Trying to run Pilgrim Traverse now as a fresh arrival is not fun

[AshtonCrowe]

I've only gotten 1 party to go through in over 9 hours of trying, I just want to level my aetherpool gear but i can't find any parties. I've resorted to using party finder but even that isn't netting results on my homeworld and not netting results on Diabolos either (DC hopped to test)

SE Can you please add more incentives for people to party up in floors 1 - 20? I Can't even get into it solo cause the lv 10 boss just nukes my bar cause i don't have strong enough aetherpool. Yet everything else in dungeon is dying quickly, But i tickle boss and one good hit ends my run.

Feels hopeless to try and level solo atm without having leveled gear in party.

[Jeeqbit]

The best time to try is on reset day (Tuesday) especially during peak hours, because people are doing their weeklies. Other good times are weekends (because there are many weekend-only players). Another good time to try is on Monday because people are doing weeklies last minute (you can always rely on humans to procrastinate until the last minute).

My advice for beating the floor 10 boss without any aetherpool is this: go through it as a tank (totally braindead, they can't hardly die). Hope that you get 2-3 poisonfruit incense. Use one every single time adds spawn. This is how I solo'd it with no aetherpool.

Now, if boss does add phase again and you can't kill boss in time, your options are:
- Save burst for the adds. The adds need to die, and your burst helps achieve this.
- Kitchen sink as a tank, starting with longest ones (Rampart).
- Invuln as a tank.

Barkbalm might also work. I didn't try it, but it applies a big DoT to the boss and adds. Think you can only use one per player, so may as well discard the others and hope for poisonfruits.

I'd say that about 33% or 50% of the time, you get 2 poisonfruits. Some runs, you'll get no incense or nothing favorable, so it'll likely take a few attempts. Poisonfruit does little to higher level bosses, but to the first one, it wipes out like 33% of its health along with the adds, so it's an effective way to cheese it.

The bosses after floor 10 are way easier. I'm not saying they can't be challenging, but they don't dive at you, stun you and wipe you out like that. The ones after give you the opportunity to hit invulns and heals.

[Gurgeh]

Yup, what OP said.
I managed to run 1-10, only once during my 4 day free play. Day 2 (first full day). Then the matched party left before 11-20
Gave up hoping to get into pilgrims again after that (and with the monster hunter normal not filling from DF either), I'd decided that even days 3 and 4 of the free play were going to be tedious.
NB I still tried to get into pilgrims on days 3 and 4, but when estimated time went from 5 min to 6, I gave up and queued something else.
5 months and 1 day of casually logged in play is all there is to show for that.

...Other good times are weekends (because there are many weekend-only players)...


...This is how I solo'd it with no aetherpool...

Nope, I can assure you it doesn't queue on weekends. As for soloing? I'll go try 33 or maybe finish BG3, literally any other game frankly.


Its time to put Deep Dungons on the same pile as 24 man body check Chaotic, and 3x3 dungeons.

(Cloud of darkness was such a tragedy. All you had to do was take it offline and change the check to 18 players. Same for forked. All you had to do was allow for some carrying. But you seem to love people getting one guyed. /slowclap)

[AshtonCrowe]

I see why now, SE in their infinite wisdom made the only worthwhile stuff farmed from floor 99 boss. Zero reason for people to run the other floors aside from kinda mid looking glamours that you can find on market for like 5000 gil.

It makes a lot of sense why floor 1 - 30 aren't being ran publicly.

[0blivion]

1-30 are easy to solo even without aetherpool, that's why they aren't run as often. As long as you know what you're doing, you can just use the explodey traps as additional DPS.

[Hastatus]

The wait times for Matchmaking are getting longer and longer: I've been doing Aether on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during prime time. Tip: when you complete a floor set, get out and get into the next queue as fast as you can. Go to Duty Menu and select Leave rather than going to the Exit.

As someone who has completed every PT weekly Challenge Log since release I knew the Challenge Log rewards were going to be an issue over time.

1-20 = 7 Luminous Oil
21-30 = 2 Sacks of First Light
40-50 = 8 Luminous Oil
51-70 = 3 Sacks of First Light
71-100 = 10 Luminous Oil

Completing 100 gives you a book you can exchange for 2 Luminous Oil.
You strangely do not get a Sack of First Light for reclearing PT or the book.

I have purchased the minion and three of the Hairstyles with (322 Luminous Oil).

I still do not have any of the items purchased with First Light (though I hold 120 First Light Relics because I'm waiting to see if any of the Sacks of First Light ever actually drops one of the mounts. Not holding my breathe.)

Basically only floors 21-30 and 51-70 have a significant reason for anyone to keep doing weekly Challenge Logs: that's 3 out of 10 sets or 30% of PT. The other floors (70% of PT) are not worth it if you do not plan to sell the hairstyle which will never be in as much demand as the mounts.

SE should have given BOTH Sacks of First Light AND Luminous Oil as rewards for every weekly PT Challenge Log entry so every floor had the same weekly reclear value.

[TeresaFortell]

Imagine if they made dd like Torghast where you must do it. That would make everyone implode.

[Absurdity]

The problem is also simply that you now have matchmaking for floor 1-100.
While it's very nice on paper to be able to do a full clear with randoms, it has split the already small player pool into potentially 10 different queues.
Where before you would at most have people queuing for 1-10, 11-20, 21-30.

Palace of the Dead has the same problem when it comes to matchmaking, it's just incredibly easy to solo 1-100 in that one since it's "baby's first deep dungeon". It has nothing actually dangerous until like floor 170 which don't have random matchmaking anyway.

[Iscah]

Zero reason for people to run the other floors aside from kinda mid looking glamours that you can find on market for like 5000 gil.

Completing 1-20 gets you Luminous Oil for trading in for the very expensive-on-the-marketboard hairstyle.

Also, have you tried getting a party on PF? I've seen as many listings here (Materia DC) for running 1-30 as 70-100, and you get to carry pomanders across to the next set of floors if you have a pre-formed party.

[Aneshda]

Imagine if they made dd like Torghast where you must do it. That would make everyone implode.

It would be so cool if the Grand Company also had a mission table where you could send all the companions you encounter on missions, leveling them up to bring back better items. That would be some great long-term content. Everything is better as what we have right now. Even Torghast.