But all of that’s in the future. Right now we’ve got a couple of days left, and I’m here to tell you that it’s your last chance to get everything ready to go. If you’re pumped as heck about this expansion – and let me tell you, I certainly am – you’ll want to make sure your last few checklist items are taken care of. So let’s give a last-chance checklist for people to accomplish over the next four days, yes? Or, well, three and a half now. It’s the noon slot, you see.
Register your pre-order code
You’re probably thinking that this is one of the most obvious things to do, and it arguably is, which is why it’s important to double-check this. There’s a primer on the official site; read it and make sure you’re ready. Register that pre-order code and be ready to go when Early Access starts!
Assuming everything is done successfully, you’ll see a mark on your account on the Mog Station flagging you as registered for Stormblood Early Access. This is the case even if you’ve purchased the digital CE; the early access code is separate from the full expansion code. This is basically so those of us who are getting physical editions are in the same boat as everyone else. So don’t freak out; the CE bonuses all come when you register your code for the full expansion.
Run the benchmark and check your settings
The system requirements for Stormblood are higher than they were for Heavensward. Does this matter? Probably not. But the smart thing to do is still to download the benchmark, import the setting you currently use for the game, and take note of your score. Anything over 2500 is probably fine; anything over 6000 is absolutely golden.
I make note of this because, well, it’s a benchmark. It exists for exactly this purpose, and it’s easy to forget it exists, but with the expansion launching at the end of this week you still have a couple of days to toss some upgrades in there if you need them. An upgraded video card or a bit more RAM can do wonders for the game’s performance; don’t overlook that option. And it doesn’t even need to be a huge upgrade, to boot.
Prepare your inventory and any starting gear
If you’re like me, you probably have a whole lot of inventory space taken up by gear you’re saving for potential glamour use. You also probably know that we’re getting more inventory space, and you probably have guessed that we’ll be able to turn in Dun Scaith items for company seals once the expansion hits. What you may not have noticed, for various reasons, is that while inventory space will expand, our retainer space will not. So you’ll have 40 more spots in your inventory and 10 more per Armoury Chest tab, but your retainers will just be as chock-full of items as they are right now.
Prepare for this ahead of time. If you’ve got Dun Scaith gear you want to turn in, grab it from your retainers and prepare it for turn-in. Fill your retainers with more non-gear things and get your gear in your inventory, ready to be quickly moved to the Armoury Chest. Yes, you’ll need space free for your Red Mage and Samurai gear, but you can at least do some preparation for consolidation ahead of time.
Similarly, if you’re gung-ho about Red Mage and/or Samurai, make sure you have a full set of 50 starting gear. If you’re flush with Poetics, you can buy a nice chunk of Ironworks gear to make that easier; otherwise, the obvious port of call is high-quality crafted 115 gear. I’ve personally already made a full set for my alts who will be focused on the new jobs, so I highly recommend either befriending or being a crafter to make this a little lighter on the wallet.
Stock up on items
Speaking of prep time, do you like paying teleport fees? I’m guessing not. You have a few days left to do hunts, and there’s still a very nice item available for clearing them: Aetheryte Tickets. Stock up before early access starts and teleport with impunity.
But why stop there? You can do a few days of Vanu Vanu dailies and pick up Ventures with your quest tokens; you can do the same with Gnath quests for Gysahl Greens (or better chocobo food, if you’re being smart). Stocking up on dark matter and carbonized matter isn’t a bad idea either, assuming you have the crafts to support it. Heck, even some spiritbond potions and the like could be helpful.
FFXIV has never been a game which relies too heavily on things like health potions, but it still is a game with a lot of useful consumables. Be ready with the ones you’ll need ahead of time, and if you can get the high-quality versions instead, so much the better.
Get a halfway decent book
Look, I don’t want to say this. I hate login queues with a passion, and I really am not looking forward to having to sit and wait every time I want to get into the game with the expansion I’ve been excited to play since October of last year. But there were login queues with the relaunch, there were login queues in Heavensward, and while I’d like to hope those have been minimized for this expansion launch it would be naive to assume those problems are just gone.
So get a book you’ll probably enjoy to read in increments while you’re waiting in those queues, because they are going to happen. It’s just reality. I recommend Guy Gavriel Kay’s books, as they seem occupy a similar space in the spectrum of idealism and cynicism, and they’re not too distant in terms of overall ethos; there are also a lot of pretty cool indie authors out there making use of the whole self-publishing Amazon deal, so that’s also important to consider.
Or maybe you’ll just have your 3DS out and play Shovel Knight in the queue, I don’t know. The point is that there will be a queue, and you should be ready for it. But once it’s done, you can get back to playing the new jobs.
Me, I’m looking forward to Rudd Mage.
Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments down below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next week is going to be… odd, because I will of course be forming my first impressions of the expansion at the same time as I’m playing the early access, so we’ll be doing our usual fun launch coverage. People see me running around in the game every so often, feel free to say hello.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
