The short version: the Final Fantasy 14 Free Trial now runs to level 80 across four expansions (A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers) with no time limit, and by the community wiki’s quest counts that is roughly 700 of the game’s ~1,000 main-story quests. Two things most beginner guides get wrong: you can’t start on a job at all (you start on a class, and it becomes a job at level 30), and your starting city doesn’t lock any class. Square Enix’s Free Trial page confirms the level-80 cap, and the product page shows what the paid editions add.
I haven’t played this Free Trial through level 80 for this guide, so there are no first-hand impressions below. Everything comes from Square Enix’s own pages, its Lodestone patch notes and the community wiki, with the weaker sources flagged where I lean on them.
Version note: checked on 6 October 2026 against Lodestone’s Patch 7.56 notes (updated 17 September 2026). Prices are US figures that Square Enix dates to April 2026 and will differ by region. The next expansion, Evercold, is announced for January 2027 and will change the level cap and the combat system; see the Evercold section below.
This is the hub for our Final Fantasy XIV coverage. It covers the Free Trial boundary, the starting-class choice and your first 30 levels; deeper job and expansion guides will link back here. If you came from single-player Final Fantasy, our guide to how region order gates progression in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a useful contrast: in XIV the gate is the expansion you own, not a map region.
Quick Start: Your First Session in Nine Steps
- Make a Square Enix account and install the Free Trial. It’s offered on PC, PlayStation and Xbox, and Square Enix’s requirements page says an Xbox Game Pass subscription isn’t needed for the trial. I couldn’t confirm a Free Trial on Switch 2, so check the eShop before you download.
- Pick a Preferred World if your data center has one open. The Free Trial page says these worlds apply beginner bonuses such as double EXP, and notes that new-character creation may be limited on them.
- Choose your starting class by role, not by city. The class table in the starting-city section maps every class to its role and its city.
- Follow the meteor-icon quests. Those are the Main Scenario Quests, the spine of the game. The Hall of the Novice teaches combat basics and role playstyles.
- Clear your class quest at level 10. That unlocks class switching, and from then on you can try other classes on the same character.
- Reach level 15 and do “It’s Probably Pirates.” It’s where the three city storylines merge, and it unlocks Sastasha, Duty Support and the Party Finder (you can only join listings on the Free Trial).
- Turn your class into a job at level 30. You need the level-20 story quest “Sylph-management” and your level-30 class quest, then you equip a soul crystal.
- Run story dungeons with Duty Support if you don’t want to queue; use the Duty Finder if you do.
- Treat level 80 as your decision point. That’s where the Free Trial story ends and the paid expansions start.
What the Free Trial Really Covers: Four Expansions, Level 80
The Free Trial covers A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers, caps you at level 80 and has no time limit, per Square Enix. Until 28 April 2026 it stopped one expansion earlier, at Stormblood and level 70, which is why many guides online still quote 70. Square Enix’s announcement says the trial now includes all content up to Patch 5.58, and Siliconera’s report on the change agrees.
The table below puts the trial next to the two cheapest paid options. The takeaway: the Free Trial and the $19.99 Starter Edition have the same level cap and the same 18 jobs. What Starter removes is the feature limits, and it adds a monthly subscription.
| Item | Free Trial | Starter Edition | Complete Edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $19.99 | $59.99 |
| Story included | Realm Reborn to Shadowbringers | Realm Reborn to Shadowbringers | Adds Endwalker and Dawntrail |
| Level cap | 80 | 80 | 100 |
| Jobs | 18 | 18 | 23 |
| Feature limits | Yes | None | None |
| Subscription | None | 30 days free, then paid | 30 days free, then paid |
Source: Square Enix’s product comparison page, accurate to April 2026 per its own footnote.
What the limits actually stop you doing
The limits are narrower than they sound. Per the official rules, Free Trial accounts can’t use shout, yell or tell chat, the market board, trading, the moogle delivery service, retainers or Free Companies, can’t hold more than 300,000 gil, and have no PvP. They can still join a party if invited, be matched by the Duty Finder, and join linkshells. The practical read: you can play the whole story with friends who invite you, but you can’t buy or sell on the player market and you can’t whisper anyone.
The same page lists 18 jobs: Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight, Gunbreaker, White Mage, Scholar, Astrologian, Monk, Dragoon, Ninja, Samurai, Bard, Machinist, Dancer, Black Mage, Summoner, Red Mage and the limited job Blue Mage. One wording quirk: the rules section still says all classes from A Realm Reborn, Heavensward and Stormblood are playable to level 80, but the same page lists Gunbreaker and Dancer, which are Shadowbringers jobs. I went with the product page and the job list, which agree.
