A macro using this is something like /ja Berserk <me>. That will use the WAR ability Berserk. Different JAs and other commands require different targets.

/ra = Ranged Attack. Type /ra <t> to use a ranged attack against the currently selected target. Type /ra <stnpc>. The <stnpc> part is for <select target npc> and gives you a cursor that lets you select a non-pc target.

/ma = Magic. Use /ma "Cure II" <stpc> to cast cure 2 on a nearby player character. If the /ja, /ws, /ma or whatever is more than one word, put it in double quotes and capitalize appropriately. You can also use <stpt> to choose only people within your party. The Intermediate Macro Guide has great info on this.

/ws = Weapon Skill. When you build 1000+ TP you can do a Weapon Skill. Since gear swaps are essential for maximizing damage, this is what an early WS macro might look like:

/equipset 1 /ws "Fast Blade" <stnpc> <wait 1> /equipset 2

Equipset is an option that lets you preprogram gear sets for certain things. When auto-attacking and building TP, max out your Accuracy to hit as often as possible. When WSing, use /equipset to switch to gear with stats that benefit your weapon skill (typically STR for most DDs, though THFs benefit from DEX more for most of their weapon skills).

Early Grinding

Play around with macros and commands and test it all out thoroughly. Have fun with it while leveling a bunch of jobs to ~15 or so around starting areas. Windurst is a lovely starting area to level up in because there are some great drops and it's pretty. San d'Oria has mobs which drop fire and dark crystals, which are very lucrative, too. Around Bastok you'll find yourself running around that dry, dusty butthole of a landscape, smacking all sorts of things like bees, worms, and Quadav beastmen.

Personally, I strongly recommend leveling AT LEAST jobs like WAR, MNK, WHM, BLM, RDM, and THF to the 12-15 range on your own. Start with WAR so that you can build up a variety of skills in things like sword, dagger, club, shield, evasion, parrying. That will help you a little bit as you lvl other jobs that are less adept at melee. Because you're going to be doing a lot of meleeing with mage classes in the early solo lvls and every little bit helps. Having some skill in evasion before leveling a mage is very useful.

Save ALL of your beastmen's seals. They're invaluable and will give you the opportunity to win fantastic items down the road. Look into BCNMs to learn more.

Some beastman mobs will drop spells that you can learn, but they're generally dirt cheap anyway. Find the town vendors for spells and see if you can flip them on the Auction House for a profit. Buy weapons, spells, and cheap leather and cloth armour from vendors in town instead of the auction house. You'll save money that you desperately need when starting out. There's a typical progression for early melee classes that goes like this:

  • Level 1 - bronze gear
  • Level 7 - leather gear
  • Level 11 - brass gear

As always, compare NPC prices to AH prices to get the most bang for your buck and to determine if you can make some money selling things at a markup.

You probably won't get a standard party invite until you're 12+, and once you do you may need to make the perilous trek up to the Valkurm Dunes. If you do, see if you can get escorted by someone who can Raise you if you get KOed.

GET SIGNET FROM GATE GUARDS BEFORE LEAVING TOWN. This will ensure you get crystals from mobs and build up your Conquest Points, which you'll need to get single-use warp scrolls and reraise scrolls. You'll want to constantly have those on hand pretty much forever.

Reminder: ALWAYS CHECK MOBS. If you don't, you'll engage a Tough mob when you're a half health and it'll push your s#!7 in.

If you're feeling stuck, try to /shout in town for a newbie linkpearl. That'll connect you with people who can answer more specific questions. Lots of linkshells are happy to take on new players and show them the ropes, so if you don't get any bites after a couple shouts, try again in an hour or two after killing some bees.

Notorious Monsters

There are some really good Notorious Monsters around the starter towns that benefit low lvl jobs. Look up Swamfisk, Maighdean Uaine, Sharp-Eared Ropipi, Nunyenunc, and Spiny Spipi for viable low level NMs with good drops - some of which are 100% drop rates.

Basic Leveling Progression Overview

Level 18 - When you hit lvl 18 you can get your subjob, which is huge.

Level 30 - At 30 you can unlock advanced jobs, which is another big step forward. You can hit rank 3 in your nation pretty easily by the time you're 30. Keep an eye open for people shouting for missions you're on, and ask linkshell mates if they'll help you with yours.

Chains of Promathia (the first major expansion that non-JP players got, way back in 2004) missions start around lvl 30 with the promyvion areas. If you can find a group doing that when you're able to access them, jump on it because they're a pain. But read up ahead of time so you know what you're getting into. They're often referred to as CoP Mission 1-3, The Mothercrystals, or promy-dem/promy-mea/promy-holla since there are three of them you need to complete.

Level 50 - Once you hit 50, you need to complete a quest to progress to 55. At 55 that happens again, and so on every 5 levels until you max at 75. That stuff and leveling sometimes keep you plenty busy before you really even need to think about storyline.

Making Money

This is a perpetual challenge, but can be immensely rewarding. When trying to make money, there are a few things that are especially lucrative at lower levels. Look for things like various crystals (primarily fire, dark, lightning, wind), beehive chips (which drop relatively infrequently from bees all over the world), silk thread and yagudo necklaces (around the Windurst starter region), sheepskin (start crafting those with dark crystals into sheep leather right away for more profit), and various goblin drops which sell well on the Auction House. Farm those while getting xp and it'll be a big boon.

There are a lot of crafters on this server, so the demand for materials is quite high. Finding items which sell quickly but are understocked is a quick way to make steady sales.

