Returning Players Guide
This guide is written to help returning players get reacquainted with FFXV: ANE. Although it will also help give current players some tips in order to maximize their gameplay experience.
If you need more information about any particular feature, there are links to more in-depth guides in every section.
Dark World
After Dark World was released, all the older troop types and stats became almost obsolete. For the most part, if the stat doesn’t have “Dark” included, it’s probably an older version. Although there are a few exceptions like Troop Supplies and some Astral boosts. Learn more in the Guide to Dark World.
Troop Capacity
There are multiple troop capacities that you will have to keep in mind when you’re training troops. Pre-Dark troops have their capacities which Troop Supplies share with pre-Dark Core troops.
Ultimate Troop Capacity
This applies to Dark Core and Dark Elemental Troops only. Dark Core T1-T5, as well as Dark Elemental T1-T2, fall into “Dark Troop Capacity”. All Dark Core and Dark Elemental troops above those tiers will place into the “Dark Troop Capacity: Ultimate”.
Troop Death Order
Supplies/Monsters Death Count Multiplier
Sometimes troops are too powerful for their own good. For this reason, each Dark Monster 2+ will count as 200 troops when calculating losses in a battle report. The same goes for Troop Supplies 3+ which will count as 100 troops each. If your battle report looks funny and you believe that you should have won according to the numbers, take a look at what troops were killed/wounded and see if they follow one of the multipliers above.
New Features
There are bound to be quite a few new ways that your gaming experience has changed. This next section will guide you through some of these changes.
Map Search!!!
The Quick Search function makes it a breeze to find PvE on the map.
- Control Points are Vaults and Forts
- Monsters are all monsters with the exception of Realm Bosses.
- Cities are PvE cities otherwise known as Neutral Cities.
- Resource Tiles are the RSS caches that you collect from.
- Realm Bosses are the monsters that are usually located on the Crystal Scar compass points.
- The icon is on the top of the realm map.
Monster Hunting
MP Carryover
This allows you to roll over any unused MP when leveling up your hero. It also lets you use MP from your inventory to go over your MP limit. Learn more about MP Carryover in the Hero MP Guide: MP Carryover.
Custom Attack
With this, you can hit a monster as many times as you want with a few simple taps. From 1 to however many your current MP allows.
Combat
Blitz Drive
The hero Pryna has three Mastery Skills that unlock Special Battle Boosts whenever you do a specific action. Be warned, however, that there is a timer that resets every time you do the required action. This may hinder your ability to shield when needed. It only lasts at most a few minutes. You can remove skill points in Pryna’s Mastery Skills tree, or only have one point allotted to use her skills later on.
Smart Troop Training System
This system allows you to train up to the amount of RSS that you have available. This can be turned on and off in the Options screen.
Royal Dark Troop Stats
Unlike Dark World stats, these are NOT a complete reset of the game. Just a minor adjustment of how we perceive the numbers shown in stats.
- 1% Royal Dark stat is equal to 1T% Dark stat
- This can apply to any troops and will be named as such. For example 1,000% Dark Royal Mercenary Attack (which would be the same as 1KT Dark Mercenary Attack)
- Dark debuffs like Dark Troop Attack Resistance will not apply to these new stats.
- It is NOT a new troop type!
Schedule
Weekly Release Schedule
Instead of a constant bombardment of new features, you can expect a bundled release every Tuesday night (or Wednesday 00:00 UTC).
The next couple of nights will feature each release in special Spotlight Sales packs.
The bundle packs and Spotlight packs are usually BOGO or BOGO 50%.
Realm Bosses
Fridays are usually the day that we get a new Realm Monster. One week will be a “Pinata” Realm Boss, which drops loot for every hit. Then the next week will be a Moogle Market monster, which drops tokens that you can use to buy loot in the Moogle Market!
