New Player GuidebookGuide for new and old players

covering the essentials of playing

FFXIV brought to you by

Heavensward!

Made by Michi Ri and Yitsy Bitsy. Last updated October 2019 - Updated for Patch 5.1

● 5.1 Checklist

● [DoW/DoM] 5.0 Leveling Tips (70-80)

● [DoL/DoH] 5.0 Leveling Tips (70-80)

● Daily Checklist

● General FAQs

● Gathering FAQs

● Crafting FAQs

● To-Do List (1-70)

● Weekly Checklist

● Astrologian Cards Cheat Sheet (5.0)

● FFXIV Resources

Table of Contents

QUESTS & SYSTEM UPDATES

❏ Undertake new Main Story Quest: The Rising Stones (X:6.0 Y:5.9)

❏ Begin Pixie beast tribe quests: The Crystarium (13.1, 15.3)

❏ Check out New Game+ NPC: Wistful Whitebeard, Western Thanalan (X:12.0

Y:14.0)

❏ Unlock Minstrel's Ballad, Spoiler's Elegy: Minstrelling Wanderer, The Crystarium

(7.5, 12.5)

❏ Begin YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse: Kholusia (X:12.9 Y:8.6)

❏ Must complete "Word about Komra" sidequest before undertaking this quest:

Gossipy Dwarf Kholusia (12.9, 8.7)

❏ Unlock New Custom Deliveries: Eulmore (X:11.7 Y:11.7)

❏ Try new Fellowship system under social

❏ Check out scenario mode tab with Trust NPCs

TIME-SENSITIVE TASKS

❏ Use beast tribe dailies before the server reset

❏ Participate in new feast season

USER INTERFACE IMPROVEMENTS

❏ Try out group performance ensemble functionality

❏ Check out job gauge and sound effect changes

❏ GNB, BRD, NIN, DNC, MCH, RDM, WHM

❏ Check Masked Carnival UI improvements

❏ Check new Chocobo Barding UI

❏ Check new Glamour Dresser filter options

❏ Check crafting and gathering interface changes

❏ Check new job filter for gear exchange

❏ Check gpose interface additions

❏ Check duty finder interface improvements

❏ Check new "Collections" interface under duty

❏ Enable sound notification when emoted

❏ Character Config/Log Window Settings/Sound Notifications

5.1 Checklist

IMMEDIATE TASKS

❏ Play new gold saucer GATE

❏ Enable Doman Mahjong hi-res mode in Gold Saucer menu

❏ See what new guildleve turn-in requirements are

❏ Look at new bicolor gemstone merchant rewards

❏ Send submersibles to find new areas and level from 60-65

❏ Unlock new company crafting recipes

❏ Run content for missing BLU spells without unsync active for extra learning

chance

❏ Re-Do all DoH and DoL hotbards to account for new/changed/removed abilities

❏ Upgrade crafted gear with Hillicen at Eulmore (X:10.9 Y:10.7)

❏ Buy needed upgrade mats with sacks of nuts from Xylle in the Crystarium (X:9.4

Y:9.5)

❏ Begin leveling all desynthesis skills

❏ Run maps to find new drops

❏ Farm Great Hunt: EX unsynced

❏ Mourn the loss of old Duty Recorder recordings (kidding, I don't have these)

❏ Check out new Wondrous Tails commendation rewards

❏ Set market board favorites

❏ Determine potency of Eureka adjustments

❏ Renew mentor status with The Smith NPC

COLLECTIBLES & ITEMS

❏ Add New Orchestrion Rolls to Checklist

❏ Add New Triple Triad Cards to Checklist

❏ Add New Minions to Checklist

❏ Add New Mounts to Checklist

❏ Add New Chocobo Barding to Checklist

❏ Add New Fish to Checklist

❏ Beat New Triple Triad NPCs

❏ Check Out New Recipes

❏ Check Out New Gathering Points

5.1 Checklist

General DoW/DoM

● Try to always keep XP food on!

● Focus on MSQ for your main class -- this is up to you, but

keep in mind most content is gated by MSQ.

● Pick up your daily hunts from the Crystarium and try to

finish them every day!

● Don’t do your Duty Roulettes until you hit a wall on MSQ

(where you need to be a certain level to progress).

● Complete your FATE, Levequest, and Battle weekly

challenge logs every week!

● While you are progressing through MSQ, do all the Aether

Current quests and other blue quests as they come up.

These help with XP.

● Don’t forget to log out in a Sanctuary so you continue to

get Rested XP.

5.0 Leveling Tips (70-80)

General DoL/DoH

● LEVES! Pick these up in the Crystarium

● Use your Battle Manuals and XP food

● Pick up the Crystarium Deliveries

● Yellow/White Scrips & Collectables

● Complete your weekly Challenge Log

● Level 70 crafted gear will last you all the way to level 80

● Gathering/Perception XP food from the last tier (Jhammel

Moussaka) is what I used

A basic guide on what to do when you reach level 70

DOH/DOL can be found here

Instructions on how to power through your levels can be

found here

5.0 Leveling Tips (70-80)

MIN/BTN

● Leves, leves, leves! Make sure your XP food and tier 3

manuals are active for max XP.

