🏠 Ultimate Guide to Creating an Alt for Jump Puzzles in FFXIV
Credits: Emerald, Emi, Cutestfox, Daranae, Zimanta
Table of contents
🎯 The Goal
For when one character isn’t enough for Jump Puzzles. This guide provides instructions for creating an alt for more Jump Puzzles while doing the bare minimum in Main Story Quest and Grand Company Rank.
🚀 The Process
The goal is to obtain a Grand Company on the alt, reach the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, and reach Level 50 on one job.
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📜 Get Through The Starting Area Story (MSQ): Complete the story of Limsa, Gridania, or Uldah. Reach the point where you can access all three starting cities via airship.
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🏰 Pass The First 3 Dungeons (MSQ): Clear Sastasha, Tam Tara Deepcroft, and Copperbell Mines. Recruit either a friend or benefactor to unsync them for you, queue them in Duty Finder, or unsync them yourself if you boosted. As of 6.1, you can also use trusts in these dungeons to save yourself from queues and issues.
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🔥 Defeat Ifrit (MSQ): Complete the Main Story Quest storyline in Eastern Thanalan involving Ifrit. Defeat Ifrit (with Trusts if necessary). You’ll be prompted to choose a Grand Company. Pick your Grand Company, then complete the solo instance associated with Biggs and Wedge and finish the introductory quest. Obtain your chocobo/mount access with the seals.
Clear Sylph Management to unlock jobs and be done with the MSQ.
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🏅 Begin Focusing On Your Grand Company Rank Only: Aim to become a 2nd Lieutenant. Raise your Grand Company Rank as quickly as possible. Complete your first Grand Company Log under Hunting Log, then either:
A) 🟣 Do FATESs in Costa Del Sol or Northern Thanalan (DPS / Overworld Method)
B) 🧙🏼♂️ Spam Adventurer In Need Leveling Roulette (Tank & Healer Method)
C) 👛 Turn in Grand Company Provisions (Crafting Method)
D) 🦴 Do Grand Company Leves at Camp Drybone (Wait One Week, See this link)
GC Rank Progression:
- 2k, 3k Ranks: 1st Grand Company Log, Wolves’ Den quest, MSQ quest at Waking Sands
- 4k and 5k Ranks: FATES / Adventurer In Need / Provisions / Drybone Company Leves
- 6k Rank: 2nd Grand Company Log
- 7k, 8k, 9k Ranks: Expert Deliveries / Misc Methods
💡 Potentially Helpful Decisions
Here are some decisions that can help you out:
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💰 Boosting: If you give your alt a Job Boost, you can automatically unsync all dungeons and will be overpowered in the ARR overworld for the possible FATE grind. However, this costs real life money and isn’t practical to do constantly unless you’re a whale. Using job and story boosts for the first alt in a region is suggested, but only if you have the money. Using both will give access to areas like Shirogane and Empyreum without friend warps, but this is costly. Avoid this if real life finances are tight.
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🤝 Using Your Main To Help: If you’re in the same region as your main, you can pass gil and furnishings through a friend or a mutually-shared Free Company Chest (if on the same server and in the same Free Company) to save money. Crafting furnishings is important sometimes to avoid Market Board price hikes, so crafting for yourself is useful. Some furnishings are cheapest on the Market Board, so keep an eye out.
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🙏 Get A Benefactor: If you’re building on another datacenter, gil and resources will be tight unless you buy multiple boosts. Getting someone to fund your project (or at least craft stuff for you) helps a lot.
That said, no one is obligated to do this for you!
If someone says no, respect that and stop pestering them. Even people who have been benefactors in the past may not want to fund Jump Puzzles indefinitely, so please respect people’s wishes.
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🏹 Job Choice & Chocobo: This is important if you don’t boost. Consider playing a healer or tank for fast dungeon queues if you use the Adventurer In Need Leveling Roulette Method. Archer/Bard is another good option for Peloton and reliable ranged/AOE attacks if you choose the FATE Method. For your chocobo, make it healer spec ASAP and learn Choco Cure so you can solo boss fates regardless of job.
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🏛️ Do Your Required Grand Company Dungeons: Complete any dungeons that are in the Grand Company Log or required for a rank up quest. Fortunately, these are optional dungeons. Do Halatali once you get the first Grand Company Log and Qarn once you get the second Grand Company Log. Complete Dzemaul Darkhold and Aurum Vale when the Grand Company prompts you to do them. Cutter’s Cry is necessary for Flames or maybe Adders instead of Qarn, but it can also be useful for gear, experience, and seals from Expert Deliveries. You won’t have Stone Vigil and may have to spam Cutter’s Cry a bit more while leveling via dungeons, but it’s very doable.
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🎉 Congratulations, You’re Free To Build!: By following the steps above, you should reach 2nd Lieutenant Rank and Level 50. At this point, you are free to build as you please and purchase an Apartment and a FC Room (prioritize the Apartment). Getting the furnishings and gil you need is another matter entirely.
