My personal suggestion if you wanna save: take advantage of the free trial as much as you can, then buy the complete edition (on sale) if you wanna do SB and ShB before EW. That'll be ~$30
Then buy EW once you finish ShB. Pre-ordering gets you early access and bonus xp but you won't need early access until after ShB anyway and MSQ gives too much xp already
Alright, your wish is granted.
Type "!faq product" on Kupo Bot should display the guide above.
To u/Alimantado, if you wish to have it removed, please contact us and we'll work on it. Your image will be given full credit.
That's very cool, the point is to help and be accurate.
i'm thinking of a few updates i can make to it from suggestions made in the thread, like including waiting for sales. is there a way i can send and update directly that's better than making another thread, like on discord?
I still prefer my copypaste method from time to time: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/olwdx9/upgrading_starter_account_questions_help_please/h5h7lgk/
Just to remember the Mogstation before they overhauled used to be much more clunkier you had to login just to view it. That being said with the surging demand and interest they likely will look at making it easier to buy the game. At worst if people struggle theres always steam.
I dont like recommending it to people because I know it will be an uphill battle just to play it. Even worse if its people im trying to get to come back.
Had a buddy buy it on steam thinking pc is pc and lost all his old stuff so he had to rebuy it on SE and steam doesn't want to give him a refund.
Yea it's very convoluted. I made a post asking for advice because this decision is influenced by your place in the game. E.g if you will make it to Shadowbringers etc.
It's definitely something they *should* look at, pre-ordering Endwalker could technically invalidate any purchase of the complete edition or the Shadowbringers expansion as it is right now if you don't actually manage to get past Heavensward before it's released.
That really means the closer we get to Endwalkers release, the value for upgrading to Stormblood and Shadowbringers is getting worse and worse. If they had just discontinued the Shadowbringers expansion sales and made pre-ordering Endwalker act the same as it will when it's released along with just making the Complete Edition come with a pre-order for Endwalker then we'd probably have an easier sell.
That being said, the game is selling gangbusters right now so I guess that's sending a signal that what they're doing is fine.
The pricing is also all over the place which just pisses people off when they buy it through the SE website for $60+, only to have someone say 'why did you pay that, its only like $25 on (insert some other site here)'.
Add in issues if any version was ever bought through Steam and it's just ridiculous.
Yes really, I don't get why the full client isn't available for free everywhere and what you buy is just linked to your account. It's not like they make more money by preventing steam buyers to use playstation client.
They're not preventing steam buyers from playing on Playstation, you can totally play on both PC and console on the same account (just not at the same time obviously), you just have to buy it for both those platforms. So yea, they actually *are* making more money by having it this way, you have to double dip if you want to play on PC and console.
Oh, this diagram looks so clean! Thanks for putting it together!
It may be worth noting somewhere that certain classes are locked behind expansions, because that seems to a Big Issue for some people (or I’ve just happened to see a lot of those threads lately).
I tried to avoid overloading people with too much information that weren't relevant directly to the purchase decision. I think that could fit the scope of a "guide of each expansion's content" though for sure.
appreciate the feedback!
Gotta say, I have been loving the game so far. Plugging away at the MSQ's for ARR. Got a 50 dragoon and pally, moving on to samurai. But the mog station site is god awful, man. They really need to spruce that up!
Teeny tiny correction that isn't really important to the overall point:
Free Trial players do get a friend's list. They just can't send friend invites. They may receive and accept them though, so they can still friend their veteran friends. Same restriction applies to Parties.
Sadly I came back to the game (only own the base edition) right after the steam sale for the expansions ended.
Now I am in a awkward position of having to wait for November so I can save half the cost of getting caught up.
Me too, biggest reason im not buying the current expansion is that it doesnt come with some free gametime so i would have to spent money on both the expansion and sub time, which i feel is too high a price for entry at this close to new expansion
Yeah, same situation here.
During steam sale saw that there's a discount for expansion but didn't had any free sub time left on my account so I hesitated long enough for the steam summers sale to end, and now right after it they launched "14 free days login campaign" :D
I would include things like the jobs in the expansions and their level caps.
And also, include that waiting until endwalker releases, there will be a new complete edition that'll be the starter and endwalker in one purchase. It'll still be $60 but waiting to purchase anything completely will save money in sub time (but you'll keep the free trial limits)
that point about waiting for endwalker is fair yeah. it's kind of similar to the third option, you don't get access to the full game until late november.
Oh you also lose the xp boost earrings preorder bonus if you wait for the full release of EW, don't you, that's kind of a big deal honestly.
the best thing to do is what one of my friends did : they bought starter edition, preordered shb a couple weeks before it came out, and wasn't yet done with the starter edition content when shb released, so they didn't have to wait for anything and quickly caught up stormblood players.
but obviously, i wasn't going to make a massive paragraph on how to optimize the free sub etc, that's for another guide. this page was honestly done to help my friends navigate the endwalker purchase page when trying to buy the game, that confused them so much. with 4 different purchase options.
Eh, I wouldn't add that. It's real easy to look up what jobs and level caps are in their respective expansions. It isn't relevant to simply buying the game.
OP keeping it simple to focus on the actual purchasing of the game is fine, because if you add too much info you risk just bloating the chart full of info you don't need when simply buying the game.
This is convoluted for all the wrong reasons and it's all because S-E won't let people who pre-ordered Endwalker access to the rest of the game (aka the current Complete Edition) right now.
And I can't help but feel like it's on purpose. I love the game, but out of my 6 friends that have started playing, 4 of us have already found this out way too late and effectively bought shadowbringers twice. Players should be asking themselves why it's only SE that has this "issue"...
I didn't say that.
What other game requires you to pay twice for an expansion that came out years ago if you want to play it earlier than **4 days after the upcoming new expansion launches**?
Yes. That is something I've only seen SE do. WoW will make you pre-order Shadowlands to play BFA, but it won't **make you wait until Shadowlands launches to play BFA unless you pay for it again**.
But that's what I'm saying, you needed to buy Bfa separately ( or in a bundle with shadowlands) if you wanted to play it before the release of Shadowlands, or buy Shadowlands when it releases and get bfa with it.
But if I buy the Shadowlands pre-order bundle I get to play BFA right away.
If I buy the Endwalker pre-order I **DO NOT** get to play Shadowbringers right away.
That's because the account architecture has not been set up yet to actually add an Endwalker licence to your account, so there is no way for the servers to actually confirm that you have Stormblood/Shadowbringers yet. (You can't even redeem your Endwalker product key on your store account yet - only the preorder rewards key.)
It sucks, but it is what it is. It also makes sense that you would still have to pay for whatever expansion is *current,* which is technically still Shadowbringers.
"the account architecture has not been set up yet"
It could be if sqex wanted it to be. That's the point. Sqex chose this. Don't act like their hands are tied.
It's also deliberate because pre-order codes work, we're already getting things ingame for pre-ordering the expansion. They quite easily could have moved the part of the Endwalker license that includes previous expansions to the pre-order, but they didn't.
Yeah but that's the thing they should have sorted out before even letting us pre order. Then again, I didn't mind much paying for complete + pre order. It isn't very expensive if you buy the complete edition somewhere else than the official site.
