Returnee Guide - From 75 to Modern

=The Returnee Guide=
==Preface==
I used to play Final Fantasy XI a lot when the level cap was still 75, came back recently and was pretty overwhelmed by all the new content. I've decided to make this guide as a basic tutorial for all the returnees for how to begin working your way from where you have left and progress towards modern content.
Please note that this is by no means a comprehensive guide for all the modern content. I am a returnee myself and have not even experienced all of it yet. This guide is here to help you start, and I may upgrade it as I progress further.
This guide assumes you have a character which you have played on, and have left the game during the days of Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urhgan or early Wings of the Goddess, when the level cap was still 75. You may also find this guide useful if you decided to create a new character and start fresh, but you have played in the past and remember the basic mechanics. Since this guide assumes you have knowledge of old game mechanics, it is not intended for brand new players. I also assume that you have at least one (formerly) high level job (hopefully 75) and a few others leveled to some extent, and that you have at least reached rank 6 in your home nation (defeated The Shadow Lord) and began the "Rise of the Zilart" and "Chains of Promathia" storylines.
Enough introductions, let's get started!
==Step zero: Miscellaneous==
These ones you should follow throughout the guide.
===Teleportation===
It is very easy to get around Vana'diel these days, as there are multiple new ways of teleporting around, which make most if not all of the old methods obsolete. Here is a breakdown of the most common methods:
*Home Point teleportation - You can now teleport between the blue home point crystals. The only prerequisite is that you have touched a home point crystal at least once before you can teleport to it. This means that whenever you see a new home point crystal, you should touch it so you can easily return to that point later if needed. Initially, teleportation would cost 500 gil to home points in cities, and 1000 gil to home points outdoors, but after you complete the first few missions of Rhapsodies of Vana'diel and obtain the key item Rhapsody in White, the price drops to 100 gil and 200 gil respectively. Note that home points that you have interacted with before this system was introduced do not count, so the first thing you would want to do is to run around your starting city and flag every home point you see. A lot more home points have been added to cities.
*Survival Guide teleportation - Those floating books allow you to teleport between them, and is the most common ways of teleporting outdoors or even into dungeons - almost every zone has one. You can pay for the teleportation either with gil (1000 gil initially, drops to 200 once you obtain Rhapsody in White) or in tabs, a currency obtained through Fields of Falor or Grounds of Valor, which you might be familiar with if you have played during the Wings of the Goddess days. As with home points, you need to touch a survival guide at least once before you can teleport to it, so make a habit of touching each new survival guide you come across.
*Waypoint teleportation - Those are the Seekers of Adoulin equivalent of survival guides. As with home points and survival guides, you need to interact with each waypoint at least once before you can teleport to it, so once you reach Adoulin areas, make sure you do that as well. The currency used for waypoint teleportation is called Kinetic Units, and is obtained by simply trading Crystals to them.
*Unity teleportation - The concept of unity is beyond the scope of this guide, so you would want to read about it separately, but you should speak to a Unity Concord NPC (there is one in every starting city) and join a unity as soon as possible. One of the services that unity NPCs offer is teleportation to various areas (which are used to fight unity NMs, but you don't need to actually fight the NM to use the teleport), and this is one of the only exclusions to the "must have visited once" rule. If you are starting fresh, this is even more important, because it allows you to skip the entire run to Jeuno when you reach level 20. Unity teleports require a currency named Unity Accolades, which are obtained by completing Records of Eminene objectives (more on that later).
*Warp Ring - Available for 5000 conquest points, this ring warps you to your home point, saving the need for Scrolls of Instant Warp or Warp Cudgels. Get one as soon as you can. It has a 10 minute cooldown but usually that's not a problem, however you might want to keep a Scroll of Instant Warp as well, just in case. The cost of those scrolls has been reduced to 10 conquest points, so they're dirt cheap.
===Inventory===
FFXI now has a lot more inventory options, and you would want to unlock them as you need:
*Your main inventory can be expanded all the way to 80 slots now, which is done by more Gobbiebag quests. As always, they just depend on gil. Do them when you can afford it.
*Mog Safe - It's still there, and it can still be expanded up to 80 slots. Do the expansion quests if you haven't done them already. It should be worth mentioning that there are now Nomad Moogles in smaller towns (e.g. Selbina, Mhaura, Kazham, Norg, Rabao, Nashmau), giving you access to your safe (and your Delivery Box) even when there's no real Mog House around.
