You have two days left to get your prep work done for Final Fantasy XIV’s next expansion, and in case there’s some stuff you have still forgotten or have not yet done now is the time to do it. However, some of that is… probably not happening if you haven’t already done it. Like, if you have 100 Comedy tomestones today, odds are low you’re getting to 2000 before the servers went down. Sorry. I did warn you back in May that you should start preparing!
But even with just these two days left, there are things you can do to start prep now before the servers go down. It won’t even require a whole nightmare of work, even. So let’s run down the things you can do to successfully prepare and hit the ground running when you log in on Friday for early access. (And if you’re not bothering with early access, well… I cannot help you prepare? You know how you live your life, and I do not have advice for it. Have fun!)
Prepare to level
You might say that you have no interest in leveling one of the new jobs, and that’s fine. They are not for everyone. But if the total number of jobs you want to level through the expansion is a greater number than one, you could probably use the extra bump to help you in leveling. And most of this stuff is not going to actually tax you too heavily.
First of all, make sure to pick up a Khloe book today if you didn’t pick one up earlier this week, and then you should finish it but not turn it in; you’re saving it for early access. That’s going to give you a cool half of a level right off the bat. Pick up a full slate of hunts from the Endwalker hunt boards, too, either today or tomorrow. As I’ve mentioned before, you can pick up another set if you finish the first set before the daily reset; since the game is coming up at 5:00 a.m. EDT and the reset is at 11:00 a.m. EDT, you will have time.
Also worth noting is that Arkasodara quests will provide a nice shot in the arm for jobs at level 90, even though you are technically above the point where they will scale. If you’re leveling one of the new jobs, consider potentially picking up the Pixie quests; they’re not going to offer as much experience as the Arkasodara quests even at 80, but they’re quick, and they still bolster you.
There are other ways to boost your leveling, of course. You could try to pre-clear most of the work for various challenge log entries. You could do some trickery to get leve challenge log rewards. You could do lots of things. How intense you want to go with it is going to depend on your preferred pace and your overall goals. I leave it in your hands to decide how intense you want to play it.
Clear out your inventory as much as you can
Please understand me when I say that if you’re looking at your inventory and saying that you cannot possibly clean it out, that is not the point here. You are not going to get your inventory empty if you are at all like I am. But you probably have at least some things within your inventory that you do not need to be keeping around at this point, and while it might seem almost perfunctory to note that, it is definitely worth taking the time to consider what stuff is still kicking around and you don’t really need.
Case in point, I just checked yesterday and found that I had a whole bunch of lower-level food that I’m not even going to need to use for the leveling experience buff because I still have a pile of food that’s current top-end food that I can easily chew on while I’m leveling for that buff. (But don’t forget to get something level appropriate for your Viper and/or Pictomancer, perhaps.) I have a lot of single-use fireworks. I have old gear coffers I don’t need. The odds that I am going to need Stormblood leather so vitally that I can’t spare the time to send ventures for it or the gil to buy it feels low, to say the least. You get the idea.
Yes, I’m sure you have tons of stuff in your glamour dresser. But take the time to go through it and check. You more likely than not have some things you can honestly part with. Search your feelings; you know it to be true. Heck, you might even have Alliance Raid tokens still kicking around; might as well discard those to free up a slot or two.
Park yourself somewhere useful
If you want to unlock Viper, park yourself in Ul’dah. If you want to unlock Pictomancer, park yourself in Gridania. If you want to just go to the MSQ, we don’t technically know where that will start, but probably park yourself in Sharlayan. This is obviously very simple, but it’s one of those last-minute things that’s easy to forget as you’re doing your prep. Don’t forget! Be conscious of these things! Prepare your location appropriately.
Stock up on necessary consumables
Make sure you have your Aetheryte Tickets ready to go. I already mentioned to make sure you do have some sort of food for leveling and stat buffs (and if you’re not a Culinarian, you can find some food cheap on the market board now). If you have an excess of seals (and who doesn’t), you can stock up on tickets at your Grand Company that let you teleport right to their headquarters; that can easily save you both a general-purpose ticket and a potential favored destination. You get the idea.
You also might want to use your Squadron to get some experience manuals and the like, if you haven’t already. If they’re not ready for that, just make sure your free company has the (useful but lesser) buff ready to go for leveling. You’ll be thankful for it later.
Download the patch early
This is the one thing you can do after the game is down for maintenance; in fact; you should do that. This is going to be a big honkin’ patch, even compared to usual expansions, and you want it to be downloading and ready to go in advance. The exact download time varies depending on your platform, but no matter where you play, it should be ready to rock and roll on Thursday, so you can set that as your target.
Just be sure to leave yourself plenty of time to download it, not half an hour before you go to bed. If you’re eager to get in as soon as early access kicks off, you can thank me later. Or now, but that’d be a little weird as it hasn’t actually happened yet.
Feedback is welcome as always either via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com or down in the comments below, whichever makes you happiest. See all y’all in Tural. As for next week’s column… come on, dude. Guess. Take a wild guess.
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.
