Final Fantasy XIV throws a lot at you in the first few hours, and a fresh wave of players is arriving as the game reaches the Switch 2. The good news is that a handful of early habits do most of the heavy lifting. Set these up now and you level faster, unlock the systems that matter, and avoid the small mistakes that slow returning players down.
Quick answer: Clear the Hall of the Novice at level 15 for its experience rings, feed and level your Chocobo companion, use tank cooldowns like Arm’s Length on large pulls, finish every Blue Quest you find, and watch cutscenes without rushing.
Clear the Hall of the Novice at level 15 for the XP rings
Once you hit level 15, you gain access to the Hall of the Novice. It walks you through the basics of combat and your current role, and it hands out real rewards for finishing. Complete your role’s training and you earn an experience ring that works up to level 30.
Finish everything and you receive a stronger ring that stays useful all the way to level 60. Both rings boost experience while you are under the level cap, and you can reuse them every time you start a new job, so hold on to them rather than discarding them.
You can unlock it at the Adventurers’ Guild in Gridania, Ul’dah, or Limsa Lominsa, or by speaking with The Smith outside the dungeon Sastasha. After the level 49 quest Hearts on Fire, the training upgrades with tougher trials tied to the better ring.
Level and feed your Chocobo companion once it unlocks
After you unlock a Chocobo as a battle ally, put time into leveling it, feeding it, and spending its skill points. A trained Chocobo is a genuinely useful companion in the open world, and it pairs well with the direction the game is heading, where dungeons can be run as two players plus two Chocobos.
Raising a Chocobo takes patience, and eventually you will need Thavnairian Onions to push it further. Those are expensive, so while you are earning gil in the field, plan ahead. You can either buy the onions or grow them yourself.
Use tank cooldowns like Arm’s Length on long pulls
If you tank, actually press your cooldowns during big dungeon pulls. Many tanks, even ones with thousands of hours, hold their defensive tools and quietly force the healer to work overtime.
At minimum, use Arm’s Length when you grab several enemies at once. The knockback protection is a minor perk, but the ability also slows incoming enemy attacks. That means you take less damage over the pull, and your healer spends fewer big cooldowns keeping you alive.
Finish every Blue Quest to unlock flying, jobs, and Leves
Blue Quests are how you open up extra content across the world. They grant aether currents for flight, unlock jobs such as Pictomancer, and give you access to Leves in new areas. When you spot one, go out of your way to complete it, because there is almost never a downside.
Flight is the clearest example. When it arrived in Heavensward, and in later zones too, certain quests handed out the aether points you needed. Skip those quests and you simply cannot fly in that region, so treat Blue Quests as high priority right after the main story.
Watch cutscenes without feeling rushed
The story is the heart of the game, so do not let anyone pressure you into skipping cutscenes. In nearly every case your party will happily wait while a first-time scene plays out. Sit back and let it run.
If you are replaying content and no longer want to watch scenes you have seen, you can set the game to skip them automatically, or skip them manually as they appear. If you ever cut one short by accident, the Unending Journey in any inn room lets you rewatch every cutscene you have already viewed.
Stack your experience boosts while leveling
Several small bonuses layer together to make early leveling noticeably quicker. Keep them running whenever you are grinding a new job.
| Boost | Effect |
|---|---|
| Brand New Ring (Hall of the Novice) | +30% experience below level 30, reusable on every job |
| Well Fed (food) | +3% experience for 30 minutes; buy cheap vendor food |
| Preferred World star | Large experience bonus for new characters created there |
Set these up early and the routine takes care of itself. The Hall of the Novice rings and Blue Quests unlock the systems you need, a well-fed Chocobo makes the open world easier, and using your cooldowns keeps group content smooth, so you can spend more of your time enjoying the story rather than fighting the menus.
