Farming ponies in FFXIV involves repeatedly completing the same Extreme Primal battles.
After completing one of these encounters, players may receive a rare mount. And if you collect all six of these stallions in Final Fantasy XIV, you’ll have access to an even more luxurious mount.
What’s The Point In Pony Farming?
The mountings are a neat feature. And nowadays, it’s not as hard to get one as you may assume.
Each one has its own distinct look and feel, and as you explore it, you’ll be treated to the boss theme from the relevant Primal.
The Boreas mount is a must-have for everyone who has waited in line at Akh Afah Amphitheatre solely to hear the music play when Shiva deploys Diamond Dust.
You don’t have to do any of these fights if you don’t want to, and pony farming isn’t necessary to the plot.
With one notable exception, though, most quests are quite simple to complete, especially if you already have an 80-level job.
You can start pony farming at any level, although reaching 80 will make the chore easier to stomach.
How Do I Start Pony Farming?
Access to the appropriate Extreme Trials is a prerequisite.
You’ve seen these battles before, but the Primals of Eorzea are out in force in the Extreme trials.
It’s a lot harder now than it used to be. And while they are mechanically similar, the sensation of completing either one properly is rather different.
Following is a list of the required Trials and the associated unlock tasks.
You should also wrap up A Realm Reborn before tackling these. The Hard versions can’t be unlocked until the questline is finished, therefore you can’t try the Extreme versions until you’ve mastered them.
The Primal Nature quest serves as the gateway to the subsequent Extreme Trials.
- The Howling Eye (Extreme): Gale-force Warning
- The Navel (Extreme): Quake Me Up Before You O’Ghomoro
- The Bowl of Embers (Extreme): Ifrit Ain’t Broke
- The Whorleater (Extreme): Whorl of a Time
- The Striking Tree (Extreme): Judgment Bolts and Lightning
- Akh Afah Amphitheatre (Extreme): Drop Dead Shiva
You can get started with pony farming without having to unlock all of these features.
To obtain Kirin, the legendary seventh mount, however, you will require the full set.
If Kirin isn’t a priority for you, or if you only need a few ponies, you’re welcome to skip the story and go straight to the bouts that drop them.
After the Trials have been unlocked, you just go into the task with a smaller party than normal (so the game doesn’t sync you to the Trial’s intended level) and beat the monster until it drops a mount.
Comical fun can be had by sending in a small group of players to trash these bouts.
While it is feasible to complete this content at level 80 on your own, it will move much more quickly if you have a teammate or two to help out with damage.
Since pony farming is a recurring task, it’s preferable for these conflicts to be resolved as quickly as possible.
If you don’t know anyone who is interested in pony farming, you can generally locate a group to join through the game’s “party finding” feature or through various chat channels.
Keep fighting them until they give up their mounts.
It’s time to move on to the next Trial after everyone has their ride.
No one seems to know the actual rate of attrition. These days, though, they are thought to account for somewhere about 20%.
To be clear, that’s not a guaranteed 20 percent, and neither is retrying the battle five times in the hopes of finally getting a mount to drop.
Twenty percent for every clear made by an independent party.
It has a 20% chance of falling off the horse every time you finish a fight.
Everyone will roll for the mount when it drops (representing Whistles that may be used to “learn” the mount), and whoever rolls higher gets the mount.
It is customary for a group to wait until every member has received their pony.
How Long Does Pony Farming Take?
For example, how long is a piece of string? Our crew of four was able to get all of the necessary ponies in just a few nights’ time, spending a total of about five to six hours on the task.
It’s possible to collect them all in a shorter amount of time, just as it’s possible to have a string of bad luck and take considerably longer.
When we ran into Leviathan in The Whorleater, that was our biggest problem (Extreme).
Even for max-level players, his combat has the most severe mechanics of the six.
He goes between moments where he can’t be hurt, and at such times he’ll rip the sides off your ship. As he roams the arena, he can toss careless opponents over the side, killing them quickly.
Easy does it. You can’t, however, stand back while he’s being pounded to death by your overwhelming DPS and smugly ignore any and all attacks.
For me, The Whorleater is a complete waste of time.
The art of standing still and pounding on things is all I’ve ever known as a profession.
Having Leviathan, of all the riders, be the most hesitant to dismount was a major setback for us.
While this may work for some, it may not for others.
Assuming your party is at least passably proficient, you should be able to ride Enbarr in no time.
How Do I Unlock Kirin Through Pony Farming?
Truth be told, it’s not that hard.
Starting “A Legend for a Legend” requires you to have unlocked the Primal Ponies Aithon, Xanthos, Gullfaxi, Enbarr, Markab, and Boreas.
This can be obtained from the Roaming Minstrel in Mor Dhona.
It’s not a complicated quest: you only have to get to the top of those crystal cliffs (or fly over them) and blow into a magical conduit to summon Kirin.
For ages, this mythical steed has awaited its rightful rider.
He’s the brightest of the bunch and a welcome reward for your efforts in bringing down Leviathan.
Finally, if you complete Ifrit, Garuda, or Titan’s Extreme Trials, you may receive a Nightmare Whistle, which can be used to call upon the brooding Nightmare horse.
Getting Kirin is like getting a bonus character; you don’t have to collect Nightmare to do it.
