Endgame Progression Guide

So, you've finally hit level 99. Congratulations! What now? Well, you're probably overwhelmed by all the endgame content, and have no idea where to start or what's accessible. This guide will explain in detail what various endgame events are, what you can get out of them, and when you can take part in them. This guide is set up to walk you through from the first minute as a level 99 all the way to decked out in Best In Slot (BIS) gear - regardless of your job! It will also assume you have no knowledge of FFXI's endgame events, and will try to aim towards doing as much as possible solo.

This guide is roughly arranged in the order I recommend you attempt to take events on, however I don't recommend trying to complete each event 100% before moving on to the next. Get a few pieces of gear in an event, or make a bit of progress in it, then you'll be able to move on to the next. You want to always be moving forward, try not to get bogged down in any one event. You can always come back to farm gear later, and it'll probably go much faster then too.

Finally, each section of this guide is collapsed by default to make reading easier. Click the [Expand] button on the right-side of any section to expand it for more information.

A Quick Reminder

Before we get started in the guide proper, have you started on your Coalition Assignments and Mog Garden tasks yet? There is more info on these in the Initial Gearing section below, but they take MONTHS of progress to max out. If you haven't started on them yet, it's a great idea to do so as soon as you can! Now's also a good time to make sure you have your timer to get a Traverser stone rolling for Abyssea, same for Voidstone for - both of these build in the background over time, so you want to get those timers rolling as soon as you can!

Resources

Overview - click on "Expand" to read more -->

This guide is hosted on the BG Wiki - it is generally best for all content in the current endgame. However, it tends to lack information or detail on older content - for that, I would recommend FFXIclopedia. As a rule of thumb, any content from before the Seekers of Adoulin expansion will probably have more detail on FFXIclopedia, and any content after that will likely have more detail here on BGwiki. For reference, areas in the "Middle Lands" around the three main nations, areas in the near east of Aht Urghan, "Shadowreign" areas in the past, and all Abyssea areas are generally pre-Adoulin content.

I would also highly recommend FFXIAH for easily and quickly looking up prices of items on your server - both in the Auction House (AH) and in players' bazaars.

There are some youtubers that have very useful guides for the game as well, for players new and old.

• Ruaumoko has very detailed and educational guides on many different jobs, along with strategies for some endgame fights.
• Cloudchief Arcade has several videos aimed towards newer players, explaining how several endgame events work and the best ways to tackle them.
• Next Games has an EXTREMELY detailed series of video guides tailored to Ninja, but also includes several guides for soloing difficult endgame fights.

If you have a favorite FFXI youtube channel that you don't see mentioned here, let me know so I can add them!

Deciding on your Jobs

Overview

The first major decision of your endgame career is deciding what jobs to play! Yes, jobs, plural - it's generally not a good idea to focus on just one single job for your entire FFXI career. Early on it's fine to play just a single job, so you have more grounding when learning new content and the game in general, but you should consider other jobs to play as well so you can expand your repertoire once you start running into content you can't clear solo. You can of course just continue with whatever job you decided to hit 99 with, but it is worth considering different options. There are, unfortunately, a few pitfalls that new players won't see coming when deciding on a job - some of which you may not run into until much later. I don't want to discourage you from picking a job that sounds fun to you, but it would be a disservice to you not to at least give you a bit of warning. This section will warn you what to expect from party roles and individual jobs, both the good and the bad.

NOTE - A job with more positive points is not necessarily better than a job with fewer, and a job with more negative points is not necessarily worse than a job with fewer. The positive/negative bullet points are simply included to let you know what to expect from a job.

Damage Dealers

There are a lot of options to pick from when it comes to dealing damage in FFXI. Unfortunately, dealing damage is very very popular amongst the playerbase, many of which have been playing for a looooong time and are geared to the nines. Being a Damage Dealer (DD / DPS) can be very fun, but know that there will be a lot of competition, and as a new player you may find it difficult to get invites to groups once you start running into content you can't clear solo.

If you play a Damage Dealer, expect to...

• ...spend a lot of time waiting for invites, or making parties yourself
• ...have low damage early in group content, which may make you feel like you're being "carried" through that content until your gear improves
• ...learn how Attack Speed works and various Accuracy caps for content
• ...farm up an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) for very lategame content

Heavy Physical Damage Dealers (Heavy DD / DPS)
These are the heavy hitters, as the name implies. They often wear heavy armor and use two-handed weapons. They can be surprisingly survivable, but don't offer much else in terms of party support beyond pure damage and the occasional debuff.

Warrior - The classic heavy DD, WAR is flexible in that it can wield many different weapons. Can function as a tank in a pinch. Good in almost any situation where you need physical damage. Uses almost all weapon types, but has a fondness for Great Axes.

