Many eyes of the Final Fantasy XIV community turn to the world race when a new Ultimate or Savage raid comes out. These are consistently some of the hardest fights in the game, boss battles that test players’ reflexes, skill, and determination. This latest raid tier, Abyssos Savage, which went live on August 30, gave us another opportunity to watch the best players run through the four new raid instances and celebrate a FFXIV world-first clear.
Anyone could have watched some of the best teams give it a shot with MogTalk’s Twitch livestream and charity event, led by FFXIV content creator Frosty. Multiple gameplay feeds from players streaming their attempt for hours on end showcased the skill and brainpower, but also the tremendous difficulty. Even after the 24-hour mark, MogTalk had to call it a day with no team claiming victory.
It wasn’t until about 30 hours after Abyssos Savage released that an unnamed team from Japan finally bested the final roadblock to become the very first players to finish all four fights.
4層クリアしました
GG! pic.twitter.com/6YJW1aKOjl— eis (@eis1008) August 31, 2022
The winners of the previous FFXIV world-first, Team Neverland, proved earlier this year that they are a force to be reckoned with. They conquered Dragonsong’s Reprise, the Ultimate raid that launched with Patch 6.11, in about six days. We spoke to Neverland after their wild achievement, talking about the real-life commitment of taking part in a world race. And it looked like they were on their way to a second victory, having made it to the final instance of the Abyssos Savage raid tier (aka P8S) in just under five hours — an hour before anyone else.
Making it to P8S is one thing, clearing it is a whole ‘nother. Not only do fourth instances of a Savage raid tier traditionally have two separate phases to work though, they often feature wild difficulty spikes. Several other teams began to catch up. The hours kept going by, and towards the end of the MogTalk stream at the 24-hour mark, it felt like any team could claim the world-first at any minute. Some hours later, around 9:00 a.m. PT the next day, it was finally done and a screenshot of the clear was shared (see Tweet embeded above).
If you haven’t kept an eye on FFXIV world races, this may seem like a wild endeavor. And it is. But it’s par for the course when these attempts span multiple days. Twitter user @ZR_TLC shared a chart listing the time it took for world-first clears in the history of FFXIV. When compared to the second and third tier of Eden Savage raids, Abyssos Savage wasn’t so bad — even if the first tier seemed relatively doable.
The chart also highlights the evolution of FFXIV raiding, and FFXIV world-first clears in a fascinating way. You can tell when the community started getting more serious and organized about these unofficial competitions. You can also devise at which points the FFXIV team zeroed in on their raid design philosophies.
FFXIV was simply built different back when Binding Coil came out (and not for the better), taking 65 days for the first clear. Hell, the early Alexander Savage raids from the Heavensward days are still regarded as the hardest content in the game. However, as FFXIV evolved from a technical perspective and gameplay mechanics become more focused, the raid teams evolved alongside the game as well.
Abyssos Savage is yet another feather in the cap of extremely difficult raids for players to get excited about, which became clear as the world race streams went on and teams got deeper. As a long-time FFXIV player who can only hope to clear P8S months down the line, it’s always great to see this high-level play.
Director and producer Naoki Yoshida is probably conjuring up his usual official congratulations message for the unofficial world race, but that’s enough of a co-sign if you ask us. Congrats to all those who have now cleared Abyssos Savage — and if you’re thinking about jumping into these raids yourself, make sure you’re at least prepared.
