How to Passively Increase Experience Gains in FFXIV

Final Fantasy XIV offers many methods to passively increase the amount of experience you gain from nearly everything you do. You can gain these benefits through completion of specific in-game activities or by meeting certain character-based requirements. Here are the best methods for passively increasing the amount of experience your character gains in Final Fantasy XIV.

Creating a new character on a Preferred World automatically grants the character a buff doubling any experience gained, up to Level 70, for as long as the world maintains this status. If a world loses its Preferred status, characters older than 90 days will lose this bonus, and characters created while the World was Preferred will continue to benefit from the buff until their character is 90 days old. New players will earn additional rewards including a special currency and even free game time! These bonuses are very appealing when starting out, especially if you have no ties to any specific server.

It is worth noting that this bonus will typically cause you to significantly out-level the MSQ before completion of an expansion's story. If you would prefer the MSQ content to remain challenging, you may consider leveling multiple jobs simultaneously to avoid becoming drastically over-leveled on any one job.

Final Fantasy XIV, like other MMOs, features a Rested EXP buff that awards a bonus experience gain based on time spent in sanctuary locations, even when your character is not logged into the game. While in a sanctuary, you will gradually accrue a 50% additional experience gain bonus up to a maximum of 1.5 bars of experience. This bonus applies only to EXP earned from combat, crafting, and gathering. You will not consume, or benefit from, rested EXP when receiving quest rewards.

You can and should make use of this by always making sure to use the Return action before logging out, or logging out in any encampment or city featuring an Aetheryte crystal. You can check to make sure you are earning Rested EXP by looking for the crescent moon icon next to your character's experience bar.

Final Fantasy XIV not only allows a single character to learn every available job, you can also freely switch between leveling these jobs. The Armory Bonus is activated while playing any jobs which are both lower leveled than your highest job and lower than Level 70. Similar to the Rested EXP bonus, you will earn 100% bonus EXP from combat, crafting, and gathering for as long as your character meets these requirements. For any jobs past 70 but lower than your highest, the Armory Bonus changes to grant 50% bonus EXP.

For example, if you have Dragoon levelled up to 51, and you are currently Level 32 as Paladin, all experience you receive while playing as a Paladin will be increased by 100% until your Paladin also reaches Level 51. If you then level your Dragoon up to Level 70, your Paladin will continue to benefit from Armory Bonus EXP until reaching Level 70 as well.

A number of items with experience bonuses exist within Final Fantasy XIV. Unfortunately, most of these items are tied to pre-ordering game expansions, making them significantly harder, or impossible, for new players to obtain. Each of these items offer benefits up to a certain level and will typically work even while Level Synced in random duties. Here is a list of all available EXP boosting items in Final Fantasy XIV:

Buff/Item	Amount	Slot	Source
Moogle Cap	+20% (up to Level 10)	Helm	Pre-ordering A Realm Reborn (No longer available)
Helm of Light	+20% (up to Level 10)	Helm	A Realm Reborn Collector's Edition
Friendship Circlet	+20% (up to Level 26)	Helm	Recruit a Friend Rewards
Brand New Ring	+30% (up to Level 31)	Ring	Hall of the Novice
Ala Mhigan Earring	+30% (up to Level 51)	Earring	Pre-ordering Stormblood (No longer available)
Aetheryte Earring	+30% (up to Level 71)	Earring	Pre-ordering Shadowbringers (No longer available)
Menphina Earring	+30% (up to Level 81)	Earring	Pre-ordering Endwalker

Joining a Free Company, Final Fantasy XIV's version of guilds, will grant access to Free Company Actions which are special buffs that can be activated in exchange for company credits or by use of Aetherial Wheels. Actions can only be activated by members with certain privileges within the Free Company. Actions will apply to all members of the Free Company for 24 hours or until cancelled, so you should definitely consider joining a Free Company to benefit from these bonuses (and to make new friends)! You will find a full list of available Free Company Actions below:

Job Type	Action	Bonus
Disciple of War	Heat of Battle	+5-15% (Heat of Battle I-III)
Disciple of the Land	Earth and Water	+5-15% (Earth and Water I-III)
Disciple of the Hand	Helping Hand	+5-15% (Helping Hand I-III)

There is even an Action that grants additional experience to your Chocobo!

Starting at Level 47, you are able to unlock Squadron Missions, which let you recruit and send NPC soldiers to complete missions. Adventurer Squadrons are unlocked upon reaching the Second Lieutenant Rank with your Grand Company. We recommend checking out our guide to Grand Companies to learn how to earn this rank!

Grand Company Manuals are exclusive mission rewards which grant exclusive, temporary experience bonuses to specific types of activities. Here is a full list of the Grand Company Manuals that increase EXP gain:

Job Type	Item	Bonus
Disciple of War	Squadron Battle Manual	+15%
Disciple of the Land	Squadron Survival Manual	+20%
Disciple of the Hand	Squadron Engineering Manual	+15%

All buffs granted by food items in Final Fantasy XIV feature a +3% experience buff on them, in addition to their main buff. This is often overlooked, and while 3% is small, food is extremely cheap and easy to acquire. Many levelling quest rewards will reward food items, and you can craft your own through the Culinarian job. Alternately, you can buy food from vendors located in Sanctuaries or simply from the Market Board in exchange for a small handful of gil. The type of food you eat does not matter for this bonus, and there is no level requirement or range. If experience is the only reason you are looking at food, you can simply pick the cheapest option!