Final Fantasy 14 is one of the best MMORPGs out there, and my personal favourite. With a ridiculously good story spanning the base game and five expansions, countless dungeons, raids, and trials with varying difficulty levels, there's enough to keep you busy for hundreds if not thousands of hours.
It's a game that can be enjoyed alongside fellow adventurers or largely undertaken solo thanks to excellent features like the Duty Support system, which pairs you up with NPCs to tackle main story dungeons, and select optional dungeons.
I have well over 5,000 hours clocked, having played on-and-off since 2014. With over a decade of adventuring under my belt, it's no surprise that I've spent a good chunk of time introducing all manner of new players to Eorzea: roping countless friends into downloading the game's generous free trial, and providing assistance through in-game systems like the Novice Network.
Whether you're a sprout looking to begin your story, or a returner wondering what's changed in the days/months/years since you last logged in, here's exactly what you need to know about getting into Final Fantasy 14.
Wait, why are there two PC versions?
Final Fantasy 14 has a slightly archaic license registration system, and rears its ugly head the most with PC players. There are two PC versions available—one for Steam, and one for Windows. These are two separate versions, and you can't mix-and-match keys with each other.
That means if you buy A Realm Reborn in a Steam sale and then decide you want to pick up the Dawntrail expansion via the Square Enix store, that's no bueno. You also cannot register both PC versions to the same account—if you buy the game on Steam and then decide you'd rather play the account with the Windows version, you can't.
Personally, I recommend purchasing the Windows PC version of Final Fantasy 14. If Steam goes down, you can't boot the game up, and Steam also has to be open in order to launch the game. It's extra unnecessary nonsense that can be avoided altogether by grabbing the Windows version.
If you ever decide you also want to grab a PlayStation 5 copy, you'll need to buy that separately too. However, you can journey with your console friends on PC as Final Fantasy 14 supports crossplay.
How does the free trial work?
Like I mentioned above, Final Fantasy 14 has a free trial which lets you play A Realm Reborn and the first two expansions—Heavensward and Stormblood—up to level 70 with no restrictions on playtime. No upfront payment, no subscription fee.
The free trial isn't without caveats, though:
- You can only carry up to 300,000 gil, which isn't a lot these days.
- You can't use /shout, /yell, or /tell chat options.
- You can't use the market board—no selling or buying items, nor access to retainers to store your extra junk.
- You're unable to join a Free Company, this game's version of a guild.
- You can't create linkshells (essentially group chats) but you can join them.
- You can't use the Party Finder to recruit party members—nor can you invite people to a party—but you can be invited to one or use the Duty Finder to be automatically grouped together with others for dungeons and raids.
- No PvP.
- No access to jobs or races introduced in Shadowbringers, Endwalker, or Dawntrail.
If you've purchased the game or a subscription in the past, you can't revert to a free trial account either. If you're still in the early game, you might be better off making a new account and taking full advantage of the free benefits until you feel ready to purchase the remaining expansion packs and a subscription.
Which server should I pick?
Final Fantasy 14 has several data centers, with each one housing a handful of servers. Data centers are split by region, so ideally pick one close to where you live for minimal latency and players who will be online at the same time as you for shorter queue times.
- North America: Aether, Crystal, Dynamis, and Primal
- Europe: Light and Chaos.
- Oceania: Materia
- Japan: Elemental, Gaia, Mana, and Meteor
If you've got friends already playing, ask what server they're on and try to join the same one. Sometimes you might find that a server is congested and won't allow you to join it. You can either wait for a quieter time of day and hope the restriction is lifted, or join another server within the same data center.
You can also hop between servers in each data center, and travel between data centers within the same region. That means somebody playing on the Light data center can visit Chaos, but they cannot visit Aether, for example. The only exception is that every data center can travel to Materia.
Which class should I play?
My favourite part about Final Fantasy 14 is that you can play every single job on a single character. No alts required! Still, it's best to get off on the right foot with a class you enjoy playing.
Don't fret too much about things like damage—all jobs are viable, so pick the role you enjoy most and then whichever class you think looks and sounds the coolest.
- Tanks lead the pack through dungeons and raids, taking the brunt of the damage and keeping the rest of the party safe from attacks by facing enemies away from the group.
- Healers ensure the party stays alive through healing and shields while contributing their own damage in-between.
- Melee DPS are right in there, attacking an enemy's flank and rear for meaty damage. Next to tanks they're most in danger of an enemy attack thanks to their close proximity, so choosing the right moment to disengage from the action is crucial.
- Physical Ranged DPS have the best mobility of every role, able to attack and move around free from the shackles of a cast bar. This freedom is balanced out by lower damage output than their melee counterparts, but are often granted excellent support tools that can boost party damage or provide extra defense in a pinch.
- Magical Ranged DPS deal their damage from afar, though some jobs have abilities that let them temporarily get up close and personal with their target. All the fun of casting spells without the stress of healing a party.