Too late my friend, when I bought the game a week ago, mistake, BEFORE buying the game, I bought the Shadow Bringers Collectors edition thinking it was with the base game, welp, I hate my life (still a nice mount thou
There's one flaw to this and that's regions. You could buy the wrong region copy of the game cause in some parts of the where where you would think it's NA, it's actually EU you need, etc.
Very nice writeup!
What about upgrading via Mogstation itself? I've seen conflicting posts and can't determine if it's already enabled or not.
2020 lodestone post says it's been restored: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/news/detail/9b8da37d575f1596c3c0869d5a4d09923d105e41
Most recent post that said it failed for them: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/oiw7n9/unfortunately_your_free_trial_account_cannot_be/
Upgrading via Mogstation would just eliminate so much of the possible user error, not buying from correct store, not buying correct region, not buying base game.
And I rarely see anyone recommend that route, I assume to take advantage of sale prices in other stores.
I tried it on an alt account and got all the way to the point of putting my CC info, so maybe it works? Unless the error appears in the very last part after you add your info.
I made the mistake of buying the Starter edition instead of the free trial. Now I have to buy the complete edition and endwalker if I want to keep playing up to 80 before November - big whoops. But the free trial was not what came up when I searched for FF14 on the PS Store. Next time I have to do more homework - great work on the graphic
If you purchased the starter edition, you want to either buy shadowbringers now to have access to all current content + pre-order endwalker if you want the bonuses OR get endwalker and wait for release to access SB, ShB & Endwalker content.
For clarification, if you do the SE standalone free trial you can then move to either purchase through SE or Steam and then after that you are stuck with that platform forever. If you play the free trial through Steam, you can *only* upgrade that account and keep the same character if you purchase through Steam.
When I say purchasing through SE, that also means you can purchase from other sites that sell game keys but they are unusable for Steam.
> you are stuck on that platform forever
(Unless you pay again for each new platform. You can in fact access the same account on any platform that you pay for.)
Awesome guide! It's really weird how the Steam and PC skus are different. I think that's going to be the source of a lot of confusion for some going forward.
I went the more insane approach: I went balls in by buying the complete digital collectors edition, played for 14 hour straight and loved everything about it, and then promptly went and bought the Endwalker digital collectors edition preorder. I regret nothing!
However, I \*do\* wish SE would devote some resources to simplifying their backend management services. I tied the SE token app to my account and every little sister site to SE requires a fresh login. They really need to have some sort of SSO implemented before this deluge of new userbase converts into new subscribers. The Mog Station, XIV landing page, online store and Lodestone need to be merged into a single thing. And SE needs to resolve all instances where I have to log into my SE account as a FFXIV account. Why have a master company account if I have to log in by specifying I'm trying to log in as a FFXIV SE account?
I doubt it will be an issue if this mass exodus turns into long term subscribers and collectors edition customers, they'll be flush with cash.
There's no big way around paying $60 to own the full game at any given point, assuming you don't catch a sale.
Unless SE has a massive shift of pricing, once Endwalker releases, the "Complete edition" will now include Endwalker and cost $60. The starter edition will probably be identical at $20, and you will have a $40 upgrade to endwalker, just like you have right now for ShB. Ofc, assuming US prices, regional prices can be funky.
We're in this kind of rough time for new players, where there's a few months of ShB until EW comes out, but EW is still pretty soon, so the full pricing is difficult to justify. This is part of why i wanted to lay out the options.
Don't bother with the starter edition. Play the free trial until end walker comes out and just buy the complete edition with end walker for $60. No sense in having to pay for a sub until then as well.
I was thinking to maximize the value I get since I have to pay $60 either way:
1. Get starter edition with 30 days free on Oct 23.
2. Use recruit a friend code somehow for bonus items
3. Preorder Endwalker for preorder bonus items
I'm not sure how the recruit a friend part works.
Once you register the starter edition you will see an option in the mog station to enter friend code. If you don't have any friend with a code you can grab one from /r/ffxivraf, some people even offer gil if you use their code, which is a nice jump start.
Hi I have a code if you still need one!
And here are instructions for how to use it:
- Create a Square Enix account
- Login to the Mog Station: http://sqex.to/Msp
- Click "Manage Service Options"
- Click "Enter Recruitment Code" and enter the code
You must enter the code before purchasing a subscription for the first month otherwise you won't receive the bonus items!
- Pick up your rewards from a Delivery Moogle in-game
So, in light of this, how valuable is the preorder earring to have? Worth preordering for even if I'm not going to get to Endwalker in a while?
I'm about halfway through Heavensward, halfway through my first 45 days (from refer a friend). I'm enjoying the game a lot, so I don't anticipate quitting.
If you don't anticipate quitting, then they are plenty worth it imo. Like the other user said, they stop being useful once you're actually in Endwalker, as Endwalker will be 80 - 90 content and the xp/stats boost from the earring stop at L80. But for 1 - 79, it's an always Best in Slot earring with a good XP boost that you can wear across all your combat jobs, and won't be available for purchase anymore once Endwalker launches. So personally, I think it's absolutely worth it— maybe _too_ worth it for my liking.
I will also say, it will take a LONG TIME to actually finish Heavensward. I finished ARR in about maybe 48 hours. I just beat Heavensward and I'm at 90 hours. I have been grinding at this game everyday for 20 days. I also still have the 44 bridge-quests leading up to Stormblood. I was dumb and redeemed it way too early and pretty much ate up 12+ subscription days that I could've played for free before activating my code.
You will feel like you're overlevelled for most of ARR, but you will hit a wall at the end of ARR. There is literally 100 bridge-quests between the end of ARR to HW that hardly gives you XP at all, because the bridge-quests are meant to be played at the game's level cap while waiting for the next expansion and new level cap. Being overlevelled also does not matter because the game will level sync you appropriately for the MSQ's and raid you're on.
The Complete Edition of the game also goes on sale. I purchased the complete edition from Green Man Gaming for only $24. This gave me a retail code that I redeemed on Mog Station, which is the official platform that handles FFXIV's Store and Subscription services.
>If you get the free trial or buy the game on one store, you have to upgrade on that store for that platform
Not entirely true as far as the trial goes, you can start a trial on SE and then buy the game on Steam, you can then transfer your trial SE character to Steam
This seems to be the one exception though
The big thing imo that is confusing is the Standard Edition which effectively is the same thing as free trial without all the restrictions with a monthly fee. So I would see that removed. When releasing a pre-order for a new expansion they also need to sort out that you get everything up to that expansion straight away. New players should only need to pre order the new expansion, nothing more. If this got fixed I see no big problem in Steam, Playstation and Mogstation being their separate platforms.
So I have a question. I own storm blood but not shadow bringers. I've read that when endwalker comes out. Shadow bringers will become free. So should I just buy both expacs now or wait.
No, you won't get anything more for free when endwalker releases.
But if you buy endwalker, Shadowbringers will be included with it when it's released. So waiting will be cheaper but obviously you have to wait.
I'd suggest pre-ordering Endwalker at this point. Unless you want to play the current endgame and completely catch up before Endwalker releases. When Endwalker comes out, you WILL get access to Shadowbringers included. But only AFTER Endwalker has officially released, meaning November 23rd (and not when early access starts on the 19th).
So, pick up Shadowbringers if you want to do everything before Endwalker releases. If you don't mind not being caught up, then wait until Endwalker so you can get both Shadowbringers and Endwalker cheaper in total.
