Limbus 2025

I was going to mention something about buffs but Buukki beat me to it; summarized it perfectly. Buffs are standard when you have jobs that do buffing. I've spent more time on cor and geo since limbus came out than I had in a while, and I even spent the past two months gearing bard so I could increase my support versatility. Supports do buffing. It's what they're there for. As much as I enjoy playing my DD jobs I'm more than happy to play support if it makes the run go faster. I want my limbus runs to be clean, fast, and efficient, and if that means I'm blowing bubbles, rolling dice, or yoedeling at the moon I'm all over it.

For the record, I don't advocate using Hoxne ampulla for random stuff if you can't afford it. I do because I play only a few hours a week, so I enjoy what I can while I do it. Not needed, but just my preference. Makes certain jobs a lot more entertaining and opens up new gear builds. Anyways, all experiences does not need to be standard. Limbus sucks regardless. Wish it was 30 min max. Can't wait for the floor reduction.

Ampulla MNK is nuts in Limbus. But it cost me 700k for a Temenos clear and going SAM WAR DRG is similar enough while free.

My limbus runs are just triboxing 135 with SAM BRD COR in 45-50 mins while watching something more interesting on the other monitor. I haven't done a single climb in 2026, though.

You know it's bad when Sterk, the innovator and Aminon savant, has zero interest in Limbus climbing.

I dont mind the climbs, its much less boring than Sortie. Its the absolute dogshit time:reward ratio.

Its trash, you know its trash. Heres what similar 3 month time investment gets you:
Sortie - stage 4 prime and a couple pieces of Emp+3
Limbus - 2 R30 armor pieces if you get all the mannequins and are in the primary DPS alliance on the CN mobs.

Don't make me defend Limbus. But you CAN acquire artifact and relic gear from it. So there are intermediate and long term goals, similar to Sortie with Empyrean. 9b starts to feel like a job after a while and you're invested into the next stage of your prime, so you can't quit. The reward at the end of Sortie is better, but I'm not convinced the grind to reward ratio is definitively better. The next stage after 4-prime is miserable comparably. So it kind of evens out going from 4-5, or finishing next few pieces to r30 Limbus gear.

What's kind of humorous to me is their recent quote about wanting to reduce the amount of times you need to do the content, as their reasoning for reducing floors and making Temenos??? Easier. That tells you they know Limbus is a miserable grind. Imagine a software company that knows their product is terrible and they said "the goal is to reduce the amount of times you log into the app". Lol

Most of it isnt worth the upgrade. I'm not treating his list as gospel, but there are 220 pieces of applicable +4 (22 jobs * 5 slots * 2 sets AF/Relic) and he listed 30 are worth upgrading.

Some analysis from the JP side lists 10 must upgrade, 29 worth upgrading, 17 only absolute min-maxers should upgrade.

So only about 15% of the AF/Relic is actually worth +4ing, the 17 min-maxers pieces from the JP list are not part of that ~15%. Burning units on shitty upgrades that will give you zero additional performance, when a lot of people are complaining about being short of units (somehow, I dont get it), probably not a wise decision, idk.

With a few exceptions (BLU,?) empy also wasn't all BiS for every piece so it's usually always been mix and match. Maybe it wasn't the best strategy from SE to release empy upgrades before relic and af as empy seems to be better overall but empy is only +3 so they kind of had to.

BLU got +2% WSD on a body and legs, probably uninteresting if you already maxed out nyame but keep in mind this content isn't aiming for that group of players.

Assimilator's Charuqs +4 for instance have 52 AGI and 132 EVA and there are now enough -PDT and -DT options to still cap at 50 or get really close.
I think the next best options are gletis with 33 AGI and 125 EVA max augmented or malignance with 49 AGI and 119 EVA.

I think relic and af excel in ACC, ATT, EVA and MACC.
The thing is ACC and MACC are only interesting when you're uncapped, EVA is very niche and ATT doesn't add much value anymore when it isn't coupled with other stats like PDL and multi attack during TP or PDL, WSDmg, maybe SCDmg during WS. Overall the upgrades/rewards are there but those sets strengths aren't as exciting anymore.


Limbus is very repetitive, in particular too grindy for the stretch goals and every individual run takes too long.
The worst part is it's as if it was designed in a vacuum, like the devs forgot there are already several other activities that demand the players daily attention.

Theres a big difference between "not every piece of emp+3 is BiS" and "an average of 3 pieces combined between AF and relic per job are worth upgrading to +4 from +3"

I agree, I think it's fair to say that on average empy is and always was stronger than AF and Relic, as I mentioned:
I guess they just continue that trend. I'm not sure but I think SE also realized that AF and Relic aren't as exciting which is maybe the reason why they didn't get a separate event each but are both upgraded in limbus.

