Hello and HAPPY PRIDE MONTH Hunters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s time for our 5th annual Aether Hunts pride celebration! Whether you’re new to our pride tradition or a long time supporter- we’re happy to celebrate another year of LGBTQ+ Pride with you!! The 2025 line-up includes:

• Aether Hunt’s Super Pride Mega Train,
• Pride Glam Contest,
• Aether Pride Parade,

(Please see ⁠schedule-and-info for dates and times!) Also returning is our ⁠dedications channel where you can give thanks to people who have supported you as an LGBTQ+ person, shout out your LGBTQ+ loved ones, or simply give yourself some love and tell us why YOU are proud to be who you are.

This year we are supporting Transgender Law Center! (https://transgenderlawcenter.org/) Those of you who have celebrated with us for the past four years are probably wondering “No Trevor Project?” As much as we love and support The Trevor Project’s mission, we have learned of union busting efforts and less than stellar treatment of their employees. We attempted to reach out to them through official channels to learn more, but received no response. Instead we have chosen to support a new charity that we believe also aligns with our values. In today’s volatile climate they could use our support more than ever.

Transgender Law Center (TLC) is a trans-led organization that champions the rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming people by challenging discriminatory laws and policies that unfairly target vulnerable members of our community in addition to implementing nationwide support networks with a focus on BIPOC, disabled, and HIV+ communities. Definitely take a look at their website and check out some of the many initiatives they’ve lead to make the world a little safer and a little more comfortable for our LGBTQIA+ siblings.

Over the past 5 years we have raised over $30,000 for LGBTQIA+ focused charities. Our goal this year is $5000 for Transgender Law Center. Please join us in making this another successful pride month!

Donation link: https://fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/TLCP2P/team/AHPride2025

Please be sure to MUTE YOUR CHATS or leave your chats/ls.

Suggested muting includes shout, yell, say, fc, all LS, CWLS, novice net, and any discords to avoid spoilers (image below).

Here’s a small FAQ for people!

What should I focus on?

• Whatever you want! (Probably MSQ though)

Will there be new hunt currencies? If so, what?

• We don’t know. In theory yes, but only time will tell.
• There should be DWN exclusive variants of cracked clusters and stella clusters for DoW/DoM materias 11 and 12.
• Hopefully tacos are the new hunt currency

Will I be able to use my nuts for anything new?

• Probably not. Keep buying those rings to turn into your grand company.
• There is a possibility that they add the ability to buy aetheryte tickets with nuts in the new expansion, but we don’t know currently.

Will there be a new hunt quest to unlock new hunt bills?

Most likely! We have no reason to believe they are deviating from the current pattern.

When can I unlock the new hunt board/bills?

• You can unlock the Hunt board gradually as you go through the story in tiers.
• Elite hunts are considered “end game” content though, meaning you won’t be able to unlock them until finishing base msq.

How many hunts will be in the new zones?

There should be 2 A Ranks and 1 S rank per zone, with 6 PvE zones. Typically with new expansions SE implements 3 instances of each new zone to help ease congestion. That means we are looking at 36 A Ranks for Dawntrail at launch!

• 2 B ranks per zone as usual.
• S ranks are a little different and will be explained in more detail below.

Old trains

Will old trains still be run?

It depends on a number of factors including, but not limited to: how strong we are at level 100 with gear, changes to what you can buy with old currencies, and other unforseen changes.

SB trains

• If nuts still do not give aetheryte tickets, SB trains may still exist. Depending on how easy these are killed at new level cap, these trains may turn local only.
• If nuts do change to give aetheryte tickets, then SB trains will likely phase out and be more like current ARR/HW trains.

SHB/EW trains

• These trains will likely be less frequent but continue to be run as long as hunt achievements are specifically tied to them.
• SHB/EW will give the exact same currencies and tome counts.
• Conductors will likely only choose to run one train or the other and not both. Which train is chosen will likely be up to conductor preference unless it is decided to alternate which is run for the achievements.

Dawntrains

When will we start running Dawntrail trains?

• When we are ready! Focus on enjoying the story first!
• When someone is through MSQ and they feel ready to run a train then one will be ran. And not a minute before!
  • This does not mean they will be back to usual schedule right away though! We very well may have 1 train on day 3 and none until week 2. It all depends on conductor and when they are ready to return.

How many A Ranks will there be?

36!

How many new expac trains are run per day and why:

• When new expansion drops and player count increases, the time it takes to teleport also greatly increases. During EW launch, the game would only allow ~ 80 players into an instance initially. Then slowly let in 30 players every 30 seconds afterwards. This means vibes are long and necessary! Please be patient!
• Because there are so many marks and vibes are long, that means train times run long as well. New expansion trains tend to take 45 minutes – 1.5 hours depending on turnout. Hunt deaths are also super spread out and take a long time to get scouted.
• With more marks and trains taking longer, conductors burn out quicker please be sure to let the hunt team know you appreciate them.