• Low initial gear requirement
• Fairly simple to play
• Requires a lot of gear at higher levels of content

Monk - MNK doesn't wear heavy armor, but is very survivable nonetheless due to being able to counter enemy attacks. Can buff party max HP, which can help save the team during some boss attacks. Uses hand-to-hand weapons and kick attacks.

• Good for soloing
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs

Dark Knight - DRK arguably has the single highest damage Weapon Skills in the game, and can dish out big auto attack damage as well. Can cast some black magic too, bringing a bit of utility! Uses Great Swords and Scythes.

• Powerful burst damage
• Fairly simple to play
• Taking time to cast spells cuts into their damage dealing

Samurai - SAM specializes in Skillchains, and can solo multiple Skillchains by using a ton of weapon skills in a row. Good for "zerging" down bosses due to this ability to pump out big burst damage. The only class that specializes in Great Katanas, but can also use Polearms and Bows.

• Powerful burst damage
• Low initial gear requirement
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs

Dragoon- A mix of DRK and SAM, with a pet wyvern thrown in - DRG deals good Weapon Skill damage and can solo Skillchains easily due to their Jump skills. You need to pay attention to keeping your pet wyvern alive, though you have lots of options for getting rid of hate and keeping yourself alive. Specializes in Polearms.

• Good for soloing with a WHM or BLU subjob.
• Fairly technical to play

Notes: With very good gear, Rune Fencer can also function as a heavy DPS.

Light Physical DD
These jobs wear light armor, and usually dual wield weapons. Don't let the name fool you, they can often dish out nearly as much damage as a Heavy DD (if not more, depending on gear) - however, they often lack the survivability of the heavier jobs. They tend to make up for this by offering more support with debuffs, buffs, and even healing. Many light DDs are also more suited than other jobs for solo / "low man" situations where you don't have a full party of other players, due to having a mix of strong damage and sustainability.

Red Mage - A jack of all trades, RDM can deal some very solid damage with their swords, while dealing extra magic damage on each swing with their en-spells. They can solo shorter skillchains, and even magic burst off of them - all while offering buffs and healing. Primarily dual wields Swords and/or Daggers.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear

Thief - THFs help control hate / enmity of party members, while dealing out big burst damage with their position-based skills. They also bring Treasure Hunter to the table, helping with rare drops. Primarily dual wields Daggers, but occasionally swords.

• Good at soloing with a NIN or DNC subjob
• Makes farming items very easy
• Low initial gear requirement
• Fairly simple to play
• Inconsistent damage due to positional requirements
• Low defenses even compared to other Light DDs

Beastmaster - BSTs fight alongside various helper pets that provide powerful buffs and debuffs while the BST dishes out the hurt. They can deal very strong AOE damage, and are extraordinarily good at soloing. Primarily dual wields Axes, or an Axe and Shield.

• Very good at soloing
• Fairly technical to play
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs

Ranger - RNGs can deal very good damage both up close with melee attacks and at a distance. They lack party support options, but can deal quite a lot of damage. Dual Wields Daggers, Swords, and Axes for meleeing, and Bows, Crossbows, and Guns for ranged damage.

• Powerful burst damage
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs

Ninja - NIN are similar to RDMs in that they can deal their own skillchains and magic burst off of them with ninjutsu. They're also very survivable by avoiding damage, and can even serve as a tank in some situations. They dual wield one-handed katanas and carry throwing shurikens.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear

Summoner - SMNs summon up pets to do their dirty work, and they can deal very strong physical (and magic!) damage, along with a variety of buffs and debuffs. However, it can be difficult for a new player to gear up, as they require quite a lot of different equipment to become effective. They carry staves, but don't use them for meleeing, instead sending their summoned Avatars in to fight.

• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA)

Blue Mage - BLU uses enemy skills to bring a lot of variety to the table, dealing very respectable melee damage along with lots of AOE debuffs + damage. Learning spells can be time consuming, though. They dual wield swords.

• Very good at soloing
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of time to learn Blue Magic
• Requires a lot of gear

Corsair - A great party support with very strong (if random) buffs, COR can also deal respectable damage. In very high demand for parties. They dual wield swords and daggers for melee, and use Guns for ranged damage.

• In very high demand
• Low initial gear requirement
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) for lategame content

Puppetmaster - PUP is similar to BST in that they have a pet to deal damage for them. The puppet is very customizable, and can deal melee or ranged damage, and can tank surprisingly well. Puppetmasters wield hand-to-hand weapons, but generally let their puppets do most of the fighting.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs

Dancer - DNC specializes in skillchains just like SAM, but sacrifice some damage in exchange for very effective debuffs and healing. You'll need to use Sambas, Waltzes, Steps, and Jigs to manage a resource called Finishing Moves to deal big burst damage. They dual wield daggers.