Monthly Release Schedule
While it might not be an exact “schedule”, we have become accustomed to a certain cadence when it comes to releases every month. During any month, you can expect to see new Citadel levels, new hero levels, or even a NEW hero, various new troop tiers, new VIP levels, or even a new gear set. If you’re on the Hub Line chat, players will guess the odds of what the next release will be.
Events
Campaign Events
Also called Mega Events, these are multi-day, main events that accumulate points when you gather “tokens” from other events. A lot of times there is a premium token that is plentiful in packs, but you can sometimes get them in other places like extreme events, Moogle Markets, Luna gifts, or special Proving Grounds.
FLASH Events
There are special events that give you points for the premium tokens, and if you wait for a 2x FLASH event, you will maximize the prizes that you earn. So, if you’re planning on buying a pack during a campaign event, you might want to see if there is a Flash event and time your purchases to reap even more rewards.
Neutral Realms
Most Neutral Realms are accessible by all players with special teleports. These ports are usually given via Luna Gifts, Luna emails, but could be given in events or Moogle Markets. Packs will also have teleports, but they’ve been generous to give everyone a port or two.
Carbuncle
The Carbuncle Realm is the dream-world. You don’t need to worry about troop loss since all troops go to the almost limitless hospital. Even troops that you send out on offensive attacks won’t die but will be wounded instead. Healing troops is FREE (for now, as it has cost Gold in the past). Your hero cannot be captured! There is no reason not to participate, as long as you heal your troops before you go home, there is no risk to you whatsoever.
Bubbles are not allowed in the Carbuncle.
Sometimes there are realm boosts for building and research, so pay attention to the blog so you can build and research on the cheap.
Bloodbath
This is probably the exact opposite of the Carbuncle Realm. The Bloodbath Realm lives up to its name and that is where troops go to die! With drastically increased march sizes (for just about all troop types), and no empire barriers allowed, you either kill or be killed.
Disputed Realm
Also known as the Fort event, this is where you will battle to hold Forts to give you and your guild substantial boosts. Learn more and how to boost yourself in the Disputed Realm Guide.
Battle Royale
In the Realm of Bahamut, you better be prepared to hold your ground. Once you lose a defensive attack, you will get booted back to your home realm! This realm has four phases and you are given a limited number of ports when the event starts, and the ports are refreshed for each phase. There is a recovery event between phases and there are special events that run during the whole Battle Royale, so it’s in your best interest to stay as long as you can.
Neutral City Events
To shake things up a bit, there will be a Neutral City event with PvE cities spawning around your realm. Sometimes they drop loot, but most of the time you will receive special tokens that you can spend in the Moogle Market. These cities are usually easy to kill and don’t require a special march set up to kill them.
Free Cities vs. Buy-in Cities
You will probably see a few different types of PvE cities as well as corresponding markets. One city will be the type that anyone can attack to earn common tokens.
There may also be up to a few other “premium” cities that will need to be unlocked in some sort of way. Whether it is by adopting one or more features or buying special unlocks to attack them, you’ll find that there is usually a pack purchase requirement. But don’t let that stop you from grinding the free cities!
RvR
Depending on how long it’s been since you’ve played, RvR might look a bit different. Not only are there new realms from past server merges, but your old realm might even be GONE!
Points are usually tallied based on troop types killed, rather than power killed as it was when kill-events first started. The harder to kill troops usually rank higher than the lower troop tiers. Catch up in the RvR Guide: Eos at War.
Mini-Events
These are hourly events that usually contain the tokens you need for the current campaign. Do these whenever possible as sometimes they will also have a Moogle Market for the tokens that you have collected. FREE STUFF!
Tips for Some Mini-Events
The mini-events may vary between accounts, but here are some tips on how to complete some of them.
Guild Gift
If you don’t have any Guild Gifts to collect, you can also get points if you donate a “gift” from your inventory. Don’t have a gift? Simply craft some Level 1 Elemental Essence in the Magitek Converter. Locate it in your inventory and send it to a friend.
