Final Fantasy XI's August update adds notorious monsters and timed treasure boxes to Adoulin

Final Fantasy XI's August version update went live on August 12 and seeds multiple new notorious monsters across the Seekers of Adoulin areas, the first instalment of a Square Enix plan to add more notorious monsters to the region.

Each of the new notorious monsters drops a locked treasure box where it dies. The box vanishes three minutes of Earth time after it appears, so it has to be opened quickly. Any party or alliance member who earned experience points from the kill can unlock it without an item, but that right is lost the moment the player leaves the area. Everyone else needs an Orvail Box Key, sold by Shabi in Western Adoulin at I-9, with a limit of one purchase per Earth hour.

The update also swapped the foes in Ambuscade, with the matching Records of Eminence objectives changing to suit, and rotated the monthly Records of Eminence objectives.

Vana'Bout and item changes

Ahead of the next round of Vana'Bout, the update moved the event's daily start time from 1:00 a.m. PDT to 8:00 a.m. PDT, added new time-based and daily objectives, revised the wording of some objectives without touching their contents or difficulty, and minimised how much the daily objective list changes from day to day. Three Kupon I-Amb were added to the Silver Tier of the personal reward selections; each kupon can be exchanged for Ambuscade vouchers and chits or for Ambuscade weapon, armour and cape upgrade materials.

On the item side, the Abyssal Mask — the equipment tied to the crossover with Wizardry Variants Daphne — is now storable through the Porter Moogle on Storage Slip 31. A system-side change adds a temporary fix for the performance drops some players see when logging in or changing areas on a character carrying a very large number of items; Square Enix still lists that slowdown as a known issue.