The new content patch 4.3 of Final Fantasy XIV has been online for a few days now and is already giving players some headaches. One of the new bosses forces them to solve math problems. Or they have to diligently google for prime numbers.
Do you remember school when most people in class couldn’t stand math? In the Final Fantasy XIV community, this aversion to math is now coming back to haunt some players through one of the new bosses from the 24-man raid, Ridorana Lighthouse.
Because to survive its attacks, players need to be able to do calculations.
The loot must be earned
With the Ridorana raid came new gear to Final Fantasy XIV that players can use to upgrade their classes. And this gear must be hard-earned in the boss fight against Automaton No. 7.
What does the boss do? Although the mechanics of the boss fight are initially a bit unclear, they become quite simple once understood:
- First, Automaton No. 7 reduces the HP of all players to a random single-digit amount
- The glowing areas in front of it add as many HP to the players as circles are above
- This means: if you start with 3 HP and go into an area with 2 circles, you then have 5 HP
- The goal is to meet the requirements of the automaton, which it specifies through its spell bar
- If it wants a number that is divisible by 4, then the players’ HP must be 4 or a multiple of that
- If it wants a number that is indivisible, then the HP must be a prime number
What are the consequences? If you have understood everything and paid a little attention in math, you will come out unscathed.
However, if players mess up the little math problem twice, they will be killed by Automaton No. 7’s next attack.
And thus, Automaton No. 7 took down entire hordes of players in the first days of the patch.
Prime numbers? What are prime numbers?
The confusion among the FFXIV player base went so far that it was reflected in Google search queries. In one of the hints about the boss fight against Automaton No. 7, prime numbers are explicitly mentioned and listed:
On May 22, the release date of the patch, search queries for the term “Prime Numbers” increased worldwide.
Even some of the Japanese players were probably not entirely sure, as searches for 素数, the Japanese word for prime number, also rose on May 22.
The developers probably anticipated it
It seems that the developers anticipated this turn of events, as the game goes to great lengths to tease players with the little math problem. An inscription on a golem says:
To top it all off, Automaton No. 7 dances happily while the 24 people are wiping.
But if you complete the raid and are feeling silly, you can join in by teleporting to the entrance and running back to its arena.
You can find a complete guide through the Ridorana raid here:
Where you can unlock Ridorana and other new content from Final Fantasy XIV 4.3, you can find out in our article:
Final Fantasy XIV: How to get started with the new quests in 4.3
