Final Fantasy XIV: The Hunt

How to Spawn

S-Rank Hunts

Introduction

If you're here, that means you know how Hunts work and you're ready to dive into spawning S-Ranks. If you stumbled upon this page and don't know what The Hunt in FFXIV is, please visit The Modern Guide to FFXIV Hunts. Reading spawn conditions only gets you so far, so this guide exists to help clarify many aspects of S-Rank spawning.

✦ Basics of S-Rank Hunts

After an S-Rank dies or after servers come back online after maintenance, the S-Rank is on cooldown for a certain period of time. After this cooldown period, a window of time in which the S-Rank can spawn begins. Somewhere within this window of time, a hidden timer is set that determines when the S-Rank can spawn. The hidden timer is randomly set; it can be anywhere from right when the window opens to when the window caps. After the window is over, the S-Rank is considered capped, and is guaranteed to spawn when conditions are met. There is also a possibility that the S-Rank spawned and died without anyone knowing/recording, in which case it would be considered "sniped".These spawn windows are tracked by the community via Trackers.Each S-Rank has special conditions required for the spawn to succeed.If you have successfully spawned an S-Rank, you will see a system message (In rare cases, this message doesn't show up on your screen):You sense the presence of a powerful mark…

✦ Disclaimer

Since there's no way to know how these spawn conditions are coded exactly, everything we know is based on experience and testing, therefore this information may evolve over time as we learn more.Hunt communities and tracker websites may enforce rules. Please keep this in mind. If you have any questions, reach out to your local Hunt communities.This guide will contain spoilers for the latest expansion.

Hunt Trackers

S-Ranks have pretty lengthy cooldowns and spawn windows, so the community has taken it upon ourselves to track exactly when they can be spawned. There are two main trackers: Faloop and Bear.

✦ Faloop

Faloop is the longest-running hunt tracker that is supported on all servers. S-Rank relays are shown on the website itself by reporting manually.An account connected to your FFXIV Lodestone profile is required to view spawn notifications and report S-Rank spawns. An admin of your world must grant your account permissions manually. Each Data Center handles permissions differently.

How to Read Faloop Spawn Windows

You may hover over the text timers to view the time in your local time zone.Open Window

The S-Rank is open and can be spawned. This is when you can attempt spawning!In this example, Udumbara's window has been opened for 41 hours and 32 minutes. It will cap in 6 hours and 27 minutes. It is 86% through the window.

Capped Window

The S-Rank is capped and should spawn. You can keep attempting spawning! If it does not spawn after a reasonable amount of attempts, it may have died without being reported.In this example, The Pale Rider's window has been open for 74 hours and 37 minutes. It capped 26 hours and 37 minutes ago. It is 173% through the window.

Closed Window

The S-Rank is on cooldown and cannot spawn.In this example, Chernobog's window opens in 2 hours and 41 minutes. It will cap in 8 hours and 41 minutes.

How to Report S-Rank Spawns

Depending on which data center or world you're on, you may need permissions in order to report and use certain features such as scheduling.

  1. Click on the row for the S-Rank that you have spawned. A pop up will appear.

  2. Select the location on the map of where the S-Rank is. If you do not know where the S-Rank is, you can add the location later.

  3. Click the Spawned Now button.

  4. From here, if you have full access permissions, you have options under Scheduling:
    Manual Release: After reporting the spawn, the S-Rank will only be visible to Faloop users with spawner permissions. You have to manually release the spawn in order for the report to be relayed to everyone.
    Release After Automatic Countdown: The "scheduled" period will be for x amount of time and the spawn will automatically be released after that time.
    Do not schedule (released immediately.): There is no pre-call period.

  5. You also have the option to "claim" the spawn under Privacy. This puts your name on the report. Please only claim spawns that you have actually spawned. This will only be visible to Faloop users with spawner permissions.

  6. Under Report Spawn, click the Yes button.

  7. If you opted in to schedule the spawn, you may click the Release Now button.

How to Report S-Rank Deaths

  1. In the S-Rank pop up, click the button called Killed Now. You may also set the time to when the S-Rank died manually by pressing the arrows next to the Killed Now button.

  2. The next screen asks you to confirm your report. On the left side, there is a checkbox The Forgiven Rebellion/Ker Event/Arch Aethereater Has Begun. If the minions for the SS-Rank have spawned, select this before hitting the Yes button.
    Once the minions have all died, you can press the button Completed Now to begin the next stage of the event.

ⓘ TIP

If minions have spawned and you accidentally mark the S-Rank as dead without selecting the checkbox for The Forgiven Rebellion/Ker Event, do not undo the S-Rank death! You may switch over to the "SS" tab and click the Started Now button.

