FFXIV: How To Level From 1 To 90? - Leveling Guide

Welcome to my quick guide about leveling in Final Fantasy 14. But regardless of each best method of leveling, variety is key and not getting bored while leveling. All jobs in particular are the way to go and the absolute first rule, which means not leveling because you’re lacking the motivation is always worse than leveling unoptimally. 

Leveling Bonuses

First of all, let’s talk about leveling bonuses that are a massive boost to your overall leveling speed. The more you have, the faster you go. 

The first and biggest bonus is a boosted server bonus. So, if you’re not concerned about starting on one particular server or data center where nearly each data center offers at least one boosted server, this bonus is massive. When you use it, basically all leveling grinds are easy and fast. And, you won’t run into any leveling block or caps from the main scenario quest.

The second biggest boost is received upon having your main job or any job or class at least one level ahead of the job or class you’re going to level, which is kinda relevant for all job leveling only. But for that case, leading to a massive 100 so-called Armory Bonus for all exp rewards possible. This bonus is reduced to 50 later, but works as a significant way to increase leveling speed. Because you’re lacking the main scenario quest experience points. 

So, if you want to change your main job later because you don’t like the first choice you made, Square Enix got you covered with this bonus as well as all the jobs you level in consecution to the first. If you still have access to any pre-order earrings, definitely use those as well as they boost your exp gain in some stats, too.

Apart from that, you can join a free company with access to free company actions like Heat of Battle. That will increase your killing exp gains by up to 15% as well or you could let your Squadron do missions to receive Squadron Battle Manuals that don’t stack with the free company buff but are a solid 20 uplift.

When you already have reached level 15 with any fighting class or job, you could also take part in the Hall of the Novice feature that you can enter by talking to an NPC next to an Innkeeper in major cities that will let you participate in a series of tries for beginners where you learn all the games basics. But we are here for the rewards, featuring the brand new ring that will grant you another 30% kill exp bonus until level 30, but also some useful stats to push your overall power level.

If you’re blessed with lots of friends starting Final Fantasy 14, you can recruit them to gain access to the Friendship Circlet. But you should not spend too much time on this item as the process inside the mock station to actually get it could take you longer than leveling these 25 levels.

But of course, if you’re planning to level more jobs, go for it.

And though it may sound gimmicky, don’t underestimate the basic three percent buff to kill exp received out of any food. You can get just buy out a 99 stack of boiled eggs by using your FFXIV Gil and you can basically have 3% more exp all the time.

Rested Bonus. While this grants an astonishing 50 boost to exp’s earned, you will eat this up in no time but still being received upon not playing the game. You can always get a slight push by sticking with a healthy sleeping schedule and continue leveling on another day. Just be AFK in Limsa or leave the game in city areas and this will fail automatically.

Levels 1-20

For 1 to 20, if you’re on your first character, keep pushing the main scenario quest. It will have you covered under till you reach endgame as long as you do the one or the other side activity.

For all jobs due to the Armory Exp Bonus, just go out into the field and do your Hunting Log targets, which will bring you to level 20 very quickly and, if you see a Fate on the way to that as well.

As soon as you’re granted access to dungeons, make sure to hit the ‘Q’ button and keep grinding dungeons up until you reach level 61 where a new method comes into play.

In the meantime, just keep doing Fates, levequests, and progress further with your Hunting Log, whose leveling benefits decrease with higher levels. If you already unlocked Squadron Command Missions, just keep grinding these instead, as they can be massively empowered in time of using them on missions and they deal tons of damage, sometimes more than players.

But remember, unlocking your squad takes a while and a good amount of invested play time. As an alternative, you can also go for Palace of the Dead. But the more leveling bonuses you have, the better are dungeons. 

Levels 26-36

For levels 26 to 36, there’s a very special levequest called Adamantoise Tears in Camp Tranquil.

Check this out if you have Levequest allowances to spare as this is a massive boost to your leveling speed on this level range or remember to do your job quest at the level you’re getting them. Because you need to complete those anyway later on and why giving away free exp, right? 

Stormblood Levels 

Coming to 61, a new version of Palace of the Dead will be available. That is called Heaven-on-High.

While technically similar, it offers more experience points than some other differences and you should try it out for a good alternative to Stormblood Dungeons. 

Also Read: What Should You Do While Waiting For Queue To Pop In FFXIV? - 10 Tips

Shadowbringers Levels

On 71, reach the Shadowbringers leveling range. I highly recommend throwing these tribe dailies into the mix as they are done in about 3 minutes and provide tons of exp on top.

You could start those in Stormblood already. But Pixies are much faster than my opinion in the same way as the Endwalker Beast Tribes quests are. Also, the Bozjan Southern Front will be introduced for those having unlocked the Shadowbringers relic content or plan to get the relic in the process. This being a very nice leveling method if you know how to handle encounters in there. 

Dungeons are still the way to go here and the new trust parties are nice. But I do recommend grinding down Fates or Overworld content while just being cute up for dungeons normally. Just use Trust, if ‘Q’ times are miserable.

Endwalker Levels

In the Endwalker leveling ranges, the formula doesn’t change dungeons are top priority.

But I highly advise doing the Beast Tribes in the process. And as Fates are much more profitable than before, just grind those during queue times as they also did enhance the rewards for the Fates, which means they have a little of endgame relevance to incentivize endgame players to do them with you.

Dailies & Weeklies

Last but absolutely not least, your weekly and daily stuff.

Do everything inside your Duty Roulette, especially the leveling and Alliance rate as well as MSQ roulette, once you have them unlocked. 

My rule of thumb is to do them every time you feel waiting times are too long or the dungeon you have on your exact level is too boring or just too tough to grind it comfortably. 

Weekly bonuses are even more important as you can literally level without actively doing anything except endgame content, especially when grabbing the Wondrous Tails from Khloe Aliapoh.