[Jarre]

I have been a little bored lately and noticed that alot of people seem to be restarting teh game from scratch. Many posts have acumulated with the question "How easy is it to start back again from scratch?"

Well as you lovable lowlevel guide person I thought why don't I find out. This is my beginers guide but mainly a record of my progress so please read the beginers guides for exactly how to do things, I will prompt a few things in here.

So begins an insight into starting from scratch.

DISCLAIMER:- THIS IS WRITTEN FROM MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF GOING THROUGH THE GAME FROM START, IT WILL BE UPDATED WHEN I AM ABLE TO PLAY AND UPDATE, GEAR CHOICES ARE MY CHOICE BASED ON GUIDES FROM FFXI WIKI AND CASH SITUATION OF CHARACTER. THIS IS AN EXPERIMENT BUT ALSO A GOOD REFERENCE FOR ANYONE STARTING. THIS IS BY NO MEANS THE ONLY WAY THIS IS JUST MY EXPERIENCES, HOWEVER IT WILL GIVE AN INSIGHT INTO PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS WITH STARTING FROM SCRATCH. ANY PURCHASES MADE, ITEMS SOLD ON THE AH AND DIFFICULTIES HAD WILL BE ADDED AS WELL AS MISSIONS UNDERTAKEN.

I created a character on Hades called Dovtestchar (Dreams of vanadiel test character) (so if you see me please wave and say hello) the reason for choosing a totally different server to my own 2 characters is so I cannot be tempted to send some gil or items to assist. This will be no help starting with what a new person to teh game starts with (Gulp)

Due to other guides I am not goign to go through character creating etc etc. Instead I will just cover the characters progression and difficulties etc.

With the advent of Fields of valour, Tutorial NPC quests it has made adventuring at low levels a luttle bit easier.

So Lets start.

Character I chose was a Galka (as my main) and I chose the Monk job. Reason for this was its a good job to use with hardly any gear.

I start in Bastok so I get my Bastoken ring (HP +1, Dex+ 1 VIT +1) its always best to start a character int ehir associated towns.

Galka and Hume - Bastok
Taru and Mithra - Windurst
Elvan - San Doria

As monk I also get given white belt so don;t forget to equip the belt for the Str+1 and the ring.

After the usual starting text from various charcters you get given an adventurers coupon and told to trade it with someone for some dosh. I started in Bastok Markets so it is Reet at G-8 you get 50gil to add to teh 10 gil you start with. 60gil wont buy you anything really but you can earn cash by trading items in the AH etc.




Have a little walk around just to familiarise yourself with the areas.

Go into your mog house and it tells you lots of crap which i tend to just select the finished bit at the bottom to shut the thing up But if your new its an idea to rad through all the things it tells you.

Head for the gate at bastok markets to start the tutorial NPC quests (see my guide on them here for location and quests)



So in my case in Bastok its Gulldago so talk to him, get signet and the meat Jerkys, eat one and go outside the gate to start fighting.

Now I suggest you go out of the Bastok mines gate as their is a field manual their to start your South Gustaberg fields of valour quests The bees one is a good start as you will be killing Huge Hornets (of bees family) to start with.



Gulddago gives you the first assignment which is to get your weapon skill and use it, this is to fight enemies till you have a weapon ability at lvl 5.

Start fighting huge hornet, you get 80 exp for each one so it takes the 6 you need for fields of valour quest to gain your first level. Hornets drop wind crystals (with signet active), and occasionally insect wings and honey which when you get 12 you can sell on the AH to start earning gil.



After you killed all 6 huge hornets, jsut go around killing more hornets and tunnel worms while you wait for nightfall and a new vanadiel day to begin so you can do the first fields of valour quest again.

To help with continual levelling, you can read the field manual and select field support and get the regen for 20 tabs which will help you just continue levelling. Don't forget to eat another meat jerky when your food effect runs out.

At lvl 2/3 add dingbats and stone eaters to your list of things to attack.



Half way through lvl 3-4 I got lvl 5 hand to hand skill used combo once and now head back to bastok markets to Gulldago.




As I now have a weapon skill its good to Macro it. so in macros add to ALT+1 button /ws "Combo" <t> more info on macros is availiable here

If its gone midnight (in game) then before you spend a little bit of time in bastok markets get the same quest again (as its easy) then go to markets. You can only select one quest every 24 game hours (not rl hours) so get a quest while you can as you can sometimes chain them.

