I remember doing Ifrit HM back in the day 36 times to get the weapon which was an upgrade for me at the time, I should have just done the relic but thought it would be better to get ifrit weapon first, I was wrong.

It was actually harder to do Garuda though, back then it had about a 40-50% clear rate in DF and I lost count of the amount of wipes never mind runs where I didn't get the drop.