How to Get Awesome Gear in FFXI for New or Returning Players

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy XI. There has been a slow but steady increase in interest in the game. As a result, many people are coming back and even picking up the game for the first time, primarily because of its 20th anniversary. 

Once you've managed to acclimate yourself to the archaic system of level grinding and quests that refuse to hold your hand, but for too long, you may have found yourself reaching level 99 only to realize that the game is just beginning. Several questions pop into your mind, "What do I do" and "what gear do I need to kill the shadows." It's often confusing for new or returning players to get their hands on awesome gear; this guide will break down the best things to do that will lead you to have a better character (and gears) but, more importantly, a much more enjoyable time while you're playing ffxi. So, let's get started.

Complete the stories

Try to focus on all the story missions, especially the Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. Now, this might sound simple or even optional. Maybe you want to dive right into the end game; you'll have to hold it right there. Some of the storylines are mandatory even to get access to these endgame activities. If you want to fight the modern endgame version of something, you must have cleared it in the story mode. 

This ranges from the high-tier battlefields like the Shadow lord omega, Lilith, Odin, and all the way to even having access to something like Omen. Between the record of eminence bonuses and the rhapsodies of vana'diel bonuses, you'd be a fool to skip out of these storylines; you should go out and do these; they're fantastic.

Level up your skills

It would help if you started thinking about capping all of your relevant skills early on. This might seem like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how many people try to skip past this part like it's not essential when it's one of the most significant determining factors for your character, even if it is super tedious.

Though you can't do significant damage if you're not even hitting the monster, and it's super obvious to everyone that you don't have your magic skills capped when you see that dreaded resist text show up on the screen. 

For weapons, this is easy enough to do once you've reached level 99, and there are many guides on how to do it super effectively for every skill. But, for weapons, grab a low-damage weapon and smack stuff. One favorite target is the Aragon Knights right outside of Adelaide. Those were good. 

But if your job requires magic skills, especially enhancing magic, it's good to have all of that capped out. If it gets to be too much, there is no shame in buying the skillet books from the auction house or the sparse NPC. But do not skimp on your skills. These are super important.

Don’t buy the level 99 sparks gear

In your home nation, you may have stumbled across the NPC that sells gear for a new currency called Sparks. Upon reaching level 99, you may have thought to yourself, well, this is the level 99 gear. I'll buy this as well. Wrong. It's a trap. Don't buy this gear. It isn't beneficial. 

You'll want to wander off to the mystical lands of Eastern Adu Lind and talk to these two secret arms merchants. They sell item level 119 gear, which is better than the item level 117 gear for Sparks. You'll want to pick up a homestead weapon and a complete set of the plus one armor for your class. This is going to cost you about 13,000 balds.

How do you earn 13,000 bald, you may ask? Well, that's the easy part. Either roam around completing reefs around Adelaide, meet a handful of these supply emissions, or trade 13 copper vouchers to your Sparks NPC and exchange those for bail. You've been saving those copper vouchers. Now that you're fully kitted out in your brand-new bailed gear, you are entirely impervious to all content that came before the item level cap. So, if you were struggling to finish those stories before now, you can go back and finish some of them with ease. 

But make no mistake, this gear is legitimate trash, and you will get nowhere in the actual. Endgame wearing this stuff. Think of this as your level 99 starting gear. You might be the biggest badass that you've ever been, but really, this is just the beginning.

Don't forget "Deeds of Heroism"

On the topic of gear you can get from NPCs, something that is extremely easy to overlook is your monthly records of eminent objectives. These will reward you with deeds of heroism, which can be exchanged for the Amen NPC in your home city. The rewards range from poultry smattering of gill all the way to complete sets of item level 119 artifact armor. There are about 8000 records of eminent objectives, but you definitely won't want to forget about the monthly ones right there at the very bottom of the list.

Start Doing Domain Invasion

This is like a baby's first-end game. Okay, this sounds complex, but it's not. This is the easiest way to earn some of the best gear in the game. Three zones will have a dragon spawn in them periodically. If you're in the unity chat, you'll see this message Aussie Dahaka is spawning in Escha Zita.

Nagaraja spawning in Esha, Ruan. Oh, dear, dear. Quasi cold spawning in Rising in Jima. Oh, man, this is a problem. We can't have stray dragons roaming around vanadilla, guess we're going to have to handle it.

Once you get to the zone that has a dragon in it, talk to the NPC near the entrance, click on them and click the button Receive Elder Seal, and then have them teleport you to the fight. Please wait a few minutes, smack a few monsters, and then poke the big Dragonboy with a dozen other players in their trust, and then you're done. You'll get some domain points at the end of the fight. Once you've reached the maximum number of points, you can have for the day, waddle on over to Nord and talk to Zero. 

He will show you a massive list of potential rewards, including some of the game's best accessories and armor pieces. Even these weapons are great to pick up because they can be even more powerful, and they're going to be the best weapon you have until you get, like, a fully upgraded Ambuscade weapon or start working on a mythic or something. These are pretty much as good as it's going to get for a long time. So, it's great to do domain innovation daily to start gearing up.

Try joining a linkshell

 Take a chance and try joining a link shell. Just go to the local linkshell concierge and see who's there. And keep a positive attitude because if you have a positive attitude, people will likely absorb your positive energy and want to help you.

Start doing Ambuscade

As mentioned in the previous entry, Ambuscade is where a ton of great gear comes from. Ambuscade is super easy. To get started, all you do is click on records of eminent under basics stepping into an Ambuscade, then talk to Gorpa, Masorpa, and Mahara. He should give you an Ambuscade volume primer too. 

Once you have your primer, go. Talk to the book. Enjoy your first regular Ambuscade. Easy peasy. Kill some monsters? No big deal. The fights here range from month to month, and there are always two variants the regular version, which you could do with trust, and there's worth a minimal number of points, or the intense version, which is worth a ton of points.

Generally speaking, the ambuscade capes and certain weapons like the nagging are the best in the slot for many jobs. Still, even some of the armor pieces remain top tier into the endgame, and this gives you an excellent opportunity to get better at playing your classes with other people.

Do activities with friends

Start clearing out high-tier battlefields going after unity NMS, and the tier 1 nm are from Esha Zita and Esha Ruan once you have some ambush gate gear and maybe a new weapon from domain invasion. Some high-tier battlefields will drop great pieces of gear. Omega, for instance, drops an excellent earring for melee fighters and some awesome knuckles for puppet masters.

Still, they're also a primary source of rems pages, which are used to upgrade your artifact and relic armor to 119 variants. You can also buy those rem pages with sparks, some of the unity nm's have great pieces of gear as well, and it's worth checking out the rewards list; you might find something worth going after.

Conclusion

So, there you are, the best things to do to get awesome gear in ffxi, and if you're looking for more guides and reviews, check out our website MmoGah.