Final Fantasy XI Fame Guide

2010 - 7 - 7

Final Fantasy XI Fame Guide

The Workings of Fame
FAME OVERVIEW
Imagine a new adventurer, Dravok, starting in Bastok to look for fame and fortune in the great world of Vana'diel. As one adventurer among thousands of others, he has to work to become known to both the political powers within his home city, and the townsfolk there and across the world. While he hails from Bastok, Dravok is little known either there or the greater world at large. Knowledge of Dravok's work in Bastok is reflected by the fame that he obtains by completing quests. His fame progresses in discernible levels that can be checked by talking with an NPC (non-player character), in this case Flaco, who represents the fame group of Bastok. When Dravok interacts with one of these fame evaluation NPCs, they will tell him how famous he is in their city or fame group. Once Dravok becomes famous in his home city of Bastok, he may be heading out to explore the world further. Just because he is well-known in his home city, however, doesn't mean that word of his work has spread to many of the other cities in the world. He will have to prove himself further in each of the places he goes, to truly become a renowned adventurer.

 

HOW QUESTS WORK
As you walk around the world of Vana'diel, you will come across many NPCs who have work they want done, or who need assistance in one way or another. Completing these quests will increase the fame of your character, within the fame group related to that specific NPC. The fame group is generally, but not always, based on the location of the NPC: helping someone in Bastok will raise your Bastok fame, doing something for an NPC in San d'Oria will raise your fame in that city, and so forth. The primary exception to this is the Tenshodo fame group, which is represented by NPCs all across the world, as detailed in the Fame Group Relationships section.

When you complete a quest, you will usually receive various rewards, including a small increase to your fame for that fame group. When these increases in fame reach a certain amount, your fame for that fame group will move to the next level. Your fame level is a hidden statistic, and so it isn't listed on your character information. The way you check your fame level is by interacting with the fame evaluation NPC for that fame group, who is usually found within a tavern or another similarly busy place within the city. The message the fame evaluation NPC gives you lets you know what your fame level is for that fame group. There are nine listed levels of fame in each group, and the messages for those levels are compiled in the How To Check Your Fame Level section.

Most quests can only be done once: you talk to the starting NPC, you do what they want, they give you your reward and the quest is done. However, there are some quests which can be repeated, and these are generally considered the easier (albeit boring) way to raise your fame. As you complete these quests over and over, your fame will slowly be raised by the successive completions. Some of the best repeatable quests are mentioned in the How To Level Up Fame section.

If you are intent on obtaining high levels of fame, it is important to understand how fame is rewarded within FFXI. Some points to keep in mind, to clarify issues that are often confusing for new players:

Quests vary widely in how much fame they reward. Each quest has its own level of fame associated with it, so that if one character has done 30 quests and another character has done 30 different quests, they will not have identical fame.
The amount of fame rewarded from a quest is often based on it's difficulty. A simple quest that involves walking across the city to deliver an item will give a very small amount of fame. A harder quest that involves going out and killing creatures will usually reward a bit more. A quest that involves going to another city far away or takes many different steps to complete will generally provide the most fame.
Quests which require a high character level to complete give more fame than those which can be completed at level 1. While there are no actual level requirements for most quests, some quests involve going to high level areas and/or killing creatures that just can't be done by a low level character. These more difficult quests will generally provide more fame than the ones that can be done at low levels.
Your rank level has no impact whatsoever on your fame level. Your rank is raised by completing missions, which are started by the gate-guards in your home city. Your rank represents your political popularity, and is raised by the leader of your home city as you complete specific, sequential missions. Your fame is raised by the quests you complete, which are far more scattered and represent your common popularity with the everyday person on the street. Unlike missions, no particular quest is required to obtain a specific level of fame. (One caveat to this rule regarding ranks: some quests do require access to certain areas of the world that aren't initially available. That access is granted by having a certain rank, and so for those quests, your rank does matter. One example of such an area is the Chateau d'Oraguille in San d'Oria.)

BONUSES OF FAME
So why good does fame do for you? In FFXI, gaining fame will open up many possibilities that wouldn't be there otherwise. As your fame increases, other quests become available that were not accessible at lower levels of fame. Not only that, but completing simple quests will often provide an opportunity to access later quests in that series; many NPCs have multiple quests which they give out in a certain order. These later quests often provide more substantial rewards than the early ones. An ongoing attempt to list all the quests in the game by the fame level required to obtain them can be found here. Quests are a nice way to add to your bank account, both by the gil rewarded directly and by selling off the quest rewards that you don't need to other players.

Quests also break up the monotony of leveling and provide information about the world of Vana'diel. Taking off time from gaining levels to do quests is a fun way to see more of the game. As your fame raises, you will find that many NPCs will react differently to you, and tend to treat you a bit better. One concrete benefit from fame is the change in the price of items at merchants, whether standard vendors or Regional Merchants. The higher your fame, the lower the price of goods when you buy from a merchant who is related to that group of fame, and the more a merchant will pay when you sell goods. Each item does have a minimum price when sold from a merchant, beyond which it will not drop. Note that you can increase your fame beyond level 9, which will not provide a new fame message, but will be reflected in further benefits when buying or selling at merchants.

 

Fame Group Relationships

There are seven known discrete groups of fame. These various types of fame are related to each other in the following manner:

Bastok Related
This fame group is raised by quests done for the city of Bastok.
This fame group is also increased by quests done for the cities of Selbina and Rabao.

 

San d'Oria Related
This fame group is raised by quests done for the city of San d'Oria.

This fame group is also increased by quests done for the cities of Selbina and Rabao.

Windurst Related
This fame group is raised by quests done for the city of Windurst.
This fame group is also increased by quests done for the cities of Mhaura and Kazham.

Jeuno Related
This fame group is raised by quests done for the city of Jeuno.
This fame group is also increased by the average of San d'Oria, Bastok and Windurst fame levels.

Kazham Related
This fame group reflects quests done for the city of Kazham.
This fame group is also increased by quests done for the city of Windurst.

 

Selbina Related
This fame group reflects quests done for the cities of Selbina and Rabao.
This fame group is also increased by the average of Bastok and San d'Oria fame levels.

 

Tenshodo Related
This fame group reflects quests done for the Tenshodo HQ in Lower Jeuno and Tenshodo Branch at Warehouse #2 in Bastok Port.
This fame level also reflects quests done for The Brugaire Consortium in San d'Oria Port, and for Nanaa Mihgo's thieves in Windurst Woods.
This fame level also reflects quests done in the city of Norg.

Final Fantasy XI Fame Guide