Final Fantasy 14: Every Experience Boost and How to Get Them

Final Fantasy XIV

By Jordan Yang

Published May 13, 2024

Levelling up and increasing your character's power is a staple of any MMORPG, and Final Fantasy 14 is no exception. With an ever-increasing level cap and new jobs introduced every expansion, combined with the ability to play every class on a single character, players looking to max out every job will have their work cut out for them. Fortunately, the game includes a variety of experience-boosting items and buffs that can help speed the process along.

Experience boosts in Final Fantasy 14 come in a variety of forms, with some being available to all players, including those taking advantage of the game's free trial, while others are granted as rewards from pre-order bonuses or purchased from the online store. The following is a comprehensive list of every experience boost in the game and how to obtain them.

split image of combat and player characters

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How to Get Experience-Boosting Buffs

Buffs are positive status effects that are applied to your character, providing passive bonuses while they are active. While buffs are usually used to improve a character's abilities in combat, a number of them also provide a multiplier to experience gained. Passive experience-boosting buffs include the following:

The Road to 80 Buff

The Road to 80 is one of the largest increases to experience gain available, providing a 100% multiplier to all experience gained while under level 80. Players can only obtain this buff by creating a new character on a newly implemented server, or a less populated server designated as a "Preferred World". Players with existing characters are able to obtain this buff only by transferring their character to a newly released server. The classification of each server can be confirmed via the official Final Fantasy 14 Server Status website.

The Armoury Bonus

The Armoury Bonus is a passive increase to experience gained from defeating enemies or completing FATEs that is automatically applied while playing an alternate job that is a lower level than the highest level job on a character. This bonus starts at a 100% multiplier while the player is below level 80, reducing to 50% for levels 80 to 90, incentivizing players to unlock multiple jobs on a single character, rather than creating multiple characters for each class.

Rested Experience

Rested experience provides a 50% bonus to experience gained from defeating enemies and is passively generated while a character is within a sanctuary, including while they are offline. Sanctuaries are typically found around Aetherytes and major cities, and can be confirmed via the crescent icon that appears next to the experience bar while a player is located inside of a sanctuary. The remaining amount of rested experience available on a character is indicated by the shaded portion of the experience bar, appearing dark orange or brown if rested experience does not exceed the end of the experience bar, or blue if it does.

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The Heat of Battle Buff

One benefit to joining a Free Company is the ability to make use of a variety of long-term buff effects. One buff in particular, the Heat of Battle, provides all members of an FC an increase to experience gained for 24 hours. The buff comes in three ranks, increasing experience gained by 5%, 10%, or 15% depending on the rank of buff used. While the first two ranks can be purchased for company credits at the Free Company's corresponding Grand Company headquarters, the final rank of the buff must be crafted in a Free Company's Company Workshop, and then charged for 70 hours in an Aetherial Wheel Stand before it can be used.

An alternative source of the buff is available through Adventurer Squadrons, a management minigame where players train aspiring adventurer NPCs and send them out on missions to retrieve unique rewards. One potential reward from the Imperial Recon and the Infiltrate and Rescue missions is the Squadron Battle Manual, an item granting a rank 3 Heat of Battle buff for two hours at a time, overwriting the Free Company version if both are active at the same time. Adventurer Squadrons can be unlocked by obtaining Second Lieutenant rank with a player's chosen Grand Company and completing the prerequisite quest "Rising to the Challenge" in Limsa Lominsa (X:12, Y:11), before finally completing the quest "Squadron and Commander" at their Grand Company's headquarters.

The Well Fed Buff

The Well Fed buff is a bonus granted for consuming any food item, providing a 30-minute increase to a character's stats depending on the type of food used, stackable up to 60 minutes at a time. While the specific stat bonuses will change from food to food, one effect all food items provide is a 3% increase to experience gained from defeating enemies while active. While the experience boost is modest, the significant amount of experience granted by defeating dungeon bosses can make staying well fed a worthy endeavor.