🔢 GC Hunting Log and Promotions Guide
Without Seal Sweetener 10% Bonus
| Receive | Spend | Balance | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 | 300 | Return to Waking Sands after joining GC | |
| 200 | 100 | Buy Chocobo License | |
| 4725 | 4825 | Complete GC Hunting Log Rank 1 | |
| 2000 | 2825 | First Promotion | |
| 175 | 3000 | Fates or Adventurer in Need Bonus | |
| 3000 | 0 | Second Promotion | |
| 4000 | 4000 | Fates or Adventurer in Need Bonus | |
| 4000 | 0 | Third Promotion | |
| 5000 | 5000 | Fates or Adventurer in Need Bonus | |
| 5000 | 0 | Fifth Promotion - Rank 2 GC Hunts Unlocked | |
| 8565 | 8565 | Complete GC Hunting Log Rank 2 | |
| 6000 | 2565 | Sixth Promotion - Expert Deliveries Unlocked | |
| 4435 | 7000 | Expert Deliveries | |
| 7000 | 0 | Seventh Promotion - Dzemael Darkhold Unlocked | |
| 1265 | 1265 | Reward for Completing Dzemael Darkhold | |
| 6735 | 8000 | Expert Deliveries | |
| 8000 | 0 | Eight Promotion - Aurum Vale Unlocked | |
| 1366 | 1366 | Reward for Completing Aurum Vale | |
| 7634 | 9000 | Expert Deliveries | |
| 9000 | 0 | Final Promotion Needed - Get Building! |
| 18804 from Expert Deliveries | 9175 from other sources |
With Seal Sweetener 10% Bonus
| Receive | Spend | Balance | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| 330 | 330 | Return to Waking Sands after joining GC | |
| 200 | 130 | Buy Chocobo License | |
| 5203 | 5333 | Complete GC Hunting Log Rank 1 | |
| 2000 | 3333 | First Promotion | |
| 3000 | 333 | Second Promotion | |
| 3667 | 4000 | Fates or Adventurer in Need Bonus | |
| 4000 | 0 | Third Promotion | |
| 5000 | 5000 | Fates or Adventurer in Need Bonus | |
| 5000 | 0 | Fifth Promotion - Rank 2 GC Hunts Unlocked | |
| 9427 | 9427 | Complete GC Hunting Log Rank 2 | |
| 6000 | 3427 | Sixth Promotion - Expert Deliveries Unlocked | |
| 3573 | 7000 | Expert Deliveries | |
| 7000 | 0 | Seventh Promotion - Dzemael Darkhold Unlocked | |
| 1392 | 1392 | Reward for Completing Dzemael Darkhold | |
| 6608 | 8000 | Expert Deliveries | |
| 8000 | 0 | Eight Promotion - Aurum Vale Unlocked | |
| 1503 | 1503 | Reward for Completing Aurum Vale | |
| 7497 | 9000 | Expert Deliveries | |
| 9000 | 0 | Final Promotion Needed - Get Building! |
| 17678 from Expert Deliveries | 8667 from other sources |
Additional Info
Seals per turn-in for level 80 gear
| Without Bonus | With Bonus |
|---|---|
| 530 - 1779 | 530 - 1956 |
| 510 - 1743 | 510 - 1918 |
| 480 - 1691 | 480 - 1861 |
| 11-12 Pieces Total | 9-10 Pieces |
Seals per Adventurer Bonus
| Level | Without Bonus | With Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| 60 | 2250 | 2475 |
| 70 | 2940 | 3234 |
| 80 | 3360 | 3360 |
| 3-5 Runs Total | 3-4 Runs Total |
Notes
The absolute quickest way to prep an alt for building is to buy a tank or healer boost and take advantage of the Adventurer-in-Need bonus (AIN) and solo any dungeons you need to run. A story skip isn’t necessary but will save you time by negating the need to travel and quest up to the point of unlocking GCs, as well as offering flight for quick completion of your GC hunting logs.
Regardless of what role you use a job boost on, being level 80 will afford you the opportunity to unlock other jobs that have level requirements. It is preferable to have a character start in Limsa to give access to DNC and Peloton to cut foot travel time by 20%. It will also give access to SGE if a tank was boosted, which is handy if there is trouble with the AIN switching to the level 80 role. Starting in Gridania will provide access to GNB if a tank wasn’t boosted, though it starts at 60 and will require one extra AIN bonus to make promotion requirements. Another huge benefit to job boosting is converting the 530 gear into GC seals and saving gil, just make sure to save some for clearing Dzemael Darkhold and Aurum Vale as going in with no gear will not end well!
Buying boosts isn’t required by any means, and complete prep of a new character can be finished in one to two days if motivated. Prepping with a tank or healer is not necessary if leveling as DPS is preferred. Prepping as DPS is likely the fastest approach to no-AIN prep thanks to kill speed, and ranged DPS is even faster thanks to access to Peloton. If choosing to go the route of no boosting, try to have the main or a generous sponsor provide the gear for Expert Deliveries as this will save a lot of time.
