Primal Slaying

[leocordis]

Good evening all,
Sorry if this has been asked or discussed before. I'm reading the first lore book and it talks about the WoL killing the primal by himself, even though in game we have a party. So is it cannon that we slay primals by ourselves?

[MistakeNot]

Yes.
No.
It depends.

For some primals (e.g. Ifrit) it is quite clear storywise that we are on our own when they show up.
For some of them we are explicitly told to gather some companions before engaging the primal.

[Kreyd]

This always made me a laugh little.

Sometimes we are the great hero, the only one who can save Eorzea, because we are chosen by Hydaelyn and have this very rar ability, that makes us immune to Primals owers.

And then sometimes it's like "Go gather seven dudes who are just like you..."

It's pretty much the same in any MMO's when a new superboss is introduced. "Whole imperiums did fall by his hand!...but usually ten guys with swords and fireballs are enough to kick his ass..."

Or when we do a side quest and there is a gang boss or something like that. Everyone should know that we are the warrior of light who slayes guys like Nidhogg or Ifrit for breakfast, but these guys still think they can take us on. x'D

[Kalise]

For much of the content, it's assumed that we alone, managed all these feats.

It's only later, mostly HW content and beyond, that people start saying "Go gather some of your adventurer friendo's!" before we tackle a primal. About the same time where the Echo stops being this rare and unique thing and it appears that everyone and their cat is "Chosen by Hydaelyn" and has the Echo >.>

It's pretty much the same in any MMO's when a new superboss is introduced. "Whole imperiums did fall by his hand!...but usually ten guys with swords and fireballs are enough to kick his ass..."

Well, to be fair, we literally do have super powers. Like, we're much the same as how OP Fordola was shown after she got the Echo where no-one could touch her.

Or when we do a side quest and there is a gang boss or something like that. Everyone should know that we are the warrior of light who slayes guys like Nidhogg or Ifrit for breakfast, but these guys still think they can take us on. x'D

Though, not everyone knows who we are. We're just another of the many adventurers across Eorzea to most people. Since, it's not like anyone has built a statue of us (Yet... I saved the world countless times, where's my statue! ). Usually people only recognise us after we give our name. Or after we beat them to a pulp because they're like a small time crook taking on the infamous Warrior of Light xD

[MistakeNot]

About the same time where the Echo stops being this rare and unique thing and

The Echo was never all that rare, and certainly not unique. Minfilia started her organization (back in 1.x) to gather people who had the Echo and to study it.
When we first visit the Waking Sands it is very likely that several of the people there have the Echo, even though only two of them (Minfilia and Arenvald) are confirmed as having it.

[Bright-Flower]

It seems to me like we're always story wise meant to have party members with us but they don't always remember to, or feel the need, to shove in some reference. For example the Susano trial description says nobody can defeat a primal on their own. Lyse in 4.1 says 'it takes more than three to beat a primal' and her and Raubahn are in portant in helping us take down Lakshmi before Fordola's barrier gives out.

With Ifrit, there's an npc you can talk to you says 'hey you can slip out here if you need to' or something like that leaving room for the WOL to have potentially gone out and gotten aid as well.

But the game can be inconsistent with power scaling. Like what do we do between our second curbstomp from Zenos and Ala Mhigo that allows us to actually fight him? Why was Shinryu such a big deal Popolymo had to sacrifice himself to buy time and we risked unleashing Omega to deal with it...then in the end Zenos possesses it and we just kill it like it was any other monster?

Sometimes we get some lore to help explain things. The first fight with Nidhogg we had Estinien using one of the dragon's eyes against him. In the second fight, we get a buff from Hrasvalgr's eye. Sometimes we just kick ass like against Thordan and Shinryu.

[Anonymoose]

My recommendation is to look to the journal for hints. If the devs thought it was important to note that you did it alone in spite of the game mechanics, it'll usually say so. Conversely, it'll also usually note if you put a call out on your shellphone, like, "Oi, who wants to be at a tavern tomorrow night bragging that you stood alongside the Warrior of Light at the Battle of Whatever? ...Assuming you live, of course." and took who came running.

[Kalise]

The Echo was never all that rare, and certainly not unique. Minfilia started her organization (back in 1.x) to gather people who had the Echo and to study it.
When we first visit the Waking Sands it is very likely that several of the people there have the Echo, even though only two of them (Minfilia and Arenvald) are confirmed as having it.

Well, then everyone forgot, because most of the story was going on about how you as the Warrior of Light were the only one capable of being around Primals because of the Echo.

Fast forward to late into HW and it's like *Meet a random person for the first time* "Oh, hello there adventurer, isn't the Echo wonderful. My whole family has the Echo. Look I can come with you to the primal because I have the Echo! Should I invite all my friends? They all have the Echo too!"

It went from being only a few people having it (With Minfillia using it to track down those that had it in order to recruit them into the Scions) to pretty much 90% of the people you meet seeming to have it.

Like, if it was SOOO common back in the day, why wasn't Minfillia recruiting a bunch more people all the time? Why couldn't we have formed the Crystal Braves out of people with the Echo and let them go deal with Primals instead of relying entirely on the WoL (You know, with the whole disaster that was not in question)?

[Bright-Flower]

Keep in mind that non echo blessed people 'can' kill primals, it's just usually a costly battle. The Company of Heroes and grand companies have killed primals before. The WOL having the echo just makes it safer and less costly to do so. Also Raubahn and Lyse help kill Lakshmi in 4.1.

So having some non echo blessed people help isn't unheard of either.

[Kalise]

Keep in mind that non echo blessed people 'can' kill primals, it's just usually a costly battle. The Company of Heroes and grand companies have killed primals before. The WOL having the echo just makes it safer and less costly to do so. Also Raubahn and Lyse help kill Lakshmi in 4.1.

So having some non echo blessed people help isn't unheard of either.

True.

Though, it's incredibly dangerous, due to the risk of being taken by the primals influence (Unless you have some people with the echo to play Missile Defence for you... Like with Arenvald when the meeting for Gyr Abania ended up with a summoning of Lakshmi, until Missile Defence turned into bullet hell and we needed Fordola, who I can accept having the Echo because she was given it artificially)