The EXP Bonus Buff

The EXP Bonus buff is a 20% boost to experience gained from most sources besides quests granted when a new or returning player parties up with a mentor, experienced players who have indicated they are willing to help others. Mentors must pass a variety of requirements in order to obtain their status, guaranteeing a minimum level of game knowledge and skill. Players' status as a new, returning, or mentor character can be confirmed via the symbols next to their name, with a green sprout icon indicating a new player, a gold and green flower indicating a returning player, and a gold crown indicating a mentor.

How to Get Experience-Boosting Items

Equipment in Final Fantasy 14 is typically quite basic, with nearly all gear providing only additions to a character's attributes, and very seldomly granting unique effects or changes to a character's abilities. Some exceptions to this rule are gear that provide bonuses to experience gained. Many of these items are available as pre-order bonuses for expansions of the game or purchasable via the Final Fantasy XIV Online Store, with a few being rewarded for in-game accomplishments.

How to Get a Brand-new Ring

a screenshot of an NPC, The Smith, from Final Fantasy 14

The Brand-new Ring is a unique ring that grants characters at or below level 30 a 30% bonus to experience while it's equipped. It can be obtained by completing the Hall of the Novice, an in-game tutorial teaching players the basics of playing in a group, accessible by speaking to NPCs named The Smith located outside low-level dungeons and inside Adventurers' Guilds in major cities.

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Besides providing players with an experience bonus, the Brand-new Ring also grants attributes equivalent to an item level 30 ring while being equippable as early as level 1, making it one of the strongest rings players can obtain early on.

How to Get Pre-order Bonuses

A promotional image advertising the bonus items granted for pre-ordering Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail.

Pre-order bonuses granted for purchasing expansions prior to their release have often provided passive increases to experience gained while equipped, while bequeathing large stat bonuses that scale with the player as their character levels up. The list of items from pre-order bonuses that grant experience boosts is as follows:

Moogle Cap - +20% EXP while level 10 and below (A Realm Reborn pre-order bonus)
Ala Mhigan Earrings - +30% EXP while level 50 and below (Stormblood pre-order bonus)
Aetheryte Earring - +30% EXP while level 60 and below, and scaling stats (Shadowbringers pre-order bonus)
Menphina's Earring + 30% EXP while level 70 and below, and scaling stats (Endwalker pre-order bonus)
Azeyma's Earrings - +30% EXP while level 80 and below, and scaling stats (Dawntrail pre-order bonus)

While these pre-order bonuses may not always be available, players shouldn't feel too bad if they've missed out on the current bonuses, as thus far, each pre-order bonus has rendered previous rewards obsolete. If this pattern holds, players will be able to obtain similar rewards at the launch of each expansion.

How to Get the Friendship Circlet

The Friendship Circlet is a headpiece providing a 20% bonus to experience gained while level 25 and below, granted via Final Fantasy 14's Recruit a Friend Campaign. As one of the first rewards granted by the campaign, players will receive the Friendship Circlet when a friend uses their recruitment code and purchases their first 30 days of subscription. Full details on the Recruit a Friend Campaign can be found on the official Recruit a Friend Campaign site.

How to Get the Bozjan Earring

The Bozjan Earring is an earring providing 10% bonus experience while at level 80 or below, granted from the achievement "Lost and Found IV". Completing this achievement requires players to appraise 1000 Forgotten Fragments, items obtained from participating in the Save the Queen series of Adventuring Forays. Players will need to first unlock the Bozjan Southern Front by completing the level 80 Main Scenario Quest "Shadowbringers", the quest chain beginning with quest "Dramatis Personae" in Kugane (X:12, Y:12), and finally the quest chain beginning with "Hail to the Queen" in Kugane (X:12, Y:12). Forgotten Fragments can be obtained by completing skirmishes, defeating monsters, and completing raids associated with Save the Queen, in addition to purchasing them from other players via the market board. The fragments can then appraised by speaking to any Resistance Appraiser NPC found throughout each zone.

Mogstation Items

While it's highly recommended to avoid using these items for their experience bonus as they lack any meaningful stats a character will need to succeed in combat, various cosmetic items purchasable with real money from the online Mogstation store provide a 30% bonus to experience gained under level 30 while the full set is equipped. These include: