Thank you so much for being a part of this journey everyone. I hope you enjoy the video.

It was fun trying to communicate mechanics nobody has seen in half a decade through Twitch chat and teaching you about Scilla's petrify!

"I can't solo this alone. But we can solo it together."

Scions: ...does he know he can ask us for help? *sipping tea* WoL: *getting up from their 782nd defeat* again!

There is something extra special and poetic about the fact that in the end, you did it with other people also doing the Solo Challenge. Real "learning the power of friendship" moment lol

I can't think of a single better way to have gotten around this. Congrats to everyone for clearing this.

ARR veteran here, I won't explain too many of the mechanics the bosses had that I remember from way back when but I do want to point out two main things really quick! 1) Daybreak on Scylla is, to my memory, time-gated. When the raid was new it usually came out around 40% of her hp and fucking it up was just as much of a raidwipe as it was for your solo crew. 2) LV 100 Flare and LV 150 Death are references to ff3 and ff5 spells based around the math of the total level of players hit by it. LV 100 flare activates if the total level of all players in its aoe adds up to a multiple of 100, and the same is true but 150 for death. Also, knowing Crystal Tower is possible in Ironman rules makes me want to start a Solo character myself! Maybe I'll give it a shot at some point in the near future thanks to your videos.

The Glasya Labolas part made me so sad THE PLATFORM PHASE WAS SO COOL TEN YEARS AGO

I feel saying "so low I need you to tank" would make everyone in this group turn their head in response haha

As anyone who watches OSRS youtube knows, it isn't a real series until you've made an exception to your rules ;) And this is one well worth making, since it opens up so much more interesting content to do *within* the rules. Congrats on clearing this and I can't wait to see how you fare in the expansions!

The fact that you still didn't see bacon (Hundred Slashes) from Acheron (Phlegathon) saddens me. It's such a fun mechanic to look at. But hey; you got to see the best part of Syrcus - the intermissions. I've missed those so much. Edit: Nevermind, you didn't see EVERYTHING. To give a breakdown of what you missed: For Glasya Labolas: -The Magitek Bits are charging him up to the massive move you saw that made him untargetable. They're immune to all forms of damage until someone stands in their circle, which renders them untargetable but lets the Bit be killed, stopping it from charging Glasya. -A little bit later after the big untargeted AOE he'll move to the middle and start slowly casting it again, charging up while doing so with six lasers from the outside of the arena. Six robots will appear and the mechanic here is that you need to kill a robot inside each beam, which short-circuits the robot and redirects the laser into them and not Glasya. Redirecting all six lasers correctly activates the jump pads which launch you to the outside, leaving Glasya to safely explode in the middle. However, now there's a new problem - adds spawn on the platforms outside and deactivate the jump pads of the platform they are on. Kill the add and it lets you jump around to help the other people with their adds; kill all the adds and everyone can jump back to the middle with the inner jump pads turning on, letting you finish the fight. For Five-Headed Dragon (or Tiamat): To preface all of this, text will pop up saying 'the heads of (blank) and (blank) are flailing about!' which tells which mechanic is going to happen. -Ice: White swirling AOE's will appear on the ground and, a short while later, ice AOE's will land and expand up to two times. Anyone caught will Deep Freeze inside them. -Fire: Two normal AOE's will drop to the ground and spawn a Wyrmling, who'll tether to a random person. They'll launch up to five fireballs while they're alive but the tether can be passed by merely running into someone else, but this also gives you Slippery Prey so you can't retake a tether. -Poison: One bigger AOE will drop to the ground and leave a poison puddle there that'll periodically spawn poison slimes. Killing a slime causes it to explode, giving anyone nearby Poison Resistance. Standing near the centre of the poison puddle prevents any slimes from spawning - if no one does this and three slimes spawn, they fuse into a nigh-unkillable large slime that channels a five-second cast that deals massive raidwide damage AND silences everyone. Lightning: A stack marker will appear over someone's head and you stack with them. Before they changed the marker it was merely a purple orb marker over someone's head which...didn't tell you much. You just kinda had to know it was a stack marker. Outside of this there's two other mechanics: -Black AOE's will drop to the ground and leave Prominence orbs behind - if these aren't killed in twelve or so seconds they explode and give everyone a Vuln Up. -A yellow marker will appear over someone's head and the text 'the dragon takes a deep breath...' will flash up on screen. That person will be targeted by a HUGE AOE that gives them a Vuln Up and knocks them into the air, so they should take it far away from everyone else. Little sidenote - this will always be paired with the ice AOE's and getting Deep Frozen prevents you from being knocked into the air, but you still get the Vuln Up. There's the third other mechanic in Pyretic but you already saw that. Finally the serpents you saw at the end of Cloud just spawn late into the fight on a timer and yes, they're incredibly annoying. Another plus note is that once the three adds in their own arenas appear, if you have a caster LB3 stocked, you can place it in the middle and it'll oneshot all three adds at the same time, completely skipping the mechanic. Placing it correctly can be a bit awkward as it's JUST big enough to encompass all three adds, but it's so satisfying to pull off.