• Very good at soloing
• Powerful burst damage
• Fairly technical to play

Notes: At higher levels, Bard can also function as a light DPS with melee dagger attacks and weapon skills.

Magic DD
Magic DDs focus in magic damage - not very surprising. This is usually done at a range, and often can hit multiple enemies at once. Their damage is often very strong, but are generally very squishy and can die easily if they get too close. Most mages use Staves or clubs, primarily carrying them as boosts to magic stats.

Black Mage - The gold standard of magic damage, BLM are all about nuking hordes of enemies down with big explosions. They provide some light debuffing options, but are always brought along to bring their amazing firepower - especially when Magic Bursting off a Skillchain.

• Powerful burst damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires knowledge of Magic Damage mechanics
• Having multiple BLMs in a team results in lowered damage for all of them

Red Mage - RDMs lack the AOE of a BLM, but can deal very respectable single-target magic damage while also bringing strong debuffs, buffs, and healing. Also able to deal lots of magic damage through melee attacks using enspells.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear

Summoner - SMNs summon up pets to do their dirty work, and they can deal very strong magic (and physical!) damage, along with a variety of buffs and debuffs. However, it can be difficult for a new player to gear up, as they require quite a lot of different equipment to become effective.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA)

Blue Mage - BLUs can dish out very strong AOE magical damage, often dealing status effects too. As mentioned above, they also perform well as a Light DD.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear

Scholar - Very flexible mages, SCHs flip-flop back and forth between specializing in white and black magic. Can deal very strong damage over time and can even be a primary healer, if you're good at juggling its Stratagem charges. It can even create skillchains via magic!

• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Low initial gear requirement
• Fairly technical to play

Geomancer - While primarily used as a support job, GEOs can bring solid magic damage to the table. In AOE form, too!

• In very high demand
• Low initial gear requirement
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) for lategame content
  • This REMA requires EIGHT MONTHS of farming to earn, and cannot be sped up in any way

Notes: While not traditional casters, when properly equipped Ranger and Corsair can both deal very high amounts of magic damage from a distance using certain Weapon Skills.

Tanks

Tanks are in charge of keeping and holding enemy hate while being very survivable. Sometimes they can bring some good damage to the table, too. Almost every party wants a tank, and as such these are in high demand. However, you'll be expected to know the content inside and out, and will often have high gear requirements at top levels of play.

If you play a tank, expect to...

• ...get invites to parties very quickly
• ...do lots of research on endgame content and to know the mechanics like the back of your hand
• ...not deal very much damage
• ...spend time farming an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) once you reach higher levels of play

Paladin - The classic sword and shield knight, PLD is the best tank at reducing physical damage or tanking large numbers of enemies. Not only that, but PLD can support the party with surprisingly potent healing spells - a skilled Paladin can often keep itself alive independently even against some stronger bosses, removing the need for the party to rely on a dedicated healer.

• In very high demand
• Good at soloing
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) for lategame content

Ninja - NIN survives via avoiding damage altogether. Not used as a main tank too often, but makes for a great backup tank and can deal damage more easily than other jobs in this category. They are strong at tanking enemies without too many AOE attacks, as those often bypass NIN's damage avoidance. Unfortunately, the current endgame meta has lots of these AOE abilities, so NIN doesn't see a ton of use as a tank nowadays, but it still can be useful.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear

Puppetmaster - PUP doesn't tank directly - instead using its pet puppet as the tank. The puppet has frankly ridiculous amounts of damage resistance, and thus lets your healers focus on other party members more easily. Puppetmasters wield hand-to-hand weapons, but generally let their puppets do most of the fighting.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs

Rune Fencer - RUNs specialize in resisting magic damage and status effects, making it very strong in the current endgame. They can only resist a few elements of magic at a time, so the RUN will need to be familiar with what specific encounters require. With strong enough gear, can also dish out very good damage. Despite the name, they wield Great Swords.

• In very high demand
• Fairly technical to play
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) for lategame content
  • This REMA requires EIGHT MONTHS of farming to earn, and cannot be sped up in any way

Notes: Warriors, Monks, and Dancers can also function as tanks in emergencies or specialized situations.

Supports

The primary role of support jobs is to buff party members or debuff enemies. These jobs are often very strong, and are key members of any party - getting party invites will likely be very easy. Unfortunately, most of them have a lot of gear requirements to work at a high level, and some require good knowledge of the content being played.

If you play a support, expect to...

