In the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV there is a lot of content that the community has converted into in-game challenges. One player mastered such a challenge after 800 hours in 2 years. Now he is tackling the next one.
What is the player’s story? The player behind the achievement is Aurora Moon. He faced one of the toughest challenges in Final Fantasy XIV:
Anyone who conquers the Palace of the Dead alone will receive one of the rarest achievements in the game: the title of Necromancer. You can read all about Aurora’s first challenge in our news on the topic: Player in Final Fantasy XIV completes the MMORPG’s most difficult solo content after 800 hours
These two jobs have also been unlocked for the Palace of the Dead since the release of Dawntrail:
Final Fantasy XIV: These are the 2 new jobs in Dawntrail – Pictomancer and Viper in under 2 minutes
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It (almost) couldn’t be more difficult – but the next challenge is already here
Why is the challenge difficult? Basically, the Palace of the Dead is not explicitly designed to be completed by individual players. The balancing is designed for groups. The random levels do the rest:
In addition to the almost-rolled layouts and enemies, there is random loot in random chests. Items such as healing potions cannot be brought from outside the Palace of the Dead. They must first be earned here. You cannot take your own armor with you either.
In Aurora’s case in particular, he was a druid. This is the precursor to the white mage. As a healer, he can give himself more life points, but his damage output is not the best. By choosing the class, Aurora has made the already difficult challenge even more complex.
In addition, Final Fantasy XIV receives regular balancing patches. The effectiveness of his chosen class has therefore changed several times in the two years it took him to complete the challenge. Of course, the difficulty level of the Palace of the Dead also fluctuates.
The last balancing patch, for example, made one job really strong:
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What is the next challenge? In an interview with our colleagues at GamesRadar+, Aurora talked about what’s next. In fact, the player started the next challenge almost immediately after completing the Druid challenge: He wants to complete the Palace of the Dead again, this time as a Thaumaturge.
I just invested in the Druid because that’s my starting class and it was my first time playing Palace of the Dead solo! I made a mental note to try out the Thaumaturge when I unlocked it and here it is! There’s something exhilarating about stripping away most of what makes a job doable and having to make crazy plays and work like a machine to figure out how to make the impossible possible.
Aurora Moon in an interview with GamesRadar+, August 7th, 2024
The Thaumaturge is the precursor to the Black Mage. The latter is a very strong ranged DPS and was, at least until the release of the new Pictomancer, the go-to job for anyone who wanted to play a pure mage. The basic class, on the other hand – like the Druid – is rather limited in terms of options. And the Thaumaturge cannot heal himself.
But Aurora is well aware of the increased difficulty: he does not expect it to take less than a few years to reach level 200.
The Pictomancer is really popular: Since its release, more and more players are turning their backs on their black mage. You can read all about it here: After 14 years, players are betraying their class in Final Fantasy XIV because they like the new one much better