FINAL FANTASY XIV Online: Final Fantasy XIV for Advanced Players [DT]

Steam Community guide by Lotus.

What does this guide cover?

First of all: thank you reading this guide!
But what is it even about and who is it written for?
This guide was mainly written for players who just finished A Realm Reborn or about to do so. It covers topics like which important Side-Quests to complete, what optional instances you should unlock, how to quickly raise your iLvl, profiting from Retainer Ventures, getting into crafting & gathering and more.
I originally only published a German version of this guide back in January of 2020. You're currently reading the translated version, done by myself, which is - of course - including all the revisions made to the original guide. The latest revision of this guide took place during patch 7.0 (July 2024), which means that changes made by the latest expansion (Dawntrail) are also included. However, despite my best efforts, I might've overlooked broken links or outdated information while updating this guide for three (!) expansions now - so if you spot any errors, I'd be happy if you could leave a comment so that I can take care of them!
I consider this guide to be the final one in my three-part series of Final Fantasy XIV guides.
My first guide, Final Fantasy XIV for Newcomers, covers topics like what to purchase to play the game, how to create your own character, what class to choose or what server to pick and more:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2548423968
My second guide, Final Fantasy XIV for Beginners, covers topics like the different quest types & which types you should prioritize, why your item level is important, why you shouldn't by a story or level skip, what's to know about travelling & mounts, the differences between instanced content as well as giving general tips & tricks for beginners:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2551540756
While this guide is mainly aimed at players who are about to finish A Realm Reborn (or just did), even players who put a lot of time into the game already might discover something new here as well! Still, in order to allow everyone to skip topics they're already familiar with, I subdivided this guide into multiple chapters, each dealing with one particular matter. As such, feel free to use Steam's chapter function to skip topics you already know about!
But enough of the long preface, let's get started!

Content updates & you

The following chapters are going to be about optional A Realm Reborn content you should unlock and what's especially useful. If you want to, feel free to immediately jump to those chapters. But first I'd like to talk about how Final Fantasy XIV content updates work and why that might lead to some unexpected barriers.
First, the basics: As an MMO, Final Fantasy XIV routinely receives new content so that high-level players won't run out of things to do. As you might recall, I talked about the basic differences between bigger content updates ("expansions") and smaller content updates ("patch content") in my first guide.
If the new content is aimed at "high-level players" as I just said, why should you, as a new player be concerned about it? Well, for one the content updates might introduce changes that affect all players regardless of level, like changing the class/job balancing. But what's more important is the system behind content updates, which has consequences that affect unlocking new instances for example.
As soon as you finished the 2.0 Main Scenario Quests of A Realm Reborn, you'll find yourself surrounded with a lot of level 50 Feature Quests. That's a situation you're going to find yourself into again at level 60, 70, 80 and so on. Why's that? Easy: Those are the respective maximum player-levels of the base game and the expansions. Sure thing, some of you might say now, but as I've just reached level 50 myself, why should there be a problem?
The problem is that many of the now available Feature-Quests are requiring an average item level that's probably going to be much higher than your current one. In a first step, let's first take a look at the reason for this and then, in a second step, how to solve this problem quickly.
To understand the reason behind the item level (or iLvl for short) requirements rising rapidly, we'll have to understand how exactly content updates in Final Fantasy XIV work. To illustrate, let us go back in time: In the year 2013, the current base game, A Realm Reborn, releases - introducing game version 2.0. Two years later, in 2015, the first Final Fantasy XIV expansion releases with Heavensward - game version 3.0. Does that mean nothing happened in the years between game version 2.0 and 3.0? Of course not.
Between 2013 and 2015, Final Fantasy XIV received multiple smaller content updates through patches ("patch content"). Some of these patches only changed minor things, balancing classes and jobs for example. These updates got "odd" version numbers like 2.05 or 2.56. Every few months, a bigger patch released, continuing the Main Scenario and adding new dungeons, trials, raids, etc. to the game. These patches got "bigger" version numbers like 2.1 or 2.4. This went on until 3.0 arrived with Heavensward. This expansion also received numerous content updates (version 3.07, 3.1, etc.) until the second expansion, Stormblood, released: game version 4.0 arrived. And, you guessed it, this goes on for every new expansion and the time post-release.
If you recall what I mentioned in my first guide, you might wonder now: If the maximum character level was only increased with each expansion (3.0, 4.0, etc.) - do the new activities introduced in the post-release patches (3.1, 4.2, etc.) all share the same difficulty level? Are the enemies of a 2.1 dungeon as tough as the ones from a 2.4 dungeon? They're all level 50 after all, no?
As you probably guessed, this is not the case. While the patch content of 2.1 and 2.4 is indeed requiring the same character level (50), the enemies are tougher in 2.4 content than they are in 2.1 - and thus require a higher iLvl of your character.
Example: The last story instance of game version 2.0, A Realm Reborn, requires an average iLvl of at least 42. A trial of game version 2.57, the last "bigger" patch before Heavensward arrived, requires an average iLvl of 90.
It's quite simple: In order to keep players entertained, newer enemies need to be stronger than old ones. However, as the player levels won't be increased during patch content, enemy levels can't be increased either. Yes, I know, technically the developers could do that but that's not what they did. Instead, they went for a different approach: Enemies and player stay at the same level, but the new enemies of each patch receive better stats than the previous ones. Meaning, they hit harder.
If the enemies increase their stats, the players must do so as well in order to keep up. And thus, with each new patch, new gear was introduced, stronger than what came before. So once players finished the new Quests, dungeons, etc. of a patch, they spend the following days acquiring the newly added gear - in order to be prepared for the next patch.
So, to come back to our original problem: Most of the Feature Quests you unlocked upon finishing A Realm Reborn are from different patches that released before Heavensward. As such, they require a higher average iLvl than you currently have - because players spent a lot of time with each patch to improve their gear back in the day.
Tl;dr: Feature Quests that are unlocked at level 50, 60, 70, etc. are usually going to require an average iLvl than the one you currently have.
Now, as we're done with the first step, understanding the reason, let's move on with the second step: raising your iLvl fast to tackle those Feature Quests!

