Guide for Players Coming from Old School RuneScape

This is a guide for Old School RuneScape (hereinafter referred to as OSRS) players wishing to try out Final Fantasy XIV (hereinafter referred to as FFXIV). Please note that this is specifically for Old School RuneScape players; a guide for players playing the current iteration of RuneScape (RS3) can be found here.

This guide will cover several aspects of the game, including general gameplay, to player culture, noting both the similarities and differences of both games. This guide will not provide instructions on basic technical processes, such as installing the game or the software. Official playguides can be found on this official page.

Free-to-Play, Free Trial; Pay-to-Play, Members

The free trial of FFXIV gives a more cohesive experience compared to other free-to-play or free-trial MMORPGs. Free trial players have complete access to the base game, and the first two expansions, Heavensward and Stormblood, for free, with unlimited playtime. However, some restrictions are placed on free-trial players to not disrupt the economy of the game through the use of botted accounts, listed here. Bots are frequently scrubed from the game.

To play the full-version of FFXIV, players are required to buy the full game, along with any expansions, while also paying a subscription. If a player has bought the game, with no matter how many expansions they purchased, they must pay monthly subscription to play FFXIV. Two subscription types exist:

• An entry subscription that costs $12.99USD and renews monthly. Players can make up to 8 alternate characters on each data center.
• A "standard" subscription that have varying prices, with discounted prices with a longer subscription time. The longest subscription is renewed every 6 months, and costs $12.99USD per month. Players can make up to 40 alternate characters on each data center.

Players cannot "revert" back to the free trial after purchasing the game, and must pay a subscription to continue playing. Furthermore, players will be restricted to the content of the latest expansion they have bought; players do not have access to new combat classes and the level cap for every class is capped at the level cap at that expansion.

Online Store

Optional paid-items exist, but all items are cosmetic and none provide a significant gameplay advantage.

Story skips and instant job-levelling services are provided, but are primarily meant for alternate characters. Purchasing both story skips or job levelling services on a first-time playthrough are generally frowned upon throughout the community.

The equivalent of Bonds do not exist, and nothing can be bought from the Online Store that can be sold for in-game money at a reasonable price; story skips contain Gil (GP) to be used for the player to financially catch up, as they lose access to Gil rewards from the main story quests. This also means subscriptions can only be bought using real-world currency.

Character Creation and Customization

In-Game Name

Players name their own characters with a first and last name, with up to 15 characters in each name, and 20 characters in total. Names do not need to adhere to any lore and can even be comedic, but still need to follow guidelines. Character names are permanent and cannot be changed liberally, with subsequent changes to a character name being performed for a fee of $10.00USD. There are no opportunities or events where players can change their name for free. The user ID used for logging in is not used in any naming locations, cannot be changed, and is not visible to other players.

Character Customization

Most physical features cannot be changed liberally after creation, including but not limited to race, sex, height, body and facial features (i.e. nose or jaw shape). Subsequent changes must be done by consuming a Fantasia. Fantasia are a premium item and cost $10.00USD for one, at its default price. Two free fantasia can be obtained in-game through quests – one for the completion of the base game (known as "A Realm Reborn" or ARR throughout the community), and another side-quest that can be done very early into the game. Fantasia are also rarely given out through patches where considerable graphics changes have been implemented.

Cosmetic or make-up designs like tattoos, hairstyle, or hair colour can be changed at the Aesthetician for a paltry fee of 2,000 Gil (GP), and do not require the consumption of Fantasia.

Servers and Worlds

Worlds are not freely chosen on account login. Players instead choose a regional data center based on the physical location of the servers, then a data center within the region, then a world within that data center. Players then create their character on a world of their choosing, known as their home world. Players may freely move their character between worlds or even data centers within their region, but cannot travel outside their regional data center, with the exception of the Oceania data center. Players lose access to certain features when not on their home world, including their retainers, which serve as banks, and access to clan benefits, including clan chat.

Players may pay a fee of $18.00USD to transfer their character to another world within the same data center, or to another world on another data center within the same region. Players cannot transfer their characters to, or visit other regional data centers, with the exception of the Oceania data center. Exceptions are made if a player is transferring from a congested, high population world to a preferred, lower population world, and are incentivized to do so with nominal rewards.

