Hunter Rank Progress

[Winter]

Hunters, I need your help.

So, I've been playing this game for quite a few hours (I know my playtime pales in comparison to many out there; please keep reading), spending most of my time on side quests as I wasn't invested into the story at all. I love grinding through the highest-paying Investigations trying to tackle as many Bounties to get as many Armor Spheres as possible out of a single quest. Never being rewarded by a rank up for doing that for over half of the hours I have logged has concerned me, not only due to the lack of current progress, but also the amount of work I'd have to put in to get to rank 100+ if I'm still stuck on 9.

Today I finally read how closely tied my HR is to the main story progression. Apparently I won't be able to rank up freely until I reach HR 14 at the end of the story {someone please confirm}.

My main fear right now is:

Have I wasted all this time on side quests when they didn't really count for anything? Or is my optional quest progress being kept track of and I will see myself jump up by an unusual amount of ranks when I finally finish the story, due to accumulated XP?

Thank you.

[Suzaku]

You're fine. All progress from those early hunts is saved. Once you beat the story, you'll likely jump straight to 29 where you have to complete a quest to unlock the cap. Then you'll jump again until you have another quest at HR49.

[Fat Pigeon]

As long you dont have cleared the story (HR16) you cant see the HR exp bar and you are stuck until you do your assignement quests but its awarded as soon you unlock it.

So dont worry your time and sidequest clearing isnt wasted.

At HR29 and HR49 are again roadblocks that caps you there, until you do those assignement quests

[Daredeviler_21]

then isn't there another cap at 49? if so, is that the last cap?

[Winter]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

You're fine. All progress from those early hunts is saved. Once you beat the story, you'll likely jump straight to 29 where you have to complete a quest to unlock the cap. Then you'll jump again until you have another quest at HR49.

Originally posted by Fat Pigeon:

As long you dont have cleared the story (HR16) you cant see the HR exp bar and you are stuck until you do your assignement quests but its awarded as soon you unlock it.

So dont worry your time and sidequest clearing isnt wasted.

At HR29 and HR49 are again roadblocks that caps you there, until you do those assignement quests

Thank you so much for clearing this up.

[ChaosFred]

Originally posted by Daredeviler_21:

then isn't there another cap at 49? if so, is that the last cap?

Yes, HR49 is the last cap. Although there is certain quest that only appears on HR100, but your HR will still progress like usual.