One of the coolest new armor sets in Final Fantasy XIV is the Archfiend attire, which is gear you earn through PVP. The dark and cold steel, tattered undercoats, and glowing red accents make this armor set menacing. It’s a good fit for the Dark Knight and Reaper mains out there, but the cool thing about this is that it’s purely for glamour’s sake and any Job can rock this brooding look. But if you don’t take part in the competitive PVP modes in FFXIV, then you’d be out of luck.
Let’s cut to the chase — there’s only one path to getting it. You have to earn the Archfiend Gear by leveling up your Series Level in PVP. This is done by gaining Series EXP from finishing matches in the Crystalline Conflict or Frontline PVP modes. You’re rewarded with the Archfiend Attire Coffer once you hit Series Level 25. The coffer contains the head, body, hands, legs, and feet gear pieces, which completes the set. There are no accessories or weapons in the Archfiend gear set.
Whenever you gain Series Levels, you have to go into your PVP Profile, click on the Series Malmstones button, and claim your rewards there. There are a bunch of Trophy Crystals to earn on your path to the Archfiend gear, so why don’t you find out what to spend them on with our guide. It’s gonna be a while until get your menacing glam, so buckle up.
With the release of Patch 6.1, the PVP foundation of FFXIV was shaken, resulting in the new fast, small-scale Crystalline Conflict mode and a complete rework of all Jobs in PVP. Luckily for you, we’ve been diving deep into PVP and have all the information you need to get the Archfiend Attire.
As we outlined in our guide on getting Trophy Crystals and PVP gear, the following is a breakdown of the rewards you get in the PVP modes Crystalline Conflict and Frontline based on whether you win or lose the match. For the case of the Archfiend Attire, your sole focus is on Series EXP since that is the only factor in advancing your Series Level.
Crystalline Conflict Rewards — Casual or Ranked Match
Regardless of whether you jump into a Casual or Ranked match of Crystalline Conflict, the rewards are the same. The only difference is that Ranked has a competitive ranking system and attracts more advanced players. So, if you’re only in it for the Series EXP, you might want to go Casual.
A typical Crystalline Conflict match takes about five minutes, or even shorter if one team gets totally wrecked. Sometimes you’ll have matches that go into overtime with a lot of back-and-forth — those can end up around six or seven minutes, or longer.
Since there’s a minor difference in Series EXP rewarded from a match, losing isn’t all that bad if you just want to gain Series Levels. Some folks have mentioned throwing matches to finish quickly and get the Series EXP. However, we’d highly discourage you from going down that route because that’s no fun.
- Series EXP
- Win: 900 Series EXP
- Loss: 700 Series EXP
- PVP EXP
- Win: 500 PVP EXP
- Loss: 250 PVP EXP
- Wolf Marks
- Win: 500 Wolf Marks
- Loss: 250 Wolf Marks
Frontline Rewards
If you want to dip back into the long-time Frontline mode, you can still get a decent amount of Series EXP. These are hectic with three teams of 24 players each — 72 players battling on huge maps with capture points and objectives. Matches are considerably longer, though — Frontline matches usually go on for around 18 minutes, and occasionally use up the full 20-minute time limit.
As you can see below, Frontline isn’t as efficient in gaining Series EXP. Even three straight losses in Crystalline Conflict will give more Series EXP than a win in Frontline. But if you want a change of pace, or use the Frontline Daily Roulette for extra Job EXP and Wolf Marks, at least you’ll still be working towards the Archfiend Attire.
- Series EXP
- Win: 1,500 Series EXP
- Loss: 1,000 Series EXP
- PVP EXP
- Win: 1,000 PVP EXP
- Loss: 500 PVP EXP
- Wolf Marks
- Win: 1,000 Wolf Marks
- Loss: 500 Wolf Marks
The screenshot above is the Series Level progression track. And you can see I still have a ways to go before getting to level 25 and the Archfiend gear myself. But don’t worry, this first Series will be going on until around the release of Patch 6.2, which is estimated to release in August (based on the development cycle the FFXIV team shared).
It’s an exciting time for competitive multiplayer in FFXIV, which is kind of wild to say. Be sure to check out our guides on how to get the new FFXIV PVP rewards and all the Garo collaboration gear, mounts, and titles. And read up on why PVP in FFXIV has us hooked.
