Okay, so, I’ve been grinding hard in FFXIV lately, specifically targeting those sweet, sweet extreme trial mounts. Let me tell you, it’s been a journey.
I started with the older trials, you know, the ones from A Realm Reborn. I figured, “Hey, these should be easy, right?” Well, kinda. I mostly ran them unsynced, meaning I went in with a higher level character, overpowered as hell. Some of them were still tricky, though. I remember one trial, I think it was the Mount Ordeals, where you could just fall off the damn arena. Died more times than I’d like to admit just from that.
Then, I moved on to Heavensward and those Lanner mounts. They’re these cool bird-like things. For these, I learned that you usually get a totem or something similar each time you beat the trial. It’s like a pity system, so even if the mount doesn’t drop, you can eventually just buy it with enough totems. Smart move, Square Enix. Smart move.
A real journey
Stormblood brought the Kamuy mounts, and I had to find this NPC named Eschina in Rhalgr’s Reach. I also traded items to another NPC in Kugane, but I forgot his name. This was a bit of a grind, too. I was running these trials over and over, trying to get those dog-like mounts.
When Shadowbringers came around, I was all over those Gwiber mounts. There were two NPCs for this initially, one in Eulmore and one in Mor Dhona. I ran a bunch of trials with friends, sometimes with a group of six, and we tried to farm these dragon-like things. Some of those fights were a real pain, especially when people didn’t know the mechanics. I remember one trial where the DPS kept cleaving the tanks during a meteor phase. That was a nightmare.
Endwalker is here
And now we’re in Endwalker, with those shiny Lynx mounts. The main NPC to talk to is Nesvaaz in Radz-at-Han, although there’s another in Old Sharlayan, too.
I’ve been trying to figure out the actual drop rate of these mounts. It feels really low, but I don’t have exact numbers. There’s this website that tried to calculate the odds, but it’s all just speculation. I’ve done some trials, like, fifty times and still haven’t seen the mount drop. It’s frustrating, but I guess that’s part of the game, right?
Honestly, some of these extreme trials are no joke. I heard that Emerald Weapon is one of the hardest, especially with the orb mechanics. But for me, Diamond Weapon and Innocence were also pretty tough. It all comes down to having a good group, I guess. If your team sucks, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Anyway, that’s my story so far. I’m still grinding for these mounts, and it’s taking forever. But I’m not giving up. I’ll get them all eventually. Or maybe I’ll just go insane from all the farming. We’ll see.
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Key things I did:
- Ran trials unsynced when possible.
- Collected totems to eventually buy mounts.
- Traded with various NPCs in different cities.
- Ran with groups of friends, some of whom were not great.
- Fell off the arena a lot in Mount Ordeals.
- Got frustrated by low drop rates.
So yeah, if you’re planning on farming extreme trial mounts in FFXIV, be prepared for a long and potentially painful grind. But hey, at least the mounts look cool, right?