How much story is that?
About 70% of the main questline, by my count. I added up the quest counts the community wiki lists in its Main Scenario Quests table:
| Expansion | Level range | Main-story quests | Free Trial? | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Realm Reborn | 1–50 | 240–241 | Yes | ~240 |
| Heavensward | 50–60 | 138 | Yes | ~378 |
| Stormblood | 60–70 | 162 | Yes | ~540 |
| Shadowbringers | 70–80 | 157 | Yes | ~697 |
| Endwalker | 80–90 | 155 | No | ~852 |
| Dawntrail | 90–100 | 143 | No | ~995 |
The wiki counts exclude mandatory side quests and role quests, so treat the totals as a floor, and the Realm Reborn figure varies slightly with your starting city and Grand Company. For time, Square Enix says only that the trial offers “hundreds of hours.” An older community figure, HowLongToBeat main-story times quoted by Siliconera in July 2023, gives 200 hours for A Realm Reborn, 98 for Heavensward and 105 for Shadowbringers (Stormblood wasn’t listed), over 400 hours for three of the four expansions. That is a player-reported average, not a measurement I made.
Starting City: What It Changes and What It Doesn’t
Your starting class decides your starting city, not the other way round. As the PlayStation Blog’s beginner guide puts it, you start in Limsa Lominsa as a Marauder or Arcanist, in Ul’dah as a Pugilist, Gladiator or Thaumaturge, or in Gridania as an Archer, Lancer or Conjurer, and you’re free to travel to all three.
| Starting class | Role | Starting city | Becomes at level 30 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gladiator | Tank | Ul’dah | Paladin |
| Marauder | Tank | Limsa Lominsa | Warrior |
| Conjurer | Healer | Gridania | White Mage |
| Arcanist | Magic DPS | Limsa Lominsa | Summoner or Scholar (a healer) |
| Thaumaturge | Magic DPS | Ul’dah | Black Mage |
| Archer | Ranged physical DPS | Gridania | Bard |
| Lancer | Melee DPS | Gridania | Dragoon |
| Pugilist | Melee DPS | Ul’dah | Monk |
Source: the community wiki’s Class page. Rogue, which becomes Ninja, is deliberately missing: it can’t be a starting class.
What the city really decides is your first stretch of story. The wiki says the three opening storylines differ and then converge at the quest “It’s Probably Pirates”, and its quest page puts that at level 15 and says the story is identical for every character from there. So the city costs you about 15 levels of different scenery and one extra errand. The wiki’s note on Rogue spells out the sequence for a class from another city: finish a level-10 class quest to unlock class changing, then get into the other city, which for Limsa Lominsa happens at the level-15 story quest unless you started there. Nothing is permanently shut. The wiki is explicit that jobs are not mutually exclusive: given enough time, one character can level every class and job.
If you remember nothing else from this section: choose the role you want to play and let the city follow. The only real reason to care about the city is that you’ll see its opening story first.
You Can’t Start on a Job (So There’s No “Wrong” One to Avoid)
Every character begins as a base class, and the wiki’s Class page is blunt about it: “You cannot begin the game on a job.” Classes grow into jobs, and the Job page describes a job as a strict upgrade, so there’s no reason to stay on the base class once the job unlocks. That reframes the common question “which job should I not start on?” Nobody can start on one, so the real question is which starting class is hardest to learn with. We’ll get to that below.
Here is when each Free Trial job actually unlocks, per the wiki’s job chart:
| Jobs | How you unlock them | Starts at level | In the Free Trial? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paladin, Warrior, Dragoon, Monk, Bard, Black Mage, White Mage, Summoner, Scholar | Level-30 class quest plus the level-20 story quest “Sylph-management” | 30 | Yes |
| Ninja | Rogue class, needs a level-10 class quest on another class first | 30 | Yes |
| Dark Knight, Machinist, Astrologian | Level 50 in any combat class and the start of the Heavensward story | 30 | Yes |
| Samurai, Red Mage | Level 50 in any combat class | 50 | Yes |
| Blue Mage (limited job) | Level 50 and the story quest “The Ultimate Weapon” | 1 | Yes |
| Gunbreaker, Dancer | Level 60 in any combat class | 60 | Yes |
| Reaper, Sage | Level 70 (Endwalker) | 70 | No |
| Viper, Pictomancer | Level 80 (Dawntrail) | 80 | No |
Two things in that table matter for a beginner. First, expansion jobs need no base class, just a high-enough level in any combat class, so a Gladiator you level to 50 can unlock Dark Knight without you ever touching another tank. Second, Blue Mage is the one job in the trial that is closer to a separate game: the wiki calls it “for all intents and purposes a separate game of its own,” with a lower level cap than other jobs and limits on the content it can enter. It’s a fun side project, and not something to level as your first character’s main job.
