S-Ranks are elite hunt marks that a spawner has usually taken a lot of time and effort summon forth. Once the mark appears, they call out to other hunters to help kill the mark and enjoy the shared rewards!

In order to participate properly, be sure you have unlocked hunts for every expansion you have access to!

FIND TRAINS AND S RANKS

Watch for Announcements

Join the Faloop Discord or cross-world linkshells (CWLS) and local linkshells (LS) in-game to stay updated on upcoming hunt trains and S-Rank spawns.

Head to the Location

Check the Party Finder on the world for active trains and marks, or start your own. You need at least four people in your party for full credit, or a tank with stance on if you have fewer members. (Hunt credit is based on party aggro, so as long as a tank or healer [AOE heals aggro mobs] is getting aggro for you, you just need to have tagged the mob once to get full credit. More on this in the “Managing DPS” section below.)

If you need to start your own party, here’s how you do it!

1. Open the party finder menu, click on “Recruit Members”
2. Choose “The Hunt” from the Duty drop down list
3. You can leave “Objective” blank, or select Loot
4. In the Comments section, explain what the party is for (you can just say “A-Rank Hunt Train” and note the expansion or for elite marks, say “S-Rank” without further details necessary)
5. Now click “Recruit Members” and your Party Finder will go live

Since so many people will be attending, they’ll likely find you without you having to do anything further, however, if people aren’t joining your party, you can shout your party information in the chat by clicking the speech bubble icon to the right of the comments section when you have your party finder pulled up. Doing this puts <pfinder> into your chat box, change the context to shout chat, then send it! People will be able to click the link to your party finder and join easily.

GENERAL ETIQUETTE

While we always hope first and foremost that you are having fun and getting social enjoyment plus other in-game benefits when you attend The Hunt as part of the community, it’s worth noting a few things about how you can make life easier and also mutually rewarding for the conductors and spawners who make some of these elements of The Hunt available to you in an accessible manner. In a way, the conductors and spawners are hosting an in-game event. When you join a hunt train to ride along, or you show up to a S-Rank mark that someone else has spawned, you are benefiting from the free labor of other people, so in the spirit of social reciprocity, it is important to do your best to honor the ground rules they have set down regarding how to engage in their event.

PASSENGER ETIQUETTE

Common things most conductors prefer from their passengers (keep in mind every conductor has a different style and all of us are individuals, if you’re not sure about something on a particular train, just ask that conductor!)

Let the Conductor Lead

Do not fly ahead of the train, even if you know where the marks are. Trust the conductor to lead the group and be patient if flags are posted slower than you would prefer. Also, have grace for the conductor if things go a little sideways, they are only human too.

Public Chat Etiquette

Do not post flags of any sort in the public chat channels. This is a surefire way to derail a train. If a conductor has placed an incorrect flag or you receive a notification for an S-Rank spawn and think the conductor might want to know about it in case they would like to detour, send the coordinates to them in a private manner.

Be judicious with what you post in the public chat channels during a train. Do not post negative things in the public chat channels, and be cautious about the tone of your jokes as well. Generally keep things PG-13.

DPS Management

If you are on a train with a lot of people or marks will go down pretty quickly (especially for marks below the current expansion). In order to ensure everyone gets a chance to hit the mark, slowing your DPS is recommended. Thankfully, with the way party aggro works in these situations, parties with 4 or more people (or even smaller so long as they have a tank with stance on who hits the mark) will receive full credit even if some party members only smack the mark a couple of times or simply place a DOT. Healers can also generate a lot of party aggro by spamming AOE heals near the mark.

Pulling Marks

Do not insta-pull the marks upon landing if you get there before everyone else. Wait for at least some of the group to arrive before pulling.

Dawntrail A Rank Hunt Mechanics

Running Late

If the train has already left the station, but you want to hop on late, you can usually locate the train with a little investigative work! If you know the world the train is currently on, head to Party Finder (PF) on that world. Most conductors leave a party finder up with one spot blocked so that anyone who searches PF can locate them. Simply hover your cursor over the party and a small popup appears showing the current zone the party leader is in. Get to the zone quickly, then look for the conductor shouts! There may also still be other parties recruiting for the train. If you join their party, you can simply ask your party for the flag they’re on! If those options don’t pan out, you could do a player search for the conductor and send them a tell asking for the current location.

If you don’t know the world the train is on because the original announcement did not get updated (in the case of a multiworld train) take a look at the announcement thread from the Meteion bot in the Faloop Discord. If you click the thread icon on the a-trains channel in the Discord, you’ll see threads for each world where the bot makes its announcements. Usually, conductors should be starting new trains via bot commands for each expansion as they are about to run it, and will have the bot to announce the trains. Here are the thread links for reference: Seraph, Maduin, Halicarnassus and Marilith. (The newer Dynamis worlds will be getting thread soon.)

A couple more options if nothing else is working out: If you’re in any Hunt related CWLS or LS, ask there! Or post a question in the Dynamis lounge or Dynamis hunt-discussions channel on the Faloop Discord! While the conductor may not always be able to respond to you on Discord as they are conducting, other players may help out and tell you the current location of the train.

