FF14 players are struggling to complete the Yo-kai Watch event thanks to a tide of Blue Mages armed with bad vibes and missiles

A blue mage adjusting their collar in a smug fashion in Final Fantasy 14, while next to two troublesome abilities.
(Image credit: Square Enix)

The Yo-kai Watch event has made a return to FF14, letting players grab weapon glams, mounts, and a terribly cursed dog. It's a fun excuse to run around the overworld and complete FATEs, which are public group quests that spawn regularly in most zones—but there's a wrinkle to the good times: the feared Blue Mage.

For the uninitiated, Blue Mage is a "limited job" in Final Fantasy 14. Essentially, it's not a real class and more of a minigame—allowing players to grab monster abilities by defeating them in combat. 

However, it can't level past 80, it can't queue for duty roulettes or go into deep dungeons and exploration zones. Raids are available, but only when queued up with other Blue Mages or in undersized parties. Because of this, the Blue Mage has access to a smorgasbord of completely busted abilities which can one-shot enemies and delete vast quantities of their health.

A Blue Mage, however, can participate in FATEs just fine. You can see where this is going. 

Yokai Event in a nutshell from r/ffxiv
This is relevant again from r/ffxiv

There are plenty of Blue Mage abilities which'll flatten FATEs in record time, but two are stand-outs—Missile, which has a chance to delete 50% of your target's HP if they're a lower level than you, and Ultravibration, which instakills enemies impacted by certain other status effects the Blue Mage can create..

All of this to say, a group of Blue Mages can complete FATEs in mere seconds. In order to earn medals for the Yo-kai Watch event, players have to not only participate in FATEs, they have to earn at least a silver participation medal—so even if they get there in time, there's no guarantee they won't walk away with bronze. 

Interestingly enough, as one helpful player on the game's subreddit points out, FATE rankings are largely based on enmity—or 'aggro' in most other MMOs. This means that Blue Mages do absolutely have tools in their kit that'd let them farm these things without ruining the ultravibes for everybody. "If you want to generate enmity without dealing damage, use the Mighty Guard + White Wind combo," writes BondEternal. "Not even a tank can rip aggro off you."

If you're struggling with getting your medals, however, there are a couple of other options—you can join a party via the party finder (making it a lot easier to get the rankings you need), world transfer to another server, or just… wait a little while.

The event will be running until the release of 7.0—which is June 28, when Dawntrail enters early access. FOMO is one thing, but you could twiddle your thumbs for an entire month without missing out on these cosmetics. Or you could just level a Blue Mage, get Ultravibration, and join the shadow wizard money gang—I hear they love casting spells.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Read more
The Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic) in Final Fantasy 14.
Final Fantasy 14's chaotic alliance raid lives up to the name by swapping around 2 wrongly labeled attacks an entire month after everyone's already learned them
Pint, a lalafellin mage, looks towards the sunset sky and closes his eyes in gracious defeat in Final Fantasy 14.
FF14 streamer yields to the MMO's bounciest catgirl, after inspiring them to beat his new speedrunning record 3 times before he could finish making a video about it
Alisaie, a side character in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, folds her arms with a confident smirk on her face.
Final Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their alts
Alma, the handler from Monster Hunter Wilds, closes her eyes and looks a little disappointed.
This impractical method of getting a 1-second capture time in Monster Hunter Wilds can make you the fastest hunter alive—on paper
Honey B Lovely
The state of Final Fantasy 14 in 2025: It's in a weird spot, huh?
A Vanu Vanu munches on a soft taco
Final Fantasy 14 is, you guessed it, still making bank for Square Enix as Dawntrail rakes in the big bucks, though it might not be all sunshine and tacos
Latest in Final Fantasy
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
Koana, a main character in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, stares thoughtfully at a book in his hands.
After a controversial coding slip-up fed stalkers info on their victim's alts, FF14 wipes the slate clean to try and fix its mistakes
A lolporrit squeals in excitement while being driven in a moon buggie in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, patch 7.2.
Final Fantasy 14 patch 7.2's trailer has me finally hyped to get stuck back in—and to go to the moon and pilot some mechs, because why not
In a world of WoW Classics and Old School RuneScapes… could Final Fantasy 14 ever do the same?
Honey B Lovely
The state of Final Fantasy 14 in 2025: It's in a weird spot, huh?
Latest in News
A gigantic terracotta sentinel made of living armor
Total War: Warhammer 3's army of Cathay has broken containment and is making its way to tabletop Warhammer at last
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm