Returners Question Corner: Should I do Anima or Eureka before Shadowbringers?

[Colt47]

Felt like this was actually a good question to get other community members answering. My own answer on this after debating it with my brother on it is that Eureka is the better choice right now, assuming you can get the time to catch up.

The reasons really came down to how easy it is to get the resources necessary to complete the weapon. Anima is very soloable, if sometimes a touch aggravating. Eureka is definitely not a solo experience and it's going to be hard to make it soloable due to the elemental level and dependence on killing NMs for resources. When SB drops, I believe the last golden opportunity to complete eureka would be the window between 5.0 and 5.1.

Anyway, that is my take on it. Do others feel the same way on this?

[Vahlnir]

Anima will remain easy to do for probably the duration of the game's lifetime. Eureka...I would expect it to die after Shadowbringers launches if it isn't dying already. If you grind through Eureka enough you should probably be able to finish a weapon before Shadowbringers.

[Yshnal]

Eureka is the obvious answer. Just like you said, the previous relics are very soloable, and become more and more soloable each patch due to even being able to do some of their steps unsync nowadays. But due to the nature of Eureka (separate character levels, synced gear, annoying monsters to solo due to their inflated HP pools, etc.), it would be a pain to do it later once the content dies and there's no parties doing it. You can see how when Eureka's instances are not very populated barely anyone does anything there.

[Vanitas]

I'm so glad I hate every eureka weapons design aside from the very first stage so the incentive for me is absolutely gone and leaves zero room for regret.

[Colt47]

I'm so glad I hate every eureka weapons design aside from the very first stage so the incentive for me is absolutely gone and leaves zero room for regret.

I think the novelty of a bad item tends to pay off later. Peoples opinions of things change with time and the same goes for special items.

[Kalise]

Eureka is the obvious choice here.

The majority of Anima is soloable, with the EX Trials that are the roadblock at the moment will likely be soloable at level 80.

Eureka we have no idea if it's going to be soloable in ShB and beyond. As it currently stands, it is not and without significant changes, it won't be.

So, it's better to do the thing that as far as we know, has a limited lifespan (Even if it is somewhat populated in ShB, it won't be as fast as doing it while it's quite populated and people are regularly doing Trains as is currently happening) rather than the thing that is easily mostly soloed right now and will be likely easily soloed entirely next expansion.

Alternatively... Work on both. Farm up Poetics through daily roulettes and buy Anima quest items while spending the majority of your grinding time on Eureka.

[Jennah]

Anima is the obvious choice here.
Its weapons look better than Eureka's.
It's far less likely to make you want to ragequit and unsubscribe before Shadowbringers, like Eureka might.
Plus, the fewer people who put up with all the flaws of Eureka long enough to get a weapon, the more likely SE is to not make the same mistakes again.

[ElazulHP]

Anima can be casually done solo in about 2 weeks. Eureka is going to probably die once the next expansion releases so if you like any of the weapons from there I'd do that first.

[Nezerius]

Plus, the fewer people who put up with all the flaws of Eureka long enough to get a weapon, the more likely SE is to not make the same mistakes again.

They've already talked about Eureka-like content for 5.0.

As for which one to prioritize? Personally I'd prioritize getting all 56 Logos actions over working on either Eureka or Anima weapons. Less people doing Eureka, Pyros and Hydatos specifically, also means the amount of logograms on the marketboard will decrease over time. It'll become tougher to hit the necessary milestones of 30 (Pyros Relic), 50 (Pyros Armor), and 56 Logos actions unlocked (Hydatos Armor upgrade).

If the choice is between Anima and Eureka weapons specifically? Probably Eureka weapons, though keep in mind that NMs scale with the amount of players inside the instance.

[Alucard135]

Eureka would be the choice. With the fate trains in each zone now and all the nerfs, you'd probably take 2 days for anemos, 2 days pagos, 3 days pyros (no stat rolling) and 3 days Hydatos to get your relic. So a total of 10 days. And that's with the assumption of a casual play.

If you're hardcore grinding, then you can easily finish each zone in 1 day.

Plus, the fewer people who put up with all the flaws of Eureka long enough to get a weapon, the more likely SE is to not make the same mistakes again.

Actually, more people are doing Eureka than Anima according to the stats we got. And as some said here, they're making another Eureka like content in 5.0. But based on one of Yoshi P's interviews, he said they were surprised that there were people who liked the Anima/Relic style for the weapons. So there's a chance of getting a hybrid of the two for 5.0.