*Mog Safe 2 - Your Mog House can now have a second floor, which comes with its own safe. It's the same size as your regular safe and expands with it. To obtain it, do the Mog House Exit Quests in all three starting cities. If you retained your old character, most chances you have already done that.
*Storage - Obtained by placing furniture in your Mog House, pretty much the same way as you remember. The only notable change is that you can access it from any Mog House in every city, not just from your own starting city. However, it cannot be accessed from Nomad Moogles (it is the only type of storage not accessible through them), so you would want to use it for items you use less frequently.
*Mog Locker - If you have played during the Treasures of Aht Urhgan days you might remember this one. It's obtained and expanded by trading Imperial Pieces to an NPC by the Aht Urhgan Whitegate Mog House. Imperial Pieces are obtained by gaining experience points or limit points in ToAU areas while under the effect of Sanction (the ToAU equivalent of Signet). It's on a lease, meaning that after a few (real life) days you lose access until you trade another piece. However, you do not lose the items stored in it. As with Storage, you will want to use it for less frequently used items.
*Mog Satchel - This is obtained by securing your Square Enix account using one time passwords. In the past, Square Enix used to send physical security tokens by snail mail, and it was only available in select countries. These days, that has been deprecated in favor of mobile apps like Google Authenticator, and is available in every country where FFXI itself is available. It's the same size as your inventory and expands with it. Unlike your safe, it can be accessed from anywhere using the View House option in the main menu.
*Mog Sack - Buy it for 9980 gil from an Artisan Moogle (there is one in every starting city). It's the same size as your main inventory, but does not automatically expand. To expand it, talk to the Moogle again after completing each Gobbiebag quest. Expansions are free. As with the Mog Satchel, they can be accessed from anywhere.
*Mog Case - Also accessible from anywhere. Always 80 slots, no questions asked. Cannot be expaneded.
*Mog Wardrobes - You have eight of those. Unlike other forms of storage, they can only be used for gear, i.e. items that can be equipped. The great thing is that you can equip gear directly from them, saving you up to 16 slots in your main inventory. That's a lot! The first two wardrobes are already included with your account. All others require a subscription, which costs $2 / €2 / month each. If you have more than one character on your PlayOnline account, paying for wardrobes will unlock them on all characters. You do not need to pay double.
**You can also equip linkshells directly from your Mog Satchel / Sack / Case, saving you an additional two main inventory slots.
*If you have a storage mule on the same account, it's worth mentioning that many (but not all) exclusive items can now be sent to characters on the same account using the Delivery Box.
*There are NPCs that store specific items for you, and that can free up a lot of inventory space. Most notable are Porter Moogles, that store specific gear items, and Ephemeral Moogles, that store crystals. In addition, Shami is still there in Port Jeuno and will store seals and crests.
==Step 1: Get trusts==
Trusts are AI party members that fill in for real party members when you can't assemble a group with real people. They are extremely important because they allow you to solo all the old content that most players are already past, as well as to level up to 99. Since modern content requires level 99 and much of it is locked behind a significant amount of old content, trusts are an absolute must, and are the first thing you should obtain after returning. If you have started fresh with a new character, you need to achieve level 5 before you can get your first trusts. Getting your first job to level 5 is done the old fashioned way. If you retained your old character, then you most definitely have achieved that level already, so you can skip this step.
To obtain your first trusts, you will need to complete initial trust quests. There is one in every starting city, obtained from the quests Trust: San d'Oria, Trust: Bastok and Trust: Windurst. Each one will give you an initial trust, so you would want to do all three. The San d'Oria quest will give you a tank trust, the Bastok quest will give you a damage dealer trust and the Windurst quest will give you a healer trust. There are more than a hundred other trusts you can obtain, so you should read about this separately.
Initially you can only summon up to three trusts, but as you progress in Rhapsodies of Vana'diel missions, this will increase to four and eventually to five, allowing you to form a full six member party with just your AI companions.
*Many trusts are obtained from RoE tutorial objectives. Make sure you complete all objectives under the Tutorial -> Basic section (the only exception is the one related to A.M.A.N. Trove, which requires level 99).
