FFXIV Free Trial Tips and Tricks

Ready for some random information and advice for FFXIV’s Free Trial? Some of this stuff may be covered in other sections of the website, but it will still be here incase you missed it. Otherwise, some of these Free Trial tips might not be big enough to warrant an entire guide on the subject.

The Final Fantasy XIV Free Trial has gone through a few changes throughout the years, consisting of various expansions and restriction adjustments. The original 14-Day Free Trial began on July 31st, 2014. During this time, it was only possible to reach Level 20. While the website stated that players were required to sub after 90 days, nothing actually happened to those accounts that did not. Old Free Trial accounts can still upgrade to the newest Free Trial, as long as the game was never purchased. [Source]

On March 28th, 2017, the Free Trial received it’s very first expansion. The time limitations were removed, players could now play for as long as they wanted. The level cap was also raised up to Level 35, allowing for PvP to be accessed. We also gained access to Palace of the Dead finally, but only up to Floor 10. The MSQ stopped at a huge cliffhanger, too. I personally started writing free trial guides during this time period, although closer to 2019.

The second expansion that made the Free Trial more widely know arrived on August 11th, 2020. This was a huge update compared to everything else, and it’s where all the memes began. For this update, players could experience the entirety of A Realm Reborn, and it’s first expansion, Heavensward. Sprouts could now reach Level 60 and experience an insane amount of new content. Unfortunately, due to some players hacking and abusing the game, PvP was removed from the Free Trial on February 25th, 2021. Although they said restrictions would eventually be removed, it’s very unlikely.

As of October 3rd, 2023, the newest Free Trial update lets everyone experience the Stormblood expansion for the very first time. This time the level cap has been increased all the way to Level 70. This will also be the first time that sprouts get to leave the lands of Eorzea, taking us across the ocean to the Far East. The newest content that we’ll get to experience is a unique zone called Eureka. Stormblood’s Ultimate Raids, however, are being restricted. Although there’s no guarantees, it’s possible that we may see more Free Trial expansions in the future.

• For more personalized help and assistance, try joining our Discord! The Novice Network chat in-game can sometimes be helpful as well.

• A lot of guides floating around the internet often have patch numbers next to certain things, this shows when something was released. Free Trial players have access to most things up to Patch 4.58, with some restrictions of course. However, it is also possible to earn and collect items from later patches, such as in Patch 6.3 when a few items were added to the Gold Saucer and other vendors. So don’t just rely on these numbers alone!

• If you have friends who are also on the Free Trial, you can ask subbed players to create a party for you, so you can play together. I recommend asking in the Novice Network, or in a populated area like Limsa Lominsa. Be warned though, Main Scenario Quests often require you to disband for solo duties.

You can also ask others to make personal Linkshells for you and your friends; it’s the best solution to being unable to /tell. (Aka, Private Chat.) It’s worth noting that even with full permissions or ownership, you won’t be able to invite others to your Linkshell, and will have to rely on others.

• Probably the number one priority when starting the game is doing the Main Story Quests. They unlock tons of features, including dungeons, airship travel, side quests, classes and most importantly – MOUNTS! ~ Blue quests unlock some useful things too, don’t miss out!

• While it’s possible to obtain Mounts before doing the MSQ, you won’t have permission to use them until you obtain your Chocobo.

• Don’t forget to do your Class quests! They unlock new class abilities and job stones. They also help you gear up.

• Your Companion Chocobo and your Race Chocobo can both be renamed. Companion Chocobo skills can also be reset by using a Reagan Pepper, bought from the Hunt Billmaster for 20 Allied Seals.

• Certain activities are time gated, such as dailies, weeklies, or other special cases. As such, some players might be interested in starting these early to get a head start on rewards or achievements. So, here’s a short list:

Dailies: Duty Roulettes, Grand Company Turn-ins, Mini Cactpot, Treasure Hunt Maps, Tribal Quests

Weeklies: Challenge Log, Custom Deliveries, Fashion Report, Elite Hunts, Jumbo Cactpot, Verminion Tournaments, Wondrous Tails

Bi-Weekly: Triple Triad Tournaments

Special: Levequests (3 allowances every 12 hours, save up to 100), Squadrons (Train 3 times a day, missions take 18 hours each)

Other: Gardening – If you can, growing crops can take a long time. Expect many months worth of growing for everything.