Capture or Banish a Hero 3x
The easiest way to complete this event is to capture three heroes from empires level 15-19. These are capturable but unbanishable, so they are just waiting for you to grab them. They will probably run away after capture since the release timer is 0:00.
- Beware if you have Blitz Drive enabled since this will activate it and make you unable to bubble for the duration of the boost.
Collect RSS
Check the event to see which tier of DARK RSS you need to collect. If you’re forgetful and won’t remember to recall your march before the timer is up, here is a tip: send as many troops as it takes to gather the stated amount (usually 50,000). When they are done collecting, they will march right back home, thus completing the event! For me, it takes 360 troops a couple of minutes to gather the resources.
Monster-Hunting
If you don’t want to waste a full MP bar on a monster, use Custom Attack to hit a low-level mob the number of times needed to complete the event (usually 20).
Reinforce Guild Member
Simple, reinforce a guild member for points.
This will activate your Blitz Drive, so you won’t be able to shield if you have it enabled!
Guild Adventure Hall
Since Fishing grabs you the needed contracts for the Gilgamesh Trial and Gems & Gear dungeons, you can run these halls so you don’t waste valuable Dark Contracts for this event. Five hits and you’re done.
Learn more about GPG in the Guild Adventurers Guide and Guild Adventurers Guide 2.0
Packs to Buy
Discount Packs
If you’re going to jump right in and start buying packs, you should know that any account that hasn’t had a pack purchase in a while will have one or more discounted packs available to buy. If there is more than one available for you, you will have to decide which is the better value since the other discount packs usually vanish after your first purchase. For this reason, you should buy the discount pack BEFORE buying any other packs!
Time your pack purchases with bonus flash events, Moogle Markets, or Secret Inventory chests to maximize your money spent.
Catch up $20 pack
This doesn’t count as a discount pack, so you can get it after buying any other packs. Search for “catch up” and you might be lucky enough to get a Dark World Catch Up pack for $20. This pack will contain some random boosts in it that will help you catch up. Like +1 Astral and Monster Champion march capacity, a Tabula Rasa, and more.
Catch Up Tokens
If you’re okay with waiting a little bit before diving in and spending, there are often Catch Up Tokens released once a month. There may also be two different versions of that month’s Catch Up, one of which won’t get you as far as the other one. You might also see a Discount Catch Up pack that will not have as much content included in the whole pack as the full price one. As they phase out the tokens, you might be able to get the premium Catch Up Token and some good loot in a discounted pack.
Alternatively, you might be able to ask around and see if any players have a spare Catch Up Token to give you from the previous round.
Grind Your Way to the Top
Magitek Chests
The hero Verstael has Mastery Skills that unlock the ability to craft special Magitek Chests in the Magitek Converter. These chests will have loot to help you out. The chests are updated with more recent features when Kingsglaive Noctis is released, and you will find the unlocks in his Mastery Skills. Depending on what you need, you will probably only find a few of these chests useful.
- Magitek Hero Chests: These give you some extra AP and Mastery Points as well as Hero MP.
- Magitek Troops Chests: You’ll find some materials to train troops, but you will need a lot of them to make a substantial number of troops
- Find out more in the Hero Secrets Dark World Guide for Verstael and Kingsglaive Noctis.
Charts
You’ll find a lot of charts in different guides on ffxvanehub.com, but here is an especially handy one: ConcreteRos3’s Hero Medal Charts Guide. There is also another one in the works for Astrals, Mounts, and Kings of Lucis.
Reduce Your Costs
With the expense of building, researching, and even leveling up the different features in FFXV: ANE, you’ll want to try and find any type of reduction that you can get your hands on. Other than pack purchases, here are some places you can find extra reductions:
- Hero Skills: Find the heroes in the Hero Secrets Guide and Dark World Hero Secrets Guide.
