I’ve always said that Final Fantasy XIV is a Final Fantasy game first, and an MMO second. That’s especially true for the storyline, which is often praised as one of (if not the absolute) best in its genre. Granted, the bar isn’t especially high for that. But Final Fantasy XIV has absolutely not diluted its storytelling in any way to accommodate the MMO component. This can make joining the game as a new player particularly daunting. This is a game that’s been rebooted entirely, changing drastically in the process, and has since seen the launch of a few massive story-heavy expansions. That’s a lot to take in as a new player. Especially if you’re rushing to catch up to your friends who are doing all the fun stuff. Obviously a lot of Final Fantasy XIV veterans will tell you to take your time, soak in the world and the story, long as it may be. But for some players, that simply isn’t an option. Maybe you just want to play the game as it is now, without wading through years of old content. Even skipping all the cutscenes, it’ll take you a solid couple of months to get up to date (believe me, I speak from experience). Luckily, XIV does offer a couple methods to get going fast if you want to skip all the wind-up and get straight to high level play. And Level Boost is one mechanic to help you get there.
How Do I Get XIV’s Level Boost?
First things first, you’ll need to head to the online store and look for the “Tales of Adventure” category. You’ll notice that it’s divided into three subcategories, and this is down to the way the boosts are structured. XIV holds a lot of stock in its story – and it gives players the option to level skip without skipping the story content. This is a bit of a double edged sword, because the current system allows you a fair bit of flexibility in what you want to boost, but it also means you’ve got to buy two separate items (at a potential cost of fifty dollars) to level boost and story skip at the same time. If you’re simply looking to level up a job instantly, you want to purchase the relevant “One Hero’s Journey” item. These are individual to each class in the game, and will provide you with a number of bonuses alongside the level boost. So for example: If you want to instantly level a Dark Knight up to 70, you’ll need to purchase the “Tales of Adventure: One Dark Knight’s Journey II” token. Don’t worry about the numbers – they’ll all work in the same way now. If you want to skip the story too, you’ll need to purchase a separate token. There are currently three of these available, but we’re likely to see another arrive with Endwalker. And these are named-based items related to the expansion that they skip: Tales of Adventure: A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, and Stormblood. Luckily, you don’t need to buy all three individually if you’re looking to get straight into Shadowbringers. Buying Tales of Adventure: Stormblood will skip Stormblood and all the content before it.
How Do The Level Boosts/Story Skips Work?
Once you’ve purchased the item from the online store, you’ll be able to retrieve it from a Delivery Moogle in-game. You’ll also get a few extra bonuses to make your life after the skip a bit easier – those just skipping the story will receive Allagan Platinum Pieces with a worth of half a million gil, and ten silver Chocobo feathers, which can be traded for gear. If you’ve level boosted with a One Hero’s Journey token, you’ll get the half a million in Allagan Platinum Pieces and a full set of accessories to get your chosen class up and running. You’ll need to use the item inside a large settlement (so basically a rested EXP zone). And you’ll be logged out in the process, but once you log back in, the change will have gone ahead. For those of you level boosting, don’t worry – you’ll be automatically equipped with a full set of level appropriate gear. You can further augment your character now with the included accessories, and vendor all your Allagan Platinum pieces for some sweet gil too. And obviously, you won’t be able to level boost/story skip unless you’ve got the relevant expansion keys activated on your service account. You can’t skip content you don’t own.
Is Level Boosting Worth It?
This is a tricky question to answer, because I’m honestly in two minds about the Final Fantasy XIV story experience as a long-time MMO player. It’s true that the story is very good. But the problem is there’s just so much of it. I’m glad I took the time to play through each expansion, even if I was skipping most of the cutscenes. If you just want to get to the end and play challenging fun content with your friends, a level boost might be the way forward. Because it takes a really long time to get to that point naturally. But if you really want to immerse yourself in Eorzea, understand all the memes, and care about the world you’ll spend so much time fighting in, don’t level boost or story skip – at least not for your first character. The leveling itself doesn’t take all that long anyway. There’s a number of ways you can boost your EXP gain naturally, and learn your job’s abilities inside-out along the way. So really, it comes down to what’s important to you.
