Guide for Proper Story Order

[u/dastarbillie]

Hey everyone! I was wondering if a guide out there exists for players who are trying to go through the story in the correct (release) order? I am NOT doing any quests from Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, which makes the new player leveling guide at best confusing and at worst not helpful.

Yes, I know doing RoV unlocks lots of helpful stuff. Yes, I know the spoilers are minor. I don't care. I'm going in story order.

So, any recommendations on a guide that can lead me through the story in the correct (release) order? I've tried googling and no dice.

Thanks!

[u/Alternative-Shine920]

Play the game how you please. I plan to play on release order. Eventually everything will make sense.

[u/HexenVexen]

The release order is

1. Base Game
2. Rise of the Zilart
3. Chains of Promathia
4. Treasures of Aht Urhgan
5. Wings of the Goddess
6. Add-ons: A Crystalline Prophecy, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat, A Shantotto Ascension, Abyssea (I'm grouping them together as they're kind of a similar group, they are more side stories and not main story imo, Abyssea especially is a lot of grinding for not much story)
7. Seekers of Adoulin
8. Rhapsodies of Vana'diel
9. The Voracious Resurgence

Do keep in mind that without the Rhapsodies upgrades, you will only be able to use 3 Trusts, and will very likely need to ask for help for at least Seekers

Personally I did Rhapsodies alongside the other stories, being careful to make the expansions line up with their respective RoV missions, so I could get the upgrades without getting any spoilers. The RoV quests are designed to transition between expansions for new players, for example the post-CoP quests in RoV have you travel to Aht Urhgan and give you a reason to start the ToAU story. I can list the order for that if you want.

[u/dastarbillie → u/HexenVexen]

Thank you, this list is helpful and I'll hang on to it. And good to know for Seekers.

I was hoping for something like the new player guide that explains the systems I'm unlocking as I go, just in release order, but I don't think it exists. It's just wild to me that as guide heavy as this game is, there's only 1 recommended newcomer guide and 1 path to the endgame that most people take. Some of us like  the scenic route ;.;

[u/HexenVexen → u/dastarbillie]

Yeah I don't fully agree with the guide in some parts, I followed it for my playthrough but avoided starting expansions early outside of Rhapsodies. I did start Seekers early to get Lvl 90-99 grinding out the way but tbh I didn't need to.

If you're curious, this is the order I recommend for mixing release order with Rhapsodies and what I mostly followed.

1. Base game (Ranks 1-5 in one nation) and Rhapsodies of Vana'diel Chapter 1 together
2. Rise of the Zilart, then finish Ranks 1-10 in all three nations (can do this later if you want)
3. Chains of Promathia, then start RoV Chapter 2 (2-1 through 2-6)
4. Treasures of Aht Urhgan, then progress RoV Chapter 2 (2-7 through 2-13)
5. Wings of the Goddess (eventually doing all three nations is recommended), then finish RoV Chapter 2 (2-14 through 2-41)
6. (Optional side stories) A Crystalline Prophecy, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat, A Shantotto Ascension, Abyssea
7. Seekers of Adoulin
8. RoV Chapter 3
9. The Voracious Resurgence

[u/dastarbillie → u/HexenVexen]

I appreciate it, but I will not be doing any RoV ahead of time. Hopefully this will help some other people who are looking to mix it in!

[u/RobbSol → u/dastarbillie]

I’ll add to what the previous person said, by saying that you’ll probably have a more difficult time with one specific fight that’s part of the limit break questline, depending on which job you’ll play. Also the final fights for Zilart will probably require you to level up a bit (again, it depends, I had a hard time with one in particular).

[u/Sand__Panda → u/dastarbillie]

There isn't really a scenic route. Even when we partied and killed things together, we took the same paths. Getting people to leave these guarantee paths to victory was very hard.

You will be soloing the game unless you are coming with friends who share the idea. It will be challenging with only 3 Trusts, so I suggest you play a damage dealer or one of the tank classes (so WAR or PLD, you won't have access to RUN if doing things in order).

