After smashing through for at least half a year, I have fully caught up with the main story in Final Fantasy XIV. I rolled credits on Endwalker over the weekend, and it’s a new era of my relationship with this massive videogame. But since I was more or less focused on the story, I haven’t really learned the ins and outs of… what else is out there. So what the hell do I do now? After doing some searching myself, here’s what I ended up with.
Post-Endwalker Gameplay Recommendations for Final Fantasy XIV
There’s a specific sort of focus on this list, one that’s gonna match your experience only if you rushed through the MSQ to catch up. That sounds way more specific than it actually is though, thanks to Final Fantasy XIV’s explosive growth in the last few years. Many players started with or after Shadowbringers, and have been racing against the clock in order to start the Endwalker story when it launched.
So if you’ve found yourself out of story quests to tackle, and the rest of Final Fantasy XIV is foreign to you, here are a few activities that are ideal for backtracking. After all, it isn’t like the side quests are worth bothering with regardless.
Clan Hunts
One thing I totally blew over making my way through the MSQ was the Clan Hunt activity. It’s easy to miss if you’re more focused on moving from Heavensward to Stormblood. And if you don’t bother engaging with your Grand Company earlier on, then you’re gonna miss this stuff no matter what. But if you’re finishing Endwalker strong, you’re plenty tough enough to breeze through most of this and reap the rewards.
To start out, you need to at least be a Second Lieutenant in your Grand Company. This also gives you access to things like easy Glamor Prisms, so it’s a good idea anyway. At this rank you’ll be able to take on the quest, “Let the Hunt Begin,” from your Grand Company’s HQ. This opens up Company hunts, which net you a currency you can use at the HQ to get cool things like rare minions. From there, head to Foundation.
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Your next stop is the Forgotten Knight. If you’ve completed the previous quest and are at least level 53, you can start “Let the Clan Hunt Begin.” As long as you meet the level requirements, you can breeze through this quest line and finish with “Elite and Dangerous.” This is the last requirement to access the rest of Final Fantasy XIV’s hunting marks.
You can do Clan Hunts in Foundation, then you can scoot over to The Crystarium to join Clan Nutsy. Finally, you can unlock Endwalker’s Guildship Hunts in Old Sharlayan. Each of these hunting organizations has their own list of rewards you can earn, from cool armor to stuff in your Glamor Dresser to mounts and minions you can’t get elsewhere.
Wondrous Tales
How about a reason to revisit old dungeons for more than Tomestones and EXP? Check out the Wondrous Tales, a weekly book of goals you can chase and, running theme here, get unique rewards that will show off your hard work. Talk to Khloe Aliapoh in Idyllshire and she’ll hand you a book of tasks. Every Tuesday a new book is available, and it’ll replace the previous book when you pick it up.
A sort of upgraded version of this is Faux Hollows, which shares the booth with Khloe once you unlock it. To do so, you need to have Shadowbringers beaten, which you should if you’ve read this guide so far! The quest is “Fantastic Mr. Faux” in Idyllshire.
Palace of the Dead
I love Mystery Dungeon games, so that means I (mostly) love Palace of the Dead. For a real change of pace head to the South Shroud Quarrymill and you can dive into a massive, ever-changing dungeon that tests your luck, your skills and then some more luck. You can group up with up to three other players, or try it by yourself if you’re brave enough. You start at level one with unique equipment that only gets powered up with loot you find here.
Can you make it to the end? If so, you can move on to Heaven on High in the Ruby Sea area, which is like Palace of the Dead but more difficult. There are tons of rewards you can get from these activities, but you’ll be rolling for them instead of buying them for the most part. There is also a unique shop NPC with some really cool stuff, and chasing those items requires lots of hard-earned progress.
Mounts, Minions and Glams!
There’s a lot of crap in Final Fantasy XIV, but as we all know the true endgame is The Fit. There’s no better way to show off in this game than literally showing off in the form of customized outfits, and visible goodies like minions and mounts. One thing I’ve been doing since clearing Endwalker is just going back and looking for opportunities to earn new cosmetic prizes.
Fan wikis make this pretty easy, too. Simply check out the lists, the requirements, and knock yourself out. A single minion could lead you to a totally unexpected rabbit hole of content, depending on how bad you want it and what you have to do.
Unsubscribe (for now!)
No for real. If you’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV nonstop, maybe a break is a good idea. You don’t want to burn yourself out trying to force yourself to have more fun! Just cancel your subscription, do other things and come back for the next big update. Yoshi-P himself has told fans this much before, and he’s the game director! Seriously, check this out, it’s wild.
Those are only a few options for filling in your newfound non-MSQ free time in Final Fantasy XIV. Of course, the current content such as the new raid will continue rolling out as well. But there’s so much to see and do in Final Fantasy XIV, it’s almost a disservice to yourself to skip all of it. Is there something you love to do even more than the activities I mentioned here? Tell me! You know, asking for a friend.
Published: Feb 3, 2022 11:27 pm