Me and my partner have been steadily making progress in these duo-challenge alts. This was certainly inspired by the solo-only challenges out there (they're really cool!) but its a somewhat different experience as we have a lot more possibilities than being fully solo.
We're two lalafellin twin sisters who, with nothing better to do, have to save the world as many times as necessary so they can finally, hopefully, take the good nap they deserve.
Our objective is to beat MSQ on our own without NPC rewards from regular quests, avoid items from common currency vendors when possible and absolutely 0 help from any other player. We've also made it a rule to have to complete the tribes, deliveries and to go through the relics for each expansion as well. We prefer going without healer and try to complete duties on Minimum Item Level and No Echo when possible.
The result so far has been really interesting. We've just reached Stormblood, and almost every single fight so far (with the exception of a certain whale trial in Heavensward, which we had to unsync.) has been really, really rewarding to figure out and play synced. All fights take long (specially as double tank), but it also means you get to engage with the mechanics properly (and sometimes you find ways to break them.)
We've gained newfound appreciation for ARR and HW duties, and some of the ways you can cheese or tackle mechanics even as only 2 people. We've also gotten better at the game after playing this challenge for so long and we've noticed it in our mains as well. These characters are by far one of our coolest experience in this game.
Our latest struggle was Zurvan, part of the last relic progress needed for Heavensward, and I jokingly bet that if Saya clutched the clear I'd post about it on Reddit. I'm here, so you can bet it was a great clutch indeed.
Zurvan Clear (Saya's POV)
Zurvan Clear (Sasaba's POV)
We started posting recordings of our duty attempts (except the testing in our mains) right at the end of ARR, but our document still has a lot of notes about the duties we did before and our strategies for it. We've also made a music video we cleared ARR, and even if not the best, it's another thing that's really nice to share with people when they learn about the challenge and makes me happy to watch from time to time.
Enjoy!
Music Video for ARR
Any questions we're more than happy to answer
Our Rules Document
Edit: Fixed Saya's link. Oopsie.