Back in Bastok markets after speaking to Gulldago, maek the food he has just given items for and find the AH.

Now as you have been fighting outside, Tunnel worms, Huge hornets and bats drop items and crystals. When you have a stack, sell them on teh AH as soon as possible to get gil to buy weapons and armour.

These days from teh items dropped by the mobs above you can get minimum...
(Based on Hades prices in Bastok AH 18 April 2009)

Wind crystal x12 = 500-800gil (crystals)
Earth Crystal x12 =500-800 gil (crystals)
Insect wing x12= 400-500 gil (materials / clothcraft)
Honey x12= 2000-3000girl (food / ingrediants)
Flint Stone x12= 600-900 (Materials / goldmsithing)

You can easily make 3k levelling up to lvl 6 if you sell all your crystals etc.

As I was levelling I came accross various chests and if you can crack teh code of teh brown ones you can get some items. I managed to get a pair of leather gloves which saves me buing them for when i lvl war and a bullet belt (rare/ex) for theif. I also obtained a goblin mask which is on sale in teh AH for the going rate of 1k.


Now I'm lvl 8 I will hopefully be able to afford some teko etc. kit. It might also bea good time to research on wiki some quests to get kit and do Mission 1 in the zehrn mines.

[Jarre]

Day 2

Check in with Mog in MH and the following items I put up sold.

12 earth crystals = 700gil
Goblin Mask = 1k gil
12 Wind Crystals = 600 gil

Total = 2.3k gil
Starting gil + gil earned off goblins = 1.32k

Grand total after 3 hours adventuring = 3.62k gil (not bad for a start)

Time to hit the shops... and check the ah...

First head to Warehouse No 2 in Bastok Port and talk to talib
(picture)

to get a quest for one zinc ore. now while fighting stone eaters their a good possibility you obtained one so trade one to talib. Now he asks you to deliver some reports to

Now it may be worth doing some of the simple quests to gain some equipment and money. Try doing these simple ones.

Flash in a pan Aquillina - Bastok Markets (K-9) - 4 flint stones needed - 100gil reward can be repeated once a vanadiel day.

Stamp Hunt Arawn - Bastok Markets (J-10)(also good quest to get to know bastok) reward - Leather Gorget

The Elvaan Goldsmith Michea - Bastok Markets F-10 - trade copper ingot (made with 4 copper ores and + fire crystal) for 180gil

Mom, the Adventurer? Nbu Latteh - Bastok Markets (J-9) obtain a copper ring fromt eh goldsmith guild and use the fire crystal to turn copper ore (you shoudl have at least 4 from stone eaters or buy them for 9 gil each at goldsmith guild) into a copper ingot which you can use for the Elvaan goldsmith quest. Buy a copper ring for 78gil.
complete the quest and don;t read the letter so you get full amount of money (200gil) sell the other copper ingot on AH for 400gil (on Hades)

So now we have an extra 580gil, a leather gorget and a bronze knife.+ 400 gil when copper ingot sells.

Time to do the first mission, talk to any mission guard at any gate house and head to bastok mines and the zehrn mines. Youc an still be without weapons or gear here and fight easily the mobs in teh mines to get to the NPC you need to get some reports off. Collect zehrun dust from bats and tunnel worms and bat wings
form bats. Zehrn dust can be used for another quest which is repeatable and you get 150 gil per 3 dusts.



A handy thing to do is go outside bastok main gate to the fields of valour book, use field support to get regen then head to mines, that way theirs hardly any resting time required.

Also find Tami - Bastok Mines (J-8) and do the quest as your in teh zehrn mines. read the note to make sure you follow it through to get a rabbit mantle which gives +1 def. Don;t forget to make sure signet is active so you can earn crystals to sell as well.

[Aksannyi]

Oh cool you have invaded my server. XD I don't spend a lot of time in Bastok though. And in keeping with your experiment I won't be tempted to send you any start up gil.

Good stuff though. Admittedly it is easier if you've done it before, because you know about the AH, where things are (as opposed to spending half your game time looking at a map or running around in circles lost), what quests to do, what sells well and what doesn't, what aggros and to what, etc. Even if you don't give yourself any help monetarily or with a linkshell or PL, it's still a bit easier already knowing some things.