Raising your iLvl quickly

Let's start with the good news: While players had to spent quite some time back in the day to slowly raise their item level with each patch, you don't need to do the same. In order to not stop new players in their tracks, the developers implemented ways to skip the old iLvl grinds.
One way would be to just continue with the Main Scenario Quests of the patches. They're going to require lower iLvls than the Feature Quests of each patch - and as you'll need to do them anyway in order to get to the next expansion, well, two birds with one stone?
But there's a much faster and easier way to raise your iLvl, thanks to "catch-up gear"! These gear sets were implemented with each new expansion so that players can quickly get through the previous patches in order to reach said expansion. Sounds nice? It is! They're easily obtainable as well. Please note that catch-up gear is only available for combat jobs, there is no gathering or crafting version.
To obtain catch-up gear, you just need to trade with specific vendors in Eorzea. You'll find the specific locations for all levels in the UI-guide[na.finalfantasyxiv.com]! However, you can't use Gil to purchase the individual gear pieces. Instead, you'll need so called "Allagan Tomestones". More details about them can also be found in the wiki[ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com] but for our purpose the following information should suffice:
In order to purchase catch-up gear, we'll need Allagan Tomestones of Poetics. They'll be rewarded for clearing instances of level 50 - 90 as long as one of your combat jobs already reached level 50. You'll receive even more Tomestones if one of your party members didn't clear the instance before. Other sources include daily roulettes, The Hunt, Tribal Quests, Field Operations, Deep Dungeons or The Masked Carnivale. While you might be low on Tomestones of at first, you'll quickly reach the maximum amount of 2000 you can hold at once. If that happens, spend your Tomestones on future catch-up gear or gear for other jobs you might want to level.
As catch-up gear was designed to get you through level 50, 60, etc. patches, it's of course designed for level 50, 60, etc. as well. While the stats are good enough to last for a few further levels as well, you should not try wearing it until you reach the next catch-up set. Always be on the lookout for any gear that's better than what you're currently wearing. Catch-up gear is not meant to be the only thing you're wearing in the entire game.
Tl:dr: Use Allagan Tomestones of Poetics at level 50, 60, etc. to buy catch-up gear in order to skip the patch iLvl grind. That way, you'll quickly reach the next expansion (and play through Feature Quests) without any problems. Alternatively: Continue with the Main Scenario Quests.

