Party Finder

This article is about the manual party forming tool. For the interface to enter duties and the automatic matchmaking tool, see Duty Finder.

Party Finder is a system that can allow players to form groups with specific people, for a variety of purposes which may include socialization or tackling duties and other challenges. In the "main menu", this function can be accessed through Party → Party Finder.

Forming Parties

Please note that players on the Free Trial cannot form/create parties using Party Finder, but can still join listed parties. While the criteria menu can still be opened, attempting to click the confirmation button for "Recruit Members" will warn the player that the function is not available, and not result in listing the party.

When creating a new group, the party leader (recruiter) chooses all the settings, which include but is not limited to:

• Specific duty, Roulette, or other activity
• Duty objective - None/Practice/Duty Completion/Loot
  • None: Default/no objective set
  • Practice: For high-end duties, indicates that the goal is still to practice the encounter mechanics with no intention of clearing. The specific point in the encounter to practice is usually indicated, e.g. "fresh prog" = practice from the start; "phase 2 prog" = practice from phase 2, with the expectation that the player is comfortable with phase 1.
    • In general, players should avoid joining parties whose advertised progression points are much further than their own.
  • Duty Completion: The goal is to clear the duty once. Each person is expected to understand the encounter fully and cause minimal wipes. This setting is not the same as "Duty Complete" (see below), which restricts people who can join the party.
  • Loot: The goal is to farm the duty for loot. Multiple clears may be expected, so each person should be experienced with the fight. This setting does not prevent players who have not previously completed the duty from joining, which needs to be specified with "Duty Complete".
• Detailed written description of what is the group's objective - e.g., "unsync mount farm, dps only", practicing duty from a specific mechanic, completing duty with specified tactic, etc.
  • Players often use various terms, acronyms and names of specific strategies. The strategies sometimes vary by data center, so players will have to refer to third-party sites, video guides, or raiding Discord servers to understand what they mean.
• Group composition - players can assign only specific jobs/classes/role to each party slot, or omit slots completely. Maximum number of slots is determined by the selected duty and cannot be exceeded.
• Limit recruiting to your home server
• Create private party - only people with 4 digit password can join
• Completion status
  • Duty Complete: will only allow players who have completed the duty at least once to join. Generally used for farm or reclear parties.
  • Duty Complete (Weekly Reward Unclaimed): will only allow players who have completed the duty at least once, but have not completed the duty for the week, to join. Only relevant for current savage raids. Generally used for weekly reclear parties to ensure that the maximum amount of loot ("2/full chest") will appear.
  • Duty Incomplete: will only allow players who have not completed the duty to join. Should not be enabled if you are willing to accept help from more experienced players for clearing a duty for the first time.
• Minimal average item level required to join party. Can be set higher, lower, or equal to the minimum item level needed to queue through Duty Finder or Raid Finder without a full premade party.
• Unrestricted Party ("unsynced") / Minimum item level / Silence Echo (see Duty Finder settings)
• Loot settings (Normal / Greed Only / Lootmaster)
• Language options

After the party is formed, the party leader can register through Duty Finder or Raid Finder as normal. This means that any quests that state "using Duty Finder" can also be completed via a pre-formed Party Finder group.

NOTE: Players on non-Japanese servers nearly exclusively use Party Finder for finding groups for Extreme, Savage and other high-end duties. Matchmaking through Duty Finder or Raid Finder is used very rarely, and as a result, attempting to queue for duties without using an unrestricted party, or with a non-fully premade party, on non-Japanese servers can take a very long time.

Menu

Party Finder's main menu lets the player select a party to join. It is divided into 3 main parts:

1. Data Center:

• This is the most used section
• Players from all servers on single logical Data Center can create and join groups in this section.
• Players who used Data Center Travel can join these groups even if their home server is on a different logical Data Center.

2. World:

• Visible only for players on the player's specific world (server)
• Most often used for Treasure Hunt, FATEs farm or other server-specific activities
• Players from world A cannot see groups from server B, however they can use world visit function to join these groups

3. Private:

• Private groups meant only for specific people who know 4-digit password

Each of these sections is further divided into categories like Dungeons, Trials, Raids, High-end Duty and so on:

Categories:

• Duty Roulette
• Dungeons
• Trials
• Raids
• High-end Duty: Includes all high-difficulty duties (e.g., extreme and unreal trials, savage and ultimate raids) that are currently accessed through Raid Finder instead of Duty Finder. Usually the most populated section of Party Finder, although this varies by data center (see Notes section below).
• PvP
• Gold Saucer
• FATEs
• Treasure Hunts
• The Hunt (usually A-rank "trains" and S-ranks)
• Gathering Forays - The Diadem and Ocean Fishing
• Deep Dungeons - Palace of the Dead, Heaven-on-High, and Eureka Orthos
• Field Operations - Eureka and Save the Queen areas
• V&C Dungeon Finder - Variant and Criterion Dungeons
• Other - for miscellaneous activities (e.g., social events)

Up to 50 listings are displayed on the first page per category. If there are more than 50 listings, players can use the arrows at the bottom center of the Party Finder UI to switch between listing pages.

Using Search Filters

Party Finder allows players to filter out all unwanted duties and/or requirement.

Filter Settings

Allow you quickly filter out selected tags. E.q. disabling "Loot Rule: Lootmaster" will hide all groups with Lootmaster enabled. If filter is active, icon turns yellow.

Sort

Sorts group by duty, either ascending or descending. Ascending means that level 90 duty will closer at top, while level 20 duty near bottom.

Display Settings

Display Settings

• Allows you to hide and unhide locked duties
• Show blacklisted recruiters
  • If someone who you blacklisted is recruiting in Party Finder, by default this group is hidden from you
  • Additionally, people from recruiter's blacklist cannot join his party, however the same does not apply regular members

Notifications Settings

• Turns periodical notification on/off
• Sets notification interval

Players by default periodically receive notifications of number of parties that that fulfill all specified requirements in Advanced Search.

Advanced Search

Whenever filters from Advanced Search are active, icon turns yellow. Function allows player to specify in detail all the requirements, like specific duty, if the group has free spot for selected class/job, average item level and so on. While advanced search is active, and notifications are turned on, player periodically receive notification of found group.

Recruiter Name Search

Finds recruiters (party leaders) of groups that are currently looking for players. Searches every single group that is visible to you, including from World and Private section.

Party Size

Party size is determined by duty. This size cannot be increased but can be lowered by omitting party slots. Some duties however, do not allow undersized parties, these are usually the current expansion's duties. Alliance raids always require atleast 1 player per alliance to enter.

Notes

With the advent of Data Center Travel, players looking to participate in high-end duties, especially savage and ultimate raids, have started congregating in one data center per geographic region. These are

• North America: Aether
• Europe: Light
• Japan: Mana

Players on other data centers who wish to participate in current high-end content through Party Finder may find it necessary to travel to their region's primary "raiding" data center in order to form a party in a reasonable timeframe.