Welcome to the beginning of your Final Fantasy XIV journey! Alternatively, perhaps you’re looking into trying a different Job and you want to get through the leveling process as quickly as possible. Regardless of your situation, this FFXIV leveling guide 1-50 is here to help you get through the early stages, which covers the base game A Realm Reborn. We also have a guide for the entire leveling process in one place, if that helps. But here we’ll focus on levels 1 to 50 in detail.
The first leg of the adventure begins at level 1 for many of the Jobs in FFXIV. Actually, you’ll begin as a Class before transitioning to a specific Job. The starting Classes are: Gladiator, Pugilist, Marauder, Lancer, Archer, Rogue, Conjurer, Thaumaturge, and Arcanist. At Level 30, these Classes can evolve into their respective Jobs. Here’s the full list of A Realm Reborn Classes and Jobs:
| Class | Job | Starting City |
| Gladiator | Paladin | Ul’dah |
| Marauder | Warrior | Limsa Lominsa |
| Conjurer | White Mage | Gridania |
| Arcanist | Scholar | Limsa Lominsa |
| Arcanist | Summoner | Limsa Lominsa |
| Thaumaturge | Black Mage | Ul’dah |
| Archer | Bard | Gridania |
| Lancer | Dragon | Gridania |
| Pugilist | Monk | Ul’dah |
| Rogue | Ninja | Limsa Lominsa |
If you’re wondering why there’s one more Job compared to the Classes, that’s because Arcanist can become either Summoner (magic DPS) and Scholar (healer), or both. Regardless of which Job and corresponding Class you choose, strap in for some power leveling.
Levels 1-50 General Details
There are a number of items that offer experience bonuses within certain level ranges. Most of these items are sadly pre-order bonuses for various expansions, while one is an item gained when you bring a new subscriber into FFXIV through the referral program. The following is a list of the items:
- Moogle Cap (from pre-ordering A Realm Reborn): 20% bonus until level 11
- Helm of Light (from A Realm Reborn Collector’s Edition): 20% bonus until level 11
- Friendship Circlet (from having a friend sub for 30 days): 20% bonus until level 26
- Brand-New Ring (from completing Hall of the Novice): 30% bonus until level 31
- Ala Mhigan Earrings (from pre-ordering Stormblood): 30% bonus until level 51
- Aetheryte Earring (from pre-ordering Shadowbringers): 30% bonus until 71
- Menphina’s Earring (from pre-ordering Endwalker): 30% bonus until level 81
An easy rule of thumb for these is to simply equip the latest one you have until it stops granting the bonus EXP. For example, Menphina’s Earring from Endwalker not only lasts the longest through the leveling process, it also has better additional stats compared to its counterparts.
You should probably have a stack of any basic consumable food item. All food gives you a 3% bonus to EXP gains from killing enemies. These effects last for 30 minutes per food item consumed and caps at 60 minutes at a time. It’s not a ton, but it will add up over time and shave a bit off your overall leveling grind.
Finally, there’s the Armoury Bonus. This feature gives players a 100% experience bonus for any Job that is lower than their max level Job. So if your primary Job is Samurai, at level 80, then every Job below 80 will benefit from the armoury bonus. This bonus applies to main story quests, dungeon bosses and completion, FATEs, Leves, and Deep Dungeon. Note, the Armoury Bonus is only an additional 50% for the current expansion. This means from level 80-90, the Endwalker levels. For subsequent expansions, you can expect the same.
Levels 1-16
This is the very beginning of FFXIV. You will blow through these levels relatively quickly and easily. You‘ll want to grab your new Class from its home city and then head out of the city gates. You’ll be doing your class quests and the class’ Hunting Log. Every class has a Hunting Log that’s filled with enemies near the starting city. This will be great for early EXP.
You’ll also fill out this tier of leveling with FATEs. While you’re doing your class quests and Hunting Log, hit any nearby FATEs in your level range that pop up along the way. You’ll want to avoid any of the stronger boss FATEs — these consist of a single, strong target. Don’t do these unless there are other players around to help.
