FFXI: Return to Vana’diel – Super Easy Solo Leveling: Field Manuals

I return to Vana’diel after not having played FFXI for over a decade. Here are my adventures!

If you’re anything like me, when you think of FFXI, you think of a game that requires a huge time sink to level. I remember spending hours leveling during my teens at the La Theine Plateau, getting ready for that big level 18 when I could start the SubJob quest in the Dunes.

But this FFXI is not that game anymore. Every time I turned around, I was leveling without meaning to. Before I knew it, I’d hit level 11, the point at which you start wearing the infamous harness armor. Ugh. At least I found most of it in chests instead of having to buy it.

Between exploring on my own and doing a little research, I discovered things that propelled me forward along my leveling track. Not only do enemies give more experience, and Trust-buddies make it easier to solo, but there are several new systems put in game to help the low-level solo player level quickly.

Field Manuals

I discovered Field Manuals by myself, and had no idea what they were. Just floating books hanging around outside the city walls. I think I even ignored it at first, thinking it must be part of something that didn’t pertain to me.

But then, I came back and explored it a bit more and discovered that Field Manuals are like quest givers for the certain area you’re in. They provide you with kill-quests (called Field Training) for creatures that you’re probably already killing.

For example, out in Ronfaure, one of the quests was to kill 7 Forest Hares, levels 2-6. That’s pretty easy to do, especially with my Trust-buddy. Once you accomplish it, you don’t have to run back and turn it in. It just automatically dumps 300 extra experience and gil on you (on top of what you got for killing them individually), and 30 tabs.

Tabs I haven’t explored too much yet. It looks like you can spend them for buffs and to transport yourself from one Survival Guide to another. Survival Guides look just like Field Manuals, but they’re actually a warp system in overworld and dungeon areas. Glad to see the game is helping players get around places faster!

A few more things to know about Field Manual quests:

  • You can set to have them auto-repeat if you just want to sit out there and grind mobs
  • You only get the gil and tab rewards once an in-game day, but you can still repeat the quests for the experience
  • The quests have a max level… so once you no longer get experience from mobs, they stop counting for the quest
  • You can cancel your current quest at any Field Manual you find
  • Make sure to push the down arrow when selecting from quest Pages – there are more quests to choose from than it first appears!

Next up, I’ll talk about another newer system that not only lets you level quickly, but nets you FREE GEAR! Can you believe it? FFXI has gone all casual on me. 🙂

Comments