My Free Company, Notorious Monsters, instantly jumped into one of the new features - we were so excited for it that we were preparing for it before the patch was released. The new feature is something called the "Aquapolis." It's a treasure dungeon. Do you remember the Cave of Wonders from the Disney movie Aladdin? It's kind of like that. Except instead of it opening from a magic scarab talisman, it opens through a portal that's hidden in a buried treasure coffer that's guarded by monsters. And the treasure inside the dungeon is guarded by monsters, too.
Ok, here's how it works:
1. You need a map to find the treasure coffer. If you have one of your gathering skills (Fisher, Botanist or Miner) leveled high enough, you can gather a Timeworn Dragonskin Map, decipher it, figure out where it is out in the world, and dig it up. But what if you don't have a gathering class at level 60? Just go to your favorite Market Board! I'm sure one of your fellow adventurers has listed one! Well, if your server is anything like mine, you had better get to leveling those gatherers because the price of the Dragonskin maps has skyrocketed. On Lamia server, the maps are around 200,000 gil last time I checked. That's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not...
2. Get some friends together. I'd recommend at least a light party of 4, though 3 is probably doable if you're paying attention. Make sure you're in at least ilvl180 gear. Dig up the treasure coffer. The person who owns the map has to be the one to do it. The way we play, the person who owns the map gets to call the shots on all the loot that you can roll on. Anything that falls straight into your inventory is yours to keep. Tell your friends before you start this adventure to have plenty of space in your inventory. If everyone brings a map or two, you'll likely be getting lots of stuff - crafting mats, gear, materia, gil, and crystals.
3. Kill all monsters that appear. Afterwards, get your rewards. At that time, there is a 50/50 chance that a portal to the Aquapolis will spawn.
4. If the portal appears, the owner of the map has to click on it, and everyone will be teleported inside. Proceed to the first room. There is a treasure chest on the floor in the middle. Again, only the map owner can click on it. Once he or she does, cages will open, releasing the horrors that guard the treasure. Defeat the monsters, open the treasure. Reap the rewards.
5. Killing the monsters gives the map owner a key, which will open one of two doors. How do you know which one it is? You don't. Well, I hear sometimes one of them is lit up and shiny, but I haven't witnessed that. Really, you've got a 50/50 shot of picking the right door, which will lead to another room with another treasure chest, with more monster guards to kill. Two more doors to choose between with only one key afterwards. There are a total of seven rooms. As you progress through, the treasure chests get bigger, the rewards get better, and there's more and more piles of gold and stuff in the background scenery. It looks pretty cool.
6. Sometimes a boss enemy will enter the mix. This is pretty exciting and why I suggest you should have at least 4 people (traditional setup - tank, healer, 2 DPS - any additional people can be more DPS). You can change classes inside the Aquapolis, though, so if you do feel like you need a different setup, that's ok. Sometimes a Goblin Treasure Hunter appears. Kill him fast! He tries to run away. But both the boss enemy and the goblin drop their own treasure, with bonus rewards!
7. When you try to open the doors, it will either open right away or a steel gate will slam down, blocking your way. This doesn't mean you've lost! It will struggle, and sometimes it will fling itself open, opening the door with it, revealing the next chamber. Sometimes it will stay closed, and the lights in the room will start flashing red, and an alarm will begin buzzing. Aw, bummer. You've lost... or have you? If you're really lucky, the red lights turn into RAINBOW DISCO LIGHTS in the ultimate heart-stopping fake-out, and the door magically opens! But usually the red lights mean you're out. You get teleported back to where you were and the Aquapolis has ended.
...
Our first night, we probably ran the Aquapolis five times. I have never had more fun playing this game. There were ups and downs, highs and lows. It was insane. We got so much treasure! We made so much gil! We saw so many (once-)rare minions! I finally got a Lesser Panda, but that doesn't matter because I GOT A NUTKIN! With my treasure map, we made it all the way to the 7th room. It was amazing. It was exciting. The adrenaline was pumping.
I still haven't seen that 7th room again. We've made it to the 6th. In the 5th room, my boyfriend got a Dwarf Rabbit, one of the new minions. It's freaking adorable, and a nice friend for my Nutkin. He tried selling it on the Market Board, but after it didn't sell for a few days, he just gave up and used it. I'm glad, because it's too cute. I'm sure we'll get another eventually, because we've been running these a lot.Made it to the final room of the Aquapolis! Huge treasure chest and great treasure. Finally got a Nutkin! #FFXIV pic.twitter.com/mkDF2ze2nR— Original Fat Chocobo (@Nalia_FFXIV) June 8, 2016
The downside to that, though, is that it seems like EVERYONE is running the Aquapolis a lot. So much that it's flooded the market with these minions and "rare" materials. The Thavnairian gear, which I painstakingly gathered the mats for, paid hundreds of thousands of hard-earned gil just for mats for, is now going for just mere thousands for whole constructed pieces. The Nutkin, which before this patch was so rare that it often wasn't even up on the market board, and if it was it was usually over 5 million gil, sometimes as much as 10 or 15 million, was selling for only 1 million last night. Prices for some crafting materials have dropped tenfold. Materia that used to be worth 100k is now only worth 1000. This is the Great Market Crash of 3.3. I only made gil this week from running the Aquapolis itself. That and my retainer brought back an ACTUAL rare crafting material that apparently doesn't drop in the Aquapolis, which I sold for just under 2 million gil.
Don't get me wrong, I like the dungeon. I'm going to keep doing it. But part of what made that first night so awesome was seeing those items and thinking we were making bank. I thought we were going to run back to our retainers and sell all that stuff for millions. I should have realized that every other team was doing the exact same thing we were. Here's my Nutkin and I. Aren't we adorable?
So cute! I also got a lesser panda. The dungeon dropped lots of gil, materia, and crystals/clusters to all. #FFXIV pic.twitter.com/oWatezGU9x— Original Fat Chocobo (@Nalia_FFXIV) June 8, 2016
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