Road To 60 is an effect that gets applied to certain servers in Final Fantasy XIV. New characters made on servers with Road To 60 active would gain double the experience earned from all sources.
As of this writing, the Road To 60 buff has since been replaced with Road To 70, which works exactly the same, just for an extra ten levels. This is to accommodate the level cap increase that came with the expansion Shadowbringers.
Population control is important for MMOs.
Even player distribution doesn’t happen naturally, it has to be shaped.
Final Fantasy XIV has a ton of mechanisms in place to encourage that, and prevent already crowded worlds from filling up entirely. Admittedly, it might not look very effective at the moment.
XIV has had a massive influx of new players – many of which happen to be taking advantage of the generous free trial.
So to funnel new players to underpopulated worlds (while keeping them away from the overpopulated ones) the game typically designates certain servers as Preferred, and this is where the Road to 70 buff comes into play.
Creating a character on what FFXIV refers to as a “Preferred World” offers a handful of incentives.
For new players, this massive experience bonus can be one of the most attractive. After all, it practically cuts your time getting to level 70 in half.
How Do I Get The Road To 70 Buff?
It’s easy.
Simply create a new character in a world that currently has the Road To 70 status active. You’ll be able to see it clearly from the world selection screen.
The buff will automatically be applied on all eligible characters, and you’ll receive a 100% experience gain on all jobs that character picks up, all the way to level 70.
It’s worth noting that Road to 70 stacks with other experience boosts.
This includes Rested EXP, a 50% increase gained by spending time in a sanctuary, and any accessories you might own that boost experience.
If, for example, you’ve pre-purchased Endwalker, then you’ll receive Menphina’s Earring – an item that boosts experience gained up to level 80 once equipped.
If you have that, Rested XP, and Road To 70, that’s a massive 180% increase overall.
How Long Does The Buff Work For?
Road To 70 lasts until the world is no longer Preferred, or for 90 days from character creation – whichever is longer.
So even if your chosen world loses Preferred status a couple of weeks after making your character, you’ll have the buff for long enough to make use of it.
90 days is a pretty long time – you’d almost certainly be able to get a couple of classes pretty high in that time, depending on how many hours you were willing to sink in.
It’s a substantial boost, and is particularly useful if you’re also trying to get yourself a couple of crafting/gathering professions alongside combat jobs.
Is The Road To 60 Buff Worth It?
If you’re starting this game totally fresh, as in, you don’t have any friends you’d like to play with already – it’s definitely worth going for a Preferred World and the Road To 70 buff in my opinion.
It’s important to note that it doesn’t actually boost your progression through the dense wall of Main Scenario Quests that much, though.
Regardless of how quickly you level, you’re going to have to go through the same amount of story as everyone else.
What Road To 70 does provide is a complete absence of awkward downtime.
You’ll always be ahead of the Main Scenario level requirements by a generous margin, so there’ll never be a time you have to divert and find some other way to grind your level up.
If you’d rather take your time and smell the flowers (or pick them, if you’re a Botanist), the buff still helps.
You’ll be able to get a fair few jobs to a decent level in the time Road To 70 is active.
If you’re lucky enough to be joining friends who already play on a world that has Road To 70 active, the buff alone won’t catch you up with them any faster.
Getting through the Main Scenario Quests is no small feat.
It took me a solid two months of daily play to get to Shadowbringers, and I was skipping the vast majority of cutscenes.
Dungeons, trials, and raids in XIV aren’t unlocked by your level like in World of Warcraft, for example. They’re all tied to your progress in the story, and they’re unlocked by quests you won’t be able to reach unless you’re far enough in the story.
Road To 70 makes the leveling process an absolute breeze – but it won’t unlock content any faster.
So basically, if getting to the endgame is your reason for picking a Road To 70 server, it might not get you there as fast as you’d like.
Should I Wait For My Server To Get Road To 70 Before Making A Character?
I don’t really like giving definitive answers on questions like these – everyone is different, after all, and that buff probably looks really useful to a lot of people.
But in this case, I’d say definitely not.
There’s no way of telling when a world will get Preferred status, or if it ever will for that matter.
If you’re hoping for a Road To 70 buff on a world that’s usually congested, you’re probably never going to see the day.
I’ve already covered a few reasons why the Road To 70 buff might not be quite as useful as you’d think for clearing the Main Scenario.
And the honest truth is that you’d probably spend more time just waiting for Road To 70, than you would by leveling the character normally.
