FFXIV Island Sanctuary PSA: avoid wasting rare animal spawns

pcgamesn.com:

One helpful player has shared an important FFXIV Island Sanctuary PSA to avoid wasting rare animal spawns in the Stardew Valley-like side activity for the critically acclaimed MMORPG. The addition of ‘one of the best farming games’ to Final Fantasy XIV’s list of accolades came as somewhat of a surprise when it arrived as part of the FFXIV 6.2 update, but players have been eagerly grinding away to maximise their island’s potential.

One of the most compelling parts of running your island is collecting the various animals that can be found around the environment, and the most elusive among these are the rare animal spawns that can show up at certain times or during certain weather conditions. These special creatures, which include the likes of the Black Chocobo, the rainbow-coloured Dodo of Paradise, the bizarre, owl-like Paissa, and the rather gorgeous, fluffy Twinklefleece.

However, users aiming to hunt down these rare spawns should be aware of one particularly dangerous nuance – which, if you aren’t careful, can lead to a rare spawn being wasted. As Reddit user FlareHeart explains, when you have a full roster of animals in your pasture, the game will ask you to release one to make room for any new creatures that you capture. However, you cannot release an animal that is under care, or that has materials available to be retrieved.

In FlareHeart’s case, they had set all of their current animals up with caretakers and a good helping of high-quality feed before going away for the weekend. However, they then noticed that the spawn window for the elusive Beachcomb crab was about to open in just five minutes. As luck would have it, the Beachcomb appeared, and they were able to successfully capture it after burning through a