Although there are no specialized worlds, worlds and data centers have an identity created by and prepetuated by the players. Using North American data centers as an example, Aether is known for raiding, while Crystal has more roleplaying.

Game World

Each area in FFXIV is instanced, separated by loading screens. Each area is uniquely designed with their own themes, soundtracks, and groups of enemies. Quests can be found and started in every area. Non quest-related NPCs otherwise do not serve much purpose other than filling the world space.

A variety of repeatable activities can be done within the game world. This includes activities such as, but not limited to: Finding and looting treasure, which can be done with other players and even uncover a portal that yields greater rewards in an instanced area; mining from deposits, harvesting plants, or fishing at certain locations with bait; participating in temporary combat-related events. Field Operations are instanced areas that are updated throughout the expansion. They have special and unique gameplay features, with the content being made to be enjoyed with other players.

Quests

• Players do not need to have played the other Final Fantasy titles to understand the plot in FFXIV, though there are plot irrelevant references to other Final Fantasy titles.

Main Story Quest

FFXIV is primarily story-focused through all of its expansions, even amongst other story-focused MMORPGs. Story arcs (quest series in OSRS) are told through the linear main story quest line, and intertwine with each other. All quests are translated well, with each character showcasing their personality. Humorous lines of dialogue, both from the system (the player) and from characters are occasionally presented, in the same manner as OSRS. This also means there will not be humorous lines of dialogue out-of-place.

Most optional content and features, such as raids and other activities, are only available after completing the main story, but not the story patches.

Quest Objectives and Other Quests

Quest objectives in every type of quest are very rarely unique or complicated, and are always directly marked on the in-game map. Objectives consist of talking to NPCs, collecting items, waiting at a certain location, or slaying a couple of enemies. Occasionally, players are tasked with following an NPC, sometimes without being caught, and escorting NPCs to a specific area. This has led to a lot of players complaining about the monotonous gameplay when going through the main story.

There exists two kinds of side quests: Feature Quests which can unlock new features, content, or even skills, or contain critical story, and; generic Side Quests, which are used for general worldbuilding and flavour. Players typically only do feature quests. Feature Quests can be lengthy, but can also be as short as generic side quests, usually ranging from one to three different quest objectives.

Combat, Combat Content, and Gear

The Global Cooldown

Combat is similar and slower-paced to other traditional MMORPGs. Instead of relying on special attacks, auto attacks, and attack damage rolls being derived from hear from OSRS, actions are instead on the global cooldown (which by default is 2.5 seconds) with abilities being used in between those actions. Only combat classes that deal physical damage can auto attack with a quantifiable amount of damage – casters do 1 auto attack damage during late-game – and auto attacks contribute to a significant portion of damage for these classes. Spells and exceptional skills require a cast time in order to be used, in which the player must remain completely stationary; moving at all during the cast will cancel the cast. Spells do not require items in order to be used, instead using a traditional MP system. Some skills and all abilities have a cooldown before they can be used again.

Combat Roles and Responsibilities

The Combat Triangle like in OSRS does not exist. FFXIV instead uses a traditional "Holy Trinity" type as seen in other MMORPGs: Healer, DPS, and Tank. These roles assume the other combat gameplay aspects from OSRS. Consumables only provide temporary stat boosts; Food are relegated to temporary, constant and extended stat boosts (akin to divine stat-boosting potions from OSRS), and do not heal; instead, healers specialize in using healing spells and abilities to recover HP of allies. Relevant potions at endgame greatly increase attributes (and thus, damage) for a very short amount of time.

Prayers do not exist in FFXIV. All stats are increased temporarily through consumables, or through cooldown abilities used by classes to boost the damage of everyone for a short amount of time, being a DPS burst phase. Protection prayers are relegated to tanks, who gather enmity from targets and soak damage through damage mitigation abilities on cooldowns. Like OSRS, players can swap to and level other roles at any time outside of combat-instanced areas, and while out of combat. This means players cannot swap gearsets as needed during combat, not that there is a need to swap gearsets because...

