Eureka: The Fine Print

Late night thread idea. I wanted a place to collect all the small minor things I've learned and discovered in my short time in Eureka. All the little things that aren't necessarily easily listed or located anywhere. Think I'll break it up into 4 or 5 posts. One for each area, and I think maybe dedicate one to the Tracker site. Again, this is late night, so... this project might take a little while to complete. But, feel free to chime in and correct anything I get wrong. I'll try to edit and correct as I remember it.

First things first, this is not a comprehensive Eureka thread. Not gonna bother explaining the magia system, should be fairly intuitive. Not gonna explain every NM, from prep to mechanics, cuz damn, that's a lot of work. And also I think that's kinda a lot of the fun, learning the fights so you don't die as much. Honestly, I'm not super certain exactly what is and isn't going to be here, playing it by ear I guess. Point is, things you should be able to learn as you go, prolly going to avoid.

Also, at the time of writing, this information is relevant to 5.1. If anything changes in the future, no telling if I'll remember to update it here.

Dumping Anemos into this post as well, since it's fairly straightforward, not a lot to say on it I don't think. Welcome to Eureka, here's your elemental wheel, everything here is dangerous, etc, etc. The danger has been tuned down since 5.1, but it's certainly not impossible to die. Do the Eureka quests as you're able; they're fairly important for improving your survivability.
It won't be long before you learn to be on the lookout for the Anemos Elemental. Bright green fairy looking thing, grants an hour-long exp buff as well as a general attack/def buff plus regen. Also good for survivability. These elementals will recur in each zone. I know I said I wouldn't bother with the intuitive stuff, but here we are.

There's really not a lot to Anemos, it's a decent introductory zone. You have a grace period of several levels where there is no consequence for death. If I recall, up to level 5, you lose no exp, and up to level 11, you won't lose a level if your exp is lower than the penalty. So, really, take this time to explore and learn. Mob placement here isn't too terrible, very few special aggro cases. It's a good time to learn your limits.

The two important things I think are worth mentioning here are aggro and special drops. Aggro (I'm just assuming anyone looking at this understands the term) is important to pay attention to in every zone, but Anemos is certainly the most lax about it. The majority of enemies are basic sight aggro. If they're facing you, and you're close enough, they can see you. To navigate safely, learn how to run behind things, get a feel for where that sight cone starts, this will be a good time to gain the skills you'll use to get around larger groups later.
At least two of the mobs here are sound aggro. Level 5 Scape Leeches, and level 21 Magia Fans. Sound aggro mobs can't see you (or don't care) no matter what side or how close, but they will aggro if you're running by. Walk slowly, using whatever your keybind for that is, and you'll get through without incident.
I think almost everything, regardless of aggro type, will aggro by touch as well, however. So even if you're walking slowly, do take care not to walk right through things, they tend to notice that.
Sprites will aggro to spells. Casters, be aware of your placement and theirs, especially if you're not safely overleveled. Especially relevant if you're syncing down for a NM around any sprites.
Ashkin, which typically spawn in around 7pm Eorzea time, until dawn, also aggro by sight, but will also key in to you if you fall below 80% HP. I think it's 80, anyway. Maybe it's 20%? Idk. Not sure. Someone may chime in with correction here.
Mostly, this information is to help you stay safe, to need less raising, to help survive on your own. As of 5.1, now that you have mounts unlocked from the start, this may not be as important. You may be able to reasonably outpace most things. But, depending on your level, you may still want to avoid the chance of getting one-shot.

That just leaves the special NM drops, unless anyone else thinks of other important things here. There are I think 3 minions you can get from NMs in this zone, if you're inclined to want to collect minions. Level 2 NM Lord of Anemos can drop a Prince of Anemos minion, level 11 NM Serket can drop a wind-up Mithra minion (one of the races from FF11, pretty sure), and level 17 NM Fafnir can drop a wind-up Fafnir minion.
Additionally, there are a couple pieces of glamour gear to watch for. The level 4 NM Emperor of Anemos can drop an Emperor Hairpin, level 11 Serket can also drop a Scorpion Harness (also some FF11 nostalgia, I think), and level 15 NM Simurgh's Strider can drop Strider boots, which have the additional bonus of +10 seconds of sprint if you're wearing them in city-states. Useful if you spend a lot of time running around city states, I guess? Level 20 Pazuzu, in addition to the feathers required for gear upgrades, also can drop a housing item and a Triple Triad card. Less exciting.

