Can we get a proper Bestiary?

I'd love a revamped hunting log into a proper bestiary of every enemy in the game.

Every mob in the game would get a piece of art and description, as well as location and mob drops (that can be referenced into the crafting log when we search by gathering method). If Blue mage can learn a spell from them, it would also be included (as well as whatever Beastmaster could get from mobs). You only need to defeat the monster once to get its entry.

It would be divided by area, with a little blurb and art.

It would comprise not only overworld areas, but also all instanced content, as well as hunts, deep dungeon, FATEs and leves. Blurbs for instanced areas would be summaries of the dungeon/trial's storyline/area, FATEs would have their description and so would leves, so we could read them anytime.

The old hunting log challenges would be incorporated in a challenge section with updated exp bonuses for all the new areas and mobs from 3.0 and forward, as well as new rewards for completing a section.

Hunt bills would also be incorporated into the bestiary. Instead of having to pick up bills manually, defeating selected hunts from the bestiary would give you the same rewards. Clan NPCs can simply upgrade your bestiary whenever you visit them the first time.

I like the idea but they literally cannot even write fundamental lore for jobs anymore (there’s too many), so I imagine writing actual lore for every mob in the game would be simply impossible for small indie dev SE lol

That one developer in Yoshi-P’s basement apparently running the entirety of game would be working 25 hours a day 8 days a week; have mercy! (/sarcasm)

This thread may or may not have been created because I'm starving for some proper world building from expansion areas. The tank EW rolequest brought me back to the Shroud and seeing such beautiful zones packed with mobs and points of interests made me miss when the world truly felt alive and like it had a real history. Even Gamefreak can do it...

Also picking up hunt bills every day is stupid.

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Originally Posted by Moqi

This thread may or may not have been created because I'm starving for some proper world building from expansion areas. The tank EW rolequest brought me back to the Shroud and seeing such beautiful zones packed with mobs and points of interests made me miss when the world truly felt alive and like it had a real history. Even Gamefreak can do it...

Also picking up hunt bills every day is stupid.

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I agree, it’s sad that there’s so many locales, areas, enemy models etc that we just never see anymore because there’s so little reason to engage with the ‘open world’ itself outside of like, afk’ing in Limsa or doing hunt bills lol.

There’s countless aspects of lore that could have been expanded on but are just dropped immediately to move onto the next one. Whether that’s for jobs, locations, enemies, or even things like learning how citizens in each town/nation live. Like the way Gridanians live alongside nature, the push/pull between Monetarists/Sultanate in Ul’dah and how it affects regular people, Limsa idk crotch rot lol. These kinds of things contributed to making the world feel like one that was actually ‘lived in’ by its people. Now though? It’s essentially just a fancy background you look at while you wait for raids to pop

This is probably cope, but I have been hoping we get something like this with Beastmaster. It would make a ton of sense with what little we know of how Beastmaster is going to work.

I've always found it awkward for materials that I can go to the gathering log or fishing log and find a location for everything except for materials that come from overland mobs. You either just depend on retainers to farm it for you or have to look it up outside of the game. I've wanted a proper bestiary or at least an updated hunting log for years.

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Originally Posted by thrntnja

This is probably cope, but I have been hoping we get something like this with Beastmaster. It would make a ton of sense with what little we know of how Beastmaster is going to work.

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If I were more optmistic about SE's job design, I would imagine something similar as well. A limited job like Beastmaster could have the potential to be used for both fights and as a new, special DoL. But I'm not expecting anything other than a reskinned Blue Mage that will probably have a Bestiary as a reskinned Spellbook.

The actual closest thing we have to a bestiary (and IIRC the lorebook's bestiary pages borrow text from it) is actually the Triple Triad card log – lacking the location and stats, but it has the lore descriptions.

That's cool, I didn't know that. I wouldn't even mind copy pasted text if it already exists for some entries, but the gathering method function would still be very much appreciated when other materials already have logs in game (I hate having to google stuff when I'm playing).

Frankly, they should just add a Hunter DoL class and drop all the material-from-mobs gathering onto them. This could allow for a hunting log analogue to the fishing log, with lore bits, additional gathering mechanics like trapping, a "natural" way to gather minions (and maybe new companions?), and so much more. And it would ease up on inventory load for people who just want to play DoW classes and kill mobs.

There's already a hunter settlement in Dravanian Forelands, for example. Perfect place for the level 50-60 class quests.

They should hire me, I'd be willing to write a lore blurb for every mob in the game for the cost of lunch per day.

Honestly I'd prefer an addition like that over the stupid compendium they added. In fact, pull a Terraria and put the friendly NPCs in the Bestiary too.

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

They should hire me, I'd be willing to write a lore blurb for every mob in the game for the cost of lunch per day.

Honestly I'd prefer an addition like that over the stupid compendium they added. In fact, pull a Terraria and put the friendly NPCs in the Bestiary too.

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We could even try figuring out the ecology of the areas with the info. For example: What do the Amalj'aa east of Byregot's Strike eat? They have no fishers or fishing equipment anywhere despite camping right at the Sagolii Dunes fishing location, but none of the things you can catch there are edible anyway. Whatever angler, sundrake and sandworm drop? Well, sundrakes and sandworms are worthless; anglers drop orobon liver, for which you need to import sunset wheat all the way from La Noscea if you want to make orobon stew and not eat it raw; and that's it. So they can't even use the one sorry excuse for a bonfire they have to cook anything. Aside of maybe one of the U tribe miqo'te now and then...

But then, what even do the sundrakes in the area eat? The fire sprites? And what about the others?

Of course, the U tribe, for all the capable and mighty hunters they are, have basically the same problem. They at least have access to lava toads and Thanalan tea leaves... at least, they would, if they were Botanists. And turning them into actual food runs into the same problem as orobon stew does.