It is legitimately impressive that you have come this far with a solo challenge in XIV. Not only that, but you have inspired OTHERS to do it along with you. I think it's only fair that they be allowed to help you with the impossible bits. Almost like the Warrior of Light summoning aid in their darkest hours.

Seeing y'all completely mishandle the platinals was some whiplash as a veteran lol. None of them need to reach the boss - if they're dragged away and killed in individual locations, they'll be much slower to reach him! It's that kind of ancient knowledge lost to time, but that's what makes this fun lol.

Whoa, never even seen those later Scylla mechanics before - the petrification and the pads. I'm tempted to try running Syrcus at MINE with smaller parties to see that

You weren't kidding Rath; the thumbnail DOES look awesome! Can't wait to see the video!

Good work to all the solos! It's been absolutely wonderful seeing you all progress through this challenge. You did amazingly! 🎉

Legitimately teared up starting at that quote from the Crystal Exarch, and all through the ending sequence after it. What a journey. What a wonderful journey.

29:50 - A small note on that! The mechanic deals damage equal to your maximum health, and doesn't count shields. Meaning a tank will always die to Ancient Quaga unless a shield gets chucked on them. I used to just chuck up Manaward when I was levelling BLM and never died if I was full hp lmao 36:40 - If you stand in the very center of the arena (anywhere underneath the Atomos's hitbox), you can avoid being knocked off the ledge by Shockwave. Just be careful with this bc if you move into the center after the spinning discs come out, there's a chance you might be hit by them and have a vuln stack applied to you That ending section was amazing btw. Amazing work from the animator!

Congratulations Rath!! This journey was an insane odyssey which will sure inspire more Solos, including me! Shoutout to everyone who helped during Cristal Tower, and now our eyes point Heavensward...

The fact that 15 people had the time to do this and so few of them knew the mechanics to the first boss of LoTA and scylla makes me feel very old, but good job! You guys did awesome! Congrats on the awesome achievement!

Very nice. You could always bring this back for the alliance raids, even though they're not mandatory after CT. The number of solo's you'll have will probably keep increasing

*Whistle of The Warrior starts playing* My old bones have a story for you, about Glasyas Labolas... or however you spell that big buffoon's name. The way he functions is that the bits charge his ultimate. If no one stands in the bits, they charge him instead. The bits can only be targeted to be destroyed by having someone stand in their field, and the field inflict a minor dot. However, if you DPS him quickly enough, the bits disappear and he does his ultimate regardless. In days of yore, you would then reach a point where he would go untargetable and begin charging his ultimate attack. 3 Robots similar to those found in Binding Coil of Bahamut Turn 4 would come down at triangulated points on the edge of the arena, near tether generators. These robots had to be held close to the generators such that when they "died" they would tether to the generator, keeping the add dead AND opening the way to the bouncing platforms. This was a tank check and DPS check, as the tank for each party had to hold the robots in the right place, while the DPS had to slowly DPS it until it was in the right spot and then quickly DPS it. Once the platforms were open, you could leap onto them for safety from Glasyas's fully charged raid wide which had this cool burning effect on the center platform. You would hop around killing adds on the platforms until they were all dead, so that you could leap back to Glasyas, the fight would then repeat. Back then... in those cross class skills times, if you had an exceptionally undergeared/underskilled/under-engaged alliance, then it was possible to see not just 1... but TWO rounds of platform jumping. But perhaps I misremember...

