Relic Weapons to the game in Patch 7.25. Aside from being highly sought-after even when they're from past expansions for the sake of glamours, Relic Weapons are the best-in-slot weapons for each job aside from Savage items. Unfortunately, it looks like we're returning to the classic grind style for picking up the pieces needed to get the Relic Weapons.
For Phantom Weapons, you'll need to head into the new Occult Crescent field operation to get the pieces needed to craft your weapon, which means that you're going back to the farming style that has been required for Relics from ARR to Shadowbringers, with varying levels of RNG and frustration depending on the expansion. While the Phantom Weapons themselves are an exciting addition, the method for getting them is not nearly as exciting.
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Phantom Relics In Dawntrail Will Rely On Collecting Drops
The Beginning Of Yet Another Grind
If you've pursued older Relics, you'll know what to expect with the design for getting Phantom Relics. Most likely, you'll need to collect one or more specific items until you have a certain number of them to turn into an NPC. Of course, one cycle of this grind would be too easy, so you'll end up needing to repeat it for several items until you have your weapon. Then, there are more grinds to do if you want to upgrade the weapon into its strongest form. As a result, the process is tedious and often frustrating.
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Since getting a single Relic Weapon can take weeks when you have to grind for items and probably can't commit to grinding them full-time, players who switch between multiple classes are looking at an even longer slog to get a Relic for each class they play. Setting up valuable weapons to have a large RNG element in of drops, and forcing you to collect a fair number of those drops, is one way to keep you subscribed and playing the game while waiting for the next expansion, but perhaps not the option that suits everybody.
FFXIV's Relic Weapons Have A Grind & RNG Problem
A Way To Maintain Player Count
If we look at the design of Phantom Relics as a way to maintain the player count that FFXIV has between expansions, the decision to focus on making it a grind and relying on RNG makes more sense. Right now, FFXIV is in an interesting place. Its player count dropped after Endwalker, and continued to drop during Dawntrail as it received mixed reviews, and it's rather common for the player count to drop during the patch series after an expansion, then rise again with the next expansion. To fix the lack of content, the game shifts to relying on grinds.
Finding a way to make the experience feel like less of a grind or adjusting the RNG to be more player-friendly overall can go a long way to fixing the Relic Weapons.
When you start the content for getting Relic Weapons, it can be fun. However, the novelty quickly wears off when you end up needing to complete tasks repetitively in the hope of getting a drop you need, and then getting lucky enough to keep getting drops until you have the amount you need. In general, finding a way to make the experience feel like less of a grind or adjusting the RNG to be more player-friendly overall can go a long way to fixing the Relic Weapons, if returning to the grind style is the method moving forward.
There Has To Be A Better Way To Get Relic Weapons In FFXIV
We Need A Balance, Which Includes Increased Drops
Endwalker was unique in how it approached Relic Weapons, tying them to the Hildebrand quests and having you grind tomestones instead of items with RNG elements, as you have ways to get guaranteed tomestones, no RNG required. However, that led to some complaints that the Relic Weapons were too easy for that expansion, and now we're facing a new grind with RNG, and there is no estimate yet as to how long it might take to earn a single Phantom Relic. Therefore, it looks like neither option is perfect, but the grind is easier to adjust by increasing drops.
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Relic Weapons aren't the only feature that needs a modern update, and it feels like the game has reached a point where it needs to make decisions about how to approach the next decade of content in order to maintain a decent player count. I'm not thrilled there won't be another attempt to make the Relic grind more bearable, but I recognize that sticking to old formulas and methods is hurting more than just Relic Weapons (it's one of the main talking points whenever the future of FFXIV is brought up).
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
- Released
- July 2, 2024
- ESRB
- Teen // Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
- Base Game
- Final Fantasy 14
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Engine
- Proprietary
- Franchise
- Final Fantasy
- Platform(s)
- PC
