Raulfin/New Players

Just a rough first pass
FFXI is an older game and can be a bit confusing for anyone used to modern games, information is not generally presented as plainly and many things can be hidden. This is info I feel is most helpful to anyone just starting out in FFXI, and players that have felt the sting and want to go a but deeper. I try to present it in an 'as-you-go' manner, there is no need to get into which pet job is better at something if you don't even know that there are pet jobs yet! There are very few quests in XI, and they do not reward Xp, so the only way to level up is to grind xp by killing stuff. The few quests there are though will generally give very nice rewards, many of which are extremely powerful and will be able to last you a long time. XI is a "small stat" MMO, a +1 or +2 in a stat can be the difference between a kill and a wipe.
==Whats different about XI==
If you have played other MMOs, like WoW or XIV, you are likely use to certain things working or looking a certain way, and they may not be the same in XI. Don't let this stuff scare you, it's just social/functionality differences.
Toxicity is not tolerated well in XI. There is a ton of stuff to do in XI and many people will just do something else rather than put up with your shit. Being a tank doesn't make you immune either, most melee jobs can tank adequately enough at lower levels that the dedicated tank jobs are not really needed until around 30, it's not uncommon to see groups in the 60s with 2 dps split tankning. At lower levels having a proper tank can lower Xp/hr.
XI is a highly social MMO, you WILL need the help of others to progress. Being friendly and helpful is aways a big plus. Because combat is slower in XI there is time to chat during most fights, and many times there will be general chit chat conversations going on the entire time you are in a party. Join in and make a friend or two, join an LS, Linkshell, (guild) if you find someone you get along with, having friends to help and be helped by is an important aspect of XI!
Nameplates in XI don't show mob reaction (agro, passive/neutral) or relative difficulty, they only show claim (tapped/tagged) status. Yellow is unclaimed, anyone can attack it. Red is your claim. Blue is someone else's claim. You cannot directly attack a mob claimed by anyone else unless you join their party.
Forming a group in a spot another group is already at is considered very poor form and can lead to less group invites later. There are normally several places to go at a given level. Good form would be to ask if they plan to stay much longer and then either let them finish or leave for another spot.
Threat is called Enmity or Hate. Every ability generates enmity, but some enmity wears off over time.
Abilities in XI are almost all on long cooldowns, and direct damage ones are called Weapon Skills that require skill with a weapon to learn, and Tp to use. You gain a small amount of tp every time you deal or take damage, you need 1000 to use a ws. Tp is lost when resting without sanction, death, or changing zones.
GCD is not really a thing in XI, instead every ability and spell has an animation lockout that prevents you from using any other spell or ability. Once you know the animation times you can learn when you can clip them, but it normally isn't to big a deal as combat is generally pretty slow and there are very few times you will not have several seconds to react to something, especially early on.
Combat is much slower early on, in fact you won't have any abilitys until level 5, and can only auto-attack till then.
Resting takes the place of passive health and mana regen, while resting you are more likely to be attacked by aggressive mobs and can't quickly react to them. Many new players have died when they stopped to rest to close to an enemy.
Most items you get are used for quests or crafting, there are almost no 'useless' items in XI. Always check the AH first.
Mail is free and instant, but can only be collected inside your house, but can also be sent from an NPC at the AH. You can only mail items, no text, and you can only have 8 items sent out at a time. They need to be collected before you can send more, unless you cancel it if the other person doesn't receive them in a timely manner. Mail will also wait in your inbox forever and never be deleted or returned automatically.
There is no spell book or action bar you can drop your spells on. There is a macro system that allows you to write 4000 macros across 20 "books", each book having 20 2-sided "pages". You can easily play the game fully without any macros, but they will make certain ability combinations easier to do.
There are no job trainers, all active and passive abilities are learned automatically when the level or skill requirement is met. Spells are learned from spell scrolls dropped by mobs or bought in shops or on AH.
Mobs have several different ways they agro, not just proximity. Some are sight, you can run behind these. Some can hear or smell you, but may lose you if you cross a body of water. Others can taste your blood in the air or feel you drawing energy from the area to cast a spell. There are magical and alchemical ways to avoid sight, sound, and smell detection. The detection method is normally somewhat logical to the mob.
