Beginner How-To Guide

N.B.: Please don't stress out about racial differences in attributes. The differences are extremely minor at all stages of the game, and the differences that do exist can be more than made up for with just a couple pieces of equipment. Furthermore, every job requires a variety of stats, so no race is ever better or worse than another for a job. And of course, any character may play every job! Attribute differences are more about one's preferences and play-style. Each race also has its own fun aesthetic and history within the game world, so I recommend focusing more on that.

To help understand these attributes, here's a quick run-down:

• Strength - This understandably governs your physical attack damage. What you might not know is that Strength affects ranged physical attacks as well, including bows, guns, and crossbows.
• Dexterity - This governs your melee accuracy and overall critical hit rate.
• Vitality - A higher vitality makes you receive less damage from physical attacks, and will also affect how much HP you restore when receiving healing effects.
• Agility - This stat affects evasion and ranged accuracy. Higher Agility also reduces the number of tactical points (TP) an enemy receives when you strike them. (TP are a resource used to unleash special moves)
• Mind - Affects the accuracy and damage of your own White Magic effects, your evasion and defense against enemy White Magic effects, and the potency of various healing abilities (especially White Magic).
• Intelligence - Affects the accuracy and damage of your Black Magic spells and your resistances to enemy Black Magic. Also has a global effect on your magic damage output overall.
• Charisma - Only notably affects Bard songs, a Beastmaster's Charm, and Dancer's healing abilities.

To help understand how each job-class works and relates to one another, it helps to understand the mechanic of enmity. Enmity (aka: "aggro", "hate") is an unseen resource within each foe that dictates which combatant it focuses on killing at any time. Performing an offensive action on the enemy will make it want to kill you, as will assisting anyone already on the enemy's kill list. As actions are performed, the foe's enmity towards a combatant climbs. Whomever has the most enmity at any time will be the foe's primary target.

Solo play is difficult in Final Fantasy XI, as every job has weaknesses that require complementary strengths from other jobs. This is solved by forming a party of up to 6 adventurers, which may consist of a combination of other player characters (PC's) and alter-ego "trust" non-player characters (NPC's) which you may summon to fill in slots. The goal of every member of every party is to try and maximize the speed at which monsters are defeated while minimizing the amount of downtime between fights. And because it's much easier to sustain a party that's taking less overall damage, a key objective in any fight is keeping the foe's attention on those who take the least amounts of damage. A squishy damage-dealer's maximum damage output therefore is more limited to how much they can do without exceeding the enmity gained by the damage-absorbing tank. The mechanic of enmity plays a huge role in how each job is played strategically, as they all have various tools to deal with it.

Enmity adds another dimension to the formation of a party. While some jobs may specialize in a role such as "tank" or "healer", it's more important to understand what each one brings to a team overall. Most jobs contribute to more than one aspect of a party, and many can change their role altogether by strategically altering their loadout (equipment, etc). For example, you could replace a dedicated tank and damage-dealer combination with a pair of beefy damage-dealers bouncing enmity back and forth, or even with just one semi-tanky character if the party has enough supporting power.

After choosing your physical appearance it's time to pick which job you start the game with. You may change your job at any point simply by visiting your Mog House by entering the Residential Area in any town. Your starter job determines what equipment (and spells, if any) you start with, but you can buy that stuff at shops as well. Each job is leveled independently, and you may take each one to level 99 if you wish.

• Once you've reached level 18 as any job, you may permanently unlock the ability to set a support job (aka: "subjob"), which may also be changed at any time. You'll gain access to most of the subjob's abilities, skills, and spells up to half the level of your main job! For example, Monk learns Boost at level 5, so a Warrior/Monk at level 10 (subjob level rounds down) will have access to Boost! This is usually written as WAR10/MNK5.
• These are not the only jobs in the game, either. At level 30 you'll gain access to quests that unlock additional jobs. The additional jobs aren't any stronger or weaker than the ones you start out with, and are in all ways treated equal. See further down in the guide for more details!

