Intro

Eureka 就是 XIV 4.0 的 relic weapon 任务线。 用一句话说就是：“Eureka 是一个大型劝退地图”。 我对这几个地图真的是一言难尽。比起 Eureka，HW 中的 Anima 任务线要容易可爱得多。起码我努努力，重复做些事情我还能拿到新武器。

Anemous

Anemous 是 Eureka 的第一部分。地图还是很漂亮的。满足一定条件，such as killing a certain amount of enemies, will spawn Notorious Monster. It is essentially the “fate” in Eureka. Notorious Monsters are the main method of leveling back at the beginning. Players formed parties and hang out in the same place. Some killed monsters, most were AFK. Kill NM when it spawns to earn XP and crystals. Then everyone headed to the next NM position. Since the mount is restricted before Lv.17, many players could only walk, hence it creates a “train” of players that ran from one position to another. Join the train and kill NM. That’s the main gameplay in Anemous. It is linear and easy and urges players to play together. It is not a common scene that players hang around together outside of the endgame hub. Although I’m certain that the dev’s initial idea was to make us form parties and kill regular monsters from Lv.1.

An NM tracking website was also created to help players manage NM spawn.

The AF3 weapons and armors can be upgraded by Gerolt. He is still in here. He is still trying to pay his endless debt. I doubt he will ever be set free from his debt. The whole process of upgrading weapons and armors is quite simple. Killing regular monsters would randomly drop crystals. Killing NM guarantees a certain amount of crystals. Crystals are the token of exchanging Anemous weapons and armors. From AF3 to +1, +2, +3, and finally Anemous gears, players simply need a very large amount of crystals. In addition, three of Pazuzu’s feathers are required for the weapon’s final step.

Anemous received severe criticism at the beginning. The main complaint focused on the crystals and high-damage monsters, but this situation gradually turned around after the “train” was formed. Everyone suddenly thought Eureka was OK. Very funny.

I’m certain that players love Anemous more than Pagos.

Pagos

Pagos is the worst. THE WORST.

NM’s spawning rate dramatically decreased. I never saw Cassie spawns in the entire time I spent on Pagos. According to Yoshi-P, monsters do not want to come out in the cold weather. But I prefer to believe that this is the protest of the “train” behavior in Anemous. The only way to earn more XP is the challenge log. A fairly big chunk of XP is rewarded by killing a certain amount of monsters, elemental sprites, or ashkins. Eureka’s XP potion is also available by crafting or opening treasure boxes.

Two unique bunny fates are added on the map. Their spawning rate is almost 100%. By completing the fate, a Happy Bunny will begin to follow players for 15 mins. Feeding bunny with Lucky Carrot will give the direction of a treasure box. This is a trap when players are below lv.30 because Happy Bunny usually leads players to a place where has a dozen of high-level monsters. In addition, treasure boxes do not give good stuff except the XP potion. Who needs Materia V when the real demand is VI? Players who want to complete these two fates are very rare. Before Pyros was released, bunny fate had not to reward XP or tomestones. Now it does, plus the bunny fate theory came out.

NM’s spawning condition is well understood now. The number of spawning monsters, weather, and time are all listed on the tracking website. Whenever the requirement is met, the NM is prepared. Players only need to wait for servers to check the requirement and spawn. However, the bunny fate theory believes that the server rerolls all fates after one fate is completed, including bunny fates. Therefore, completing bunny fate can increase the rate of spawning NM in Pagos by forcing the server to reroll and check requirements.

I personally think this is a myth, like Cassie.

The number of crystals dropped by NM is also decreased. Even the highest level of Louhi only gives 20. Players have to complete myriad NMs to have enough crystals for upgrading Anemous weapons.

The upgrading process in Pagos is grinding light again. Gerolt gives players a kettle. Again. A kettle. Killing regular monsters will reward light at a different rate. The higher the monster’s level, the higher the rate. Mutant monsters and NM guarantees light. The light bar is displayed on duty info list. A Pagos crystal can be forged when the bar is full. To upgrade to Elemental weapons from Anemous weapons, 16 Pagos crystals and 500 crystals are needed.

Mount is limited by lv.35. These teleportation aetherytes are distributed in three dangerous places. Unless other high-level players help or there is a train, lower level players can barely reach these places.

All in all, low NM spawning rate, a large number of crystals, terrible map design force players to stay in Pagos for a long time. There is no way to around it currently.

Pyros

Pyros is in the right direction because it introduces Logos Actions and increases NM spawning rate. Logos allows players to disregard their roles and utilize various abilities such as healing and buffing damage, and NM, of course, gives more reward.

Logos Actions are quite simple. Bunny chests will drop logograms that can be used to synthesize Logos. In such a way, players can cast Cure and Raise, reduce damage taken, increase damage dealt, reflect magical damage, or cast instant death with an extremely low success rate. One of the reasons that make Pagos tedious is the difficulty of leveling. Pagos' map design makes some area inaccessible from the beginning due to the high cliff and monsters. Players either need a friendly patient veteran or has enough levels to reach there. However, Logos provides more flexibility and possibility. Stealth can dramatically reduce the aggro so that players can walk through many high-level monsters without being detected. Every role can enter a stance to deal more damage or use one or two extra useful skills.

On the other hand, what makes Pyros suffering is RNG, again. Back in HW’s Diadem, treasure chests will drop gears with random stats. Pryos did this again. Elemental Weapons can be upgraded to Pyros Weapons by collecting a fairly large amount of Pyros Crystals that dropped from NM. Pyros Weapons’s initial state do not have secondary stats. Players need to use the kettle, again, to collect light like what they did in Pagos. Two protean crystals give one chance to roll the secondary stats and players can choose to keep or discard the new adjustment. Stats are totally random and only begins with one row. For example, the first time players roll can only have one stat, such as 199 Critical Hit. Rows will increase as the roll times increase. Finally, it will reach 5 random rows. It is totally possible that the 5 rows are the same type. Nevertheless, every roll will override the previous one if players choose to keep the adjustment, so the suffering begins. Due to the restriction on minor adjustment, there’s no way to guarantee that players can have what they want unless they are very lucky.

I’m seriously considering use Eureka weapons as glamour instead of an actual weapon.

Hydatos

Hydatos' gears and armors are not any better looking. Not to mention that Shadowbringer will be released in three months. I don’t Savage content neither. That 5 iLv additional stats are not very necessary to me. So I decided to give up Eureka weapons and leave Eureka after I complete all main quest. Hydatos' map is much smaller to the previous maps. One additional logogram and six logos actin are added. Except to add one extra step for Hydatos Armours, their main purpose are to help players in Baldesion Arsenal. Baldesion Arsenal is a 56-men dungeon where a regular raise method does not work and are full of traps. New logos are the only methods of rasing players in here. Once players know the mechanics, it is not a very difficult place. Discord is preferred though.

I did not spend much time on it. It is not a fun place for me. I do not think there is any fun in Eureka at all. I spend most of the time to idle in the camp and wait the NM pops out. Once I have enough resource to complete the weapon or armors, I leave and never look back.