For A Realm Reborn, you'll start off with a class before evolving it into a job with a job crystal once you're level 30. Subsequent expansions' jobs no longer have base classes. Here's a quick rundown of each one you can pick when creating your character as well as ones you can pick up further down the road:
Tanks
Gladiator/Paladin: Quintessential sword-and-shield tank. Delves into some real neat magic stuff in later levels but remains relatively basic in the beginning. Has abilities that can shield other players from incoming attacks if you like playing a heroic archetype.
Marauder/Warrior: Unga bunga axe. Gets some incredible self-sustain skills in later levels which can all but negate the need for a healer in certain situations. My personal favourite tank class to play.
Dark Knight (Heavensward): The edgy tank. Utilise dark magic and a big ass sword to group up enemies and take them all down. More involved than other tank classes, if you care about complexity. Available once you complete A Realm Reborn and reach Ishgard. Starts at level 30.
Gunbreaker (Shadowbringers): The Squall Leonhart tank. Or Lightning Farron, depending on which game you like better. Wield a gunblade for all the fun of tanking while feeling like a badass DPS.
Healers
Arcanist/Scholar: One of two jobs from the Arcanist class. Scholar uses shields to pre-emptively defend allies from incoming attacks, with assistance from a fairy companion to clean up extra heals and keep everyone topped up. Easily the most in-depth healer at endgame, if you enjoy having lots of different skills. Levelling this also levels Summoner, giving you a great two-for-one deal.
Conjurer: White Mage: A 'pure' healer relying more on regenerative healing. About as traditional as you can get, with a number of single-target and AoE (area of effect) abilities to heal all wounds. Gets the fantastic attack skill Holy at level 45 which can stun groups of enemies.
Astrologian (Heavensward): Draw cards from a deck and use them on players for damage buffs with a big partywide buff every two minutes. The best healer in terms of aesthetic, with some nice regen healing to back up the vibes.
Sage (Endwalker): If you prefer your healing a little more technological, this is for you. Another shield healer, Sage can apply the ability Kardion to one party member, allowing you to heal them via dealing damage to enemies.
Melee DPS
Lancer/Dragoon: If you like dragons and polearms, this is the job for you. Lots of theatrical leaps to close in on the target or to back out of incoming attacks. A great starter choice if you want to get up close and personal with the enemy.
Pugilist/Monk: A great choice if you're partial to a little martial arts. Monks use different stances to pummel away at the enemy, which can make getting used to the job's rotation a little confusing at first.
Rogue/Ninja: Utilise different mudra to execute a variety of attacks—just be careful not to muck up your hand gestures lest you end up with a bunny rabbit on your head, embarrassing yourself in front of your party. One of the more involved DPS classes, but with great damage as a reward.
Samurai (Stormblood): Deal devastating damage with your katana, accumulating seals through performing combos. Collect all three to unleash a huge blow for some tasty damage. Great vibes and job gear if you care about aesthetics.
Reaper (Endwalker): Wield a scythe alongside your trust voidsent, while using hellgate portals to quickly dip in and out of the action. Super fun, and one of the more simple melee classes on offer.
Viper (Dawntrail): What's better than one sword? Two, of course. Dual-wield for a flurry of attacks before sticking your two blades together for one mega-blade and some tasty damage. Easy to learn, hard to master.
Ranged DPS
Archer/Bard: Starts off as a humble ranger before becoming a support-oriented DPS with songs that boost party damage and critical hit rate, or help healers in a pinch with abilities that reduce damage taken.
Machinist (Heavensward): The most 'selfish' ranged DPS in that it lacks a partywide buff, but it does have a pretty cool turret companion and a more flexible rotation than Bard and melee classes.
Dancer (Shadowbringers): A proc-based ranged DPS with heaps of support tools. Partner up with a party member to share buffs and certain healing abilities, and perform dances to buff the rest of your allies.
Magical Ranged DPS
Arcanist/Summoner: The second job in the Arcanist branch. Summoners are all-out DPS beats, wielding numerous pets like Titan and Garuda with different abilities housed within each summon. A great DPS class to learn if this is your first MMO as it's easy to learn and to master.
Thaumaturge/Black Mage: Balance fire and ice with this deadly mage before unleashing a flash of thunder to deal huge damage to foes. Has a higher skill floor than a lot of other DPS classes, which could be appealing or a huge turn-off depending on your vibe.
Red Mage (Stormblood): Want the best of both worlds? Red Mage casts spells before diving into the heat of battle for up-close sword attacks, leaping back into a comfortable magic rotation once more. Incredible fun.
Pictomancer (Dawntrail): Unleash your inner artist by using Pictomancer skills to draw different abilities, with a great mixture of mobility and static casting for some of the best damage in the entire game.