• If you’re worried about missing a cutscene, worry not! You can rewatch cutscenes at Inns! To add on to this, you can even replay Story Quests via the New Game+ feature. This includes the MSQ, Class quests and important side quests like Crystal Tower and Hildibrand quests!

• All mounts can fly in this game! You can unlock this feature by finishing the ARR Main Story, up to the quest “The Ultimate Weapon”. Later zones in the Heavensward and Stormblood expansions require you to locate Aether Currents before flight is available.

• The Rogue class, while a beginner class, isn’t selectable from the start. You need to finish another Lv.10 class quest before you can change to Rogue.

• The Arcanist class is special in that it splits into two different jobs – Summoner and Scholar. It’s also good to note that they level up at the same time. By extension, levels earned while leveling a Job also apply to your base classes.

• You can create gear presets to quick switch classes and gear with the press of a button. You can also do this with glamour, by creating glamour plates, to quick switch between your favourite outfits. Even more, you can apply glamour plates to your gear presets to automatically switch gear AND fashion, at the same time!

• To level up effectively, run the highest level dungeon available is you. For low levels, it helps to do the Hunting Log and FATEs. Duty Roulettes give a nice daily chunk too! If you’re having trouble with long queue times, try Duty Support! Alternatively, you can also run Palace of the Dead floors 51-60.

• For a SUPER QUICK way to level Blue Mage, you can have a friend kill high level world mobs for you. Just don’t party together, and hit the mobs first. You can easily reach max level in like an hour or two. (Using a “Cross-World Party” also works.)

• To level up your Companion Chocobo, do the weekly Bosom Buddies challenge for lots of EXP. Aside from that, do high level FATEs around your level.

• Learn how to use your Limit Break in dungeons! You can add it to your hotbar from the Actions menu, under the General category. Melee DPS is single target, while ranged and magic is AOE. Tanks and healers generally don’t need to use them. The Limit Break meter is shared across the whole party.

• PvP Frontline achievements relating to Grand Company are dependent on which one you actually joined, not the random one you play on.

• The Callback Campaign and certain PvP modes are not available to Free Trial players. It’s also not possible to use the Recruit a Friend feature. For a full list of restrictions, check out this page.

• ARR Relic weapons are honestly not worth doing unless you’re interested in the glamour options, they’re a lot of work. You only need to finish ONE weapon for the achievements; for the rest of the class achievements you can simply obtain the starter versions.

• If you’re doing ARR Relics, you’ll need a TON of lower level Materia. There’s no easy way out, you’ll have to Spiritbond your gear. Spiritbond Potions can help with this. High Quality and Materia-melded gear also Spiritbond at a higher rate.

• MATERIA – Every week you can get 14 Rank V combat Materia or 8 non-combat Materia with minimal effort; simply by clearing a single line in Wondrous Trails, an activity you can start from Khloe in Idyllshire. The Bronze Certificate can then be traded for your Materia of choice. Crafting and Gathering Materia can also be bought with Scrips.

• It’s a good idea to extract Materia from your gear often, whenever you reach 100% Spiritbond. Gear no longer gets destroyed in the process, so you have nothing to lose.

• For those wanting to level up crafting and gathering with ease, the Diadem + Ishgardian Restoration are a great way to gain EXP. The Ixali and Moogle Allied Societies also give a ton of EXP. Leves are another great alternative.

• If you want the best Fishing EXP in the game, try out Ocean Fishing in Limsa! As a bonus – By doing the quest to start it, you can obtain Versatile Lures, which can be used to catch almost every fish, anywhere. It saves a ton of space!

• Some items that are crafted or gathered, for example, are still unavailable to Free Trial players, despite having the levels. Some of these items can only be found in later expansions. There’s also items locked behind Voyages, which can only be obtained from Free Companies.

• Master Recipes, dyes and other items in the Special Recipes, don’t count toward the unique craft achievements. Housing Items DO count, however. For gathering, the special Legendary Nodes do count for completion as well. The flower Ornaments also count for Alchemist.

