Places, tournaments, and a source for every card
Published
Four versions in five days, from 19 to 23 September. The most visible change fits in a sentence: the opponents are no longer a list. They live in places.
Places, not a list
The opponents screen is now divided into places. Fourteen on the Final Fantasy XIV side, from the Gold Saucer to Tural by way of Ul’dah, Limsa Lominsa, Gridania and Kugane; eleven on the Final Fantasy VIII side, from Balamb to the Card Club, through Galbadia, Centra and Esthar.
The rule for opening them is short: beat every opponent in a place once, and the next places open. Those who only turn up at certain hours, or who arrive after an achievement, are left out of the count. Since 1.2.7, places you have not reached are no longer shown as greyed-out rows: you see what is open to you, and how many opponents are still between you and the next one.
Version 1.2.6 widened the Final Fantasy VIII side with five more places — Dollet, Timber, Winhill, Shumi Village and Trabia Garden — each with opponents of its own. Several places now have an illustration; the rest will follow.
Dollet, one of the five Final Fantasy VIII places added in 1.2.6.
A tournament in every place
Every place you clear opens its tournament. You pay the entry fee once — between 200 and 1,000 MGP depending on the place — and then play the matches in a row: two for the shortest, seven at the Card Club. A defeat knocks you out; a draw replays the same match. You can leave between matches and keep your place, but only one tournament can be under way at a time.
Every tournament match doubles the drops and gives one and a half times the experience. The winner takes back twice the fee. Entry is limited to once a day per tournament, and it opens again at 00:00 UTC. The Final Fantasy VIII tournaments have names of their own, from the Dollet Dukedom Cup to the Timber Maniacs Trophy; Balamb’s adds a final reward drawn from four cards.
Each place comes with two achievements: “Terror of…” for beating all its regular opponents, “Champion of…” for winning its tournament.
Winhill, now home to the Winhill Flower Cup.
The luck potion
A new potion joins the experience and MGP ones. The Luck Potion covers your next three wins against a computer opponent: its drops are rolled twice, and the rarer of the two rolls is the one you keep. A defeat, a match against a player, or an opponent with nothing to drop does not use up a charge. It sells for 300 MGP in the shop, on both shelves, and some opponents drop it.
Where to find every card
The “Where to find it” panel on a card’s page was already there. It was often empty. Since 1.2.5, every Final Fantasy XIV card has at least one source: the shop and its price, an opponent and its drop rate, or the packs. Certain sources come first, chances after, as percentages.
Two Final Fantasy VIII cards are the exception, and that is deliberate.
Buying ten at a time
Since 1.2.6, the shop asks for a quantity: one fewer, one more, or at once everything your purse allows, up to 99. A purchase goes through whole or not at all. Items that do not stack are still sold one by one.
And the rest
Today’s rounds suggests a few opponents each day, each with its reason: a card you lack, an opponent never beaten, your rival, or someone who is only there at certain hours. Quick match draws an opponent from the toughest of those open to you.
Beat an opponent three times and they become a rival: they raise their game, twice at most, and pay more for it. Tournament matches do not count towards this. Finally, a tick now marks the portrait of every opponent you have beaten, and the difficulty shown for each one is now based on measured win rates.
Version 1.2.8 is on the releases page; in the browser, playtto.moebiuscore.fr has nothing to install.