There's also lockboxes gained from NMs. You'll probably have enough to see nearly every reward by the time you're done, but, just in case, a few of the better ones to farm for if you're inclined: The three minions that drop from NM can also be found in lockboxes, a Tyrannosaur mount, a chocobo barding, 2 pieces of furniture, 2 orchestrion rolls, 11 various glamour gear pieces (none of which are the rare NM drops), as well as the materias and confettis and so forth.
You may also get a rare drop from killing regular mobs, an Over-aspected Cluster. Acts as a Phoenix Down. A raise for anyone that doesn't have the spell. Nothing impressive, but, you could carry one of each and have a whopping 2 raises on you at any time, for all of your raising needs.

That pretty well covers anything you might need to know about Anemos, I think. 'cept maybe some lore/nostalgia bits, if you're really into that. Beyond my scope, tho. And I'm tired. Other zones will come later, with more pertinent info.

Pagos. The nightmare. Hell frozen over. Most players seem to class this as the worst of the bunch. Personally, I think Pyros edges it out just slightly, but they're both pretty bad for different reasons. In the past, it was not entirely uncommon to see players new to the zone dying right out of the gate. The enemies here seemed just a wee bit tougher than Anemos trained you to expect. Probably not the case anymore, but, beware.

Probably the first major thing to note is the cliffs. The zone is basically divided into "north" and "south" areas, with only a single, somewhat dangerous path leading to the north. This makes travel through the zone, until you are able to attune to the northern aetherytes, tedious at best. If you're attempting to follow the NM train, you may find you just can't keep up for some of those higher ones. You may be better off choosing to plan ahead, and traveling to the next NM prep/spawn ahead of time, if you know/ask what the group is planning.
Even worse than the impassable cliffs is the small mid-height areas. There are a few caverns that require you fall down to a ledge from up above, made all the more frustrating by the fact that it's never one singular ledge. If you jump off at the wrong location, you will find yourself cut off from the path you want, and you'll have to go all the way back around to try again. Awful, awful zone design. I understand the intent, but it's far from fun.

Next important thing is the introduction of the void dragons. High level mobs scattered around the map, but they're all permanently asleep. This should be fairly obvious how to handle them, but somehow seems to not always be. If the high level mob is sleeping, and you know the high level mob will likely kill you if you wake it up, don't wake it up. In simple terms, they're sound aggro. Walk by slowly and quietly and nobody gets hurt.

This zone also introduces adaptation and mutation. Many of the mobs in the area may spontaneously change as you fight them. Adaptation seems to usually just be the mob gets bigger and tougher. Mutations can change them completely, from elemental affinity to their model. These can be important to pay attention to. You may be all set to handle something tuned to ice, but as soon as it changes, if you don't remember to change accordingly, you can easily find yourself getting beaten when the elements are no longer in your favor.
Mutated mobs can drop special cold-warped lockboxes. These special boxes offer rewards not found in the standard lockboxes you'll have in abundance from NMs. In Pagos, they only contain a couple furnishings, the Shiver emote, and one of the Hakutaku eyes.

Starting with this zone, you'll also see the bunny FATEs. These will continually recur, and they're not on the same timer for respawn as the NM. Personally, I have a bit of trouble solo-ing them myself. The basic idea is save the bunnies from dangerous mobs, and when you succeed, they will lead you to treasure. This treasure can be anywhere on the map (at specific locations) I'm pretty sure. So, be mindful if you're low level, your treasure reward may be somewhere you can't reach very safely/easily.
The rewards offered aren't incredibly substantial, however. You may find any of the Hakutaku eyes, as well as a minion, a card, and a stuffed bunny furnishing.
The regular lockboxes here in Pagos don't contain much of particular excitement. All the same materia trash, ten more glamour gear pieces, a new FF11 minion (Tarutaru), a couple crafting ingredients for more glamour gear, and all four ingredients for crafting an exp boost Harmony Potion for Eureka.