Levelling your combat classes

If we're already on the topic of raising your item level: What's the best way to level my combat classes? This isn't an easy question to answer, since there's not "one best way to level" but rather multiple options to choose from. As such, I'll focus on what's generally seen as one of the best ways to level up.
Before we go over the methods, keep in mind that optimized levelling includes making use of all your possible experience buffs. Some of those are quite easy to get, just eating any food provides you with a 3% experience buff (applies to defeating enemies but also synthesizing recipes or gathering items) for example. There's also the "Armoury Bonus", bonus XP your combat classes receive when below the level of your highest combat class (e.g. if you already got Red Mage to level 59 and start levelling Samurai, it will receive the Armoury bonus experience until it reaches level 58). Other popular sources of bonus experience are earrings that are granted by preordering expansions or the "Road to 90" buff received from creating a new character on a new/preferred Home World[na.finalfantasyxiv.com]. A full list of potential experience buffs can be found on the Consolegameswiki[ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com], try to make use of them as much as you can!
Once you're stacked up on buffs, let's talk about levelling your combat classes. The obvious way to get your first combat class to max level is doing main scenario quests - they provide enough experience and gear to get at least one of your classes to max level. Furthermore, only by progressing through the main scenario quests you'll unlock some of the content we'll use for levelling more combat classes. After you're done with the main scenario quests, here's what you want to prioritize:
Certain Duty Roulettes (daily) → Side activities while queueing for roulettes (FATEs, Allied Society dailies) → Spamming the highest-level dungeon available to your combat class
As for which Duty Roulettes are worthwhile: "Levelling", "Alliance Raid" and "Trial" Duty Roulettes are usually regarded as the best time investments in regards to experience gain. Points can also be made for the "Frontline" (Player versus Player combat matches) and "Main Scenario" Duty Roulette, though the latter one features content with a lot of unskippable cutscenes (and as such is often dubbed "Netflix Roulette") and can be quite mind-numbing if you see those every day. It's important to note here that you only do each Duty Roulette once each day for the daily experience bonus rewards, it's not worthwhile to do them without it.
While queueing for Duty Roulettes usually doesn't take long - especially for tanks and healers - DPS might still have to wait a few minutes before they're able to join one. That time can be spend idling in major cities but it's more worthwhile to do some fast side content while waiting (e.g. FATEs, level 70+ Allied Society daily quests).
Done with Duty Roulettes and the aforementioned side content for the day? Then all that's left to do is to run the highest-level dungeon currently available to your combat class over and over again, unfortunately. If you're levelling a DPS class, you should consider running those with NPCs instead, to save yourself from long queue times. If that sounds boring to you, common alternative level methods include doing Shadowbringers side content (Bozja) or Deep Dungeons.
The most important thing to keep in mind while levelling, however, is to have fun. Pick content you enjoy doing, not the one that might be more rewarding but unappealing to you. Otherwise you might burn out in the long run, which is the opposite of what you want. Remember to take breaks and only level those classes you really want to level!

Unlocking optional features

After we talked about the possible obstacles when attempting Feature Quests, let's finally get to the interesting part: What features or content can I unlock through which optional Feature Quest?
The following list is sorted by the level requirements of each A Realm Reborn Feature Quest, I also included the coordinates of the NPCs you can get the quests from. Please note that many of these Feature Quests also require the completion of certain Main Scenario Quests. For spoiler reasons, I did not name them in this list. Instead, I linked the Lodestone-entries (the official Final Fantasy XIV database) for all Feature Quests which name every quest that might need to be finished beforehand.

Housing

**[Lvl. 5] ** Dreaming of your own house in Eorzea? Then look out for the "Where the Heart Is"-Feature Quests, which can be found in Lower La Noscea[na.finalfantasyxiv.com](X: 31.6, Y: 20.2) and Western Thanalan[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (X: 26.0, Y: 24.1). Weirdly, unlocking housing in the Black Shroud takes a little longer. The required Feature Quest[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] can be obtained in the Central Shroud (X: 21.7, Y: 21.9) - but only at [Lvl. 10]. I should also note that you'll need to buy your own house with Gil - completing the mentioned quests only unlocks housing but does not grant you a free home, unfortunately.