After you choose your starting job, you move on to naming your character. This is slightly less permanent than your appearance, as you can change your name by switching servers. When choosing a name, you are limited to alphabetical characters, with the letter capitalized and the rest lower case. No numbers, dashes, spaces, or other symbols. If you can’t think of a name, there is the option to have the game choose one at random for you. These names are typical of your race and gender.

Naming conventions for each race are as follows:

• Hume names are commonly more dated English-style names such as Brutus or Hortense.
• Elvaan names usually have more of a flourish, taking on more of a French resemblance. Male names have combined vowels and silent letters, such as Rainemard or Charmelaut. Female names are similar, but a bit softer. Examples may include Amaura or Leaute.
• Tarutaru names have a mild rhyming scheme, and typically go by their first and last name in combination. Male names include a hyphen, and often resemble magical spells. Noragu-Merago or Hakaru-Marikaru are a couple examples. By contrast, female names are shorter and don't include a hyphen. Some examples include Lutete or Palyalya. Due to the game's naming requirements, male names will lose their hyphens. As a result, a name such as Thnikka-Manna will appear as Thnikkamanna
• Mithra are also commonly referred to by both first and last names, often with more guttural syllables. The first name is typically no more than two syllables, while the last can be anywhere between one and four. Some examples include Tihl Midurhi or Aurhi Rhatelo. While males are unplayable, their names follow a similar convention. Due to the game's naming requirements, both names will be combined into one. Jesi Banjyao would therefore appear as Jesibanjyao.
• Galka have fairly simple names from their ancestry. Names such as Galdo or Oggodett are often seen outside of Bastok. However, within the stone walls of the Hume capital, many Galka have been given names that are easier for the Humes to use, such as Ominous Cloud or Invincible Shield. While the traditional names translate well into the game's naming rules, the secondary names will be combined. A name such as Ferrous Coffin would become Ferrouscoffin.

After you pick a name, you’re given the option of which world you would like to start in. The only difference between servers is the number of people on each. Geographical regions and language are not limited, nor are there any fundamental gameplay changes such as some allowing PvP while others don't. If you've been invited to play by a friend, now is the time to use your Gold World Pass. A Gold World Pass will give both you and your friend some interesting items as time progresses.

• Finally, you choose the nation from which your adventure begins. The nations of Bastok, San d'Oria, and Windurst are mostly back on their feet from the war, and seek to employ eager adventurers. The game's narrative begins right now, with you heeding the call of a nation! The only difference between nations is the perspective of the narrative. You may also move to a different nation at any time with no progress lost, but for a small immigration fee. You may speak to and party with anyone from any nation. The only effect on gameplay is that if you match your race to your nation, you will begin the game with a ring with a small stat bonus on it. The rings from all nations will eventually become available to you regardless, so don't worry too much about it. Much like your race, pick based on personal preference!

While far from the most exciting thing you can do after taking your first steps in Vana'diel, it's good to familiarize yourself with everything. Final Fantasy XI is old by game standards, so the default controls might not be to your liking. Doing a sweep through each of the settings will make your experience a lot smoother. It's important to understand the controls as well. Much of the game is controlled by menus. Why, the simple act of learning your first spell (if you started as White, Black, or Red Mage) or even trading that Adventurer Coupon are all done in menus. It takes some getting used-to, but it becomes second nature in no time!

The game is broken up into what we call "zones". Every zone has its own map which you may access by going to the bottom of the first page of the main menu. The map will show you the zone's name, your whereabouts, and a grid system which you can use to find things, especially if you're using an online resource. City maps will show shops and other useful things such as the Residential Area and connecting zones. Tabbing left and right on the map menu itself will let you create markers and locate party members. You may also use the feature Wide Scan, which shows a small area around you and will locate NPC's (green) and enemies (red) if you already know what you're looking for. Keep your eyes peeled for the floating crystal Home Points. Simply clicking on it will open it up for you as a teleport spot from any other Home Point in the world! You may also choose one as a point to which you'll return if you're knocked unconscious or if you use a Warp spell.

