How to hide players near quest NPCs in FFXIV Dawntrail

Want to know how to hide players near quest NPCS in FFXIV? It’s likely not your first expansion launch rodeo. Thankfully, there’s finally a way to deal with the issue of players swarming important characters. It’s just buried in the similarly overcrowded menus.

Revealed in one of the final Producer Live Letters before launch, there’s a new filter specifically designed to fade out other players as you approach NPCs. This only works on NPCs with quests left to give, but that’s largely when you’re going to want to use it. Here’s what to do.

How to hide players near quest NPCs in FFXIV Dawntrail

To hide players around quest NPCs, you need to hop into the Character Configuration settings menu.

From there, stay on the Control Settings tab on the left. It’s the first one beneath the Mouse/Controller toggle and should be the default.

On its General tab (again, it should be the default window) scroll all the way down.

The penultimate setting should be labelled ‘Quest Progression Settings.’

Tick the first box under here, “Hide nearby players when close to quest NPCS” to have other players vanish as you approach a major NPC. This makes interacting with them much, much easier.

The button beneath that hides party members, too. Just in case they’re being a royal pain and can’t help but grief you.

Beneath that, you have the option to have players stay faded as you talk to said NPC they’re swarming. It’s not necessary, but it’s nice if you want some one-on-one time with Estinien.

Again, the button beneath that expands the feature to party NPCs as well.

In brief, follow these steps to make grabbing and completing quests in Final Fantasy XIV a breeze:

• Open the Character Configuration menu.
• Scroll down the Control Settings – General tab.
• Tick the boxes beneath the Quest Progression Settings option.
• Click Apply.

For Dawntrail-specific guides, check out how to unlock the Pictomancer class to get a new ranged DPS, or how to unlock the Viper class for a new melee DPS option.