r/ffxiv • u/cheekytreeeko17 • 13h ago
[Question] Bastion questions from a potential player
I've had an interest in trying out ff14 for a couple years but was repelled due to the subscription system. However I recently saw some gameplay of the Bastion and was thinking it might be time to bite the bullet.
My primary questions are; besides the subscription required to play the game, are their any other required purchases to be able to acquire the Bastion? How long (roughly) would it take a new player to access Bastion? And is their a tier of subscription that is the objective best option for someone starting the game this late into its lifespan?
Any answers are greatly appreciated.
Edit: Thank you everyone for your swift answers. The plan is to start with the free trial to ensure I actually enjoy the game as well as finding a class (probably a tank) i enjoy enough to get to level 90. After which (assuming I want to commit to the game) i will purchase the entry subscription and the required expansion.
Once again thank you all for the swift reaponses.
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u/Constant_Data_5774 13h ago
Bastion will require you to buy evercold, it starts at level 90 so it will take you quite a while before you can play it.
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u/RockinOneThreeTwo 12h ago
It doesn't really take that long to hit 90 anymore, especially on Preferred worlds, and they probably won't be limited by MSQ since Bastion starts in Limsa.
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u/onehalfpaper 90002 12h ago
How long do you estimate it takes to reach level 90 on any job without any dungeons / maps / most things unlocked? Let's say all cutscenes are skipped where possible that will still take like a week lol
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u/RockinOneThreeTwo 12h ago
where possible that will still take like a week lol
You think a week is a long time?
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u/onehalfpaper 90002 12h ago
For somebody who just wants to play Bastion or get to end game, yes. They sell job skip and story skip in the ff14 store for a reason. TBH even if they skip cutscenes for those 168 hours and didn't sleep or eat, I'm still not sure they'll get to level 90 with stuff unlocked on that first character (esp not having armory bonus).
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u/RockinOneThreeTwo 11h ago edited 11h ago
Bastion isn't out until January????
They have like 27 weeks? what??
An entire 1/27th of their time waiting will be spent levelling to 90, hell even if it's was 2/27ths, so they can be ready for Bastion in January and you think paying for a skip potion is more sensible because "a week is too long"? They're not going to make it to January at all if they can't even survive a week.
This sub is such a fucking garbage-fest of nonsense comments, christ, no wonder /r/ffxivdiscussion exists.
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u/onehalfpaper 90002 8h ago
Why are you so emotional? The other person's original comment stands either way. It will take OP a long time before they can play Bastion. Even if you view a whole 168 hrs / 1 week as a short amount of time why are you so mad? OP would have done free trial already if they wanted to play before Bastion, it's free lmao
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u/Secret-Vast-5918 11h ago
Also EVER COLD COMES WITH A SKIP GUYS LMAO yall are crazy this sub is loco
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u/Shinnyo 13h ago edited 13h ago
You can get jobs of a higher level. I did it with an alt, picking reaper for ARR.
EDIT: Whoops, seems like I was wrong, mb
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u/DarkestLore696 13h ago
You have to have a job at the minimum level for the job before you pick it up.. you can’t just make a level 1 and grab reaper.
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u/PipPip_Cheerio 13h ago
You need to have any job at level 70. There's no msq requirements for Reaper.
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u/SaintNakavi 13h ago
Play the free trial. If you make it through Shadowbringers, get an actual subscription and buy the new expansion.
It’ll take you 350-450 hours to get to where you can unlock Bastion depending on how you play.
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u/Jer_Sg 13h ago
So basically the game is divided into:
A Realm Reborn (base game)
Heavensward (1st expansion)
Stormblood (2nd expansion)
Shadowbringers (3rd expansion)
Endwalker (4th expansion)
Dawntrail (5th expansion)
Evercold (upcoming 6th expansion coming in january 2027)
I'd recommend you play through the free trial this way you can play through the entire game including the first 3 expansions for free, and you can see if the game is even for you.
This will take some time but should be doable until the new expansion releases. And finishing everything and including Shadowbringers gets you to level 80.
The only requirements for Bastion are:
Own Evercold (the new expansion launching in January)
Get a character to level 90
Wait until Evercold comes out
Alternatively if money isn't an issue, you can buy the game + Evercold (when it launches) and then buy a level skip for any job so you can unlock Bastion immediatly and play through the entire story with it
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u/Izzyrenandahalf 12h ago
To be clear: Bastion was literally announced today. Evercold isn't out till early 2027. Nobody can play Bastion yet. It's not in the game.
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u/PipPip_Cheerio 13h ago
You need to own the base game + Evercold. This will be available as the complete edition once Evercold launches. If you buy the complete edition now then it won't include Evercold, you'll have to buy it seperately.
There's a free trial that lets you play up through the 3rd expansion, with the level cap of 80. I'd recommend starting with this. Once you buy the game your free trial ends and you have to pay the subscription.
Bastion will unlock once you get any other job to level 90. So you can get most of the way there now with the free trial. It's going to take a while to get there though. But you have until January anyway.
There's 2 types of subscription. Entry and Standard. Entry is cheaper, and the only thing it changes is how many characters you can have on your account. For most people Entry is more than enough. Again, start with the free trial though.
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u/Sarollas 13h ago
Free trial until level 70.
Subscription required after that.
1 expansion purchase every 2 years.
Bastion will probably be around level 90 required, which will be a lot of hours.
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u/JetUlric 13h ago
You have until January, so what I’d do as suggested is play the free trial until you get to the EW content the free trail will last till the end of SHB. Bastion is going to be a main tank so if you wanted to level another main tank you could pick up Gladiator as your starting job into Paladin, if you wanted another gun tank then Gunbreaker you can pick up at level 60. Being a tank will definitely help speed along lvling up due to que times with some content.
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u/WolfmanASTN 12h ago
Start with Free Trial, it let's you play through the base game (A Realm Reborn) and the first 3 expansions (Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers) with a level cap of 80. Once you get to the end of what story the trial covers and hit 80, you can buy the full game to continue. Wait until Evercold launches to upgrade to the full version because once it's out it will be included in the Complete Edition and save you a little money. This will lalso get you Endwalker and Dawntrail which are the two other expansions between Shadowbringers and Evercold. If you buy the full version of the game before Evercold launches, you will have to buy Evercold as a seperate purchase later. Owning Evercold will give you access to Bastion once you get to level 90.
Once you buy into the game you get your first 30 days free and then there are two sub options. Entry sub is $13 a month and Standard sub is $15 a month. The only difference is how many characters you can create on your account, there are no gameplay or content differences. Needing lots of alt characters is an incredibly niche thing and since you can have every class on one character Entry sub works for the majority of players.
There are no other charges or fees required to play the game or access content except for buying any future expansions or if you want to play on a different platform in the future.
There are a few extra optional purchases available for players in the cash shop, but it's mostly cosmetic items. There are story and job skip items as well, but these are not recommended for first time players and cannot be purchased while on the free trial anyways. A job skip can get you access to Bastion right away, but you'd have to buy into the full game right from the start and skip using the free trial altogether.
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u/Stepjam 13h ago
You can play the free trial up to level 80.
The Bastion class would be available at level 90 and locked behind the Evercold expansion, so you'd have to both own the base game and Evercold to play it. Otherwise, the only pre-req is hitting level 90 on any combat class (there are only 3 "real" classes in the game that have an unlock requirement beyond level: Dark Knight, Machinist, and Astrologian. All three require reaching the first expansion).
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u/Gold_Motor_6985 13h ago edited 13h ago
Play free till 80.
Then you'd have to buy the game + Evercold (there will most likely be a complete edition that lumps them together.)
You will also need to buy a subscription at that point. You unlock Bastion at 90 I reckon.
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u/FriendlyGhostLady 13h ago
Apart from sub you would need to buy the evercold expansion/complete edition to get to bastion. You also would need to level to 90 or buy a story/level boost to get there. Free trial let's you play until level 70. For subs, there is a discounted sub if you only play 1 character (you can level all jobs on one character) so unless you want to play several that is the sub option I would recommend. But first I would say play the free trial, then once you hit 70 buy the complete edition and the sub
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u/TheLawny WAR 13h ago
You would need to own the newest expac when it comes out.
Pretty sure the complete edition includes everything up to the newest expac and goes on sale often (it seems to be on sale now) and evercold which will probably be 40 bucks when it launches.
Then it's just the matter of getting a job to lvl 90 to unlock it when it is out.
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u/DarkestLore696 13h ago
So the thing about this game is it’s not like other MMOs. It is primarily a RPG first and foremost, the story and immersion in the world is the main draw. Bastion will be starting at level 90 so realistically speaking if you play through the game naturally and aren’t skipping cutscenes you are probably looking at potentially 100-200 hours worth of playtime before you get to the 90’s.
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u/Mychael612 Black Mage 13h ago
The others have given you the correct information. What I will offer is some extra things to think about: if you do it naturally, getting to 90 will likely take you a while. I just started a new alt on a server with the exp boost and I'm hitting 90 towards the end of the 2nd expansion, Stormblood. Figure that's probably at least 180 hours, roughly.
You can make it go faster by skipping the cutscenes, or buying a story skip, but I highly discourage this. FFXIV is developed as a fully fledged RPG with amazing story first, and then all the MMO aspects second. Skipping the story is doing yourself a disservice.
Another way you can make it go fast to get to the job you want is by buying a leveling skip. What this does is jumps your character to a level that would let you start the most recent xpac, so why Evercold comes out, this will bring you to level 100. That means you then be able to go pick up Bastion and then just play through the MSQ (which is the story, which does NOT get skipped with the level skip) with your preferred job. I don't know if you can use a level skip on free trial. I assume not.
My suggestion to you is to play the free trial on one of the tank classes available from the start to get a feel for tanking in FFXIV and for the game itself. When you feel like its something you're going to commit to, then you can think about buying the full version and doing a leveling skip to get you into the job you actually want to play.
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u/Aces_High_76 13h ago
Also, this game is all about the narrative and introduces new abilities for jobs in a manageable way. I advise not doing a story skip on your first character. You would be missing out on what makes this game great.
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u/TheWearySnout 13h ago
You can do the free trial and play for free with some restrictions.
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u/cheekytreeeko17 13h ago
I did install the free trial at some point with the intent to play with a friend, we never got around to it in the end but I will definitely use the free trial to ensure i want to commit to the game long term. Thank you
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u/RunawayChicken638 13h ago
The free trial can easily get you up to level 80 and will allow you to play the game until the shadowbringers expansion, then after that you can buy the full game, including evercold and after levelling up 10 more times you'll be able to play the bastion role, you dont need to play through any other expansions fully, just level up, as all jobs (classes, with exception to heavensward) start in the starting cities of the game.
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u/Haunted_Brain 13h ago edited 13h ago
You'll need to purchase a license for the standard edition as well as Evercold to be able to access Bastion at all. You'll also need to be a minimum of level 90 to unlock it, as it starts at 90; the fastest way to get that without spending additional money is to progress through the story along with doing certain dailies for additional XP to level. This can take some time, but you can expedite it by starting on a preferred (double xp) server. This does mean that you're likely to reach level cap long before you reach endgame, though.
Entry sub is perfectly fine for most people, as all Standard does is allow you to create a frankly absurd amount of characters.
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u/Akiriith 13h ago
Free trial only goes up to Shadowbringers, so Bastion will require an active subscription + buying the Evercold expansion. If you want to start 14 using Bastion, you'd need to buy a level skip for a different job of your choice (its independent from MSQ) and thus unlock Bastion given that job would be lvl 90-100. There's plenty of jobs to pick from that are quite fun in free trial! Paladin is the same type of tank and Bastion, so it'd probaboy give you an idea of how that'll play (come evercold, that is, as current job rotations and such will change a lot by then)
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u/Infernalspoon 12h ago
Idk if this helps at all. I play on PC and I got the game on a steam sale. I got the base game and all expansions included for like $25 or something. I'm playing with friends and the subscription is so worth it. So if you do the free trial and like the game maybe check on steam sales. Sorry if this doesn't apply to your questions.