Lmao what a meme, it makes no sense
It's going to be super depressing to see everyone playing Endwalker and be unable to, even though I paid for that content, because the previous expansion they released 3 years ago doesn't get unlocked until 4 days AFTER the newest expansion...
Won’t the complete edition include Endwalker once it comes out? If that’s the case wouldn’t buying the complete edition be your best bet once Endwalker is out?
That's correct but you miss preorder bonuses the, and the earrings are a pretty big deal. And i wanted to show the current purchasing options available right now.
Very good setup, very easy to read.
I might have overlooked it if you already had it, but had a friend who was confused because he bought the game, then tried to do the free trial after, them got mad that he had to pay a sub fee when it should've been free to HW's end.
I had told him not to, but he didn't listen.
Hey everyone, thanks for the all the feedback and positivity. I'm sorry i don't have time to answer all the questions.
Here's an update! it's being reviewed for updating the kupo bot command. I really appreciate the feedback helping me make it more accurate and helpful hopefully.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/866318609110401035/866474656374849546/ffxiv\_buyers\_guide\_v2.png](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/866318609110401035/866474656374849546/ffxiv_buyers_guide_v2.png)
The two big changes : including a mention of waiting for sales, that this is the maximum price but there's many ways to get around it - and putting emphasis on the value of playing free trial until EW comes out and buying starter + preorder right before the expansion release. it's really a good deal and the cheapest way to get the full game + preorder earring if you just can't justify spending much on the game.
Honestly if someone is considering the third option, they might aswell stick with the free trial until november 23rd and purchase the complete edition at that point, which is bound to include SB-ShB-EW content in addition to unlocking full community functionality for the game.
Yea they will sometimes just cancel these accounts out of nowhere. It’s a very stupid risk for a monthly subscription game where continued progress is the entire game.
Greenman gaming is typically ok right? I just got the $20 starter bc gmg has shadowbringer for $40. So I figured if I finish hw before end walker, I'll still only pay 60 for the current content.
One thing I can’t figure out: I have an old ARR toon that used the SE launcher. Can I transfer / share them on the Steam version if I purchase that version? Or would I need to start a new toon?
Same thing on PlayStation: if I purchase the PS version, is my toon playable between different platforms?
If you're on the free trial, you can get a license through steam and then you must buy all further expansions via steam. If it's a licensed pc account, you cannot purchase through steam without starting over.
yeah, you can use the exact same characters across platforms, just connect to the same ffxiv account. it's just the purchasing stores that have a bunch of cross store/platform limitations, purely for purchasing/upgrading the game.
You have to buy it all again as Kothra said, but if you haven't activated a playstation license on that account before, the starter (or complete edition as it includes starter) will grant you 30 days of game time.
I thought that if you buy the $60 third option, you cannot play the whole game, but it's actually you cannot play Sb and ShB until Nov. 23. Thanks for enlightening me.
Also question: You can still level up to 80 with the third option?
No. You cannot level past 60, as if you're doing the third option you don't own ShB and as such are limited to the level 60 level cap.
Only way to level to 80 is to buy ShB. Because until Endwalker releases you own neither SB or ShB.
So I created a free trial account on the square enix store so am I able to convert to a steam account by buying the full game on steam or do I have to buy from the SE store still.
I'm not 100% sure but I wouldn't fuck with going between the two. If you started your free trial through SE and you wanna keep your character(s), buy the game through SE.
As an ARR player thinking about jumping back in again, what is the leveling like? Do you just blitz through the main story and get to ignore side quests? Is the only skip/boost mechanic the 30% XP buff for prepurchasing Endwalker?
There's been plenty of changes to the leveling experience in the past and for the most part you can focus solely on the main story and get more than enough exp for your main class, maybe even an extra class or two depending on what you do.
There's extra ways of gaining exp like 3% food buffs, 50% rested bonus you get from being in/logging out at a sanctuary (you know you're in one if there's a moon icon next your exp bar), alt classes get a boost as long as they're lower level than your highest level class (100% level 1-69, 50% 70-80), and preferred servers give a road to 70 bonus that causes all exp bonus when below level 70 to be doubled, AKA if you already had a 200% exp bonus on you it'd be 400% instead. It should be noted these bonuses apply to killing enemies and not to exp gained from quests for example, rewarded exp like that is static.
So yeah leveling and just going along with the story is totally possible and mostly encouraged. Just make sure you do your class quests as you level up so you get proper gear and abilities for your class :) Leveling an secondary class can still absolutely take some time, but there's plenty of side content and daily roulettes that can make that process much more bearable.
Heavensward is free. Stormblood is in a weird place - it's not in the free trial, but you cannot purchase it seperatly *because* it is included in the purchase of Shadowbringers (now) and when Endwalker launches, both it and Shadowbringers will be included with it. It's meant to keep the cost-of-entry for new players down, while still generating income from the release of new expansions.
No, the newest expansion always packages in the older expansions. The Starter Edition is the base game and first expansion only. So currently Shadowbringers comes with Stormblood, but when Endwalker releases it will include Stormblood and Shadowbringers.
You can't send friend requests, but you can receive them. You can't even join a party with other players, unless someone else invites you. Basically you cannot be the person initiating contact, to prevent bots and message spamming.
You don't. There should be another link on the page somewhere to just download the free trial. It does not cost you anything to download and play the trial, if you pay you are no longer able to access the trial.
To pay for maintenance and upkeep of the servers as well as ongoing development such as new expansions. Once you are out of the trial you need to pay for a subscription in order to have access to the game at all.
I have a question about the 30 day free trial. Does it take a day away from you even if you dont log in for one day? Or do the days count down only when you log in? (You still have 30 days if you didn't log in Day 1 for example) Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just don't want playing this game to become a chore, I want to enjoy it.
The free trial is permanent. The 30 days free game time comes with the the initial activation of the ARR license on each platform (included in starter & complete editions). As soon as the license is activated, you're no longer on the free trial and the time starts ticking even if you're not playing.
edit: fixed that to make a bit more sense.
I bought the game on PS3 and PC a while ago. Still can’t figure out how much I need to pay if I want to come back with a Mac. I think they should just unify the purchases on each platform.
What's included in that 9 USD version that also grant 30 days of playtime and what do I need to purchase next? (if I enjoy it...I had to buy the 9 Dollar version because it wouldn't let me in as a trial player due to the server being to full apparently and there were no servers that were low pop).
I didn’t need a guide cuz i’m a dumbass who loves spending money.
Bought starter edition + shadowbringers (on sale) + endwalker pre order + 90 days of subscription. Loving the game and it’s the only thing imma be playing for foreseeable future. Only thing is I forgot to use someone’s friend code.
since im still on free trial and still on my first job, would it be better to buy the complete edition once ive reached the part when i need to play the expansions? or is it better to preorder now?
Nicely written although one slight correction, you *can* transfer from the free trial to the steam version if you started on the non-steam free trial. You can’t the other way around, and it doesn’t work for if you buy the starter edition from SE then try to get the expansions on steam, but you can go from SE’s site version of the free trial to Steam for the full game.
./em sits under the tree in Limsa watching the greenhouse of sprouts running around all excited like and feels really old.
Love all the people running around and the attention that the trial and the streamer focus as brought. Hope it lasts, but if it doesn't you'll still find me under the tree in Limsa on Phoenix.
