A Final Fantasy 14 mastermind has achieved a personal 800-hour holy grail by completing one of the hardest challenges you can subject yourself to in the MMO. Faced with what to do next, Deep Dungeon expert Aurora Moon can only do the other impossible task he spent the past two years joking they may get around to.
One of the many optional activities you can do in Final Fantasy 14, Deep Dungeons are ever-changing challenges that scale many, many floors, making them somewhat roguelike in nature. The first deep dungeon we got was Palace of the Dead in Heavensward back in 2016, which was initially intended to be a group activity. It was only a matter of time, then, before players decided to try and solo it, and when that was achieved, try to solo it on the most punishing class possible.
That's where Aurora Moon comes in. The healer extraordinaire spent 800 hours over the past two years trying to complete the Palace of the Dead on their lonesome as a Conjurer, a starting healer class that doesn't yet have the proper benefits of the White Mage and can barely defend themselves thanks in part to some feeble attack power.
"I can't put into words how difficult Conjurer solo is," he says in an interview with GamesRadar+. "Damage is absolutely everything for being able to reach the end on time. Whether it's single-target damage or utilizing a healer or tank's fantastic defensive kit to pull multiple enemies at once for good AoE damage, Conjurer has none of that.
"It does the worst damage of a job, and a class. It doesn't have an AoE spell. It doesn't even have White Mage's signature Regen. No ability heals, nothing. My favorite thing to tell new players is that the 150 boss solo takes upwards of 22+ minutes alone to fight on Conjurer. Hope you can do the other nine floors quickly on a job with horrible damage."
The Conjurer isn't ideal for snagging that coveted Necromancer title for completing the dungeon solo, then. And yet, it's not the only awful way to try and clear a Deep Dungeon without a team. The other side of the Conjurer coin is the Thaumaturge starting class that eventually opens up the Black Mage. It's another job that's yet to blossom and the next challenge Aurora Moon may lose years to.
"I'm laughing behind the screen because Thaumaturge is just some silly promise I made when I was doing Conjurer over and over again," he shares. "'Hey, when are you doing Gladiator? Is Thaumaturge really the other worst class?' I never intended for my streams to have so many class attempts; it's always been very healer-focused since that's my specialty.
"I just got invested in Conjurer since it's my starting class, and what I first entered Palace of the Dead solo with! I shared that when it finally cleared I'd give Thaumaturge a try, and here we are! There's something exhilarating about stripping yourself of most of what makes jobs doable to solo and having to make crazy plays and work like a machine to figure out how to make the impossible possible. I've been running Deep Dungeon solo content daily since Stormblood, this keeps it fresh and difficult."
Aurora Moon isn't the only Final Fantasy 14 fan you'll find trying to solo one of the MMO's three Deep Dungeons, either. A whole community has made this way of playing their own. While it does offer a sense of solo endgame challenge, though, Aurora Moon tells me the pull is the roguelike nature of it all.
"I think a community built around it because, unlike most other parts of the game, very little is scripted," he explains. "You have to adapt, think on the fly, and change your game plan based on your surroundings. When you enter a floor and get the debuffs 'No Abilities' + 'No Items' + 'Gloom,' you have to make the decision to Serenity, and put your poms in a position where two more similar floors and the run ends on the spot."
"I think people enjoy being able to hone their skills, reflexes, and take on such an enormous challenge solo. Especially because Palace of the Dead was not designed to be soloable – The Necromancer title wasn't even there at launch."
Another thing you have to adjust to is Final Fantasy 14's sweeping job changes. They aren't made with soloing group content in mind, naturally, so you never know what meta might form.
"It's really interesting how the job changes can shift the entire dynamic of solo Deep Dungeon," Aurora Moon says. "Back before Shadowbringers, Red Mage was the de facto solo job. There are people out there that still believe it's the best. However, the community has shifted dramatically in large part due to job changes. Machinist was changed back in [Shadowbringers], and we quickly discovered it was a powerhouse for clearing solo. The damage was nuts, it was mobile, easy to pick up and learn.
"Today, Machinist has the most solo clears of any job. Endwalker added Sage, which became an insane healer for solo clearing as well. Now, in Dawntrail, Pictomancer is killing the infamous Behemoth wall before the first meteor falls. Job changes and new additions shift the landscape every time. It's very exciting for the community."
If there's one consistency to the job changes over the years, I imagine it's that the Conjurer and Thaumaturge don't get much easier. And because of that, the feat of beating a Deep Dungeon as either couldn't be sweeter to many of the MMO's dedicated dungeon divers.
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi can't stay away, says he's taking back his retirement plans because making games "may be more of a pleasure than a job"
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail's difficulty initially raised some concerns, but it was ultimately such a hit that Yoshi-P wants to continue moving in that direction
