Scouting is the art of searching and recording A-Rank hunting marks for the purposes of a Hunt Train. A-Ranks have a respawn time of up to six hours, so the player communities of various worlds and datacenters come together to scout out, record, and then run all found marks at once.
Resources
Glossary of Terms
| Term
|
Definition
|
| A-Rank |
the scary monster target.
|
| Scout |
a volunteer who goes out in search of a hunting target.
|
| Relay |
to take up the initial flag marker and then spread the word via shout, linkshell, etc.
|
| Pull Time |
an agreed-upon Eorzean Time(ET) for attacking the target. Abbreviated as PT.
|
| Called |
this target is greenlit to be relayed. Everyone interested can gather and kill at Pull Time.
|
| Scouted |
this target should NOT be relayed nor killed. The coordinates are for notes towards a future train.
|
Macro Tips
Sharing scout info with your third linkshell with the help of target and current position placeholders:
/l3 SCOUTED <t> <pos>
To relay a Conductor's flag (e.g. during ongoing train), select their flag in-game and then:
/shout Next stop <flag>
/l3 Next stop <flag>
With fun characters, it'd look like this: 
Ask around for your local hunting linkshells and scouting communities! A good time is just after a hunt finished.
As a general best practice, most Data Centers maintain a Discord server for coordinating and announcing what the players call "Hunt trains." The Discord servers also serve as a consistent relay channel for S Rank Hunts, allowing players to participate in the hunt's rarer elite marks more frequently.
During a "Hunt Train", players will form parties (usually via Party Finder.) The parties are then led by a player (a "conductor") who has collected the locations of Hunt Marks for a given expansion. The parties will teleport from zone to zone, killing all of the A-rank marks in a given expansion in rapid succession. This will earn 120/240 of the current Allagan Tomestones, 
360 Poetics, and 480 of that expansion's hunt currency, assuming all 12 marks for that expansion are currently available. Hunt Trains are a player organized effort, to attempt to maximize rewards for many players in a relatively short period of time.
However, it should be explicitly noted that The Hunt's Marks are field monsters, and thus, may be freely attacked by any player, at any time, which is not a violation of any in-game policy. Any players berating, harassing, or coercing players into not engaging Marks in favor of hunt trains may be in violation of the terms of service, as discouraging others from following their own play style, especially in an aggressive or persistent way may be considered Harassment.
Discord Links
- Faloop
- Centurio Hunts (FFXIV)
North America
Europe
Japan
Oceania
Useful Resources
Scouting Routes
The following spawn locations and decent scouting path are courtesy of Belletrist Grimm of Jenova [1].
We've used these pictures to great effect in finding and running trains on the Aether datacenter!
Endwalker
| Thavnair
|
Garlemald
|
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| Labyrinthos
|
Mare Lamentorum
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| Elpis
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Ultima Thule
|
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Shadowbringers
| Amh Araeng
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Lakeland
|
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| Kholusia
|
Il Mheg
|
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| Rak'tika Greatwood
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Tempest
|
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Stormblood
Hunts run in these areas are often referred to as Centurio Trains.
It's preferred to kill these with level 90 jobs, as you'll also obtain a bit of endgame material currency as well as the usual drops.
| The Fringes
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The Peaks
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| The Lochs
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The Ruby Sea
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| Yanxia
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The Azim Steppe
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