Duty Finder
- See also: Duties and Party Finder
General Information
Duty Finder is a tool players can use to register for and enter most instanced group content (duties) in the game, including dungeons, guildhests, trials, raids, PvP, and some Gold Saucer minigames. Players need to unlock the duty first before they are allowed to register for it. Duty Finder will match players from different servers in the same data center. Players who register for a duty by themselves, or with a party that smaller than the duty requirements, will be matched with other random players until the party is filled. The queue time varies depending on the popularity of the duty, the roles required, and current player traffic. Once the party is filled, the players will be given a prompt to enter the duty. Players who register for duties with a premade party that matches the party size requirements will automatically be prompted to enter the duty upon registration.
In patch 2.1, Duty Roulette was introduced to allow randomization of duty selection with daily bonuses for certain activities.
Duty Finder Unlock
Duty Finder unlocks at the same time as your first matched duty. This could be either a Guildhest or the MSQ 
It's Probably Pirates.
Duty Finder Settings
Duty Finder settings were introduced in patch 3.0. Players can access settings from the gear wheel icon on the top left corner of the Duty Finder menu (above the "Duty Finder" menu name). Note that matchmaking will be disabled if the settings are changed from the default.
Participation Requirements
Unrestricted Party
Unrestricted Party (formerly undersized party, referred to as unsynced by the community) allows players to participate in Duties with below minimum party member requirements. For example, running Sastasha with 2 players. In this setting, level sync, item level sync and role requirements are ignored. Most duties allow unrestricted parties, except for duties released in the current expansion, Field Operations, and Ultimate Raids.
- Defeating enemies will grant no EXP or item drops. Spiritbond also will not be gained. However, any items in chests still drop, and their drop rates are not affected. Because almost all loot in duties comes from chests, this setting will not affect loot farming outside of very specific drops.
- Players will still receive treasure chest rewards from defeating bosses, first time completion bonuses (such as tomestones), EXP from completion of quests, and satisfy any quest objectives that require completing the duty.
Minimum IL
Minimum IL or item level reduces the item levels of the entire party to that of the minimum item level requirement of the duty. It is intended for players wish to be challenged by the duties to a similar degree as when the duties were first introduced. Players can select this setting in conjunction with Undersized Party setting.
- It is worth noting that this is something of an misconception, as older duties from past expansions especially would have had drastically different abilities on the classes and jobs. This leads to an easier experience overall due to potency creep and job overhauls. In extreme instances, gear sync even at min ilvl would not reflect the stats of players in appropriate period gear. It can also be the case that MINE is harder than intended particularly for 2.0 jobs that have been heavily gutted at lower levels. All this was made worse by the Endwalker patch 6.0 non-linear stat-squish. So while "Minimum ilvl, no Echo" or MINE runs are done by sections the community, it is not accurate to say that it offers "the original level of challenge."
Loot Rules
Normal: Regular loot rules that enables Need, Greed and Pass system for all drops.
Greed Only: All party members must select Greed.
Lootmaster: Party Leader determines loot distribution. For each drop, party leader can manually distribute the loot to an individual party member or make the entire party choose Greed only.
- Loot Rules cannot be changed once entering a duty.
- Loot Rules can only be enabled by pre-made parties. They are always Normal when random players are matched by duty finder.
Explorer Mode
Explorer Mode was released in patch 5.4 in Shadowbringers. It allows players to freely explore previously completed dungeons. Using Explorer Mode, players can take their time to enjoy the scenery of their favorite dungeons with no enemies or obstacles to ruin their fun.
Duty Finder Usage
Players use Duty Finder to enter most instanced group content, regardless of whether they are queuing solo or with a premade party. Duty Finder matching, however, is typically used for story-mode difficulty content, including dungeons, normal and hard trials, normal raids, and alliance raids. In North American and European data centers, matching is not recommended for higher-difficulty content (e.g. extreme trials and savage raids). In addition, higher-end content is typically absent from Duty Roulettes (with only extreme trials appearing in Duty Roulette: Mentor) which leads to very long queue times. Forming premade parties through Party Finder is therefore preferred by most players who wish to do higher-difficulty content.