*Every month there is a monthly Repeat Login Campaign, where you get Login Points every day you log in (resets on Japanese Midnight). You use those points by talking to Greeter Moogles (there is one in every starting city). The possible rewards change every month and sometimes include trusts. Many trusts are obtained exclusively from repeat login campaigns.
*Other trusts are obtained from events, such as Alter Ego Expo or Alter Ego Extravaganza. In other words, not all trusts are always obtainable, and you'd need each month to check and pick those you don't have yet.
==Step 2: Get a linkshell==
Most chances your old linkshell had disbanded many years ago, so you will need to get a new one. After all, FFXI is an MMO, and you will find that later in the endgame there is still a lot of content that cannot be soloed with just trusts. There are two popular ways of getting a linkshell -
*Linkshell Concierge NPCs - There is one such NPC in every starting city. They stock pearls of recruiting linkshells. By speaking to them you can see general information about the recruiting linkshells, and obtain pearls. Find one that is newbie friendly (for all purposes you are a newbie now), and that has players in a time zone similar to yours.
*The Assist Channel - This is a new chat channel (to send messages type /assiste or press Ctrl+Q) that helps connect new players and returnees with Mentors. Its main purpose is to ask questions and get assistance, but you can also ask for pearls there. Note that your access is limited - Once you return to the game you will only have access for 240 hours of play time (about a month, assuming an average play time of 6 hours a day and that you don't remain logged in while away). Once that time expires the only way to regain access is to not log in for 48 consecutive days to regain your returnee status, or to become a mentor yourself, so it is extremely recommended that you find a nice linkshell before your access expires.
==Step 3: Records of Eminence==
Records of Eminence are a set of objectives that you can set through the Quests menu. Like regular quests, some are repeatable and some are not. Completing them yields experience points, Unity Accolades and most importantly, a currency called Sparks of Eminence, which can be used to obtain items and equipment from sparks NPCs in the starting cities. The first time you complete certain quests will sometimes result in obtaining items as well. It should be noted that the number of sparks (and accolades) you can have is capped at 99999, so make sure you use them so they don't go to waste.
It should be noted that a lot of those quests are for very basic content, like unlocking jobs or doing limit break quests - in other words, if you retained your character, most chances you have already completed many of those. In that case, all you need to do is flag the RoE quest and it'll immediately be marked as complete, giving you the rewards, so go through the objectives menu and get all those free goods.
In addition to the regular RoE objectives you can set through the menu, there are also time-limited objectives - They start automatically and change every 5 hours.
==Step 4: Buy maps==
Almost all maps can now be purchased through the map vendors, so if you are still missing some maps because they involved an annoying quest (e.g. Crawlers' Nest), you can just buy them now and you most definitely should. Depending on your gil situation, you might want to get them all at once, or you might want to just pick them up one by one as needed.
==Step 5: Unlock mounts==
Mounts are similar to Chocobos, however they can be called from anywhere (outdoor areas only, not dungeons) using the menu. Like Chocobos, they run twice as fast as you normally would, and you cannot get aggro when riding on one, making running around a lot easier, so you would want to get them as soon as possible.
*If you started fresh and don't have a Chocobo License, you need to obtain it first through the Chocobo's Wounds quest. The good news is that the waiting times have been reduced from 6 game days (around 6 real life hours) to 6 game hours (around 10 real life minutes), so you no longer have to sit in Jeuno doing nothing for hours.
*After obtaining your license, you need to do the Full Speed Ahead! quest (also started in the Jeuno Chocobo stables) to get your first mount.
*Additional mounts can be obtained for login points, however those are all just cosmetics.
*The only case in which real Chocobos are still required is for Chocobo Digging.
==Step 6: Complete storylines and reach level 99==
I bundle them both in a single step because you'd be doing that together. The most important storyline by far is Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. As you progress through you obtain permanent key items called "Rhapsodies". Among other perks, each one gives you a permanent 30% bonus to experience points earned (and they stack!), so you would want to get them as soon as possible. Then again, as you progress through missions, the difficulty level increases so you'll need to take breaks and level up as needed.
===Mission Notes===
*Rhapsodies of Vana'diel is a storyline that ties all the main storylines of FFXI together, and involves many characters from those storylines. Occassionally you will need to take a break from doing RoV missions and do missions from other storylines to progress. As you do RoV missions, you would be required to reach rank 6 in your home nation (defeat The Shadow Lord, and later start, but not complete Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urhgan, Wings of the Goddess and finally Seekers of Adoulin.
