New player! Don't know where to start!

Starting off, I suggest clearing as much of the storyline as you easily can. Each stage gives you stamina shards, which increase your maximum stamina, letting you play longer before needing to stop. You'll also unlock all the available characters rather quickly! Once you start running into roadblocks, then start the daily dungeons on Easy, and Normal when you can do them easily. Now, a little general advice, in no particular order:

• Save your 1* gear for now. You'll want to replace it eventually, but it's quite useful at this point in the game. If you get multiples of equipment, you can combine them to make them stronger. Each item can be combined twice, increasing the star each time as well. Example: Kunai (IV) is a 1* dagger, you can combine it twice to make it a 3* Kunai++ (IV).
• Pay attention to Realm Synergy. Using a weapon or armor in the world it originates from gives it a huge power boost. Huge meaning a 1* sword with RS is usually as powerful as a 3* sword without. Add to my first point about combining items, you can clear all the standard dungeons with just basic gear combined up to max levels.
• Cloud is one of the best characters in the game, even in the japanese version which is 5-6 months ahead of ours. It's worth it to keep him well equipped in your party. Rydia is a great black mage, though some event characters outpace her eventually. Josef (II) has one of the highest strength stats for a non-event character and has a great equipment selection. Otherwise, you'll generally want to keep the other guys at a decent level and use them for Realm Synergy.
• Do not underestimate Tyro. He has lower stats than any of the Named units, but being able to equip almost EVERY item and use EVERY skill means he can fill in any spot on your team. For this reason, until you get a good event healer, he makes an excellent white mage. Give him heavy armor and stick him in the back row with a staff, and he's practically invincible.
• Make whatever 1* abilities you want, they'll generally be temporary and replaced eventually. That said, Blade Blitz is quite useful, as are the basic elemental spells.
• You'll want to make the following 2* abilities: Cura, Fira/Blizzara/Thundara, Thunder Strike, Double Cut, Retaliate, Jump. Once you can grind for 3* orbs, make Power/Armor/Magic/Mental Break, they really help fighting bosses.
• I personally recommend saving your mythril for 11 pulls, it's more cost effective to hold off. That said, if you see an item you REALLY want, go ahead and do a few single pulls if you're prepared to not get it. The drop rate is low, so waiting for 11 pulls makes it more likely (but not a guarantee.)
• Finally, you'll want to eventually increase your inventory up to at least 150. Don't worry about upgrading it until you actually need the space, but it's a solid investment of mythril.

Hopefully this gets you started. Welcome to the subreddit, and enjoy the game!

i would honestly run the celes event a few times on easy. easy levels and will get you a 2* sword in a decent amount of time. otherwise my recommendation is to start a new world and check your stamina shards and what you get for completion and mastery. if you'll go over the 5 shards, it will refill your stamina completely. I grind a level then until almost out and then go use the free refill.

I would seriously focus on getting Celes at the moment. Take a look at the post I made here -> http://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/33la8t/brand_new_should_i_event/cqm0438

Basically, swap out the word Aeris with Celes and swap out 4k shards with 8k memories and the same method applies.

Use whomever is best for you. The best type of party is 3 frontline fighters, one black magic user, and one white magic user. Usually you want one fighter who can use Support abilities, because they're helpful.

Upgrade as you go. Preferably with Tuesday/Friday upgrade mats. Avoid shields, they get outclassed.

One of each elemental Black Magic, One of each Cure spell, Spellblade and Support abilities. 3 Blade Bashes and 3 Double Cuts. Skip Charge. Breaks will help with bosses.

Firstly, invest your stamina in events. They will get easier as you go on, and the characters are the most important thing. They also only last for a limited time. Next, put your stamina in the Classic Dungeons. It will boost and refresh your stamina. Do classic dungeons to get characters, and help you tackle events. The Daily Dungeons are important. Do them whenever you can.

It is pretty steep! Welcome to the community. It's an interesting place once you get into it, as you may already have found.

Everyone's opinion will vary. Be prepared for that ;) I really think there are 2-3 bots made for this sub JUST to down-vote threads. Maybe the mentality is that they down-vote things they are not interested in. In any case, it's typical reddit.

When I started, there was very little to worry about.
I'd say do what I did, and play through the storyline on normal.
You get a ton of extra stamina by the time you are finished, which will help dailies/events along the way.

Don't worry about synergy until you are completely stuck. Yes you /can/ worry about it now, but because you'll level up so fast, it doesn't matter really.

For characters, it also doesn't matter. Maybe use Rydia when you get her, but other than that, just level what you want. Use Tyro until you really feel like replacing him.

All the other chars (aside from fighter/knight) will be kinda useful much later in the game, so playing them now will not be hurtful.

If you are here to min/max, then start reading as you get stuck. I wouldn't worry about time. This event is not super good in any case, so even you skip it, you will be fine.

Abilities, cure, cura. Don't hurt yourself figuring out which abilities to get now other than that, because you won't need em till you get stuck. Look up the boss you get stuck at, find it's weakness (sleep, blind, lighning, etc) and go from there.

EDIT: one thing I regret, from the beginning, is I sold things every time I was full on inventory. Try to level up a weapon for each person in your group, using other items you find along the way in the storyline. Keep all 3* plus weaps though. After that, you have to worry about it much less because the dailies will make that process way easier.