Crafting is generally much more powerful than other MMOs, but can be extremely expensive to cap, many powerful items are crafted only. Some NMs, Notorious Monster, (world-boss) can only spawn from a crafted item. Many items can be crafted into better items, and with sufficient skill you can HQ, High Quality (critical success), a craft for more, or an even better item.
Roles are somewhat set, like in XIV, but not as strictly. Some classes can fill multiple roles.
There are no traditional dungeons in XI, every zone (area) is a public instance, zones are instead separated between interiors and exteriors a difference that only affects 1 lvl30 quest.
If you are playing on Eden, then you have access to the base game and first 3 expansions. Unlike other games, XIs expansion content is mixed in with each other and the base game. You don't need to complete the base game to access the first expansion content. First expansion becomes available at lvl 20, 2nd's at 25, and the 3rd can be started at any lvl, but is not viable to even try till 30+ as it is for lvl 55-75s.
==First time in XI==
If this is the first time you have ever tried FFXI, first off, welcome to one of the best old-school MMOs there is! XI is a much more social-based MMO than something like WoW. In wow you can play almost the entire game and never talk to anyone else, simply put, that will not work in XI. The need to work together has cultivated a long history of shared hardships, crushing defeats, and grand victories.
There are several guides to help you get the game setup and running properly (check the discord), I will assume you have already done that and have finally made it to the Main Menu.
The only options in the Main Menu config are;
Music - The last song option at the top is 'Random', so you can hear different music each time you log in :)
Volume - The volume
Logout destination - Where you go when you logout the game.
Aspect ratio - Match to your monitor to make the menu look better.
Looking at the Main menu if Select Character is darkened, that just means you need to Create one first. :)
This is a pretty straight forward process, the only things that may not be immediately obvious are Race, Job, Size and Starting Area.
Size is just your hight, tall, average, and short essentially, but is not shown during creation.
The jobs are;
Jobs
Job 	Role 	Description 	Difficulty
Warrior (WAR) 	Melee DD (Damage Dealer/Dps) and Tank	Very good for a first job, it can do both roles pretty good. 	1/10
Monk (MNK) 	Melee DD 	Likes to punch stuff, a bit lower dmg than WAR, but hits twice each time so misses are not as bad. Has a large hp pool.	2/10
Thief (THF) 	Melee DD 	Deals lower dmg, but hits fast and is very good at evading incoming hits. Good for farming. Basically Rogue. 	3/10
Black Mage (BLM)	Magic DD 	Hits quite hard with spells, but can die quite fast if you run out of Mp. 	5/10
White Mage (WHM)	Healer 	Very strong heals, very weak dmg. Not recommended for a first time player. 	10/10
Red Mage (RDM) 	Hybrid 	The Jack-of-all-trades job. Can heal, melee and cast dmg spells. 	3/6
I would HIGHLY recommend you pick WAR, MNK, or THF as your first toon (Character), FFXI can be very brutal. Spell casters are quite weak, if you pick WHM you WILL die a LOT and thats not fun. Once you get use to how combat works, get your feet wet and feel more comfortable with the game and want to go WHM you can change your job in game, no need to make a new toon!
Race plays a decent part in your overall performance in your chosen job, as each race has strengths and weaknesses. Don't spend to much time thinking about this for now, you can overcome the weaknesses with gear later on.
Hume - Completely average baseline race with mid line stats.
Races
Race 	Bonus 	Bane
Elvaan 	STR, MND	DEX, AGI, INT
Tarutaru	INT, AGI	STR, VIT, MND
Mithra 	DEX, AGI	STR, VIT, MND
Galka 	STR, VIT	DEX, AGI, INT
After that you pick your city, you can go anywhere you want, but there is a nice bonus ring if you go to your races city. If you don't you will be able to buy the ring a bit later.
Ring corralation
Nation 	Race 	Race
Bastok 	Hume 	Galka
San d'Oria	Elvaan	
Windurst 	Taru 	Mithra
After making your Character you may get an error 'FFXI-3113', This is the name-taken error. You MUST exit the game client fully and re-launch or any name you pick will give the error.