As for special NM rewards, the Hakutaku eyes mentioned previously come in to play here. As I only recently learned, because this information wasn't really gathered anywhere convenient, the eyes can all be crafted together into one special item that, when in your inventory, will allow you to get gold in the level 25 Hakutaku NM FATE. Gold on this NM guarantees an Optical Hat will drop, which will consume the special crafted Eye item thing. The hat, along with the Speed Belt, from level 29 King Arthro, and the Cassie Earring from level 35 Cassie, are special Eureka gear that all have a Haste stat. As you would expect, this will speed up your attacks, which should equate to more dps, even if their other stats are a bit lower than the gear you likely already have by this point. Not certain on the maths here, but I still try to get these items for myself, just to see if they make me feel any stronger. While the hat is a guarantee if you have the special item (I forked over a load of gil for that), the belt and earring are random rare drops, and the NMs themselves are weather-dependent as well, making it especially difficult to collect.
Not much else of note other than that, besides a couple TT cards.

The zone has a lot more sound aggro enemies than Anemos, so it's crucial here to know your aggro types if you're going to survive on your own. Know when to walk, know where to run. The Tracker site also says some enemies are "true sight" aggro, which, I haven't even figured out what that is yet. I think it's maybe supposed to mean they can see you even if you're stealth'd somehow? This is one point I'd love clarification on, can't seem to find the info anywhere.

Pyros. Good job. You toughed it out in Pagos and made it to where things can start getting a little more fun, maybe. As I heard/remember it, devs had already put most of the work into Pagos when Anemos was released, so they didn't have the chance to implement any of the feedback they got from the start until this zone. I'm... actually not entirely really sure what all that would've entailed at this point. And obviously by now it's not super important.

Most players find this zone a vast improvement over Pagos. And, it is, sure. My own assessment, tho, is there's way too many mobs here. Soon as you step out of the gate, it's just a nest of them. There aren't so many cliffs here, which is good, but the zone is still divided into icy exterior and fiery caves, with one path between them. Oddly, I found the south half far more punishing than the north, despite the south being the starter zone. As an example, just trying to navigate to the southern-most aetheryte is a harrowing experience, weaving around so many mobs. I'm pretty sure it's even technically possible to get aggro as soon as you teleport there, the mobs are so close. By comparison, the north feels much less restricted. Due to the fact that many of the cave mobs are sound aggro, once you can sneak your way into the cave entrance, you're fairly safe to explore the majority of the top section. I'm also only just realizing that the zone is still sorta a bit restrictive, with all the narrow paths used. Anemos, and even Pagos, mostly, was fairly open, but here, there are a lot of effective "bridges" connecting the various sections of the map.

Otherwise, the mechanics here are still largely the same as Pagos. Sight aggro (and True Sight, whatever that is; I think I've heard that it just means NIN can't get away with Stealth or something), sound aggro, magic aggro, mutations, adaptations, dragons. Mutated mobs still drop special coffers, with a minion, a chocobo barding, an emote, and Tactical logograms. From the looks of it, Tacticals only ever drop from these boxes (in both Pyros and Hydatos), so if you're farming, good to be aware of that.

On the subject of logograms (I'm not using this as a place for a guide on it, those already exist in better forms), it will be worth noting that you can get every type except Obscure here in Pyros. Nothing is really clear on that, and, since you can technically just buy them on the MB, the game can't really restrict you in any way. What this will mean is that newer players will be faced with the opportunity to unlock more logos actions than when the zone was first introduced. You can, technically, unlock every action immediately, if you buy enough ahead of time. It gets you a little bit further ahead than where you're expected to be. That is to say, don't stress too much about unlocking everything right away. You weren't meant to, and you don't really gain the full benefit until Hydatos anyway. But, it is pretty nice having it done.

Additional point, since I didn't find the whole "umbral array" thing very clear to begin with, the idea is that, if you set up a combination of logograms in each array that would give you a logos action, you'll have access to both actions at once. I was personally a little confused by the whole mix-n-match idea, but it really is just as simple as "want to cast 2 things instead of 1? Tada!"

