Final Fantasy XIV Glossary: Jobs, Trials & Player Terms

By Treesz · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Six terms that come up in Final Fantasy XIV chat, party finder and guides: what a sprout is, how the Blue Mage job works, what a DPS check demands, how Unreal Trials differ from Extreme ones, who Innocence is and who Alisaie is. The page covers the live game, Dawntrail.

State on 2 November 2026: Patch 7.56 "Trail to the Heavens" went live on 8 September 2026 and added Beastmaster, the second Limited Job after Blue Mage. It is the fourth content update of the 7.5x series; patch 7.57 is next. Everything below is true for that patch unless a date is given.

Term	Short answer
Sprout	"New Adventurer" status: under 300 hours played or latest story unfinished
Blue Mage	Limited Job, level cap 80, learns monster spells
DPS check	Moment where the party must deal enough damage before the boss enrages
Unreal Trial	Old Extreme trial rescaled to current cap, from patch 5.3
Innocence	Lightwarden of Kholusia, Shadowbringers boss
Alisaie	Red Mage, Alphinaud's twin, a Scion since patch 2.0

Sprout

"Sprout" is the nickname of the New Adventurer status, shown as a sprout icon next to your name. Every new character has it. The game removes it automatically once the character has 300 or more hours of play time and has completed The Coming Dawn, the final post-Endwalker quest. The status updates the next time you change area. You can turn it off earlier with a command, and switch it back on as long as you have not reached the automatic limits.

Status and play time are tracked per character, not per account, so a veteran can be a sprout on a second character.
The story requirement moves with each expansion (since patch 7.0 it is The Coming Dawn), so the sprout icon tells you how far someone is in the Main Scenario, not how skilled they are.
The old status rules were much stricter: patch 2.16 used less than 20 hours of play and fewer than 80 achievement points.
Mentor bonus: when a Mentor parties with a New Adventurer or a Returner, both get +50% experience from adventuring activities until level 90. Both must be in the same area, and the bonus does not apply with the Unrestricted Party feature.
The Novice Network chat holds up to 100 mentors and 412 new adventurers (512 in total).

A Returner is someone who has not played for 45 days or more and has a job at level 50 or higher. Returners get the same Novice Network access and the same mentor experience bonus. Returner status ends after 72 hours of play from accepting the Returner's Bounty, and the character becomes a New Adventurer again if it still meets the sprout conditions.

Blue Mage

Blue Mage (BLU) is the first Limited Job in FFXIV: a job with its own level cap that cannot be used in every duty. It is a magical ranged DPS that can also act as tank or healer depending on the spells equipped. Players have over 100 spells to choose from, and collect them from monsters through the Blue Magic Spellbook. Aetheric Mimicry switches the role.

Unlock: a level 50 Disciple of War or Magic, the Main Scenario quest The Ultimate Weapon, then the quest "Out of the Blue" in Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks. You switch with the Rainmaker weapon.
Level cap: 80. Blue Mage starts at level 1 and works independently of other jobs.
Restrictions: Duty Finder matchmaking is disabled; you can join duties in preformed or undersized parties. Duty Roulettes are not available.
Damage comes from Intelligence only; Blue Mage weapons have no main attribute bonuses.
Beastmaster, added in patch 7.56, is the second Limited Job: level cap 50, solo-focused, with a roguelite-style challenge at level 30.

DPS Check

A DPS check is a point in a fight where the party must do enough damage in a limited time. If the boss or adds are not defeated in time, they enrage and kill the party. The community glossary on the FFXIV wiki defines it this way. It sits among a family of "checks": a heal check is a period of heavy sustained damage, and a mit (mitigation) check requires enough defensive cooldowns. A related term is a body check, a mechanic where all players must be alive and perform their part, or the party wipes.

The check is on the whole party's damage, so tanks and healers count as well as DPS jobs.
Checks matter most in high-end duties such as Savage, Extreme and Ultimate.

If you hit a check in a Savage raid, our Dawntrail Savage raids ranked guide lists which tiers are the toughest.

Unreal Trial

An Unreal Trial is an older Extreme trial rescaled to the current level cap. The mechanics are identical to the old Extreme version, but the fight has a strict item level sync, so you cannot out-gear it. Unreal trials were introduced with patch 5.3 as part of the Faux Hollows minigame.

Unlock the quest "Fantastic Mr. Faux" at level 80 in Idyllshire after finishing Shadowbringers; the quest does not need to be repeated for new trials.
You also need to finish the story-mode version of the trial.
Unreal trials give no gear. Clearing the current one gives one "telling" a week in Faux Hollows (one more if you earn a "retelling"), and the minigame pays a currency exchanged for mounts, minions and glamour items.

Unreal trials are sometimes described as "enhanced" versions with new mechanics. They are not: only the scaling changes. Because of the strict sync, the damage and healing requirements can feel tighter than those of current Extreme trials.

Innocence

Innocence is the Lightwarden of Kholusia, a Sin Eater boss at the end of the Shadowbringers main story (spoiler: it is the transformed Lord Vauthry of Eulmore). You fight it in The Crown of the Immaculate:

Version	Level	Item level	Party	Time limit	Unlock quest
Story	79 (sync 80)	sync 420	8	60 min	Extinguishing the Last Light
Extreme	80	430	8	60 min	Minstrel from Another Mother

The story version is in the Trials roulette; Extreme is listed under High-end Trials and the Extreme version awards 15 tomestones. The 60-minute figure is the duty timer, not the boss enrage: like other Extreme fights, Innocence (Extreme) ends in a scripted enrage if the party is too slow, which makes it a classic DPS check for groups learning Shadowbringers content.

Alisaie

Alisaie Leveilleur is an Elezen (Wildwood) Red Mage from Sharlayan and a member of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. She is the twin sister of Alphinaud and the granddaughter of Louisoix. She debuted in patch 2.0 (A Realm Reborn), is 16 in her first appearance, and works as a quest NPC, Trust NPC and Duty Support NPC.

English voice: Bethan Walker (Simone Bee in A Realm Reborn); Japanese voice: Rie Murakawa.
As a Trust NPC she can run story dungeons with you.
She appears throughout the story arcs, from A Realm Reborn to Shadowbringers and Endwalker.

Guides and services

New to the game? Read our FFXIV leveling guide. Onlyfarms offers FFXIV leveling, trials and Savage raid services.

FAQ

When does a sprout icon go away in FFXIV?

When the character has 300 hours of play and has finished The Coming Dawn. You can also remove it yourself earlier.

Can Blue Mage join Duty Finder?

No. Duty Finder matchmaking is disabled for Blue Mage, so you play preformed or undersized parties. The job's level cap is 80.

What is the difference between an Extreme and an Unreal trial?

An Unreal trial is an old Extreme fight scaled up to the current cap with strict item level sync. Mechanics are the same, and the reward is a Faux Hollows attempt, not gear.

Is Innocence a Normal or Extreme fight?

Both. The story version of The Crown of the Immaculate is level 79 with a 60-minute limit, and the Extreme version is level 80 with item level 430.

Is Alisaie a playable character?

No. She is an NPC Red Mage who joins you as a Trust or Duty Support member and appears in quests.

Final Fantasy services on Onlyfarms

Browse all Final Fantasy services