As useful as the plant-based class system in FFXIV is, there are lots of people with mixed feelings about their little Sprout icon when they’re starting off with the game. Some players love it, but others cannot wait to hit the playtime threshold for their sproutness to go away. I mean, you can turn it off manually if you want, but in this article, I’m going over 5 reasons why you may want to hold on to it for as long as possible!
The first, most important, and undeniable reason why you should be embracing your Sprout symbol is because it’s adorable. It just is, no matter how you feel about it and what your high-level friends are telling you directly or behind your back. The icon is just so wholesome and no matter how old you are, it just has this enormous potential to awaken your inner, playful child. Hopefully it doesn’t hit the feelings of being a new kid in the class, though, because I don’t know many people who enjoy that – I personally never have. But yeah. Being a sprout is adorable and you can only dislike it if you don’t like being adorable, and not liking being adorable is like feeling nothing when you see a Christmas tree or a great sunset. Highly unlikely for a lot of people!
Also, most players will be super forgiving towards you if you have your sprout icon turned on. It’s there for a reason, and considering how full of empathy and understanding the FFXIV community is, there’s just no reason not to take advantage of that. The fact is, you simply don’t know everything about the game yet, and that’s fine. Having your sprout icon turned on is stopping you from kind of lying to yourself and others about how much you actually know about the game mechanics, and learning is absolutely okay.
Not only is the community forgiving, but some of them also have a great amount of knowledge about the game that might not be easy to look up, as you don’t even know what you should be googling anyway. Appreciate the fact that there are these awesome Veterans who actually want to help you and teach you your rotation, the habits of turning the stance on, how to macro, where to stand in a dungeon, and all these useful things that you won’t simply find in a guide, as they’re considered common knowledge. But, it’s okay to not have common knowledge as you’re not… well, common. You’re new, and you should be having a blast sprouting around!
Something you may not be painfully aware of if you’re not a content creator with people coming into your chat every day and echoing it through your mind, is that you’ll most likely only be on this journey once in your whole lifetime. The MSQ is massive and even if you end up having an alt, you’ll most likely boost that one, so it’s probably best to soak in your Sprout era and make sure that, one day when you’re watching someone else learning about what a Limit Break is, you’re feeling the good kind of nostalgia, without it turning into an FFXIV PTSD!
Lastly, if you’re still not convinced that being a Sprout is actually cool, you should realize that you’re not the new kid in your class. You’re a part of the whole new class, a new generation of players who are starting the game right now, and as such, you absolutely fit in just fine. People are not eyeing you for being a sprout, as sprouts are everywhere. There’s no need to deny yourself these once-in-a-lifetime benefits just because you might be feeling weird about it, as even that is a part of being an FFXIV Sprout and that’s fine! Your in-game persona is now a part of this massive Sprout movement and a community of fresh players who are going to become a huge part of the FFXIV’s social aspect for years to come, and you should feel proud of that and excited about it!
I hope this article has helped you ease into your sproutness, and if you’re not a Sprout, hopefully it’s reminded you of the good old days… in a good way. If you’re more of a visual person, and you don’t mind getting easy wins in-game, you can check out all of this in my video – and subscribe for more awesome FFXIV stuff!
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