An anti-farming guide for lazy people

This guide explains how to automate farming sessions for rare items. The nightmare is over.

A skippable introduction

If there is a thing we love to do in computer science, it is automation. Automatic, boring, time-consuming actions that require no reflexion should be automated whenever possible. And the produce of our labor should be shared. Laziness good.
You're in the FFIV hub. You know what this is about. This is no cheat. The game is good, but it deserves this.

In this guide, I tried to be as simple, entry-level as possible. I am actively trying not to turn anyone into a developer here - I mean, anyone should be able to follow this guide without a degree in anything.
But at the same time, I wanted things to be as open as possible. No mysterious third-party software (well, to the layman, python may be, but it is not that hard to install in windows). You (can) know exactly what is being executed on your computer. It is safe.
A short script, easy to understand and tinker with if you are curious... or simply wish to re-use this guide to slay 10 thousand souls in some other game, let's say.
If you do that, you are definitely no mere cheater. You are a community hero.

On the choice of technology, I discarded Java for being a tad too out-of-reach for non-developers.
My go-to tech was Powershell, which requires no install in windows 8+ releases. It was a mess however to get it to do what I want, and the game did not even register my inputs. If you know how to pull it off, by all means, bring it on, rival!

Finally, please do not farm these items before having the Treasure Hunter augment setup on a character. Game time is CPU time, and if there is one thing we learned from FFV, it's that energy sobriety will save the word.

Enough said. Time to get down to jelly.

Setup: install some stuff on your PC

You need 2 things:
- a python
- a keyboard
Joking. The python is a scripting language and the keyboard is a dependency. Don't worry, I'll guide you through that.

First open the cmd terminal (fancy word for cool window). You do that by typing "cmd" in the start menu.
Then, open the python terminal. You do that by typing "python" in the cmd terminal.
Wait, you could not? You were redirected to the Microsoft store (don't worry, python is free)? Well, click Install, let the computer do its job and do it again ^^

You got the python terminal? Good. Now type "exit()" to go back to the cmd terminal.
In the cmd terminal, type "python -m pip install keyboard"
There. All done!

One last disclaimer: adapt and improve

In the following sections, I will be linking to short scripts that do what you want... that is, if you have the expected key bindings and all!
But it could be that the script does not work out of the box for you, so I will explain what you may want to modify.

Some sections are off-limits. I think it is easy to tell, they are like inside a fortress of #.
Normally, you don't need to even read what's inside!

• If you want to change key bindings, there are lines like this at the top of the script:
  ACTION_UP = 'w'
  Pretty straightforward.
  You can even define other actions to use below if you like.
  
  
• If you want to change what actions are going to be made and/or adjust timing:
  Just make sure that your needs have not already been fulfilled in the comment sections, okay? People work and share so you don't have to contribute anything. Be lazy and enjoy.
  Otherwise, use your brain and analyse the "Actions" section, right in the middle of the script. With some tinkering, testing and 30 minutes of your time, you should make it work.

5 short steps to eat pudding and become the ultimate being

This section is to get the infamous rainbow pudding for the Namingway quest.

I strongly advice doing this first, since it does not require a high level and gives you access to the Safe travel augment.

• Open the python terminal (start menu > cmd.exe, "python", Enter)
  
• Location: Antlion's Den (B2)
  
  No Sirens required.
  One of your characters should have Togiberi. Others should defend. Rosa may pray. If nobody has Togiberi, you may simply attack.
  Of course, don't forget to turn auto battle on.
  
• Warning: once the bot is started in step 4, it will enter keys for the whole system. To stop it, you need to:
  - switch back to the python terminal
  - press Ctrl+C (repeatedly and savagely).
  
• Copy-paste this script[github.com] in the python terminal (including the empty line at the end), press Enter 1 or 2 times and switch to your game window.
  To paste a clipboard content, right-click in that window.
  
• Read a book, watch Serial Experiments Lain, call your mom, learn how to play the piano. You now have time for your ,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸-(_wildest dreams_)-,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸ away from steam. Because steam is locked up away from you.

Stay away from the Summoner!

The script for rare summons[github.com] is barely differrent from that for pudding. Instead of running up and down, you go left and right. Mind-boggling, I know.
No sirens were used or harmed in the acquisition of these summons.

For Cockatrice, Goblin and Mindfalyer, all you need is Togiberi, Pray, Defend and Attack. Check every now and then that nobody was turned to stone, but the risk is pretty low.

For Bomb, I'd require at least level 70, and you are going to sustain damage and use MP, so think of it ahead. This was my auto-battle setting:
- Cecil and Kain attacked, with counter and/or ???'s love when possible
- Edge used Bless to slow Rosa's loss of MP.
- Rosa used Cura with Omnicast and Fast Talker
- Rydia defended, mainly preoccupied with survival (taking hits is a good way to dispatch damage in the party if your level is a bit low)

Location for Globlin and Cockatrice is Baron, south of Mist Cave:

Location for Globlin only is the very entrance of Antlion's Den (B1).
[No screenshot. Really, it's the entrance and boom, launch the script]
Location for Mindflayer is a room in the upper right corner of the Lodestone Cavern (B2):

Location for Bomb is the Lunar Tunnel (east):

Twilight Princess

This setup relies on sirens being in the first spot of the inventory.
To organize the inventory, you must hold down the select button, move the second cursor that appears to the placement of the item you want to swap places with, then release the select button. This ludicrously hidden functionality would deserve a guide of its own.

