5 Fun But Forgotten Activities In Final Fantasy XIV

Fish more, cowards.

Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV is an enormous game. This is normal for an MMO, but it’s really even bigger than expected. With everything there is to do, there’s bound to be something that gets overlooked by players. If you’re looking for something new to enjoy in Final Fantasy XIV, why not try one of these activities?

Sightseeing Log
The sightseeing log affords an opportunity to really appreciate the beauty of Eorzea. The log is a collection of “vistas,” which are points in the game that offer a good view of interesting locations. By using the correct emote in these areas, you’ll unlock detailed lore descriptions in the log.

If you’re fond of puzzles, entries 1-80 come in the form of riddles from which you must decipher the correct location, time, weather, and even pose to fully appreciate the view. Complete the log up to Stormblood, and you’ll also unlock paintings of each vista you can display in frames in your house.

To unlock the Sightseeing Log, you must be level 20 and have completed the main scenario quest “Sylph-management”. Speak to Naoh Gahmdula at the Adventurer’s Guild in New Gridania to complete the quest “A Sight to Behold” and unlock your log. Further quests in each expansion will add new entries for you to seek out.

Chocobo Racing
Like Mario Kart? Then chocobo racing at the Manderville Gold Saucer might be up your alley. It’s actually a surprisingly complex part of the game.

You’ll get a chocobo just for racing, which you will level and train to raise its stats and improve its ability as a racer. While the racing itself is not as fast-paced as other racing games, your bird’s responsiveness and speed will improve as you rank it up. And, once you get to a high enough rank, you can breed your chocobo with another bird to get a new chocobo with improved pedigree and even better stats.

The races feature items and traps, and you can teach your chocobo abilities to give you an edge. Races can be against either other players or NPCs. If this sounds fun to you, then head over to the Gold Saucer and pick up the quest “So You Want to Be a Jockey” from the Race Chocobo Registrar in Chocobo Square.

Fishing Records and Catching Legendary Fish
A lot of people are frustrated by fishing, but if you approach it with patience, it can become one of the most rewarding and interesting activities you can do. Fishing is far more complex than it might appear, and more layered than the two other gatherers. A bit of research will quickly reveal how deep this particular rabbit hole goes.

I encourage anybody who hasn’t tried fishing, or maybe started it and gave up, to try pursuing records and legendary fish for a bit.

Records are a small background system that tracks how large the fish you catch are. The bigger the fish, the higher your record. You can manipulate the size of the fish you get by using your abilities, so it’s not quite as simple as just waiting until you get a AAA record – you can actively work towards it.

Records are set simply by catching fish. You don’t receive any rewards for setting records, but you do get a nice sense of satisfaction. You can set a record for every type of fishing in the game. To see where you stand, open your Fishing Log and click the “Records” button at the bottom of the lefthand column.

Legendary fish are in the same vein as records. They are always big fish, and if you pursue records, likely all of them will end up being legendary fish. These fish have more complex spawn requirements such as specific chains of weather, require complex mooching strategies, and can be some of the hardest things to obtain in the game. You’ll get frustrated chasing these white whales, but the satisfaction when you finally catch them is second to none.

Decorating
It’s true that housing is a pretty contentious subject in XIV. But if you’ve got the itch to decorate, there’s a form of housing everyone can access, and that’s apartments.

With an apartment, you get a space to call your own that will never go up against the demolition timer. And with an item limit of 100, you can do some pretty amazing things in that space. Decorating is my personal favorite side activity, and I’ve spent countless hours making a comfortable home for my adventurer.

To get an apartment, you must be level 50 and at the rank of Second Lieutenant in your Grand Company. Bring 500,000 gil to the lobby of an apartment building and speak with the Apartment Caretaker.

As a note, if you’re on a busier server, you may need to check a few different wards for an open apartment. If there’s a checkmark on the apartment icon on the map, that means it’s full. Try wards 12 or higher.

Complete a Supra or Lucis tool
Want the satisfaction of a neat Realm Reborn relic without the long slog of the Zeta weapons? If you have a level 50 gatherer or crafter, you can get a mini-relic in the form of Supra and Lucis tools.

Upon completion of your level 50 quest, you are given a main hand tool of blue quality. This is the base of your tool (if you misplaced it, visit the Calamity Salvager). To upgrade it to Supra, and then to Lucis, you must collect certain items and turn them in to Talan at Revenant’s Toll.

If you want an additional challenge, try doing them at level 50. Though these can be completed in a matter of hours at higher levels, they are still very useful as they can be dyed and often appear in the Fashion Report. There’s really no reason not to invest some time in it.

While the activities above are some of my favorite things to point out to my bored friends, there’s still plenty more to do in game. What’s your favorite way to while away the hours in Eorzea?

Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.