#the ARR ones are very good the HW ones are a delight the stormblood ones kinda blow and the ShB + EW ones go back to what made ARR

[impossible-rat-babies]

one day I’ll do a personal ranking of the relic grinds

[callmearcturus]

Hey, I was looking to start playing Final Fantasy XIV, and I'm a bit confused on the pricing and trial. Can you help explain?

Yeah sure.

So you can make an account, download, and install the game for free. You can play up to lvl 60 (which storyline-wise includes the entirety of the first two campaigns, A Realm Reborn and Heavensward). No questions asked, you just have access to them. There’s no time limit.

Once you hit lvl 60 with one job class, you can swap to another and level that one to 60, but once you hit that cap, you will just stop gaining EXP.

There are some limitations. You will not be able to join a guild/Free Company (though you can join a chat/Linkshell). You will not be able to get a Retainer to sell things (this is the biggest limitation by far). And you’ll not have access to the DLC-exclusive races and jobs, which are... the Au’ra (dragon people), the Hrothgar (furry men), the Viera (bunny ladies), and no.... Samurai, Gunbreaker, Dancer, or Red Mage. You’ll still have access to the other 9 classes, which are plenty anyway. Also I believe you have a limit to the amount of money you can have.

If you decide you like the game and want to play it, you’ll have to buy. I highly recommend getting the Refer A Friend code from an active player (you can even ask me, I don’t care) so you can get some bonus items for signing up.

Last I checked, FFXIV is not currently on sale. You have plenty of time to try it out, see if you like it in Free Trial, and then buy it next it goes on sale. At the moment, there are three packages, I think?

1. Standard FFXIV - Contains just ARR and Heavensward 2. then you add on Shadowbringers, which includes Stormblood and Shadowbringers 3. just get the complete edition if its on sale t b h. Includes ARR, HW, STB, and SHB. They will probably put this fucker on sale in the lead up to Endwalker’s release.

And yes, there is a subscription. FFXIV is not a game that rewards a lot of “alt” characters since you can play every job on one character, so get the cheap 12$ sub and you’re good.

Also if you want the Gay Server, you want to get into Faerie. Everyone’s gay there. There’s like five LGBTQ guilds, and even an asexual guild. Lots of catboys running around.

I also started as Archer and fucking hated it, then swapped to Monk and have never looked back. If you don’t like the first class you start as, at about lvl 15 you get access to every combat class, so you can just fully swap. The game is very free.

ALSO this game is entirely playable on controller. I solely use controller. It’s in-fucking-credible. Playing Monk on a controller is delightful, like an action game.

Here, I like this video for “hey what’s the vibe of this class”

(worth noting, this shows off MAX LEVEL jobs. the game slowly teaches you your job bit by bit, don't worry. just look at what vibes you like.)

ETA: I keep thinking of more shit. Anyway you don't have to keep up your sub. Your character and progress remain. It is, in fact, built into the culture of the game that you will cancel your sub until you want to play again, then renew to hop back in. Square-Enix fucking emails you before they charge you for your sub, so you can go "oh, huh, I didn't play FFXIV this month" and go cancel before it charges you. This, to me, is incredibly important.