Back to loot. Various mobs just drop various logograms. It's not really entirely worth trying to farm until you're leveled/geared up, really. Bunny boxes, bronze is mostly materia, and only difference between silver and gold seems to be the potential logograms. From both, you can get a new mount, new hairstyle, and new glamour horns. I'm not entirely certain what difference, if any, there is between running the two different bunnny FATEs. I don't think either one results in only getting coffers in their respective north/south zones, but, I could be wrong. I also don't think gold/silver coffers are more or less likely with either FATE, but I could be wrong again.

The level 38 and level 47 FATEs both have a chance of minion rewards. Additionally, this zone introduces an option to upgrade your magia board to hold 6 magicite instead of the 5 you've had since Anemos. To do so, you'll need items from the level 45, 49, and 50 (Skoll) NMs. These seem to be very rare drops, so, good luck and all. On the bright side, since they are important upgrade items, you'll typically find players trying to spawn these at any time. Mostly the higher level ones. With the current buffs, and especially in an empty zone, it's fairly easy to spawn and kill the low level one solo. Gets more difficult when the spawn mobs are higher level. Additionally, these items can also be found on the MB, if you're feeling especially frivolous. Again, since the low level NM is fairly easy, that item will be fairly cheap. The other two will cost a fair sum each. These are wholly unnecessary for anything other than feeling overpowered in Eureka zones, so, judge whether it's worth spending that much gil. On the other hand, if you're lucky enough to get one to drop, but you don't really care for the upgrade, you're looking at a decent windfall.
There is also a minion to be had from the normal lockboxes. Mostly the same tat otherwise. Materia and 5 housing items.

There's not a whole lot here in Pyros to throw anyone for a loop after Pagos, really. Be aware that the Eldthurs mount drops from the bunny boxes, not from the Eldthurs NM. Have fun with the Logos actions, if that's you're thing. Is cool, but also, just usually ends up boiling down to more of the same "How can I deal even more damage, or take even less?" Since the logos actions are on the GCD, it kinda feels less fun wanting to experiment with odd ones, and most will probably never get much use.
The bunny boxes having bronze/silver/gold is new, I suppose. Hadn't really noticed previously. Still not clear on it myself, whether they depend on which FATE you do, or where the coffer is, or how long it takes to get there, or whatever else, or if it's all just RNG anyway. Obviously bronze is a bit trash. Not sure if gold offers better odds on the good stuff over silver.

While I'm at it, some NM notes:
Graffiacane: if you're targetted for Tag, start running. Don't stop. You're playing tag. You will be dead if you are tagged.
Lesath: be aware of the ground aoe positions; boss does a knockback body slam just before they go off. Be positioned so that you don't get knocked into them.
Eldthurs: Similar, but backwards. Boss scoops up slimes and will knock them back, then they explode. Be positioned so that you won't be close to where slimes will be knocked.
Lamebrix: Planny attack uses an indicator over boss' head for positioning. Red circle, close aoe spin, get away. Green ring, far aoe, get close.
Ying-Yang: Ideally, tanked in a position to keep the "awake" half facing a wall. One attack will slash on that side, dealing heavy damage and debuff. Stay on the sleeping side. Has a habit of spinning, and it can be hard to tell what's what, on top of fighting in a somewhat dangerous area to begin with. Deaths are common. I think there's also a "get within boss' hitbox" attack.
Skoll: Within/Without attacks indicate whether you should get close or far away. And I never can remember which is which until one has already hit me.
Penthesilea: again, another close/far mechanic attack, that I don't personally remember very well. Not very helpful, I know, but, maybe you're smarter or more observant, and maybe it's at least enough for you to know to watch out for the names of attacks, or watch for when most of the party starts moving.

Probably other things, but I don't remember them right now.

Last stop: Hydatos. There's not so much of a big shakeup here as there had been in previous zones. For myself, I've mostly just been having trouble finding much reason to stick around very long, compared to the other zones. By the time I had farmed a bit of light in Pyros for my weapon, I had already leveled up to around 54 before ever really starting with Hydatos. The zone feels a bit smaller, which makes sense, I suppose, being that the level range is only 50-60. It's definitely the most open of the four zones, with the only frustrating obstacles being the occasional riverbank, but none of them really impede progress too much. The zone feels much less packed as well; there are probably some areas where you can stand and not see any mobs at all anywhere around. It's just so refreshing to be able to freely navigate this zone. Definitely one of the better things they got right here.