- Astral, Mount, KoL Skills: Just like heroes, these features also have hidden secrets, including reductions! See more in the Secrets of Astrals, Mounts, and Kings of Lucis Guide.
- VIP: Probably the simplest way to get reductions, check out the latest Royal Dark VIP Guide.
Ask for Help
If you’re returning, it’s probably because you miss your friends. Ask them for help to find a helpful guild or even if any have a spare Catch Up Token to donate!
It’s also recommended to port next to a friendly guild member so you can do some of the mini-events like RSS trading and reinforcement.
Buildings
Auxiliary Buildings
At first glance, it may look like these buildings will be too complicated since most of them are at higher levels. But you don’t need to worry too much since most of these levels are only to give your empire extra boosts. You will no longer need specialized blueprints for each building but instead a certain type of Auxiliary blueprint that is used for several buildings at the same time. If you’re still in the levels that use any of the older style blueprints, a Catch-Up token will take care of that for you! You’ll find that the token upgrades any buildings that you don’t already have, it will unlock it for you too! That’s why the Catch-Up token is the first thing that is written about in this guide since it is so important.
Crystal Nexus
- Special Cores can only be placed in the 5th slot.
- Use the presets to swap all of your Cores quickly and easily.
For more information check out the Crystal Nexus Guide.
Astral Shrine
- Leveled up Astral Shrines will allow you to send more than one Astral on a march as well as unlock Multi-Astral Defense.
This feature uses all your Astrals skills in empire defense as long as they are present in your Citadel. - Power of Astrals is a passive skills tree similar to hero Mastery Skills.
- Only Titan, Ramuh, and Bahamut have Power of Astrals skills.
- Mounts moved out of the Astral Shrine to the Royal Stables.
More in the Astral Shrine Guide.
Royal Stables
- Mounts work similarly to Astrals, and they even heal with Astral Full Health Talisman.
- Power of Mounts is also persistent skills like Mastery Skills.
- Only offered with Ebony Chocobo, Sinistercorn, War-Trained Chocobo, Anak Stag, and Lucky Chocobo.
- Training Skills Trees are for some of the newer Mounts and are also like Mastery Skills.
Lots more information in the Mounts Guide by xAlyKatx.
Guild Adventure Hall
- AutoPlay allows you to play a full dungeon run with only one button click.
All the information you will ever need can be found in the Guild Adventure Hall Guide and the Guild Adventure Hall Guide 2.0.
Order of Heroes
- The different Orders unlocks and Tributes are only available in small quantities in the Archaic Arena. Hopefully, there will be more released to us soon as many players haven’t maxed this feature out, yet.
- Order of Heroes MP Regen will regenerate your hero’s MP while placed in any Order. Requires a special unlock available only in packs (as of today).
- Now you can swap heroes easier than ever with Swap Active Hero.
More information about this building in the Auxiliary 3.0 Guide.
Magitek Converter
- For Verstael’s Magitek Chests: Special > Special > Magitek Chests.
- To see the loot dropped, check out Verstael’s Hero Secret.
- For more loot and a list of the increased drops, check out Kingsglaive Noctis’ Hero Secrets.
- To craft giftable Elemental Essences for the mini events: Resources > Elemental Essences > Giftable essence.
Mythic Forge
- Upgrade Gear Quality now lets you improve your gear pieces when they are Legendary, up to Level 10 power.
Proving Grounds
- This also has an AutoPlay feature.
- You will find some current in-game currency in the Resourceful Retreat.
- Mini-event points can be gained from the Resourceful Retreat as well as the Crystal Nexus Dungeon.
- Sometimes dungeons are updated to give current drops, so ask around for help or keep an eye out for a blog post.
Oracle Temple
- If you remember this building, you might find that it looks different than it did when you last played. It’s been rearranged to make it easier to navigate and the newer boosts will be found in the topmost tab.
More information in the Oracle Temple Guide.
