Final Fantasy XIV is an incredibly complex and expansive game. With such a vast amount of mechanics, features, and options for players, it can be overwhelming for new players to figure out. In this guide, we'll cover some of the most helpful tips and tricks that can help make your journey into the world of Eorzea smoother and more enjoyable.

• Inventory Expansion
• Spirit Bonding
• Durability
• Social Settings
• Questing
• Combat
• Camera

Inventory Expansion

By default, the inventory in Final Fantasy XIV is set to a tabbed view with eight tabs. To make it easier to manage your inventory, you can switch to the expanded view by going to Character > Config > Item Settings. This will give you a larger square inventory with only two tabs. You can also uncheck the Armory option, which will send all your loot to a separate inventory only for gear.

Spirit Bonding

Inside your gear, there will be two bars, one for durability and one for your binding spirit bond. As you do content with the gear on, the spirit bond will naturally grow over time. When it’s at 100%, you can extract material from the gear, giving you materials and resetting the bar to zero percent. To mass-produce material, you can use the Material Extraction button on the Actions & Traits page.

Durability

Over time, gear wears down and eventually breaks, nulling out its stats until you get it repaired. NPC springs all over the world can repair your gear, bringing it right back up to 100%. However, if you have a player repair your gear, it will not only bring the piece up to 100% durability but also add an additional 100% durability on top of whatever the gear already had.

Social Settings

Final Fantasy XIV is a very social game, but it can be hard to make friends. Fortunately, there is a contact list menu that shows all the players you’ve recently done content with. This is a great feature for making friends at endgame, where most content is done through the Party Finder.

Questing

In your quest log, the map button is your best friend. It will immediately show you exactly where you need to go for the next objective. Additionally, if you right-click the box where you turn in the quest, it will bring up the exact item they need from you.

Combat

When switching jobs, it can be clunky to equip a weapon and then a job stone. To make this process easier, you can save a new gear set for each job and drag them down to a hot bar. Additionally, you can use the Compact View in the Spellbook to quickly understand what abilities an unfamiliar job has.

Camera

As a third-person MMO, the camera is very important. Get comfortable with the max zoom level, as playing with a zoomed-in camera can blind you to half the stuff happening in a fight. You can also adjust the camera up and down by using the setting in the menu or by holding CTRL and then the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard. Tinker with it and find something comfortable, as it will make a difference.