==Helpful settings==
Now you have made your first toon, sit back and take it all in, welcome to your new home! First lets quickly look at where some QOL settings are.
The side-bar Menu (Menu) can be opened with Triangle on controller and - on keyboard num-pad. This is where your main stuff is, status equipment, items (inventory), etc. If you press it a second time, or left or right arrow/directional pad, it will go to Menu2, the only thing here to worry about for now is Config. Opening config you will see several options, (many of them don't actually work on any private server because of the way the game was originally designed and the workarounds that are needed to run the game on a private server) For now the important ones are;
Option 	Description
Gameplay	Mostly audio options.
Windows 	Chat log setup
Misc. 	Shadows, weather, Icon types (must be 2 for certain addons), and PC armor (normal=see what everyone is wearing, static=everyone wears the starter gear only)
Misc.2 	Clipping plane=edge of the world distance (leave default unless your pc is very weak), Aspect ratio Set this to your monitor.
Misc.3 	Area display = ground markers for aoe skills and spells. Party icon= party buffs/debuffs visible to you. Timer=show duration of buffs/debuffs
Global 	Auto-Disconnect timer
Now the game shouldn't look so squished or stretched and should look pretty proper!
==First step==
Now that that's all out of the way lets actually play!!!
In XI when you want to turn in a quest you have to manually trade the item to the NPC, like in XIV. The first chance to try this is right now! There is an Adventurer's Assistant NPC relatively near you that you can trade your Adventurer Coupon to for a few Gil (gold, $)! This should be your first stop. Target the NPC while close to them, open the Menu (Triangle/-), select trade, select an open trade slot and then find and select the Adventurer Coupon. Hit OK and you will receive your small starter reward. (This may seem like a lot of steps, but nearly all of it is just hitting the select/confirm button a few times)
You may have noticed by now that you can't see your weapon, because you need to equip it. Menu, Equipment, Weapon slot, your weapon, confirm. If you also got the bonus ring mentioned before equip that now too! You can also hit Square to select by item instead of by slot. When in the right pane of items, you can hit L2 to compare that item to the equipped item.
Now you have some gil and your weapon equipped, it's time to get to the good part! Lets go XP (gain experience points to level)! Near where you started you will be able to see a large gate with a few NPCs near it, one will have the name suffix of either I.M., W.W., or R.K. depending on what city you chose. talk to this NPC and select to receive Sanction. Sanction is a long term buff that allows you to earn Cp (Conquest Points) for your chosen nation, these points can be used at the same npc to buy armor and weapons later. Sanction doesn't wear off on death, only when the time runs out, you should try to keep sanction on you at all times, as aside from the CP it also improves your resting and allows you to collect crystals from mobs for crafting or selling. Next to the sanction NPC is a Mission-giver, but you can ignore them for now. Head out the gate and get ready to fight.
== Level 1-7==
Ohh wow, section 3 and we just walked outside!? Yes, but now we can start having fun! For now I'll assume you picked WAR, MNK, or THF. XI combat is a bit slower than other MMO's, there is no GCD, but all your combat actions are menu based, for now.
When you get outside you will see two different types of mobs (enemies) running around depending on the city you picked.
Bastok - Worms and Bees
Sandy - Rabbits and Worms
Windy - Rabbits and Bees
These are the level 1 enemies, as you walk out a bit you may see other stuff, but they are much to strong for you now. Pick yourself a target and lets get to killing. Select the target, confirm to open the Target Menu, select Check, this will check the difficulty of the mob and print to the chat log what if found. Easy Prey and Decent Challenge are lower level than you, stick to these for now. Even Match is the same lvl as you. Tough, and Very Tough are higher lvl than you (avoid these for now). Now select Attack to start your Auto-Attack cycle and get close to start dealing the dmg. If the mob is running away from you, you may need to wait for it to stop moving to actually be able to land your first hit, this is just how the game was built sadly.
You will occasionally see skill up gains like "Sword skill increased by 0.1" Your first goal in XI is to get your current weapon skill to 5. This will teach you your first ability, called a WS (Weapon Skill), This will usually happen around lvl 3 or 4. The first 4 levels are pretty fast, stick to the same area and keep killing.
