How many hours does it takes to beat the main story and each expansion?

[Billie Cristal]

Without doing like secondary stuff. Im new in the game. Thanks.

[galacticcorgi]

Depends. It can take quite a few, at least. :|a Talking a few weeks, but IMO it's worth it.

[Rizzwalker]

Hard to say. Something around 300 hours? Maybe more. Depends on what you do. Sometimes you need to level up a bit

[把光荣属于俄罗斯]

ARR 80-100 hours .+around 30-40 through post ARR arc to heavensward ( literally 100 filler quests)

[arejang]

I'm playing through the MSQ primarily (not really bothering with hunts, any side quests, or leveling any alt jobs) and so far, it took me about 60 hours to complete the base campaign. I'm currently working on the 100 quest marathon between ARR (that is the base campaign) and Heavensward (the first expansion). I'm about a 3rd of the way (40 quests done) and 10 hours in. I skip most dialogues right now and stop to watch all the cutscenes. In order to make sure I still understand the main beats of the story, I read the journal entry at the start of each quest, and that method usually is much more efficient than reading through many more cliche'd lines about thanking you for doing XYZ and so on. The story isn't bad, but there is a metric ton of filler content riddling the entire journey through level 50 and into the 7th astral era quests (that is the 100 quest marathon i'm working through at the moment).

I take breaks in between and I don't necessarily log off every time, so that probably pads maybe an hour or two where I'm afk. Not to mention the waiting times for dungeons. I'm a warrior, that is a tank. So usually I find a party in about 5-10 minutes. There was one occasion where I waited close to 20 minutes, but those are pretty rare. Once I'm through with all 100, I'll update with a thread and overall thoughts so far on the game including how long it took me to get through it all. Spoiler alert: The story isn't that terrible, but oh god the quest design is absolutely horrendous.

[Jeppe]

I came back to the game in about a week before Shadowbringers was releaed and I did the last Seventh Umbral Era quest (ARR) and up to patch 4.5 content (Stormblood) in less than a week. And I think it took me like 3-4 days to get through the new expansion. It depends on how you play the game. I skipped all cutscenes though. :P

[Drakon]

Originally posted by Jeppe:

I came back to the game in about a week before Shadowbringers was releaed and I did the last Seventh Umbral Era quest (ARR) and up to patch 4.5 content (Stormblood) in less than a week. And I think it took me like 3-4 days to get through the new expansion. It depends on how you play the game. I skipped all cutscenes though. :P

I make sure to read everything and watch every cutscene, I also do my daily hunts, dungeons, trials and quests. Also, I leveled multiple classes to 70 within that time. I reached ShB at 405 hours. Would've reached earlier if I didn't focus on getting a Lux weapon.

I suggest that everyone who has started the game to play at their own pace.

[Remedy]

Originally posted by Billie Cristal:

Without doing like secondary stuff. Im new in the game. Thanks.

I'd say around 100 hours total MSQ if you skip everything and only do msq

[AlexInFall]

It took me 70 hours as a brand new player on a white mage (conjurer) just for a realm reborn not into expansions yet. (100 quest grind)

[Remedy]

Originally posted by AlexInFall:

It took me 70 hours as a brand new player on a white mage (conjurer) just for a realm reborn not into expansions yet. (100 quest grind)

I've finished MSQ @ 287 hours played. But i did all the blue quests.

[[IPD]Argh...]

MSQ till lvl 80 and watching the story round 400-450 hours as Bard

[FlyingDeath - Drew]

Took a friend of mine watching everything reading everything just doing MSQ 5 days i think. but thats playing from like 8am to 3am if im right for him, (did it was warrior) to do ARR to SB (not SHB)

[Cage_D]

Im 130 hours in and near end of HW and i read all the text and did all optional dungeons and optional quest post game but i play fast not wasting time so dont know.

[NuhUh]

New to the game. Purchased ARR and Shadowbringers Collectors Edition. Wearing the Collectors Edition 30 EXP Boosted accessory. Leveled through the MSQ and did most of those dungeons. Beat the MSQ and watched the credits roll.

When I saw the credits roll, I was so relieved. MSQ was interesting up to level 35-38 but after that I couldn't take anymore. The story got worst as time passed, cut scene longer, and quests became repetitive fetch quests with same NPCs.

So when I finished the final 3 horribly designed Magitech dungeons (the last one was filled with SOOOOOOOOOO many cut scenes) and the credits rolled, I thought, "finally! I've completed this horrible game/story in ARR. Now I can move on to better content".

Nope! Currently level 58 and still doing ARR, the most boring content I've ever experienced in any MMO. So I stopped and began Culinary crafting and doing any Blue+ Quest I've missed which unlocks various game features/dungeons. I'm afraid to touch the ARR MSQ at this point.

[Ahriman]

If you read all the dialogue it will take about 300 hours, you will have hit level cap on your first job long before you reach the end of shadowbringers

[arejang]

Originally posted by NuhUh:

New to the game. Purchased ARR and Shadowbringers Collectors Edition. Wearing the Collectors Edition 30 EXP Boosted accessory. Leveled through the MSQ and did most of those dungeons. Beat the MSQ and watched the credits roll.

When I saw the credits roll, I was so relieved. MSQ was interesting up to level 35-38 but after that I couldn't take anymore. The story got worst as time passed, cut scene longer, and quests became repetitive fetch quests with same NPCs.

So when I finished the final 3 horribly designed Magitech dungeons (the last one was filled with SOOOOOOOOOO many cut scenes) and the credits rolled, I thought, "finally! I've completed this horrible game/story in ARR. Now I can move on to better content".

Nope! Currently level 58 and still doing ARR, the most boring content I've ever experienced in any MMO. So I stopped and began Culinary crafting and doing any Blue+ Quest I've missed which unlocks various game features/dungeons. I'm afraid to touch the ARR MSQ at this point.

Disappointment is pretty crippling to morale. You can complete astral era in less than 5 days if you're consistent. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to complete one story arc, including dungeons and trials, and there are 6 arcs total.

Play in a way to keep the game fun for you. For me, I was already aware of the 100 quest marathon that is astral era pretty early on (around the time I got my ostrich mount). So as soon as I finished ARR, I immediately began astral era and pushed for the end in scheduled bursts. The story isn't too bad, but the quests suck. So try to keep a cool head as you get through them all and take breaks as needed