Still, good guide! I tried it once on another server, before the tutorial NPCs, but it was on the same account as my main so I neglected Aksannyi v2.0 to play Aksannyi v1.0. lol.

[Jarre]

Thankyou Askanyi, its part guide part experiment really, as I may ahve trouble later on but its all goign through as I do. Its amazing that now I am nearly lvl 10 and havn't bought a single piece of armour. Lvl10 I will strat spending conqest points and getting a few items, but it shows you can make money when you start as long as you have patience. As you may notice I am sort of collecting gear, got leather gloves and gorget now for war and soon rabbit mantle.

[Armando]

Good stuff, although I disagree with stating "its always best to start a character in their associated towns." National rings give so little stat, the difference in performance is totally trivial. I only point it out because if a newbie were to read this, he'd get the wrong impression, and he might start in a country he doesn't like thinking the ring will make or break his performance.

[Lunaryn]

The rings are a decent incentive, though. They just need to be understood as such. Once you get rank 3 you can actually buy the ring from a conquest NPC, but by that point they are no longer considered to be worth the bother.

I set up my characters for RP/story reasons, so I have a Bastokan Tarutaru (with an interesting backstory to explain how that came about) and a San d'Orian Hume as my primary characters. If you have nothing else compelling you to a particular starting city, there's an advantage to matching it to your race. But if you have a reason to do something else, you really won't miss the ring.

[Jarre]

Right been very busy this last week so not been able to get online much to play.

Before I logged last I put some items up at the AH which I picked up from just general fighting in South Gusteberg.

12 wind crystals = 700 gil
12 water crystals = 2kgil (water crystals drop off quadav and crabs and sell well)
12 Earth Crystals = 800 gil
Shell sheild = 100gil
12 bat wings = 2kgil.

Right now to buy armour...

Firstly lets get some free pieces..

Do the Hearts of Mythril Quest to obtain a Sitibaki.

Then find Numa in Port Bastok in the item shop and buy Kenpogi for 1282gil, tekko for 795gil and kyahan for 654gill both are cheaper than the AH most of the time but check the AH first before commiting to buy from an NPC.




Talk to a gate guard you get signet from and ask to spend conquest points.

Choose 1000 and assuming you have at least 1k conquest points get your first weapon Legionnaire's Knuckles.

Later on when you get another 1000 conquest points its an idea to get Legionaires cap and eventually Legionaires mittens.

Right time to head to the Konchat highlands to kill a sappling so you can get the next quest from the tutorial NPC. Talk to the gate guard that gives signet, get signet, then select him again and go down to supplies mission, select gusteberg as we pass an outpost on the way to the highlands, give supplies to the Guard at the outpost and it enables you to teleport their and back for 100 giul in the future. (It saves walking all the way until you get the chocobo liscence.

Current lvl MNK 12

Did supply run to outpost so can teleport back now, went to highlands, killed the mob, went to the crag and got the dem gate crystal and did a few lvls of fields of valour while dodging goblins.

Sold a further stack of fire and water crystals netting me another 2k.

Bought an amaryllis for 1k so I can do the Mog hosue exit quest where you can enter and exit the mog house into different areas which helps alot.

For 1k bought monks head gear



Current lvl 15.

Now I am goign to change jobs and go warrior, I will buy a sword but by doing fields of valour and using regen wont need any armour to start with.

[Raydeus]

Originally Posted by Lunaryn

The rings are a decent incentive, though. They just need to be understood as such. Once you get rank 3 you can actually buy the ring from a conquest NPC, but by that point they are no longer considered to be worth the bother.

I have all 3. <_<;

And I'd have the real ones SE was selling if it wasn't because they were gone before I could do anything. And I'm definitely not paying e-bay prices for them.

[Mensch]

Being a returning player, starting fresh, this guide actually did help out a lot. My only issue that I'm having as a starting character is getting spells/gear for the unfortunate race/city combination I decided on.

Being a WHM in Bastok (with apparently a consistent 3rd in conquest tally on the Fairy server), and no access to Jeuno/other cities, or even a linkshell to help out, I'm sitting at lv12 with only Cure, Protect, and Poisona/Paralyna. My roomate who started with me, being a BLM, is having the same issue.