*Sometimes those characters will be involved in one storyline and therefore unavailable for the other until you progress further into the former storyline. Since RoV is your main priority, do not progress into other storylines more than you have to, or you might need progress further in them (sometimes even complete them) until their respective characters "free up" and RoV becomes available again. Fortunately, the mission guides here on FFXIClopedia tell you exactly when to switch.
**Depending on where you left off, that might already be the case, and you might need to progress in some storylines further than you normally would. 
**Nation missions, Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia and Treasures of Aht Urhgan are all soloable at level 75 with trusts. The only note is that if you're forced to finish Rise of the Zilart before level 99, you should not try Divine Might before level 99 unless you get help. Do the regular Ark Angels instead and come back for Divine Might after you reach level 99 and have item level gear.
**Early Wings of the Goddess missions are also soloable at 75 with trusts, but later missions will require progressively higher level, eventually reaching level 99 content. Generally you would not need to progress past the level 75 content of WotG if you're doing it for the sake of RoV progress, unless you have progressed too much into WotG and need to complete it before RoV becomes available again, in which case you should level to 99 as needed.
**Seekers of Adoulin is all level 99 (or post 99) content - When the RoV storyline takes you to Adoulin, that would be the ideal time to take a break and level up all the way to 99 before proceeding.
*RoV missions 1-2-3 (The Lion's Roar) and 1-3-5 (The Lost Avatar) involve fighting enemies that are significantly higher than the level you would probably be at. You could grind levels and solo them with trusts, but it would be better to get help from your linkshell instead, and level to 99 when you have more rhapsodies. You do not need a full group - A single level 99 player can solo them both.
*The final RoV boss is significantly stronger than all other foes combined, and might not be soloable even at item level. You will probably need a group of well geared people to help you. Ask your linkshell.
*While you should prioritize RoV above all else, you would also want to progress through Zilart and Promathia at the very least until you get access to Tu'Lia (Sky) and Al'Taieu (Sea) respectively. Some modern endgame content takes place in those areas so you need access to them.
*Eventually you would want to complete all storylines, even if it's just for the sake of the story. FFXI has some of the best storylines in the Final Fantasy series and you'd be missing out.
===Old content that is still not soloable===
Most of the old content is now easily soloable with trusts. There are a few notable exceptions though:
*Old loot BCNMs - This is the only type of content that is still level-capped, and you can't use trusts either, so they're still not soloable. Usually they're not worth bothering with. The only exception is those that drop spell scrolls. Check the auction house prices to see whether it's worth doing. You don't have to use low level gear, since higher level gear automatically scales down when you enter level-capped content now.
*Certain content (like the Lebros Supplies Assault require you to split up and go to different places. You can't do those with trusts since they always follow you and don't act on their own unless you're fighting. This type of content is very rare though, and you won't run into it too often.
**Regarding assaults specifically, you can't use trusts at all in those, but at item level most are trivially soloable even without them, assuming you don't place a voluntary level cap.
===Levling up===
*If you have restarted on a new character, be sure to progress through RoV and at the very least have Rhapsody in Mauve when you reach level 70. This will allow you to call trusts in your fight against Maat, making it trivial on all jobs. If you don't have Rhapsody in Mauve, you'd have to do the Maat fight the old fashioned way, which used to be painful on some jobs.
*Also, if you have restarted on a new character and don't have your Race Specific Equipment, it's still worth getting. While it's useless at 99, it's still great when leveling new jobs. If you progress a bit in RoV, you can now buy chest and coffer keys from a Curio Vendor Moogle (there is one in each starting city), saving you the need to the need to farm them. Just wait for your race's week, buy the keys, then run around and search for the boxes. You should keep that gear in your wardrobes until you get all jobs you ever want to play to 99.
*As you level your first job further than 75, you will need to do Limit Break quests every 5 levels as usual. Those are started not by Maat but rather by the Nomad Moogle standing (or rather, floating) next to him. Most of the post 75 level limit breaks are trivial - just obtain a required number of Merit Points and trade a few Kindred's Seals or Kindred's Crests to the Moogle. The only exception is the final limit break, which involves a battlefield, but it can also be made trivial using Olde Rarab Tails, obtained from a side quest.