There are no resistances or weaknesses; a fire-based attack against a fire-based enemy will neither do reduced nor increased damage, and a water-based attack on a fire-based enemy will also neither do reduced nor increased damage. This extends to physical damage types.
Server-ticks exist in FFXIV, and occur every three seconds, instead of every 0.6 seconds in OSRS. Ticks do not have much interaction with gameplay, only interacting with damage/healing over time effects, or other resource-generating abilities. Techniques such as tick manipulation are not practiced. This is also because the game is constantly moving away from such gameplay designs.

Raiding, Rewards, and Gearing

There is a much greater emphasis on Raids in FFXIV compared to OSRS. The differences between raid design are listed in the following table:
Please note the following:

• "Raids" also includes relevant minigames from OSRS (i.e. https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/Inferno the "Inferno").
• Trials are also included.

Design	FFXIV	OSRS
Player Count	All raids have at least 8 or 24 players, up to 56 in Field Operations.	Raids may range from 1 to 100 players, and are flexible.
Encounters	Newer 8 player raids are singular encounters, higher-end raids may have a second phase of the encounter with a checkpoint. 24-person raids have a linear sequences of bosses and mini-bosses.	Raids may range from waves of encounters, to linear sequences of bosses and mini-bosses. Some raids additionally have puzzles.
Difficulty	8-player raids have two difficulties, being a normal and hard mode. Normal mode raids require little specific player coordination, and usually last 5-8 minutes. DPS checks are lenient, if they exist. Hard mode raids require greater player coordination and consistency, and usually last 10-14 minutes. There is always a culmulative DPS check that must be met. The highest-difficulty encounters require near flawless coordination and great consistency, and usually last 15-20 minutes.	All raids require sufficient gear, level, and builds, with combat knowledge (i.e. flicking prayers). All players are required to be consistent, but will not cause wipes if they are not present for mechanics.
Rewards	All rewards consist of gear. Other rewards such as Minions or soundtracks that can be played on a jukebox can ocassionally drop. Mounts can also drop from select raids. Players must roll on individual loot, and must score the highest number amongst players within the same party in order to receive the loot.	Official raids offer a good source of money and/or gear. Each player receives their own individual rewards, with some raids giving rewards based on performance.

Gear is the main reward of most raids. Rewards from the highest-difficulty encounters give a cosmetic, perpetually glowing weapon which serve as the best-in-slot for the current raid tier. The best-in-slot gear becomes completely invalidated (with very few exceptions) with every release of a new raid tier, releasing every nine months. Complementary levelling gear is provided by the game through the main story or occasionally side quests. Crafting gear is only done at the start of a new raid tier, with older crafted gear being primarily relegated to cosmetic use. Despite gear being invalidated every nine months with a new raid tier, crafted gear will sell for a vast amount at the beginning of a new raid tier.

Player-Versus-Player

OSRS is a PvP-heavy MMORPG in comparison with other MMORPGs. In comparison, PvP in FFXIV is much less competitive and risky; there is no staking or risk-fighting in FFXIV. As such, equipment and level have no effect whatsoever in PvP, as all stats are fixed. Instead, the only player-dependent factor in PvP is the combat class they choose to engage in PvP with. Combat classes have a different skillset compared to their PvE skillset, adhering to a class fantasy that cannot be attained in PvE.

There are no PvP areas in the overworld, with the exception of a PvP hub located near a main city. This hub contains an area for 1v1 duels, or NPCs that offer items for currency won through PvP matches, being typically emotes, cosmetic armour sets, sheets of music that can be played through a jukebox-like feature in player inns or housing, mounts, or kits to customize your player profile with.

Levelling and Skills

There is no way to level combat or gathering classes while fully AFK in FFXIV. Crafting to level crafting classes can somewhat be done AFK through the use of user macros, assuming one has the gear to always succeed in crafting items. All classes can be levelled in any order at the player's own leisure, and do not take long compared to EXP rates in OSRS to level, but are not fast nor instantaneous, outside of purchasing level-skips for combat classes, either. Nearly all resources and crafting materials are stackable in the inventory, allowing players to not refresh crafting materials or empty their inventories in retainers, who serve as item banks in OSRS.

Participating in daily activities provide a larger boost to experience points for combat classes. This includes doing repeatable quests for allied societies, participating in each of the duty finder roulettes, or defeating a certain amount of monsters found in the overworld through bounties, known as Hunt Marks.

