With the launching of the last stage of the Resistance Weapon I think it is fair to just look back at the four relic weapon epics we had so far.
Veteran Final Fantasy XIV players will know that relic weapon quests is a standard fixture in the XIV world. It provides a long and arduous way for non-raiders in the game to get their hands on to a powerful weapon of their choice. So they are ready for the next expansion item level wise. This evens out the playing ground for raiders and non-raiders when they go into the new contents. It doesn’t hurt that these weapons are usually shiny and pretty ones too.
I mentioned that it is a long and arduous process, and I mean it. Every XIV player who had gone through these stages that spans over the whole expansion would know what I mean. They are not for the faint hearted or those lacking stamina. Of course we will have all the pro-burners that can burn through these quests in a week or so, as they live and breathe for burning contents in the game. However, for average players like me, who has a day time job and only have a few hours at the most to play at night, it is not an easy task, and every successful attempt on these weapons yields immense satisfaction.
The Relic Weapon series started with some innocent quests to change your initial relic weapon from your job quest into a stronger version. Enticed by this, you spoke to the relevant NPC and started to run FATES in the wilderness looking for a drop. Yes, that’s how innocent and seemingly easy the first Relic Weapon quests started in A Realm Reborn (ARR). Little did I know that the drop chance was so low that I had run FATES in the same area for a whole week without getting one of these precious Atmas. I was disheartened but the pride in me forced me to soldier on. And soldier on I did, when you heard of other people’s success stories. Yeah there will be a stage that your hope of an Atma drop hinges on other people’s fortune. Jealousy and envy are your best motivation.
Finally you got all the Atmas, then you were told to repeat the brave deeds of your legendary Zodiac Braves. When they mentioned that, I should have known that it will be tricky and time consuming, as Zodiac Braves were from the tricky and at times taxing Tactics games. The books you need were not easy to come by and on top of that you have those duties you have to fulfil. Running dungeons, fine. Killing enemies of certain kinds, fine. FATES, By the Twelve can they spawn more quickly and finish less speedily? Camping out at FATES sites for hours so you don’t risk travelling and by the time you get there they were finished became a common thing for XIV players. The good thing is through complaining about how rare these FATES are made you accidental friends. Eventually you convinced yourself it is all worth it because you got a shiny new weapon, literally, a shiny new weapon.
When you thought things couldn’t be worse, you were next tasked with customising your weapon with stats that you like. I love customisation, and that you can build your weapon in any fashion you want is God’s gift. But then you learnt quickly that there is no free lunch. The establishment of stats required 75 materias to be melded on to a scroll that you don’t know whether it would be successful or not. On top of that you will need to collect enough catalyst gems called Alexandrite to meld them. Thus the start of converting every piece of equipment that you have been hoarding in your inventory and with your retainer into materia. Also, treasure chest became real treasure as that is a way to get your hands on to those precious Alexandrites. I can still remember the angst and anticipation every time I melded a materia on to the scroll, praying to the RNG God that it succeeded and won’t cost me another arm or leg for more materia. In my first attempt to my first weapon, I nearly gave up as I ran out of materia and Gil to pay for it. Luckily two friends came to my rescue and I finally completed it.
You were proud of your achievements through this scroll melding ordeal, but Zodiac Braves do not rest to put their names into the lore of the XIV world. To show that you can go beyond what is holding you back, you will need to run dungeons, trials and all other contents to collect aetherical light to break the constraints of your current weapon. Luckily, these were all the things you do when you log in to the game anyway. Just that different activities gave different amount of light at different times. That’s when you realised that there were some kind souls that provide resources online to show you the real time light delivery of different activities. Hence the light farming phase was a breeze in the staled air all of a sudden.
When you thought to further upgrade the weapon you will need to get items drops from different dungeons, your heart immediately responded with mixed feelings. It is FF XIV, so when something looks so seemingly easy, you know the drop rate is bad. And everyone’s suspicions became reality as soon as the quest started. I was lucky, as I only need to repeat certain dungeons 3 or 4 times before that ‘ching’ sound came up and I can move on to the next one. But I had friends who had run a dungeon for over 10 times before the item dropped. That spelled an eternal grudge for them for these dungeons. Nightmares were real for them. What’s even worse was, once upgraded, you lost that glow and shine you have been accustomed to. You couldn’t help but ask yourself, what’s the point?
With much anticipation, the final stage dropped. Anticipation for me was not because I got more things to do but it is finally going to be done. At this point, excitement had become getting it over and done with. Luckily Yoshi-P felt all our pain, the final stage was a lot more straight forward with you fulfilling light farming again to power those Zodiac Gems to reveal the weapon’s true power. For true power thirst came real power runs. We formed parties to run high level light dungeons again and again until we were done with the whole thing. And when it was done, it was done and satisfied. Especially with the nice looking weapon finally being shiny and new again.
We all thought that’s done mate...only to find out we were so masochistic that we went back there for more for the next weapon. Such is the unhealthy addiction of the first Relic Weapon quests called the Zodiac Weapons. And this only marks the beginning of us feeling the love and pain of relic weapon quests in Final Fantasy XIV.