*If the rewards from the monthly Repeat Login Campaign include an Echad Ring, get it immediately. That ring gives a 200% experience gain boost and has unlimited charges (though it has a cooldown of 2 hours). Think of it as a free level every two hours, so you really want to have that if you can. Additionally, remember to recharge your Emperor Band / Empress Band / Chariot Band every week. They're still useful if you don't have Echad yet or when it's on cooldown. That's pretty much the only modern use of Conquest Points, so you'd never run out of them as long as you remember to get Signet when leveling up in midland areas.
*Flag repeatable RoE objectives that involve killing monsters or spoils to gain some extra experience points and sparks while leveling. Pay special attention to the "Gain Experience" time limited objetive. When it's up, you get 1500 experience points and 500 sparks for every 5000 experience points gained normally, and it stacks with all other forms of experience boost. That's a way of quickly obtaining a lot of experience, as well as sparks, so when it's on, you might want to consider stopping whatever you were doing and start leveling until it's over. Note that if not careful, you might easily cap your sparks when you level with this objective up, so be sure to take short breaks and use those sparks when you get close to cap.
*If there is a Fields of Valor Field Manual or Grounds of Valor Grounds Tome (floating books) in the zone you are leveling in, get a page appropriate for your level. It gives a small amount of experience when you defeat the monsters specified, and once per game day also yields a small amount of gil and tabs (which can be used for teleports and status effect boosts). It's not a lot but it's better than nothing.
*If you're leveling in ToAU areas and the Astral Candescence is in Al Zahbi (which would be the case most of the time), you can a small experience boost if you're under the effect of Sanction. You also get Imperial Standing points when under that effect so be sure to get it when leveling in those areas.
*Make sure you cap your skills! As you level up, in most cases your trusts would do most of the work for you, but you might end up level 99 but with gimped skills, making your level pretty much worthless. Make sure you skill up as needed.
*Be sure to get the Artifact Armor for your job. You will eventually upgrade it to item level, and it becomes very powerful at endgame, however you do need to get the base items first, and they are still useful while leveling.
*When you reach level 99, fill up the experience points bar all the way until you cap your experience points. Once you get to level 99, you can equip "item level" gear, which practically takes you past level 99, all the way to level 119, just by equipping it. Since all item level gear requires level 99 to equip, dying and deleveling to 98 means you'd effectively be losing 31 levels at once, so you never want this to happen.
*Once you've reached level 99, talk to the Moogle again to unlock Job Points. These are the level 99 equivalent of Merits. The main difference is that each job is leveled separately, and you can max out all options in all categories. By defeating enemies level 91 and above you get Capacity Points. Every 30,000 capacity points turn into one job point. You can hold up to 500 job points at once. It takes 2100 job points to fully max out a job.
**When defeating high level enemies you get both capacity points and experience / limit points, so there's no reason to not unlock capacity points just because you want to merit first. You do both at the same time.
**FFXI now includes Master Levels, a way to progress even further than job points. It will take a long time before you reach that point though, so those are out of the scope of this guide.
=Gil=
This requires its own section. Inflation made most things significantly more expensive than you remember. This might also be the one case where people might be reluctant to help you. After all, nobody wants competition. Still, here are a few things you can do:
*If you have retained your character, check the Auction House prices of things in your storage. Most items are probably deprecated by now, but some might have actually increased in value (spell scrolls are a notable case). If you find any of those and don't need them, auction them for fast gil.
**Use the FFXIAH website to find auction house prices without having to actually go and visit them.
*If you have a lot of Sparks of Eminence and don't know what to do with them, use them to get Acheron Shields, then sell them to vendors for around 27k each (make sure to max your fame to optimize this). That's basically free gil.
*Similarly, if you have a lot of Unity Accolades, use them to get pinches of Prize Powder, and vendor those for around 100 gil each. While that doesn't sound a lot, they do stack to 99 and they only cost 10 accolades each, meaning that 99,999 accolades (the cap) translate to roughly a million gil.
*Farming is still a thing, assuming you can find items that sell fast and for a good price on the auction house. Crystals are a good source.
**The Ephemeral Moogles can convert crystals into clusters.
*Crafting is still a thing, assuming you can find recipes that are sufficiently profitable. Crafts can now be leveled to 110, and all crafts can be leveled to 70 before you start using the so-called "craft points". Basically you can level each craft 10 levels higher than you used to.