• ...get invites to parties very quickly
• ...keep track of multiple buffs and debuffs, across 6+ party members and all enemies being fought, while also understanding the specific mechanics of how your job's buffs work (each job has different rules)
• ...sit around doing nothing until you need to refresh buffs/debuffs, until you get well-geared enough to contribute damage
• ...spend time farming multiple Ultimate Weapons (REMA) once you reach higher levels of play

Bard - BRDs use songs to give allies a wide range of powerful buffs - accuracy, attack, attack speed, MP regeneration, you name it they can buff it. They can also deal respectable melee damage with good enough gear, and have some decent debuffs such as sleeps and dispels.

• In very high demand
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear
• Expected to get MULTIPLE Ultimate Weapons (REMA) for lategame content

Corsair - Gamblers by nature, CORs play a quick push-your-luck game to give AOE buffs to their party. Bad luck can cause a Bust though, which removes the buff from the party (and debuffs you). They can also deal very good physical damage. In very high demand.

• In very high demand
• Low initial gear requirement
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) for lategame content

Geomancer - GEOs use AOE bubbles to give powerful buffs and debuffs, localized to specific areas of the battlefield. Their debuffs can't be resisted, and are very powerful - although the GEO will need to keep a Luopan pet alive in order to maintain these buffs/debuffs. In very high demand due to its strong support effects.

• In very high demand
• Low initial gear requirement
• Fairly technical to play
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) for lategame content
  • This REMA requires SIX MONTHS of farming to earn, and cannot be sped up in any way

Backup Support
These jobs tend to give buffs that can be found elsewhere, and can't usually support an entire party on their own. Instead, they fulfill a different role in the party (often dealing damage) while also providing additional support alongside a BRD, COR, or GEO.

Red Mage - RDMs use strong single-target debuffs and buffs to cripple enemies and embiggen allies. Unfortunately, they can't directly buff party attack or accuracy, which is often a primary concern for support jobs. On the other hand, they also bring strong physical and magic damage to the table, and help out with healing.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear

Summoner - SMNs can deal quite a lot of damage with their offensive blood pacts, but they also provide a lot of support utility with their defensive ones as well. Party-wide hastes, attack buffs, defense buffs, and even debuffs such as sleeps and silences. If you're good at juggling avatars, you don't even lose out on any damage!

• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA)

Dancer - DNC are primarily light DDs, but they can be useful as a backup support as well. They can speed up allied melees and provide unique debuffs that stack with other supports, such as defense down and evasion down. They can also provide backup healing and debuff removal.

• Very good at soloing
• Powerful burst damage
• Fairly technical to play

Healers

It's the healers' job to keep everyone in the party alive. They are mandatory in almost every party, and thus are in very high demand. That being said, healers generally tend to struggle while solo due to being squishy and having very low damage. They also are expected to know quite a bit about the endgame, knowing what debuffs to cure in each fight, etc.

If you play a healer, expect to...

• ...get invites to parties very quickly
• ...do a lot of research on endgame content, so you'll know what to expect from the fight
• ...have good reflexes and quick decision making
• ...probably get blamed if things go wrong

White Mage - The classic healer, WHM specialize in keeping the party alive and removing debuffs from them. It's rare to find a party that doesn't have at least one white mage.

• In very high demand
• Low initial gear requirement
• Fairly technical to play
• Fairly technical to play
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) for lategame content

Scholar - While not as specialized as WHMs, SCHs can provide solid healing as well - and then can switch to offensive spells during downtimes when healing isn't needed.

• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Low initial gear requirement
• Fairly technical to play

Backup Healer
These jobs can do a decent job of providing support healing. Depending on how well-geared they are and the content being tackled, they can sometimes main-heal as well. These jobs primarily fill other roles, but use WHM or SCH subjobs to help the main healer(s) out during downtime / emergencies. Occasionally, a party will forego one main healer in favor of multiple backup healers, which can be particularly useful in "low-man" situations (parties with fewer than 6 players)

Red Mage - As mentioned previously, RDMs fulfill many roles, and healing can be one of them. A skilled RDM can main heal, but more often the lack of AOE healing options limits them in higher-end content.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear

Bard - After a BRD is done buffing the party with their songs, it's not uncommon for them to shift gears into a healing role, though providing party support is usually a bigger priority.

• In very high demand
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear
• Expected to get MULTIPLE Ultimate Weapons (REMA) for lategame content

Summoner - SMNs have large MP pools and their summoned Avatars have multiple defensive buff options available. SMNs generally tend to focus more on dealing damage, but can help healing if needed.

• Very good at soloing
• Can fulfill multiple party roles
• Has Physical and Magic Damage
• Fairly technical to play
• Requires a lot of gear
• Gear doesn't have much overlap with other jobs
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA)

Dancer - DNCs can provide a surprising amount of healing and debuff removal, and as an added bonus don't need to worry about getting silenced. Unfortunately they can't usually heal quickly enough to main heal, and are better utilized as damage dealers, but their emergency healing can save otherwise lost runs.

