u/Glass_Recover_3006

I skipped Dawntrail until this last month because Endwalker had satisfied all my story needs and the new story felt a little tame… the 7.0 MSQ didn’t really get good for me until the very end and by that point I was a little resentful of how unnecessary many quests were to get that far.

Finally I got the time to blow through it all and… just holy cow this expansion has been amazing for me ever since. I’m only at 7.2 MSQ but the story is so much more engaging and interesting!

But more than that, and Im sure this feels different to me than most because it’s new, but the dungeons and side content might be the best it has ever been for me. It’s wild that I didn’t know how much I was missing out on.

I'm addicted to Crescent Occult. Yeah the loop is a little boring sometimes but the grind for classes and gear is nearly perfect, just playing to unlock the next thing.

The arena battles are adorable, fun, and I love how quick they are to jump in and knock out fights for useful rewards. Only done lightweight so far but it’s been a joy.

Also the artifact gear? Aside from maybe the original 50 gear, I think it’s the best Ive ever seen across the board. RDM and WHM and WAR in particular feel perfect. It makes it hard to want to glamour anything else.

Anyway I don’t know anyone who plays this game in person so I wanted to share how much fun I’ve been having and see if anyone else put off Dawntrail way too long and also realized what they were missing out on? I’m glad I get to enjoy this a little longer before we all move on to the next expansion.

Alright I read the description in the Palpedia database after the final battle and watched the cutscenes...

I have to ask, is the game implying that the entire reason for the calamity that threatened to doom the entire island, basically boil down to people being grossed out by a lady who wanted to bone her pal?

And the final boss is basically her climbing inside her pal to fight us?

And all the funny innuendo with various pals about being suggestive of them engaging in perverted behavior, is now lore-compatible with the ending to imply in this world the pals wanna bone the humans but the humans won’t let them?

Is Pal World engaging in big furry propaganda??

And finally, if all of this is true, canonically which pal is considered the hottest one?

Like seriously. I’ve been playing janky survival craft open world games happily for over a decade and I just assumed polish wasn’t a think in these games. I’m having so much fun the last week playing this and being confused!

I tried this game on a random whim when it was mentioned in another game discussion and I am completely blown away by the level of polish and stability and depth to this game so far. It feels like if Velheim was put on steroids multiple times over and then tossed in some elements from Dragon Quest Builders and maybe some action games for the combat?

Currently level 9 and just having a lovely time exploring and knocking out random things and not really having any goals. I built out a ruined town for my base and that was so much fun to do! I’m excited when the base grows even larger than my current 6 NPCs.

Some questions please from a newbie if anyone can help me through:

1. When do I get options for better tools and gear? I see sometimes NPCs start offering better gear but I don’t know what that’s based on. Is it character level?
2. I stumbled into the Hollow Halls and spent way too much time dying before I realized it is probably meant to be a dungeon run by a party lol. Is it meant to be run over and over? Or do you run it at level 10-ish and then find a different dungeon later? are there other dungeons like this?
3. Will I eventually unlock bigger magic chests? I currently have four and am having to make more, this feels inefficient but I don’t see options for bigger ones yet.
4. Any other tips for just someone looking to enjoy the experience, maybe overlooked features newbies tend to miss? for example I haven’t touched farming cause it looks complicated but it might be a mistake. I also don’t understand how water works- my base says water is enabled but I dunno what that means.