Again, by the time you reach this point, there's not much new to throw at you. Tracker lists some mobs as "true sound" aggro this time, still not sure how that's different than sound aggro. Being a short level range, there's only 11 NMs to spawn, plus 2 others connected to the Baldesion Arsenal. Additionally, there's only 1 bunny FATE in this zone, and the chests still follow the bronze-silver-gold pattern of Pyros.

The obscure logograms can drop in this zone from various means, so you'll finally be able to finish off the logos actions if you haven't already. Doing so will unlock the Elemental armor for sale back in Pyros, which you can then upgrade here in Hydatos. If you can get into some BA runs for loot dropped there, you can upgrade the gear further for Eureka-specific stat boosts, making you even stronger in the zone. Additionally/alternatively, you can buy some of the BA reward tokens off the MB, and just buy even better gear from the Nostalgia guy on the pier in Kugane, which also serves as a decent upgrade in the zone.
Hydatos also offers another magia upgrade, with drops from the level 52, 56, and 59 NMs. This time, seems like typically only the 59 drop is massively rare/expensive on the MB, while the others can usually be found for cheap. This may be because the 59 NM is the only one that's truly difficult to solo spawn. Gather then all, and you can upgrade to 7 magicite.
None of the other NMs offer anything more than a couple TT cards.

The normal lockboxes that drop only really have 5 notable rewards besides all the materia and junk: two housing items, a minion, an orchestrion roll, and a BLM staff glamour.
From mutated mobs, the moisture-locked boxes can drop the same minion, a different orchestrion roll, an emote, tactical logograms, and a special BA prep item.
Bronze bunny boxes still don't have much noteworthy. Silver boxes drop another BA prep item, as well as a flask that allows you to hold even more logos actions. You still can't load up more than 2 at a time (via the umbral array thing started in Pyros), but you can double your holding capacity, to have up to 6 different sets of actions on standby. Useful, I guess, if you're spending loads of time in the same zone or something, maybe? Probably more important for BA, to have different sets ready as needed.
The gold bunny boxes can drop 2 different DRG spear glamours and a mount, plus that BA prep item thing again. That's just four different items, from different sources, that can be turned in to get you through unstable portals or something. (small note/brag, somehow managed to get one of the spears and the mount on my very first bunny box, and the second spear didn't take long after that)

Feels like there's just not as much going on in this zone. Personally, I mostly just pop in to try/check on the magia upgrade item NMs. Until/unless I can get into BA, there's not much else to keep me coming back here. But, also, at this point, it similar to the other zones, just popping in for the special drops

The Tracker. The unofficial supplementary site for Eureka. https://ffxiv-eureka.com/

Piece by piece, first thing you might see but likely hardly ever use, "Enter ID." If anyone in a Eureka zone asks for a tracker, and someone only gives a 6-character code, that's the ID of the tracker. You can enter it in that field, or just tack it onto the end of the site url.

Or, you can click your relevant zone, and start your own. At the top of the tracker is various bits of information. The ID again. The password. The password is really only needed if you want to pass ownership of the tracker on to someone else. If it's a tracker you've started and kept up to date, you may not want others having the password allowing them to fiddle with things themselves. Probably these days it wouldn't be a huge problem, but hey, never know when you run into a troll.
The instance isn't really relevant anymore; there's rarely more than one or two active at one time, typically one that's active, and perhaps one that's recently been locked, waiting for everyone to migrant over to the active.
Export tracker. Using this, you can convert a tracker that anyone may have shared into your own local tracker. Local tracker is only for you, but it can be used to track any of the 4 zones at once. You could then use it again, exporting as shared tracker, if you wanted to take over tracking duty for someone else's, without having the password.
Most of the other icons should be straightforward and intuitive, they've got hovertext to tell you what they do. Click around if you're not really sure. The only thing I've never really understood is the "NM Prepped" column, since nobody ever really knows if a NM is "prepped" until it finally spawns.