Best video series I have found. I've been playing solo but not to the level you have. I just started on Xbox. Great video and congrats.

Not gonna lie, maybe it's just the sleep deprivation but I actually teared up and started sobbing happily just a lil bit when you revealed the full team. what a fucking magnificent culmination of so many peoples' journeys, all inspired by this very challenge (well, maybe not all but still very thematically appropriate). I was wondering how you were going to tackle the crystal tower, and I honestly couldn't have thought of any better way to do it. Now, there's only one way to go. Onward, upward... heavensward. See you on the other side.

im so unbelievably happy that the yt algorithm recommended me this epic journey. seeing mechanics ive never known about was just jawdropping, and its amazing to see just how far this journey has come!!! i cant wait for season 2 ❤

You are such an inspiration!!!! I've followed your videos and streams for a while now I absolutely admire your spirit, will and willingness to make your fun thorough. Cannot wait to see more!!

this was amazing to watch grow on the streams and the vods, and this video is a brilliant finale to series 1 of solo

This is incredible 👏 I just found your channel and wow what a perfect series to watch today. My friends want to play FF14 as a solo player as well thanks for sharing your Journey ❤

What a journey!! So proud of our funny Solo man and his crew of Solo friends. Congratulations on the clear!!

Incredibly underrated series, deserves so much more attention. Was here from the start, and will be here for as long as it continues. Love it all, keep it up :)

Been watching you for half a year now and you never fail to surprise me with clever solutions for all kinds of problems on your way. I hope Solo going through future expansions will be just as awesome!

This was so brilliant and I'm looking forward to season 2! It makes me want to try a solo run! Thank you for loving this game as much as I do and reinvigorating my desire to do insane ideas like this!

Congratulations!! I surely didn't expect a whole team of solos that's actually awesome and made me wanna try this challenge too! Looking forward to Season 2!

I wish i'd been there from the start to keep up with this journey but I have watched everything to keep up This video really shows just how amazing a journey this has been, the culmination of all the planning, the pain and suffering was all worth it Amazing video and an amazing journey that I look forward to enjoying more and more as you progress

When I was watching the livestream I got emotional seeing the Let the Sun Shine In achievement bc I was just so happy for you, and I got emotional seeing it here too! That ending animation was also amazing (: congratulations and good luck in heavensward!!

What a wild wild experience and ride this must have been. I'm in awe and emotional just seeing you do CT then hearing your relief at the final blow. It really has been a long journey, and yet so much remains ahead, I'm excited to see how you move forward and press on. Keep up the fight Warrior of Light.

This is so amazing. Seeing all the solo adventurers coming together for this. Been here since the start of the series and it's my favourite on YT :)

Love the series and was really fun seeing the mechanics that typical crystal tower raid runs never get to see. Great stuff

Fantastic video and an amazing ending, congrats on the clear to you and the other solos!

Well played and what a journey! 'Been along for the ride, lurking since the first part, the ending brought tears to my eyes.

thank you for finaly teaching us the mechanics of the raid we were always hoping to run through with a chance others will know what to do

The end of the CoD fight just made me think of my all challenge modifiers run of DQXI, especially with the choice of background music. What an astonishing accomplishment, the amount of planning and work on everyone in the alliance's part is nothing short of incredible. Now that the game's opened up after that grueling struggle I can't help but think of content that would be fun in a similar setting, DRS and BA in Bozja and Eureka come to mind as both have an active challenge run community where they try to cut down the minimum required number of participants. BA is especially fun and I'd love to see it in this series one day. Especially because Eureka is designed like a traditional MMO with how you grind elemental exp and inch your way through it. It'd be tough to find instances willing to let you solo NMs, but I think given the structure of the content there could be workarounds for it. Maybe what you did here but on a bigger scale if enough people followed in your footsteps to fill an entire instance or simply asking in /shout to be allowed to attempt each NM solo at least once for it to count. I knoe for a fact they're designed to be soloable in low population instances so it's definitely doable. BA would just require a minimum head count and specific actions.

