The Moo Deng frenzy has formally reached Final Fantasy 14, seemingly inflicting the value of its lovely hippo minion to skyrocket

We can’t appear to get by way of a day on PC Gamer proper now with out somebody on the workforce mentioning Moo Deng, the lovely pygmy hippo that has certifiably taken over the web. Everyone’s making an attempt to get their Moo Deng repair, and plainly Final Fantasy 14 gamers aren’t any completely different.

As noticed by GamesRadar, it appears one of many MMO’s minions, the Hippo Calf, has skyrocketed in worth in latest weeks. It’s a random drop throughout Vanaspati, a degree 84 dungeon within the Endwalker growth. Twitter person Cerulean posted two screenshots evaluating the value of the minion on Japanese server Tonberry—one proper as Moo Deng’s recognition was taking off, and one from final week as people had been within the throes of hippo hype. 

The worth had gone from a decent 10,000 to 30,000 gil—which is a dang respectable worth for a minion that randomly drops from a comparatively latest dungeon—climbing as much as 100,000 gil earlier than more moderen listings had it simply shy of an eye-watering 300,000 gil.

I went and had a gander alone server and was stunned to search out not a single Hippo Calf on sale, although worth historical past confirmed me that gamers had been forking out over 100,000 gil so as to add one to their roster of minions. I attempted to peep Universalis, a preferred market board device for monitoring merchandise costs throughout servers, nevertheless it sadly solely retains monitor of the final week of knowledge.

Over the final seven days on Europe’s servers, costs dipped round as little as 45,000 gil, whereas one (I presume) Moo Deng fanatic shilling out practically 340,000 gil to get their arms on one. Out of curiosity I additionally checked out the opposite sellable dungeon minions from Endwalker—the Wind-up Magus Sisters has been going for wherever from 28,000 gil to 70,000 this final week, whereas the extra in style Wind-up Anima finds itself comfortably within the 90,000 to 130,000 gil vary.

So whereas it is common for minions to fetch a excessive worth, Cerulean’s screenshots actually do appear to completely line up with Moo Deng’s rise to stardom. Whatever the rationale for the Great Hippo Calf Inflation of 2024, I’m blaming Square Enix on this one. It capitalised on Moo Deng’s fame with an totally lovely quick video of the minion on Twitter, having a giant ol’ yawn whereas being splashed with some water. 

The quote tweets had been, as deliberate, drawing comparisons between the 2. This is your fault Square Enix, and I believe it is best to give everybody a free Hippo Calf to make an apology. At least bump the drop RNG a wee bit extra in my favour so I do not lose my thoughts working Vanaspati 100 instances simply to get the lil man.