Around lvl 4 or 5 the other mobs you saw before that you tried to kill even thought I said you can't and you died should now be easy enough to mix in to your kill order, but you may need to save your WS for them. You will also notice that you have started to lvl much slower now. The xp per kill has gone way down, you are only getting 25xp from the mobs that use to give you 100, and stuff you can barely kill only gives 72xp.
At 5 WAR and MNK gain a new ability. WAR gains Provoke, which is a 30sec taunt. MNK gains Boost, which increases your attack by 12.5% for 1 attack (hit or miss), and stacks to 8.
5-10 is a slow grind, especially on your first job, but with your knowledge of using your new weapon skill you should be able to bounce from mob to mob killing them very fast now. You will also start to need to spend time between fights resting, XI doesn't have passive health or mana regen, you have to stop and rest (L3, H, /heal) to start getting healing ticks. The first tick takes 20seconds and is only +10hp/mp, each tic after takes 10s but adds 1 extra hp/mp (10, 11, 12, 13, etc) 
The xp per kill may be lower but you are killing them much faster, just keep it up you're on your way to your next goal...
==Level 7==
You have slain all the bees, bunnies, and or worms for a while, likely some crawlers or lizards also. You are now bunny-bane the sprout (new player) that spread fear across the land! For no bee may stand against you and your bags are packed with spoils of your genocide. :) Level 7 is really the first major step for all new players, it may seem an odd break-point lvl, but you now have access to new weapons and armor. Your job now is to turn that bag of random animal parts into cold hard gil and buy a set of leather armor and a new sword or dagger. You will need a couple hundred gil for each part of the leather armor set, and if you check your wallet (Menu, equipment) you may notice that you have earned a whopping 0 Gil sofar! Don't fret (to much) you should now have some items you can turn into Gil.
Beehive Chips, Rabbit Hides, and crystals generally sell very well on the AH(Auction House)
Insect Wings are generally poor sellers and only vend for 1g, but give it a look before you toss them they are used by crafters and someone may need them today.
If you are in windy and happened to get a Smooth Stone, Crawler Calculus, Rarab Tail, Torn Letter, or Wild Onion, then grats you may be able to get gear fast!
Here are some lists of quests that you can do in your city, some of these will use the items you have just gotten and reward some nice items.
Basty
Sandy
Windy
=== AH===
If you are a WAR, THF, or RDM lets head to the AH and give a quick price check on that Leather Vest set, sometimes the items will be there for less than the vendor sells them. If you are MNK, stay out till you hit lvl 8. The AH is a bit slow to load each list, but it will normally only take a couple seconds, you can skim the list as it loads, but you can't try to buy anything until it fully loads and if you back out you will still have to wait for that load to finish before you can enter another item list. There is an AH in two areas of each starting city, so just pull up your map (menu, map or /map) and give it a find. Northern San d'oria, Port Bastok, and Windurst Waters do NOT have an AH. When you get to the AH go to Buy, Armor. Items you can currently equip will be colored yellow, items currently equipped will be green so you can use this to quickly screen the list for the items you need. Here is a list of the vendor prices for each item in the Leather Vest set, if it's less on the AH, go ahead and buy it there.
Armor 	Slot 	Vendor price
Leather Bandana 	Head 	457
Leather Vest 	Chest	741
Leather Gloves 	Hands	374
Leather Trousers 	Legs 	589
Leather Highboots	Feet 	349
Leather Belt 	Waist	442 (only in Sandy)
Leather Gorget 	Neck 	crafted only
 
*to buy an item on the AH is a bit odd at first, after you find it you choose to either buy or check history, history will show the price the last 10 were bought for, who sold and who bought them. After you see the going price, try to buy one. You have to manually enter the price with the menu ticker, you can't type it in.
The head, chest and legs are the biggest upgrades so start with them. remember XI is a "small stat" game, it may only be 1-3 more def,defence (armor) each item, but the full set will be like +10 or so and that will lower the dmg you take a lot.