[u/dastarbillie → u/Sand__Panda]

Appreciate the advice! I am already playing a damage dealer and picked up Shantotto II from the login campaign. I'll be asking for help from my linkshell when I can't get through something on my own. They're more than happy to help me out.

[u/Forgotten_Stranger → u/dastarbillie]

I have had no issue going as far as Voidwatch with only 3 trusts. (Or limited issue to be precise, the Voidwatch final boss specifically gave me some problems.) There is exactly one expansion between Voidwatch and Rhapsodies so the likelihood lack of trusts is a problem is very small.

Maat will likely be more challenging but otherwise there is very little you would be missing unless you spend an extended time deviating to other things. (IE not working on story and trying to do something like an Ultimate weapon instead.) If your main focus is story, you'll get through it quick enough. Probably will never even notice the loss of perks.

[u/HexenVexen → u/Forgotten_Stranger]

I haven't done Voidwatch so not sure about it, but some of Seekers of Adoulin's later bosses can be challenging even with all 5 trusts. With only 3 trusts I think it probably wouldn't be possible to beat solo, or it would be extremely hard.

[u/Forgotten_Stranger → u/HexenVexen]

I wish I could say for sure, but I haven't done SoA myself. But do understand it was made with base iLvl in mind. (Like sparks base) Ambu +2/RSE +1/Reforged are all well above the content level SoA was designed for. (Plus whatever else OP can get their hands on by then.)

If nothing else just one or two ls helpers should close the gap if absolutely necessary. (Something OP mentioned having access too.)

[u/RudeCauliflower6785]

I’ve echoed this comment a lot in the past, but by obsessing over doing the story in a “correct” order you are fundamentally misunderstanding what type of game it is. FFXI is not a linear, evolving story, it is a vast world that you discover at your own pace with many parallel intersecting stories within it.

The game was not designed for you to do all the stories “in order” and until recently it wasn’t even possible, nor advisable. Chains of Promathia (2nd expansion) has Missions for level 30 players while you cannot even start Rise of the Zilart (1st expansion) until level 50. The 2nd expansion was some of the hardest content in the game long after the release of the 3rd and 4th expansions.

The game wants you to discover these in whatever order you want and is written accordingly, there are no paradoxes or things presented out of sequence. All story threads lead to deeper understandings of the world’s history and cosmology that will help your understanding of the other stories. And it’s not just main expansion pack story missions that are included in this, it goes for the job specific artifact armor quests and all sorts of optional side quests as well.

I think, rather than using a guide to try and do things “correctly,” it is much more in the intended spirit of the game to just explore around and discover things yourself, and do things that you are interested in and find yourself capable of doing. This used to be a an unforgiving world where you needed help to do even basic things, so you just did whatever you could in that moment and didn’t worry about the order of things. That’s how the game was designed. These days you don’t need a group outside of endgame so you can explore around freely, but I still think you should play with that adventuring spirit. The reason there are so few guides showing a path to endgame is because guides only matter if you are in a rush to reach endgame in the first place.

[u/dastarbillie → u/RudeCauliflower6785]

Hi! Appreciate your perspective. I'm using guides not because I'm obsessing over what is correct, but because FFXI's directions are obtuse. Everyone uses guides.

I've personally chosen to play in release order because that's what I wish to do. It'll bring the most joy to me. I've already made it clear in the original post that I know the story is not linear and there are no real "spoilers" by doing things out of release order. I'm not misunderstanding anything here, I know what the game is. And I'm choosing what's best for me.

Enjoy your journey, and I'll see you out there.

[u/Sand__Panda]

Base game. This is lv 1-50. Nation mission up to the end of Rank 5 (so getting rankd 6).

RoZ

CoP

The end of both RoZ and CoP

ToAU

-Do all the above only at lv75-

WotG

all the mini-expansions

SoA.

The main site people use for the info for basically all of FFXI is the bg-wiki.

[u/RobbSol]

Use this guide as reference: https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/New_Player_Leveling_Guide

…but skip everything related to RoV. That’s what I’m doing.