Geez, i started tearing up at that final montage. Excellent work, everyone!

i have to say "use your frozen friends as the Ecliptic Meteor boulder" is a fun mix of the usual mechanic of Ecliptic

Been watching since the first video, congrats on S1, it's been great :)

~immediately pauses the vid to giggle over that liking and subscribing bit~ I'm sure I'll be back down here shortly but can't believe we're finally here! This has been such an amazing journey to watch and I'm not enough of a masochist to do it myself but it sure is fun to watch you do it!

The work you put into these is insane. Thank you

Congratulations, seriously thought that was going to be the end of Solo's journey, but you put in the grind and work, and you got there in the end. Very well done, and I'm very excited to see you in Season 2!

Im so impressee by you and all of the solos!

That ending is the only thing, I think, that could capture the joy of watching this happen live. I have been watching and loving these videos since the start, and only recently joining the streams but it has been a blast seeing you, and the others, experience this game in such a unique way. That ending fight scene was FANTASTIC, and this video was definitely worth the wait!

I love your solution to the Crystal Tower problem, and so glad that your journey does not ended here! Love your content, keep up the good work!

Glad to fight alongside you King, Tanking was wild in CT

That ending was absolutely fantastic. Massive congratulations!

I became a member back on either the first or second video and I've never regretted supporting you since. This is truly an amazing series and keep up the great work.

Been around to watch this series since the start has been such an adventure. Teared up a little bit at that final animation and flashback to the start. Been watching the streams so I already know what comes next but I can't wait to see more of Season 2 and onwards. Big congratulations to everyone involved! ❤

Freaking Amazing. I look forward to seeing more! This has been one of my favorite series on youtube. :)

Watching this live was amazing, and it's so good to have the full ARR saga up on youtube now. Truly, it's been incredible seeing just how tough some content is when you only have yourself, but overcoming such obstacles is incredibly inspiring, and having it culminate in a show of cooperation is poetic. Thank you Rath, for the explainations of things most players won't ever think about, for the amazing storytelling, for the hours of glorious content in this series alone, for the care and love put into each and every video. I along with many others eagerly await the edited Heavensward videos, though honestly I should start watching the streams :P

Late to comment but incredible job Rath, you and the other solos did so good and are honest to god a giant inspiration for returning to this game. Excited and eager to see what you do next!

I loved the Fell Cleave at the end there.

finding this and binging it in the last two days was an absolutely wild ride. absolutely incredible. gamers really are a whole different kind of people, and by gods, are they some of the best, most motivated folks sometimes. good luck and godspeed as you aim ever heavensward!

This was amazing. I feel that you have found a good solution to this problem. It was also really nice to see these old mechanics. I've never got to see them in my play troughs. the old alliance raids where a lot more interesting back then then what remains of them now.

wow that took a while binging all your solo playlist but I finally finish it! thanks for the run, really makes me wanna level my DoL/DoH lol! congrats for finishing ARR again

huge congrats on this monumental achievement, everyone! I'm glad to have followed the streams a bit and also the whole episodic series on the channel; onwards and upwards, we go heavensward! Also Forgiven Solitude is such a sick name for a Hrothgar, big props!

My dearest ffxiv buddy and I have taken to duoing older savage and extreme content, and it has been so satisfying to get through those challenges. She was the one who told me of your series, and I just spent the day watching it all. I'm so inspired! Its been awesome to watch so many items/materials/paths used that are basically just overlooked now. I was really impressed with your Chrysalis run, and I smiled the whole way through this CT finale knowing that other solos went through the same trials to get there with you. I can't wait to see the rest of your journey! Cheers and congratulations!

Amazing work! Already hyped for season 2 of this!

Wow, genuinely got teary eyed seeing you guys get that clear. Massive congrats to everyone on this incredible achievement!!! Been such a blast watching this series and I can't wait to see season 2!

I like how you all look like true adventurers though. Just seeing rising stones full of adventurers reminds me why I played FF14 :)

Truly amazing to watch, and cried for so much of the end.

Congrats man! Looking forward to seeing you Solo HW!

Been watching ever since you cleared Aurum Vale solo. Your channel has been incredibly fun to watch, and it's made me consider doing solo stuff/other stupid gimmick challenges myself! Hope Heavensward is kind to you on the journey!

What an incredible feat you've all pulled off. Such dedication!

Amazing video! Glad I was here for the premiere

Excellent video as always Rath!