💨 Quick Method for Maxing GC Rank (by Cutestfox)
For all ranks except 4 and 5, just doing the hunting log + expert delivery will carry through every GC rank naturally. The only real hurdle along the way is hitting a 9k seals shortage just two ranks before unlocking expert delivery which DPS alts get bricked on (where equipment hoarded from the dungeons along the way can be turned in, or mass-buy a bunch of 500 gil green items from the marketboard).
The quickest and easiest way by far is the camp drybone session, where these 9k seals can be grinded out in 20-30 minutes depending on speed. There’s a GC leve npc here with the following leves available:
Eastern Thanalan - 25/20
✓ - A Heart Aflame/The Burning Reason
✓ - Don’t Tear Down This Wall/A Cold-blooded Business
✓ - The Third Prize Is that You’re Slain/Blood in the Water
X - Food for Thought/Watch Me If You Can
Accept every single leve in the list except “food for thought” or “watch me if you can”, their leve plate icon is some purple thing and should be avoided at all costs- if accidentally accepted, just abandon it, it’s never worth doing.
With these leves, around 1k gc seals can be obtained per 1/3 minutes depending on luck with “a heart a flame/burning reason” which are literal 1 hit and win leves.
Generally, unlock leves immediately as soon as they’re available. Starting as archer for most alts, it takes around 30 minutes before reaching the clay golem instance (level 9) and unlocking leves right after and beginning to accumulate allowances (leves of bentbranch quest, lv10). It takes around 30 or so gc leves to gather enough seals to do the two promotions, with no job quest requirement.
One side note, save gc levelling for lv50/when flying is unlocked since it saves a lot of time and being able to steamroll every monster is much more comfortable.
This may be helpful for people who want to know where Hunting Log targets are and aren’t used to this yet: http://dimensionaldeath.com/index.php?page=huntinglogs
🧩 Puzzle Requirements
Some Jump Puzzles are more difficult to reach and clear than others. Here are some important factors that affect the accessibility of Jump Puzzles.
One character per region is required to fulfill these conditions for Optimal or Reasonable Access, with a total requirement of 4 characters for a Jumper seeking to complete every single Jump Puzzle.
🌍 Location Access
Some Jump Puzzles are located in places that not all characters / alts can reach. Puzzles in the first 3 starting zones may require airship access, puzzles that are in Empyreum require progression through the 3.0 MSQ, and puzzles in Shirogane require MSQ progression through the Sirensong Sea. These requirements can be circumvented by adding the builder to your Friend List and teleporting to their estate or apartment, but a truly devoted Jumper may decide to go the full distance and unlock these zones for themselves. It may not be possible to contact all builders either, which may make leveling and MSQ progress necessary.
🏃♂️ Speed Access
Some Jump Puzzles cannot be completed without the proper amount of speed at certain chokepoints. This is different from Location Access because technically all characters meet this requirement with Sprint. However, depending on only Sprint when multiple speed boosts exist in a Jump Puzzle is miserable. Therefore, the reasonable threshold for an alt is Level 20 Archer for Peloton.
For even more speed that may be helpful in the most difficult puzzles, Moon Flute from clearing 10 stages of Masked Carnivale on Blue Mage or Expedient from leveling Scholar to 90 can be useful. It’s possible to rotate Peloton, Moon Flute, and Expedient for maximum sustained speed.
💃🏼 Job Requirements
Lastly, perhaps the most controversial and rare of Jump Puzzle requirements: specific jobs. This comes up very rarely, but there are a few Jump Puzzles on the list that require specific abilities from certain jobs. They are marked as (J) on the Jump Puzzle lists. Dragoon at level 35, Dancer at level 60, and Reaper at level 70 aid with fulfilling these requirements. The higher level your character is, the more options open up.
🔼 Jumping Requirements
- 4 Characters, 1 Character Per Region.
For the sake of simplicity, a 60+ Character in the Current Requirements for Job Access where it is required is suggested. It is possible to be literally insane and only take Dragoon 35 for Job Access, however.
A higher level is also suggested if extensive MSQ progression is required.
These requirements assume no Story Boost without a Job Boost. If done, a lower level in some regions can be managed.
👌🏼 Optimal Access (Reach And Clear Every Single Jump Puzzle)
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NA: Level 70+ Character, Sirensong Sea Cleared.
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EU: Level 61+ Character, Sirensong Sea Cleared.
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JP: Level 60+ Character, 3.0 MSQ Cleared.
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OC: Level 60+ Character, 3.0 MSQ Cleared.
👍🏼 Reasonable Access (Reach And Clear Most Jump Puzzles Without Massive Grinding)
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NA: Level 20+ Archer, Limsa/Gridania/Ul’dah reached.
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EU: Level 20+ Archer, Limsa/Gridania/Ul’dah reached.
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JP: Level 20+ Archer, Limsa/Gridania/Ul’dah reached.
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OC: Level 20+ Archer, Limsa/Gridania/Ul’dah reached.