Arcanaeum
- Some enchants will now last for up to 90 days!
- More information can be found in the Aux 3.0 Guide or even the Enchant and Research Guide.
Ignis’s Diner
- Craft temporary boosts by cooking up meals.
- Exquisite Plates can only have one ingredient added. All others are up to six, depending on the Diner level.
- TIP: Boost your march speed by cooking up a meal with any plate (other than Exquisite) and a Garlic, 1* Garlic, and a 2* Garlic.
- BONUS TIP: Exquisite Gourmet Toast boosts your Dark March Size by up to 2T.
More information in the Ignis Diner Guide.
Command Center (formerly Command Hall)
- New troop types called Troop Supplies, use pre-Dark troop capacity and march size capacity. They also benefit from non-Dark march size boosts.
See the Command Center Guide for more information.
Fishing Hut
- The Royal Lake is a permanent fishing hole, but you might encounter others for special events.
- You’ll be able to grab a LOT of contracts for the Gilgamesh Trial Arena as well as the Gems & Gear Galore Arena. Use these contracts for the Guild Adventurers Hall mini-event to save your other valuable contracts.
Fishing in the Fishing Hut Guide.
Troop Academy
- This is where you can Promote troops to higher tiers or Convert troops to different types as long as you have the required research completed.
Check out the Troop Academy in the Auxiliary 3.0 Guide.
Conclave of Lucis
- You’ll find your Kings of Lucis in this building. They are similar to Astrals except they never leave your empire. The currently active KoL’s boosts will apply in all combat.
- Tutelage skills are similar to Mastery Skills as they are persistent and apply no matter which KoL is active.
- The other Auxiliary buildings will give you boosts as they are leveled up with special Auxiliary Building blueprints. You can find the Auxiliary buildings blueprint charts on our Line Hub chat albums folder!
Main Buildings
Some of the main buildings may have gotten new features since your departure.
Training Grounds
- You can only train up to your capacity. Dark Troop Capacity for Rangers and T1-T5 Dark Core Troops, and Ultimate Troop Capacity for T6+ Dark Core Troops. The pre-dark Core Troops will occupy the Troop Capacity along with Troop Supplies.
- Select the best troops for your presets, including Astrals, Mount, and Monster Champions.
- You have to have the specific troop unlocked to add them to a preset. Even if you have some of those troops in your empire.
- Mirror Heroes no longer require a percentage to add them to a preset, and instead use a flat number (so much easier)!
- Check out Gentiana’s Mastery Skill for Troop Training Queue for an almost unlimited troop training queue.
Hospital
- With the release of Mercenary Pits level 8, the Hospital now has a dedicated section for Mercenary Troops. Then when Dark World was released an additional Dark Troop Capacity was added.
Mercenary Pits
- Different tabs for Mercenaries (pre-Dark), Dark Mercenaries, and Monster Troops.
Check out more in the Mercenary Pits Guide!
Armory
- You can now combine Crystal Cores up to a maximum level of 6 in the Combine tab.
- If you already have a gear piece at a lower level, you can level it up to Legendary in the Mythic Forge.
University
- The Second Research Queue allows you to do one additional research.
- Instant Multiple Research is unlocked in VIP which allows you to instantly complete as many research nodes as you have tomes, RSS, and speed-ups.
The End (It’s Not the End)
I know it’s a lot to take in, but there is a lot of information floating around out there and hopefully, this helped point you in the right direction. Feel free to peruse other guides on the Hub and join us on Line and Discord if you would like more help!
What to Read Next
xAlyKatx has even more information about the Quality of Life and Convenience features that have been released in FFXV: ANE. Don’t struggle when you can breeze through many aspects of the game.
Medal requirements for all the heroes you could ever need are compiled in the All Hero Medals Guide. This will come in handy when you’re working on getting certain skills unlocked.
Coming Soon
Astral, Mounts, and Kings of Lucis level requirements guide!
