Letter from the Producer, XXX (06/21/2012)

[Xanthe]

I soloed all aetherytes, on DRG at that. More than half were done in the last two weeks. Strategy is simple, but does involve a lot of patience.
- Equip Weathered Spear and unequip every other slot. Death is near-inevitable.
- Set your home point efficiently. If you're going to die, it's best to minimize the distance you need to recover.
- Know your aggro. It's important to know what is aggressive to sight, sound, and what is true aggro.

Spoiler: show

My observations:
Sight:
- Raptor
- Ahriman
- Bomb
- Toad
- Stag
- Basilisk
- Vulture
Sound:
- Salamander
- Treant
- Bat
- Crab
- Aurelia
- Drake
- Landtrap
- Antling
- Diremite
- Goobbue
True:
- Boar
- Gnat
- Morbol
- Wolf
Not sure:
- Hippogryph

Anything not listed either is not aggressive, I did not encounter it while hunting aetherytes, or I've forgotten about it.

- Don't be overly reliant on your Chocobo. For the majority of locations you will be able to walk ('X') by the sound aggro and behind the sight aggro with some patience waiting on the right positioning. I found this to be a better approach than training as some aggro will used ranged attacks, you may not be able to lose aggro effectively, or a mad dash will lead you straight into more aggro making the situation worse. When aggro isn't a concern feel free to ride.
- For those times that you have true aggro mixed in, take advantage of any defensive abilities at your disposal that absorb damage. As DRG I had Featherfoot and Decoy equipped in addition to Dreadspike. I would pop those abilities, jump on my chocobo, and ride on through until I can either lose aggro or reach the aetheryte. Your chocobo is FAST and will outrun aggro if you can stave off any initial attacks from aggro.
- Consider each possible route. Sometimes you'll be able to approach an aetheryte via multiple paths. If one proves to be too difficult, try another and see if monster positioning is more favorable.
- Don't waste anima traveling between camps, except from one region to another. Naturally this is subjective as you may be able to quickly replenish anima via Hemlet Defense. I don't have that option right now so I went by chocoback instead.

i'm stuck trying to get to Scorpion keep all the hall ways leading to it are filled with bombs

You should be able to train the bombs on chocoback without issue. They do not range attack that I found, and the area beyond them at the aetheryte is free of aggro. Dismount on top of the aetheryte and be ready to click the interaction shortcut when you're off.

[Rocl]

Almost certain Hippos are sight and Goobbues are sound for your list. I'm only 75% certain though.

[Fievel]

Goobbue are undoubtedly sound.

[rezn0r]

nice, thanks Xanthe

[Alkar]

Bombs are incredibly blind so you shouldn't have many issues getting past them.
I'll try again tomorrow and clear Gridania but there's also one Aetherite I'm missing in Limsa that I don't know how to reach honestly... can't even remember the name right now.
Anyway Yoshi-P will release a list of all missables alongside 1.23 or close to that.

[Xanthe]

Bombs are incredibly blind so you shouldn't have many issues getting past them.
I'll try again tomorrow and clear Gridania but there's also one Aetherite I'm missing in Limsa that I don't know how to reach honestly... can't even remember the name right now.
Anyway Yoshi-P will release a list of all missables alongside 1.23 or close to that.

The hardest one for me in Limsa was Oakwood, connected to Camp Iron Lakes. It had Lv40~ raptors outside the tunnels and 4x Lv76~ aihriman clustered in each tunnel. I got incredibly lucky on my second attempt and was able to run through on chocoback.

[Spira]

i dont play so just wondering from what i read, chocobos dont prevent aggro?

[Fievel]

i dont play so just wondering from what i read, chocobos dont prevent aggro?

Nope

[Oreth]

Cant you just be teleported to each Aetheryte by someone that has them all? Or does that only apply to some?

[Gokulo]

That should work, yeah.

[Rocl]

Shouldn't work for gates you don't have though, no?

[Gokulo]

Well yeah, you can only be teleported to main Aetherytes. Still have to get gates yourself, true.

[Grey Jorildyn]

You can be teleported to camps you do not have.

[Rocl]

Well yeah, you can only be teleported to main Aetherytes. Still have to get gates yourself, true.

In my experience the Aetherial Gates are the harder ones to reach anyway =P

[Gokulo]

Indeed ^^;

[Jamison]

On the subject of gates, I didn't realize the achievements menu now shows which you have and which you haven't. I have no idea when they put that in as I haven't looked at that in many months. (Same for the NM kill achievements, too.)

[Gokulo]

I think it was the patch following the one that introduced achievements?

[Xanthe]

Yeah, all of the achievements now show precise progress towards completion. It's an amazingly well fleshed out system, I have to say. I don't like having to go back to the NPC for titles, but eh.