FF14 has a lot of jobs in it. 20 combat ones to be precise. And once you’re done with all the MSQs, you’ll only have the first class you chose to play at 90 (if you stuck with it). Luckily for all of us, Square Enix added a bunch of different ways for us to level up our alt jobs once we do want to go into them, so in this article, I’ve grabbed about 10 to go through and why they’re so good!
10. FATEs Grinding
FATEs are a decent way to get levels with a low barrier to entry. Depending on where you are and if you find a large group of people or party to help you farm, this can be quite effective as you can get through FATEs quickly and efficiently for the most XP. FATEs are random events that spawn in the map that have criteria for you to beat them, do it in that time period and you complete it, meaning if you optimise your route, it can be quite effective!
It all depends on if you’re doing it solo or not, as doing it by yourself can really extend the length of how long it takes you to complete it, also make sure to stay on level for your FATEs or just above. It’s beneficial to have a large group to get through it quickly so you can progress from FATE to FATE. It also gives you some good extra loot like seals, gil and other things in other locations such as bicoloured gemstones.
How FATEs Grinding Works:
- To grind FATEs well, join a party in the Party Finder or have a group of friends.
- Head to a location in the map of FF14 and check the current FATEs available
- Complete those and then when the next ones appear, run those.
- Once you hit the next block of 10 levels, move on to the next area for better results
- Make sure you complete all your level quests and get better gear as you advance so you don’t lag behind the completion.
9. Clan Hunts
Clan Hunts do a good job of giving you extra content to do for each main hub of the expansions, as they not only give you good XP and gil but also give you currency to spend on things to use in glams or better gear and so on. The XP it gives you is quite good when compared to the time it takes to complete them, making it effective when doing said comparison.
You can get them done quite quickly and while you can only do them once per day, there are 4 different classes of hunts for you to do so you’re not left with not enough to do. This method is good because you not only get C through to S-Rank hunts, but you can complete them while doing other forms of levelling to help boost your XP gain. And it can be done solo so you don’t need to worry about having friends for this method.
How do Clan Hunts Work:
- First, go and visit Foundation, Kugane or Rhalgr’s Reach, The Crystarium or Eulmore and Old Sharlayan or Radz-at-Han (for Heavensward through to Endwalker respectively) and collect the C to S-rank marks
- Travel to the general location on the map and try to find your hunt target/targets.
- Once found, kill the hunt target/targets and proceed to the next one
- When complete, head back to the hunt bill area in your hub and hand them in for the gil, XP and Vendor Currency
8. Beast Tribe Quests
Beast Tribe Quests span the length of the game, from ARR to Endwalker, with mounts, minions and other useful things sold at each level of reputation you earn. These are good supplements to your main level grinding but do have some limitations.
The main one is that you can only do 12 Beast Tribe Quests a day. That’s across all 22 Beast Tribes, so you can’t grind them all out quickly. However, you will want to level them up to near max so the quests you get from them give good XP and getting TO that point can be a bit of a slog
How do Beast Tribe Quests Work:
- Firstly you want to go to the Beast Tribe of your choice for your quests and collect them, while making sure to collect only the ones that give the best XP across all your Tribe Levels as you can only have 12 per day
- Complete the quests by fulfilling the objectives it gives you
- Once completed return to the quest vendor and hand them in, getting both XP and Tribe XP as well as gil and currency to spend in the shop
7. Job Quests
Your Job Quests don’t just give you new abilities or gear, they give you some good XP and Gil too. They are quite few and far between but when they pop up, I recommend doing them for the 50k XP they give on average in the mid to later levels. So it can be quite effective when levelling your alt jobs to take a break, do your Job Quests then come back with new abilities to run through things easier.
As well as this, because they pop up quite commonly, you won’t be trawling through levels hoping to get to the next one in 10 levels’ time. This can provide welcome interrupts to your XP grinding as it can be quite a long journey.
How do Job Quests Work:
- From level 1-90, you get Class Quests (known as Job Quests from 30 onwards) to help you advance your job throughout the game.
- These quests come every 2 to 5 levels, depending on the block of levels you’re in whether that be 30-40 or 70-80.
- Completing these quests unlocks new abilities and weaponskills as well as giving you gil, XP and gear to wear.
6. PvP
PvP is a pretty good way of getting XP if you can put up with the trouble of learning your combos and the fast-paced action of it. Some people enjoy that and that’s fine. But if not, it can be a real marathon to play, despite being pretty effective when weighed on XP gain vs time played.
Since there’s no chat in PvP, having a party to play is very much recommended. The upside to PvP is that you go through your series pass levels to unlock malmstones for glams, as well as unlocking mounts, minions and other glams in the pass itself (it’s free so don’t worry about paying for it). It also helps you learn how to be quicker on your rotations since there’s pretty much everything going on at once.
How does PvP Work:
- Get a group of friends if you want to do it with them or head by yourself to the Wolves Den Pier from Moraby Drydocks.
- Head to the wrecked ship and sign up for PvP
- Enter the Duty Finder and sign up for either Frontline, Rival Wings or Crystalline Conflict.
