Final Fantasy Mentality

Before you can play the game Final Fantasy XI, you should know why you're playing the game and what drives you to play that game. For me, I needed something to do to fill in my evening hours between school and sleep. Of course, over the years, I've had other things introduced into my life that made my game time less and less but I am still able to enjoy this game quite a bit even with a limited time schedule.

That is one of the hardest things to do in this game: being able to enjoy it with the limit time we have. It is a bit funny too. People have always thought that end-game is a huge time sink and you have to devote your entire life to it and so on and so forth. I beg to differ here. In my LS, we do quite a bit of end game and spend a lot of effort into it. However, a good chunk of our members work a 9-5 job, occasionally go out every so often and live normal social lives. It is a bit ironic too because I see a lot of people who do spend a lot of time playing this game end up saying that end game is too much for them to handle in their lives. However, I'm not gonna continue stating my opinion of others on that aspect. I will try to help players who don't have time be able to properly make the time to play this game.

First thing is that one of your main goals in FFXI when you first start off is to be able to hit level 75 on a job. This can be a bit rough in the beginning, especially when there is sort of a period in our early FFXI lives, called the "newb" period. Now, yes we all start off as newer players into the game and well, we need to adjust. So do many others and also, many people can click in really well or they take a bit of time to get better. Either way, this s an issue that you will face as you will be forced to party for XP for quite a duration of time. Later on, the process of this can be changed but it requires a bit of leveling subs and so on to be able to solo by yourself. This is probably the only real time sink you'll encounter in FFXI. There are ways to make this easier for yourself though and this requires knowing a few people.

Linkshells are very important. Much like guilds but not as exclusive, Linkshells allow you to connect to a network of other FFXI players who can help you or at least entertain your eyes. Make some friends and try to find some people of identical level. Once you do, you can actually do an EXP party with less than 6 people if you know what you're doing. A lot of people that do pick up parties will opt for 6 members. However, if you remove that restriction and have a few friends that can work something out, you can get guite a bit of EXP and maybe even some nice stories to tell. Just remember, Signet helps you a lot as EXP is slightly increased with a party of 2-5. You can completely negate the entire 2 hour party search this way if you know a few friends.

However, I'm sure there are some anti-social people out there who have a hard time making connections. Trust me, being able to be friends with people is a great way to enjoy this game. Anyways, there are some options for you as a soloing player. Note that with how the game is now, you can probably solo from 1 to 75. However, it would be a process that can take quite a bit of time but lets what your options are. Also, this can apply to any player out there and you can do this to help you with things as well.

Goblin Pets. They are the key to soloing at certain levels. By doing a bit of research, you can find some pets that you can take down easily and earn EXP that way. Note that this can be hard to do for certain jobs. I'll let that for you to experiment and decide (as that is what half the fun in FFXI is).

ENMs. Some of them can be soloed but you can only do this once every week and also, you need to get a group to even get you to some of these in the first place. ENMs are much like BCNMs, in the sense that they are closed battle fields where you fight a monster or group of monsters. When you win, you get a good chunk of EXP and also even some items that you can sell. It is a good deal indeed.

Campaigns. You can do these completely solo and if you had the patience, you can probably do them for a good chunk of experience. What is also cool is that it is widely acceptable to look for party while taking part in campaign. Definately something you can do while looking for an EXP party.

Certain jobs have the ability to solo mobs that certain other jobs can't. THF is a good example of this. BST can practically solo from 1 to 75, PUP can do quite a bit of soloing themselves.

What I really want to poiint out though is that with all of these things, it will take time but some of these things can be just "your time" and you can stop whenever you want. That is kind of a nice thing isn't it? You go to school, you're restricted to the professor's lecture time. You go work and you're restricted to the hours you were assigned to. FFXI doesn't need to be that way and a lot of people sometimes treat it as so and they get burned out easily.

So, now that you realize that you have more control over your time than you think, lets talk about ways to make your time playing FFXI from being too boring. A grind is a grind no matter how you look at it... but lets try to find ways to reduce that. It is much like trying to go through your day job and trying to kill the few minutes until your shift is over. Except you have your whole house to yourself so you should have more... options, right? Some don't do this for whatever reason and there will be times in FFXI where it can get slow.

First, do you have a Gameboy? A Nintendo DS? A Playstation Portable? Some sort of handheld game? If so, try some games that you can play during the periods that you have to wait or if you want to take a quick break. Short and quick games work well but it all depends on what type of gamer are you. Oh, but you're not really a "gamer?" Well, there are quite a bit of things on the Nintendo DS and PSP that doesn't require "twitch" reaction to play or anything of that sort. Sudoku... Tetris... Nintendogs. The list goes on. Try looking at a list of games for the DS or the PSP. I consider myself fairly knowledged about video games in general so feel free to even drop me a line as to what games I think you would enjoy a lot.

Aside from that, take a few steps away from your computer or console and just simply walk around for a bit, get that blood flow going and get some water. Come back fresh, heck, bring a sandwich with you too.

Also, try to see if your linkshell has a Ventrilo/TeamSpeak server. It can help a lot with the long grind if you have someone to talk to that you can also relate to in the game. Talking makes time fly by fast so it helps a lot.

Find out what works for you and go for it. It'll help you enjoy the game more.

And as for that... keep your spirits high. Even though things may be hard to grasp in this game, it is much like real life. Strive to keep your eye on what you want most and work as hard as you can to get it. Don't think "Oh man, I can't afford it." Instead, think "What do I need to do to get this?"