*Fishing is only worth it if you're also into cooking. Inflation made vendoring fish not worthwhile, and raw fish don't sell well on the auction house, however if you have cooking leveled high enough, there are some profitable recipies.
*HELM is sometimes profitable. Items obtainable only through HELM might be worth bothering with. Gardening might also be worth it.
*Daily Tally - Each day you log in (resets JP midnight) you get 10 tally points. You might notice Goblins in cities, standing next to treasure chests. You can trade them various items for extra tally points (up to 50 per day), so just try to trade all the junk you have and don't need. If you speak to the goblins, for some tally points they will open the box and give you whatever comes out of it. You can choose categories but the only one worth it is the so-called Special Dial - It gives you an item completely at random, and around half of the items in the game can be randomly obtained that way. Most times it will be junk but every once in a while you might hit a jackpot, getting an item that could be worth hundreds of thousand or even millions of gil. Normally you can only open the box once a day, but if you happen to get a Special Gobbiedial Key (sometimes given when you log in), you can open it more than once.
=Gear=
After you reach level 99, it's mostly about getting and upgrading your gear (well, that and job points). There is a lot of post-99 gear and most of the endgame is about obtaining gear as powerful as possible. Here's a step by step guide on how to obtain and upgrade gear -
==Level 117==
*Activate the "Reach level 99" RoE objective (Tutorial -> Intermediate). If you're already level 99, it'll complete automatically. You get a Kupon A-PK109, which can be traded to a Dealer Moogle for a set of item level 109 gear. You should only bother with it if don't have 6000 sparks yet (very unlikely at this point, unless you've used them all).
**Item level gear is gear that can be equipped once you reach level 99, and allows you to effectively exceed level 99. When you Check monsters, they'd be compared to your average item level. For example, if your average item level is 109, level 109 monsters will check as "even match".
*Make sure you have at least 6000 sparks, then activate the "An Eminent Scholar" / 2 / 3 and speak with the sparks NPC to complete them. You get a Kupon W-EMI and Kupon A-EMI, which you can trade to a Dealer Moogle for a set of item level 117.
**You can also buy this gear for sparks, but it's a complete waste. This gear is worthless for endgame - you won't be able to even land a single hit on an endgame mob. This gear generally has one purpose - To allow you to solo old content needed to finish RoV (other than the final boss). It's not worth spending sparks on, but it is worth redeeming the Kupon, because it's free and it's better than what you already have. Make sure you pick weapons and armor that can be equipped by your level 99 job.
==Bayld Gear==
Bayld is the local currency in Adoulin. It's obtained primarily by completing Coalition Assignments. You might have already done some of those because they are required to progress in the Seekers of Adoulin storyline, which in turn is required to progress in Rov past a certain point. I recommend the Couriers' Coalition, because it does not involve any fighting, just running around. Previously, key items used for those assignments used to break if you teleported via Waypoints, but this is no longer the case, meaning that once you've flagged the appropriate waypoints once, you can complete those assignments in seconds.
You can use your Bayld to get level 119 weapons and armor from vendors named Craggy Bluff and Vesca in Eastern Adoulin. Buy only the +1 versions. The NQ is even worse than your current level 117 gear.
Do not be tempted to think you're strong now! While technically 119 is the maximum item level gear, not all item level 119 gear is created equal. Bayld gear is total garbage for endgame, but it's the best you can get for now and it's way better than your level 117 gear.
==A.M.A.N. Trove==
This is pretty much the FFXI equivalent of Russian Roulette. You need to get a Mars Orb or a Venus Orb, and trade it to a burning circle in Horlais Peak, Waughroon Shrine, Balga's Dais or Qu'Bia Arena to enter a "battlefield", and I put it in quotes because there's no real battle. You can obtain one free Mars Orb per month from a monthly RoE objective, or by redeeming Silver Vouchers, sometimes given as rewards and can also be purchased for gil.
Once you enter, you will see ten wooden boxes and one gold box in the center. Each wooden box you open adds some spoils to the loot, and the center one finishes the battlefield and gives you whatever spoils are in it. However, one box is a mimic that will instantly kill you (and remove your Reraise), no matter what level or how well equipped you are.
Generally, you should open boxes until you hear a "loud thud", which pretty much guarantees there will be some pieces of gear, and then finish. Don't be too greedy. While the mimic can theoretically be defeated by a real, full group of well equipped players, it is still not easy and once defeated only the center gold box respawns, and if you did not hear a single "loud thud" most chances it will contain junk. In other words, fighting is never worth it. It's better going in as a low level job to avoid (or at least minimize) experience lost.