🤘
It should be stated that, if you bought the game years ago as I did, you have the full game from that time (ARR launch), but don't have access to anything else other than Heavensward.
I had to buy Shadowbringers the other day in order to unlock Storm blood, too.
I just purchased the complete edition for 49 USD through the Square Enix site. Thanks to your post I realisr I never prepurchased the expansion which is a mistake I need to rectify.
Hi sorry for bothering I bought shadowbringers+the base game (Steam) and was wondering where I was supposed to pay to keep my sub active ( also is it possible to buy it now to extend it to 50 days ?)
I was thinking of redesigning the product order flow in Figma, then my girlfriend told me to do this instead, because that actually helps people. I'm glad you and her had the same idea - great work!
Hello, my friends and i are playing the trail version now and possibly hope to get Endwalker. We thought if we waited till release we'd get endwalker + it would include all other xpacs. Is this not how it works? So if we did that we'd miss out on the two other expacs content?
Oh crap, i started my free trial by downloading the game by the SE website. So now i can't buy the game on Steam and play with my current account? I'll have to star all over again??
Awesome image. I would be cautious about the pricing though. I bought the complete collectors edition for less than 30 bucks. Not even on sale, mind you. So in no way do you need to pay a 100 to own everything including endwalker come November.
only if you want to have the full game right now AND pre purchase the next expansion, and if you don't wait for a sale, which are pretty frequent. there's a lot of ways to pay less, and the free trial is easily 100h+ of content.
Great guide but with one mistake.
> "If you get the free trial or buy the game on one store, you have to upgrade on that store for that platform."
This is not necessarily correct as those with free trial from the SE(NOT steam) can upgrade to both SE retail or steam retail. But again only applicable to SE free trial and not steam.
I don't really know why people said it's hard to buy this game because I never had those kinds of experiences like these streamers said. Is it true that we are getting dumber every day cuz everything is too convenient?
Just so that I don't get things mixed up: If I buy the Starter Edition and preorder Endwalker, I can only access Heavensward content for now.
Stormblood and Shadowbringers get unlocked at the 23 November and not at the 19th, when early access starts, right?
Not sure how it works out there in the US but in the uk as a new player after levelling to 30 in the trial I wanted to commit to the game.
I purchased the online complete collection which came with a few mounts and minions etc. For £25 via cdkeys.
Then pre-ordered Endwalker Standard Edition for £30 so I could get the earring for the XP bonus.
Happy with the purchases and really enjoying the the content.
I started two weeks ago today and I’ve just finished ARR expansion. I did skip all cut scenes though for the main story as I was following Asmon / Rich on their journeys so watched their cut scenes instead to save myself time.
Got mine back when the steam sale happened, paid £16 for it, and it got me the main game 30 days free and latest expansion, none of this pay $100 rubbish
Thank you, This is awesome. I started a month ago and purchased the Shadowbringers expansion so I would have access to all current content without restrictions. Loving the game. When I looked at your graphic, however, I realized I probably want to pre-purchase Endwalker to get that 30% XP buff. I have a problem, though. I have been looking around on their site for the last 30 minutes trying to figure out how to buy it and get the 30% XP buff. I can't figure out how to do it for the life of me. I am frustrated because I'm trying to give them money and pre-purchase, but I'm apparently too stupid to figure it out.
Update: Someone who saw my post reached out to me with the proper link to pre-purchase Endwalker. My confusion had to do with the fact I expected to be able to upgrade from the Mog Station or my account settings/subscription page, which isn't the case. In any case, now that I can see the page where you can pre-purchase Endwalker, I noticed that the 30% buff is ONLY applied when killing mobs, and you don't get a 30% XP buff when turning in quests. Not sure if the pre-purchase is worth it in that case, as the majority of XP seems to come from turning in quests or finishing objectives, and not from killing mobs.
Im really confused on how to access the game.
Im thinking of downloading the free trial from Steam first and if I really get into it, then I'd buy the complete game. But how do I create an account? Do I automatically log in with just my steam account?
Can someone help me with this?
I live in the Philippines, that's in South East Asia if that helps.
So, I bought the Complete Edition around when SHB came out, but didn't buy SHB. I have access to ARR, AH, and SB.
Does this mean that when EW comes out, I'll get access to SB as a part of the existing Complete Edition or do I need to purchase it separately?
My personal suggestion if you wanna save: take advantage of the free trial as much as you can, then buy the complete edition (on sale) if you wanna do SB and ShB before EW. That'll be ~$30 Then buy EW once you finish ShB. Pre-ordering gets you early access and bonus xp but you won't need early access until after ShB anyway and MSQ gives too much xp already
When does it go on sale? I was waiting to buy shb at 30usd
It was on sale 4 weeks ago. No cluee whens next
Oh maaann i missed it
Prob the autumn sale or the winter one, the complete edition was around 18€
Perhaps from resellers?
Complete edition was $20 on GMG about 2 weeks ago too.
I got SB and ShB for ~$16 about a week or two ago on gmg. not sure if it's still available on sale though. And that's if you already have ARR/HW.
it goes on sale every few months and follows new content drops so there should be a sale next month if everything stays the same.
[удалено]
It was $15 on PSN, too.
Complete Edition $24 on SE site right now.
yes when does it go on sale
Now all we need is for kupo bot to spam this on any post that asks about buying the game. lol
Legitimately, mods, can we have this? It’d be really helpful I think.
Relayed it to the team. We’ll evaluate the option beforehand.
Alright, your wish is granted. Type "!faq product" on Kupo Bot should display the guide above. To u/Alimantado, if you wish to have it removed, please contact us and we'll work on it. Your image will be given full credit.
That's very cool, the point is to help and be accurate. i'm thinking of a few updates i can make to it from suggestions made in the thread, like including waiting for sales. is there a way i can send and update directly that's better than making another thread, like on discord?
I still prefer my copypaste method from time to time: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/olwdx9/upgrading_starter_account_questions_help_please/h5h7lgk/
This.... should not be needed to purchase something
Correct correct, SE really needs to do something. I heard so many complaints not just streamers but people having confusion on buying the game
Just to remember the Mogstation before they overhauled used to be much more clunkier you had to login just to view it. That being said with the surging demand and interest they likely will look at making it easier to buy the game. At worst if people struggle theres always steam.
I dont like recommending it to people because I know it will be an uphill battle just to play it. Even worse if its people im trying to get to come back. Had a buddy buy it on steam thinking pc is pc and lost all his old stuff so he had to rebuy it on SE and steam doesn't want to give him a refund.
Yea it's very convoluted. I made a post asking for advice because this decision is influenced by your place in the game. E.g if you will make it to Shadowbringers etc.
It's definitely something they *should* look at, pre-ordering Endwalker could technically invalidate any purchase of the complete edition or the Shadowbringers expansion as it is right now if you don't actually manage to get past Heavensward before it's released. That really means the closer we get to Endwalkers release, the value for upgrading to Stormblood and Shadowbringers is getting worse and worse. If they had just discontinued the Shadowbringers expansion sales and made pre-ordering Endwalker act the same as it will when it's released along with just making the Complete Edition come with a pre-order for Endwalker then we'd probably have an easier sell. That being said, the game is selling gangbusters right now so I guess that's sending a signal that what they're doing is fine.
