Observations From Someone Trying Eureka for the First Time in 2022

[SnowVix]

Are there any discords you would recommend for this?
If I could find people to group with at my level, who would help me grind exp, I think that would soften the blow of my first impressions and make it more likely that I'd return.
I do want the demi-ozma mount, so if there are discords that regularly farm fates or create groups for leveling, I'd be willing to give it another shot.

I noticed you're on Jenova, so aside from doing Baldesion Arsenal (which is the capstone thing for Eureka and pretty much only organized on Discord), it's pretty shout-centric on Aether. Just give a shout asking for help and you'll find someone willing to assist pretty quick.

The general flow on Aether is:

1) parties of zone-capped players spawn NMs
2) once those NMs spawn, they shout a pull time (in Eorzean Time, make sure that's visible while you're in Eureka) to allow those who are doing quests, challenge logs, etc. to meet up
3) everyone murders the NM

[LaylaTsarra]

Eureka is best done in a party. If you play the zones alone you can and will die and maybe not have someone to give you a raise. It's a lot easier now to avoid enemies given you can ride a moutn right away then having to walk before until later in the leveling in each zone.

[Hasrat]

Everyone always says Eureka is tuned for partying up. I took that as a challenge to learn to survive solo. And I enjoyed it in that context. You get the early levels without the exp loss, that gives you time to explore and experiment and learn. Find what you can and can't comfortably do. Learn the enemies, placements, aggro type, etc.

I suspect the crowd that may have enjoyed Eureka the most is the players that enjoy that learning process. Anyone looking to just turn their brain off for a bit is going to have a bad time if they don't first learn when it's safe to do so.

[Symphonyx]

Everyone always says Eureka is tuned for partying up. I took that as a challenge to learn to survive solo. And I enjoyed it in that context. You get the early levels without the exp loss, that gives you time to explore and experiment and learn. Find what you can and can't comfortably do. Learn the enemies, placements, aggro type, etc.

I suspect the crowd that may have enjoyed Eureka the most is the players that enjoy that learning process. Anyone looking to just turn their brain off for a bit is going to have a bad time if they don't first learn when it's safe to do so.

Maybe that's where I went wrong. I went into eureka completely blind, not really knowing anything about it.

But I have spent countless hours in Bozja/Zadnor and enjoy the fact that I can mindlessly grind the things I need to. I went there to level a lot of jobs. So that was the standard I was used to.

But when I went to Eureka, I was met with many hindrances that I feel are unnecessary, and I couldn't be in a party with my friends without some kind of exp penalty (they did stick around to keep me alive though).

[Iscah]

Having tried Anemos on an alt recently, compared to my experience when it was current content, levelling solo is faster than it used to be, and enemies seem less robust than I remember them being in the early days. It also seemed not worth it to go chasing after FATEs if I wasn't in the level range to earn prizes besides EXP.

[Wissp]

"(1) The punishing leveling system
If you die enough times, you lose levels in Eureka. This is quite unacceptable to me, and is one of the biggest reasons why I may not ever go back. I understand there needs to be some punishment for dying, so yes, let me lose exp, reset the whole level bar back to 0 exp if you must, but there is no good reason why I should ever be able to drop to any level below the highest level I've reached."

I kinda had to laugh at this one. I guarantee you, the way Eureka is nerfed and made soooo easy now, the death system is in no WAY as bad as it was back when it was new and current. I think the couple of times I actually DID have to release I lost like 2-3 levels? I honestly can't remember, but it WAS annoying.

But here is the thing with Eureka. Situations where you actually HAD to release back in the day were very, VERY rare. You had 5 minutes for someone to raise you without death penalty, and it was VERY easy to shout for help and have someone come raise you. Yes people, people would ACTUALLY come help you if you just asked! Hell, there were people who were in the instance for that very purpose, because you got an achievement for raising people who died in Eureka. In all the months I was there doing it when it was current, I had to release a total of 3 times; one which was totally by mistake on my part.) (Note: dying in BA does not count for this, Hooray for Sprite island! ;p)

As it is old content, there might now be many around anymore to help if you do die. But still, just shout with your coordinates in chat if you need a raise and see if anyone comes help.

And yes, Eureka was so 'old school' and it was WONDERFUL! I LOVED Eureka when it was new, sooooo much fun. The grinding groups where you had to gingerly go through the super dangerous sections to reach them, the NM parties, Rushing to the Big Boss pops, the crazy party and world chats, the 4 am BA dungeon runs with the crazy Aussies who were hilarious. It was a wonderful time and I miss it dearly.

[SassyAssassin]

I love Eureka! Some of the nicest people there!
The xp loss is annoying thats why I never stay there after checking the player list and there’s barely anyone online.
You should be in a party even if you dont get xp, you’ll still level quite fast by doing fates, besides you can always leave the party and once a fate pops up, rejoin a party.
It’s just one of those contents where you have to talk with people a bit!

[Mika_Zahard]

Can someone please repost what OP said w/o comic sans? i cant read that.

[Serilda]

I started Eureka relatively recently too. I teamed up with three friends and we all go there together when we have some free time. It's been pretty fun. I don't love that it's instanced because the open world stuff in XIV is so lacking in threat and teamwork that it would be nice to the opportunity to do something like Eureka without all of the restrictions (I swear I leave my stuff in my saddlebag every time and have to go back out!) but the sense of danger is refreshing and while the punishments can be cruel, it rewards engaging with other players which is something criminally lacking elsewhere in the game. The difficulty is still far, far lower than in old school FFXI (sadly) but the nods to mechanics and content from that game are much appreciated. I wish the FATE rewards dropped into the treasure pool, though, because I'm cursed with drops and my buddies keep discarding all of their extra copies of rewards they don't need while I never get any! The treasure pool made farming in FFXI much less depressing!

[Equitable_Remedy]

While I've gotten all of the other relic weapons for my main, NIN, I am unlikely to ever do Eureka—the content just doesn't appeal to me as a casual activity. The two big turn offs for me:

• There are no quests to track what you're meant to be doing. I dipped my toe into Eureka a while back, but since there's no questline tracking progress, I'm not sure what I was doing or what I should be doing if I tried it again.
• Looking ahead, needing to join a discord or use a tracker for rare mobs and such is just more effort than I'm interested in putting into this.

Getting all of the other relics in the game was fine—it was either a casual grind that I could slowly do whenever or current content (I joined during ShB). Eureka just doesn't seem to fit the mold of something I can do as chill, low-impact content when I don't feel like doing anything else.

I'm not suggesting that Eureka needs to change or anything like that—I'm just saying that I'm not likely to ever do it, which is fine.