There are plenty of useful currencies in FFXIV, and we’ve had several types of them throughout the game’s lifetime that are tied to The Hunt, which is content that’s been around since A Realm Reborn.
If you’re unfamiliar with all this, you’re going to have to start all the way from the level 50 quest Let The Hunt Begin, available from your Grand Company. Then you can get started taking on various monsters around the world, alone or with allies, and earning tokens to buy exclusive items.
If you’ve already been joining in on The Hunt, Clan Hunts, and Veteran Clan Hunts, you should be adequately prepared to take part in The First’s counterpart activity, Nutsy Clan Hunts. This currency is different in name from what you’ve been using the last couple expansions because we’re no longer on The Source.
Instead of the Centurio Seals from Heavensward and Stormblood, you’ll be dealing with sacks of Nuts.
Best Ways to Earn Nuts
When it comes to Nuts, there really aren’t too many tricks or get-rich-quick schemes to help you out much.
Of course, you can still earn them steadily if you’re dedicated to your daily and weekly tasks, and if you keep an eye on your server’s hunt community.
Clan Mark Bills
Every day at reset you can check the Nut Board in The Crystarium (Temenos Rookery) or in Eulmore (The Mainstay) to obtain your One-nut, Two-nut, and Three-nut bills. These have marks across all six zones of Norvrandt (Lakeland, Kholusia, Amh Araeng, Il Mheg, Rak’Tika Greatwood, and The Tempest).
Checking off all 15 marks on your bills (5 each) will net you 110 sacks of Nuts for the day. This can be quite a lot of time spent teleporting around and slaying monsters, which I can’t always do if I’m busy that day. If you only have time for the Three-nut bill you can still earn a hefty 75 sacks of Nuts from just those 5 marks.
Hunting down your daily marks is an activity that easily fills the time spent waiting in queue for a duty or for a party to fill up in the party finder. You can also efficiently make it part of your routine if you’ll be in the area anyway for Pixie beast tribe quests or maybe for gathering on a timed node.
Elite Clan Nutsy Mark Bill (B Rank)
After each weekly reset, you can also check the Nut Board to see which B Rank Elite Mark you’ve been tasked with killing. These marks are fairly easy for a capable level 80 player to solo, and there are two in each zone.
Killing a B rank which is NOT on your weekly bill gives you no rewards at all, so you can just pass them by (or /shout their location for anybody in the area who might need it for their own bill). They aren’t hostile mobs so you don’t have to worry about accidentally aggroing them either.
If you aren’t sure exactly where on the map your mark is located, check their possible stomping grounds here. Don’t be afraid to do a quick /shout asking if anyone in the area has seen it.
Elite Marks (A Rank and S Rank)
If you’ve finished your daily and weekly Mark Bills, the only other way to earn sacks of Nuts is by finding and killing higher ranked Elite Marks. If you’ve ever entered a zone and seen people shouting “inv pls” that probably means someone has found an Elite Mark and people are gathering to get ready to fight it.
Sometimes people will call them out in hubs like Eulmore or The Crystarium as well if they’re trying to get more people together. These fights are a lot harder than B rank marks, and most that I go to fight have at least one full party working together.
During peak playtime hours it’s usually three or more parties, and they can go down reasonably quickly. Contribution is counted collectively for your party so in these cases you really want to be partied up to make sure you earn rewards from the mark.
The locations of these A rank and S rank marks can be found in online maps as well, and usually have more possible locations than B ranks. Each A rank has an individual respawn timer of 4 to 6 hours, while S ranks respawn after several days and have special spawn requirements, listed in the link above.
You don’t need to worry about tracking these timers yourself as long as your server has one or more active hunt linkshells. If you can get onto one of these then you’ll see messages calling them out as they’re discovered. You can simply teleport to the appropriate aetheryte and ask to be invited to a party. Be sure to come on a level 80 job of course.
If you’re lucky enough to be around for a full train, players in these will travel to each of the Shadowbringers zones, killing the elite marks in each one. For example, an A Train will kill both A ranks in each of the six zones, giving you a total of 240 sacks of Nuts. It takes 20-30 minutes to finish the run, depending on how many players are joining.
A ranks reward you with 40 sacks of Nuts, while S ranks will give you up to 100. The extremely rare SS rank Forgiven Rebellion has a chance to spawn after killing an S rank, and if you’re one of the lucky few to encounter this and defeat it, you could walk away with another 400 sacks of Nuts.
What Should I Spend Nuts on?