• Very good at soloing
• Powerful burst damage
• Fairly technical to play

Geomancer - Similarly to BRDs, GEOs can provide valuable support healing after they've placed their buffs. GEOs often can find themselves without much to do once they've placed all of their buffs, so assisting with healing and occasional debuffs is a good use of their time.

• In very high demand
• Low initial gear requirement
• Fairly technical to play
• Expected to get an Ultimate Weapon (REMA) for lategame content
  • This REMA requires SIX MONTHS of farming to earn, and cannot be sped up in any way

Party Composition

When not solo, you'll usually be in a party of 6 players (counting you), or an alliance of 18 players (three 6-player parties). The jobs that make up these parties and alliances vary depending on the content being tackled, but there are some rules of thumb for making a balanced party/alliance.

A party will tend to have 1 Healer, 1 Tank, 2 DDs, and 2 Supports. The DDs can be heavy, light, and/or magic. Since some jobs can work double-duty in roles, such as Corsair providing both support and DD, there's quite a lot of flexibility in this setup.

An alliance will tend to have a DD party, a Tank/Healer party, and a Mage party. Each of these three parties will usually have a dedicated healer and support, providing buffs unique to that party (attack speed buffs for DDs, defense buffs for the tanks, etc). The mage party is usually there for crowd control, offering AOE damage or debuffing - most content that requires an alliance will pit you against large groups of enemies, and thus a party dedicated to handling these groups is necessary. Due to the large number of players, alliance composition is very flexible.

How to Evaluate Equipment and Build a Gearset

Gear Evaluation Overview

There's a LOT of equipment in this game, so it's important to be able to recognize when one piece of gear is better than another. Many guides online assume you already know what gear is good and fail to mention WHY some pieces are better than others. The most important thing to consider when gearing up usually isn't individual pieces of equipment, but rather entire equipment sets and what benefits they provide. For example, a Melee DD will want a set to build TP quickly and another set to deliver strong Weapon Skills. This section will attempt to give you some loose guidelines on what stats to focus on depending on your role. Some jobs fulfill multiple roles, and thus you may need more or fewer gearsets.

Note that the Windower addon Gearswap can make swapping between equipment sets much easier. It can be quite complicated though, so I recommend this Gearswap guide on ffxiah.com for a crash-course. There's nothing wrong with using in-game Equipment Sets, of course, but gearswap automates quite a lot.

When it comes to evaluating whether or not a specific piece of equipment is good / bad for you, think about what set you would use the gear in and whether or not it will help that set achieve its goal. Using a piece of gear without any Store TP or Multi-Attack may not be useful for your gearset that focuses on building TP, for example. On the other hand, maybe you have tons of that in your TP-building set already, and need more accuracy because you keep missing - thus a piece of gear without TP-building stats may still be considered if it has a lot of Accuracy.

Take a look at a piece of equipment's stats and try to think if there's a set you can use it in, and if it's better than anything else you have in that slot. Sometimes a piece of gear may be very obscure, such as only being used in a Dual Wielding mid-level accuracy set when at full haste (don't worry, I'll explain this later) - but if it's better than what you had before, it's still worth using!

Now I'll explain the various sets you'll likely want, depending on your job's role.

Heavy & Light DDs

DDs mainly need to focus on two things: building TP and dishing out Weapon Skills. You will need sets to ensure you have enough accuracy to hit, though, and another set to ensure you stay alive against tough opponents.