Which Starting Class? An Honest Decision Tree
There’s no official “best first class,” and the two guides I checked contradict each other. High Ground Gaming (updated May 2024) ranks the eight starting classes from easiest to hardest as Archer, Conjurer, Gladiator, Lancer, Arcanist (Summoner), Pugilist, Thaumaturge, Marauder, and Arcanist (Scholar) last. Prima Games’ Endwalker-era list calls Summoner “the ultimate beginner job,” after changes to the job. Both are community opinion and neither is a test, so use them for reasoning, not as a verdict.
The reasoning is what I’d keep. In practice, the easiest first classes share one trait: they react to what’s on screen and let you keep moving. High Ground’s case for Archer is that ranged physical attackers can move freely while attacking, which is why it’s a good way to learn to dodge area attacks. It describes Thaumaturge as one of the least mobile jobs, built around standing still for big casts, and says it “may not be the best pick for your first job.” If you want one name to save for later, that’s the one, with the caveat that it’s a single source’s judgment and a no-regret choice anyway, because you can unlock Black Mage on any character later.
Use this tree:
- Want the lowest-pressure first hour? Pick Archer (Gridania) and keep moving. Next best: Conjurer, a reactive healer where “someone gets hurt, you heal them.”
- Want to lead the party? Pick Gladiator (Ul’dah). High Ground calls its rotation rigid, which is a plus when you’re also learning to tank. Marauder (Limsa Lominsa) is more freeform, which the same source says can be harder to handle if you’re new to tanking.
- Want melee? Lancer starts slow but grows into the Dragoon; Pugilist is easy to learn and harder to master because of positional attacks.
- Want to cast? Arcanist if you like pets and options (and can choose Summoner or Scholar at 30). Thaumaturge only if you’re happy standing still.
- Can’t decide? Pick any. Levels are shared between a class and its job, and you can swap freely, so a first choice you dislike costs you the time you spent on it, not your account.
Matching the class to the player
| If you are… | Start with… | Why, and what to ignore |
|---|---|---|
| New to MMOs | Archer or Conjurer | Reactive play, forgiving movement. Ignore crafting and gathering until level 30. |
| Here for the story only | Any class, with Duty Support on | Story dungeons run with NPC allies, so you never need a party. Pay for nothing until level 80. |
| Joining friends who pay | Whatever fills their group’s gap | You can’t recruit, tell or shout on the trial, but you can accept party invites. Ask them to invite you. |
| A Final Fantasy fan who wants the full saga | The role you’d enjoy for 100+ hours | Plan the purchase now: the Free Trial ends mid-saga (see below). |
| Aiming for endgame and PvP | The job you’d main | PvP, the market board and levels 81–100 are all paid. The trial is a way to test a job’s feel before buying. |
After Level 80: What to Pay For
The Free Trial ends at the Shadowbringers story, so the first real purchase decision comes around level 80. The cheapest-looking option is a trap here: the Starter Edition has the same level-80 cap as the trial, so it doesn’t continue the story. Per the product page, you can buy the Starter Edition and then the Dawntrail expansion ($39.99), or just the Complete Edition ($59.99). The Dawntrail pack includes Endwalker, which is the next chapter of the story.
Subscriptions are separate. The same page lists Entry at $12.99 per 30 days (8 characters per world and per physical data center) and Standard at $14.99 (up to 40 characters per data center), with Standard dropping to $13.99 per 30 days at 90 days and $12.99 at 180 days. Starter and Complete include 30 days free; Dawntrail alone doesn’t.
- Still under level 80? Pay nothing.
- At 80 and want the next chapter? Buy Complete (or Starter plus the Dawntrail pack).
- Only want to chat or use the market board, not continue the story? Starter is the cheapest way to lift the limits without adding story, but you pay a subscription for the privilege.
Can Your PC or Console Run It?
