Notorious Monster Notorious Monster is a term used to identify a special category of enemies that appear in " Final Fantasy XI " and " Final Fantasy XIV " . The official short form of this term is " NM " . Appearances . " Final Fantasy XI " . Notorious Monsters tend to be plot - related , quest - based , or important to the world of Vana ' diel as a whole . These can include great beastmen heroes , unique monsters and rare encounters on the field not unlike Rare Game in " Final Fantasy XII " . Notorious Monsters are typically known to have special qualities that set them apart from normal monsters . These include unique monster behavior , higher stats , special attacks , and rare or exclusive loot . Most Notorious Monsters are not easy to run into because they spawn infrequently , or under very specific conditions . NMs that do not spawn automatically may also require a player to spawn them by checking markers on the field , or trading trigger items used to cause them to spawn , amongst other things . One typical way of identifying notorious monsters is when a player Checks a notorious monster to determine the relative difficulty of the enemy . With notorious monsters , the player will simply be told that this creature ' s strength is " impossible to gauge " regardless of how difficult the fight will actually be . High Notorious Monsters . High Notorious Monsters ( or HNMs in short ) are a subset of Notorious Monsters that are known for their high level . These monsters are infamous for being very challenging encounters , often requiring alliances of players to defeat and dropping highly prized loot . Most HNMs are also either very elusive or take a lot of effort to even get to encounter . As there is no official word on what qualifies as a High Notorious Monster , the definition is highly disputed amongst the player community , although it is generally accepted that all HNMs possess the following traits : " Final Fantasy XIV " . Notorious Monsters worked similarly to their " Final Fantasy XI " counterpart , having some background importance and some were Guildleve - related . They were often much stronger versions of normal monsters and beastmen that roam the land , with unique appearance and sometimes enormous in size . Most Notorious Monsters gave a lodestone achievement when defeated for the first time . However , this time , every Notorious Monster had to be be killed under 30 minutes , or else they would " enrage " — receiving a great stat boost and more often than not wiping out an entire party in seconds . If a Notorious Monster was engaged and then killed the engaging party , he would despawn if it was not engaged again in roughly 15 minutes . If this happened , he would appear again on the same spot after two hours , fully recovered and not enraged . Another difference was the existence some Guildleve only NMs , that didn ' t require any chance or luck for spawning ; they were always present on their guildleve and could only be claimed by players doing that leve . To fight them , a player had to follow a chain of three faction leves , using a total of 600 faction points , and the Notorious Monster would always be fought at the end of the last one . Just like " Final Fantasy XI " , an NM ' s strength was " impossible to gauge " , a fact shown by their level icon . Instead of showing the target level like normal monsters , it was simply a " ? " shape . As of " A Realm Reborn " , Notorious Monsters are no longer in the game . Hunts have effectively replaced them as open world bosses .