Dense Cluster From Macrocosmic Orb Campaign

each of these drops a different thing in the bonus slot, for Gigas it's delve materials. so probably because of that

That's fair. It's too bad SE can't just release realistic rates on things so we'd have answers to all the different BCs rather than hoping another dedicated player runs thousands of it until the rare shiny drops.

Very good weapon choice kriz, sexiest staff lockstyle ftw

I might have Missed it, but are you spamming on VD? or just Easy?
I know this is speculation and there is no proof, but do you think the Cluster came from the 6th slot?

This is correct. Gigas was an unknown for Cat's Eye or Dense Cluster, but also had the best gil drops available, so it was two birds one stone. It really was cause there was no proof from that fight - that'd be why if I was to grind another unknown, it'd be Tonberry, as the abjuration BCNMs would definitely go right to the /toss pile except the Cat's Eye/Dense.

I gave up trying to resist charm 100% and just brute force killed with DDs.

This is 100% true and could technically make the fights with 6 mobs a better option... except those are the abjuration fights so you are giving up any and all delve/vagary/voidwatch money drops for... garbage abjurations and the rare hexed piece.


<3 this is true. I was a mage only for the first... 15 years of FFXI so I appreciate a good staff.


Yes, VD for each run. Cluster dropped in sixth slot for me, and was 6th slot for the two other reports I've ever seen. It also makes the most sense as its the slot that changes what drops depending on the BCNM. I had said earlier if I saw a 7 drop picture I'd believe it wasn't part of the 6th slot, but I really don't believe that- I believe it's an ultra rare drop in the sixth slot, changing from Cat's Eye to Dense Cluster per BCNM. But I hope to get a second Dense Cluster someday to really convince myself that it's always Cluster for Gigas.

That is what I thought it would be. Thanks, I will have to try this next time it comes around, maybe try Boogiemen. (I just hate fighting the giga's on VD)

First, thanks for doing this.

Secondly, as a 100% vanilla player, these drop rates, if consistent, are just obscene beyond measure. As an adult, if I get 3h / day to play that's a really relaxed day (no kids swim meets, lawn care, paying attention to wife, etc) that's a strange day. If I did nothing but orbs and I assume the campaign shows about 2x a year? Some quick math shows me I might see one of these after 36 years. Maybe.

So, as with much of ff11 in 2024, this goes into my "if you don't bot don't bother" trash bin of content goals. Certainly better to stick with grinding them out.

All the angst aside, truly well done. It's cool that so many years after the games release we are still discovering new things about the sandbox in which we all play.

I view things like these as more like "Oh, wouldn't it be neat if I got one?" kinds of things rather than goals to chase after. You're running the BCNM for some other reason (gil, abyssea items, etc.) and then you just happen to get a dense cluster. It is in no way an efficient or effective way to get 1500 HMP. Same thing with pulse weapons: you're farming voidwatch for gil items and if you happen to get a pulse, all the better!

If you go into these things with the intention of spending hundreds/thousands of hours doing the event to get a specific item, it's always going to look like a dummy-long grind, but I don't think that's the intention, I think it's more like a bonus.

Same can't necessarily be applied to KC since the BCNM offers nothing of value other than KC, but for a lot of stuff where there are super low drop rates, it's better to look at it as winning the lottery than a goal.

Correct, you do those battles for things other than catseye/cluster and if you happen to get one, you win.

They are prizes to be hype for, not goals. You should be aiming for 1500 plates via steady progress, not betting all in one shot with a .0001% item.

Wonder if anyone ever got one and tossed it because they don't know what it is. Before this thread I had no idea what it was, but knew of Cat's Eye.

Second this: Treasury addon setup ahead of time will save you much heartache. I personally hate Abyssea farming and do these to get Emp reforge upgrade items. It's random but more exciting than doing anything in abyssea. The first time I ran Kindred Spirits, a Glavoid shell I needed dropped, but it was distributed to my BRD mule due to the sheer volume of treasure pool spam. I set Treasury up to lot the pieces I wanted by character and only had to run 20 more times to get another shell on the right char. I am astounded that you actually made an Empy weapon through this lol. You deserved the dense cluster too since you shared your research AND made a worthy choice of weapon. Thank you for doing this.