You also want to try to get a new Sapara or Xiphos sword, Sapara is only sold in Bastok and costs a whopping 800 gil, and Xiphos is crafted only, so you will need to check the AH for one (Buy> Weapons> Swords) if it's in your budget get the cheapest one, if not there is a quest in Bastok and Sandy that gives the lvl 9 sword, Spatha, that is pretty easy to do!. WAR can also Buy a GA (Great Axe) now, Butterfly Axe is sold in Bastok for about 800g and is a great starter GA. The first WS for GA is one of the best in the game, it doesn't do the most dmg, but it does lower the targets eva, evasion, and will be a huge help when you get into a party later. If you have some extra gil to spare, a Xbow (Crossbow) will be a great investment, and for just 200g in Windy or about 500g on the AH it's very cheap. Bolts are about 6g, but are worth it and can do a ton of dmg.
If you are a MNK you will not be able to wear the Leather set, you will need to try to get the Kenpogi Set at lvl 8, it has about the same amount of def as the leather, but also looks pretty cool. This is also a good time to try to get a MNK weapon. Cesti is lvl 1, but this is the first time you'll have a chance to afford it, and there is nothing else you can use any time soon.
Armor 	Slot 	Vendor price
Hachimaki	Head 	550
Kenpogi 	Body 	830
Tekko 	Hands	460
Sitabaki 	Legs 	670
Kyahan 	Feet 	420
Heko Obi 	Waist	crafted only
==Level 7-10==
After you have gotten the gear you can, hopefully you could get everything (you couldn't), head back out and get back on your grind. you can now start to cut out the stuff right by the town gate and venture further out where you will start to run into Goblins, these will drop equipment, gil and other decent items that you can sell, but they are much stronger than the bees and worms you are use to. You will be doing a lot more risk assessment now, WHM and BLM mobs are weak and die fast, but they can put Poison and Dia on you, these weak DoTs prevent you from resting between fights and if the fight was close you are very likely to die a slow aggravating death. Once you hit 9 if you didn't get a weapon at 7 and are in bastok or sandy go get a Spatha, your Onion sword isn't gonna cut it going forward. tehe
==Level 10==
Now you are level 10, big double digit levels, looks like it's time to start looking for them real gains right? Wrong. More killing! At lvl 10 you can now get the Scale Mail Set if you are WAR or RDM, which is just a bit better than Leather, but costs several times more, you most likely can not afford any of it, as each piece will cost about 1000g from the vendor. If you can get some off the AH try to get the biggest upgrade first, normally chest, then legs then hands or feet.
===Decision time===
Once you hit 10 or 12 it is a good time to start to lvl your 2nd job, you can put this off till you get to 20 though so it's up to you. The skills you gained will all carry over to the 2nd job, so you will dodge more hits than you did on the first job. If your 1st job is WAR your best 2nd job will be MNK. If your 1st job is MNK or THF your best will be WAR. If you went RDM, WHM, or BLM then either of the other two will be a good 2nd. BLM will add spell dmg and mp. WHM will let you learn to heal, but add almost no spell dmg and less mp. RDM is about middle, some heals some damage, some mp. This is 100% optional right now though.
===XP Bonus Ring===
You should be close to 1000cp now also, you can check in 2 ways;
Menu> Status> Currency> then look near the top for your nation (Bastok Conquest Points...789) OR Menu> Region Info> Conquest. This will open the conquest map and shows the regions and who owns them, in the bottom right is your cp.
If you have at least 1000cp head to the NPC that gave you Signet and pick 'I want to spend my Conquest Points" then "Any rank" then scroll down until you see Empress Band, this ring has a on-use effect that will increase the xp you earn by 50%, up to 1000xp, for 3 hours and has 7 charges for a total of 7000 FREE(ish) xp a week. To use it you need to equip it, then wait 30seconds, then target yourself and open the target menu, go to Items and select the ring, then yourself as the target. This will consume 1 of the 7 charges and give you the xp buff for 3 hours (time is paused when you log out). This will make the last bit MUCH easier and faster. The buff doesn't tell you how much more bonus you have, you will just need to watch for the buff to fall off. you can use the ring 7 times each real week, the only restriction is that you must wait 16 minutes between each use. If you use the full 7 charges the ring is NOT dead, don't toss it. After the weekly reset (you can check the time remaining on the Menu> Region info> Conquest map. Cursor over any region and in the top right it will give a breakdown of control and a count of days. 1 day there is just a bit under 1 real hour, close enough to call it 1 hour). Before you leave the city again though...
