Bloodlust warning

[AGuyCalledRoy]

I know many people have complained about this trophy already, but it just popped for me and I wanted to add some fair warning for anyone coming after me that is going for the trophy.

 

Every guide and post I read about this trophy said to expect between 10-20 hours of solid grind. I was prepared for that, but in the end it took me about 50 hours of solid grind, purely for the Bloodlust trophy. I knew about the trophy before I began the game, so I explicitly fought every random encounter and never ran from a single one in my entire playthrough, so I'm not sure why mine took so much longer to get than everyone else. I did use a guide throughout the game, so I was never lost, in case that's a factor.

 

It took so long for me to pop that I discovered the in-game timer on the menu actually rolls over back to 0 and turns red after 99 hours of play. So take heart if you're going for this trophy and it hasn't popped after 10/20 hours of grind. I thought it's bugged, something's wrong, I messed up, but no, it will eventually pop. It just might take a very long time.

 

For the record, my grinding strategy was to elastic band my analogue stick in a corner of Gizamaluke's Grotto and run this AutoHotkey script with PS4 Remote Play:

loop 70000{
    Send {enter down}
    sleep 50
    Send {enter up}
    sleep 593
    Send {enter down}     sleep 50
    Send {enter up}
    sleep 588
}

It just presses X over and over (make sure PS4 Remote Play is the active window on your PC!) Just wanted to warn others not to underestimate this grind or think something is wrong if it's taking longer for you than it did for others. 

Edited September 14, 2020 by AGuyCalledRoy

[BlackTorito]

I’d say that is your experience.

 

Mine was around 20h+ of script running, but I didn’t use the Grotto , I grinded in Lost Continent, and that’s losing a few hours sometimes because I died and had to restart.

 

Grotto has a lower enemy count per battle than Lost Continent and that can add up hours of grinding.

 

The trophy is definitely ridiculous without a script.

[BeautifulTorment]

Two things I remember.

 

1. Doesn't the Grotti have mostly single enemy battles? I was fighting on the ice continent for battles of 3 to 4 enemies.

 

2. I als noticed that my playtime timer was not saving after long sessions. I think many of my sessions' progress was lost. I had to go into a city and back out to the overworld beforr saving or it didn't seem to save properly.

 

Also, a script is a must for this trophy to keep your sanity.

[AGuyCalledRoy]

59 minutes ago, BeautifulTorment said:

Doesn't the Grotti have mostly single enemy battles? I was fighting on the ice continent for battles of 3 to 4 enemies.

It's very possible Grotto is not the most optimal grind location. Most people seemed to suggest either Grotto or the Ice Continent; I chose the Grotto because I didn't have to also spin the camera to move indefinitely. Grotto has encounters with 1, 2, 3 and 4 enemies. It's very possibly sub-optimal, so I'm just writing this as extra info to consider for others who try it after me.

 

1 hour ago, BlackTorito said:

I’d say that is your experience.

Absolutely. I'm not saying other people are wrong who said expect 10-20 hours of grind, I'm just saying be prepared, it might take a lot longer. Grinding in Gizamaluke's Grotto was recommended in some guides, but at least in my experience it seems sub-optimal.

 

100% agree on using a script. I cannot imagine trying to do this trophy manually.

 

[Dr_Mayus]

Yeah, 50 seems high. Definitely do it on the ice island.

[Arcesius]

19 hours ago, AGuyCalledRoy said:

For the record, my grinding strategy was to elastic band my analogue stick in a corner of Gizamaluke's Grotto

 

Well, it might have to do with your setup. You wrote that you kept Zidane running in the corner... Dunno if that lowers the encounter rate or what, but 50 hours sounds excessive. 

 

I grinded in the Grotto as well, by just running from one side of the room to the other. The trophy popped after about 15 hours (and my overall playtime is way, WAY below 99 hours). 

 

 

Or, you know.. it might have to do with the script only pressing  70k times and then stopping.. why not write it so it just keeps pressing until you shut it down? 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Arcesius

[KN_Kirai]

5 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Or, you know.. it might have to do with the script only pressing  70k times and then stopping.. why not write it so it just keeps pressing until you shut it down? 

 

 

Yeah, it might be that: 70k might seem a lot but if you're pressing the X button every half a second, it stops after 9-10 hours. Dunno why that 70.000 is there to begin with.

As for the rest, pretty much what the people above said, it's best on the Lost Continent since the rate of encounters with many monsters is higher. Personally I think it took me 16+ hours to pop it.

[AGuyCalledRoy]

On 15/09/2020 at 7:33 AM, Arcesius said:

Well, it might have to do with your setup. You wrote that you kept Zidane running in the corner... Dunno if that lowers the encounter rate or what, but 50 hours sounds excessive. 

 

I grinded in the Grotto as well, by just running from one side of the room to the other. The trophy popped after about 15 hours (and my overall playtime is way, WAY below 99 hours). 

Yes, in my experience, it did affect the encounter rate. Running in one direction, as opposed to in circles, seemed to result in a lower encounter rate. However, running in one direction was easier to automate, as you can't spin the camera in indoor environments and it was easier to place an elastic band to keep the analogue stick held in a single direction.

 

On 15/09/2020 at 7:33 AM, Arcesius said:

Or, you know.. it might have to do with the script only pressing  70k times and then stopping.. why not write it so it just keeps pressing until you shut it down?

I didn't write the original script; I found it either from here or on Jegged.com. I did not run this program once and leave it, so the 50 hours of grinding is not padded by the script running out and being left alone; I would check up on it from time to time to make sure it was still working.

 

70,000 was an arbitrary number I chose. You must realise that I didn't know ahead of time how long this would take, especially after it exceeded the 10-20 hour estimate provided by others, as FFIX provides no in-game way of checking how many enemies you have defeated. I would alternate between manually playing the game and running the script. 70,000 was a suitable number for me to keep it going overnight and in between manual play sessions, but it would not have been enough if you were to go for this 100% automated.

 

The purpose of this topic is to provide additional information for anyone who comes after me and attempts this trophy. None of the sources of information I used (the trophy guide on this website and Jegged) seemed to differentiate between Gizamaluke's Grotto and the Ice Continent, certainly not that there would be such a large difference in encounter rate over time. None of them also provided estimates beyond 20 hours. My experience was exceptional, so hopefully people who read this will be aware of what not to do when attempting this trophy. I am just trying to save people time.

Edited September 16, 2020 by AGuyCalledRoy