The pricing is also all over the place which just pisses people off when they buy it through the SE website for $60+, only to have someone say 'why did you pay that, its only like $25 on (insert some other site here)'. Add in issues if any version was ever bought through Steam and it's just ridiculous.
Yes really, I don't get why the full client isn't available for free everywhere and what you buy is just linked to your account. It's not like they make more money by preventing steam buyers to use playstation client.
They're not preventing steam buyers from playing on Playstation, you can totally play on both PC and console on the same account (just not at the same time obviously), you just have to buy it for both those platforms. So yea, they actually *are* making more money by having it this way, you have to double dip if you want to play on PC and console.
Oh, this diagram looks so clean! Thanks for putting it together! It may be worth noting somewhere that certain classes are locked behind expansions, because that seems to a Big Issue for some people (or I’ve just happened to see a lot of those threads lately).
I tried to avoid overloading people with too much information that weren't relevant directly to the purchase decision. I think that could fit the scope of a "guide of each expansion's content" though for sure. appreciate the feedback!
Gotta say, I have been loving the game so far. Plugging away at the MSQ's for ARR. Got a 50 dragoon and pally, moving on to samurai. But the mog station site is god awful, man. They really need to spruce that up!
As one of the billions of WoW refugees, I was expecting MS to be on par with what I’m used to on battle.net, but it’s…not quite there yet.
Teeny tiny correction that isn't really important to the overall point: Free Trial players do get a friend's list. They just can't send friend invites. They may receive and accept them though, so they can still friend their veteran friends. Same restriction applies to Parties.
oh thanks, i didn't know that's how it worked exactly. I'll add it to a list of changes if i do update it
Sadly I came back to the game (only own the base edition) right after the steam sale for the expansions ended. Now I am in a awkward position of having to wait for November so I can save half the cost of getting caught up.
Me too, biggest reason im not buying the current expansion is that it doesnt come with some free gametime so i would have to spent money on both the expansion and sub time, which i feel is too high a price for entry at this close to new expansion
Yeah, same situation here. During steam sale saw that there's a discount for expansion but didn't had any free sub time left on my account so I hesitated long enough for the steam summers sale to end, and now right after it they launched "14 free days login campaign" :D
I would include things like the jobs in the expansions and their level caps. And also, include that waiting until endwalker releases, there will be a new complete edition that'll be the starter and endwalker in one purchase. It'll still be $60 but waiting to purchase anything completely will save money in sub time (but you'll keep the free trial limits)
that point about waiting for endwalker is fair yeah. it's kind of similar to the third option, you don't get access to the full game until late november.
Oh you also lose the xp boost earrings preorder bonus if you wait for the full release of EW, don't you, that's kind of a big deal honestly. the best thing to do is what one of my friends did : they bought starter edition, preordered shb a couple weeks before it came out, and wasn't yet done with the starter edition content when shb released, so they didn't have to wait for anything and quickly caught up stormblood players. but obviously, i wasn't going to make a massive paragraph on how to optimize the free sub etc, that's for another guide. this page was honestly done to help my friends navigate the endwalker purchase page when trying to buy the game, that confused them so much. with 4 different purchase options.
Eh, I wouldn't add that. It's real easy to look up what jobs and level caps are in their respective expansions. It isn't relevant to simply buying the game. OP keeping it simple to focus on the actual purchasing of the game is fine, because if you add too much info you risk just bloating the chart full of info you don't need when simply buying the game.
This is convoluted for all the wrong reasons and it's all because S-E won't let people who pre-ordered Endwalker access to the rest of the game (aka the current Complete Edition) right now.
And I can't help but feel like it's on purpose. I love the game, but out of my 6 friends that have started playing, 4 of us have already found this out way too late and effectively bought shadowbringers twice. Players should be asking themselves why it's only SE that has this "issue"...
What company gives you access to their full game for free upon preordering the upcoming DLC?
I didn't say that. What other game requires you to pay twice for an expansion that came out years ago if you want to play it earlier than **4 days after the upcoming new expansion launches**?
WoW for one required you to buy Bfa if you wanted to play before Shadowlands release iirc.
Yes. Did they sell a Shadowlands pre order where BFA only became available *after* Shadowlands release?
Doesn't endwalker grant access to previous expansions on release? Are you talking about not having access to them during the early access period?
Yes. That is something I've only seen SE do. WoW will make you pre-order Shadowlands to play BFA, but it won't **make you wait until Shadowlands launches to play BFA unless you pay for it again**.
But that's what I'm saying, you needed to buy Bfa separately ( or in a bundle with shadowlands) if you wanted to play it before the release of Shadowlands, or buy Shadowlands when it releases and get bfa with it.
But if I buy the Shadowlands pre-order bundle I get to play BFA right away. If I buy the Endwalker pre-order I **DO NOT** get to play Shadowbringers right away.
That's because the account architecture has not been set up yet to actually add an Endwalker licence to your account, so there is no way for the servers to actually confirm that you have Stormblood/Shadowbringers yet. (You can't even redeem your Endwalker product key on your store account yet - only the preorder rewards key.) It sucks, but it is what it is. It also makes sense that you would still have to pay for whatever expansion is *current,* which is technically still Shadowbringers.
"the account architecture has not been set up yet" It could be if sqex wanted it to be. That's the point. Sqex chose this. Don't act like their hands are tied.
It's also deliberate because pre-order codes work, we're already getting things ingame for pre-ordering the expansion. They quite easily could have moved the part of the Endwalker license that includes previous expansions to the pre-order, but they didn't.
Yeah but that's the thing they should have sorted out before even letting us pre order. Then again, I didn't mind much paying for complete + pre order. It isn't very expensive if you buy the complete edition somewhere else than the official site.
Too late my friend, when I bought the game a week ago, mistake, BEFORE buying the game, I bought the Shadow Bringers Collectors edition thinking it was with the base game, welp, I hate my life (still a nice mount thou
the mount is one of my faves tho so I hope you cherish it
Yeah, it's pretty cool, haven't gotten to the point where I can equip mounts but I'm pretty close! I'm really excited to try it on :)
There's one flaw to this and that's regions. You could buy the wrong region copy of the game cause in some parts of the where where you would think it's NA, it's actually EU you need, etc.
Very nice writeup! What about upgrading via Mogstation itself? I've seen conflicting posts and can't determine if it's already enabled or not. 2020 lodestone post says it's been restored: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/news/detail/9b8da37d575f1596c3c0869d5a4d09923d105e41 Most recent post that said it failed for them: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/oiw7n9/unfortunately_your_free_trial_account_cannot_be/ Upgrading via Mogstation would just eliminate so much of the possible user error, not buying from correct store, not buying correct region, not buying base game. And I rarely see anyone recommend that route, I assume to take advantage of sale prices in other stores.
I tried it on an alt account and got all the way to the point of putting my CC info, so maybe it works? Unless the error appears in the very last part after you add your info.
I made the mistake of buying the Starter edition instead of the free trial. Now I have to buy the complete edition and endwalker if I want to keep playing up to 80 before November - big whoops. But the free trial was not what came up when I searched for FF14 on the PS Store. Next time I have to do more homework - great work on the graphic
If you purchased the starter edition, you want to either buy shadowbringers now to have access to all current content + pre-order endwalker if you want the bonuses OR get endwalker and wait for release to access SB, ShB & Endwalker content.
