A curious phenomenon in the form of an abnormal enemy has spawned in Final Fantasy 14 that players have dubbed MissingNo. The odd Final Fantasy 14 creature looks like a standard mob, but is also clearly not intended to be found in the game due to some unique peculiarities that have led to players comparing it to the iconic Pokemon Red and Blue glitch.
Final Fantasy 14 recently received its 7.4 patch, and with it, a number of changes and additions were made to the game. These include the conclusion of the Arcadion Raid series, job adjustments, and new items in the cash shop. However, there seems to have been at least one unintentional introduction made with the patch that hasn't been fixed.
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Final Fantasy 14 Players Flock to 'MissingNo'
It didn't take long after the patch before players realized there was something abnormal happening in the game's Coerthas Western Highlands. Players have discovered that in one particular area, a level 1 doe spawns after killing any of the normal level 50 Steinbock mobs that appear in the area. This would be odd enough, as it's nowhere near the level of all the other mobs in the region, but the strangest thing about it is that it completely lacks a name.
In wake of this discovery, players have been flocking to see the unusual creature, which can be found at X: 32 and Y: 32 in Coerthas Western Highlands. One player said that the creature already had a "cult" forming around it, while others have referred to it as MissingNo. While it doesn't seem like there's any particular exploits that can be made use of like with the original MissingNo in Pokemon Red and Blue, there are distinct similarities due to its odd level and complete lack of name. Even when targeting the creature with emotes or battling with it, no name appears, so players instead see messages like "Player pats the."
Fans have some theories as to why this particular spawn has appeared, though nothing has been confirmed by Square Enix. Some believe that it may be connected to the upcoming Beastmaster job, which as the name implies, will let players command creatures that can normally be battled against to instead do battle for them. The "MissingNo" Steinbock doesn't seem to have any unique abilities or attacks, though at least one player has faced a whole horde of them.
Though oddities like these are relatively rare in Final Fantasy 14, players have been reminiscing about prior encounters with strange things in the game that have been subsequently removed. Over the game's long history, these have usually been smaller things like textures not being set up correctly, or the legendary low-poly square grapes. However, a similar encounter with an abnormal spawn occured about a decade ago, when players were puzzled to discover a bear floating in mid-air that players ended up dubbing "Skybear." That particular glitch didn't last long at all before the developers patched it out, but was memorable enough that long-time players still remember it fondly all these years later.
Square Enix seems to be aware of the issue, as it made mention of "certain enemies" erroneously spawning in Coerthas in the Final Fantasy 14 7.4 patch notes. Given that the patch went out with the company being aware of it, it's likely that the oddity won't last for very long. There's a good chance that it would have been fixed already, except that more serious problems were encountered with the Occult Crescent: South Horn that was so problematic that the devs shut down the region until they could perform emergency maintenance. Players who are interested in seeing the odd doe may want to check it out before the next maintenance period occurs.
- Released
- August 27, 2013
- ESRB
- T for Teen - Language, Mild Blood, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Engine
- Originally the Crystal Tools engine, but currently it's a custom engine using parts of the Luminous Engine.
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- MMORPG