Back on home page, the maps next to each tracker are mostly all quite detailed and useful. For some reason, Anemos isn't quite up to the quality of the rest. General enemy locations, elements, aggro types, sprite, even bunny treasure locations. Only thing I never figured out was "True Sight/Sound" aggro. But I guess if you just treat it like regular. Do remember to walk around sound aggro, no running. Probably the most useful part of the site or maps, knowing which enemies to be careful around.
Find Trackers is obsolete these days. Jumping down, the BA Visual Guide is just a pdf for the Baldesion Arsenal. Other resources may be more useful for running that.

The Logograms page can be useful for figuring out how to unlock at least one of each type, necessary for gear progression. Hovering over each one will give you details (a few may be out of date, namely ones that affected TP), as well as a list of what combinations will result in each skill. The filters don't seem to work quite as they should.
At the bottom of the page, you can go through and fill in the numbers from your own inventory, and the site will indicate which actions you can create from what you have; good for maybe figuring out the best way to use ones you may be limited on. If you check the "Consume memes..." box, you can even tell the site which actions you're extracting, and the site will keep track of which memes you used and remember your inventory.



That's the long and not so short of the site. Largely intuitive, but, maybe biased. Take some time to poke around and learn how things work, and it can be a valuable tool

As a newbie to hydatos, I consider it on par with pagos for one reason, player count

anemos and pagos are usually always full of people, pyros has good hours, but once you get to hydatos and see the exp needed, the terrible crystal droprates it just punches you in the gut. there's a reason you see so many players with elemental stage weapons, they lost the will to finish when hydatos curbstomped them.

The only reason Hydatos is the final roadblock is due to Provenance Watcher being an absolute pain to spawn. I'm not sure how he is after nerf but the dude it's just an absolute nightmare to spawn and I've seen many people spending whole lockouts trying to get him to spawn. Meanwhile the majority of the others are fairly quick, but because PW gives your turn in items for the Eureka weapon you're SoL.

I completed 4 weapons in Eureka (WAR,SCH,RDM,SAM) and three of them were through the first month or two of content and the final one was when I was progging BA and needed something to do.

Once the Crystals can be exchanged for PW scales people will come back for sure.

I've only entered Hydatos since the nerf, and PW spawns don't seem too terrible. Seems fairly reliable that it'll pop in under an hour (being incredibly generous, don't think I've seen it take more than 20-30 minutes at most).

But, for me, I felt like part of what kept the player count down was actually Pyros. By the time I had finished light grinding for a couple rolls of stats in Pyros, I was already level 54. I already know I max out at 60, and now, I've been trying to aim for some of those special eureka items for further stat boosts, which took me even further. I just didn't have very much strong reason to spend great deals of time in Hydatos. I'll check in for Ceto et al., and sure, I'll stick around if a train is up, crystals is good. Idk. Is an odd thing, but I just don't feel like I need to spend as much time in Hydatos the way I did the others.

Which is a bit of a shame, because I'd honestly say it's maybe probably the best zone of the four. Big wide open space, no more caves or cliffs (though some awkward river banks here and there). Biggest thing for me was seeing that the zone wasn't absolutely packed with mobs. There are some areas/spaces where there's genuinely nothing around you on screen at all. After the mobs' nest that was Pyros, Hydatos feels like a well-maintained park.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

I've only entered Hydatos since the nerf, and PW spawns don't seem too terrible. Seems fairly reliable that it'll pop in under an hour (being incredibly generous, don't think I've seen it take more than 20-30 minutes at most).

But, for me, I felt like part of what kept the player count down was actually Pyros. By the time I had finished light grinding for a couple rolls of stats in Pyros, I was already level 54. I already know I max out at 60, and now, I've been trying to aim for some of those special eureka items for further stat boosts, which took me even further. I just didn't have very much strong reason to spend great deals of time in Hydatos. I'll check in for Ceto et al., and sure, I'll stick around if a train is up, crystals is good. Idk. Is an odd thing, but I just don't feel like I need to spend as much time in Hydatos the way I did the others.