There are two Vendors you can buy from. There’s Ilfroy <Clan Nutsy Member> by The Mainstay Aethernet Shard in The Understory of Eulmore [11.0, 10.8] and Xylle <Clan Nutsy Member> by The Temenos Rookery Aethernet Shard in The Crystarium [9.4, 9.5].
Here’s a quick look at what you can buy with sacks of Nuts, and what sort of items they are.
Now, which should you buy with your hard-earned Nuts? This depends on what you enjoy about the game obviously. Many players enjoy collecting mounts and minions, especially those they love the aesthetics of.
Other players might just want to get their equipment up and raid-ready as soon as they can, so they have options to help with that as well.
i440 Ronkan Gear
Aside from the list in the image above, these vendors also have options that will show you DoW and DoM Ronkan sets, which might be useful if you’re a fresh level 80 player. It would only be a small step above your free i430 Job gear and will quickly be replaced, so keep that in mind if you want to hold onto your Nuts.
If you’re looking for glamour, you might enjoy these clothes for their aesthetics, and this is the only means of obtaining them. Fortunately they’re pretty cheap, individually.
i460 Deepshadow Gear
Since patch 5.4, you can now buy the Deepshadow sets from Clan Nutsy Vendors. It’s a quick option to improve your average item level if you need to progress through the level 80 MSQ dungeons, but will definitely be replaced by Allegory, Revelation, or even dungeon gear.
For what it’s worth, I think these sets look pretty cool for glamour purposes, with their default red and black colour scheme, and lots of edgy looking weapons.
Minions
There are currently two minions available through the Nut Members’ shop. The first is the Bitty Duckbill which is an adorable platypus. This minion eats from your hand with the /handover emote, and does a quick excited hop if you /pet it.
The Wind-up Nu Mou looks like a child’s plush toy. Unlike the Duckbill, the Nu Mou requires the Mammeteer title equipped to emote with you. This will let you call the minion over to eat what you offer it, and shake its head side to side when you pet it, waving its floppy ears around.
Both minions are available for 800 sacks of Nuts.
Housing & Music
The Crystarium Striking Dummy (pictured above) is a level 80 dummy you can use as outdoor furnishing in your residence. It’s nothing flashy, just a regular wooden post like the ones they use to train on The First. It is cheap though, at just 300 Nuts.
It’s worth noting that this striking dummy is sellable. You could theoretically list it on the market board and maybe make some gil depending on your server’s supply and demand.
If you loved the music introduced in Shadowbringers, then you’ll remember Rencounter as the song that plays when you enter combat in the zones of Norvrandt. It was also featured in some of the Shadowbringers trailer footage. Listen to the track here.
Even if you weren’t a fan (or if you just got sick of it), you might want to add it to your orchestrion collection anyway since it’s relatively cheap at just 300 sacks of Nuts.
Mount
The Forgiven Reticence Horn summons a very imposing mount you probably recognize from the Shadowbringers main scenario quests; this is the big lion-shaped sin eater that was always hanging around Lord Vauthry’s chamber.
I have to say it’s much bigger than I thought it would be, so if you’re looking to make a big entrance, you’ll want to save up for this guy. This is a big-ticket item (3200 Nuts) so it will take you some time unless you really devote yourself to hunt trains on your server.
Gear Upgrades
If you’re in a hurry to get your high-level equipment, or if you’ve already bought all the cosmetic items you’re after, you’ll want to spend your remaining sacks of Nuts on the following items.
Deepshadow Twine and Deepshadow Coating will upgrade your i460 left side and right side pieces respectively to get you i470 Augmented Deepshadow equipment.
You’ll notice the twine is 1.5 times more expensive than the coating. However, twine and coating are the same price if you’re purchasing them with Manufactured Coins. As such, the best strategy is to spend Nuts on the coating first and use your weekly reward from The Copied Factory to get the twine.
If you’re in need of combat materia, you can obtain grade VII and grade VIII combat materia here, though in my opinion the price is steep compared to other materia sources, and I would only recommend buying these if you have nothing else to spend sacks of Nuts on.
Remember to check the market board first when buying materia, especially if you need a less popular one like skill speed or spell speed. You might be better off buying one that sells for more gil on the market board and using that gil to buy one or more of the materia you’re trying to get.
Alternatively, you could spend your excess Nuts on grade VII materia and take a gamble with Mutamix Bubblypots in Central Thanalan, trying to get some crafting or gathering materia which often sells for much more.
Summary
Hopefully you’ve decided what you’re going to save up for. Sacks of Nuts don’t come easy, and you may find it easier to pace yourself and set goals to reach the items you want.
Have you bought any of the cosmetic items yet? If so, how long did you have to wait? Let me know which of these vendor offerings look most appealing to you.
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