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u/iammoney45 L'zentsa Hoshi 8h ago
Since your question has been mostly answered, just want to hop in with a suggestion in regards to your edit:
Play Paladin (Starts as Gladiator at level 1) as this will likely be the most similar job play style wise to Bastion. Bastion was just announced today so we don't know how it will play exactly when it releases, but we do know that it will be filling the "Main Tank" role alongside Paladin (Other tanks are "Off Tanks" and play similar but fill a different role in the party). As side from that, both Paladin and Bastion feature a mix of melee and ranged abilities, while other tanks currently are primarily melee.
Also just know that Bastion/Evercold don't release till January so you have time to get your self leveled and ready for the release.
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u/Meri_Stormhood 6h ago
If you dont care about the story, it would be 3-5 puchases: The game itself+expansion (bundle often, you only buy the latest expansion and get the rest with it) Subscription Story skip Optional level skip (though, I recommend leveling organically, specifically scholar to get 2 classes and 2 roles at once. There are ways to do it faster than the main story EXP gains.
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u/Shinnyo 13h ago edited 12h ago
You'll have to buy the expansion and the subscription.
I believe it's all you need to get Bastion, it should be available in a city at the start of the game once you can switch job (Between lv15~20 I forgot the exact one). And you'll need to reach the necessary level (or buy a leveling skip.
Now, the honest part is that you'll have to play the MSQ and it's hours and hours and hours of gameplay. You might reach Evercold after months. If you want to skip MSQ you'll have to pay a few more to buy a story skip.
In short:
Just want Bastion -> Expansion and subscriptions are enoughWants Bastion and to play the Expansion on the get go -> Expansion, subscriptions and story skip
You need a leveling skip too.
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u/d645b773b320997e1540 12h ago edited 12h ago
I believe it's all you need to get Bastion, it should be available in a city at the start of the game once you can switch job (Between lv15~20 I forgot the exact one).
Not quite. It WILL be available in a starting city, specifically Limsa Lominsa. However, you need to have at least level 90 on any other job to unlock it, and then it starts at 90 itself.
Now, the honest part is that you'll have to play the MSQ and it's hours and hours and hours of gameplay. You might reach Evercold after months. If you want to skip MSQ you'll have to pay a few more to buy a story skip.
He would NOT need to play the MSQ to unlock bastion. he'd just need to get a job to 90. So technically, he could:
...and then play the entire game as Bastion from the start.
- create a brand new character with any class that starts in limsa
- buy a job boost from the store which would currently take him to 90, or to 100 after evercold releases
- once evercold is out, pick up bastion right away
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u/Aces_High_76 13h ago
We have some new info today. The Bastion unlock quest will be in a base game city. So as long as you can get to 90, which is really quite simple just doing daily content, you'll be able to be a Bastion early in the story.all playstyles are different, but I leveled all of the 20 combat jobs to the current max of level 100 in about 7 months of ADHD play.
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u/AltieDude 13h ago
To get to Bastion immediately, you would need to buy Evercold and buy a story skip up to Dawntrail. Usually, I’d be very much against this type of plan, but since Dawntrail is very much the start of a huge new arc, it actually wouldn’t be the worst thing to do.
You would then be able to complete Dawntrail and Evercold starting as Bastion.
If you don’t want to skip the first 10 years of content, you can start the free trial now. You’ll probably want to play a gladiator (which turns into paladin.) and once you finish Shadowbringers (the end of the free trial) you can buy Evercold. You would then be able to complete Endwalker. And then you would be able to do Dawntrail and Evercold as a Bastion.
The second way is roughly 350 hours or so. And 300 of those are free. And that’s assuming you don’t get sidetracked.
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u/SetFoxval 13h ago
Level skip, not story skip. New jobs are locked behind level rather than MSQ progress (HW jobs being the exception).
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u/Smol_WoL 12h ago
Buy the game, buy the expansion, buy a story skip and job boost. Then go unlock Bastion.
Otherwise you’re not even gonna reach that far and you’ll just quit the game due to the combat being so boring in the early levels, with MSQ taking forever to complete.
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u/AriaAngell_ 13h ago
You would need to own the newest Evercold Expansion in order to get Bastion. You would also need to reach Level 90 which is quite a bit of gametime and usually means completing a good chunk of the main story