 | TL;DR
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About two years ago, achievement hunting became my main long-term goal in FFXIV. As many achievement hunters know, some of the most time-consuming and RNG-heavy achievements are tied to treasure maps, particularly The Hidden Canals of Uznair, which requires 20 full clears. The challenge, however, isn't just completing those clears. To even attempt them consistently, you first need a large number of Thief Maps, which are obtained through the other level 70 treasure map dungeons. In practice, the real grind is farming maps over and over until enough Thief Maps are generated. When the 7.5 Moogle Treasure Trove come with the guaranteed portal maps, I decided to take the opportunity seriously. Rather than slowly collecting maps over time, I spent the event stockpiling as many guaranteed maps as possible with the goal of eventually contributing 250 Thief Maps toward future group achievement runs. Over the course of roughly one month, I opened a total of 1,454 Gazelleskin Maps while tracking every result. Of those:
The treasure map portion of the project took approximately 170 hours. This only includes time spent running maps. It does not include the additional time spent during the event farming currency for the guaranteed portal maps. One of the more interesting observations was how different the experience felt compared to what the final numbers suggest. During individual sessions, the system felt extremely volatile. It wasn't unusual to spend hours making very little progress, only to have several Thief Maps appear in a relatively short period shortly afterward. At the time, it often felt as if luck was the deciding factor. Looking at the complete dataset, however, the results appear much more stable than they felt in the moment. Across the entire sample, the overall conversion rate ended up at roughly one Thief Map for every 5–6 maps opened. The guaranteed portal maps helped reduce the number of dead maps and made progression feel more consistent, but they did not appear to significantly alter the long-term outcome. From an economic perspective, the project ended surprisingly close to break-even. Throughout the month I purchased maps aggressively whenever prices were reasonable, spending roughly 34 million gil in total. Between self-farmed maps, materials, crystals, clusters, and other rewards, I recovered most of that value. The end result was an estimated loss of only 4–5 million gil, which is relatively minor considering the scale of the project. That estimate also excludes any future value generated by the 250 Thief Maps themselves, as none were used during this grind. Depending on future outcomes, the project would ultimately end up being profitable. At some point it stopped feeling like treasure maps and started feeling like a work tbh open maps, check portals, clear content, repeat and as blue mage the rooms or bosses get the same 2 min rotation for kill it all so the rotation was even the same all time. I'll share the build I used for this grind. I completed every map as a Blue Mage healer, and now that the Free Trial includes Shadowbringers, all of the spells used in this setup are available to Free Trial players as well. One thing I'd strongly recommend is not doing this grind as a group if your primary goal is farming Thief Maps efficiently. Intuitively, running maps together sounds faster, but in practice it's usually the opposite. Eight players running their own maps simultaneously will generate significantly more opportunities than eight players sharing a single map at a time. For reference, as a solo Blue Mage healer, a full clear of either duty took me around 12 minutes on average. In a group, that same run might take 7–8 minutes, but you're only progressing one map instead of potentially eight. From a pure efficiency standpoint, the difference isn't even close. If your goal is socializing, helping friends, or simply enjoying treasure maps together, then group runs are great. But if your goal is maximizing Thief Maps per hour, I genuinely believe solo farming is the better approach. Now the next step is turning those 250 Thief Maps into achievement progress and hopefully making the road to Luckiest of Lords a little shorter. I'd also like to thank everyone who encouraged me throughout the process. Spending 170 hours on a single grind can get repetitive, and despite running these maps for so long, I still somehow managed to die 27 times along the way. To everyone who asked about the project, cheered me on, or simply listened to me talk about maps far more than any sane person should: thank you. What could have felt like a never-ending grind ended up being a much more enjoyable experience because of all of you. I'll also share a few screenshots from the grind, along with the Blue Mage build I used throughout the project. Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. If I missed anything or made any mistakes, please forgive me—this is actually the first time I've ever posted something like this online, and English isn't my first language. Part of the reason I wanted to write this is because posts like these from other players helped me a lot when I started this grind. Hopefully, by sharing my own experience and data, I can become one of those people for someone else in the future. Sorry for the long essay, and thank you again for reading. Good luck with your grinds. o7 Some Days are Lucky (only hppd one time and never get the 5 chest at the end but still was a great run that one) Some of the mogtomes Grind at 7.5 Blue Mage Healer Set Up Reaching the Goal My Excel data My averages My last one; never touch a Gazelleskin Again FYI; i only get 7 times this cute elephant; sadly it not drop any Thief Map only Gil . submitted by /u/Maestro_Hugo [link] [comments] |
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