Key Takeaway
When you first reach The Dragon’s Aery (east of Lostwing) during the main quest “Wings of Change,” you’ll find seven Wind Elementals here. These enemies respawn infinitely as long as you don’t progress in the main quest.
Wind Elementals in The Dragon’s Aery give you 30 Experience and 80 Ability Points each the first time you defeat them. After returning to the area once they’ve respawned, they’ll give you 15 Experience and 40 Ability Points when defeated. The lesser rewards do not diminish further.
Also, every Wind Elemental has a chance to drop up to two Clouded Eyes (though they usually only drop one)—each of which is worth 150 Gil.
It’s always a good idea to farm Gil and Ability Points in Final Fantasy games—and things are no different in Final Fantasy 16. Such resources go a long way toward helping you get the best equipment and offensive options. Always keep your eyes peeled for environments to exploit!
Table Of Contents
Where to Farm Gil & Ability Points in FF16 (Early-Game)
During the main quest called “Wings of Change,” you’ll need to explore an area east of Lostwing called The Dragon’s Aery. Here, you’ll find seven small versions of the Eikon Garuda flying about the field and paths. While a bit intimidating, they aren’t that tough—and are worth fighting repeatedly!
What You Get for Farming Wind Elementals in The Dragon’s Aery
When you first defeat each Wind Elemental, they’ll give you 30 Experience and 80 Ability Points. However, each time they respawn, they’ll only give you 15 Experience and 40 Ability Points. Despite this not being very much Experience, this is still the best Ability Point yield for respawning enemies in the early parts of FF16.
On top of that, every time you wallop a Wind Elemental, you have a chance to get up to two Clouded Eyes (although you’re most likely to get only one per foe felled—or none if you’re unlucky). Clouded Eyes are a crafting material needed to upgrade the Bastard Sword to +1, although you only need one Clouded Eye to do this.
Each Clouded Eye sells for 150 Gil. Every time you clear out all the Wind Elementals in The Dragon’s Aery, you’ll get close to seven Clouded Eyes (you’re likely to get one Clouded Eye from each Wind Elemental). For each farming run, this means you get 1,050 Gil worth of resources—if not a bit more from double Clouded Eye drops!
Tips for Defeating Wind Elementals Quickly
It doesn’t take long to take down the seven Wind Elementals if you make frequent use of your abilities. Here’s how we streamlined the process:
- Engage a Wind Elemental when it’s by itself (don’t fight two or more at once, as this is a pain in the butt)
- Use your Wind Abilities to apply lots of stagger to Wind Elementals
- When you get a Wind Elemental down to 50% stagger, use Deadly Embrace (the Circle button when you have Garuda Abilities active), as this causes partially-staggered enemies to become fully staggered
- When a Wind Elemental is staggered, use Fire Abilities to unleash big hits
- Get Torgal to frequently use the Sic command for added damage output
Reasons to Farm Gil & Ability Points From Wind Elementals
What makes this the best early-game way to farm Gil and Ability Points is how easy it is to defeat the Wind Elementals. On average, it only took us 30 seconds to a minute to dispatch each of these gusty ghouls. If you can tolerate Clive and Cid’s British battle banter, this is an ideal farming spot prior to your showdown with the next boss.
As for respawns: leave the area and immediately come back to find seven more Wind Elementals ripe for harvesting! They respawn infinitely as long as you don’t progress the main quest. If you need to heal, we recommend heading back to the Hideaway before returning to The Dragon’s Aery, as going back to the Hideaway heals you for free.
Even though FF16 isn’t very hard at this point in the game, learning how to exploit its mechanics helps you prepare for challenges down the road. Clive’s journey is fraught with perils! Gaining this sort of advantage results in a better gameplay experience in a balanced way: the true RPG way.