• TP Set - This is a set for getting TP as fast as possible. You will want to hit 25% total haste among your equipment, as that is the cap for haste that you can get from gear (known as "Gear Haste"). If you're Dual Wielding, you'll also want to have Dual Wield+ (DW) on your gear, with how much varying depending on the buffs you have. Basically, more attack speed buffs (Haste, March, etc) means you want less DW. See the Attack Speed Page for more information. After hitting Haste cap, you'll want to focus on Store TP (STP), Double Attack (DA), Triple Attack (TA), and Quadruple Attack (QA) where possible. You'll also want a bit of accuracy, to ensure you're hitting reliably. As a rule of thumb, 1 STP = 1 DA, 2 STP = 1 TA, and 3 STP = 1 QA.
• Weapon Skill Set - This should be a set you swap in to for when you use WS's. It should generally focus on maxing out the stat for that WS, which will vary wildly - look up the wiki page for your WS to see what it uses, then try to pack on as much of that stat as you can.
  • The Weapon Skill Damage stat usually only applies to the very first hit of a weapon skill, and thus weapon skills that only hit once or twice (such as Savage Blade and Rudra's Storm) will get a lot of damage from this stat, but WSs with many hits will see very little damage increase. You also will want to put in some Attack in your WS set, unless it's an Elemental Weapon Skill.
  • If your weapon skill hits 4 or more times, it's also likely a good idea to put in some Multi Attack.
  • If your weapon skill has the "Critical hit rate varies with TP" modifier (such as Evisceration and Chant du Cygne) then it's a good idea to look for gear with Critical Hit Damage and Critical Hit Rate.
  • If your weapon skill is an Elemental WS, such as Sanguine Blade, you'll instead want offensive spellcasting stats like Magic Attack Bonus and INT (even if the WS has other modifiers such as DEX or STR).
• Accuracy Set(s) - It's a good idea to make 1 or 2 sets for when you need more accuracy. After all, you can't do much if you're missing all the time. There's no hard rule for when you should swap into your accuracy set, but if you notice you're missing a lot it's probably a good idea. Each piece of content in the game has its own accuracy requirements, which you can look up if you want to be CERTAIN you're hitting the accuracy needs. However, a good rule of thumb is to try to make each of your accuracy sets 100 points more accurate than the previous. So if your standard TP set has 1100 accuracy, aim for your mid-range accuracy set to have 1200 accuracy, and your high accuracy set to have 1300 accuracy. Also note that every 2 points of DEX roughly translates to 1 point of accuracy, so that may be something to keep in mind. Combat skills (Axe Skill, Polearm Skill, etc) also are worth roughly 1 point of accuracy.
  
  • Note - You generally don't want to get rid of all your haste, STP, multi-attack, etc when swapping to an Accuracy Set. If you're throwing away all of your TP-gaining stats in order to hit, it's likely not worth it - aim for a good middle ground.
• DT / Hybrid Set - A "Hybrid" or "DT" (short for Damage Taken) set is a defensive one you'll need to swap to depending on the fight. If an enemy likes to spam AOE attacks / spells, or you steal hate, you'll be happy you have this - just remember to equip it! You can look at the Damage Taken page for a full explanation on how DT works, but the short version is you'll want around -25% Physical Damage Taken (PDT), -25% Damage Taken (DT), and then some extra Magic Evasion and HP if possible. You'll almost always have Shell V, which gives -25% Magic Damage Taken (MDT), and DT counts as both PDT and MDT - thus with 25% PDT and DT, you'll hit the cap of -50% for both PDT and MDT once you have Shell V.
  • I would also recommend making DT variations of your WS sets. You CAN (and will) get hit by a powerful AOE during the small window where you're performing a WS, and you don't want to get caught out in a set with no defenses while doing so. Ideally you'll still have max DT and enough HP to keep your health from dropping into yellow when you swap back into your engaged DT set. This will not only keep you from annoying your Healer, but will also keep you from aggro'ing any Undead that are in blood aggro range.
• Idle Set - This is what you should wear while not engaged with the enemy. Generally this should have -25% DT and PDT, and maybe some regen and Movement Speed+ as well. If your job has an MP pool it uses often then putting Refresh here is a good idea as well. Often you can just use your DT set for this.

Ranged Jobs
Jobs such as Ranger and Corsair, which rely on ranged weapons, should have slight variations on the above sets.

• Ranged TP Set - This is for building TP via ranged attacks. You'll want to cap out Snapshot (70%) and then stack on as much Rapid Fire as possible. If there's a RDM in your party, ask them for Flurry or Flurry II, which will mean you'll need less Snapshot (and thus can focus on other stats). You'll still want to stack on plenty of Store TP as well, since it will increase your TP gain from ranged attacks.
  • Note - COR often doesn't rely on their ranged attacks for dealing damage too much, often instead using melee weapons. You thus may want to build BOTH a melee TP set and a ranged TP set, for more flexibility, but if you can't afford that then it may be better to focus on only a melee TP set.

Tanks

Tanks have a lot of overlap with Melee DD sets, but with some tweaked priorities. I won't restate what's listed above, but will provide some more context where needed. Be careful when swapping out of your DT set when you start getting lots of HP there - swapping out to cast a quick spell may cause you to suddenly lose hundreds of HP! You should also always try to keep as much DT in your sets as possible, so you don't get tagged by a powerful hit when you're trying to gain Enmity or something.