Which is a bit of a shame, because I'd honestly say it's maybe probably the best zone of the four. Big wide open space, no more caves or cliffs (though some awkward river banks here and there). Biggest thing for me was seeing that the zone wasn't absolutely packed with mobs. There are some areas/spaces where there's genuinely nothing around you on screen at all. After the mobs' nest that was Pyros, Hydatos feels like a well-maintained park.

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youve actually seen PW?!

ive been in hydatos for a week, 4 hours a day and i've never seen him, what times were you on? what was happening? those scales are the only things keeping me from my relic.

maybe with more time available this weekernd i'll finally get to fight him...

Hydatos personally is the best feeling zone since it copied Anemos to a T. With barely any hills or inclines to go up anyone can navigate around and see what's ahead of them much easier. The inclines ended up gating off lower level people so that makes it harder to have people help spawn for NM's or get the XP to help later on. That's part of the reason Pagos was a pain when it first came out since it restricted the player base instead of anemos allowing you to go in a big group to make sure everyone gets something.

I'm glad the PW rates are better, I feel they had to bump it up otherwise the Hydatos Crystals for scales would be the only way to complete the weapons.

Pyros was best at it's launch since it was a breath of fresh air but also had the most comebacks since people were grinding for the weapons/logos and especially the elemental gear. They tried to give people a reason to go back with the rerolls but with many people just wrapping up the relic and not doing BA because of fatigue, the relic is just simply glamour. Though I've stated before having a full aug gear set (or even just getting the tradeable 300 elemental gear) makes a world of difference, even more so with echo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acelyn

youve actually seen PW?!

ive been in hydatos for a week, 4 hours a day and i've never seen him, what times were you on? what was happening? those scales are the only things keeping me from my relic.

maybe with more time available this weekernd i'll finally get to fight him...

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Most of my Eureka time is Sunday/Monday, afternoon through evening. I'd imagine with various holidays approaching and more players having free time (maybe?), could be better with having groups in? Or maybe it's just a Primal vs Crystal thing?

Really need to finish this off this week I guess. Personally, even though this is sorta dying content, I've mostly enjoyed myself here. it's nice having a zone that feels relevant at max level, where you have access to your full kit and get to use it outside of just boss battles. Though, with the expansion, I am a bit curious, does Eureka sync to level 70 skills, or do you still get to use everything up to level 80 now as well?

I think I really just want to get some good Eureka gear, not necessarily full kit (but would be nice) to make farming/grinding for additional relics even easier, before the content continues to bleed out.

I completed them all but only got gear and weapons from the first one. I hated the subsequent eurekas and won't go back except to get the actual completion.

I still think probably the most jarring thing about transitioning from Anemos to Pagos is simply the sound aggro. Anemos didn't make it much of an ordeal, and everyone gets into Pagos thinking they can just outrun the dragons or whatever else. Yeah, sure, map design and mob placement are still pretty terrible, but, personally, still found it bearable as long as I knew what I had to walk around.

What always surprises me is going off to rez someone fresh that got chomped by a dragon, and I'll explicitly say something like, "Sound aggro, walk, don't run." And they're always very surprised about this. Like. The dragons are sleeping. Of course you have to walk. That should be obvious. Yeah, many of the other sound enemies might not be, but the dragons should at least teach you that there are different aggro types to be aware of.

But, maybe it's just different for me. I recognized sound/sight aggro long before Eureka. One of the best examples I can think of is in Qarn, where you can literally skip the trash in the entire caves section just by walking. Both the bugs and the ghosts will only aggro by sound.

Only thing I have learned about Eureka is it is a grindfest equivalent to Aion 1.0 which is sure saying a lot. The penalties are extreme for dying and it is EXTREMELY punishing to new players with little to no explanation of what is going on. The people are extremely rude from what I have seen with little to no patience to explain to new players what is going on. These veterans are extremely mean and very quick to ostracize new players who violate multiple unwritten rules that only apply to this content that are never explained until you violate them and learn the hard way.