A lot of other things like land crab meat, dhalmel hides, and any other drops which don't sell quickly on the Auction House are fine to sell to NPCs for quick cash. And if you're ambitious, look up some crafting guides on the FFXI Wiki or this wiki to use the crystals and drops you find to level up crafting. You will be really glad you did that later on.

When selling on the AH, it's sometimes more efficient to sell stacks of things. A stack is either 12 or 99 of something. There are cases where singles are more lucrative, so check the AH to compare and make the most informed decision. When selling, don't undercut dramatically to make a quick sale. The economy is manipulable and you're only hurting yourself and others if you lowball excessively.

Crafting

Crafting Guilds There are many crafting guilds to choose from. Note that you do not need to have talked to any NPCs nor joined a guild to begin crafting.

Break / Unsuccessful Synths the results of above crafting attempt might be an Copper Ingot (on success) or a "break" on a failure. When you fail you 100% lose the crystal powering the synth, but there is a chance to lose ingredients as well from 0->100% of them.

Successful Synths This is often called a NQ for Normal Quality. For Copper Ingot, there is only NQ synth. Many crafts only have a NQ synth, meaning if you combine 3 grass thread into a square of grass cloth it doesn't matter if a level 1 clothcrafter or a level 100 crafter did the syth. On success you will ONLY and ALWAYS get the NQ item. On the other hand some items have a HQ result.

HQ Success Success tiers are 11+/31+/51+ above the recipe level, with each tier increasing the likelihood of HQs. Anyone with skill <11 levels above the recipe will have a 1-2% of HQ. 11-30 levels above a recipe is in tier 1, and their % chance to HQ is 8-10%. At 31-50 levels above the recipe, HQ chance is 25%. And then at 51+ levels above it your HQ chance is 50%.

Guild Points Some items are traded to the guild to earn guild points. These are accumulated and then traded to the NPCs to receive items which can increase your crafting skill by 1 (per item) and variouss

Profit! In general, items that are HQ sell for a higher profit. When leveling or farming, prioritizing mobs and items which are used for guild points or high demand recipes can help to pad the wallet.

Consumables often contain good profits... but typically only if you can HQ them. Which means sometimes skipping them until you reach the 11/31/51 tiers. Some crafting test items (see below) are hard to make, so making them and putting them on the AH can be profitable. Likewise running around to make a guild test item can be a drag or waste of time if if can be found cheaply on the AH or from an NPC.

Recipe Level Cap Skillups can be attempted within 15 levels of a recipe level. This is not advised as you will break a lot. If you do succeed you have a chance to skill up, BUT ONLY ON SUCCESS.

Skillups From Breaking Can only happen within 5 levels of a skill cap. You'll break a lot in your crafting career, so it's advised to try to get skill on recipes which are within 5 levels of your current (unmodified) craft level.

Synth Support There is synth support and advanced synth support. Normal is free and adds one level to your craft. Paid (advanced) support is 3 levels.

Desynthesis Some recipes are considered 'desynthesis' by the game. These are handled differently. They typically result in a higher rate of failures and ingredients lost. Skilling up from a desynth is only possibly within 3 levels of the recipe cap.

That's the downside. The upside is Desynth HQ a lot more than a normal craft and that if you get advanced support your desynth success and skillup chances will improve significantly if you're 0-3 levels below the recipe cap.

Starting Out In many cases there are many starting crafts you can do for profit. Copper ingots (fire xtal + 4x copper ore), bronze ingots (fire xtal + 3x copper ore, 1x tin ore), grass thread (lightning xtal + 2x moko grass)

Crafting Ranks Every 10 levels you will be restricted from gaining more levels until you provide a "Guild Test Item". You can turn them in 2 levels below cap e.g. 8,18,28, etc for the 10,20,30, caps. Don't forget to do this!

Suggestions Windurst citizens can start with CC (Clothcraft) by desynthing Yagudo Necklaces into grass thread and making grass cloth. Bastokan citizens can start with copper ores into ingots in Goldsmithing, or copper ores + tin or for bronze ingots and Smithing. Sandy citizens can start in leatherworking with rabbit hide + grass thread = rabbit mantle, or woodworking with arrowwood log into arrow wood lumber. You do not HAVE to start out with the guilds in your city. You can be a Sandy citizen and start out with cooking. Guilds do provide the normal and advanced crafting support and you will need to visit a guild to progress past level 10 in that craft.

Level Sync

Level sync is typically 10 levels and is a feature that will let your party sync down to the same level - not up. So you can have someone who's 22 sync down to 12 to party with you in the dunes. You can sync with larger ranges, but it starts to impact the amount of xp you get and generally isn't worth it.

You will have better luck getting invited to a party if you're already in the zone, too. Try to run to Valkurm while seeking, and then rest and explore Selbina while you wait. It's a good place to skill up fishing and make a small amount of money, too.

Misc. Notes

  • Get all teleport crags you can. Touch the crystals whenever you're near the giant white structures to get the key items, which you will keep forever.
  • The gate guards that give signet will also offer supply quests.
    • You can only carry supplies for one region at a time, so prioritize well
    • If your nation controls the Zulkheim region (where Valkurm Dunes is), offer to take supplies there. Once you've done that, you can teleport there from lvl 10, which is a HUUUUGE benefit
    • Always watch out for where you can deliver supplies until you have all outpost warp locations available to you
    • It can take a long time to get some since the nation control resets every Saturday night at JP midnight (which means Sunday morning time in North America and afternoon in Europe).
  • Sometimes you can set your homepoint closer to where you're going. If you die, you won't have to redo the whole run. The downside is that it can bite you in the butt when trying to return home until you have more efficient means of transportation.


I hope this helped!

by Madsheep


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