Guildhests are simple group quests in Final Fantasy XIV, intended to serve as early tutorials for game mechanics that become essential later on. They’re bite-sized tastes of dungeons and trials. And believe me, you’ll be seeing a lot of those as you battle through the game’s Main Scenario Quests.
Guildhests become available at level 10. You’ll need to complete at least one Guildleve (usually referred to as just “leves”) and the following quest “Simply The Hest” to unlock them.
Simply The Hest’s location will rely on which city you started in, but they’ll all ultimately unlock the same content.
These Guildhests also require four players to complete.
If you don’t have enough players, the game will find some for you through the Duty Finder. It’s the same tool you’ll be using to find groups for dungeons and trials later on, which will also pair you up with other players looking to clear them.
Guildhest Basics
Guildhests start simple with basic training. You’ll learn how to handle multiple enemy groups as a party, adventure through a small cave to kill a giant frog, and manage things like aggro (the thing that decides which party member enemies attack) and boss positioning in small doses.
You’ll unlock more Guildhests by leveling up and completing prior ones.
They definitely start slow, giving players the chance to find their feet in a low-pressure environment. But the difficulty ramps up appropriately as you progress.
They’ll continue unlocking up to level 40, at a rate of two every five levels.
Are Guildhests Worth Completing?
If you’re a completely new player, yes.
It can feel slightly daunting, doing all this for the first time – jumping into an unfamiliar environment with people you’ve never met.
Guildhests can provide you with a bit of early experience on how dungeons and group content works before plunging head-on into the real thing.
I’d say it’s especially important if you’re playing a tank role like Gladiator or Marauder for the first time.
Getting that head-start on the importance of controlling aggro from enemy groups and bosses is invaluable.
You’ll also be rewarded with gil and experience, which is useful no matter your skill level!
Granted, these are not the biggest rewards. But they’re still a nice bonus if you’ve just gotten started. The main focus is getting you battle-ready for the dungeons and trials which begin unlocking at level 15.
Now, I’d like to note here that your first set of dungeons won’t be complicated at all.
If you’d rather give Guildhests a miss to do something more fun, they’re not essential in the slightest.
You can definitely pick up the basic gist of what you need to be doing through just playing the dungeons yourself. And other players are usually happy to help out with information on mechanics.
But if you’re completely new, Guildhests can be quite useful.
If you’ve played MMOs extensively in the past, or if you’ve already leveled your character beyond A Realm Reborn, Guildhests probably aren’t worth your time.
You’ll complete a fair few dungeons and trials in that time, and will probably have learned most of what Guildhests are designed to teach you in that time anyway. It’d be more efficient to get your Duty Roulettes or MSQ done instead.
That’s not a hard or fast rule by any measure though.
If you feel like you’ve had to struggle your way through dungeons and could do with a quick primer on what you’re expected to do in them, Guildhests basically exist for that purpose. And you’d probably see more benefit from spending that time mastering your skill rotation or reading into individual encounters.