How to Read Maps

For more about mapping, refer to the Mapping Page.Viewing maps requires permissions.If the S-Rank has been fully mapped, you will see a green dot on the map. This is the spawn point.

If the S-Rank has not yet been fully mapped, you will see blue dots on the map indicating where the possible spawn points are:

✦ Bear Tracker

Bear Tracker is a hunt tracker that is primarily marked by a 3rd-party plugin called Sonar. It is useful for checking maps and to see if a hunt has been relayed by Sonar.

How to Read Maps

Red dots indicate where an A or B-Rank has appeared. Green dots indicate where the S-Rank can spawn. If there is only 1 green dot left, that is the spawn point.

Spawn Conditions

S-Ranks all require a special trigger to spawn. Most of the time, these are manually initiated by players, but sometimes they happen automatically. There are many types of spawn condition patterns that we've seen the FFXIV developers re-use. This page explains a few (but not all) of them. For precise spawn condition information, you may view each individual S-Rank on the Faloop website.

How do we know what they are?

There are NPCs all around the game labeled as Hunter-scholars (although in later expansions, these NPCs do not have this title) who provide hints on how to draw out each S-Rank.Whenever a new S-Rank is added to the game, players from around the world come together to solve the spawn condition based off of the provided hints. Data is gathered and testing is done in order to determine a precise spawn condition.New information may be discovered that changes what we understand currently. The game itself may also change. Official Patch Notes usually note any changes regarding Hunts.

✦ Landmine Spawns

"Landmine" means that you have to be located on the S-Rank's spawn location in order for your attempt to succeed.You can know what the S-Rank's spawn location is via Mapping.

Requires Minion

  • Nandi

  • Kaiser Behemoth

  • Gamma

  • Aglaope

  • Burfurlur the Canny

  • Narrow-Rift

  • Inhuxokiy

ⓘ TIPS

  • You can stand and wait on the spawn point, and if the S-Rank is ready, it will appear as you are standing on it. You do not necessarily have to move around or leave right away.

  • It does not matter how high up you are flying above the spawn point.

  • If you are spawning an S-Rank within 11 levels of your combat jobs, changing to a gatherer job with Sneak on will prevent the S-Rank from aggroing you as soon as it spawns.

Moon Cycle

  • Mindflayer

  • Croakadile

  • Kirlirger the Abhorrent

ⓘ TIPS

  • Mindflayer and Croakadile don't have windows of time that it will have a chance to spawn. Once the moon cycle condition is met, and someone is on the spawn point, it will spawn.

  • Kirlirger the Abhorrent is unlike the others as it requires a specific moon cycle, time of day, and weather. This makes it far more rare than most S-Ranks as these conditions lining up happen only every so often.

Death Spawns

  • Tarchia

  • Armstrong

Other Landmine Spawns

  • Brontes

  • Orghana

  • The Forecaster

✦ Kill Count Spawns

Kill spawns require a certain quota of specific overworld mobs to be killed.

  • Minhocao

  • Leucrotta

  • Okina

  • Udumbara

  • Ixtab

  • Sphatika

  • Ruminator

Ways to Keep Count of Mob Kills

PuniMarker is a tool that lets you easily locate and count mobs. It can be viewed on your phone or second monitor if you have one.Other ways to keep track is by typing in echo chat, tallying on a piece of paper, and third-party plugins that automatically keep track of mobs you've defeated.

ⓘ TIPS

  • It is highly recommended to count your kills so that you know when your attempt has failed.

  • Since many of these are a time investment to attempt, it’s nice to let other spawners know that you failed so no one tries too soon after.

✦ Treasure Map Spawns

These S-Ranks require a treasure map chest to be opened in their respective zone. Regardless of whether the hidden timer is ready, the spawn is a chance upon the chest being opened.

  • The Pale Rider

  • Agrippa The Mighty

How to Find Map Locations

The Teamcraft Treasure Map Finder can show you locations of your maps by zone and map type.

✦ Chance Spawns

What are Chance S-Rank Spawns? What do people mean by "chance"?

There can be many layers of RNG to spawning. But some S-Ranks have more layers than others.All S-Ranks, with the odd exception of Croakadile and Mindflayer, have a window of time in which they can spawn. Within that window of time, there is a hidden timer set on the server side. No one knows what the hidden timer is (except for post-maintenance links, explained later on); it can be at 0 minutes past the window opening, anywhere in the middle of the window, or even right at the cap of the window. Once this point has passed, the S-Rank can be spawned.In some cases, that is what people refer to as the “chance,” since the hidden timer is randomly set. In other cases, the “chance” is referring to another layer of RNG…

Examples of Chance Spawns

Even if the hidden timer is ready, the chance of the S-Rank spawning upon attempting is still random. We know this because there have been instances of the window being capped and still having failed attempts. It is recommended that you do at least a few attempts at a time.