There is very little to this content that even qualifies as fun. Some long time people might dispute my opinion but that is what it is and this content is not made for me. From Anemos to Pagos is just horrible. Level 40 dragons placed in key places that one shot you and an Experience curve that just shoots up at an exponential rate.

The level of anger I have seen from people in this content is crazy. It is antithetical to every other mmo philosophy I have seen in FF14 and more equivalent to a lineage Korean style grind area designed for an extreme niche player base. FF14 would have a fraction of the current playerbase if anything outside of Eureka was designed like this content.

TL'DR: It is dry grindy content with no clear reward or direction leading the players in the areas to be extremely rude and only seeing other players as a way to achieve their own goal with no thought given to how they treat other people.

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Originally Posted by Puremallace

Only thing I have learned about Eureka is it is a grindfest equivalent to Aion 1.0 which is sure saying a lot. The penalties are extreme for dying and it is EXTREMELY punishing to new players with little to no explanation of what is going on. The people are extremely rude from what I have seen with little to no patience to explain to new players what is going on. These veterans are extremely mean and very quick to ostracize new players who violate multiple unwritten rules that only apply to this content that are never explained until you violate them and learn the hard way.

There is very little to this content that even qualifies as fun. Some long time people might dispute my opinion but that is what it is and this content is not made for me. From Anemos to Pagos is just horrible. Level 40 dragons placed in key places that one shot you and an Experience curve that just shoots up at an exponential rate.

The level of anger I have seen from people in this content is crazy. It is antithetical to every other mmo philosophy I have seen in FF14 and more equivalent to a lineage Korean style grind area designed for an extreme niche player base. FF14 would have a fraction of the current playerbase if anything outside of Eureka was designed like this content.

TL'DR: It is dry grindy content with no clear reward or direction leading the players in the areas to be extremely rude and only seeing other players as a way to achieve their own goal with no thought given to how they treat other people.

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I don't know what it's like on your data center, but your experiences are not universal.

In my time spent in Eureka (from Anemos all the way to Hydatos), people were generally somewhere between neutral and friendly. Everyone sort of did their own thing but usually they were interested in NM trains and would look for people to party with. I didn't see anyone be actually rude, and I think the only time I got irritated by other people was when I was playing exclusively with my partner while levelling up, and some random solo DPS player would come up and hit something we were fight just once in order to get credit. But that was easily dealt with.

And... "no clear reward"? Besides just completing content and enjoying it, there's also the relic weapons and artifact armour. I feel like maybe you aren't fully informed on what Eureka is even for?

As far as clear rewards goes, don't forget about the mount and minions in the Baldesion Arsenal (I think they have a title too?)

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Originally Posted by ItMe

As far as clear rewards goes, don't forget about the mount and minions in the Baldesion Arsenal (I think they have a title too?)

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There is no title associated with clearing BA, the clear achievement reward is just the mount... and the extra story epilogue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acelyn

As a newbie to hydatos, I consider it on par with pagos for one reason, player count

anemos and pagos are usually always full of people, pyros has good hours, but once you get to hydatos and see the exp needed, the terrible crystal droprates it just punches you in the gut. there's a reason you see so many players with elemental stage weapons, they lost the will to finish when hydatos curbstomped them.

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If I were in my teens again with nothing to do and no life then I would be down for these Eureka grinds but I have done them enough in Korean MMO's to be completely burned out by far inferior versions of them with very lacking end game. Once Bazja comes out Eureka is going to be completely vacant of players to the point where they are going to need to nerf the XP grind into the ground to get people to even step foot into that nightmare.

honestly... I'm just posting here to help keep track fo this topic, thank you for such a wealth of info...

Taking a moment to pop back in with 6.0 changes.

The Speed Belt, previously dropped by King Arthro in Pagos, has been replaced with the Blitz Ring, now that belts have been removed.

Sadly, this is not an exact 1:1 trade, as the ring had to be made unique, to prevent you from getting and wearing two (thus being slightly more powerful). This means that, if you are wearing one in the zone, you forfeit the opportunity to acquire extras that you might want to sell or give away.

Frankly, it should've been made into literally any other accessory and it would've worked out exactly the same. Or just say screw it and remove the Unique tag, it's outdated content, a little bit extra haste won't hurt anything.