I don't know what they thought with the augmented armor though, considering how grindy the process is they must view it as the REMA of armors or something.
Either way, if they get away with this, and they do if a sizeable amount of players does the event, then the stretch goal for the next event for sure isn't going to get shorter on day one.

A considerable amount of af and relic would've been very much worth to upgrade, greatly increasing the numbers nynja reported before (numbers with which I agree a lot) if only the +4 upgrades were done the right way. Individual adjustments to pieces and increases to ALL STATS. Not 3 of them plus adding eva/meva.

Altough a couple of pieces might have become too op? Maybe. But making 95% of upgrades ***because you're afraid of that is pretty stupid so I hope that wasn't their main reason.

Limbus isn't keeping me subbed, that's all I'm saying. 30min runs or 20min runs even.

And I've been capped on points since forever so everything gets a +4.

You get a +4, you get a +4..

I'm not disputing that the long term/short term rewards from Sortie are better than Limbus, they clearly are. What I am saying is that both Limbus and Sortie offer rewards for all groups of players. Whether we believe these upgrades are "worth it" or not is kind of irrelevant (SE doesn't care). But even if we go that route, then the difficulty factor and accessibility factor of each event must be taken into consideration.

You can only farm Empyrean once per day. You can only farm Primes once per day (and are "punished" if you miss that day). Sortie is also harder than Limbus. So naturally, the reward scale for Sortie should be greater than the rewards from Limbus, because the former appeals to a narrower audience and is less accessible. Limbus is accessible to everyone, all of the time. You have a week to do your climbs. So if the short-term rewards (or even long-term Limbus sets) for Limbus aren't that great compared to a Prime weapon, it's because it's commensurate with the difficulty level of the content. Empyrean by FAR > Relic/Artifact, but it's also harder to farm based on what previously mentioned. It's clear to me they designed Sortie a lot harder than Limbus because of the rewards and time gate, and the reverse also is true in that the rewards from Limbus are not as great as Sortie for the effort required (grind notwithstanding).

Seriously,

MNK is a checkbook because you swing twice. NIN likewise, but NIN benefits less from Ampulla and I was not impressed, even if it is an increase. SAM/WAR don't need to bother with it unless SAM is looking to exploit hybrids. DRG is easy because one jump puts you at TP to WS in the right set with SAM roll, so you're not spending nearly as much in short fights. Whereas MNK's entire TP phase is swinging, so you will burn through cash. DRK doesn't spend too much money comparably, because Scythe gains a ton of TP/swing.

I wouldn't play MNK with Ampulla if money was a problem.

In the immortal words of Robin Williams….

Here is a conversation between 2 devs when they were thinking up Limbus.

“Here’s my idea for a *** event: They get gear and weapons from the event, aimed at new players.”

• “Oh, like AF quests?”

“*** off, AF quests. Not straight and easy like AF. I’m going to create a new currency they will have to farm.”

• “Oh, like Sortie?”

“*** no! Not like Sortie. I will put the goal way the *** away, hundreds of thousands of currency for each piece of gear. Oh, *** yeah! Big fun! Ah yeah, that’s great!”

• “Oh, like Odyssey? You will give them Mog Amps?”

“*** Odyssey. *** Mog Amps. I will put that ***behind a long grind that will be measured in... hmm.”

• “Weeks?”

“*** weeks. Months per piece. Yeah, *** A right, months!”

• “Oh, like Ergon weapons and Coalition Assignments?”

“*** Ergon weapons and *** Coalition Assignments. We aren’t doing that easy-*** ***. I am going to make them endlessly kill monsters.”

• “Oh, and they will get other stuff from the monsters?”

“*** other stuff. These monsters won’t drop ***other than a little currency and some token exemplar points. Oh, great idea. I am going to add alliance+-required NMs to the mix, and they will only spawn very infrequently, and most people will only hear whispers and never see them. *** yeah!”

• “Oh, like HNMs?”

“*** HNMs. They won’t drop ***other than a little token currency.”

• “Umm... so the gear and weapons will be great, replace everything like FFXIV!”

“*** FFXIV! The weapons will be horse ***, but the gear might be BiS from time to time.”

• “Well, that seems like a lot of work. Do you think the players will like it?”

“*** the players. I changed my mind. It is going to be like Sky and Abj's.”

