Another Final Fantasy 14 Ultimate Raid World First Challenge has been thwarted by cheaters, who were caught due to a single pixel.
Ultimate Raids are the most difficult missions in the MMORPG, with many groups competing to be the first to complete them in an unofficial community-led challenge. The recent patch 7.1 added another Ultimate Raid, Futures Rewrite, which became the third in a row to be affected by outrageous cheaters.
The incriminating pixel, PC Gamer explained, is indicative of the Pixel Perfect Plus add-on, which displays a character's exact hitbox. This is particularly useful when dodging AoE attacks in an Ultimate Raid, where the sheer number of attacks on the battlefields increases the difficulty dramatically.
Of course, third-party add-ons are not allowed in Final Fantasy 14. As a result, Frosty disqualified GRIND from the race.
The memes are already coming
byu/crotton989 inffxiv
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“I had our team investigate the add-on the team used and its capabilities make it eligible for disqualification from the MogTalk leaderboard,” Frosty wrote on X. “GRIND has not approved this member's use of the add-on and does not agree with the actions he took.”
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Instead, Kindred received the first worldwide release of Future Rewrite. Frosty notes, however, that conversations need to be had around the community-led challenge. Not all challengers broadcast their attempts (they wouldn't want others to copy them), but that certainly makes it harder to control cheaters.
What's notable is that this is the third consecutive Ultimate Raid challenge to be affected by cheaters. Last year's world-first Omega Protocol takedown was revoked once it became known that the attack group was using third-party mods; Dragonsong's Reprise from the previous year was a similar story.
“It's extremely disappointing for me personally to see this commotion around third-party tools once again in the wake of what happened with Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate),” he wrote last year. “As an individual who has been entrusted with full oversight of Final Fantasy 14, it is my responsibility to implement countermeasures and monitor the use of these tools, as well as educate people not to use these types of third-party tools; this is especially unfortunate when I, as a player, encourage everyone who learns this content through trial and error and strives to clear it up.”
No such statement has yet been made following this year's controversy.
In 2022, Yoshida said the Final Fantasy 14 team would “review the most prominent tools and, to discourage their use, would strive to improve HUD functionality.” And yet, two years later, the use of these tools prevails.