Dawntrail Diary: More Gathering Content

Another week has passed and I still have not completed the main story questline (MSQ) in Final Fantasy XIV's latest expansion, Dawntrail. But as I continue my journey of levelling Thancred, Estinien, and Y'shtola to the end, will I gain enough confidence to take on the final trial? Or will all the unfinished content distract me from the ultimate goal of watching the credits roll down my computer screen?

I was scared of that? - I didn't have a lot of time to play the game last week, but I managed to level my merry band of Trust NPCs to 97, putting The Skydeep Cenote in the rear view mirror. In fairness I was wearing iLvl 710 gear (gear doesn't sync) and eating iLvl 690 food for buffs. But what kills characters in FFXIV duties is failing to handle the mechanics. But my final three runs of the duty were as clean as I could have hoped for.

On Monday, the group did its last run with the Trust NPCs at level 95 and I only died once to the last of the three bosses. I made a silly mistake and was knocked off the platform but still finished the duty in under 35 minutes. My runs on Wednesday and Friday with the gang at level 96 were performed with no deaths. I did fumble around with the keys because I didn't quite have the thumb buttons working perfectly but I felt good when not only the NPCs reached level 97 but I completed the run under 30 minutes. Maybe I'm not hopeless after all.

That wasn't too bad, I guess - Next I had to try Vanguard, the first duty of the second half of Dawntrail's MSQ. I'm not going to lie, the zone is a combination of Allagan tech combined with Power Rangers clad NPCs. The experience went a lot better than my first run through The Skydeep Cenote.

First off, the NPCs I fought were a lot tougher and hit harder than those in The Skydeep Cenote. Of course they did, The Skydeep Cenote is a level 95 dungeon and Vanguard is level 97 content. But perhaps the biggest difference is that the Trust NPCs are also level 97, so I expect the final two runs when the gang is level 98 to go much smoother.

Next, the level designer gave me a false sense of security with the first boss, Vanguard Commander R8. With a name like that I really should have killed the boss with no deaths the first time I encountered it. The toughest boss of the three, though, was Protector.

Looking back, if Vanguard is the gateway to the glowing dome, then Protector is the murder pit at the entrance to old castles in which attackers have to run a gauntlet of burning oil and arrows to attack. At times the floor is covered in telegraphs, made worse by little half walls that get in the way of dodging all the attacks. But the attack that gave me the most problems involved a timer. I wound up unmarking Y'shtola in order to make my way through the telegraphs and wound up doing a little dance with Estinien to finally figure out the mechanic. I died 5 times to Protector though.

Zander the Snakeskinner, the final boss, somehow killed me three times. The circular attacks aren't really that difficult to avoid. I wound up looking for Y'shtola again because as a black mage she's so immobile she gets to safe spots early. And yes, Zander turns into a snake in phase 2, which caught me a little by surprise. Still I finished with only 8 total deaths and in under 49 minutes. A lot better than my first run of The Skydeep Cenote.

Collecting Folklore -  I still can't gather everything in Dawntrail. I am still missing 5 of the 9 Tomes of Regional Folklore books. I have all the Alexandria books and the fishing book for Xak Tural. I started fishing for purple scrips but the grind is a bit slow. The Custom Deliveries reset on Tuesday and if I only do my Custom Deliveries for the week I should have enough to get two more books.

A New Gathering Mount - While I have a use for the purple gathering scrips, I didn't know what to spend my orange scrips on until last night. I did not know Dawntrail has a mount for gatherers: the Rroneek. Sure, the mount costs 100,000 scrips. But if I just stick to doing Custom Deliveries I can get the mount next September. Knowing how I sometimes get obsessed with a goal, I may complete the grind much sooner.

Return to the Future - One of the activities I neglected during Endwalker was keeping up with the Custom Deliveries. I didn't do the final one, Margrat. I'm currently at satisfaction level 4 and hope to finish off the quests over the next two weeks. At that point, the scrips will flow into my hands a little faster.

An Island Update - I have my island sanctuary in maintenance mode at this point, perhaps only spending 20-30 minutes setting up the activities for the week. Speaking of mounts, I'm still trying to get the final mount from the island, The Island Perrifool.

I probably need to collect a few items that are getting low. I haven't done any gathering on the island since before the launch of Dawntrail some three months ago. My sash of sea cowries dipped down to 350,000 during my recent melding and overmelding spree and I need to prepare for the next wave. I managed to get back over 400,000 last week.

I did manage to obtain a minion I didn't have, the Ghido. My total haul was:

• Ghido
• General Purpose Pastel Pink Dye
• Craftsman's Command Materia X
• Garden Creek
• 2 x Mobile Garden Stairs

The dye is a version of the cash shop dye available in game and players can sell it on the market. The Garden Creek and Mobile Garden Stairs are outside decoration items for houses and the island sanctuary. Those normally I sell off for 57 gil to a NPC vendor due to the commonality of the items.

A Retainer Army Update - My botanist retainer I began levelling before the launch of Dawntrail is now level 89, meaning I now receive approximately 300,000 gil per week from my 9 retainers not including gathered items. I also now can gather 1800 crafting crystals every two hours for 15 ventures. 

My levelling of the Trust NPCs wind up boosting my retainers. I wind up getting approximately 200 ventures for every three times I run through the Endwalker dungeons by handing in the dropped items as expert deliveries. I'm currently back up to over 1300 ventures, or 150 or so below what I started the expansion with.

I haven't really spent a lot of time selling items on the market but I'm back over 147 million gil in my pocket.