● When you have completed a tier of leves, take a moment

to fill out your gathering log. These give a lot of XP AND

you can sell them on the market board to see what is

selling well.

● Collectables are the best XP if that’s your kind of thing!

FSH

● Master fishing guide for Shadowbringers.

● Spearfishing whenever you have the option available is

quickest (less RNG than normal rod fishing).

● At level 76, do the Gourmand Crab leve in Rak’tikka.

Unlike most nodes, this one is optimal for Veteran Trade

use.

○ At first spearfishing attempt, unless you get a

Gourmand Crab, use Veteran Trade. This will make

your rate at which you get the crabs higher since there

is a lower pool to pull from.

● As to be expected, FSH is quite slow to level so pop open

some Netflix and relax!

5.0 Leveling Tips (70-80)

❏ Duty Roulettes - Always grind for your latest tomestones or

XP and completely each Duty Roulette - for a full list of each

one and how to unlock them, click here.

❏ Mini Cactpot - At the Golden Saucer.

❏ Daily Hunts - Grab from the Nut Board (Crystarium) and gain

XP, Minions, Glamour and such! Use xivhunt to help track

which hunts are up on our server.

❏ Beast Tribe Quests - Reputation grinding for Glamour,

Mounts, and Materials. For all of them and how to unlock

them, click here.

❏ Grand Company Turn-ins - Each day you should be turning

items in for your DoH and DoL, you’ll yield tons of experience

and more if it’s HQ! Hit CTRL+U to open up Rowena’s House

of Splendors under your Timers menu.

❏ Adventurer Squadron - Visit your GC Squadron Barracks to

manage your recruits. You can train them 3x a day and run

Dungeons with them! You can even send them on a mission

which takes 18 hours to complete. We recommend

MrHappy’s guide.

❏ Treasure Hunts - Don’t forget to obtain your daily treasure

map via a level 80 Gatherer. More accurate timer is available

under your Timers menu.

Daily Checklist

“Is X class good?”

Every class has its strengths, weaknesses, and situations that they shine in.

This game remains overall fairly balanced in PvE. If you are more curious about

what end-game “meta” is or if there are any classes that get preferential

treatment, the answer is: not really, and everyone has a place in end-game

content. This game is built on changing classes, so please keep in mind you

can (and should) try them all and make your own opinions!

“How do I level up as a DPS? These queue times suck.”

General FAQs

Palace of the Dead / Heaven on High. The

unlock is called “The House that Death

Built” in New Gridania. There are no role

requirements for this, so 4 healers can

queue up, 3 tanks 1 healer, etc. This means

that the queues are much quicker.

Recommend getting to floor 50 and

queueing for floors 51-60 for the quickest

EXP! For more details, click here for POTD

and here for HOH.

POTD unlock requirement quest

HoH unlock requirement quest

Tanks

Healers

Melee DPS

Ranged DPS

Caster DPS

“I’m pooooor, How do I make money?”

Since making money is highly dependent on what you want out of the

game and what class you have, there is no one easy answer to this.

You can make money without leveling crafting and gathering (selling

mats from DoW/DoM and retainers, selling rare drops from battles, etc),

but the economy and game systems are built to support it. Most

end-game items that come out in patches can be crafted by people

with materials that are largely currency based (Beast Tribes,

Tomestones, GC seals) or from gatherers or NPCs. As we mention in

our Resources page, GarlandTools is an infinitely useful tool.

In general, learning how to “play the market board” based on your

own goals in the game is the best way to make money! This may

mean researching what is selling (use the History button on the market

board and check dates) and using that to your advantage. This also

changes from patch-to-patch!

“How do I level up my gathers and crafters?”

Please see our Gathering and Crafting FAQ pages!

General FAQs

“How do I level my Gathering (Disciple of the Land)?”

The most efficient way to level gatherers is with levequests. You can find

specifics on each one below - note that this is 1-70. For info on 70-80 see

earlier pages in the guide.

● Mining leveling guide

● Botany leveling guide

● Fisher leveling guide

Note: For FSH, you can opt out of leves since this class is very rng-heavy for

leve turn-ins. More details in the above guide.

“Which gatherer do I pick?”

MIN and BTN are roughly similar but have access to different items. Their

end-game rotation is the same, and is based on procs that are compiled based

on your Gathering and Perception stats. Rod fishing is much more RNG based

because you are not assured to gather anything at all when you are fishing.

Spearfishing (level60+) is much more like MIN/BTN. Try them all out and see

which one is more fun to you! Ideally, you will level all 3 since they share gear.

Gathering FAQs

Crafting (Disciple of the Hand)

For crafting effectively and efficient in the end game, it is encouraged to have

all of your crafting classes maxed. The most effective route is to get all of your

crafters to level 15 by completing your crafting log → Get level 37 Culinarian →

Level all crafters to 50 → Level all crafters to 70.

What is the fastest way to get to 70?

When leveling crafters, there are a numerous routes to go when crafting. Some

routes are tedious and slow.. some are fast and expensive. We recommend

taking whichever route fits your playstyle, but we have included a list of things

that will help you progress to 70.

