Here is a copy of a post I made to someone asking the exact same question on the FFCORE forums:
For anyone who loves the class system in the online Final Fantasy games, I would highly recommend you try out a game called Eden Eternal (Free to Play game).
Just like Final Fantasy online games, you can have one character that plays all classes depending on the roles you chose outside of battle. As you level individual classes, you gain access to certificates which are equip-able to give your character various advantages with other classes. It is in my opinion way more fun to play than FFXIV 1.0 was but with its cutsey anime style graphics, it may not be for everyone. The game can also get quite grindy past level 40 if you don't want to do solo guild quests OR never want to group up for xp parties.
[u]Wall of text warning, here be some tips for playing the game with vitually no money.[/u]
If you want to give the game a try, first let me give some basic tips. First, as this game is free to play, there is of course an item mall that uses real money to purchase items. DO NOT use it until you play the game until level 30 or so and see if you like it. There is NOTHING in there you need yet and you will be wasting money since you cannot set up a player booth yet (I will explain why this is a problem later in this mini-guide). Once you hit about level 30, for about 20$ you can get everything you will ever need until end game and beyond. Although you do not need to spend any money at all on the game, spending 20$ on it versus 0$ will significantly change the speed at which you progress. Allow me to give a short guide on how to be fully equipped in the game for about 20$.
There are a few key items that are item mall exclusive that you will want while leveling past 30. Everything can be obtained from other players in game for gold, but the amount of gold you will need to grind is significant so unless you want to spend a couple days/weeks doing nothing but grinding dungeons for gold, after level 30, I suggest you spend about 20$ on the game and follow my instructions (you should never need to spend more than 20$ total on this game unless you are really into vanity items or are wasting your gold).
The item mall items you will want are 4 bags, a few Auric Jewels (1 week double Character EXP and job EXP), and a full set of vanity items (Head, misc, body, back and 2 weapons). All vanity items give a small % stat boost to your character so they will be useful for as long as you play the game and never need to be replaced except for vanity reasons. Optionally you may want a mount (although they are available from a quest) and a little gold to get you off your feet.
With your 20$, buy some AP (the game's item mall currency). DO NOT spend that AP yet. Wait for a weekend. On weekends there is almost always a 'tiered spender' sale where you get something extra depending on the amount of AP you spend in the item mall. Unless you are very familiar with the game's market, you will want to spend all your AP on 'Eden Crystals' (That's right, you don't want to buy the item mall items you need, but rather, you are buying the item mall items that are reliably worth a lot of in-game gold). In addition to the Eden Crystals you just bought, the tiered spender will usually allow you to pick your rewards, so pick 'Eden Crystals' if they are available, if not (which is rare), you may want to wait for the next weekend tiered spender sale unless you are familiar with the game's economy.
Hopefully you will have obtained 60 or more 'Eden Crystals' with your AP (If you see any promotions that will somehow allow you to get more Eden Crystals, DO IT!). Now log into the game and head to the capital city of Aven, Channel 1 (By level 30 you will know how to get there). Although the game has an auction house, it takes a cut of the auctions and since you will be dealing with high demand high value item for now, you want to avoid the auction house and use the player stalls instead). Walk over to the area where players have set up stalls and find a good spot where you will be highly visible. Set up your own shop (by using the little orange hand icon in your inventory) and sell your Eden Crystals. If you are greedy, you can try to sell them for as much as 89gold each. If you want to sell faster, go as low as 69g each (double check with people in-game to see what the current best and worst prices these Crystals are going for first). Now AFK for a few hours or a few days depending on the price you set while you wait for those Eden Crystals to sell (Note, these crystals are used to buy some of the best looking vanity items in the game through gambling. Don't use them yourself, let the rich players with a lot of cash do that for you unless you really MUST look exactly the way you want. Note the items MAY look cooler, but they are not better than the other vanity items as far as stat bonuses go. Eden Crystals are the real world money sink for real cash rich people). Every few days players can gamble on new items with the Eden Crystals. These are the days where Eden Crystals sell for a lot more (especially if there is something really cool looking on the gambling area) so be patient if you want to get the most out of your real world money. Once you have sold all your Eden Crystals, you should have between 4000 and 6500g. If you gambled away your Eden Crystals on the Crystal Alter, if you had no luck you will have nothing, if you had average luck you should have about 4000-6000g worth of stuff you can sell. If you had great luck, you could have as much as 20 000g+ worth of stuff to sell (don't rely on gambling to get your gold though, you have been warned).
With your 4000 – 6000g in hand, it is time to start shopping. Check player stalls and the auction house for the items you want. Also try advertising in trade for items you are looking for, sometimes players are selling for cheap if you want to barter a bit.
-5 Slot Backpack; You want 4 of these to start and can get them for between 200 and 250g each; 300g if you are impatient and they are on the expensive side. You can get more backpack space, but this game does not need a lot of bag space since high quality armor and weapons, mounts, pets and vanity items all go into a collection book that can hold one of every such item in addition to your bag space.
-One 'Mysterious' or 'Prime' (mysterious and prime items are always in blue text) two-handed vanity weapon OR two one-handed vanity weapons. What it looks like does not matter, you can disable the look of the item in your inventory. Pay between 600g and 1500g total for the weapon(s).
-One 'Mysterious' or 'Prime' head slot vanity item. Once again, looks don't matter. Pay between 300 and 1000g for whatever you can find for cheap.
-One 'Mysterious' or 'Prime' back item. Looks don't matter. Pay between 500 and 1500g for whatever is cheapest.
-One 'Mysterious' or 'Prime' misc item (usually mouth). Looks don't matter. Pay between 500 and 1500g for whatever is cheapest.
-One 'Mysterious' or 'Prime' body item. Looks don't matter. Pay between 500 and 1500g for whatever is cheapest.
-One 'Mysterious' or 'Prime' Pet. Looks do matter, you can't make your pet invisible. Pay between 200 and 1000g for whatever is cheapest.
Hopefully you will have at least 500g left over just for misc in-game stuff. If you have more, I highly recommend you buy some Auric Jewels (1 week 50% EXP/CP buff) for between 300 and 500g each.
At this point, you should never need to use the item mall again. If you are smart and patient though, you can also get all those really nice vanity items, mounts and pets by playing the market and never spending a single other real dollar. The great thing about Eden Eternal is that you can play the market with virtually no knowledge of how to do so and make tens of thousands of in-game gold per week. How? Very simple, sell all those Eden Crystals for the high end gold (79g plus on days where there are new items to gamble on but always sell Eden Crystal on your stall or in trade, not the AH), then use that gold to buy more Eden Crystals on days where the are sales on Eden Crystals in the item mall and/or there is nothing interesting to gamble on (buy for 69g or less). Just do this through your stall whenever you are not playing and you will never run out of gold for anything. As you understand the market, you can make gold a lot faster by dealing with other items, but the way I outlined is reliable, easy and without risk. The amount of players dumping hundreds of dollars into this game to have all the vanity items truly baffles me but its more profit for the players who don't want to spend money on the game. Once you level up, you can also sell your services as a power-leveler for pretty good gold if you don't want to play the market (you can power-level lower level players to a certain extent).
With extra gold, you may want to upgrade those 5 slot bags to up to 20 slot bags. Get yourself a 50% movement speed mount and make sure you are always being effected by an Auric Jewel. Once that is done, go ahead and waste your gold getting all the nicest looking vanity items or gambling (that is what I do and I don't spend a cent on AP for the item mall). At top level (or wastefully at lower levels), you can upgrade your weapons and armor too (but this is pretty easily don in-game by just running dungeons).
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