FFXIV - New Player Tips

(Last updated: Dec. 2023)

So, you just made your first character on Final Fantasy XIV and are looking for some tips to get you started off on the right foot? Lucky for you, I have many! This page will go into detail on several tips that I believe all new players should know and will hopefully improve your game as well!

All About Quests

XIV has lots of quests, and starting out can be very overwhelming if you don't know understand the game organizes its quests. In brief, the game has three main types of quests: MSQ, Feature Quests, and Side Quests.

Quest Type	Start	Next Step	Final Step	Unavailable
Main Story Quests
Feature Quests
Side Quests

Main Story Quests (or MSQ for short) are the game's main story, and is denoted by the Dalamud-shaped icon. This quest line is the main grind of the game, and pretty much everything in the game is locked behind it. As you progress through the MSQ and level up, you'll unlock more and more of the features, areas, and characters that the game has to offer.

Most of the game's side-features are locked behind a separate kind of quest called Feature Quests. Feature quests are denoted by blue quest icon and become available as you progress through the MSQ. Nearly everything cool in the game is behind a Feature Quest: classes, jobs, raids, dungeons, glamour, housing, relics, mini-games, hunts, treasure maps, and more.

Lastly, we have good 'ol Side Quests. These purely exist for side narrative reasons and are mainly used as a secondary source of Gil and XP. There's no downside to not doing these, but some of them have really good stories to tell, so it's up to you!

Start by doing your MSQ, and then do any Feature quests as you unlock them! Oh, and in case you ever get lost, the game has a built-in MSQ tracker in the HUD which tells you which quest you're on. If you click on it, it'll also pull up the map focused on the starting location of your next story quest.

One Feature quest line you should absolutely prioritize is the quest line associated with your class/job. These are feature quests you unlock every 5 levels or so and they'll show up right under your MSQ tracker if you have one available. (See "Tactical Planning" in the image above.) Each class usually has abilities locked behind the completion of these quests, so it's wise to complete these as soon as you can.

Customize Your HUD & Keybinds

Hot take: The default new user configuration absolutely sucks.

Just kidding, that's not a hot take at all. Pretty much everyone agrees on the matter. Luckily, FFXIV has one of the most in-depth customization schemes I've ever seen in a game, so you're in luck!

Let's start by talking about hotbars and keybinds. Hotbars are everyone's best friend, and the main way that players interact with the game, beyond clicking & targeting. Almost every single thing in the game can be represented by an icon on a hotbar, whether it be weaponskills, spells, abilities, items, emotes, menus, macros, etc. Combine that with the fact that each hotbar slot can have a key (or combination of keys) assigned to trigger it, and you end up with a fully customizable control scheme. Essentially, you design how you play the game.

I personally think that the default number-bar keybinds are gross, because it forces you to reach all the way across the keyboard to use abilities in the leftmost slots. I much prefer rebinding to have my actions on the keys surrounding WASD, so it's closer in experience to other WASD-controlled computer games I play.

In the game's System menu (i.e. ESC key on keyboard or the last tab of the pause menu on controller) click on "Keybind" to open up the editor. The "Hotbar" tab is where you'll see these keybinds, and can rebind them to whatever you want. For inspiration, I've attached a diagram and screenshot of my keybinds below.

In addition to the keybind customization being very granular, the game's entire HUD is also customizable on a per-character basis. Everything you see on screen- your hotbars, your health, your job gauge, minimap, quest tracker, etc.- can be moved, scaled, or (un)hidden if you so desire.

To open the game's HUD editor, open the game's System menu and click on "HUD Layout." Select item by clicking on it or by picking it using the dropdown. You can click and drag or use the left stick to move things around. Any item in white text is visible, while ones in blue aren't. You can toggle this by right clicking on them selecting them via the dropdown and pressing Triangle/Y on controller.

While you only start with two visible, every player actually has ten hotbars that you can use to really customize your HUD. Players will usually do the typical three rows for their main actions, then put the other 7 elsewhere on the screen. I personally use two for a popup class changer macro, another two for emotes and movement abilities, and a vertical one in the top right of my screen for system menus. (Wondering what a macro is? I'll talk about those later.)

Everyone has their own mentality when it comes to HUDs. Some people prefer having as little HUD bloat as possible and hide every non-essential element for a cleaner experience. Other people prefer having their debuffs and the enemy cast bar to be real big and obnoxious so they can't miss them. To each their own!

Like I said earlier, you design how you play the game. Your HUD/keybinds are one aspect of the game that you will mess with in perpetuity, constantly tweaking and refining it till it's something you're comfortable with. So have some fun, and make it your own!

Poke Around The Settings Menus

HUD and Hotbars are only scraping the top of the barrel in terms of customization. There's a plethora of hidden settings in the game that can totally change how it feels and plays. I won't go into great detail here, but I will refer you to YouTuber Jolsn's new player series that I watched when I was just starting out, specifically his gameplay tricks videos. The changes he talks about here have made my life a whole lot easier, so consider watching it when you get the chance!

Macros

One aspect of XIV that I find really interesting is the fact that it has its own built-in macro engine!

I remember back when I played Destiny 2, in order to automate repetitive actions like converting planetary currencies into legendary shards at Rahool, I'd have to crack out Python and PyAutoGUI and script something up on my own. With XIV's built in macro engine, automation has never been easier, plus you don't run the risk of catching a bot ban. :)

In the same way that nearly every action in the game can be represented by icons on a hotbar, those actions are also represented by a text command you can use in chat. Macros allow us to chain these text commands together to automate or simplify complex actions. Better yet, macros can also be given an icon and assigned to a hotbar slot just like any other action, so you're effectively allowed to design your own actions using this engine! It's SUPER powerful.

I go more in depth into what macros are and how to use them in my macros post, which you can find here:

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Use Third-Party Tools

The open-source development community surrounding XIV is very alive and well, and there are MULTITUDES of tools that have been developed over the past few years, all with the goal of simplifying the player experience. There are hunt trackers, crafting macro generators, glamour database, etc. etc.

If you want a list of some of my favorites, I highly recommend checking out my page on the matter, here:

FFXIV - Useful Sites

I won’t pretend like I know everything, so here are some useful websites that I’ve used over the years!

Azure's BlogAndrew Augustine