Remember to return to your homeworld before logging off!

With the newest expansion Dawntrail right around the corner, there will be tons of new activities like zones, dungeons, story, and of course hunt marks! People move through the story at their own pace, so here at AetherHunts we have some temporary channels set up that you will need to opt into in order to view and chat in:

DT Hunt Lounge – General place to chill and talk with your fellow hunters. No story/dungeon/boss spoilers allowed.

• Thread: DT Hunt Theory – Thread for theorycrafting about the 7.0 spawn conditions!
• Thread: DT Hunt Locations – Thread for posting hunt/mark locations you see.

DT Train Announcements – Crossworld Trains for 7.0 will be announced here.
DT S-Rank Announcements – Crossworld S-Ranks for 7.0 will be announced here.
DT FATE Announcements – Crossworld FATEs for 7.0 will be announced here.

• this channel can also be used for 7.0 FATE farming

These channels will remain closed and hidden until we are closer to the launch date. We will notify you when they’re ready to go live. For those who were not here during EW launch, the server goes on almost total lockdown. Almost all discussion channels are locked. However, the mods/reps of your respective world may ask if you still want to continue to converse in your tavern. The tavern will only be open for discussion if your mods/reps are willing to watch your tavern, otherwise it will be locked.

Other things to expect during Dawntrail launch:

• Local Trains for a long time.
• Train times may increase significantly. At EW, the amount of people who could switch instances/zones was severely throttled, which is what prompted the “vibe” culture we have today. Vibes can be as long as 5 minutes.
• More marks! There are 6 zones, and there are 3 instances per zone which means 36 A-Ranks and up to 18 S-Ranks in total*.
  • *Not all S-Ranks will be live, namely in the first two zones. If they spawned, no one could kill them. They will go live later.
• Some conductors may split the marks to help ease the load (dual track or triple track). This means more than one train will run concurrently (at the same time) on your world.

These rules will be in effect with regards to spoiling any Dawntrail content outside of the above channels: 1st time – Verbal Warning & a 48-Hour Mute
2nd time – Last Warning & a 1-Week Mute
3rd Time – 1-Month Ban

Everyone has their own way of playing and enjoying FFXIV. Some speed through the expansion in a few days; others take in all the new zones and the MSQ a little more slowly. We hope that all of you keep all discussions regarding Dawntrail to these channels only, as some may not choose to opt in to keep their experience completely spoiler-free. Please be considerate to your fellow hunters and Warriors of Light, and most of all enjoy the new expansion!

It’s time for our 4th annual Aether Hunts pride celebration! Whether you’re new to our pride tradition or a long time supporter- we’re happy to celebrate another year of LGBTQ+ Pride with you!! The 2024 line-up includes:

• Aether Hunt’s Super Pride Mega Train
• Pride Glam Contest
• Aether Pride Parade

(Please see ⁠schedule-and-info for dates and times!)

Also returning is our ⁠dedications channel where you can give thanks to people who have supported you as an LGBTQ+ person, shout out your LGBTQ+ loved ones, or simply give yourself some love and tell us why YOU are proud to be who you are.

As usual Aether Hunts will be backing The Trevor Project with this year’s goal of $6k! https://give.thetrevorproject.org/AH2024

The Trevor Project (https://www.thetrevorproject.org/) is a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth. It provides free, accessible, 24/7 counseling services to young LGBTQ+ people in crisis as well as countless education efforts. It ranks as one of the most high impact charities we can support with a score of 100% on Charity Navigator (https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/954681287).

In the past 3 years you have helped to raise $27k! We are honored and grateful to be apart of the fundraising efforts over the past few years and we are beyond excited to see what this year brings.

Please help us make this another successful year in backing The Trevor Project and saving the lives of LGBTQ+ youth!

DONATION LINK: https://give.thetrevorproject.org/AH2024

As for the schedule of events…

May 31, 2024 – Glam contest entries open and pride month begins!
June 14, 2024 – Aether’s Pride Mega Charity Train
June 15, 2024 11:59PM EDT – Glam contest entries close and voting begins!
TBD – AH Conductor/Spawner group photo
TBD – Aether Pride Parade
June 25, 2024 – Glam Contest winners announced!

🏳️‍🌈THIS YEAR’S ASSIGNED WORLD COLORS: 🏳️‍🌈

🤍 White – MIDGARDSORMR
💗 Pink – FAERIE
❤️ Red – JENOVA
🧡 Orange – GILGAMESH
💛 Yellow – CACTUAR
💚 Green – SARGATANAS
💙 Blue – Siren
💜 Purple – Adamantoise

Fundraiser ends June 30, 2024!

Hello @everyone!! Our bi-annual leadership review has concluded! You’re gonna see some new faces in new colors and old faces in new colors!