Honestly. This has been one of the most beautiful journeys to witness. Excited for HW. Got to try this sometime when I am extremely bored maybe.

Such an amazing journey to watch from start to finish!

Wanna say 2 things 1: I stumbled across this after the Limsa only run and I've been loving seeing all this progress i never would have thought possible, even with some of the exceptions you've made. This series has been an absolute blast to watch and follow 2: i have learned more about Crystal Tower in this video than in the (probably) dozens of hours i've spent getting this in alliance roulette

Congratulations! I honestly wouldn't have blamed you if you stopped after Ultima Weapon. That you've managed to keep going, finding ways to deal with even these nightmarish raids, speaks volumes for your sheer tenacity! I'm looking forward to seeing the challenges Heavensward brings.

ggs to the runs and an amazing video :D!! 🎉

This is absolutely incredible! I salute you madlad Solo's!

What an incredible journey. I cant wait for S2

I'm so glad to be a part of this community. Massive props to you, and all of the other Solo's! Pumped for next season, Rath!

INCREDIBLE, Thank you for hours of content. Cant wait for HW!

Congratulations this journey has been a delight to watch. To the ever more challenges that await you, you shall rise above them all. As you ever have, solo.

Glasya has 3 big robots spawn, that needed to be killed by each party, then he uses big AoE that covers entire main platform, so parties uses teleport to move on outside platforms and kill ads there, before they return on main platform to finish Glasya. I dont remember exactly what small robots were about, but one tethered to him, i think, needed one player to stand in and take damage, so it can become vulnerable and can be killed by other players from outside. Its been years since last time i did it proper way, so many details is missing.

the crystal tower solution was elegant and wholesome. I loved this journey. Thank you for recording it.

I regret ever doubting you back in the first couple of videos. This series has been a fantastic watch and I cannot wait to see your future projects.

Let's goo!!! Been here since the start, and will be here at the end. Can't wait to see how much more you will continue to push the limits of Solo. 😎

I'm so glad this stream was one of the few I got to catch. The hype was real! The anticipation for the true Glasya Labolas fight only for him to die too quickly like he always does was hilarious!

the dedication to this ..... incredible that a challenge about playing fully solo brings so many ppl together like this 😭 amazing video, keep up the good work o7

Just finished binging the entire series after getting this video recommended to me. This is probably one of the best pieces of ffxiv ever created on youtube. I can't think of a single content creator for FFXIV that has created something this unique for the game, something so common in classic wow and osrs. In fact this is what I love about those alot of osrs content on youtube, people taking a game they love and finding a radically new way to play it and enjoy it, and I'm glad someone found a way to do that in FFXIV. Your early adventures really reminded me of when I was leveling my crafters in stormblood. I didn't have any gil, so I did what you did. I gathered my own materials, I crafted my own crafter gear upgrades, the only thing I didn't do was farm mobs, which impressed me so much actually. I remember trying to get alchemist mats and realizing it would've taken forever, so of course I used the market board and retainers. I can't wait to see your heavensward adventures >:)

congratulations for you and other people attempting solo challange!

This was such a fitting end to the ARR solo challenge. Proud of everyone that took part!

congratulations! well done, it has been an absolutel joy to follow along on this journey

Congrats on the accomplishment! Hearing all the DQH: Rocket Slime music was nostalgic lol

Probably one of the greatest, not to mention coolest things ever achieved in this game. Fantastic job to all of you

THE BOYS SHOWED UP LET'S GOOOOOO! That so hype and cool. Really feels like summoning the heroes from across time in the Seat of Sacrifice. So damn cool. This series has been such a joy to watch.

Getting some whiplash at no one knowing the og mechanics to these. I feel old. Great vid.

What an amazing journey. Thanks for letting everyone watch this spectacle.

The reveal actually made me tear up, what an awesome adventure!

This series has been incredible. Inspired, insanely dedicated and totally bonkers. Well done to all 15 in the video, and anyone who is trying the same thing. You're crazy, and that is a biggest compliment. I want to give a specific shoutout to the madlad who took Dancer in. I love the irony of one class that needs a partner being used in an alliance full of Solos and they can't even use DP in Crystal Tower because it doesn't unlock until 60! Absolute king or Queen of a Gamer.