===Fast Travel===
Now you are starting to hit your stride, you can get further from the safety of the city walls, so far away in fact you can't even see them anymore! By now you should be a right dab hand at bringing death to anything you see, the starting zone is pretty much all easy prey now and you can start to venture into distant lands. And as you know distant lands means fast traveling, so it's time to start earning your 'OP warps' (fast travel locations). To do this go to the Signet NPC you just got your ring from, hopefully, and pick the option to 'go on a supply quest', this will open a list of regions that most likely mean nothing to you, so heres's a helpful list, pick the region that matches your starting city. If the one below is not there then see if Zulkheim is.
Bastok - Gustaburg
Sandy - Ronfaure
Windy - Sarutabaruta
Verify taking the supplys, the NPC will say you have until the next update (weekly reset) you should always have time for this. Now there is from time to time the chance that one of the other nations snuck in and stole your home region, meaning you will have to wait till the next reset to do this. To find the OP (Outpost) to turn in the supplies head to North Gustaburg, West Ronfaure, or West Sarutabaruta depending on the supplys you took and open the map (menu, map or /map) and look for the red square that says Outpost, head there and talk to the NPC by the flag, you will now be able to warp between this outpost and your home nations warp NPC for a small fee of a few gil or a few cp, you can pick either.
==Level 10-12==
Now you have even better gear, an xp ring, AND your first OP warp. Your just rocking through this game huh! remember all the noob deaths you were eating a bit ago, all the running for your life while dia slowly kills you, all the broken keyboards? Well your past all that now huh!? wrong. This is the final stretch before you hit the big leagues. While you can do the next part at 10, you really should get to lvl 12 solo to make the next steps easier. There is no new gear or anything till like 16 and 18, so make sure to get your Scale set up, really want to be full scale when you get to 12, it will help a lot and it can hold you till 21.
===Notorious Monsters===
By now you may have seen or started to hear about NMs, Notorious Monsters, (rare/world-boss). NMs are much stronger than other mobs near them, but drop some of the strongest items in the game, some are even BiS despite only being lvl 7 items. In generally an NM will be a few lvls higher than the mobs it spawns near, and you will need to be even higher to kill it.
For an example Leaping Lizzy, near Bastok, is lvl 10-11, but spawns from lvl 5-8 Rock Lizards. You would need to be about lvl10 to kill the Rock Lizards and 15+ to kill Leaping Lizzy.
===Fast Travel 2===
Wait! What? Another fast travel system? What is this nonsense!? This is where you start your move into group content, so you will want a warp to the group content areas right!?
Your next 2 steps can happen together, you will do your next OP warp and your first crag (Teleport attunment mini-quest) They are basically on the way to each other.
====Bastok====
Okay Bastokers, your next Supply quest will be to Zulkheim, and your crag is Dem, which is on the way. There is no quest or mission or anyone to talk to to attune to a crag, you just go there and your done. Pick up your Supplys (there is a VERY high chance Bastok does not have Zulkheim, if not you will have to wait, this is one of the most important OPs to get) and head out into south Gustaburg or take the Gustaburg OP. Head all the way west and cross into the western part of north gusta, follow the road north till you cross a bridge over a high chasim, and follow the road north east till you reach the Konschtat Highlands. The crag is in the east part of the zone, but this zone is quite large and filled with packs of goblins and quadav looking to make a meal of you. Follow the road north and east till you see the Crag of Dem, you can't miss it once you make it out of the twisting path through the cliffs. Head to the north side of the crag and touch the telepoint, make sure you receive the Dem Gate Crystal. Also while your here trade 1 earth or water crystal to the telepoint to get a faded crystal, you will need it later, but that will be for you to figure out. Now head West and look for a road heading north, follow it till you reach Valkurm Dunes. If you have supplys there will be an NPC just ahead that you can give them to to complete the supply mission. You can not get to the OP from here by yourself, there is to many mobs you can not get past between you and it, you 100% will die if you try, but you have to get there. If you completed the OP, you can go back to town and pay to warp to the op, if you didn't you will need to wait and get help crossing.