• DT Set - This is top priority for a tank, and while wearing it you generally shouldn't worry about how much TP you're getting or how much damage you're dealing. Focus entirely on defensive stats - get 25% DT and PDT, put on a few "Convert Damage Taken to MP" pieces such as Ethereal Earring, and stack as much Magic Evasion and HP as possible. Note that you DO want to ensure you have 25% "Gear Haste", as it will help speed up your spellcasting.
• Hybrid Set - This should be an in-between of a standard DD TP set and a DT set. Still aim for 25% DT and PDT, but feel free to sacrifice some of the other defensive stats for Store TP (STP), Double Attack (DA), Triple Attack (TA), and Quadruple Attack (QA) where possible. You'll also want a bit of accuracy, to ensure you're hitting reliably.
• TP Set - This is for when whatever you're tanking doesn't pose much of a threat to you, and you can afford to help deal some damage. STP, DA, Triple Attack (TA), Quadruple Attack (QA), and accuracy are all good here.
• Enmity Set - This should be used whenever you're doing something to build hate, like Flash or Provoke. Look for gear that gives Enmity+, and fill in any gaps with pieces from your DT set to ensure you don't get one-shot while trying to get hate.
• Fast Cast Set - Casting often leaves you vulnerable, so it's a good idea to have a Fast Cast set to get spells out quickly. Ensure you have some HP and DT in there too, to survive while spellcasting.
• Idle Set - This will likely be similar to your DT Set, but it's a good idea to try and work some Refresh in as well, since PLD and RUN are both very reliant on MP.

Mages

Mages have very different gearset priorities compared to DDs and Tanks.

• Fast Cast Set - Mages will be casting a lot, so you'll want a Fast Cast (FC) set to speed it up. Note that Fast Cast not only speeds up spellcasting, but ALSO the spell's cooldown timer. Fast Cast as a stat caps at 40%, but you'll also want to ensure this set caps "Gear Haste" as well at 25%. Ideally you'll have this in a gearswap "precast" set, so that it swaps out to another "midcast" set to boost the effectiveness of the spell after you start casting it. If you're not using gearswap, this is probably a lower priority.
• Damaging Spell Set - This set is for any job that will be casting spells that deal damage. The primary stats to focus on are Magic Attack Bonus (MAB) and INT. +Magic Damage as a stat tends to help out lower-tier magic more than higher-tier magic, so ironically it's often not a huge priority. The corresponding magic skill (Elemental Magic Skill, Blue Magic Skill, etc) will also increase the damage of these spells, so keep an eye open for it.
  • Magic Accuracy will help prevent spells from being resisted, which lowers their damage, but generally is less important than MAB or INT.
• Debuffing Spell Set - This is for any offensive spell that does NOT directly deal damage when it's finished casting, primarily debuffs like Paralyze and Slow. This should focus on Magic Accuracy primarily, along with the corresponding magic skill (often Enfeebling Magic Skill, but sometimes Dark Magic Skill or Divine Magic Skill). Depending on whether the spell is White Magic or Black Magic, you'll also want some MND or INT, respectively.
• Healing Spell Set - This is for any healing you'll be doing. You'll want to focus on Cure Potency, Healing Magic Skill, and MND.
• Idle Refresh Set - You'll be dumping a LOT of MP while spellcasting, and often in a party you won't be engaged in melee combat, so you'll want an idle set with lots of Refresh to help shore up your MP pool.
• Idle DT Set - Sometimes you'll be fighting something with lots of strong AOE moves that hit you even at the far edge of casting distance. In these cases, you'll want to swap from your Idle Refresh Set to an Idle DT Set to help keep alive. Focus on getting -25% DT and PDT, as with Shell V that will max out your -% Damage Taken at 50% physical and 50% magical.
  • I would also recommend making DT variations of your casting sets. You probably will be out of range of threatening AOEs when casting, but not always. Ideally you'll still have max DT and enough HP to keep your health from dropping into yellow when you swap back into your engaged DT set. This will not only keep you from annoying your Healer, but will also keep you from aggro'ing any Undead that are in blood aggro range.

Recommended Trusts

Overview

There's quite a lot of Trusts in the game, and sometimes it can be difficult to know which ones you should prioritize over others. I would recommend you get as many trusts as you possibly can, as some quite powerful trust upgrades depend on you having over 80 trusts - so it's a good idea to collect 'em all. However, even with all the trusts in the world, it can be hard to decide which ones to summon, how to build a party of them, etc. That's what this section is meant to help you out with!

Trust Party Composition
Just like with a regular 6-player party, ideally you'll have 1 tank, 1 healer, 2 damage dealers, and 2 supports - and your trust selection should try to roughly align with this setup. Before you unlock your 4th and 5th trusts, I'd recommend forgoing one of the damage dealers and one of the supports. Once you start getting geared up, you'll probably notice you start stealing hate from your tank. Eventually your trust tank just won't be able to hold a candle to your enmity generation, at which point I recommend replacing the tank with another support or healer. You may also eventually find your damage dealer trust not adding much damage compared to you - at that point, it might be worth swapping them out for another support - yes, this might mean your party winds up being you, a healer, and four supports. Just like with player jobs and parties, trusts can often fulfill multiple roles - some trusts can deal damage while healing, others can tank and support, etc. Feel free to experiment and get creative with your party composition!