High-end Duty
- See also: Duties and Party Finder
General Information
Duty Finder is a tool players can use to register for and enter most instanced group content (duties) in the game, including dungeons, guildhests, trials, raids, PvP, and some Gold Saucer minigames. Players need to unlock the duty first before they are allowed to register for it. Duty Finder will match players from different servers in the same data center. Players who register for a duty by themselves, or with a party that smaller than the duty requirements, will be matched with other random players until the party is filled. The queue time varies depending on the popularity of the duty, the roles required, and current player traffic. Once the party is filled, the players will be given a prompt to enter the duty. Players who register for duties with a premade party that matches the party size requirements will automatically be prompted to enter the duty upon registration.
In patch 2.1, Duty Roulette was introduced to allow randomization of duty selection with daily bonuses for certain activities.
Duty Finder Unlock
Duty Finder unlocks at the same time as your first matched duty. This could be either a Guildhest or the MSQ It's Probably Pirates.
Duty Finder Settings
Duty Finder settings were introduced in patch 3.0. Players can access settings from the gear wheel icon on the top left corner of the Duty Finder menu (above the "Duty Finder" menu name). Note that matchmaking will be disabled if the settings are changed from the default.
Participation Requirements
Unrestricted Party
Unrestricted Party (formerly undersized party, referred to as unsynced by the community) allows players to participate in Duties with below minimum party member requirements. For example, running Sastasha with 2 players. In this setting, level sync, item level sync and role requirements are ignored. Most duties allow unrestricted parties, except for duties released in the current expansion, Field Operations, and Ultimate Raids.
- Defeating enemies will grant no EXP or item drops. Spiritbond also will not be gained. However, any items in chests still drop, and their drop rates are not affected. Because almost all loot in duties comes from chests, this setting will not affect loot farming outside of very specific drops.
- Players will still receive treasure chest rewards from defeating bosses, first time completion bonuses (such as tomestones), EXP from completion of quests, and satisfy any quest objectives that require completing the duty.
Minimum IL
Minimum IL or item level reduces the item levels of the entire party to that of the minimum item level requirement of the duty. It is intended for players wish to be challenged by the duties to a similar degree as when the duties were first introduced. Players can select this setting in conjunction with Undersized Party setting.
- It is worth noting that this is something of an misconception, as older duties from past expansions especially would have had drastically different abilities on the classes and jobs. This leads to an easier experience overall due to potency creep and job overhauls. In extreme instances, gear sync even at min ilvl would not reflect the stats of players in appropriate period gear. It can also be the case that MINE is harder than intended particularly for 2.0 jobs that have been heavily gutted at lower levels. All this was made worse by the Endwalker patch 6.0 non-linear stat-squish. So while "Minimum ilvl, no Echo" or MINE runs are done by sections the community, it is not accurate to say that it offers "the original level of challenge."
Loot Rules
Normal: Regular loot rules that enables Need, Greed and Pass system for all drops.
Greed Only: All party members must select Greed.
Lootmaster: Party Leader determines loot distribution. For each drop, party leader can manually distribute the loot to an individual party member or make the entire party choose Greed only.
- Loot Rules cannot be changed once entering a duty.
- Loot Rules can only be enabled by pre-made parties. They are always Normal when random players are matched by duty finder.
Explorer Mode
Explorer Mode was released in patch 5.4 in Shadowbringers. It allows players to freely explore previously completed dungeons. Using Explorer Mode, players can take their time to enjoy the scenery of their favorite dungeons with no enemies or obstacles to ruin their fun.
Duty Finder Usage
Players use Duty Finder to enter most instanced group content, regardless of whether they are queuing solo or with a premade party. Duty Finder matching, however, is typically used for story-mode difficulty content, including dungeons, normal and hard trials, normal raids, and alliance raids. In North American and European data centers, matching is not recommended for higher-difficulty content (e.g. extreme trials and savage raids). In addition, higher-end content is typically absent from Duty Roulettes (with only extreme trials appearing in Duty Roulette: Mentor) which leads to very long queue times. Forming premade parties through Party Finder is therefore preferred by most players who wish to do higher-difficulty content.
High-end Duty
Template loop detected: Raid Finder