Onean posted:

Everybody focuses on the Fashion weekly (which is largely correct, don't skip it if you're even the slightest bit interested in getting MGP because it's your highest reward for time spent), but the Challenge Log surprisingly gets glossed over in comparison. If you're really looking to get stuff done, you can get another 73-100k+ every week in just a couple hours. This also doesn't have to be all at once, you can spread the time out across the entire week. (The Challenge Log resets with server reset, so Tuesday morning for those of us in the Americas.)

All of these numbers are without the Make it Rain seasonal event active. If it is, add 50% to all of the MGP rewards!

Lord of Verminion has already been brought up*, but the reward hasn't. Playing 5 games will complete three challenges which give you a total of 27k MGP.

*Specifically, Cluzic's post here:

Cluzic posted:

One of the tutorials (the 4th one I think) is very short “boss” stage where you can just zerg down a gobbue. I’ve found that to be the fastest way to do the Lord of Verminion challenge.

If you don't know where Lord of Verminion is, it's on another level. There's a Lift Operator in the Main Entrance area (where the reward and mini-Cactpot NPCs are) that will take you to it. It's also where the Chocobo Racing is at.

Triple Triad is another simple thing to knock out, and you can get every challenge related done from anywhere in the game. First, though, you'll need to unlock the Battlehall by talking to the Triple Triad Master. There's no requirements other than having access to the Gold Saucer and unlocking Triple Triad. Doing so will add the Battlehall to your Duty Finder menu (under the Gold Saucer option, it's the button with a cactuar on it) which you can enter from anywhere in the game. Don't be intimidated by it, it may sound like some tournament thing but it's really just an instanced area that's always flagged for Triple Triad.

The main thing we want with the Battlehall, though, is an NPC named Wyra "Greenhands" Lyehga. She's a very easy Triple Triad NPC, so you can blaze through matches with her by simply using an auto-built deck if you don't want to build your own.

Winning against Wyra 10 times will complete four different challenges for a total of 18.5k MGP. It's not a big amount, but it's nearly as quick as doing your Fashion Report from nothing.

There are also the Open Tournaments. They take place every two hours, with registration open for 30 minutes. These are random, 8 person "tournaments," with each player playing 3 matches. If there aren't enough actual players to fill in all 8 spots, NPCs will be added to fill the roster. These matches are all Draft, so there's no penalty if you're just starting and haven't unlocked more than your starting cards. (Draft works by giving you three sets of cards, with three choices in each set, and you select which you want to build your deck with. If you're not sure what to pick or don't care, there's a Recommended button that will choose the strongest cards.) Tournaments also cycle between Basic and Advanced rulesets. Basic is always just Draft. Advanced will add two additional rulesets to spice up the gameplay. (Using the Recommended option for the Draft during an Advanced ruleset might actually give you subpar cards, so it isn't always the best option.) Playing just one Open Tournament will earn 3,000 more MGP, plus whatever you won from the tournament.

Next are the mini-games. These are the interactables that are placed throughout the Gold Saucer, stuff like Cuff-a-Cur, Monster Toss or Out on a Limb. You can do whatever you prefer*, just make sure you play 3 times and win a total of 100 MGP across them. This will get you 2.5k MGP for a ridiculously small amount of effort.

*I prefer Out on a Limb on the lower level because I'm guaranteed 100 MGP in 3 plays (usually just the first). Out on a Limb or The Finer Miner next to it are also your best option for just straight up grinding MGP. If you get good at it you can get 600+ MGP in just over a minute. Lag will murder you until you compensate for it, though.

Now for GATEs. This will probably be the most time intensive part, but it can also be done while you're doing everything else. Every 20 minutes (on X:00, X:20 and X:40) there are events that pop up in the Gold Saucer. There are announcements in the zone that are preceded by a chime (you'll get very familiar with that chime as you spend time here), and mostly they'll be about GATEs, though sometimes they're about other stuff.

Most of these events last for 10 minutes, during which you can get teleported to them by talking to any GATE Keeper NPC (some of the golden dot-with-a-ring icons on the map note where they're at) spread throughout the Gold Saucer. However, watch out for The Slice is Right and Any Way the Wind Blows because you can only sign up for those within a couple minutes of the event starting. Once 10 minutes has passed (on X:10, X:30 and X:50), you can talk to a GATE Keeper and they'll tell you what the next GATE will be and can teleport you to where it will be, but you'll still have to wait until it actually starts.

Playing five of these and winning three of them will get you 13k from challenges plus 12-20k from the GATEs themselves.

There's one challenge for Mahjong to play 2 matches against players for 5k MGP, but I don't do that one.

Finally, Chocobo Racing. This is the part of the Gold Saucer I know the least about and am very bad at. It can also take up a good chunk of time, but it's an option to take a break from Out on a Limb or standing around doing nothing in between GATEs when you've completed your other challenges.

There's a whole system attached to racing that's about breeding, getting abilities and leveling your racing Chocobo (completely unrelated to your Companion chocobo), but someone else will have to go into that because I have barely touched it myself.

I do the simplest challenge, entering 3 races, every week for 5k MGP and call it good enough. However, if you like them or don't dislike them enough to avoid them, there's more to get. Entering 20 races and winning 10 of them will get you an extra 21k MGP.

All told you can get 64k MGP from challenges without touching Mahjong or Chocobo Racing, plus 5k and 26k MGP respectively if you do, plus an additional 12-20k MGP from completing the GATEs challenges for a Grand total of 104-112k MGP a week just from your Challenge Log.

So, with a minimal amount of effort (no Mahjong or Racing) adding in the Fashion Report you can get 132k MGP a week plus probably another 1-3k from the miscellaneous rewards. Doing everything will get you 163k plus miscellanea. Add on stuff like mini-Cactpot and the Cactpot lottery and you can get 300k in two weeks spending only a couple hours each week.