Final F🌊antasy 14 can largely be played like a traditional JRPG, but as a social and party-based MMO, it fundamentally wasn't designed to be played alone. That hasn't stopped one MMO player from testing just how far they can go while playing t💧ruly solo, forgoing battle and trading support from other players and NPCs wherever possible, to continue along the most punishing path they can run. 

While always a fan of playing games in weird ways and an FF14 master for now, tells GamesRadar+ tha🐟t the inspiration for this challenge comes from an entirely different MMO. The streamer looked back to their time watching the Old School Runescape community tackle 💯one of that game's most punishing modes to begin to imagine what a solo Final Fantasy 14 challenge might look like. 

"I based the main rules for the run on Runescape's Ironman mode – no trading and no assistance from other players," they say. "For Final Fantasy 14, though, that doesn't really pose a big challenge, so I had t▨o take away more things to make this something difficult – something worth doing."

"No NPC support, no quest rewards, and minimal NPC purchases was my way of doing that. By avoiding shops and quest hand-outs൲, I'm forced to make my own gear and really push the limit of what I can do. Then, after the first three✨ dungeons were still too easy, I took on the Level Sync / Silence Echo rule out of wild curiosity. I wanted to know if it could be done."

An ironman reborn

Around 240 hours later, in terms of ✤playtime, the answer steadily becomes clearer. Rath has cleared Final Fantasy 14's A Realm Reborn - essentially the base game - to the point of taking on th🐬e first trial after the grand Ultima finale fight, and they're yet to regret any of the self-imposed rules they've set out for themselves. 

"The run has been an incredible experience," they tell 🍷us. "There are so many tiny forgotten pieces of content I never knew about, lik💎e status potions that can only be used on mobs level 50 or below, mechanics in dungeons and trials I had never seen. It really opened my eyes to how much I missed. 

"I wouldn't say I regret any of the rules. If I didn't have the minimal NPC purchase, field crafts would have been easier to get, but it really just comes down to time spent, y'𒉰know? I'm pretty happy with what I have now." 

While crafting knowledge gets you over some of the hurdles of Rath's solo run, there's little to be done about the time sink of trying to complete four- or eight-player content by yourself. As one of Rath's latest videos illustrates (above), completing the Ultima bout required plenty of trial and error to nail a battle plan. Each attempt also consumeᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs plenty of resources, leading to more time spent out in the open world replenishing your stock as part of preparing for another swing at a dungeon or its boss.

"They are 100% of the problem," Rath says. "I had expected the Trials to be the main difficulties, but dungeons have been so much worse. Batraal and the Black Eft will be in my nightmares for months. I mean, from unlocking Castrum to taking down the Black Eft was somewhere in the ballpark of 60-80 hours. Brayfl𒀰ox was a solid 10-20 hours of preparation. 

"Really, the only easy one in recent memory was Aurum Vale, of all things. Most, if not all, of my challenge run up to the last video has gone into dealing with dungeon bosses, I'd say preparation for them is somewhere near 75% of theꦿ toཧtal time spent."

Why do we stumble

But what happens when you fall afoul of your own rules? As Rath explains in their latest , they unknowingly set themselves up for failure the second they locked in one of FF14's Jobs. Wanting to eventually take up the class of Warrior for ARR content – a favourite of the community for challenges due to its ability to eat damage and heal itself up – they started as a Marauder, starting them in the city💟 of Limsa Lominsa. That's a problem.

Before unlocking the airship that takes you to neighbouring territories, you must♑ complete a quest involving fetching a level-five helmet. That should be simple enough, but you can﷽'t do it in Limsa without breaking Rath's rules - while starting in Gridania or Ul'dah would give you access to the means to make that helmet, Limsa only allows you to get one through an NPC purchase or quest reward. Rath does allow for the odd purchase in their ruleset if there's no other way through something, though things got complicated down the line when, actually, there was another way. 

To right the wrong, Rath leans🤡 on what has characterised the run so far – a big ol' time commitment. As punishment – and a break from the 240-marathon – they set up a new character to create a video on how things would appear had they done things✅ right. 

Don't worry about the run itself, though. With their conscience clear, the character of Solo Only shall cont▨inue their arduous journey.

"It's a small detail and not a🍃 huge loss that would make me restart, but I thought it was worth going back and seeing how we could have done things better," they say. "There are a few other things like that I want to do at some point, but that's for another day."

Looking ahead, I ask Rath if they have a shot at completing the run by the time 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史𝓀查询:Final Fantasy 14's next e൩xpansion Dawntrail comes out next summer, given what they've le𒆙arned on the🔜ir run. 

"With the time it's taken me to get this far, no way," they reply. "I'd say if I'm lucky I'll be i🐼n Stormblood by then, but we'll have to see."

Did you know that the Final Fantasy 14 devs wanted to get the Pixel Remaster games playable in the MMO?