- Play the game for however long it lasts and once complete, receive your gil and XP
- Go to the merchants in the ship with the currency you get from the mode you played and see what you can buy to possibly sell for gil
5. Free Companies
Free Companies are not just to meet new people, run statics and all of that. The bonuses they have at their disposal give a good boost to XP while also finding people to run things with so you get XP faster. It isn’t the type of thing to give you XP outright, but it does help make the process easier and much more effective.
You can find them pretty much anywhere, in main hub locations, discords and others, so you won’t be struggling. As well as having the bonuses and houses, most FCs will have submersibles for you to get materials to sell or craft into things for you to sell, so you’re not entirely locked out of earning in FCs.
How do Free Companies Work:
- Go to a discord, the Community Finder on the Lodestone, or a main hub location in FF14 and find someone shouting about their Free Company and ask to join.
- Once you’re in, an XP boost will normally be on meaning you can get to work doing whatever you were doing before you joined the FC and get more XP for it.
- If another boost like increased food potency or lower teleport costs is on, this makes doing your other XP methods even better because the food will give you more XP and your gil will go down slower when going from place to place.
- You can normally find crafters in the FC meaning your costs for gear or buffs go down considerably.
4. Challenge Log
Your challenge log is refreshed weekly, meaning there isn’t the element of being able to do it quickly and just reset the next day, but it is a very welcome boost to your XP gains as well as increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of other XP methods. Plus it gives you recruits for your Adventurer Squadron which is always neat.
Challenge Logs are normally structured where you can do things in PvP, PvE, the Golden Saucer and so on, meaning there’s always something for you to do even if you complete one batch. Add to that the gil you get is quite nice, you really get a lot of benefits from adding your challenges to your other XP methods.
How Challenge Logs Work:
- Check your challenge log to see what there is for you to do this week. Most of the time the tasks will be similar meaning you already know what to do.
- You can add the challenges in the PvE, PvP, Levequests and so on into your XP rotation meaning you can amp your XP gains further along with eating food and being in an FC.
- You can get company seals and other things from challenges in other categories which means you can break up the pure XP and Gil with other things like Island Sanctuary points and such.
3. Main Story Roulette
Main Story Roulette’s are your 3 main dungeons. You will be playing either Castrum Meridianum, Porta Decumana and The Praetorium and whilst these may be long, you do get large amounts of XP for it, so it’s quite effective and worth your time.
Since a patch in Stormblood, you can’t skip the cutscenes. To balance this out, they increased the XP gains from it so you’re not stuck there doing nothing. Because of the XP gain, as well as how fast you will get into these dungeons, it deserves a top 3 spot on this list, but there are 2 better ones.
How does Main Story Roulette Work:
- By queuing up for the Main Story Roulette, you’ll get one of the 3 dungeons I named earlier. This queue is normally pretty quick so you don’t have to worry about waiting for 30 minutes.
- Once in, completing the dungeon depends on how quick you can get through it considering the cutscenes are unskippable.
- Since Endwalker, they split the Praetorium into 2 and cut down on the Castrum Meridianum length so you can get through them easier while having the unskippable cutscenes
2. Bozja
Bozja takes the number 2 spot here and it’s obvious to see why. Whilst it might be at level 71 and above, the XP gains you get are immense. The XP you gain while in Bozja is exactly the same as the XP you get for your job level, meaning you can get through levels really quickly, making it incredibly effective.
You can use your mounts on the ground but can’t fly, so it’s not as quick as can be but the skirmishes are quite common and give you huge amounts of XP. You can also party up with people so you’re not entirely on your own. And despite people saying that you should only go to around 80-87 with Bozja and the regions afterwards, you can easily push it to 90.
How does Bozja Work:
- Make sure to complete the pre-Bozja quests for access to it. Once this is done head to Gangos through the Doman Enclave to start the Bozja questline for access to the Southern Front and other regions.
- Once these are all done, enter Bozja and begin starting Skirmishes, which are pretty much Bozja’s equivalent of FATEs and complete them for XP
- As you do this, you’ll get more mettle which you can use to upgrade your Resistance Rank, giving you access to zones like Zadnor.
- In these new regions, you can take part in raids and Critical Engagements, which are boss battles. In the Raids you can get new mounts and other glams to help you look better in the wide world of FF14
1. Levelling Roulette
It really couldn’t be anything else, could it? Levelling Roulette is an absolute no-brainer for number one. The benefits are just enormous and it is the most effective of all of the methods, bar maybe Bozja.
The main reason for this? The sheer XP gain no matter the dungeon you queue into. It’s just so easy to fly through the levels and it can really make life easy. One recommendation I have is to make sure you only run the Levelling Roulette once because you only get the bonuses for your first dungeon.
How do Levelling Roulettes Work:
- Make sure then when in the Duty Finder, choose the Levelling Roulette
- When in the Levelling dungeon, complete as you normally would with the others you have been partied up with
- Once completing the boss encounters, of which there are normally 3 per dungeon, you get XP for them all and a huge chunk of XP at the end of the dungeon.
- If it is a low-level dungeon and you haven’t completed your daily Levelling dungeon, you get a large amount of XP depending on if you’re higher level than the dungeon and you are synced down to it.
- But if it is a dungeon that you’re on the same level as, you get XP on par with your level so you can go through them, making it worth your time to potentially run a lot of these for XP.