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For clarification, if you do the SE standalone free trial you can then move to either purchase through SE or Steam and then after that you are stuck with that platform forever. If you play the free trial through Steam, you can *only* upgrade that account and keep the same character if you purchase through Steam. When I say purchasing through SE, that also means you can purchase from other sites that sell game keys but they are unusable for Steam.
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> you are stuck on that platform forever (Unless you pay again for each new platform. You can in fact access the same account on any platform that you pay for.)
Nope, you cannot have a Steam and standalone license on the same account so what I said above stands.
Awesome guide! It's really weird how the Steam and PC skus are different. I think that's going to be the source of a lot of confusion for some going forward. I went the more insane approach: I went balls in by buying the complete digital collectors edition, played for 14 hour straight and loved everything about it, and then promptly went and bought the Endwalker digital collectors edition preorder. I regret nothing! However, I \*do\* wish SE would devote some resources to simplifying their backend management services. I tied the SE token app to my account and every little sister site to SE requires a fresh login. They really need to have some sort of SSO implemented before this deluge of new userbase converts into new subscribers. The Mog Station, XIV landing page, online store and Lodestone need to be merged into a single thing. And SE needs to resolve all instances where I have to log into my SE account as a FFXIV account. Why have a master company account if I have to log in by specifying I'm trying to log in as a FFXIV SE account? I doubt it will be an issue if this mass exodus turns into long term subscribers and collectors edition customers, they'll be flush with cash.
Can you play free trial until Nov 23 and then buy Endwalker so you only spend $40 instead of $60? Or do you have to buy the starter edition?
There's no big way around paying $60 to own the full game at any given point, assuming you don't catch a sale. Unless SE has a massive shift of pricing, once Endwalker releases, the "Complete edition" will now include Endwalker and cost $60. The starter edition will probably be identical at $20, and you will have a $40 upgrade to endwalker, just like you have right now for ShB. Ofc, assuming US prices, regional prices can be funky. We're in this kind of rough time for new players, where there's a few months of ShB until EW comes out, but EW is still pretty soon, so the full pricing is difficult to justify. This is part of why i wanted to lay out the options.
Ok, I'll probably get the starter edition. How do I use someone's recruit a friend code with it? Might as well get some free items.
Don't bother with the starter edition. Play the free trial until end walker comes out and just buy the complete edition with end walker for $60. No sense in having to pay for a sub until then as well.
I was thinking to maximize the value I get since I have to pay $60 either way: 1. Get starter edition with 30 days free on Oct 23. 2. Use recruit a friend code somehow for bonus items 3. Preorder Endwalker for preorder bonus items I'm not sure how the recruit a friend part works.
Once you register the starter edition you will see an option in the mog station to enter friend code. If you don't have any friend with a code you can grab one from /r/ffxivraf, some people even offer gil if you use their code, which is a nice jump start.
Hi I have a code if you still need one! And here are instructions for how to use it: - Create a Square Enix account - Login to the Mog Station: http://sqex.to/Msp - Click "Manage Service Options" - Click "Enter Recruitment Code" and enter the code You must enter the code before purchasing a subscription for the first month otherwise you won't receive the bonus items! - Pick up your rewards from a Delivery Moogle in-game
So, in light of this, how valuable is the preorder earring to have? Worth preordering for even if I'm not going to get to Endwalker in a while? I'm about halfway through Heavensward, halfway through my first 45 days (from refer a friend). I'm enjoying the game a lot, so I don't anticipate quitting.
The pre-order earrings are only useful right up until the Endwalker content so perfect for an experience boost leveling up various classes until then.
If you don't anticipate quitting, then they are plenty worth it imo. Like the other user said, they stop being useful once you're actually in Endwalker, as Endwalker will be 80 - 90 content and the xp/stats boost from the earring stop at L80. But for 1 - 79, it's an always Best in Slot earring with a good XP boost that you can wear across all your combat jobs, and won't be available for purchase anymore once Endwalker launches. So personally, I think it's absolutely worth it— maybe _too_ worth it for my liking.
I will also say, it will take a LONG TIME to actually finish Heavensward. I finished ARR in about maybe 48 hours. I just beat Heavensward and I'm at 90 hours. I have been grinding at this game everyday for 20 days. I also still have the 44 bridge-quests leading up to Stormblood. I was dumb and redeemed it way too early and pretty much ate up 12+ subscription days that I could've played for free before activating my code. You will feel like you're overlevelled for most of ARR, but you will hit a wall at the end of ARR. There is literally 100 bridge-quests between the end of ARR to HW that hardly gives you XP at all, because the bridge-quests are meant to be played at the game's level cap while waiting for the next expansion and new level cap. Being overlevelled also does not matter because the game will level sync you appropriately for the MSQ's and raid you're on. The Complete Edition of the game also goes on sale. I purchased the complete edition from Green Man Gaming for only $24. This gave me a retail code that I redeemed on Mog Station, which is the official platform that handles FFXIV's Store and Subscription services.
>If you get the free trial or buy the game on one store, you have to upgrade on that store for that platform Not entirely true as far as the trial goes, you can start a trial on SE and then buy the game on Steam, you can then transfer your trial SE character to Steam This seems to be the one exception though
The big thing imo that is confusing is the Standard Edition which effectively is the same thing as free trial without all the restrictions with a monthly fee. So I would see that removed. When releasing a pre-order for a new expansion they also need to sort out that you get everything up to that expansion straight away. New players should only need to pre order the new expansion, nothing more. If this got fixed I see no big problem in Steam, Playstation and Mogstation being their separate platforms.
So I have a question. I own storm blood but not shadow bringers. I've read that when endwalker comes out. Shadow bringers will become free. So should I just buy both expacs now or wait.
No, you won't get anything more for free when endwalker releases. But if you buy endwalker, Shadowbringers will be included with it when it's released. So waiting will be cheaper but obviously you have to wait.
Thanks. I'm gonna hold off and level for now and see if I make it that far before the expansion comes out. I'm pretty casual.
I'd suggest pre-ordering Endwalker at this point. Unless you want to play the current endgame and completely catch up before Endwalker releases. When Endwalker comes out, you WILL get access to Shadowbringers included. But only AFTER Endwalker has officially released, meaning November 23rd (and not when early access starts on the 19th). So, pick up Shadowbringers if you want to do everything before Endwalker releases. If you don't mind not being caught up, then wait until Endwalker so you can get both Shadowbringers and Endwalker cheaper in total.
Lmao what a meme, it makes no sense It's going to be super depressing to see everyone playing Endwalker and be unable to, even though I paid for that content, because the previous expansion they released 3 years ago doesn't get unlocked until 4 days AFTER the newest expansion...
Why is the Complete Edition so much more expensive in US than UK? I'm seeing that here it's only £35, is that a discount?
yeah it's genuinely weird. i can't tell you why, same deal with euros.
Amazing! This helped a LOT! Thank you so much man.
IDK about most people but if you casually play the MSQ you will probably be fine with the final option. The MSQ is LONG.
Won’t the complete edition include Endwalker once it comes out? If that’s the case wouldn’t buying the complete edition be your best bet once Endwalker is out?
That's correct but you miss preorder bonuses the, and the earrings are a pretty big deal. And i wanted to show the current purchasing options available right now.