• “Yeah, that seems better. Won’t be as long of a grind that way and could get people to do content together again. But the cursed gear will probably be expensive.”

“***, you’re right. Damn, the grind will be gone.”

• “That’s good. Might be better this...”

“***! I got it.”

• “What?”

“*** combine them! *** brilliant!”

• “Huh!?! Well, you will only have to do this once a week, and it’s quick. So new people can do it comfortably.”

“*** quick. It will be skill- and gear-dependent. If you have the best gear, it will be fast and easy.”

• “I thought you said this was targeted at new players.”

“It is. I will tier the monsters and let them select the monsters’ level.”

• “Oh, OK, so new people and high-skilled/geared people will only have to kill the same mobs?”

“*** that. If you select a lower level, you have to kill a lot more!”

• “...Well, at least they only have to do it once a week.”

“*** that. They will have to do it five times.”

• “Five times!? What?”

“Each zone, too.”

• “Well, at least it will be a guaranteed drop.”

“*** that. I am going to add a random number generator.”

• “So, this is like keeping players in limbo.”

“Hmm, I like that name. It has the right panache to it, but... hmmm...”

• “What?”

“I need to FFXI it up some...”

• “FFXI it up?”

“*** yeah, I got it. I will call it Limbus!”

Obviously, this is my satire about this wonderful event. It was the first thing I thought of when I finally found out what Limbus really was. It is SE’s attempt at keeping players engaged as long as possible.

They took three methods of player retention and smooshed them into a single event.

We have the time gate, which physically extends players' playtime (if they stick to it), but implemented it in a horrible way. Unlike old-school Dynamis, where I and others waited with excitement for Dynamis to come around, they paired it with an event almost literally no one says is enjoyable.

We have earned progression. You farm a currency toward gear/weapons, which on face value is good, like Odyssey, etc. But they placed such large amounts that I think the fastest you can do a piece is two or three months. Pair that with a time gate, and it is crap.

Then they had the best idea: to put in the most addictive game design possible, the random number generator. But they did it in a Twilight Zone/Bizarro World way, which flips the RNG addiction into just pissing off the players. You need a shitton of items to upgrade your gear, but they placed the item behind the RNG. Five climbs a week with guaranteed drops could possibly be tolerable. But going 1/5 or 0/5 kills motivation fast. I won’t do Limbus with this shitty design, personally.

Then, to add insult to injury, they say this is for newer, more casual players—which is 100% factually wrong. Most casual players are middle-geared, solo, or partying with equally geared individuals. At the fastest, these players might clear Temenos or Apollyon in an hour each (probably closer to two hours). So they are going to be doing at least 10+ hours a week on a boring event that requires months for any payoff. They aren’t. They are working on a Mythic weapon, or farming Sortie for their +2 or +3, or farming Dynamis Divergence, etc. They are not spending their limited playtime in this event.

Just my thoughts as someone who has had a love/hate relationship with FFXI since 2006. They could have done so much better if they wanted to.

lol

Anyone else getting 5k more often or is RNGjesus being nice?

You're just getting lucky. It's a 1/4 chance after you find it to find it again. Can be same or different tower. Roll a D4 enough and the variance will eventually swing heavily one way or another. It's all just luck.

Been tracking and so far there's not a significant difference in 5k since the black boxes. It does *feel* like the amount of mats that drop from 3k have gone down, but I stopped tracking that a while ago.

Nope. I'm still getting bitchslapped by 3k-no-matter chests left and right. Victim of the algorithm.

Working as intended.

Only 3 total tem matters went toward the earring. Even with that, the fact that this is possible, is enraging

N1-3, W1-3. E1-3 and C1 is gone.
"C3" Now C2, Ghrahs and flowers has been changed. "C4's" now C3 start/end Ghrahs been changed to other mobs.
Mobs been swapped around overall.

"E6" now E3 is still bad Ghrahs and Pixies/unseelies.

temenos went from 25 floors to 15??

Yes,4+4+4+3.

Makes Temenos somewhat bare able I suppose. Will have to see how much difference it makes for an average group.

I am sure all the l33t players will have no problem doing 10min Temenos climbs with all that l33t skill in running really fast.

For a 2 person party each floor also only gained +1 required kills, NWE towers from 4→5 and Central 7→8.

Previously was 112 total kills, now 84 total, a reduction of 28 kills for temenos.

Apollyon remains at 25/28/25/28 kills 106 total.

The all important question...

Did they adjust the units you get for this reduction to be similar to what the total yield was prior?

If you do 10 less floors, but still get the same amount of units, that's actually a huge hit

Big if true. Thanks!