How To Spawn All Dawntrail S-Rank Monsters in FFXIV

S Ranks are considered the rarest monsters to be found in Final Fantasy XIV, largely due to their elusiveness and completely unorthodox methods for spawning, which are still true in Dawntrail. Here’s how you can make those big bad monsters appear in all of the game’s newest zones.

How To Spawn All S-Rank Mark Hunts in FFXIV Dawntrail Areas

An S-Rank monster provides tons of rewards, such as special Hunt currency (Sacks of Nuts, Centurio Seals or Allied Seals), for those who contribute to slaying it. Dozens of players are required to bring them down, so expect congested zones whenever one of them gets around. However, these rare creatures always require certain oddly specific circumstances to show up, which are only alluded to by certain NPCs.

Much like Special FATEs, S Ranks also have internal cooldowns before they can respawn, so trying out those weird tactics is utterly useless if the spawn window isn’t open. You can get more info on that by joining Hunt-based communities such as in-game Linkshells or dedicated Discord servers, which are also great to know whenever S Ranks are up or can be spawned. You can also use Faloop, from where most of the info in this guide comes from, to check any of the next spawning windows. Here’s a quick list of how to spawn all S Ranks in Dawntrail.

Urqopacha

These oddly specific climate conditions are a rare occurrence in the game, but they make up for it by providing the easiest S Rank spawn of the Dawntrail expansion. As long as you’re aware of when the next foggy new moon is happening, all you need to do is fly over its possible locations. However, the fog condition is so quick and rare that you could easily miss its short spawning window.

Kozama’uka

Bring up your Morpho minion, a rare drop from The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard), and head over to any of the spawn points to see if this big guy will show up. You can fly over the locations with your mount and it’ll still work. If you don’t want to grind out for Morpho, you can also buy it from the market board, and other minion sources (such as the Material Containers from the Free Company) can also randomly give it as a prize.

Yak T’el

It’s completely unintuitive, but discarding the exact amount of Fish Meal can give you a free S Rank spawn in Dawntrail. Fish Meal can be bought from Material Supplier NPCs in residential areas for 21 gil each, so it won’t be expensive at all. But it still feels bad if it doesn’t appear when you do it.

Shaaloani

The Shaaloani S-Rank spawns directly after you complete the “You Are What You Drink” FATE during the correct spawn window. The FATE can still spawn normally whenever the window is closed but won’t trigger anything other than some hefty rewards in experience and Bicolor Gemstones.

Related: In FFXIV: Dawntrail, You’re No Longer the Star of the Show (Review)

Heritage Found

This Dawntrail S-Rank spawn adds another strange condition to the list. A Culinarian must craft a Rroneek Steak while standing at any point of Heritage Found. It doesn’t matter if it’s High Quality or not. As long as you complete it, Atticus will appear whenever it’s done at any of its spawn points.

Living Memory

Blue Mages must learn Northerlies from Yeti enemies in Coertas Western Highlands to start their Level 53 quest, so many Blue enjoyers will likely already own the skill. However, be careful when using the limited job here, as it’ll be way below the area’s overall level. It’s another strange condition, but it’ll give you another S-Rank spawn nonetheless

All Zones – Arch Aethereater

The Arch Aethereater is the Dawntrail expansion’s SS Rank monster, which has a 10% chance (as estimated by the community) to appear after beating any S Rank in Dawntrail Zones. Minions will spawn on the four corners of the map and must be killed within five minutes. Killing them will spawn the Arch Aethereater in the zone 100% of the time.

Much like bringing down an S Rank, killing the minions is a collective effort for the bigger rewards. SS Ranks give out a total of 500 Nuts and even more Tomestones, so it’s definitely worth the trouble.

FFXIV Dawntrail is available now.

The above article was updated on 8/11/24 by Patrick Souza to include Urqopacha and Kozama’uka’s S Rank spawns.