Any suggestions on how to overcome this issue? (without paying for a teleport - i've only got about 10k gil >.<)

[Aksannyi]

Honestly, my best advice would be for one of you to make a mule, send it some gil, and buy the spells you need in that town. Mules are pretty useful as it is for storage as well as buying things in other towns, so you'd get more use out of it than just this one instance. Spells can be sent through the delivery box, so you don't need to trade with it or anything.

[Mensch]

Thanks Aksannyi. That's actually a great idea, I dunno why I didn't think about just doing that in the first place \(^_^)b

[Jarre]

The other way is to lvl up another job on the same character to make money. In my guide I now have mnk at 15 and will now lvl war, thf then rdm up. The income from crystals and other items alone will make it easier to buy spells from the AH, for blm spells like paralyze, bind and blind they drop from quadav.

Before you even attempt to get a subjob its an idea to have another job lvl'd so you can make the most of the subjob.

[Jarre]

This next bit is optional. But I am goign to level War, RDM and Thf to 10 to start with.

Reason... Only have to buy a sword to start with, will get gear at lvl 7 but the gear is cheap and covers all 3 jobs.

While fighting lower elvel mobs you can farm honey, beehive chips, crystals, bat wings and small quest items etc etc. all to sell on the AH to boost your kitty for when you need to start buying some decent gear. i.e. bone harness for lvl 16+ it also gives you 3 jobs to choose from to use as a sub job, theif at lvl 15 also gets the treasure hunter trait increasing the likelyhood of gettign a drop from a mob.

I will start with thf and then RDm as both use a sword at the start. War needs a Gaxe from lvl 5 and normal axe before which are a little more expensive in the AH.

Change job in MH and go to the shops to buy a bronze sword. Armour wise, with regen from fields of valour its not required but I already have a bronze subligar from the quest "The Quadav's Curse" so equip that and the rest your normal race specific clothes you started with.



AH items sold overnight:-
Quadav Backplate = 500gil
Goblin Mask = 1000gil
12 flint stones = 900 gil.

Current Kitty = 11378gil.

Bonus armour recieved in chests in Konchat Highlands = Scale Cuisses (lvl10 leg armour)

As Bastok was No 2 in (or No 1) in the conquest I can buy a butterfly aze for 579 gill (3k on AH) and bronze axe for 233 gil (same price in ah) from the rear room of the weapons merchant in bastok Markets. I bought now incase bastok went to third oin conquest and they would be unavailiable.

Items bought for theif at armour merchant in Bastok Mines:- Lauren sheild - 122 gil , bronze sword 266 gil (you will find prices fluctuate slightly, but low level gear is miles cheaper form the shop than the AH most of the time so check prices and shop around a bit)

[Aksannyi]

Bastok won't be first for a while, just a head's up. I keep waiting for Sandy to lose lead so I can switch to Windy one final time and liquidate my 300k conquest points, but the item I wish to buy requires Windy to be in first.

Which is another thing to mention, the conquest points. If you've been fighting with Signet on all the time, you should be starting to build up some conquest points. It's good to keep a small amount of them (2kish) at all times for your XP ring recharge and instant warps, but when you start to build up a good bit of them, you can use them to purchase armor, some of which you will find useful (Centurion's from Bastok is one of the best sets for level 30) and some of which you can sell for some additional gil.

[Jarre]

Yup already spent 3k of them on mittens, cap and knuckles. doing 3-4 jobs to lvl 10 gives you alot of easy cp which helps at the begining.

right Theif to lvl 7 now...

While I was out this afternoon these items sold..

12 fire crystals - 910gil
12 wind crystals - 600gil
12 Earth crystals - 700 gil
Tekko - 500 gil

Current gil 14118

Time to buy some leather gear (ooo err) Now I got the leather gloves in a chest so don;t need them. I tend not to go for the bandanna just boots, body, legs and hands. Also lookign for a lvl 7 sword..

Well bastok is currently lying at 3rd in conquest so you can;t buy leathers from the NPC, the prce of leathers on teh AH is rediculous (3k for body!!) so I will ahve to level to 10 without and rely on sheild and regen. I will however buy the sword (sapara) from the NPC.

Right fields of valour and get theif to 10...



Currently lvling on Zegham hill and finding it tough, not the mobs being tough, but theres a lvl 65 blue mage and a lvl 40 ranger one shotting all the mobs making it difficult to claim one, will have to move areas due to their selfishness.