====Sandy====
Okay Sandians (?), your next Supply quest will be to Zulkheim, and your crag is Holla, which is on the way. There is no quest or mission or anyone to talk to to attune to a crag, you just go there and your done. Pick up your Supplys (there is a VERY high chance Sandy does not have Zulkheim, if not you will have to wait, this is one of the most important OPs to get) and head out into West Ronfaure, or take the Ronfaure OP. Follow the road south east till you reach the La Theine Plateau. Follow the road south and east till you gee a giant oval hole in the ground just east of the road, hop down in there and go south of the hole and east through the hills. There are some Goblins here so beware. Head straight east till you get to a lake and go south of it just a bit, and keep heading east till you see the Crag of Holla, you can't miss it! Head to the north side of the crag and touch the telepoint to get the Holla Gate Crystal. Now head west around the crag and get back on the road south, follow it all the way south and west till you reach Valkurm Dunes. The mobs here are MUCh higher lvl than you, there is no way you can kill anything here, so if you get agro, RUN for the zone! Follow the barely visible road south till it cuts hard west, follow it for a long way till you reach the OP, if you have supplys turn them in. you can head south a bit to reach the small village of Selbina or hide in the back of the OP. There are even more scary monsters that spawn nearby at night, so keep you eyes open.
====Windy====
You had to pick windy huh, well at least you made a lot of gil (you will need at least 100g to do this) and are geared to the 9s, the trade off is the worst run to the group content in any MMO. it's much further than either or the other cities, and infinitely more dangerous. Your next Supply quest will be to Buburuma (get Zulkheim if you can't get Bubu), and your crag is Mea, which is kinda on the way. Head to East Saratabaruta and follow the road and river north west. once you get all the way north the road turns east, follow it till you reach Tahrongi Canyon. Welcome to bunny land, there is no road for a while here and the path can be a bit confusing for some, just maintain a north heading and you can eventually get out. When you first enter follow the hills on your left until you start turning south west, once you are turn straight north till you reach a road. Follow the road till you see it split east and west, you want to go straight north, you will pass just to the west of a big rock formation, and just behind it to the northeast you will see the Crag of Mea. Head to the north side of the crag and touch the telepoint to get the Mea Gate Crystal. Now head east and around the crag to head south, there are several goblin and yagudo here, so beware. Head straight south till you see the road and follow it east till you reach Buburimu Peninsula. The OP is just ahead a bit, but there are 3 strong goblins you have to sneak past first. Turn in your Supplys and if the Zulkheim supplys were available before you left windy, pay to use the op to return to windy and get the Zulkheim supplys. After you have the Zulkheim supplys, or if you can't get them, head east on the road from the Bubu OP. There is a lot of agro here and everything can kill you, so be careful. Follow the winding road east till you get to a turn off going south, takje that and follow it to the fishing village of Mhaura. Not much to do here for you right now, so head south and purchase a boat pass for 100g. Hop on the boat and ride it to Selbina, once you reach Selbina exit the boat area and exit north to Valkurm Dunes, if you have supplys the OP will be just north of you.
==12-21==
Valkurm Dunes will be your new home for a while going forward. You can put up your flag (seak party) with menu> party> seek party or /inv. If you want to try to build your own pt (party), you can search for members with either menu> party> find member or "/sea all inv 12-20"
You first goal here is to reach lvl18, but it's fine to just plug away till you hit 20 also.
===Enmity===
It's a good time to get to know how Enmity(threat), also called hate, works in XI since you will be joining groups from here on. Enmity comes in 2 types CE (Cumulative) and VE (Volatile). CE is from damage dealt, healing done, and lowered by damage taken. VE is from most ability's, like Provoke, that add a set amount of VE that lowers to 0 over time equal to the cooldown of the ability used. Total Enmity is simply CE+VE. Some later equipment will have modifiers like Enmity +/-1, this represents a % modifier: +1=+1%, -2=-2%
===Skillchain===
If you time it right you can combine Weapon skills with another player to form a Skillchain or Renkei (Wazarenkei). And if your group has a mage it can gain a large damage and accuracy boost by casting a spell that matches the SC (skillchain) element. In general you have a few seconds after the first ws to use the second, and then a few seconds after the SC to land the spell. Not all WSs SC, and some may SC in one order but not the reverse.
