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Getting Started
You've installed Buddypal (see Installation if you haven't yet). This page walks you through logging in, connecting your first character, and getting oriented in the main window.
Buddypal is an unofficial, third-party tool for Final Fantasy XI. Using any third-party tool carries some risk under the game's terms of service — keep that in mind as you use it.
When you open Buddypal for the first time, you'll see a "Sign in to continue" panel with a single Login with Discord button. Click it, authorize in your browser, and the app will pull your Discord account and check your subscription tier.
If your account doesn't have at least a Tier 1 subscription, you'll land on a subscription gate screen instead of the main app. It shows your Discord avatar, your current tier ("No subscription"), and a Set up subscription on Discord button that opens the subscribe link. Once you've subscribed, come back and click I've subscribed — re-check to pull your updated role without having to log out and back in. (See Tiers and Subscriptions below for what each tier actually gets you.)
Buddypal talks to FFXI through a Windower addon, and the desktop app installs it for you — no manual file copying required.
Open Settings → Preferences, then find the Install / Update Addon section on the main Commonly Used page. Click Install Addon (it becomes Update Addon afterward) and the app will download the addon files and place them in your Windower addons folder automatically. Windower is normally auto-detected once a character connects; if detection fails, you can set the path manually in the same settings page.
If a character is already connected with the addon loaded, Windows won't let the installer overwrite files that are still in memory. In that case you'll see a message asking you to run //lua unload bpx in-game first (there's an Unload All button in that same section that sends the command to every connected character for you), then click Re-check.
Once the install finishes, the app tells you exactly what to do next: type //lua load bpx in your FFXI chat window.
With the desktop app running and the addon installed, log into FFXI and load the addon:
//lua load bpx
You'll know it worked when you see a colored chat line like:
★[BPX] Core loaded v<version> (<channel>)
That line confirms the addon downloaded and started its core logic successfully. A couple of things to double-check if you don't see it:
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Make sure Buddypal (the desktop app) is already open before you load the addon. If it isn't, the addon will wait about 30 seconds and then print a chat line letting you know it isn't connected to the desktop app yet, with instructions to start Buddypal and run
//lua reload bpx— just do that and you're set. - Any startup problems show up as chat lines starting with
[BPX] WARNING:— if you see one, check Troubleshooting and FAQ.
As soon as the addon connects, a character card appears automatically on the Home screen of the desktop app — there's no "add character" step. Load the addon on additional game windows to multibox; each one gets its own card. Closing the game or unloading the addon dims the card rather than removing it outright.
Across the top of the window is the navigation bar:
- Tasks — opens the Task Manager directly
- Reactions — opens Reactions directly, for standing per-character automation rules
- Parser — opens the combat Parser directly
- Managers (dropdown) — Event Manager, Combat Manager, Menu Manager, Gearswap Manager, Schedule Manager, Records Manager, Fishing Manager, Craft Manager, Active Settings
- Map — the interactive map
- Inventory — your connected characters' bags
- Treasure — Treasure Pool tracking
- Records — the read-only Records of Eminence overview (managing active objectives is done from the Records Manager, above)
- Progress — automatic completion tracking; see Progress Tracking
- Bazaar — bazaar/vendor tools
- Packets — the packet viewer
- Marketplace (dropdown) — Event Profiles, Combat Profiles
- Settings (dropdown) — Preferences
Camp and Target setup aren't separate tools anymore — you author them directly inside an Event Profile (its own Camp and Targets tabs in the Event Builder), and the Active Settings panel under Managers lets you view/live-edit whatever's currently running on a connected character without touching the saved profile.
Your Discord avatar, username, and a Logout button sit on the right-hand side of the title bar.
The Home screen is your default landing page and shows a grid of cards, one per connected character:
- A ⋮ menu in the corner for Unload Character / Unload All
- Name, current job/sub-job, and zone
- Live HP, MP, and TP bars — the HP bar shifts from green to yellow to red as it drops, and the TP bar glows at each 1000-point threshold, with a shimmer effect at 3000 TP
- A small spinner if that character's combat automation is currently active
- A pet row (HP, and for your own pet, MP/TP too) if the character has an active pet — Beastmaster, Dragoon wyvern, Summoner avatar, or Puppetmaster automaton
If no characters are connected yet, the Home screen simply reads: "No characters connected — start a game instance with bpx loaded to see characters here."
The thin bar at the very bottom of the window always shows:
- A connection dot and "X / Y connected" (X = characters currently connected, Y = total characters the app knows about), or "No DLL connections" if nothing's connected yet
- Your Buddypal app version, and — once a character has connected at least once — the core bundle version it downloaded
- When relevant: the local WebSocket port the addon connects on, an ↑ Update available pill if a newer app version has been released (click it to open the release page for the new version), and a 🎁 Free Access Campaign Active badge (see below)
Buddypal is organized into a handful of major tools, each with its own wiki page:
Combat Builder — build and assign automated combat behavior for your characters.
Event Builder — create custom automated event sequences for your character to carry out on its own.
Reactions — standing per-character rules that run independent of any loaded profile, often used to auto-load one.
Craft Manager — a recipe browser checked against your inventory, automatic synthesis tracking, and an optional automated crafting queue.
Progress Tracking — automatic completion tracking across Records of Eminence and a long list of other categories, plus sharing.
Task Manager & Automations — track and manage tasks and automations running across your connected characters.
Inventory and Bag Profiles — view your connected characters' inventories in one place and manage bag/gear profiles.
Combat Parser — a live combat log parser for tracking damage, healing, and other combat statistics as you play.
Marketplace — browse ready-made Event Profiles published by the Buddypal team, and Combat Profiles from both the team and other subscribers.
Mobile App — a phone-friendly companion site for checking in on and remote-controlling your characters.
Beyond those, the app also includes an interactive Map, Menu Manager, Gearswap Editor, Bazaar tools, a Packet Viewer, a Records Manager, and Treasure Pool tracking — all reachable from the nav menu above. These don't have dedicated wiki pages yet, but they follow the same character-card-driven workflow as everything else: connect a character, then pick it from the relevant dropdown in that tool.
Buddypal's features are gated by subscription tier:
| Tier | What you get |
|---|---|
| No subscription | Can log in, but stops at the subscription gate — no app access |
| Tier 1 | Full app access — every feature described above except saving/building your own profiles |
| Tier 2 | Everything in Tier 1, plus the profile builder (create and save your own custom profiles) |
You can check your current tier, and see exactly what it unlocks, under Settings → Preferences → Account — it shows your tier badge alongside a checklist of what's included. The same page has a Manage subscription button that opens the Discord subscribe/manage link.
Free Access Campaign: from time to time, the operators run a free-access promotion where anyone without a subscription is automatically granted Tier 2-level access — the full tool plus the profile builder — no purchase needed. While one is active, you'll see a gold 🎁 Free Access Campaign Active badge in the status bar. It doesn't change anything for players who already have Tier 1 or Tier 2 — you're covered either way — it only lifts the gate for players who'd otherwise be stuck at "no subscription."
Pick a feature area above and start exploring, or head to Troubleshooting and FAQ if something isn't behaving as expected.