Square Enix’s requirements page lists the minimum PC as Windows 11 64-bit, an Intel Core i5-8400, 8 GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 480 (4 GB), with 140 GB of storage and a 1280×720 screen. Recommended is an i7-9700, 16 GB and an RTX 2060 (6 GB) or RX 5600 XT (6 GB) at 1080p. Integrated graphics aren’t on the list. If you’re on a laptop without a dedicated card, our guide to games that run well on integrated graphics shows what to expect from that hardware class, and the free trial is the cheapest way to test your own machine. Once it’s running, our PC game settings for better FPS guide covers the general tweaks.
Console storage minimums on the same page are 90 GB on PS5, 100 GB on PS4, 150 GB on Xbox and 120 GB on Switch 2, as of the dates it lists (the Switch 2 figure is dated July 2026).
What Changes With Evercold in January 2027
Evercold is the sixth expansion, and Square Enix’s announcement says it launches in January 2027, raises the level cap from 100 to 110 and adds two jobs (a tank and a physical ranged DPS). It also adds a new battle system with two modes: Reborn, based on the current combat system and job mechanics, and Evolved, which puts more emphasis on job identity. New jobs will be playable only in Evolved mode.
For you, today, that means very little. Siliconera’s write-up reports that the 21 main jobs will swap between the modes out of battle, sharing level and gear, with Blue Mage and Beastmaster left out, and that the director thinks Evolved may be slightly stronger. Reborn is the current system, so what you learn now carries over. What I couldn’t find is how a brand-new character picks a mode, or whether the Free Trial will extend again, so don’t plan around either. The Free Trial ends before Evercold’s content in any case.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Final Fantasy 14 Free Trial really free forever?
Yes: Square Enix says there’s no limit on playtime, and you never need a subscription. The cost is the level-80 cap and the feature limits, and I’d argue the cap is the better reason to upgrade, since the limits mostly affect trading and chat.
Does my starting city matter?
Only for your first 15 levels of story. The three storylines merge at “It’s Probably Pirates,” and no class or job is locked to a city. Pick the role you want and accept the city that comes with it.
Can I change my class later?
Yes, from level 10 once you’ve done your class quest and met another guild’s trainer. The trade-off is mostly time, because each class levels separately, but a class and its job share one level.
Which expansion do I need after Shadowbringers?
Endwalker, which comes inside the Dawntrail pack and inside the Complete Edition. Buying the Starter Edition alone doesn’t move you past level 80.
Should I wait for Evercold before starting?
No. The Free Trial’s roughly 700 quests don’t depend on Evercold, and any wait would only matter if you were buying. Even then, you’d be buying the older expansions first, since the story is linear.
Is there a job I should avoid as a beginner?
No job is off-limits, and you can’t start on one anyway. If you want a name to leave for later, community guides point to the stationary caster, Thaumaturge, and Blue Mage is a separate side game, not a main job.
Sources
- Square Enix. FINAL FANTASY XIV Free Trial, including Rules & Restrictions. Square Enix, accessed 6 October 2026
- Square Enix. FINAL FANTASY XIV Product Page: editions, prices and subscription fees (accurate as of April 2026). Square Enix
- Square Enix. SQUARE ENIX Announces Evercold—Latest FINAL FANTASY XIV Expansion Set for January 2027. Square Enix, 30 April 2026
- Square Enix. Patch 7.56 Notes. The Lodestone, updated 17 September 2026
- Square Enix. FINAL FANTASY XIV System Requirements. Square Enix
- FFXIV Wiki. Class. Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki
- FFXIV Wiki. Job. Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki
- FFXIV Wiki. Main Scenario Quests. Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki
- FFXIV Wiki. It’s Probably Pirates. Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki
- PlayStation Blog. Final Fantasy XIV Online: An absolute beginner’s guide. Sony Interactive Entertainment
- High Ground Gaming. The Best Starting Classes in Final Fantasy 14 Online. High Ground Gaming, updated 17 May 2024
- Prima Games. Best Beginner Jobs in FFXIV Endwalker, Ranked. Prima Games
- Siliconera. 2 Jobs Arrive in FFXIV Evercold Alongside Evolved Mode. Siliconera
- Siliconera. How long does it take to beat Final Fantasy XIV and its expansions. Siliconera, 12 July 2023
- Siliconera. FFXIV Free Trial Now Includes Shadowbringers Expansion. Siliconera, April 2026
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.