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A group of adventurers fighting a notorious monster during a FATE.
Full Active Time Events, more commonly known as FATEs, are a special kind of event that may occur at random while exploring the world in Final Fantasy XIV. Template:See Also
Overview
FATEs are indicated on the map by a purple circle; players that get close enough to the FATE area get a message informing that a "FATE has been found nearby", while entering the actual FATE zone automatically joins the event and places it on the Duty list, overwriting any quests that are listed. A few high level FATEs are not displayed on the map at all.
Players become eligible for a reward simply by participating in the battle in any way: Killing enemies, healing, collecting the objective items, using buffs and debuffs, etc. Rewards are divided into three tiers depending on the player's participation. However, if one's level is too low, his contribution will not be weighted as heavily, and players with a level too high must use the Level Sync feature to participate in the battle.
While most FATEs begin automatically, some may need to be initiated by interacting with the environment or talking with an specific non-playable characters. Multiple FATEs may happen at the same time within a zone.
Some FATEs "chain" into different FATEs based on the outcome of the battle. For example, if players successfully fend off a beastman attack against an encampment, a new FATE with stronger beastmen may start right after the previous battle as a continuation of the previous attack. But if the first FATE fails, the second battle may change into a rescue mission for the camp non-playable characters, or even break the chain completely and stop new FATEs in the area for a while.
The rewards for completing FATEs are generally gil, experience and grand company seals, but some of the FATEs give unique item rewards or achievements, such as those related to Behemoth and Odin.
Types of FATEs
Slay Enemies
The most common variety of FATEs simply requires players to kill a certain amount of the specified monsters within the time limit.
Boss
Boss FATEs typically feature one strong enemy that needs to be defeated to succeed in the FATE. The boss can vary in strength - some can be soloed by players of the appropriate level, some require parties of varying size. It is not guaranteed that the boss will be alone, however. Often times there are weaker enemies surrounding that may or may not also count towards the completion of the FATE, or there might be multiple bosses to defeat.
Defense
Defense FATEs require players to defend objects in the FATE area from invading monsters. If the FATE targets are destroyed, the FATE ends in failure.
Gather Items
Item gathering FATEs require players to collect items throughout the FATE area and return them to a nearby NPC. Monsters that spawn as part of the FATE will drop the required items, and the items can also spawn naturally on the ground to be collected.
Escort
Escort FATEs are similar to defense FATEs in that they require the survival of an NPC. However, in this case the NPC will move through the zone, and the FATE area will move with it, which can potentially lead to accidental de-syncing. Escort FATEs never start automatically - players must activate them by talking to the issuing NPC.
Epic
These FATEs can be any of the previous types, and can be identified by longer timers, the use of "Torn from the Heavens" or other songs as their theme instead of "Hard to Miss", and the fact that they will almost always grant an achievement for completing them with the highest score. They are significantly more difficult than most FATEs and often require an alliance of players to take down. Besides achievements they can have various rewards for defeating them, such as titles, minions, or even tokens for gear such as from Odin.
Quest
Certain rare FATEs will only appear as part of a quest that they are the objective of. These FATEs will be invisible to any players not on the quest in question.
Event
These FATEs will only appear during limited time events, such as holidays or promotional events like Lightning Strikes. While holiday events will often appear again the next year, promotional events are mostly one time only, and can be permanently missed.
Musical themes
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"Hard to Miss" plays during the majority of normal boss FATEs, while "Torn from the Heavens" plays during most epic boss FATEs.
Gallery
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References
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