The Road to 80

Main article: Experience#The Road to 90

Some Worlds with lower populations are occasionally designated as Preferred Worlds. This designation gives characters newly created on those worlds, and characters that transfer from a non-Preferred World to a Preferred World, a passive buff called The Road to 90, which applies to any class below level 90.

The buff doubles the effectiveness of all EXP bonuses, and provides another +100% EXP bonus on top of that. This extra 100% applies to all sources of EXP, including reward exp that other bonuses would not affect (such as EXP from duty roulette bonuses, EXP from crafting and gathering turn-ins, EXP from quests, etc).

The buff will last for a minimum of 90 days after the character's creation or transfer, or as long as the server remains "Preferred", whichever is longer. The buff also temporarily disappears if the player has no classes unlocked that are below level 90, but it will return once one is unlocked.

For more information about Preferred Worlds, please refer to the Play Guide entry on population balancing.

The buff was added during the first day of early access for Stormblood (patch 4.0) as The Road to 60.