Introduction to Palace of the Dead in FFXIV

Palace of the Dead is an ever-changing dungeon whose architecture is never quite the same each time players enter to explore its depths. All players will begin at level 1 when starting on Floor 1 and level 60 when starting on Floor 51. Only by fighting the enemies within will you be able to gain the strength and experience needed to explore.

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If you've come looking for a floor guide of Palace of the Dead, click on the link below.

• Q: What food should I use?
  • A: For Palace of the Dead, the ideal food to use is any food that has a 560 ilevel or more, as it gives the most vitality.
• Q: What pots should I use?
  • A: If your HP is above 9600, super potions are recommended as they will restore the most amount of HP. If it’s less than that, you will gain more HP back from a max potion. Tinctures can be used for a boost on lower dps jobs such as tanks or healers.

One of the most efficient ways to farm Potsherds in Palace of the Dead is to enter F101+ and to go solo. Generally speaking, the drop rate of potsherds from bronze chests is significantly higher than F1-100. It is ideal solo because potsherds are a singular item; having multiple people in your party will reduce the chances of you receiving a potsherd.

Duoing can be another way to get potsherds, though not all the potsherds will necessarily be split evenly between the two party members.

• Q: How many Sustaining Potions do you get from one Potsherd?
  • A: 20.

• Q: How many sustaining potions should I start an attempt with?
  • A: 400-500 is the recommended amount, depending on the job. Check the above video for more info.

• Q: How do I farm Aetherpool?
  • A: The fastest way is to queue into a match party at F51+ in PotD.
• Q: How much Aetherpool do I need for a Necromancer attempt?
  • A: 79/79 or higher recommended at minimum for a 1-200 PotD attempt which should get you to 99/99 by the time it is needed.

Within the Palace of the Dead you may encounter one of many rare monsters. They are usually stronger than monsters on the floorsets they appear (similar to mimics) and can be quite difficult as they do not stop to cast spells and are not susceptible to crowd control effects such as Pomander of Witching. All rare monsters have proximity type aggro. Players may want to seek out these enemies for the very high chance to drop a chest when defeated, or for the large bonus to score. These monsters are also classified as ashkin and as such are susceptible to bonus damage from the Pomanander of Resolution form’s Holy Judge spell.

There are many reasons to solo Deep Dungeon. Whether it be to acquire the achievements or titles, set a challenging goal to accomplish for yourself or just to enjoy playing difficult and randomized content that sees no two attempts be the same, players are finding all sorts of reasons to dive into Palace of the Dead or Heaven on High by themselves.

Many runners feel that soloing Deep Dungeon can be as difficult as high end content, such as savage or ultimate raiding. The advantage of running Deep Dungeon solo over raids is that it can be done alone and thus success relies fully on individual performance. This can be refreshing when coming from 4 or 8 person group content.

Additionally, some runners go for scores. Scoring in deep dungeons adds an extra layer of replayability and competition as players compete to clear the content and secure a place on the official leaderboards.

Palace of the Dead has two solo achievement titles:

• Pal-less Palace II - “Lonely Explorer” (Progress past floor 100)
• Pal-less Palace III - “The Necromancer” (Reach floor 200)

Every job has cleared solo in PotD in both Shadowbringers and Endwalker, so to an extent you’re able to take most any job into PotD and expect to clear with varying degrees of success. There are, however, some jobs that are more difficult than others.

The floor 180 boss, also known as Behemoth or Dendaisonne, has a very difficult mechanic that varies greatly depending on the job. Some jobs, such as RDM or healers have a much easier time with it than others. Another consideration is that, depending on the job, different challenges will arise on later floors. For example, tanks and healers struggle a lot more with time management as their damage is comparatively lower, and ideally utilize techniques that allow them to speed the floors up. For example, a tank might pull a large number of monsters and use a landmine trap to leave a floor quickly.

If you're looking for an introductory job to start your solo attempts, the following jobs are suggested for doing so:

• Machinst
  • Machinist has become the top contender for PotD solo in recent years, for a number of reasons. Machinist in Shadowbringers had the most Floor 200 clears of any job. In Endwalker, Machinist still has the same playstyle as it did in Shadowbringers. If anything, as of Patch 6.2, it is even stronger than its Shadowbringers counterpart.
  • Machinist excels in kiting and burst damage, as well as highly useful crowd control in the form of Head Graze, Leg Graze and Foot Graze. Peloton is also an extremely valuable skill for navigation through the floors, as the extra movement speed allows you to traverse floors faster.

• Warrior
  • Recently Warrior has been gaining favor in Palace of the Dead among the community for its strong defense and healing abilities. This job has a relatively simple Behemoth push and can do landmine plays with ease thanks to Holmgang’s short cooldown and abilities like Raw Intuition.

The following jobs are among the hardest jobs to clear with and are not suggested for anyone that wouldn't consider themselves a veteren of Palace of the Dead:

• Astrologian
  • Astrologian is considered the most difficult job to clear on in PotD. Astrologian has low personal damage output due to the fact that in a typical raid comp, a good portion of its damage comes from giving cards to party members, boosting group DPS. This creates situations where certain bosses will take much longer than they do on other jobs. AST players also need to utilize every Pomander to the fullest to progress through floors quickly, while taking advantage of landmine plays is a must.

• Bard
  • Likely the toughest Behemoth push remaining in Endwalker due to its lower damage, very strict rotation, and required Resolution use. Otherwise a strong pick as it does have all the perks of the Physical Ranged role, on top of access to a debuff cleanser ( The Warden's Paean), which is extremely useful on later floors.

Job guides for Palace of the Dead will be coming soon, be sure to check back to see if your job's guide has been added!

Soloing Deep Dungeon goes back as far as the release of the content, though with palace of the dead seeing further floor additions and “The Necromancer” title added for soloing 1-200 saw a few dedicated players trying to become the first to achieve this. Ultimately Palace of the Dead was not cleared solo until several months after Stormblood released - the addition of the Red Mage job seeing a very strong option for soloing at the time. With changes to jobs, scaling and additions such as sustaining potions, Deep Dungeons have seen increasing popularity over time as players seek the challenge of completing them solo. Through the end of Shadowbringers and into Endwalker, popularity for Deep Dungeon soloing has surged and many players are trying it either for the first time or going back for more clears.

Useful In-Game Macros
Remove Rage, Lust, or Resolution transfiguration	/statusoff "Transfiguration"
Turn off food	/statusoff "Well Fed"
Check enemy health (for F180 Dendainsomme/Behemoth)	/echo <thpp>