  • Croque-Mitaine

  • Bonnacon

  • Lampalagua

  • Wulgaru

  • Thousand-Cast Theda

  • Zona Seeker

  • Agrippa The Mighty

  • Bird of Paradise

  • The Pale Rider

  • Bone Crawler

Examples of Guaranteed Spawns

If the hidden timer is ready and the spawn conditions are met, these are guaranteed to spawn.

  • Mindflayer

  • Croakadile

  • Safat

  • The Garlok

  • Nunyunuwi

  • Minhocao

  • Gamma

  • Kaiser Behemoth

  • Senmurv

  • Leucrotta

  • Gandarewa

  • Salt and Light

  • Orghana

  • Okina

  • Udumbara

  • Aglaope

  • Tyger

  • Ixtab

  • Ruminator

  • Sphatika

  • Ophioneus

  • Burfurlur The Canny

  • Narrow-Rift

  • Inhuxokiy

  • Kirlirger the Abhorrent

  • Neyoozoteel

  • Sansheya

  • Atticus the Primogenitor

  • The Forecaster

Mapping S-Ranks

S-Rank spawn conditions sometimes rely on knowing the exact spawn location in order to succeed. There's a method to map these spawn locations. This is referred to as either "Mapping" or "Sciencing."

ⓘ TIP

Faloop lets you filter B-ranks by landmine spawns.

✦ How to Map S-Ranks

There are limited positions in which B-Ranks, A-Ranks, and S-Ranks can appear on a map. S-Rank spawn positions are determined by the game randomly either after the last one died, or once servers come back online after maintenance.They can be determined through the following behaviors:

  1. The A-Ranks and B-Ranks in that zone will not appear on any spot that is reserved for the S-Rank.

  2. An S-Rank will not spawn on the same spot twice in a row.

Spawners can determine the spawn point of an S-rank by marking down where the As and Bs have appeared, as well as the last spot the S-Rank spawned before it died.B-Rank hunts respawn 6 seconds after dying. By killing the B-Ranks and marking where they appear, we can eliminate where the S-rank can’t spawn, and by doing so, find the spawn point.A-Ranks have a longer cooldown, and will also take up a space that the B-Rank cannot spawn in. If you have narrowed down the spawn point to 2 (or 3 if the zone has 2 B ranks) spots and the A-Ranks aren’t up, you can wait until the A ranks respawn before fully mapping.

ⓘ TIP

Some B-Ranks appear in places that the S-Rank can't. Keep this in mind when killing B-Ranks.

✦ How to Map on Faloop

To report a sighting of a B-Rank, go to the B-Rank tab, and click the zone that you are mapping. Select the spot (should be a blue dot. If it's a green dot, it was already marked) where you have found the B-Rank on the map, and click the New Sighting button.The colors of each dot on the map corresponds to the following:

If you see an A-Rank on a possible S-Rank spawn point, you can mark that spot the same way you would mark a B-Rank sighting.

Relaying Your Spawn

Once you've spawned an S-Rank, you will want to get the word out so people can come share the rewards (and make killing it easier). Here are ways to broadcast that the S-Rank has spawned.

✦ Hunt Relay Linkshells

If you're already spawning S-Ranks, you're probably in a few linkshells to receive relays for hunts. You can spread word that the S-Rank has spawned by using macros to very quickly relay into those linkshells.The Hunt Relay Macro Guide has macros ready for you to copy and paste into your game.You can be invited to Hunt Linkshells by shouting at hunts requesting an invite to one, or asking on Discord servers centered around Hunts in the designated linkshell channels.

✦ Faloop

Along with being a tracker, Faloop relays announcements for S-Ranks.Faloop requires user permissions to relay S-Rank Hunts. Every Data Center and World is different in how they handle permissions. If you are new to spawning, reach out to your local community to seek the people who can grant you permissions.

✦ Discord

If you are not in enough relay linkshells and you do not have Faloop permissions, you may join Discord communities to relay spawns in the respective channels for S-Ranks.The Faloop Community page lists links to Discord servers for each Data Center.

✦ Shout Chat in Cities

When all other methods are exhausted and you still cannot get enough people at the S-Rank, you can always teleport to cities with a lot of people in them such as Limsa Lominsa, and shout a message announcing the S-Rank and linking the location.