Each starting nation has a tutorial NPC (non-player character) to speak to in order to understand bits and pieces of the game. They aren't too long and introduce some good habits for new players. Open up your map and make sure you're in Southern San d'Oria, Bastok Markets, or Windurst Woods. If not, follow your map and make your way to one of those specific zones. Use Wide Scan to help you find the NPC if you need to! Speak with Alaune in Southern San d'Oria (G-10), Gulldago in Bastok Markets (D-11), or Selele in Windurst Woods (K-10) to get started. I won't get into specifics, but if you get lost, the tutorial quest guide may be found here.

Found under the Quest menu, Records of Eminence (RoE) is a supplementary reward system. This is another thing I highly recommend becoming familiar with. You simply set objectives and then accomplish them with rewards such as bonus experience points and a unique currency called Sparks. Sparks may be spent in lieu of money to buy all sorts of equipment and other cool stuff from level 1 all the way up to level 99. The objectives may be changed at any time, so you can tailor them to anything you're currently doing. One particularly interesting part of RoE are the Tutorial quests, which teaches you some good habits and even rewards you with some Trust Magic to make leveling up easier!

• Pro-tip: On the third page of "Equipment (Lv.71-98)" is a gun named Ribauldequin, which sells to shopkeepers for a ton of gil! You can use this strategy to buy things that you can't buy with Sparks, such as spell scrolls or items from the Auction House.

For when you don't want to (or can't) rely on having a full party to get stuff done, you may summon the alter-egos of certain NPC's to fill the gaps using Trust Magic. You gain access to a bunch right off the start by playing through the Records of Eminence tutorial, while many others become available by other means. "Trusts" aren't always the smartest, but they get the job done. Rather than waiting for hours for a player character with healing abilities to join your party, just summon an alter-ego of Mihli Aliapoh. Note that Trusts can't be summoned if you're already in combat. Trusts will always be the level of the character who summoned them, but they won't level up automatically with you, and you'll need to release them and summon them at your new level for them to match you again. (Typing "/refa all" will instantly dismiss all of your Trusts at the same time)

The 30-slot inventory you're given at the start is pretty tiny, but there are a ton of ways to make it work wonders. First, there's a feature under "Gameplay" in the settings that will automatically sort your inventory whenever you get a new item, which also stacks stackable items like Crystals on your behalf. Second, is your Mog House. I go into more details about it below, but you should know that there are a ton of extra storage spots in there. You'll unlock more storage options and more slots per inventory as you play the game as well. Third, some of these Mog House options are accessible even in the middle of nowhere. Two of these are called your Mog Wardrobe, from which you may store and directly equip armor and weapons! If you play your cards right, you can store all of your equipment in the Wardrobes and leave your entire inventory for drops and consumables. Lastly, there exist Porter Moogles, who can store almost any equipment in the game. The process to store things with Porter Moogles is a little time-consuming, so it's best to only use them with stuff you rarely need.

It also helps greatly to understand what each of these drops do. If you've picked up Signet before venturing outside, you'll likely have a bunch of crystals in your inventory. These are used for synthesis, which I go into further detail below. These sell quickly on the Auction House if you don't plan on using them right away, or can be traded to the guards who cast Signet for bonus Rank Points and Conquest Points. Beastmen Seals are items that are used to access certain boss fights for super good rewards later on, so hold onto them. Both crystals and seals may later be stored with NPC's so you can free your inventory of them until you need them. Most other items are used for crafting. Many can be collected and sold in stacks on the Auction House, or to NPC's for a few quick bucks.

Finally, many items are tagged with little circles that read "Rare", "Ex", "Tmp", and "Aug". A rare item is one that you may only have one of per character. Even if you've stored it in your Mog House, you cannot collect a second one. Rare items are often used in quests, so if you see one, you should ask (or look up online) what it's used for. Exclusive items are items that cannot be traded or sold. They're often rewards from quests or missions and are challenging to obtain as a result. Temporary items will disappear from your inventory when you leave the area, and are usually a part of some event or a drop from a blue Treasure Casket. Augmented items have been given extra, usually custom bonuses by one means or another.