The New Game Information--GOA

-Leveling-

Leveling can be one of the most fun experiences in Final Fantasy XI, and one of the most frustrating. Looking for parties can be irritatingly slow, especially at non-peak hours of the day. You'll also find that mobs that /check at a level you were able to beat easily up until level 12 completely kick your bum in later levels.

I would recommend finding cheap food from an NPC such as meat jerky for these levels, regardless of job. Most jobs are pretty much the same in these levels. Meat jerky can be purchased from Griselda in Bastok Mines (H-5), Boncort in Northern San d'Oria (F-8), and Ness Rugetomal in Windhurt Waters (F-10). At these levels especially, keep all of the crystals and items that drop from the mobs you fight to sell at the auction house (AH), this will likely be your main source of income for a while. Make sure to go in and sort your inventory while you level as well; it will not autosort and you can lose valuable items this way. Keep all of your beastmen's seals; they will come in handy soon!

-Levels 1-13 -

Leveling from 1-13 is most easily done by soloing. Simply walk out of your starter town and starting killing! Make sure to /check most mobs before attacking, because in FFXI even though it may look exactly like the mob you just killed, it is possible that this mob may be much harder to beat! When checking a mob the following messages are possible:

Too Weak If a mob appears too weak to your character, it will not give you experience points after you kill it. This is fine if you're farming for the items it may drop, but if you're trying for experience points only you may wish to bypass these mobs entirely.

Easy Prey Easy prey are mobs that will give you some experience points, although may not be worth killing too often up to level 9 or 10. In later levels on many jobs you will be lucky to solo an easy prey mob without dying!

Decent Challenge Decent challenge mobs are ideal for gaining experience points off of in lower levels. They offer good experience and are not usually overly difficult in the first levels of the game.

Even Match If you are looking for a challenge when you first start leveling, even match will provide it. They are soloable (especially up to level 8 or 10), but offer a bit of a challenge.

Tough If you want a bit of a gamble, try a tough mob in these levels! They are soloable (especially with food), but a challenge for sure. I would recommend concentrating on lower difficulty mobs than tough however, because these mobs may not offer the best experience points per hour as they take longer to kill.

Incredibly Tough If you are soloing and see a mob that checks incredibly tough, turn around and find something easier. It will likely send you crying back to your home point after a couple of hits.

Impossible to Gauge! Mobs that check impossible to gauge are what is called NMs (notorious/named mobs/monsters). The actual level of these mobs is impossible to tell by just looking at them but for earlier levels it's likely they will send you back to your home point faster than incredibly tough mobs.