This section is to give you a general overview in soloing, especially with BST as a subjob, but it applies to all forms of soloing too.
Pack Well
This is a list of recommended items that you should have while soloing. Please note that I rarely carry any of these. I’m a cheap person. I like to save gil, but these items should come in use during panic situations, although I’d like to say if the worst comes to worst I rather die than spend 10000g on consuming medications only to still inevitably die… :
Reraise Earring | Level 24 | Enchantment: Reraise | 10 Charges
Hi Potion x 5 | Restores 100 HP
Antidote x 12 | Cures “Poison” effect
Echo Drops x12 | Cures “Silence” effect
Prism Powders x12 | “Invisible”
Silent Oil x12 | “Sneak”
Reraise Gorget | Level 56 | Enchantment: Reraise II | 10 Charges | WAR / RDM / PLD / DRK / BST / RNG / SAM / DRG / BLU only
Otherwise: Reraise Hairpin | Level 60 | Enchantment: Reraise II | 10 Charges
Warp Item of some kind i.e. Instant Warp Scroll/Warp Club
It is situational as to what it is you will need and dependant on your inventory space or capability to obtain the items, as the Reraise items don’t come cheap, but will save you EXP in the long run. Likewise, if you’re not using jobs like NIN or WHM as a main or subjob then you would benefit from stealth items.
Keep Calm
When soloing, you are inevitably going to die sometimes. This is fairly normal, and in some instances, beneficial. In my view, everytime I die, I learn something new (unless the death was caused by a stupid mistake …) and therefore it reinforces my “skill” at soloing so I don’t do it again. Being stressed is not going to help, and in instances where you have no reraise and no one can come raise you, just swallow hard and homepoint. The EXP loss isn’t that much (2400 max at high levels), and you’ll earn it back quick rather than sit there for 45mins until someone walks by and raises you.
In times of great stress (trust me, we all go through it), turn the game off and relax/eat some comfort food, or do something else and then return back to it. If you’re highly stressed and attempt to go back and solo again, it could lead to more deaths, which is counter productive eventually.
Search the Area
Before heading out to any zone, especially where level ranges where one specific camp is the most popular and people will go there no matter what. A good example of this situation is the bomb camp in Garlaige Citadel during levels 54-60, where it is used by BSTs mainly but also potentially SMNs. One other example is the “Red Kisser” camp in Bhaflau Thickets for levels 68-72, where EXP is, very fast and no other camps can beat it, but due to how the camp is setup, sharing is not really feasible.
Please bear in mind that some potential camps may also be shared by other jobs, BLM specifically, but others apply, in terms of where Beastmen’s Pets can be killed for quick and easy EXP. So in your search, if your target prey includes these types of monsters too, be aware of other jobs around too.
Look ahead, not in front of you
While soloing, especially when pets are involved, always plan your next move before your prey is dead. Have your next possible pet and prey in mind and always come up with backup solutions should something go wrong (i.e. a stray player walks by and kills your intended pet/prey). Plan an escape route, should you need to run during battle.
Run, if you need to
“Give up all bad qualities in you, banish the ego and develop the spirit of surrender. You will then experience Bliss.” – Sri Sathya Sai Baba
If during a battle and you begin to realise that you cannot turn the tides to your favour, attempt to run instead of insisting that you could win. Chances are your prey will gain the following boosts unconsciously: Mighty Strikes + Perfect Dodge. Sod’s/Murphy’s law dictate that while soloing, your prey will for sure get that last laugh in before it dies and transfers 100~ EXP to you, or floor you with double attack rounds with critical and then a TP move (i.e Goblin double attacks, readies Goblin Rush, add another attack on top) where you will lose up to 2400 EXP.
Since this guide is primarily on soloing with a pet, attempt to let your pet stall your prey so you gain enough distance to run and hopefully zone before it will kill you. Smart actions like this is an EXP gain itself, since you just saved yourself from dying. Remember, your pets are brainless/mindless. You do not need to develop any sort of relationship with them!
Take your time (Part 1)
If you’re soloing, chances are you do not need to advance very quickly through the levels in the game. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be soloing, would you? Try not to rush things just for that extra chain of EXP. It is like Friction, the more you rush, the harder the game will throw it back at you and eventually overpower you (as in, kill you). Go at a pace and try to maintain it, as it will likely work out better than having spikes of progress.
Take your time (Part 2)
And I think this is my approach to soloing in this game and getting things done. I highly recommend that you read the following story. If you don’t read it here I have it as another article!!!:
Balancing Effort and Patience
There is a story about a young man in Japan who wanted to be the greatest martial artist of the land. He thought that to reach this goal, he must study with the best instructor, who lived many miles away.
One day he left home to go study with this great Zen teacher. After travelling for several days, he arrived at the school and was given an audience with the teacher. “What do you wish to learn from me?” the master asked.
“I want you to teach me your art and help me become one of the best martial artists in the country,” the young man replied. “How long must I study?”
“Ten years at least,” the master answered.
The guy thought, ten years is a lot of time. I want to get his done sooner than that. I don’t have that much time. Certainly if I try harder I can complete this task quicker. So he asked the master, “What if I studied twice as hard as everyone else? How long would it take then?”
“Then it would take twenty years,” replied the master.
The guy thought, ‘That’s even longer! I don’t want to spend twenty years learning something. I’ve got other things to do with my life. Certainly if I tried really hard I could learn it much quicker’.
So the student asked again, “What if I practised day and night with all my effort, then how long would it take?”
“Thirty years,” was the master’s response.
The young student became confused and wondered why the master kept telling him it would take longer.
He asked the master “How is it that each time I say I will work harder, you tell me that it will take longer?”
“The answer is simple. With one eye focused on your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the way,” the master said.
(Another way of saying this is, “With half your attention on your goal, you only have the other half to focus on the work.” Any endeavour takes effort, but it also takes patience. If we have one without the other, we get off balance. with only effort, we try and try but get frustrated when we do not see results as fast as we would like. Or we get burned out and tired very quickly. With only patience and no effort, we never really put our full attention to a task. We never give it the commitment we need. This is as true with school work as it is with a meditation practice as it is with sports. In the story, the master knew that the student had enough effort; what he needed was to balance that effort with patience.
“Just say Om! – A Teenager’s Guide- Your Life’s Journey” (Soren Gordhamer)
This story is to tell you, that for soloing, you can’t achieve Level 75 in, for example, a week (or month, etc). Technically, you might be able to, but may involve long periods of play or even partying. But you’ll be burned out by it eventually (although this doesn’t really apply to the real hardcore people). Regardless, I often get PMs/tells from people on forums or ingame respectively that seem really keen to get going and start doing it, but the flaw here is that they are TOO keen, which in my mind, scream “impatient”.
The people who message me often express their frustration of looking for a party and would like to solo to me. However, I think that you can’t just “go” from party to solo instantly, because you will need to adapt, as there’s a lot more to get used to while soloing than partying. In this instance, similar to the story above, these people had the effort to do so, but wants to do so as soon as possible, therefore lacking the patience.
The balance of effort and patience is very delicate. I often think that I have it quite “tamed” but I still think I lack effort instead of patience (i.e. it took me a while to get this site up and done because I was too lazy).
Also, another side to the story is that getting to Level 75 (solo) doesn’t mean throwing your whole life away, but you should do it while doing other things as well in life.
NOTE: As mentioned in the About page, with the advent of “Astral Burning” this site might be a bit invalid, but then again it can take some effort to get people together and find a puller for the mobs. Your call.