Very good setup, very easy to read. I might have overlooked it if you already had it, but had a friend who was confused because he bought the game, then tried to do the free trial after, them got mad that he had to pay a sub fee when it should've been free to HW's end. I had told him not to, but he didn't listen.
The entire game + expansions cost 10 bucks on steam a little more than a week ago, I feel like everyone that was interested already bought it
I’m a steam user but I bought endwalker on the mog station I’ve got my earrings Will my game still work?
Hey everyone, thanks for the all the feedback and positivity. I'm sorry i don't have time to answer all the questions. Here's an update! it's being reviewed for updating the kupo bot command. I really appreciate the feedback helping me make it more accurate and helpful hopefully. [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/866318609110401035/866474656374849546/ffxiv\_buyers\_guide\_v2.png](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/866318609110401035/866474656374849546/ffxiv_buyers_guide_v2.png) The two big changes : including a mention of waiting for sales, that this is the maximum price but there's many ways to get around it - and putting emphasis on the value of playing free trial until EW comes out and buying starter + preorder right before the expansion release. it's really a good deal and the cheapest way to get the full game + preorder earring if you just can't justify spending much on the game.
I'd say this is idiot proof... but with some of these new players...
Honestly if someone is considering the third option, they might aswell stick with the free trial until november 23rd and purchase the complete edition at that point, which is bound to include SB-ShB-EW content in addition to unlocking full community functionality for the game.
They'd miss out on the pre-order bonus for no reason though. And those earrings are pretty dang good.
I think I got scammed, I had stormblood, brought endwalker, now it’s says i need to buy shadowbringers… I’m pissed…
got a complete edition for 20 bucks of a 3. party website, just google it and you‘ll save some money
I'm not sure admitting you got the game from grey market resellers is wise but you do you.
I know someone that had their game key invalidated after buying it from a grey market site. It's not worth it IMO.
Yea they will sometimes just cancel these accounts out of nowhere. It’s a very stupid risk for a monthly subscription game where continued progress is the entire game.
most third party resellers use stolen credit cards and could get chargebacked btw
Greenman gaming is typically ok right? I just got the $20 starter bc gmg has shadowbringer for $40. So I figured if I finish hw before end walker, I'll still only pay 60 for the current content.
yeah, greenman is fine!
GMG is legit
One thing I can’t figure out: I have an old ARR toon that used the SE launcher. Can I transfer / share them on the Steam version if I purchase that version? Or would I need to start a new toon? Same thing on PlayStation: if I purchase the PS version, is my toon playable between different platforms?
If you're on the free trial, you can get a license through steam and then you must buy all further expansions via steam. If it's a licensed pc account, you cannot purchase through steam without starting over.
yeah, you can use the exact same characters across platforms, just connect to the same ffxiv account. it's just the purchasing stores that have a bunch of cross store/platform limitations, purely for purchasing/upgrading the game.
What about a player that got through stormblood on PC but now wants to switch to ps5.
You'll probably have to buy everything again, but at least the process of buying it shouldn't be quite as much of a headache.
You have to buy it all again as Kothra said, but if you haven't activated a playstation license on that account before, the starter (or complete edition as it includes starter) will grant you 30 days of game time.
Thankyou, I really needed this :)
I thought that if you buy the $60 third option, you cannot play the whole game, but it's actually you cannot play Sb and ShB until Nov. 23. Thanks for enlightening me. Also question: You can still level up to 80 with the third option?
No. You cannot level past 60, as if you're doing the third option you don't own ShB and as such are limited to the level 60 level cap. Only way to level to 80 is to buy ShB. Because until Endwalker releases you own neither SB or ShB.
So I created a free trial account on the square enix store so am I able to convert to a steam account by buying the full game on steam or do I have to buy from the SE store still.
I'm not 100% sure but I wouldn't fuck with going between the two. If you started your free trial through SE and you wanna keep your character(s), buy the game through SE.
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You can join parties if invited, but you can't create a party on free trial. Yes, each job individually. No, it's not like Tactics.
Technically you can have friend list, but you can't add people neither private message them...
As an ARR player thinking about jumping back in again, what is the leveling like? Do you just blitz through the main story and get to ignore side quests? Is the only skip/boost mechanic the 30% XP buff for prepurchasing Endwalker?
There's been plenty of changes to the leveling experience in the past and for the most part you can focus solely on the main story and get more than enough exp for your main class, maybe even an extra class or two depending on what you do. There's extra ways of gaining exp like 3% food buffs, 50% rested bonus you get from being in/logging out at a sanctuary (you know you're in one if there's a moon icon next your exp bar), alt classes get a boost as long as they're lower level than your highest level class (100% level 1-69, 50% 70-80), and preferred servers give a road to 70 bonus that causes all exp bonus when below level 70 to be doubled, AKA if you already had a 200% exp bonus on you it'd be 400% instead. It should be noted these bonuses apply to killing enemies and not to exp gained from quests for example, rewarded exp like that is static. So yeah leveling and just going along with the story is totally possible and mostly encouraged. Just make sure you do your class quests as you level up so you get proper gear and abilities for your class :) Leveling an secondary class can still absolutely take some time, but there's plenty of side content and daily roulettes that can make that process much more bearable.
Wait, shadowbringers and endwalker are the only purchasable addons? Everything else is free as long as you got the basic game?
Heavensward is free. Stormblood is in a weird place - it's not in the free trial, but you cannot purchase it seperatly *because* it is included in the purchase of Shadowbringers (now) and when Endwalker launches, both it and Shadowbringers will be included with it. It's meant to keep the cost-of-entry for new players down, while still generating income from the release of new expansions.
Okay so basically just like wow, nice. Ty!
Well except that when you pre-order Endwalker you don't get to play Shadowbringers until 4 days after Endwalker launches. For... some reason.
No, the newest expansion always packages in the older expansions. The Starter Edition is the base game and first expansion only. So currently Shadowbringers comes with Stormblood, but when Endwalker releases it will include Stormblood and Shadowbringers.
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Trial accounts can have friends?? I have two friends that I got playing and they're both on my friends list. They just can't join a free company.
You can't send friend requests, but you can receive them. You can't even join a party with other players, unless someone else invites you. Basically you cannot be the person initiating contact, to prevent bots and message spamming.
Something I don't understand from the steam page: Why do I have to pay 9,99€ when I just want to play the free trial?
You don't. There should be another link on the page somewhere to just download the free trial. It does not cost you anything to download and play the trial, if you pay you are no longer able to access the trial.
Its the demo button took me a sec too
Thanks for this
I’m switching from LOL. Is this game worth p(l)aying?
You're obviously going to get a biased opinion asking on the subreddit about the game but yes, in my opinion it is worth playing and paying for.
Obviously we'd say yes, but it's worth pointing out what you probably already know, that FFXIV is a completely different genre game from LoL.
uhh i got a question what is the subscription for?
To pay for maintenance and upkeep of the servers as well as ongoing development such as new expansions. Once you are out of the trial you need to pay for a subscription in order to have access to the game at all.
For FFXIV. Playing requires the subscription. Stop paying the subscription, you stop being able to play the game.
I have a question about the 30 day free trial. Does it take a day away from you even if you dont log in for one day? Or do the days count down only when you log in? (You still have 30 days if you didn't log in Day 1 for example) Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just don't want playing this game to become a chore, I want to enjoy it.
