Fear of Insects

[Frizze]

The gnats are in east shroud, between the hawthornes hut aetheryte and the friendly sylphs - they congregate around that one tree stump and south of there near the edge of the forrest.

Maybe I should have been more specific; not every insect bothers me the same.

Ok, this simplifies things some. So technically im not sure if someone else playing your account violates any rules, so i wont recommend that(im not saying dont do it, but certainly dont make a point to talk about it). Back to some specifics. It occurred to me that i skipped a couple bug types when i made that list yesterday(antlions, buzz flies, chocobo fleas, grasshoppers, silk worms), but your description makes it sound like these probly wont be much of an issue. When i say butterfly type enemies, im referring to something like this. When i say ant, it looks like this. And when i say worm, they typically look like this guy. Of those, the butterfly type is fairly uncommon and only appears in one or two zones and dungeons. The ant type is mostly just cutters cry and a small bit of the overworld in north-western central thanalan. The worm type is the open desert of southern thanalan, but it appears a few times as a mid-dungeon boss. Im going to move on assuming that all these other bugs arent the issue, though we can revisit if needed.

Mentioning separately, the gnath(mentioned above from the dravanian region) are actually a beast tribe. Theyre kinda like beetle-people but with a hive mind. Being anthropomorphized a bit, im not sure if that would make them better or worse. The story will have you defeat their god Ravana eventually.

Ok, bees etc are the main culprit. I wont include any screenshots here as im sure i dont need to. The game primarily seems to use 3 models for these types of enemies, and two can be found in east shroud. There are some smaller "traditional" bee types near the honey yard on the west side of the map, and you met what ill refer to as the gnat type on the east side of the map. The third type is kinda a hybrid of the two(and likely would be the worst of both worlds), and ill refer to this as a hawk type. So the traditional type shows up in a few dungeons as trash/add enemies. These often have a killer finishing move called final sting, and traditional strategy is to kill them first and quickest. They appear as adds during a boss fight in Qarn(optional dungeon at level 35, the story makes you clear it once at 50). They appear again as "adds" during a boss fight on your required trip up Sohm Al(in this particular fight the plant boss is using pollen to attract them - they ignore you and approach him and he eats them for a buff so killing them reduces his damage but they never attack you). They can also be found in optional dungeons Neverreep, Hullbreaker Isle... and i think thats it. They can also appear on some of the floors of Palace of the Dead. The gnat type is mostly relegated to the east shroud so you wont run into many of those once you leave.

Which leaves the hawk type(which someone commenting on 14db described as "this creature is seriously from my nightmares!" - so you arent alone). These are mostly overworld enemies, and you wont run into any until well after 50. Dravanian Hinterlands has a set youll need to bypass to get to the settlement of Idyllshire. They inhabit the upper portion of the last forest in the Fringes close to Castrum Oriens. They can appear as an enemy set in Aquapolis(these are randomized so they might not). The boss of the beehive section of the Arboretum is actually a hawk model. And to clarify one thing, the Arboretum is just that - an arboretum. Its been ignored for years(in the storyline), so all the plants are overgrown. You mostly fight plant enemies in there, but after the first boss you need to move through an overgrown beehive to get to the end. This includes smashing through honeycomb walls, riding a honey slide, and a boss fight with a large hawk-style queen bee. Once you beat her and exit the other side of the hive, its back to plants. But yeah, the 5-8 mins that part of the dungeon takes(synced, unsync you can run through it much quicker) would probly be a bit too intense for you im guessing. And im going to give a special call out to the A rank hunt Erle in the fringes. Erle is a giant hawk model. As an A rank he can spawn randomly almost anywhere in that zone(though once defeated he stays down for like 4 hours), and being an A rank means that he is agressive if you get in range. When you eventually get there(level 61ish), hes something to be on the lookout for and to give a wide berth to.

I dont think im forgetting anything, but im doing this mostly from memory so its possible i am. Best of luck!

[Jonnycbad]

By far my biggest problems are bees, wasps or hornets. Zooming out is not enough in their case as they can easily trigger a full on panic attack for me :/. Yesterday, for example, I met "Giant Gnats" in Northern Shroud (I think?) and I couldn't deal with them. My friend had to do the story quest for me. Isn't it an option to let him do mandatory quests like that for me even for later contents?

Perhaps knowing about these distinctions helps to better pinpoint what dungeons or regions I should bypass (a giant bee hive as Frizze mentioned would be my personal nightmare for instance).

Thanks again for all of your help!

You should avoid the dungeon "Saint Mocianne's Arboretum". You literally go inside a giant beehive at one point and fight a huge ass Queen Bee.

[Iscah]

There's also the the chigoes (giant flies/mosquitoes) in a few places around the Black Shroud, including a few spots you'll need to go for MSQ. They're ground-walking rather than flying though, if that makes any difference.

Once you get up to Stormblood there are a couple of places with very large moths and dragonflies. (Plus one you can come across randomly in South Shroud.)

Also, more giant gnats when you get sent to "Urth's Gift" in South Shroud, late in ARR.



I don't suppose being able to kill them with magic spells is going to do anything to make you feel better about it? Must be awful.