• The easiest way to get Fieldcraft Demimateria III, for some crafts and Master Recipe books, is to desynthesis Bridesmaid’s Sandals, which can be bought from Rianne in Ul’dah for 6,000 Gil each. It’s about a 1/4 chance, give or take. – A newer method allows you to buy Fieldcraft Demimateria III for 200 Purple Crafters’ Scrips (and Mastercraft Demimateria for 800 Purple Crafters’ Scrips) a piece, from the Scrip Vendor in Idyllshire.

• When you reach Level 55 in a crafting class, you can unlock Soul of the Crafter items. Use these to specialize in up to three different crafting classes. Unlike the combat Soul Crystals, these simply give some bonus stats to the selected crafter. They can also be changed, if you want to specialize in something else.

• Luminary Tools, for the “Craft or Gather X times” are pretty useless and take a long time to obtain. Use for glamour if you like them, but sometimes it’s ok to skip achievements. Don’t worry, I won’t tell. ;p

• Shirogane, a residential area, can be accessed even without the Stormblood expansion. While there’s not much to do there, aside from exploring the area and peoples houses, there is a few catchable fish in the waters.

• While doing S-Rank Hunts / Elite Marks, it’s recommended to join a party to receive full rewards. This also helps for special FATEs. Try looking in the party finder, sometimes people have a group started that you can join. You want to go ASAP when you hear a call, they normally don’t last long. Also try joining a Hunt Discord or Linkshell for calls.

• If you’re looking for achievement FATEs to complete, a useful tip is to use the “Current Area” section in the Achievements menu to find anything local that you might be missing. Only the special Odin FATE will not be listed here.

• Does your Chocobo or Summon keep killing something that you need alive? There’s commands to call your companions back, which can be useful for instances such as doing “pacify” levequests.

• The Battle Levequests: “Grabbing Crabs”, “Too Close to Home” and “What Peistes Crave” – are starting area dependent. You’ll only be able to do ONE of these.

• The Battle Levequests: “Hog Wild”, “Mite and Madness” and “We Didn’t Start the Fire” – are no longer in game and are impossible to do.

• When doing Levequests, npcs might have 6 quests but only show 4, for example. Turn in quests to rotate the list. Also, it takes a really long time to regain Leve allowances, so it’s best to do some as soon as you unlock them. You get 3 allowances every 12 hours.

• In your quest Journal, you can view completed quests, such as leves – this can be useful in tracking down what you have and have not finished.

• If you’re reading this, thanks for looking at my guide, hope you’re having a good day. Remember to have fun with the game and not worry about the little things. Stay hydrated, and take breaks now and then! :3

• If you’re looking to make some Gil, the most reliable way is to run Duty Roulettes as the Adventurer in Need. Leveling Roulette can get you over 10k a run. For some extra Gil on the side, try doing some Challenge Logs, which can give about 60k or so a week. If you’re lucky, you can earn a lot from the Aquapolis, the treasure dungeon from Dragonskin Maps.

• It’s pretty easy to hit 300k Gil after a while, so what do you use all that money on? My recommendation: Crafting Materials! All of the guilds sell items to use for up to about level 40-ish. For higher levels, check out the Scrap Salvager in Idyllshire. Alternatively, after leveling up the Allied Societies, each society sells Mounts that cost over 120k each. ARR Relics also cost about 500k for each weapon. (Not all at once.)
[See full guide.]

• Company Seals can be collected in various ways, however the best way requires you to trade in dungeon gear for seals. Higher level gear can net you over 1,000 Seals per item. Grab everything you can!

• For those crazy about the Gold Saucer, here’s some good ways to make some MGP: Verminion Tournament can give an easy 80k~100k+ a week with minimal effort. Fashion Report can net you 10k~60k a week. The GATEs that happen every 20 minutes give a decent amount. Finally, chocobo races are really good, but mostly at end game, which takes a while to achieve. The Race/Verminion challenges give a hefty one-time MGP chunk as well.

• For Verminion, lots of guides recommend using end-game minions, but that’s generally overkill. Pretty much every challenge can be won by spamming Wolf Pups! They’re even good to use in player matches, though you’ll generally have to incorporate other minions for those too.

• Good minions to use for Verminion player matches: Wolf Pup for defending and attacking units. Warrior Minion of Light for attacking crystals. Cherry Bombs for destroying shields and eyes. Dust Bunnies for destroying gates. All of these are pretty easy to obtain.

