Here's a useful Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn FATE guide, hints, tips and tricks by Samuraiking that gives you information about the Full Active Time Events in the game.

What is a FATE and how do I do them?

A FATE is a Fully Active Time Event. They are encounters that pop up periodically throughout each zone. Depending on how well you do in them, you can earn various amounts of EXP, Gil and when you get high enough to join a Grand Company(GC), you get GC Seals that can be used to rank up or purchase various items and gear. (Slightly off-topic but worth noting, at level 20 when you join a GC you will need to farm 2,000 seals in order to purchase a permanent Chocobo mount)

Can I do any of them? Do I need to be in a party?

Anyone can participate in a FATE, you just need to go to the blue circles on the map which mark that FATE and do what it says. Most of the time a FATE is simply killing a mass amount of monsters within a time limit. Sometimes it is a boss and sometimes it requires you to turn in items that you pick up off the ground in the area or drop from the FATE monsters there(Designated with a purple hexagon over their name). You do not have to be in a party, but it's much harder to get a Gold rating(best exp/gil/seals) on a FATE when not in a party.

How can I make sure I always get Gold in a FATE?

There are three ways to increase your rating in a FATE:

• Tagging a monster (claiming it first, making it turn red)
• Doing DMG to monsters (If it's purple, you must do 30% of the dmg to it in order to get exp from it. All DMG done counts towards your medal score, though.)
• Healing and reviving people

Tagging monsters is the safest and fastest way to get credit. A red mob will give you full credit regardless of how much DMG you do to it. A purple mob only gives you a certain amount of credit based on how much dmg you do. This is why most people team up in a party of 8 for the FATEs. Eight people can claim monsters much easier than one, and in the higher level FATEs you will learn that each zone is packed with people trying to do them, making it hard to even get one hit on a mob before they die. Teaming up and doing AoE is the best way to remedy this.

You generally tag all the mobs you can(red text) and then burst down the (purple) mobs asap to try and get as much DMG as you can done. This is much harder than tagging but do not ignore purple mobs. When there is nothing you can tag then start working on burning down the purple mobs.

Depending on the FATE a lot of people take a lot of dmg, so there is rarely a shortage of people to heal. Go ahead and tag a mob with a spell just to be safe and then start healing. If there is no one to heal, start spamming dps spells, especially instant cast until someone loses health.

Ok, but that sounds like grinding, is that the fastest way to level up?

More or less. Doing main story/side quests are decent EXP, but you can only do them once. On your second+ characters you can expect to be FATE or dungeon grinding. Guildhests are great at low levels to do one time for the bonus EXP, but the second run+ of each Guildhest is not worth the low EXP gain. It's very good for learning group mechanics, however and I recommend you try them at least once.

Leve quests are also an option, but not only are they not the best source of EXP/time management, they are better left for your crafting classes. Leveling up a crafting class sucks if you try to grind craft. You will end up blowing gil and hating having to click 1, 2 and 3 so much. Save up your allowances to do tradecraft leves on your crafting classes. They will ask you to craft and turn in an item for EXP. Craft until you get a HQ version(200% EXP bonus if HQ) and turn it in. Plus, Battleleves are boring and more of a grind than FATEs, imo.

I've heard some FATEs have bosses like Behemoth and Odin, are they just for EXP too? No, some of the higher level boss FATEs are for item drops which can be used to turn in for high level armor(like behemoth and Odin). Other bosses drop items like pets. "It's not Lupus" FATE in Costa Del Sol drops a crab pet when you kill the Cancer boss, and the Broclops fate in Dragonreach will drop a Pudgy Puk pet.

General tips and etiquette:

• During turn in FATEs and any quest in general, please do NOT crowd npcs. Especially in a timed FATE, it gets really hectic trying to click on an npc to turn in items before time runs out because everyone is 'inside' of the npc.
• Tagging is the best way to get EXP in a FATE but if you are a healer and see someone, especially a tank, dying, please heal him. If all the tanks die because you are running around, he is going to come after you at one point. Keep in mind the tanks don't have to tank, they can dps instead, but they tank so you don't die.
• Someone in your party, usually the leader will call out the direction of the FATE the party is running too. Follow the group unless they tell you otherwise.
• Some people are nice enough to spend gil to teleport back to a base so the whole group doesn't have to run back and miss other FATEs. It won't let you teleport if you are on a mount, so use your sprint button to head back to base. If no one teleports you after 10 seconds then you can mount up and head back. If you want to be the nice person and teleport the group after long runs, I am sure they would be very thankful.
• Have a good time. Be social if you want, talk with your group and get to know eachother. FATEs can get rather boring, and having conversations with everyone will make it more tollerable. That is what Square-Enix mmorpgs are all about, grouping together, talking and having fun.
• FATEs can get huge higher up. You will see 50 or more people doing each one. This can cause lag on even good PCs. Under Character Configuration there is an option to limit particle effects by "others" and "party" if you need to. MY PC can handle it, but even I turn down "others" so I don't just get blinded by flashing lights from 50 people.
• Once no FATEs are up, go to the most center atheryte crystal in that zone and wait there. Keep your map open so you can see if any new FATEs spawn far away. -Vagabond_Sam

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