This Final Fantasy 14 player has spent 240 hours truly soloing the MMO and hasn't even finished the base game yet

gamesradar.com:

A Final Fantasy 14 player is finding out just how far through the MMO they can go playing truly solo, forgoing battle and trading support from other players and NPCs wherever possible, to continue along the most punishing path they can run. 

While always a fan of playing games in weird ways and an FF14 master for now, Rath Games told GamesRadar+ that the inspiration for this challenge comes from an entirely different MMO. The streamer looked back to their time watching the Old School Runescape community tackle one of that game's most punishing modes to begin to imagine what a solo Final Fantasy 14 challenge might look like. 

"I based the main rules for the run on Runescape's Ironman mode – no trading and no assistance from other players," they say. "For Final Fantasy 14, though, that doesn't really pose a big challenge, so I had to take away more things to make this something difficult – something worth doing."

"No NPC support, no quest rewards, and minimal NPC purchases was my way of doing that. By avoiding shops and quest hand-outs, I'm forced to make my own gear and really push the limit of what I can do. Then, after the first three dungeons were still too easy, I took on the Level Sync / Silence Echo rule out of wild curiosity. I wanted to know if it could be done."

Around 240 hours later, in terms of playtime, the answer steadily becomes clearer. Rath has cleared Final Fantasy 14's A Realm Reborn - essentially the base game - to the point of taking on the first trial after the grand Ultima finale fight, and they're yet to regret any of the self-imposed rules they've set out for themselves. 

"The run has been an incredible experience," they tell us. "There are so many tiny forgotten pieces of content I never knew