Very first rule: SAVE MYTHRIL!!! You can never have enough of it, so don't be stupid like I was when I was new and didn't know anything and spend it on heals and stamina refills :P

Characters you might wanna try: Cloud, Celes (if you can get her now), Kain, Wakka, Rydia, Josef. (but don't forget, you might want a dedicated healer and mage too and Record Synergy or RS for short is always good)

Equipment: Use whatever you have now (especially if it has RS) Although it is good to do a few relic pulls early on as this will help you clear content better. You don't need 5* equipment to complete everything. It's good, but not necessary.

Good abilities: Spellblades (for Cloud and Celes), -Ra and -Ga spells (e.g. thundara, thundaga) Heals and Double Cut are some good ones you can craft early on that are beneficial in the long run.

Stamina: If you haven't got Celes yet i'd recommend doing that. Otherwise right now the best thing is probably Flan farming for exp. (various threads explain this, just search them up)

Hope this is of any use to you (I tried my best lol) Always good to help the new ones out ;)

1. For characters, here is a neat guide: http://www.ffrkguide.com/guideDetails.aspx?i=6

2. For equipment, record synergy is very important, so for starters don't throw away all your 1* item, but combine them to 3* instead. A 1*++ with RS would have a stat between natural 4* and 5*, and a 2*++ with RS would be comparable to 5*. Focus on getting a "set" of items for each world (like, for each world get 5 weapons and 5 armors that you think your characters can use). You can farm some 2* items but for now just focus on storyline.

3. For abilities, you would want to get some elemental damage (e.g. fira or fire sword), cura, and double cut. Hone them to level 2 or 3. Then you would want to get some abilities: retaliate, armor/magic/mental/attack break. If you don't know what to make, consider making 1 of each (at least for the 1 and 2 * abilities), since creating them is not very expensive, but honing is. So only hone what you feel useful. Summon spells are not worth crafting for now.

4. If you just started yesterday, focus on the storyline. This will give you mythrils (do a 11-rare pull when you have 50!), stamina shard (currently max stamina is 78 or something). Since you'd get a free energy refill when you get max stamina+, you will be able to do a no-waiting rush of normal dungeons for a long time. This will probably give your main party a lot of experience to level to like 20, then you can consider doing an event.

Do the event/weekly dungeons so that you don't waste stamina. For example, if you're on 35/40 stamina with 4 shards, and you know the next story dungeon costs only 21 stamina, you can consider doing an event dungeon or weekly dungeon to spend that 14 stamina, then do the story dungeon, so that you can get a free refill immediately afterwards. Notice that the first-time bonus for weekly/event dungeons also give mythril, so it's worthwhile to clear them at least once.

The suggested level for current weekly dungeons and events are: Weekly(easy): no level requirement, but the rewards are very low. Clear it once and be done with it. Weekly(medium): suggested level is about 25 depending on your equipment. The rewards for medium level is only for low-level parties, so only do it once or twice, get what you want and run. Weekly(hard): suggested level 40+. The orb once are extremely useful, as you'll need a lot of orbs to hone abilities. Exp ones are good, but not so good compared to the current Celes event. Gil dungeon is worth running once or twice and you won't be out of gil for a long time. Do weapon/armor only when necessary as they eat your inventory space. Celes event(easy): do it once and be done with it. Celes event(medium): you want to get to level 20 to run it once. Celes event(hard): best with a party of about level 45 with VI synergy items to stride through. However, if you have a party of about 20 you can get exp by flan farming (check megathread for flan farming). Level up really quick.

Don't panic. There's a lot of guide for this game, and you'd be able to ramp up quickly. This is a very good time to enter the game, since the current event give you huge exp bonus.

I just started the game a few days ago myself and the advice in this thread has been helpful already. A lot of it I figured out on my own but there was a ton I didn't think about. Anyway, one thing that I noticed that no one has brought up is making full use of stamina level ups which refill your stamina. Some people say go through the story first which is good for exp and rewards but I think it's best to mix events with story so you don't waste stamina. Early on, I feel like I'm playing catch up so getting extra stamina can help speed things up since the real limiting factor in this game is time.

I'm going to be a contrarian here and say I wouldn't focus too much on getting Celes. You'll probably have another opportunity down the line, and she's not super great overall. I'd worry more about getting some levels and gear, clearing story dungeons and getting ready for the next event to get Lenna. You'll want her, because while you can get Rydia early on to be your black mage for the time being, there's no good white mage options among the story dungeon characters right now.

As for which characters you should use, you'll want to level everyone eventually, but early on Cloud and Rydia are good, along with someone who can be a white mage (I used White Mage but a lot of people here liked Tyro) and two more damage dealers, preferably one with access to support skills. Wakka and Kain or Josef are good basic choices, but you could use other characters if you wanted.

Whatever you do use google survey money to buy relic pulls (FREE)

pay attention to your stamina crystals. if you go afk for a while and have full stamina at the last stage of a level then redo the other stages till you run out.

cloud is op

dont make summons yet because there will be quests that give mythril if you make em

Rydia is good early game but falls later

supports save you (not white mages) they can blind, power break, magic break, armor break.

if you die you can turn off your game and you're alive when you restart it. unless you went on the next stage.