There is no stress of EXP waste, leaderboards, or world-firsts when levelling classes within any FFXIV community.

Economy and Money-Making

The main currency of FFXIV is Gil, which is equivalent to GP in OSRS.

The value of nearly every tradeable item varies from world to world, as the Market Board, the equivalent to the Grand Exchange, is limited to their own worlds. As such, third-party websites or tools can be used to find a world selling an item for the lowest price, allowing players to world-hop to save money buying items.

Player advertisements (WTB/S offers) are typically only restricted to buying the brand-new set of crafted gear after a raid tier releases, or players who wish to pay other players for runs, typically to farm items such as mounts from raids.

Money-making methods are less straightforward and somewhat secretive compared to OSRS. Selling crafted, niche, or cosmetic items on the market may provide some gil. With enough investment, clan houses can provide an excellent source of money through Subaquatic Voyages. This has led to people owning multiple clan houses, an impossible, illegal, and unintended feature.

As stated before, there is no risk-fighting or loot to be obtained from players from PvP.

Community

Guidelines

The guidelines are enforced much more strictly compared to OSRS. This is because FFXIV is rated for teenage audiences, meaning even slightly suggestive or obscene language (including swearing) may easily result in repercussions against your account. Even receiving one valid report against yourself will lead to permanent strikes against your account, all leading up to a permanent ban. These strikes do reduce in quantifiable severity over a very long period of time.

Players

There are no player-mods (Pmods). Players with a crown beside their name are mentors, which, in the culture of FFXIV, mean nothing in most cases as the rules for mentoring are not enforced greatly.

• Players in FFXIV are generally more cliquey and polite. They are, however, more toxic-positive, with players more often rushing to defend "bad" play from other players or from themselves.

• There exists communities for every gameplay part of the game, including but not limited to: roleplaying, PvP, raiding, deep dungeons, and more!

Player-owned houses

• Player-owned-houses are in limited supply, and are sold through a lottery system after making a deposit. The deposit is returned in the case you do not win the lottery.
• Houses serve very little gameplay purpose (outside of the Company Workshop of clan houses, which produces a very great amount of gil), and are primarily for roleplaying purposes.
• Investing enough levels into crafting classes allows players to craft housing furnitures and designs, or they can be bought from the market board, being the equivalent of the GE.

Plugins

If you have played OSRS, chances are you use RuneLite to play the game with plugins.

• FFXIV does have an open-source launcher called XIVLauncher that allows for the installation of plugins, but unlike RuneLite, is not an approved third-party client.
  • Please note that this wiki is not affiliated with the developers of XIVLauncher, Dalamud, or any plugins or their developers.
• Plugins and third-party tools and clients are against FFXIV's Terms of Service, and are a bannable offence if you mention using them in-game. However, the developers acknowledge the widespread use and presence of plugins, and turn a (benevolent) blind eye toward them – if you do not mention or record yourself using plugins (with identifiable character information), you will be safe.
• FFXIV does not have an anti-cheat to detect the use of any third-party clients or tools on your system, though irregular packets sent to the server through illegal plugins or third-party tools will imply further investigation on your actions and account.

There are a great amount of open-source plugins that can be installed, with features including, but not limited to:

• Additional commands that can be executed through chat, through slash commands.
• Quality of Life features, such as finding where to purchase items from vendors that exist in the game.
• Plugins that simulate low ping for action input.
• Play any soundtrack anywhere using the in-game engine, similar to the Music Player.

Other Differences or Similarities

• Examining objects within the world do not exist. Items and in other locations – such as quest descriptions, dialogue, and housing items – can be amusing.
• Sprint is not a toggleable action with an attached energy value. It is instead on a one-minute cooldown, with the duration of sprinting being 20 seconds, or 10 seconds while in combat. When out of combat, and after   Sprint expires, the player will Jog, permanently moving at a slightly slower pace than sprinting until they enter combat or move between areas with a loading screen.
• Players control their character with the keyboard, while moving the camera with their mouse by holding down left or right, but not middle, mouse button. There is official controller support. Moving by clicking on a location does not exist, but the camera can be moved with keybinds.