Heavensward jobs become available once completing A Realm Reborn and reaching Ishgard, and start at level 30. Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Endwalker, and Dawntrail jobs all unlock from either Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, or Ul'dah. They require hitting level 50, level 60, level 70, and level 80 with any battle class respectively, starting at the same levels as their unlock requirements.
Tips and tricks
Focus on main scenario quests and blue side quests
There are a lot of quests in Final Fantasy 14, but some are more worthwhile than others. In order of priority, focus on main scenario quests (MSQ), job quests, and then blue side quests. Main scenario quests are your biggest source of EXP as well as your vessel to unlocking everything the game has to offer.
Job quests are vital in order to upgrade base classes to jobs at level 30 as well as unlocking full access to skills—many abilities from Heavensward to Stormblood are locked behind these quests. You can see if you have a job quest available by checking the Scenario Guide, in the upper-left corner by default. If you have one, it'll be listed underneath your current MSQ.
Yellow side quests are often little more than extra worldbuilding with minimal EXP gain making them the least important, while blue side quests reward additional game features like glamour (transmog), emotes, or optional dungeons and raids.
ABC: Always Be Casting
If you're coming from other MMOs, you might be used to significant downtime when playing classes like healers. That's not the case in Final Fantasy 14: uptime is crucial, and you should always be pressing something. Pressing something wrong is almost always better than pressing nothing at all.
If you're a healer, your attack rotation is often only a couple of buttons. If nobody needs topping up, make sure you're spending that downtime wailing away at the enemy. The quicker they die, the less healing you have to do!
If you're a melee or magic caster trying to run away from an incoming AoE, try throwing out a ranged attack or an instant-cast ability while on the move. Every little helps, and it's damage you wouldn't have otherwise dealt. No matter how small.
Customise your UI
Final Fantasy 14 sports an incredibly robust HUD with a ridiculously good level of customisation. The layout the game throws at you by default is… pretty bad, though. Go into System > HUD Layout to rectify this. You can play around with different sizes and disable certain elements from displaying altogether, with four different layout slots to suit any situation.
I have an information-dense layout for when I'm raiding, and something more minimalistic for things like hanging out with my friends or combat-free roleplaying if you need some inspiration.
Upgrade your gear the right way
Throughout A Realm Reborn, you'll want to regularly swap out gear for the stuff you receive as quest rewards during the MSQ—especially if you're playing a tank class. Tanks, melee, and physical ranged want Disciple of War stuff, while healers and magic DPS want Disciple of Magic. Make sure you're always prioritising a higher item level over stat-specific gear.
Once you hit level 50 you'll have access to your first set of job-specific gear and gear replacement becomes far less frequent thanks to a handy little currency: Allagan Tomestones of Poetics. You get these from a whole host of dungeons and raids, and they can be used to purchase strong armor that will easily carry you for multiple levels.
These sets were once the strongest armor in their respective expansions, hence why they're so good. This'll stop once you hit Dawntrail, of course, but it makes gearing up in older content far less stressful.
Here's what you want to buy at each level, with each vendor usually unlocking after completing the base MSQ of each expansion:
- Level 50: Augmented Ironworks from Mor Dhona
- Level 60: Augmented Shire from Idyllshire
- Level 70: Augmented Scaevan from Rhalgr's Reach
- Level 80: Augmented Cryptlurker from Eulmore
- Level 90: Augmented Credendum from Radz-at-Han or Old Sharlayan
Do your daily roulettes
Final Fantasy 14 has a handful of daily tasks you can do for huge chunks of EXP or endgame currency. These are called roulettes, and are split up into different duty types: Leveling, Trials, Main Scenario, Normal Raids, Alliance Raids, Frontline, Guildhests, High-level Dungeons and Expert. Each one contains a pool of relevant duties, and you won't know which one you're getting until you're in there and ready to battle.
For beginners, the most important ones here are the Leveling roulette, Alliance Raid roulette and Main Scenario roulette. The latter two you'll only have access to once you're level 50, but also have some of the best EXP rewards.
You can do Leveling roulette as soon as you unlock the second dungeon at level 16, and I'd recommend doing it every day as a class that isn't your main. That's because the MSQ gives enough experience to get your main class to max level, which makes roulettes the perfect tool for levelling secondary jobs.
Have fun and don't be afraid to ask questions
Final Fantasy 14 is home to some of the friendliest folk around in the MMO space, which can help make all of the daunting aspects of this game and the genre far less so. New players have a sprout icon next to their name all the way to the last quest of Endwalker (or with less than 300 hours of playtime), and also have access to the Novice Network, connecting them to mentors who can assist with dungeons or give advice on playing the game.
Players generally show a little more grace to those with the icon, and it never hurts to say it's your first time running a dungeon! So don't be afraid to ask questions if you're stuck and most importantly, have fun journeying across Eorzea and beyond. It's a fantastic game. One that, if you're like me, you'll be calling home for many years to come.