You might get good gear or might get junk, it pretty much depends on luck. Read further on A.M.A.N. Trove on its dedicated page.
==Domain Invasion==
This is the next step after you've obtained your Bayld gear. Domain Invasion involved high level dragons that show up in Escha - Zi'Tah, Escha - Ru'Aun and Reisenjima. If you are a member of a unity, you will receive a message when one is about to begin. Zone into the respective area and talk to the NPC right in front of you. Choose the option to receive an Elvorseal. The NPC can also teleport you directly to the encounter area. You can use trusts.
The reason you can participate in this even with Bayld gear is that the monster is not claimed by a single person / party / alliance - instead everyone who happens to be in the area fights it at once (together with their trusts). This means that even if you don't manage to land a single hit, as long as there are others that can defeat it (and there are always quite a lot), it's considered a win for you. When the dragon is defeated, you get Domain Points (up to 80 per earth day, resets JP midnight, and eventually increases to 100 daily) and beads (unlimited).
You can use your domain points to obtain weapons and gear from an NPC named Zurim in Norg. You can use beads to obtain Eschalixirs / +1 / +2 (among other things) to augment them, turning them into somewhat decent gear. Eschalixirs also sometimes drops at random from enemies in Escha regions, so don't throw or vendor them away.
==Ambuscade==
Probably the first group content with actual people that you will do and actually contribute. Ambuscade is a fight against "the featured monster of the month", which indeed rotates monthly (changes after every server maintenance). There are always two different monsters to fight: Version 1 ("Intense Ambuscade") and Version 2 ("Regular Ambuscade"). You can also choose a difficulty version. V1 on Very Easy is comparable in difficulty to V2 on Very Difficult. By defeating the monsters you get a currency called Hallmarks and Gallantry, which can be used to obtain and augment gear from an NPC in Mhaura. Note that Hallmarks reset every month so make sure you use them all before server maintenance.
To participate you need a temporary key item obtained from a RoE objective that involves killing three monsters of a specific family (they have to check IEP or higher). There are two key items, one for version 1 and one for version 2, and you can have both at once.
Domain Invasion gear would allow you to solo V2 on Very Easy difficulty using trusts, however the hallmark yield will be very low and you'd need to repeat it many times to get enough hallmarks (fortunately the RoE quest that gives the entry key item it repeatable). It is preferable to team up with others and do a higher difficulty.
==Reforging Armor==
Remember how we talked about getting your artifact armor for your job? You can now start reforging it into endgame gear.
*If you don't have the base gear yet, now is definitely the time to get it. Do the old content quests you're already familiar with. Remember that you can get coffer keys from Curio Vendor Moogles, so this is a lost faster than what it used to be.
*If you don't have the relic armor from Dynamis, you should get it.
**Dynamis is not even close to what it used to be. You don't have to reserve it, you just go in, and monsters respawn. At item level (even with Bayld gear) you can solo everything there with trusts. You should level THF to 99 for Treasure Hunter or this will take a long time. You don't need the Timeless Hourglass anymore. Trade it back to the goblin you got it from to get a refund of 500k gil (unless you want to keep it as a memento, since it can't be obtained anymore), then talk to the goblin and trade them 50k gil to get a permanent key item called Prismatic hourglass. You only need to get it once. While technically Dynamis is still time limited, if you've progressed far enough into RoV, the once per day limit is eliminated, meaning that if your time expires you can just go in immediately. Go in and kill everything until you get the drops. Note that you still need to clear the final boss to progress to more advanced dynamis zones, and NMs are still worth killing because they sometimes drop 100 unit currencies.
**Don't bother with relic weapons at this point. While they can be incredible if upgraded all the way, getting all that ancient currency is still a huge grind, and even the completed level 75 version is now completely useless - you have to upgrade it even further.
*If you don't have the empyrean armor from Abyssea, you should get it. While this was designed as level 99 content, with item level 119 gear (even Bayld gear), it's trivially easy. You will still want to have THF99 to speed things up, and mind that it's still time limited and you can't spam it like Dynamis. Some empyrean pieces are purchased for Cruor (the local currency, just kill stuff in Abyssea to obtain it), some drop from NMs and some require a currency obtained through Bastion - Don't bother doing that content since it can take a long while. Instead just trade Copper Vouchers (which you get each time you complete a time limited RoE objective for the first time) to a sparks vendor and get the needed currency. Copper Voucher can be exchanged for 1000 units of almost any currency in the game, and you should use them for those hard to obtain currencies.
