The new field operation Occult Crescent has been live for almost a week in Final Fantasy XIV. Recently, negative feedback regarding the related relic weapon grind has been accumulating. Some veterans are now pushing back on Reddit.
What bothers players about the Occult Crescent right now? Voices have been popping up on Reddit and in the official forum complaining about the grind for the new relic weapons. The new so-called phantom weapons are highly sought after due to their unique designs that can be further developed through future patches.
To obtain these weapons, players need to invest a lot of time in the new field operation Occult Crescent or Dawntrail FATEs. Actually, the contents of the Occult Crescent are well received, but some players are reporting hours of gaming with minimal progress in the grind.
However, some long-time players are now speaking up on Reddit, who seem to be bothered by the loud complaints of their fellow players.
I don’t care if it’s a grind… it’s an MMO, after all
What do the veterans say? Reddit user Strict_Baker5143, who seems to have gone through several relic grinds, has a clear opinion on the complaints. In his post, To the people who are saying they miss the EW relic grind: stop, you are embarrassing
, he writes about his experiences from Eureka:
- Eureka, Stormblood’s version of the relic grind and the first field excursion, was until then the best iteration of this content:
It was a piece of content that actually brought people together outside of instances dungeons and raids
. - Bozja was a new version of this, based on the criticism of Eureka.
- For the relic weapons in the Endwalker expansion, in-game currency should be collected, and dailies completed. It was
empty and lazy
, but something that the community wanted. - Now the relic weapons are tied to the Occult Crescent, but also to FATEs, and people are not satisfied again.
The poster concludes:
If you want instant gratification, the relic may not be for you. It was always made for people who wanted something to work for and something to show for, not someone who simply wanted a new glam
How do the commentators react? Some agree with Strict_Baker5143 in the comments. syd_goes_roar writes, for example, People will unfortunately always find a reason to complain
.
However, most speculate about what exactly the actual problem with the grind might be. corvak mentions that it’s annoying that he can’t farm the field operation while doing his dailies. You can’t fight in the Occult Crescent and sign up for dungeon roulettes, for example.
Among others, Reddit users Biscxits, Vrankyl, and Finaldragoon suspect that the random elements, the RNG, are a bigger problem. PaulaDeenSlave writes: I don’t care if it’s a grind… it’s an MMO, after all… But this level of RANDOMNESS is unfun. […] Even though this step is only once that’s still one times too many. […]
On the other hand, there is also plenty of praise for the field operation bringing players together and fostering cooperation once again.
Is there any truth to the speculation? Whether the RNG is indeed too harsh cannot be said universally. However, player experiences indicate so. In the official forum, Final Fantasy XIV players share their experiences with each other, and they are quite varied.
While one gamer only took eight hours to collect all 18 Atmas, another got just one in nine hours. You can read more about this in our news: Players complain that they have to grind too much for the new weapons in Final Fantasy XIV – Sharing their strategies
Presumably, the Occult Crescent and the grind for the phantom weapons would be better received by players if the time investment was roughly equal for everyone. Currently, it can happen that you have terrible luck and take twice as long as others – or even longer. This can, of course, lead to the aforementioned displeasure among gamers. Many other reasons have led one player, by the way, to try WoW, and she is now reporting on her experiences: Former Final Fantasy XIV player converts to WoW: “I wish I had done this earlier”