Leves

**[Lvl. 10] ** To unlock leves in general, complete a Feature Quest in New Gridania[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (X: 11.7, Y: 13.4), Limsa Lominsa[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (Upper Decks, X: 10.9, Y: 10.9) or Ul'dah[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (Steps of Nald, X: 12.0, Y: 9.0) - depending on your chosen starting city. Details about leves can be found in my previous guide.

Guild Hests

**[Lvl. 10] ** After unlocking the ability to accept leves, complete another Feature Quest in the Central Shroud[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (X: 22.5, Y: 22.2), Western La Noscea [na.finalfantasyxiv.com](X: 34.8, Y: 31.7) or Western Thanalan[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (23.1, Y: 16.5) to unlock Guild Hests as well. More details about Guild Hests (interactive group content tutorials) can also be found in my previous guide.

Glamour

**[Lvl. 15] ** There are quite a few lvl. 15 Feature Quests, mostly unlocking features concerning fashion. To unlock Glamour, which allows you to transform the appearance of gear by making it look like other gear pieces, start with If I Had a Glamour[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] in Western Thanalan (X: 12.6, Y: 14.3) or A Self-improving Man[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] in Mor Dhona (X: 22.1, Y: 6.7).

Dyeing your gear

**[Lvl. 15] ** To also be able to dye your gear, simply complete Color Your World[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] in Western Thanalan (X: 12.6, Y: 14.3). This feature is pretty self-explanatory.

The Aesthetician

**[Lvl. 15] ** The last fashion related unlock. The Aesthetician, allowing you to change the hair cut or facial features of your character for example, is at your service after completing Beauty Is Only Scalp Deep[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] in Limsa Lominsa (Upper Decks, X: 11.1, Y: 11.0).

Challenge Log

**[Lvl. 15] ** You want to receive extra experience rewards when completing certain tasks every week? Because that's exactly what the Challenge Log offers, which makes it really useful for levelling. Unlock the Challenge Log by completing Rising to the Challenge[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] in Limsa Lominsa (Upper Decks, X: 11.5, Y: 10.9)t.

Manderville Gold Saucer

**[Lvl. 15] ** The Gold Saucer,[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] a name which a few of you might recognize from Final Fantasy VII, can be unlocked by completing It Could Happen to You[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (Ul'dah: Steps of Nald, X: 9.6, Y: 9.0). The Gold Saucer offers minigames, a lottery, Triple Triad, Mahjong, a fashion contest and even Chocobo races. Don't worry, there are no micro-transactions here.

Retainers and Retainer Ventures

**[Lvl. 17] ** You'll unlock retainers through the Main Scenario. However, by completing the "An Ill-conceived Venture"-Feature Quest, which can be found in New Gridania[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (X: 11.8, Y: 12.2), Limsa Lominsa[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (Upper Decks, X: 9.0, Y: 11.2) or Ul'dah[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (Steps of Nald, X: 9.3, Y: 8.7) according to your starting city, you'll also unlock the ability to send your retainers on Ventures. More about them and their rewards later.

Palace of the Dead

**[Lvl. 17] ** Side activity in which you'll start with a level 1 class (maybe with a group?) and fight & level through a randomly generated dungeon. Start with "The House That Death Build" in New Gridania (X: 12.0, Y: 13.1). For more info, check the official website.[na.finalfantasyxiv.com]

Materia Melding & Extraction

**[Lvl. 19] ** The two Feature Quests for unlocking these features can be found in Central Thanalan, called Waking the Spirits[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (X: 23.5, Y: 13.9) & Forging the Spirit[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (X: 23.9, Y: 13.7). Through materia melding, the stats of certain gear can be improved. After completing the [Lvl. 25] Feature Quest Medling Materia Muchly[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] (X: 23.7, Y: 13.6), you'll also be able to "overmeld" your gear, making it possible to make use of more materia improvements than the materia slots allowed before. More of an endgame activity though.

Mounts

**[Lvl. 20] **We talked about this one in the previous guide but to repeat: Your first mount can be unlocked after clearing the MSQ A Hero in the Making[na.finalfantasyxiv.com] as well as a few more, refer to the UI-guide[na.finalfantasyxiv