Hunts for Experience and Profit
It comes to my attention many folks have no clue about how the Daily and Weekly Alliance and Clan Hunt system works or why they should do it. They've heard of Hunt Trains, perhaps, but the rest of the system is a mystery. Folks are also uncertain about the markers on random mobs heads and what they mean; what's a viable target and what isn't?
This will also tie in to some previous tutorials I've written, about using Recommendations to track your activities (like the Hunts) and also how the Tomestone to Seals and Nuts process goes for the endgame gear.
So let's go below the cut to learn about the Hunt!
Now most of us caught on, when leveling new classes in ARR, that the trainers give you a Class Hunting Log you can fill out as you level. This is a good alternate source of Experience as you bust up through ARR, especially once you're out of main story quests and need variety from dungeon and/or PotD spam. Many of the mobs you'll incidentally see as you travel the zones and go into instances anyway. Completing each individual entry gives experience, and completing an entire level bracket gives another large boost.
There's also a Grand Company version to do which contributes to accumulating Seals, experience points, and requirements to rank up in your GC.
Mobs that are for your Class Hunt Logs have partial circle markers over their heads.
ARR ALSO had Alliance Hunts, given out by your Grand Company. These can include regular mobs around various zones, as well as FATE encounters (which can be annoying to track when those pop). The Alliance Hunts grant Allied Seals, which is a currency used at the Grand Company to purchase gear, minions, and other goodies.
Blue Mage also uses Allied Seals for their currency, obtained through the Carnivale.
ARR Hunts will only concern themselves with ARR zones, of course, because in Heavensward we met a new group responsible for Hunts.
You do not need to have completed any sort of Alliance Hunt quests or unlocks for Clan Hunts, but you DO have to unlock the Clan Hunts in order, starting in HW and progressing forward. It's literally just a single-step talking to the main vendor and board NPCs though.
Clan Centurio is located in the Forgotten Knight in Ishgard. The elderly couple at the counter by Gibrillont are the vendors, while Eustacia by the board outside handles the bills. Yloise in Idyllshire is who will allow you to select the Senior and Elite Bills. The Clan deals in Centurio Seals for their currency.
This continues through Stormblood with Clan Centurio members and boards available in both Kugane at the Shiokaze Hostelry when you arrive, and at Rhalgr's Reach (after level 67), between the regular vendors and where the tomestone vendors set up. Once you get to Kugane at level 61, the ability to join the Clan Hunts is available and continues as you level up through StB.
In Shadowbringers, given the circumstances, we meet the bloodthirsty Clan Nutsy and their new currency, Sacks of Nuts. The Boards and vendors are in the Crystarium near the Temenos Rookery (Amaro pens), and Eulmore's Understory (the middle section where the military barracks are). The Hunts are available pretty early on in the story again, and continue as you level.
In Endwalker, we're still using Nuts for the Guildship Hunts (and there's a viable lore reason why, given who's in the party by the time we get to Old Sharlayan). The Boards are in Old Sharlayan at Scholar's Harbor, near the Levequests and the Variant Dungeon NPCs; and in Radz-at-Han at Mehryde's Mehane. As before, the basic Hunts are available soon after the initial MSQ quests.
Note too that the Hunt Boards and their vendors DO appear on the maps.
Now you know where and how to find them and the general idea how to unlock them, why is this a thing? Well, as said in one of the other linked Tutorials, the Hunt vendors are where one can purchase Minions, Mounts, Target Dummies, Orchestrion Rolls, Materia, Tomestone Gear Augmentation Items, and eventually previous Tomestone Gear. That stuff doesn't vanish when their tomestones do!
For instance, in Endwalker as of patch 6.2, the Moonward gear has left the Tomestone Vendors, leaving us with Radiant and Lunar Envoy. But the Moonward is still available for purchase--with Sacks of Nuts.
J'lakshai in Old Sharlayan and Wilmetta in Radz-at-Han have the same inventory options. Various items and the Moonward gear are available from both. Eventually (patch 6.4) the Radiant gear will end up here too, to make room for whatever EW's last tome gear will be.
OK, so how does one collect Nuts?
Go to the Board you want to Hunt for, in this case, Dark's leveling a job in the 80s, so I stop by the board in Old Sharlayan; I just like to start there for my circuit. I can select Junior, Associate, and Senior Guildship Marks. I can also, since I haven't yet this week, grab an Elite Mark. The bills will be found in my Key Items inventory.
Junior, Associate, and Senior are daily requests to beat up normal mobs. Elite Marks are a weekly target, the "B Rank" marks. Daily marks will get a little red Mandragora over their heads, while a Weekly B Rank gets a blue burst. B Ranks are a single mob spawning somewhere in a zone, and respawns a few seconds after it's killed. B Ranks can be reliably killed solo by a character near or at level cap.
The "A Rank" mobs are only up sometimes, take several hours to respawn, and are the target of Hunt Trains as they are not soloable at level, coming with a load of hitpoints and nasty mechanics. "S Ranks" are even worse, requiring specific conditions (usually certain player actions in that zone) to spawn and are meant to be a step up in danger and difficulty. A Ranks have a red and gold burst icon.
Once I have my bills, I open up my Recommendations menu, set it to The Hunt, and once I'm in a zone with Hunt targets, it will show those targets to me. This is detailed in the Recommendations Tutorial, linked above.
I tend to start out in the lowest level zones, and kill those critters. They may be on the Junior Bill--or they may be on the Senior, or even on multiple Bills; the level of the mob doesn't matter, but the payout is more for Senior Bills (and you get paid for both if the targets are on more than one Bill!). I'll do them all, going through the zones until the tracker's empty.
Limascabras are worth 904 exp; even with food and a scroll buff, it's not a lot per mob at level 87--but once I finish the Senior Bill asking for 2 limascabras, I get a burst of experience points--222,750 exp--and my 15 sacks of nuts and 1,500 gil.
There's five mark targets (asking for 1, 2, or 3 kills each) per Bill. It adds up, especially when combined with the combat tribal quest, which can be done at the same time you're doing marks in that zone. And since I go in zone order, in EW I end in Zone 5 with the gathering tribe quests.
It's important to note that Weekly B Ranks and the A Ranks do not give experience points. B Ranks will give gil and Seals/Nuts, while A Ranks will give Seals/Nuts, gil, and tomestones.
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And that's about it, really! Learn where mobs are, see the sights of Eitherys, get gil, currency, and experience points, and nab yourself some nice glamours/initial endgame gear/combat retainer gear and other rewards. You'll learn where to find the daily marks, how to tell a B Rank from an A Rank, and maybe sometime join the Hunt trains to fill your currency tab and get yourself a fancy mount or augmentations for your tome gear if you're not running the 24man raids.
For you sprouts--or just those who've never bothered with the Hunt before, I hope you've found this useful! Until next time; I have some mobs to beat up.