For those of you who remember last year’s Firefall Faire event, you’ll no doubt remember the hard battle waged against hordes of bombs. A raging battle that consisted mostly of the equivalent of crying “Neener, neener!” and running away like a little girl. Well, it looks like the bombs have returned for another round of destruction. But this year’s summer event is called Moonfire Faire: Bombard Backlash, and although the Bombards are back, things are just a bit different this time.

Rewarding The Masses

The reward for last year’s Firefall Faire were swimsuit items. They were fairly popular, and there was a neat little feature where you could create a custom wallpaper of your character posing in their swimsuit. In hindsight, maybe the popularity of the event had more to do with that Miqo’te pose. You know the one. Don’t act like you don’t. The rewards are different this time around, with players instead having the chance to obtain some nice-looking yukata, a casual japanese style of clothing typically worn during outdoor summer events. You even get wooden sandals to go along with them. Now that’s service.

But you don’t just get these items handed out to you. Well, that’s not entirely true. You do get a freebie yukata and an achievement just for accepting the quest associated with the event. But participating fully in the event will also net you other various colors of yukata, as well as the previously mentioned wooden sandals. There’s even fireworks. And if you’re itching to get a complete set of yukata and all the accessories that go along with it, you’ve got a task to complete in order to gain access to your snazzy new duds.

Great Balls of Fire

The event is similar to last years offering. After you find your designated quest NPC in whatever town you call home, you’re charged with dashing out into the field and tracking down another NPC who’s built a wagon with bomb balloon replicas. This is where the action starts. And by action, I mean dancing. The object is to protect the camp from an oncoming onslaught of giant bombs called Bombards. But normal weapons and magic won’t cut it. In order to save the day, all players have access to a new /firedance emote which, when used, causes you to break out into a swaying dance. And you put your hips to good use. When you see the horde of bloated monstrosities they call bombs charging across the field, you’ll dance like your life depended on it.

Successfully completing a /firedance emote with a bomb as the target will deal damage, although the bombs themselves can’t hurt you. It’ll typically take 1 dance to drop a normal Bombard, but there are also Bombard Kings around that will take around 3 dances to defeat. The object is to prevent the bombs from making it to the cart and destroying the balloons. When time is up, talking to the NPC at the bomb wagon will get you a certain amount of ash based on how many balloons have survived. It’s this ash that you must trade in order to obtain the additional yukata and other rewards.

You can obtain a maximum of 20 ash each round.

• 4 Balloons will net you 20 Bombard Ash
• 3 Balloons will net you 10 Bombard Ash
• 2 Balloons will net you 6 Bombard Ash
• 1 Balloon will net you 3 Bombard Ash
• 0 Balloons will net you 1 Bombard Ash

So the more efficient you are at clearing the bombs, the higher your ash reward will be. With each yukata costing 40 ash, you’re probably going to want to do what you can to get a perfect score. You also get achievements for buying rewards, as another nice bonus. As am additional note, trying to perform /firedance on the bombs can be a bit frustrating. You get a lot of error messages that make you think you’re doing something wrong. But the error messages don’t really mean anything, and you can safely ignore them if took the time to create a macro to spam.

Not The Same Old Dance Routine

All in all, the event is actually pretty fun. Watching everyone run around attempting to dance at the multitude of bombs they throw at you can turn into a really hectic game of flame tag. A couple of things, though. It really is best to do this with a large group of other people. If you have too few people, it’ll be difficult to destroy all the bombs in time. It’s been said that you can bring a small group to Gridania and complete it successfully, but this isn’t something that the writer of this has tested personally, so pack your grains of salt with you on your trip to Gridania.

 
It’s a great event, and it’s recommended that everyone give it a shot. Unfortunately, you’re running out of time to do so. The event began on July 30, but ends tomorrow, Monday, August 13 at 7:59 am PDT. The /firedance emote is also only usable during this time as well, so it’s a good idea to get it out of your system soon. The event was also advertised with another great piece of artwork by Akihiko Yoshida. Take a gander if you want treat your eyes to something nice.