SPAWN ATTENDEE ETIQUETTE

Common things most S-Rank spawners prefer from their attendees

Respect Pull Time (PT)

Wait to hit the mark until the announced Pull Time (PT)! Spawners will usually announce a PT in the chat that gives several minutes time for people to arrive on site from crossworld travel and the like. Some will announce the PT in Eorzea time (EzT) or Local Time (LT) (For example “PT 10:45a ezt”). Faloop spawners give at least 3 real-world minutes from the time a mark is announced in the public S-Rank channel on the Discord. Some spawners may even give 5 real-world minutes or more. Outside of Faloop, spawners may do other things as well. Whatever the time-frame, please respect the spawner’s preference. In some cases, they spent literal hours working on a single spawn. Side note: if you are uncertain about the pull time, please just ask!

Handling Early Pullers (EPs)

DO NOT attack the mark if someone else early pulls (EPs) before the announced pull time. Do not panic about missing credit on the mark because some people are going ham on it early. If everyone who cares to respect the pull time, the handful of people who aren’t will not be able to take the mark down on their own (unless it’s very low level like ARR). If you are a tank and think you can pull aggro from the EPers, please do so and try to pull the mark far enough away that it resets its HP (make sure you tell the crowd this is what you’re doing so you aren’t mistaken as part of the EPing).

Please note that resetting the mark is technically against ToS on the strictest read of the rules, but on Dynamis, we have built a culture of doing this in order to respect the time it takes for everyone to arrive and be able to participate. So far, we have not had any players who reset marks for the community get in trouble with GMs. We have, however, had people who EP and generally grief the community have GM action taken against them. We believe that because resetting EPs is a community tradition and part of our Dynamis Hunt culture, we have a defensible stance as to why we do it that proves the good that comes from it. Community norms seem to be an important part of decision-making on the part of the GMs.

If resetting is not possible, simply hold off DPS until the actual pull time (the mark will likely still have a lot of health) and then engage. If it’s a very low level mark that will melt too quickly, tag it once with a very low damage-dealing attack (or do an AOE heal near it) to get your aggro in. That will be enough for full credit.

DPS Management for S-Ranks

If the S-Rank is from an expansion below the current one, it will likely go down pretty quickly, depending on the size of the crowd that has gathered. In order to ensure everyone gets a chance to hit the mark for credit, slowing your DPS is recommended. We do not need full rotations for marks below the current expansion. Thankfully, with the way party aggro works in these situations, parties with 4 or more people (or even smaller so long as they have a tank with stance on who hits the mark) will receive full credit even if some party members only smack the mark a couple of times or simply place a DOT.

MINIONS AND SS RANKS

In Shadowbringers, Endwalker, and Dawntrail zones, hidden super elite marks exist that have an RNG chance of spawning after a regular S-rank is killed. This type of mark is commonly referred to by the hunt community as an SS-rank. It will offer a much larger reward in various currencies than a regular S rank will give. But wait, there’s a catch! Even if you are lucky enough to be blessed by the RNG gods that one has been summoned, you have to kill its 4 minions scattered around the map before it will make an appearance!

If an S-rank kill spawns minions, you’ll see the game toast “The minions of an extraordinarily powerful mark are on the hunt for prey” on your screen (as well as in your system chat log if you have it displayed). This means that the minion event has begun!

The minions are timed and you have only 5-minutes as a team to kill them all. If any remain unkilled after the 5 minutes are up, the SS will not spawn. Additionally, if any of the minions are pulled by someone solo and then reset due to the player who pulled them dying with no one else to take aggro immediately, the entire event fails and the SS will not spawn. All minions will withdraw.

The above scenario of failing the entire event is why it is incredibly important NOT to pull a minion if you are solo, even if you are a skilled tank. The risk of ruining everything for all players is too high. Other players may not understand you made a mistake and report you for griefing (it has happened). If you are alone at a minion and it seems no one is going to arrive soon, it is better to head to a different minion where others are already fighting and help kill it. Even pulling with only 2 people is very risky.

Though the spawn layouts are not always straightforward, the four minions can be classified generally in 4 directions like NW, NE, SW, and SE for tracking purposes. Each map has fixed spawn locations for the 4 minions and for the SS that do not change. Eventually, you’ll memorize these, but in the meantime, the Faloop spawn window will show you the locations if you’re unsure! 

While completing the minion event, it is helpful to shout in chat when your group has killed a minion so others don’t waste time teleporting/flying to the location given how little time there is. Example things to shout: “SE dead” or “NW dedge”, “sw killed”, etc.

If the event fails, you will see the game toast “The minions of an extraordinarily powerful mark have withdrawn…” as well as this printed in your system chat log.

COMMUNITY RULES

Both Faloop and Centurio Hunts also have community rules that you should be aware of if you want to continue to participate in those communities. Please reference Faloop rules and Centurio Hunt rules.

Congratulations, you’ve joined The Hunt!