For what it's worth, observing them at a safe distance (and within a videogame is extra safe!) might be helpful? I used to be a bit creeped out by spiders but one set up a web in the corner of my kitchen window, and I left it there, and by watching it over time I ended up not minding it. That's not a full-on phobia to begin with though, so it must be a lot harder to get started.

[dejiko_san]

To "skip" dungeons that could trigger you, you could always shout for a Party Finder group. Folks like to help out.

Something like: "Can someone help me by running this uncapped with me please?"

If lvl 70 players trash everything in sight, it'll be over in minutes and you might not even see the mobs that bother you.

[silverlunarfox]

Person with bee phobia here, Burn them once as a blm. It provides immense satisfaction in a way youre less inclined to fear them. Also, zoom out. It is just a game, but i found burning them with fire once, really helped out in game in addressing the phobia slightly.

[Frizze]

Running some dungeons yesterday, i came across another i had forgotten. In Amdapors Keep(hard) - optional dungeon - theres a section where you face several waves of enemies as 3 demon walls close in on you and attempt to crush you(basically, clear these waves before the timelimit runs out). One of the waves has 2 of the gnat style enemies. When you start looking for them you do find more of these things apparently.

[Lucerna]

I have a very different phobia, but it limits me in that certain dungeons and enemies are too overwhelming. What helped me the most is going to new places or doing new content with some one who knows my situation and is willing to be emotional support if those enemies appear. I don't know about your server, but in most servers the Novice Network has Mentors who are willing to go the extra mile to help new players enjoy the game. So if you didn't start playing with any friends, that would be a good place to start! I've also noticed that the community in FFXIV is more welcoming and accommodating than any other MMO I've played. (In my case, a friend of mine who I met in game started running content with me to focus burning down the enemies that scared me and making jokes to mock them in party chat to help me out. We have now been dating for seven months ^/////////^ )

[HyoMinPark]

To add to this, I know there aren’t many “bee” or “wasp” enemies in this particular dungeon, but there are fairly large and detailed bugs (primarily Wamoura) in The Lost City of Amdapor (optional level 50 dungeon). I believe you said that you don’t like to see fairly large and detailed insects, so I would recommend skipping this dungeon, and its level 60 Hard Mode equivalent (The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard))—both have large moth-like mobs or bosses that you have to fight, though I do not recall any of the bee or wasp type enemies in there. Both are optional, and you do not need them to progress with the MSQ. The Quests that unlock them (so you know to ignore them) are “One Night in Amdapor” (level 50) and “One More Night in Amdapor” (level 60).

Hopefully this helps!

[AmemeAmeklin]

Optional dungeons with insects:
Cutter's Cry (anthill)
Lost City of Amdapor (moths, beetles)
Saint Mocianne's Arboreteum (giant beehive)
Palace of the Dead (all enemy types - but on lower levels, particularly the bees)

Required MSQ dungeons with insects:
Tam-Tara Deepcroft (beetles, mites)
Thousand Maws of Toto-rak (mites, giant scorpions)
Haukke Manor (little clouds of flies)
Sunken Temple of Qarn (required by a level 50 quest) (temple bees - would strongly recommend unsynced runs only due to how these are encountered)

Required for progression in GC rank:
Halatali (praying mantis)
Aurum Vale (scorpions)
Dzemael Darkhold (giant gnat adds in first boss fight)
Amdapor Keep (giant gnats)

That should be the majority of normal mode dungeons. Bug models in dungeons slowly get phased out and I can't think of any from HW or SB off the top of my head that aren't overworld enemies.

I REALLY REALLY recommend an unsynced run with level 70 players for Temple of Qarn or you will have a very bad time, especially on the first boss. It forces you to face multiple waves of bees on top of encountering them in other parts of the dungeon.

That said, of note in overworld enemies...

ARR
Thanalan: giant ants
Black Shroud: giant gnats
La Noscea: *edit: Actually La Noscea has wespes (aka bees)

HW
Coerthas: Every insect has been frozen to death and replaced by dragons
Abalathia's Spine: flying cats...wamouras
Dravanian forelands: giant fleas that ostensibly chew on chocobos but they are somehow massive
Dravanian hinterlands: giant gnats ("Tarantula Hawk"), giant caterpillars, revenge of the dodos
Special shout out to the Vath, the resident beast tribe which is vaguely insect-like, and their insane god Ravana who is literally a giant dancing insect - probably not triggering though, he's very graceful and walks around on two legs while the other four wave swords.

SB
Far East: Very angry beetles and occasionally caterpillars
Fringes: giant gnats. Like, it's got your regular giant gnats...and then there's Erle, an A rank hunt target that is four times the size.
Gyr Abania in general: really...really big bugs. Antlions the size of houses.

I'm probably forgetting some things. Hope this helps!

[Iscah]

Coerthas: Every insect has been frozen to death and replaced by dragons

Interestingly the "dragonflies" (literally small dragons, not bugs) do still have some insectoid details if you zoom in close - mostly the shape of the legs, if I remember correctly. Maybe the wings.

Still, not noticeable from a distance, or at least I didn't think anything of it until I looked at it specfically so... don't go into first-person view around them, I guess?