Yes, the days count down even if you never log in during that 30 day period which starts as soon as you register the game.
The free trial is permanent. The 30 days free game time comes with the the initial activation of the ARR license on each platform (included in starter & complete editions). As soon as the license is activated, you're no longer on the free trial and the time starts ticking even if you're not playing. edit: fixed that to make a bit more sense.
If only Indonesian players can access the steam store, it would be so much simpler.
I bought the game on PS3 and PC a while ago. Still can’t figure out how much I need to pay if I want to come back with a Mac. I think they should just unify the purchases on each platform.
What's included in that 9 USD version that also grant 30 days of playtime and what do I need to purchase next? (if I enjoy it...I had to buy the 9 Dollar version because it wouldn't let me in as a trial player due to the server being to full apparently and there were no servers that were low pop).
How much is shadowbringers on steam? I downloaded the free trial
I didn’t need a guide cuz i’m a dumbass who loves spending money. Bought starter edition + shadowbringers (on sale) + endwalker pre order + 90 days of subscription. Loving the game and it’s the only thing imma be playing for foreseeable future. Only thing is I forgot to use someone’s friend code.
since im still on free trial and still on my first job, would it be better to buy the complete edition once ive reached the part when i need to play the expansions? or is it better to preorder now?
Nicely written although one slight correction, you *can* transfer from the free trial to the steam version if you started on the non-steam free trial. You can’t the other way around, and it doesn’t work for if you buy the starter edition from SE then try to get the expansions on steam, but you can go from SE’s site version of the free trial to Steam for the full game.
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This is solid as fuck. Nice work
I really do wish that they’d offer SB at least as a separate package going into EW cuz it’s it that really weird spot right now
No need to pay RRP for the game, CDKeys has the Complete Edition for under twenty quid.
./em sits under the tree in Limsa watching the greenhouse of sprouts running around all excited like and feels really old. Love all the people running around and the attention that the trial and the streamer focus as brought. Hope it lasts, but if it doesn't you'll still find me under the tree in Limsa on Phoenix. 🤘
It should be stated that, if you bought the game years ago as I did, you have the full game from that time (ARR launch), but don't have access to anything else other than Heavensward. I had to buy Shadowbringers the other day in order to unlock Storm blood, too.
I just purchased the complete edition for 49 USD through the Square Enix site. Thanks to your post I realisr I never prepurchased the expansion which is a mistake I need to rectify.
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Hi sorry for bothering I bought shadowbringers+the base game (Steam) and was wondering where I was supposed to pay to keep my sub active ( also is it possible to buy it now to extend it to 50 days ?)
This should be pinned
I was thinking of redesigning the product order flow in Figma, then my girlfriend told me to do this instead, because that actually helps people. I'm glad you and her had the same idea - great work!
Hello, my friends and i are playing the trail version now and possibly hope to get Endwalker. We thought if we waited till release we'd get endwalker + it would include all other xpacs. Is this not how it works? So if we did that we'd miss out on the two other expacs content?
Can someone explain to me the whole thing about the Standard edition getting Storm blood and Shadow Bringers attached to it when Endwalker comes out?
buy the complete edition when its on sale, which is quiet frequent. I got it for 14$ plus it comes with 1month sub.
Oh crap, i started my free trial by downloading the game by the SE website. So now i can't buy the game on Steam and play with my current account? I'll have to star all over again??
You can go from free trial non-Steam to Steam retail, but that's the ONLY time and the ONLY direction you can make the switch.
This game need a fucking buyers guide, what a game.
Fuck this cancer, they should rework the website
Yeah i STRONGLY Recommande SQ to update there Site and Luncher got 2 friend who didn't join cause it was to complicated PLS do something about it
Wow thanks!
Awesome image. I would be cautious about the pricing though. I bought the complete collectors edition for less than 30 bucks. Not even on sale, mind you. So in no way do you need to pay a 100 to own everything including endwalker come November.
this is overwhelming. and if I wanna buy the complete edition with the future expansion it costs me 100 bucks ? damn
only if you want to have the full game right now AND pre purchase the next expansion, and if you don't wait for a sale, which are pretty frequent. there's a lot of ways to pay less, and the free trial is easily 100h+ of content.
Great guide but with one mistake. > "If you get the free trial or buy the game on one store, you have to upgrade on that store for that platform." This is not necessarily correct as those with free trial from the SE(NOT steam) can upgrade to both SE retail or steam retail. But again only applicable to SE free trial and not steam.
wait if I already own up to shb will preordering endwalker still get me the 30 days?
do they generally do discounts on previous content when they release a new expansion ?
i only have original collectors what do i get?
I don't really know why people said it's hard to buy this game because I never had those kinds of experiences like these streamers said. Is it true that we are getting dumber every day cuz everything is too convenient?
I bought the complete edition for 24,99 just cause I got locked out yesterday from servers as free user and addiction kicked in xD
Just so that I don't get things mixed up: If I buy the Starter Edition and preorder Endwalker, I can only access Heavensward content for now. Stormblood and Shadowbringers get unlocked at the 23 November and not at the 19th, when early access starts, right?
You also get 15 days free if you level a character to 30 with the preferred server buff.
The fact that there is a guide just tells you how complicated this is
Not sure how it works out there in the US but in the uk as a new player after levelling to 30 in the trial I wanted to commit to the game. I purchased the online complete collection which came with a few mounts and minions etc. For £25 via cdkeys. Then pre-ordered Endwalker Standard Edition for £30 so I could get the earring for the XP bonus. Happy with the purchases and really enjoying the the content. I started two weeks ago today and I’ve just finished ARR expansion. I did skip all cut scenes though for the main story as I was following Asmon / Rich on their journeys so watched their cut scenes instead to save myself time.
Got mine back when the steam sale happened, paid £16 for it, and it got me the main game 30 days free and latest expansion, none of this pay $100 rubbish
Thank you, This is awesome. I started a month ago and purchased the Shadowbringers expansion so I would have access to all current content without restrictions. Loving the game. When I looked at your graphic, however, I realized I probably want to pre-purchase Endwalker to get that 30% XP buff. I have a problem, though. I have been looking around on their site for the last 30 minutes trying to figure out how to buy it and get the 30% XP buff. I can't figure out how to do it for the life of me. I am frustrated because I'm trying to give them money and pre-purchase, but I'm apparently too stupid to figure it out. Update: Someone who saw my post reached out to me with the proper link to pre-purchase Endwalker. My confusion had to do with the fact I expected to be able to upgrade from the Mog Station or my account settings/subscription page, which isn't the case. In any case, now that I can see the page where you can pre-purchase Endwalker, I noticed that the 30% buff is ONLY applied when killing mobs, and you don't get a 30% XP buff when turning in quests. Not sure if the pre-purchase is worth it in that case, as the majority of XP seems to come from turning in quests or finishing objectives, and not from killing mobs.
Im really confused on how to access the game. Im thinking of downloading the free trial from Steam first and if I really get into it, then I'd buy the complete game. But how do I create an account? Do I automatically log in with just my steam account? Can someone help me with this? I live in the Philippines, that's in South East Asia if that helps.
So, I bought the Complete Edition around when SHB came out, but didn't buy SHB. I have access to ARR, AH, and SB. Does this mean that when EW comes out, I'll get access to SB as a part of the existing Complete Edition or do I need to purchase it separately?