===Level 18===
This is THE magic lvl!, This is when the game will FINALLY open up to you. A MASSIVE power boost is here. Head into Selbina and look for Isacio along the water (he is NOT in the boat area, so you don't need to pay to enter it for this). He will start the quest Elder Memories and ask you to bring him a few items that you can get in Valkurm Dunes. 2 of these you are likely to already have, the 3rd item can be very difficult to get and you will likely need help. Obtain the 3 items and trade them to Isacio and he will teach you the powerful ability to use a Sub job. Your current (Main) job will gain the stats and ability's of your sj (sub job) up to half your main jobs current level. This is a monstrous power boost that you can not ignore. In fact it is almost imposable to get in an xp pt above lvl 20 if you don't have an sj.
If you didn't already lvl your 2nd job back when you were 10, now is the time to. You will want to lvl it to at least 20 (only need 18 if mnk is 2nd). You will notice that you have it much easier this time around, all the skills that you gained on your 1st job have carried over to your 2nd. Your evasion is likely capped so you will take a lot fewer hits which will be a huge help.
==Level 20-30==
Now that you have your main and sub jobs to 20 it's time to either pick 1, or start trying out the others to find the combos you like. All jobs have pros and cons, some are highly desired in end game, but not for xp. some jobs are very strong in a certain lvl range and you may only be able to xp in that range. A few examples;
Job	Description
WAR	Performs well and is desired at all levels as a MT (Main Tank), OT (Off Tank) and DD.
MNK	Very good early, but less liked as you go. Is is highly desired anytime undead is the target.
THF	Weak early, but very strong at 15-30, likely the strongest job at lvl32 where you will be able to almost 1-shot every 2nd or 3rd mob. Not highly wanted 55+, and only need 1 per end-game group.
BLM	Strongest end-game job, in huge demand. Weakest job for xp, relegated to niche groups from 20-75
WHM	Best healer at all levels, but poor mana regen makes it dependent on other jobs to feed it mp. 1-40 in no time, slows after 41.
RDM	Can do everything the other 5 jobs can do, but not quite as well. 1-40 it's a decent support, at 41 RDM/WHM becomes the most sought after healer as it doesn't have the mp issues WHM has, and can seemingly heal forever. Is mostly a support in end-game.
===Level 30===
Keep grinding away at the lvls till you hit 30, this is the next big lvl, this time you now have access to all the advanced jobs that have been locked, they are all just a quest away! Will you be the bold PLD keeping all safe with your shield and healing spells or will you go DRK and crush your foes?
==To Infinity and Beyond==
At this point the game is wide open to you, you have all the tools to do a lot of stuff, there is already hundreds of hours of content open to you besides leveling up. Now is a good time to push missions for your nation, raise your political power. Start your career as a crafter, become wold famous for your finely woven cloths or intricately gemmed jewelry. Travel the globe, and gather materials for crafters. Live the quiet life, sitting on the shoreline telling tales of the one that got away. There is a lot of things to pick from at this point. If you didn't get one in the dunes already try to join a Linkshell (guild, feecompany, clan), they are generally very willing to help with quests, mission or fights you might need, as well as give info on things to farm or make or do to earn some gil. After all you now have 2 jobs to work on, some amount of income will be a huge help.
==closing==
At some point on the way here things became much easier, you may still stumble but you rarely fall. You have also most likely helped someone out and taught them something. Congrats you are no longer new, you are now prepared. Sure, they is still things to learn, but you have the base to understand whats going on.
You faced the slings and arrows of the Dunes run, the Jeuno run, the Quf run and overcame them all. You bleed on the Valkrum beaches, you cried as you team fell, and rose again. You died in the furthest corners of the map with the mob at 1%. Many have quit by now, called it to hard, but here you are, still plugging along. The best, and wost, is yet to come!