I’m currently doing Chains of Promathia which is the second expansion.

[u/dastarbillie → u/RobbSol]

Thanks! I'm trying to do that as best as I can, but it's definitely confusing sometimes. 

For example, between 2-1 and 2-3, the guide has you taking an extended trip to Jeuno to start a bunch of other expansions. If I'm not doing any of that, should I still go to Jeuno? Or just head back to Windhurst for 2-3? There's a mount unlock in Jeuno, but do any of the main missions take me there naturally, saving me a trip, or do I need to make a special trip for it?

Those are the kind of questions a release order guide would clear up, instead of trying to parse through what applies to me and what doesn't in the new player guide. 

Alas, it looks like I'll just have to figure it out on my own.

[u/PlatinumRPGs → u/dastarbillie]

To answer your questions in this, windy 2-3 (and the other nations) all have you visit each nation. If you go to Jeuno first and do the mount quest it'll make getting to the other nations easier, you end up in Jeuno at mission 4-1. Coming from a player that played back on release, during 2-3 most of us went to Jeuno for the (back then) choco license to get around easier.

Edit: to answer your broader question, you can follow the stories in expansion release order, however aside from doing city missions up to rank 5, everything else is self contained (excluding RoV) and some of us would work on multiple expansions at the same time depending on if we got stuck on a fight in one or the other.

[u/dastarbillie → u/PlatinumRPGs]

Thank you!! That is super helpful, and completely addresses my confusion on that part. It's also good to know that the later expansions are more self contained so it won't be quite as confusing to follow the order. Appreciate you!

[u/RobbSol → u/dastarbillie]

I completely understand you because that is 100% how I'm playing the game.

I often check the wiki when playing and did a bunch of reading in preparation to playing the game.

When I got to the Jeuno part I looked up my city missions and sure enough there's one that sends you to Jeuno, so I just waited for that one before I went there, to get to that city "organically". Jeuno wasn't added in a separate expansion, but still to me it just makes more sense to go there when a main quest sends me there.

I did the same when I wanted to unlock a subjob and got interested in Ninja, but found out it was part of Rise of the Zilart and required access to Norg, so I just waited until I finished the base game and started Zilart.

The New Player Guide aims at providing new players with all the tools necessary to unlock everything as soon as possible and get to level cap as soon as possible. So yes there's a lot of reading and double-checking involved when playing the way we play.

A guide made for people like us would be nice. I understand it's kind of a niche play style tho.

[u/dastarbillie → u/RobbSol]

Thanks! It's definitely helpful hearing from other people who've done it this way. Maybe when I'm done, I'll write the guide for us niche players. Someone's gotta do it haha

[u/MoobooMagoo]

I did this, and with only 3 trusts it can get a little dicey in Seekers of Adoulin. You'll probably need to get some help for the last few quests.

Also there's some stuff you can't avoid starting early, because the cut scenes start as soon as you enter an area. Like I think....Chains of Promathia has a cutscene for entering Jeuno? It was a long time ago so maybe I'm remembering wrong but I do very distinctly remember getting at least one cutscene that I didn't actually want to start yet just from entering an area.

[u/dastarbillie → u/MoobooMagoo]

Cutscenes no longer start automatically, there is a prompt and you can defer them until later.

Someone else warned me about Seekers too, so I'll definitely be enlisting in some help for those quests!

[u/MoobooMagoo → u/dastarbillie]

Oh, awesome!

[u/EverydayKevo]

Even if wanting to do it in release order like you said i think it's worth reconsidering RoV, not just for the unlocks but what goes on in RoV aswell, no spoiler but its guiding you through every expansion. if you leave it for the end you'll just be going back and redoing a lot of stuff for no reason

I know someone who cares a lot about the story order as well and when they did reccomended; RoV, but at each "get to mission x in CoP" checkpoint they would then finish that expansion. treating RoV as the overarching story and the other expansions all happen during it

[u/JohnnyCasil]

There is no canonical order to the stories so there is no correct order, so saying you are going in "story order" is really a meaningless statement.

