1

Notorious Monsters (FFXI)  

Contents [hide]

Fearsome Mobs of Vana'diel

Notorious Monsters can be found in many places around Vana'diel. These monsters, which are typically difficult to kill for their level, usually drop very rare items. Adventurers across Vana'diel hunt them in search of fame and fortune.

Notorious Monster Traits

Notorious monsters may look like normal types of mobs, but make no mistake -- they are very different. Some general differences between normal mobs and their NM counterparts tend to include:

  • Size: A notorious monster is often slightly bigger than its normal mob counterpart. For example, check out Spiny Spipi in East Sarutabaruta.
  • Impossible to guage: Notorious monsters check as this, rather than "incredibly tough," "even match" or other strength levels.
  • True sight/sound: Many notorious monsters are either true sight or true sound, meaning you cannot avoid agroing them using sneak or invisible.
  • Names: Unlike generically named normal mobs, all notorious monsters have specific names.
  • Abilities: Notorious monsters often hit hard, cast high-level spells or use deady special moves that normal mobs don't have.

Where They Appear

Notorious monsters can appear anywhere. In addition to roaming zones and dungeons, some other areas populated by NMs include:

  • Nyzul Isle Assault: All kinds of notorious monsters can be found during Nyzul Isle Staging Point assault runs. Notorious monsters killed in assault drop unidentified items that, when appraised, could turn out to be covetted drops from those NMs.
  • Dynamis: Notorious monsters capable of using two-hour abilities for their jobs (such as smn mobs using astral flow) can be found in all zones of Dynamis.
  • Salvage: In Salvage, beating certain NMs inside the remnant areas is crucial to obtaining certain pieces of gear, which are later combined to build ultimate armor pieces.

Spawning NMs

Notorious monsters are difficult to kill largely because they can be difficult to find. Unlike normal mobs that respawn soon after they're killed, some notorious monsters can go days without spawning again. Generally, notorious monsters fall under one of the following categories:

  • Lottery NM: If a mob is a lottery NM, that means there is a chance the notorious monster could spawn every time that a specific monster in the zone is killed. An example is Sewer Syrup. If you repeatedly kill Mousse mobs in a certain part of Bostaunieux Oubliette, the NM will eventually spawn in a mousse's place.
  • Timer NM: When killed, there is a minimum fixed period of time before these NMs will spawn again. For example, Mysticmaker Profblix in Labyrinth of Onzozo will pop anywhere from two to 2 1/2 hours since the time it was last killed. It will not repop sooner than two hours from its time of death.
  • Timed-Lotto NMs: A combination of the above two NMs, these NMs have a chance to respawn in place of a placeholder after a certain period of time has passed since the NM's most recent death.
  • Pop Window NM: Most notorious monsters that fall under this category are HNMs. An example is Fafnir, or any ground king. The first chance for Fafnir to spawn is exactly 21 hours after his previous time of death. This opportunity -- called a pop window -- lasts only a few seconds. Fafnir then has six more pop windows, each exactly 30 minutes apart. He is guaranteed to pop in one of those windows.
  • Popped NMs: See below for more info. Popped NMs are spawned by trading an item to a ???. This category includes the category of Zeni NMs.
  • Taisaijin: These NMs will pop if a placeholder mob is left undisturbed for a certain amount of time.

NM Hunting Tips

Some tips to help make hunting notorious monsters more bearable:

  • Get a ToD, or time of death. If you know the time of the notorious monster's most recent death, that can help you plan your hunting session if the NM spawns on a timer or with pop windows.
  • Good subjobs are ranger or thief. Ranger givs widescan, which allows you to see when and where a notorious monster spawns. Thief gives the job trait 'treasure hunter,' which increases your chances of getting valuable drops.
  • Don't claim too fast. To help prevent botting and hacking, SE changed the NM claiming system so that players who claim instantaneously are stunned/interupted. Rather than blindly mash a claim macro, your best bet is to wait until you see the mob, then hit your claim button.
  • Bring friends. Numbers often scare away unwanted competition.

Popped NMs

Several notorious monsters throughout Vana'diel, including Zeni NMs, can be spawned by trading items to ??? marks. These are referred to as Popped NMs. Some of these NMs are soloable, while others -- such as sky and sea gods -- may require alliances to bring down. Often these monsters drop valuable weapons and armor, or rare/ex pieces of gear.

This page last modified 2009-06-19 11:08:58.