You will be surprised.

Money makes the world go 'round

Gil will get you a lot of things in Final Fantasy XI. Eventually, down your career in FFXI, you will need to spend your hard earned gil on some really expensive items. For example, as a Samurai, I had to purchase things up towards a good 5 million or so gil. Something as high as that can be discouraging but there are ways to get around this and "farming" (the act of going out in the field and killing monsters for gil or a sellable product) isn't just the only way.

Lets start at lower levels and habits to develop. At lower levels, your demand for gil isn't so high. You need a million gil off the bat but you will need quite a bit to get your spells and early gear going. It would be pretty difficult for even a new player to start getting their fancy gear going and trying to maintain that gil for later on is going to be rough. So, what can you do? At lower levels, there isn't too much of an option from 1-10. However, think about it as this: "How much gear do you really need to hit level 10?" Not many and in all reality, you can hit level 10 with just your RSE gear and maybe at least upgrade your weapon. So, if you don't really need to, don't bother spending the extra gil for items that you don't really need...

HOWEVER ... Once you hit a party environment, it would be very unwise to stay in your weakest gear as there might be other things that can benefit you greatly and allow you to kill more efficiently. After all, if you think you can hit 75 with just your RSE level 1 gear, that kinda negates the point I'm making here. So, lets try to be frugal here but not gimp yourself where you'll be a walking paper bag that can't do anything. First off, lets actually try making some gil here...

You would be surprised what you can make some good pocket change with at a lower level. When you get to a higher enough level to walk around Giddeus/Ghelsba Outpost/Gusgen Mines, try bringing out some Sickles, Hatchets, or Pickaxes and do some harvesting, logging, and mining. Some of those things end up being cheap and should be NPCed or even tossed at times but quite a few things can net quite a bit of gil. It can be a long and tedious moment but also try to keep yourself occupied. Make it a game, like it's supposed to be. Just try to think about how fast you can hit each point and move on to the next one so you can constantly pull the resources out of them.

If you want to spend a little time and set yourself up a bit for the future, fishing might be up your alley as well. If you level up your cooking a bit to around 29 and make yourself Insect Balls, you can fish up a lot of moat carp within your nation's walls. Granted, you would be limited by the fishing limitation they placed (200 some fish I believe the cap is), but if you choose not to do the associated quest with it, that's about 50k a day you can fish up depending on price and the demand for moat carp is pretty high. Fishing in general can even get you some nice money if you're not doing much of anything.

Now, if you want to try your luck, you can go into the Chocobo Circuit and bet gil on the best two chocobos in a race. However, it can end up being very random and difficult to predict. Alternatively, you can raise your chocobo and compete against these chocobos for some gil as well. If one were to win the C1 Race, that's 100k gil per day with a 10k bet. Not too bad if I say so myself.

These are all just a few alternatives you can do to get some gil in your wallet. Of course you can always farm but please make sure you research what you're farming and try to get more gil out of it with every second you spend out there. Time is money so try to make the best of it and don't spend too much time going out there for nothing.

Now as for habits, lets list a few:

1. If there is a significantly close or equal item equipment that you can get at a later level, save your gil and wait for then.

2. If you're a mage, don't even worry about too much about any equipment that has only defense on them. Sure, you can argue that you'll need it to stay alive if a mob hits you... but if you don't make the mob hit you, you would have no problem, right?

3. While food makes your character powerful, try to be light on it if you can. There are food out there that don't cost a ton but will make your character efficient. Likewise, there are food out there that are pretty expensive but they don't suit what you're doing. Would be pointless to use something like a Carbonara if you're not even /SAM or tanking something in a merit party, for example. For the 75 people out there, just don't use food at Bird Camp. I mean it's great for killing things faster and all but if you're the only one using it, you're constantly eating them down. Maybe it works if you have all the people using food and keeping up with the hate but that's money saved regardless.

4. Avoid using Whitegate to sell your items. Go to Jeuno or Tavnazia and save the precious little bits of gil for the transaction fee. If anything, bazaar your item outside of Jeuno if the item is a few hundred grand or million.

5. Use up your Imperial Standing as a mid-high leveler. Sell of your Gold Coins as they are always in demand for certain items in Aht Urhgan.

6. If you have nothing better to do, Besieged or Campaign when you have the chance. Besieged gets you some Imperial Standing and allows you to skill up and kill some stuff. Campaign doesn't really net you a lot of gil with Allied Notes (but it can if you look around a bit) but you gain XP without having to jump into a party and you don't have to worry about consuming food or spending much money to get to where you need to go.

7. After every update, research new items. If you get the jump on things, people usually buy things at ridiculously high prices. Don't feel bad about the people, feel good about the money you're making due to another person's impatience.

8. Overall, just keep a note at what is hot, what is cold and what hidden things you can find that people can take a bit of an advantage of.

Of course, you can forgo all that and buy gil... but, that's up to you. I won't say it is a bad thing or say it is a good thing, I will say that it is against Square Enix and PlayOnline's Terms of Service to involve real money trade with the items in game. So, if you do buy gil, you know the risk.

In a later post: More gil making options and maybe a little light on some Chocobo Racing!

Oh, and I would like to make a quick reference to my personal blog for Campaigning. It is a little guide to figure out how to get the most out of Campaign for jobs that can't really do those battles that well for EXP. However, it can be used if you want to be a little bit lazy but don't try to do it too much, after all, the fate of Vana'diel's past does lie in your hands.

The post can be found here: Campaign Battles and Earning XP