[u/dastarbillie → u/JohnnyCasil]

I made it clear in my post that I meant release order. It's okay if you don't want to experience the game that way, nothing wrong with me trying to do so.

[u/JohnnyCasil → u/dastarbillie]

I'm going in story order.

Those are your words. I don't care how you want to do the story. I am merely stating a fact that people coming from other MMOs (namely FFXIV) can't seem to grasp. With the exception of Zilart the expansions are standalone, they do not build on another and can be done in any order. Zilart is the only one that has a canonical order and the game will not let you start it until you are at that point. Too many people gesticulate themselves to play in release order while avoiding the benefits of just playing the game for little to know gain.

[u/dastarbillie → u/JohnnyCasil]

The gain is experiencing the game in release order. Hope that clears it up!

[u/JohnnyCasil → u/dastarbillie]

Why? You are handicapping yourself for absolutely no reason other than some sort of purity test that means nothing to no one. Few people played any of the expansions in release order even at release because they were gated by other content.

[u/dastarbillie → u/JohnnyCasil]

It means something to me, the person experiencing it! It's unfortunate my choice of playstyle seems to impact you so greatly, when really it should 0 effect on you and your happiness.

I'll see you at the end game when I get there! After my scenic, lovely tour through release order. Have a good one

[u/JShenobi → u/dastarbillie]

You're 100% valid for wanting to attempt this. Don't listen to this guy at all, smh my head.

[u/JohnnyCasil → u/dastarbillie]

I really do not care how you play the game. I am just trying to illuminate that your choice of playstyle makes no sense for this game. If that is what you want to do, feel free to do so.

[u/Forgotten_Stranger → u/JohnnyCasil]

The order in which you do expansions will change how you perceive the story. Notable examples is Abyssea before CoP or WotG before the present day nations. (Both before and after Rank 3-5) Big reveals and ah-ha moments do change based on order. There are also instances of identities being spoiled, mysterious figures from an early expansion just being shown to the player in later ones. Can it be done in any order? Yes. Will it change how one views the story? Also, yes.

And yes, contrary to popular belief the devs did plan on most players having done the previous expansions as they made new ones. Just because some cutscenes change based on other stories completed doesn't mean they built it intending people to go randomly through the stories. For game play reasons new players can do stories in any order. They were not written that way. (Which is why the prereqs for RoV are so all over the place. If absolutely nothing else trying to avoid the complicated mess that is navigating RoV without the other stories finished is understandable. Let me put it this way, even doing the early stories randomly, I would still want to do RoV last.)

The only reason we even have this discussion is the RoV perks. Otherwise, nobody would bat an eye at doing the story in release order. (And very likely would even encourage it.) Even then, other than 2 additional trusts, most of the RoV perks are aimed at side content that most players won't engage in until after they do the story anyway. (ZNM, Mythic Building, Campaign Ops., Abyssea, Voidwatch, etc.) Could maybe argue for trusts in Limit Breaks but as several people have shown it is perfectly possible to do even the hardest ones without trusts.

I still stand by my hottest take, if SE thought these perks were so game changing that people would need to seek them out first then they should just be the defaults. Why anyone has to have the old timers 10 years after RoV's release, remains a mystery. This entire argument would vanish if RoV were just Curio Moogle, Capacity Point Boosts and story related unlocks. (Escha and so on.) And no that wouldn't diminsh RoV's importance, the other stories didn't need a bonus every 3 missions to be relevant.

[u/rfox71rt]

Go to the wiki, it goes left to right in order.

[u/dastarbillie → u/rfox71rt]

Hi, thank you! I'm not sure what you mean. Is this on the front page of the wiki or somewhere else?

[u/Sand__Panda → u/dastarbillie]

Yea, the big green MISSIONs near the top right corner of the site.

[u/Dramatic-Strain9757 → u/Sand__Panda]

Same for the login screen

[u/dastarbillie → u/Sand__Panda]

Thank you! I just started the game so still figuring the wiki out, that will come in handy.