How to enter a dungeon solo in Final Fantasy XIV

While playing Final Fantasy XIV, there are times when you just want to dive into a dungeon alone to explore or quickly complete it. Or maybe you don’t have a party to play with, and the queue time is just too long. If that’s the case, there are ways to run a solo dungeon in FFXIV.

Depending on your goals, diving into dungeon on your own, may include Duty Support, Trusts, or even simple solo exploration. Let’s take a look at the different choices and their strengths, as well as their weaknesses. 

Duty Support & Trusts for a ‘solo’ FFXIV dungeon

If you’re looking to complete a dungeon for MSQ purposes or simply want to run it again without the need to queue, then you can always use either the Duty Support or Trusts features to experience the dungeon as it was intended for a light party of four players. But what’s the difference between Duty Support and Trusts?

Duty Support

Duty Support is now available in every dungeon, from Sashtasha to The Lunar Subterrane. The feature allows you to play with NPCs who were canonically around at the time in the story where the dungeon sits, allowing you to complete it. The issue with Duty Support is that you may end up carrying a lot more weight compared to if you were playing with other actual players, but without the queue times, this is worth considering. 

Trusts

Once you reach Shadowbringers, you can start to complete FFXIV dungeons with Trusts. Trusts allow you to not only complete the MSQ dungeons from both Shadowbringers and Endwalker, but also level up the Scions and other NPCs in a similar fashion to Grand Company Squadrons. 

Which characters you can play with depends on which expansion they’re a part of and each character will take up a certain role in a party. For instance, Thancred will always be a tank in his role as Gunbreaker, and Estinien will always play as Dragoon to pick up the DPS, while G’raha is the only flexible member of Trusts, able to be tank, healer, or DPS depending on the build of the rest of the party. 

Unrestricted Party & Level Sync dungeons in FFXIV

To complete a dungeon that’s below your level, you do have the ability to go in truly solo. To do this, you have two options – you can either fly through the dungeon with your current level, allowing you to defeat lower level enemies very quickly, or challenge yourself by enabling level sync despite being on your own. 

Unrestricted Party in FFXIV Duty Finder

To enable solo dungeon runs, open the Duty Finder and click on the gear wheel in the top left corner of the window. From that menu, select ‘Unrestricted Party’ to enter with any number lower than the intended party (four for dungeons, eight for raids, and so forth). If you select only this option, you will remain at your current level when you enter a dungeon, regardless of the level of the dungeon itself.

Note that unrestricted parties do not gain EXP or Spirit Bond, but you can still claim Treasure Chests.

Level Sync in FFXIV Duty Finder

If you want to level sync down to the originally intended level for a dungeon, you’ll need to select “Level Sync” alongside “Unrestricted Party”. This combination will allow you to enter dungeons alone while also reducing your level to the level it would usually be inside the dungeon you enter. Selecting this option also allows you to gain EXP and Spirit Bond while completing the dungeon.

As a warning, I wouldn’t recommend this for dungeons that aren’t at least 10 levels below your own. For instance, if you’re playing on a level 90 and want to complete Vanaspati (level 85), I’d recommend running this with a party, Duty Support, or as part of Trusts.

Explorer Mode

To access Explorer Mode for FFXIV dungeons, click the gear icon in the top left corner of the Duty Finder window and select ‘Explorer Mode’.

If you’re simply wanting to explore a dungeon and admire its beauty without having to worry about enemies or the threat of death, I can’t recommend Explorer Mode enough. This is an excellent way to get some amazing GPose photos, spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of Eorzea, or find things that you might otherwise miss when speeding through a dungeon run. 

You won’t be able to gain EXP or Spirit Bond while inside a dungeon using this mode, and you can only visit a dungeon that you’ve already completed. However, once inside a dungeon in this mode, you’re free to use mounts, and there are shortcuts to boss locations throughout the dungeon. You may also place a training dummy in any location, which you use to practise Job rotations or even witness Limit Breaks in full glory.