It is also expected that Cecil is placed at the top of the team (the script opens the menu to use his white magic and heal him up after each fights. Be careful that his MP do not run out).
Everyone attacks with their best weapons (run a test to make sure the flans do not absorb any damage).
Cecil is on the back row, with Reach, and he draws attacks (so that nobody else needs healing).

The princesses can be summoned in a room in the Lunar Subterrane (B5). The nearest safepoint is in B7.

With the current version of the pink tail script[github.com]:

• one fight is 153.5 secons long (that's around 2m30s) This can surely be adjusted depending on your level and stats.
  Keep in mind that you want some room for all auto-battles to complete and validate level ups. The risk is that Cecil could not be healed, then die.
  
• 10 sirens will hold roughly 26 minutes
  
• 99 sirens will be consumed in 4h22m

If by the end of it, you did not drop any pink tail, reload a save to cut your losses.

Please note that the first line of code in the script is:
NUMBER_OF_SIRENS = 99
Meaning the script will not be using up your precious potions once your stock of sirens runs out!
You may still interrupt execution any time you like with the Ctrl+C keys.

Note: Thanks to AKQJ10Please's recommandation in the comments, you can reduce the battle time from 2.5 minutes to 27 seconds using (expensive) Stardusts bought from Tomra in the underworld. Have then Cecil in the back row, auto-defend, Draw Attack + Counter. Of course, use only 48 sirens.

The Dragon of the West

Next is the Onion Equipment. The script for other tails[github.com] is smilar to the flan princess one, since it relies on sirens.
It is just faster because did not go through the trouble of healing my characters. By then, I was lvl 99 with some good stats, and I had not much to fear from them.

Even if you get no tail out of 99 sirens, you might want to keep the literal fruit of your farming session. The silver apple carries to the next playthrough and gives +50HP. Dragons are not the most efficient way to farm these (see lilith's section), but it's up to you.

As previously noted, please note these lines:
NUMBER_OF_SIRENS = 99
BATTLE_TIME = 28
Depending on your ennemy, team and auto-battle setup, you may have to adjust them.

Green tail: Green Dragon
Location: Underworld, in front of the Sealed Cave:

Yellow tail: Yellow Dragon
Location: Underworld, Sealed Cave (B3):

Due to its inconvenient location, I recommend using the nearest safepoint instead of making trips back to the moon and forth.

Blue tail: Thunder Dragon (don't worry, it's blue)
Location: Underworld, Passage of Eidolons (B3):

Black tail: Armored Fiend (don't worry, it's... well, black)
Script:
Location: Red Moon, Lair of the Father (B3):

This one is strong. For this one I used the same setup and script[github.com] I had for the Flan Princesses (the one where I heal Cecil), with a shorter BATTLE_TIME. I still ended up with dead characters from time to time due to its powerful attacks, so the Phoenix augment might be helpful.

Red tail: Red Dragon
Location: Underworld, Lunar Subterrane (B8):
If you have trouble with this fight you may want some Adamant Armors (see Princess Jellyfish above) or flame-absorbing armors and shields combined with a Cursed Rings first (my go-to choice is Belphegor in the Passage of Eidolons (B1 using the weak summons script[github.com]). This would enable auto-battle without healing or risk of losing party members, which is neat.
I also found that Lydia's paralysis weapons were very effective against this foe.

Others

For HP, silver apples have a pretty high chance (25%) of dropping at the summit of Mt Ordeal, right next to the savepoint. Use the dragon script[github.com], I think a 16s battle time is long enough.

For gils, the Armored Fiend drops pretty valuable loot (poison axe and such). It's a shame, because it is the most annoying of the bunch (the one that actually has a chance of killing you). Fortunately, one set of sirens shoul lead you pretty far enough.

[belgarel]

Thanks, added that to the main guide.
Hadn't considered using stardust because I thought it would be a pain to farm for all those gils... that was before I knew how easy it is doing that while looking for black tails!

[AKQJ10Please]

Hi, just wanted to reach out and thank you for creating these scripts; I've been using them in the past few days off-and-on and picked up all of the rare summons and most of the rare tails!

For the pink tail specifically, I have a recommendation that could save a bunch of time: Have Cecil in the back row on auto Defend with Draw Attack + Counter, and put the Stardust item in his top augment slot. Every time he's hit, he casts Comet. After two casts, the flans all die.

Like this, I reduced the battle time to 27 seconds from 2.5 minutes, and set the Sirens to 49 in the script (since Cecil would use 49*2 Stardusts and run out after 49 fights). That way, after ~15 minutes, I could check the drops and then just reload from the B7 save point if needed.

If you need to replenish Stardusts, you can buy them in Tomra in the underworld, or you'll likely pick up a bunch when aiming for the Bomb summon in the lunar tunnel anyway, since they're a common drop.

[belgarel]

C1PH3R666, did you check the "Key bindings" section at the top of the script? It could be that you use different keys for action and/or menu buttons (as said in the "adapt and improve" section).

To understand what is going wrong, you can also play in a window and wheck the program's logs in the command window (it says stuff like '[Pressing] key TAB for 0.5 seconds").

[C1PH3R666]

The pink tail script doesn't seem to work for me? the pudding did though.

[Councillor Chocobo]

Gonna start the game soon! Looking forward to using your guide! I still remember the agony of trying to farm the flan...