Making the move up to mod we have:

Fae: Osterby Aster
Jen: Toaster Stroodel
Ada: Eli Kat
Cact: Ciraelin Darling & Maha Mulia

and joining us as reps we have:

Fae: Lulubi Lubi
Gilg: Elya Dayo
Ada: Momo Tyriwesfv
Mid: Medolie Dumoria & Chase Blaskin
Siren: Freya Tennebrae
Sarg: Headpats Please

We’ve also decided to introduce a new role to function as an interim between mod & rep with the end goal of polishing an existing rep into being Nutty Moderator ready: Nuttier Rep. This role will have the ability to view modmail tickets and discuss with the current mod team in a designated channel. It is intended mainly for worlds that have no or inactive mods. Moving into this role is:

Mid: Win Sarun
Sarg: Jazzy Lo-fi

Feel free to swing by our Nutty Team page to see what your new rep looks like and get to know a little about them!

Greetings Hunters!

This is your reminder that trains, primarily EW trains, will most likely be going back to local only. This means conductors across all worlds will not be calling their Hunt Trains in #📢-train-announcements as often, and will instead restrict them to calling them only in their respective tavern announcement channels, or not in AH at all. This is your reminder that you have local announcement channels (for ex:#🚂-jenova-local-announcements) where conductors will call trains instead of the usual spot. So if you’ve muted/hidden the one for your world, now is the time to turn it back on.

This is a decision that AH formally stands by, as many mods/reps help run trains on their worlds, and will be running local. If you’re new to the community, and don’t know why conductors choose to run local:

1️⃣ Just from local attendance alone (ppl only belonging to that world server) on a new patch, there can be hundreds of players trying to crowd into a zone. This number goes up when crossworld players try to attend as well. As this is a patch where you can get tome gear upgrades, attendance will be higher for a longer time.
2️⃣ As we’ve experienced, the bigger the train, the longer we’re stuck waiting at the aetheryte waiting to switch instances/zones. Whether they let up on throttling zone changing will remain to be seen. (rumors are throttling has eased up some)
3️⃣It makes trains more manageable for conductors.
4️⃣ Conductors from different worlds may run at the same time. This is to allow more crossworlders a chance to catch a train, but also help split the load.

While we have answered this question multiple times in the past, no, you cannot see into another tavern, even if you have an alt. As the mod team has said, we will be standing by our conductors in these instances of where they try to make pleasant train experiences for everyone, and will not aid in adding more unnecessary traffic. If you are found posting any trains anywhere in the server when the conductor specifically said it was local, no matter the expansion, administrative action will be taken. We will be looking for both conductors and riders to be courteous to one another and ask both to remember our #📖-trains-guidelines .

Let’s all enjoy the patch together!

Happy Hunting!

Aether Hunts is currently hosting our double glam contest featuring both cosplay glams and general seasonal glams! Entry is open to all Aether Hunts members, but please be sure to read the rules carefully so we don’t have to disqualify any awesome glams.

Additionally, this year we have a haunted house directory! Did you decorate your apartment? Your personal? Your fc house?! Drop a link and a couple screenshots in our #haunted-houses channel! It should be obvious, but this is for your IN GAME HOUSES ONLY. Please don’t doxx yourself!

As usual you can join our event #discussion channel to discuss the contests or share pics of your real life crafts and talk about your Halloween plans!

Calendar

🎃 October 2, 2023 8:00 PM EDT – Both glam contest open for entry
☠ October 16, 2023 11:59 PM EDT – Entries close and public voting begins
🦇 October 23, 2023 10:00 PM EDT – Public voting ends and Nutty Choice voting begins
👻 October 31, 2023 8:00 PM EDT – Both winners announced and tickets opened for prize claim

Hello! We are taking the time to squish a few announcements into one big one.

First, Othelia Emeraldsong has been working hard on updating how you all activate roles in the server. We present #🔴hunt-roles. These feature drop down menus instead of buttons which we hope is cleaner and easier to parse for the new user experience. If you yourself, or have friends that are new to discord, we will work on providing a tutorial on how hunt roles work on our website. Also, thanks to the efforts of Mutebard, the unban bot is once again functional (mostly). If you have any friends who may have attempted to join with new accounts while it down, please send in a ticket and we’ll get it sorted.

Next, If you are not aware, Hawai’i has unfortunately been ravaged by wildfires on one of their larger islands, Maui. There are dozens of people confirmed dead as well as hundreds still missing. AH acknowledges the devastation in Maui, and the impact that it has made to those affected especially those within our community. If you would like to donate to support those affected, please follow these links: https://www.memberplanet.com/campaign/cnhamembers/kakoomaui
https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong

Next, our biannual rep review has come and gone and we’d like to welcome our two new reps, Dhen Sunblade and Toaster Stroodel from Jenova! We’re happy to have them. 😊

Lastly, we know it’s been longer than we intended, but here’s the 2023 Survey Breakdown. As usual there is a tl;dr for people wanting the bare bones at the very beginning. If you are interested in further information, feel free to read on. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YNzqp6U9RzqsonhaqXfpNBwpXyoaeTgvKMHJbio5TS8/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you for reading, and Happy Hunting!