You might also want to pull out your Chocobo companion at this level range. You may have forgotten your friendly combat companion, but it’s always there for you. The Chocobo can attack, tank, and even heal, making it a boon to the solo player. Pick up some Gysahl Greens from your nearest vendor to summon this companion.
Levels 16-50
It’s worth noting that the Jobs introduced in Heavensward jobs begin in this level range. Astrologian, Machinist, and Dark Knight all start at level 30 with no prerequisite Class.
At this point, you will be able to access your first dungeons. Sastasha unlocks at level 15, Tam-Tara Deepcroft at level 16, and Copperbell Mines at level 17. You can now access the Duty Roulette: Leveling option in the Duty Finder. Do this every day for all that extra EXP — at these early stages, you can gain two to three levels in one run.
Challenge Logs are also a decent way to gain experience, so take your pick on which ones to pursue. After that, you should queue up for whichever is the highest level dungeon available to you. DPS Jobs will likely face long queue times, so be sure to initiate matchmaking while you take on other tasks.
Deep Dungeon: Palace of the Dead
The first iteration of the Deep Dungeon system is Palace of the Dead. This is unlocked via the level 17 quest “The House That Death Built” via the NPC named Nojito Marujiro in New Gridania (X: 12.0, Y: 13.1).
The benefit of running the Palace of the Dead is two-fold. First, your level and gear synced to a standard range and moved over to a leveling system specific to the Palace, meaning you don’t have to worry about changing equipment as you level. Second, there are no party composition requirements like normal dungeons. You can run a full team of four DPS players, vastly lowering queue times.
Palace of the Dead works in chunks of 10 floors with each chunk increasing in difficulty. Once you pass floor 50, you can start at floor 51 each time you queue in. (You’ll want to pass floor 50 so you can unlock Heaven-on-High for leveling later.) Regardless, running and re-running Floors 51-60 is the fastest way to level here. They offer more experience and more of the playerbase at this level is also running these floors.
Alternative: Command Missions and Duty Support
Now, dungeon runs can be tedious, but you’ll only need to run them a few times to speed through these levels. If you’re not a tank or Healer, your queue times are longer. An alternative here is either Command Missions or Duty Support runs. These are essentially low-level Trusts, allowing players to run dungeons alongside NPCs.
There’s a lot that goes into unlocking Command Missions, specifically. First, you need to be a part of one of the three Grand Companies: Maelstrom, Order of the Twin Adder, or Immortal Flames. Then you need to be at least Second Lieutenant rank with your Grand Company and at least level 47. All this should be taken care of through your primary Job.
Pick up the quest “Squadron and Commander” from your local Personnel Officer. You’ll then have to recruit some Squadron members and deploy them on missions to get them up to the dungeon levels. Your full Squadron has to match the level requirements of the dungeons you want to run.
Once they’re at the proper level, you can talk to the Squadron Sergeant to unlock Command Missions. This option will now appear whenever you talk to the Squadron Sergeant. Choose the members you want to take with you and select “Deploy.”
As for using the Duty Support system, you just need to be in the level range of whichever dungeon you want to run. While the NPCs in your party aren’t nearly as efficient as real players, they get the job done and you’ll net a good chunk of EXP. This is a good option for DPS players in particular since you’ll skip the queue times altogether.
It’s worth noting, that like Trusts, your Squadron in Command Missions and party in Duty Support aren’t optimal in combat. They won’t use AoEs as much as normal players, and they can get overwhelmed. With Squadrons, you’ll have to use the Orders hotbar to tell them to Engage, Disengage, and Execute Limit Break. Use these. Also realize that if a Squadron member is tanking, you need to wait a tiny bit for them to gain enmity before attacking.
Again, Command Missions and Duty Support are just ways to side-step waiting in queues. If you try to queue up for dungeons with other players and the queue times are low, you should go with that method instead. It’ll usually be faster.
Hopefully, this gives you a solid foundation to work with in regards to leveling alt jobs fast. You should blow through these A Realm Reborn levels pretty quick. We also have a guide for the entire leveling process in one place, taking you all the way to level 90 as fast as possible.
