Hello Everyone,
My name is Brad and I’m addicted to levelling up. Since I first played Final Fantasy 7 the lesson of train hard, win easy was seeded deep down, I’ve recently been playing my way through Final Fantasy XV on Playstation 4 and this is no different.
When you first set off with Noctis and his companions you will be in the town of Hammerhead, not too far from here lies a Cactuar that will net you 6000 EXP per kill which is pretty insane for this early in the game.
Many players around the globe have posted various videos detailing it’s location and various tips and tricks for making the little bugger spawn. But for me, that was precisely the problem, it wouldn’t spawn and any map of the Cactuar’s location was in a YouTube Video that was annoying to pause and too small on my iPhone Screen. So I thought I’d share a Full HD Map of the Cactuar’s Location here:
The Cactuar spawns around my location marker on the map, the best way to find him is to listen for little squeaks and keep an eye out for his green darting movements. To get there quickly you can park your car where mine is parked on the map, then it’s a short run over, alternatively you can head up directly from Hammerhead.
The wider community seems to believe that the Cactuar spawns between 04:00 – 07:59, I haven’t found this to be the case as I’ve had them spawn in the afternoon around 14:00. My strategy was to hunt in that general area between 05:00 – 18:00, when it got late, drive to a different town and do a hunt or collect some resources and make your way back in the morning to avoid any daemons that may show up.
I tried saving and loading a few times to assist with the spawn rate but that didn’t really seem to help. I’ve found that roughly 300ft – 500ft is a good distance to run away from the spawn spot and then head back, if you can slay a different pack of enemies before you head back that feels like it helps in making the Cactuar actually show up. When you return to the ‘Cactuar Spawn Point’, if different enemies appear, kill them and then run away again, there is no way a Cactuar will spawn right after another monster. If you get bored it’s worth a run to the nearby campsite to extract some magic elements for your spells.
At the start of the game the Cactuar sits at Level 15 and isn’t too tough to beat. The one move to watch out for is 1000 Needles as it’s guaranteed 1000 Damage and will definitely take you down to ‘danger’. I found Warp Strikes with Daggers to be the best best, strike hard and fast to stun the Cactuar and then get a few hits in, retreat to safety for a little bit and repeat.
Ultimate EXP
At the end of Chapter 1 you find yourself far south doing an errand for Dino in exchange for a boat trip, once all is said and done he will suggest you rest overnight before disembarking the next morning. This overnight hotel visit scores you 2x EXP Bonus, don’t be afraid that you’ll miss it as it’s very obvious, the game says something along the lines of ‘would you like to proceed, if you continue you won’t be able to return here for a long time’. What I would suggest is not sleeping for a few in-game days and slay as many Cactuars as you can be bothered to, then proceed with this and your EXP will instantly be doubled.
I followed this trick with 26,000 EXP which doubled to 52,000 EXP and my entire party levelled up from Level 15 to Level 28, highly recommended!
Anyway, I hope this helps out a few Final Fantasy Fans out there looking to get a decent leg up at the start of the game. And if not, well, it’s a good reference for me to look up shall I want to hunt the Cactuar again anytime soon.
Grow This... 