• Did you know? For Triple Triad Open Tournaments, it’s possible to play three full rounds within the 30 minute timer. Triple the rewards! Also, this is the first time that it’s possible to verse real players in Triple Triad. (Invitationals too!) In other modes, however, it’s still locked to NPCs only.

• While breeding for Chocobo Races, it’s possible to breed two at once by putting the fledgling registration papers into your Chocobo Saddlebag storage then asking to breed again, even with the same birds. It’s also important to obtain your preferred colour as soon as you can.

• When Chocobo racing, the fastest and easiest course to run is Sagolii Road. For end-game abilities, I recommend Super Sprint and Increased Stamina III or Choco Cure III. You’ll almost never lose, but this build only works for Sagolii Road. IF using this build, Acceleration, Cunning, and weather preference don’t matter at all. When leveling up, Choco Dash is pretty good.

• While playing Mahjong, if your Rating gets lower than the default rating, you can reset it back to 1500, from the Gold Saucer menu.

• If you’re low on inventory space, remember you can store items in your Chocobo Saddlebag, which you gain access to around Lv.20 MSQ. You can also store gear for glamour in the dresser and armoire in Inn rooms. Don’t be afraid to discard or sell items, everything is reobtainable.

• Despite not being able to own a house yourself, it’s possible for another player to designate you as a Tenant at their house. With permissions given, it’s possible to fully decorate and use Stables and Gardens.

• Gardening at a friends house grants access to six new Minions, as well as Thavnairian Onions, which are used to level your Chocobo up to Lv.20. There’s also a ton of crafting ingredients which can only be obtained via gardening.

• It’s actually possible to bypass the Free Trial trade restriction by using the decorating function in housing. Simply have someone place or store an item, and the other person pick up. It’s limited to furniture, of course, but it’s still pretty neat! This can also allow desynthing of said furniture, allowing the possibility of obtaining previously unobtainable materials for crafting.

• Some achievements give rewards for completing them. These now can be claimed directly from your achievement menu. Jonathas, the old achievement reward NPC still has a shop you can spend Achievement Certificates on, however. There’s a lot of prizes there, check it out!

• Interested in playing musical instruments? All you need to do is level an archer up to Lv.30, obtain Bard, and do a quest in Gridania. All instruments are available from the start, but note that you must be Bard class to play these. Try looking up the Bard Music Player if you want to automate songs!

• Ever been disappointed that your fancy glowy weapons don’t shine when put away? Well there’s a trick to make them glow, even when sheathed. Set a macro for /bm /sit – The effect lasts until you raise your weapon. Cool stuff.

• Using the command /gpose lets you set up amazing screenshots! Combine this with Shaders such as Gshade and you’ll be a photography master in no time! – For the adventurous people out there, the third party tool Anamnesis allows far greater control and customization for taking screenshots~ For more information on third party tools, check out this page.

• Players can obtain a free Fantasia from the Main Story Quest, The Ultimate Weapon. This item lets you change your character appearance, race, and even gender. For older Free Trial characters, this allows you to switch the Au Ra race, which was previously unavailable.

• The Free Trial became unlimited on March 28th, 2017. This means that it’s possible to have seasonal items dating back all the way to the Hatching-tide 2017 event, and onwards. Even farther back if you did anything during the original 14-day Trial and never upgraded. (Now you can also buy them.)

• It’s possible to buy items from FFXIV’s Online Store as a Free Trial player. This gives us the ability to purchase optional items like mounts, minions, costumes and more, for real world money. Some items like level skips and story skips remain locked. It’s not possible to gift Free Trial players. (However, you can just gift the money directly!) For the full list of items that you can purchase, check out our Restrictions Guide.

• Before you buy the full game and subscribe, consider making some new character appearances and saving them for later. You can use previously saved character data for your Retainer NPCs when you get them and save you a lot of sub time that you would have used customizing. You can also download the FFXIV Benchmark Tool to design characters for Races that you normally wouldn’t be able to use in the Free Trial, all saved data will carry over to the real game.

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Trials of Fantasy

FFXIV Free Trial Guides + Completion Checklists

FFXIV Free Trial Tips and Tricks