● Daily Mission Allowances

○ These should be done daily so you can gain EXP passively, we

recommend doing these on all of your classes.

● Daily Beast Tribes

○ There are several places where you can do daily beast tribe turn-ins.

These are a great source of passively gaining EXP. They do not involve

a lot of gil upfront. These should be used when leves/levekits are not

available

■ Ixali

■ Moogle

■ Namazu

● Levekits

○ Levekits is the fastest way to level, these method involves you turning

in HQ items for large XP bonuses. This route is extremely expensive

and requires a max crafter to creat them.

Leves are a finite resource, you will need to replenish more after

you’ve used all of your allotment. Leves replenish 3 per 12 hours.

■ Levekit Package Spreadsheet.

Crafting FAQs

Crafting (Disciple of the Hand) Cont.

● Custom Deliveries

○ Custom Deliveries can be done a weekly basis, there

are four NPCs that you can turn items into: Adkiragh,

Kurenai, M’naago, and Zhloe Aliapoh.

○ These crafting items with Collectable Synthesis

turned on and based off your collectable rating, you

will gain rewards. This is similar to doing Rowena’s

House of Splendors.

Note: When you’re doing Custom Deliveries, they

share the same timer as Duty of Land, consider your

options when leveling!

● Rowena’s House of Splendors (Yellow/Red Scrips)

○ For those that have exhausted all other options, this

would be one of the last routes that I would

recommend for leveling. This is incredibly tedious

and involves you gathering materials to make items

for turn in.

○ With the extensive nature of scrip farming, please

visit this guide to learn more about Scrip farming.

Crafting FAQs

Quickest Ways to Level

● Roulettes - Make sure you are doing these EVERY DAY.

Roulettes can not be done more than 1 a day for the XP

bonuses.

○ Leveling Roulette

○ Main Scenario Roulette

○ Trials Roulette (acquired at level 50)

● Dungeons - Not all of the dungeons are on MSQ, some

are side quests! Please click the link for the complete list

and pick-up locations.

● Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High - You need to be

level 17 for POTD and 61 for HOH. For POTD. Use floors

51-60 for quick XP as a DPS class, since queues are so

low!

Optional Stuff for XP

● Beast Tribes for A Realm Reborn

○ Ixali - for crafting/gathering up to level 50

○ Amalj’aa - dyes, wind-up amalj’aa minion, calvary

drake mount

○ Kobold - dyes, kobold minion, bomb palanquin mount

○ Sahagin - dyes, wind-up sahagin minion, calvalry elbst

mount

○ Sylph - dyes, wind-up sylph minion, goobbue mount

To-Do List (1-70)

❏ Cap Tomestones - Never forget to cap your tomestones, this is

a weekly task that should be completed to gain gear. This is a

great way to gear your character.

❏ Weekly Normal Raid Lockout - This is the Eden raid series.

❏ Custom Deliveries - End-game crafting/gathering, gil,

experience, scrips. These are weekly DoH/DoL deliveries you

can turn in to specific vendors. For more information visit this

section.

❏ Challenge Logs - Consistent weekly objectives yielding bonus

currencies and experience. These objectives encompass all

content FFXIV has to offer, so choose what’s important to you.

This is a great way to make MGP every week.

❏ Wondrous Tails – Random objectives yielding a variety of

rewards differing each week. Visit Khloe Aliapoh in Idyllshire.

May RNG be in your favor!

❏ Jumbo Cactpot – Earn MGP. Visit the Cacktpot Board in Golden

Saucer.

❏ Weekly Hunts - Kill specific mobs specified by your Elite Clan

Mark Bills to gain glamours, minions, materia, and mount

speeds!

Weekly Checklist

Astrologian Cheat Sheet

SolarLunar Celestial

Melee DPS +Tanks

Ranged DPS +Healers

Lodestone FFXIV News, Patch Updates, and Maintenance updates

Ariyala Resource used for sharing best in slot (BiS) for classes, crafting, and gathering as well as overmelding materia slots

XIVHunt Used to track Hunts on our server. Select Brynhildr from server list

Garlandtools The most in depth and readable database for FFXIV items. Can also be used to assist with weather timers and gathering (scrips, ephemeral, legendary nodes).

The Balance High-quality class guides from class expertsNOTE: Web guides are not updated for 5.0, please refer to their Discord for accurate info.

Masked Carnivale Guide For BLU mage Masked Carnivales

Heavensward Our Free Company Website

Heavensward Discord Our Free Company Discord

HousingSnap Housing design inspiration!

FF14Angler FSH gathering node timer guide, skywatcher, sightseeing log guide, etc. NOTE: Adblocker MUST be disabled for this to work.

Eorzea DB Glamour shots with gear cited.

Mogboard An online version of FFXIV’s marketboard

Crafting Optimizer Tool for generating and testing crafting rotations.

Chocobo Colour Calculator

Coloring tool for your chocobo

Additional Resources Reddit Post containing even more FFXIV resources

FFXIVguild Website with numerous useful leveling guides, especially for gatherers.

FFXIV RESOURCES