**Side note: Don't waste Copper Vouchers on Allied Notes. Just do Campaign Battles if you happen to need those. They are all soloable now.
All three sets can be reforged into Reforged Armor using an NPC called Monisette in Port Jeuno. There are four reforging levels. The base reforge turns them into level 109 gear, then ther +1, +2 and +3 versions are all considered level 119 but each one makes the gear way more powerful.
===Base reforging===
You will need to obtain Rem's Tale chapters 1-5 as payment for the reforging service. Each chapter corresponds to a different piece. For instance, chapter 1 is used for headgear, chapter 2 is used for body piece etc.
You can reforge pieces that you have upgraded to the regular +1 versions, requiring 5 copies of the corresponding chapters. You can also reforge directly from the base version, but then you will need 10 copies. My recommendation is to skip the +1 upgrade (if you don't already have it), since Rem's Tale chapters are not too difficult to obtain.
*Rem's Tale chapters 1-5 are obtained through battlefields entered using Macrocosmic Orbs, purchased from Shami for Sacred Kindred's Crests. If you don't have enough, Shemo, standing right next to him, will exchange different types of seals / crests at a ratio of 3:1 (sometimes 2:1 during special events). Trusts are allowed. Your Ambuscade and Domain Invasion gear should allow you to solo them on Very Easy difficulty, but you should get a group to have more copies drop each time and avoid wasting crests.
*If you don't feel you're strong enough to do those battlefields, you can also obtain Rem's Tale chapters for sparks or (usually) login points but they are pretty expensive - Each copy will cost you 7500 sparks, so doing the battlefields is encouarged.
In addition to Rem's Tale chapters, you will also need to provide him two material items, one changed per job and one changes per equipment type (head, body etc.). None are exclusive so they can be purchased on the auction house. Sometimes they're also available for login points.
*Reforging relic gear also requires two pieces of 100 unit ancient currency (the type depends on the job) - Either farm those from NMs in Dynamis or buy them for Ambuscade Hallmarks.
*Empyrean gear cannot be reforged directly from the base version; you have to upgrade them to +1 first.
After bae reforging, the gear becomes item level 109 - which is still useless. Keep it in your wardrobe until you get it to at least +1.
====Reforging to +1====
You will need Rem's Tale chapters 6-10 for this. As before, the chapter itself varies according to the type of the piece. You need 8 copies per reforge.
*Rem's Tale chapters 6-10 drop from high tier versions of storyline content (e.g. Ark Angels II). You must have completed the storyline version first.
*To enter those battlefields you need temporary key items that are purchased with merits. The best way to quickly accumulate merits at item level 119 is to kill DC mobs in Escha - Ru'Aun. Make sure you get a Mollifier from the NPC in the beginning of the zone, otherwise there's a small chance for a high tier NM to spawn after a kill.
*Using a mix of augmented Ambuscade gear and augmented domain invasion gear, you might be able to solo them with trusts on Very Easy difficulty, but this is not recommended. It is better to team up and do a higher difficulty.
In addition you would need two material items, which are also available on the auction house. They are not the same materials used for the base reforging.
====Reforging to +2====
These reforges require you to get Paragon Job Cards from Omen.
*A prerequisite for even entering Omen is completing RoV all the way to the end.
*A mix of augmented Ambuscade gear, augmented domain invasion gear and reforged+1 gear might allow you to solo Omen mobs one by one with trusts, but since this content is time limited, this is not very practical, and it might take multiple attempts just to get a single one, and you need more than one for each reforge. This is really the time to team up.
*In addition, you need materials that, while purchasable from vendors, are very expensive. Expect to pay ~1.25m gil for each piece. Farming the gil might take longer than the cards.
====Reforging to +3====
It will take a long while before you can even consider this. Basically you need to clear a set of objectives in Omen (the good news is that this needs to be done just that), get even more job cards and materials that can easily exceed 10m gil a piece. Do it when you're rich enough.
==What's next?==
I will (hopefully) post more content as I become more familiar with the endgame myself.