Unfortunately, not all of these trusts will be available right off the bat. Some of them will only be available during certain Login Campaigns, others by completing Records of Eminence Objectives, others only after completing some (long) mission questlines. Treat these recommendations both as trusts to use that you might already have, and also as some goals to work toward in the future.

Easy To Get Trusts

As mentioned, many trusts aren't available outside of seasonal events or until completing very long mission chains. This section will give recommendations for trusts that you will either already have available, or are fairly easy to attain even for a fresh lv99 player.

Damage Dealers

• Zeid II - Complete RoV Mission Volto Oscuro.
  • Another very strong damage dealer, Zeid 2 will spam very strong Ground Strike, as he gains TP very quickly. His real strength comes from his fondness for casting Stun - he will often cast it to interrupt enemy TP moves.

• Tenzen - Complete Records of Eminence: Basic Tutorial Objective
  • Tenzen is like a reverse Ayame - he has a wide range of WSs available, but instead of opening skillchains he will always try to close skillchains with his TP, and can even do up to a 3-step skillchain completely solo. If you pair him with a trust that can Magic Burst (or if you can do so yourself), then this can result in quite a lot of damage.

• Semih Lafihna - Speak to Kupipi in Heavens Tower either during Mission 2-3 for any nation or after completing RoV mission The Path Untraveled
  • Semih deals quite good damage, and will stand far back - often outside of the range of AOEs, making her surprisingly survivable. Her damage will begin to fall off as you progress through the endgame, but like Teodor is useful early on or when leveling. Be warned that one of her Weapon Skills deals AOE damage, which can get her (or you) killed.

• Halver - Speak to Halver in Chateau d'Oraguille (I-9) either during Mission 2-3 for any nation or after completing RoV mission The Path Untraveled
  • Halver is another great low-level damage dealer, as he has access to Penta Thrust even as low as level 5.

• Ayame - Complete the Trust: Bastok quest.
  • Ayame has access to a huge variety of Weapon Skills, and gains TP very quickly. She will always hold onto her TP until you get to 1k, and will use a Weapon Skill that you can skillchain from, if possible. Furthermore, she will always try to open up the highest level skilchain possible. She can be extremely useful for unlocking some Weapon Skills which require you to close skillchains, such as WSNM quests or Mythic Weapon Skills.

Tanks

• Valaineral - Complete Records of Eminence: Basic Tutorial Objective
  • Valaineral is an easy go-to tank you can get very early on. He holds hate well and can even help with curing magic! He likes to use a unique AOE ability, which can be good or bad - useful for farming large groups, but can get unwanted monsters if you're not careful.

• Trion - Complete the Trust: San d'Oria Quest, earn Rank 6 in any nation, then examine the "Door: Prince Royal’s Room" in Chateau d'Oraguille (H-7)
  • Trion is mostly an upgraded version of Valaineral - he has solid defenses, uses curative magic, holds hate well, and will even attempt to interrupt enemy TP moves using Shield Bash. He also has two defensive Weapon Skills, meaning he'll be less likely to interrupt skillchains. He doesn't have any AOE skills, so if you're trying to farm large groups then Valaineral may still be the better choice.

• Gessho - Complete the ToAU Mission Passing Glory, then examine the cushion in Aht Urhgan Whitegate (J-12)
  • Gessho is one of the few NIN tank trusts available, and thus he tanks by avoiding damage with Utsusemi spells. While he sometimes struggles to hold hate, early on he's a very useful trust as he will avoid most damage, giving your healer trusts an easier time.

Supports

• Joachim (BRD) - Complete Records of Eminence: Basic Tutorial Objective
  • Joachim is one of the best support trusts in the game, and he's super easy to get! He gives a large variety of buffs through his songs, including haste, attack, accuracy, refresh, and more depending on your job. As an extra bonus, he'll toss out curing spells to help with healing! Joachim's main weakness is that he'll often prioritize healing over keeping up buffs, and will often give Paeon (health regen) songs instead of more useful buffs.

• Koru-Moru (RDM) - Complete the Intermediate RoE Objective "Always Stand on 117"
  • Koru-Moru is arguably the best RDM trust available, and you can pick him up as soon as you hit ilvl 117 (which is easy to do even as a fresh lv99). Koru will keep up Haste on you, and will give you Refresh if you're a mage. He also will use a variety of debuffs, and will help with healing via cure spells when he's not de/buffing. He even stands far away from battle, usually meaning he's safe from AOE damage! He also has functionally infinite MP, as he will freely use Convert when he gets low - though this can rarely wind up getting him killed.

• Sylvia (UC) (GEO) - Join Sylvie's Unity Concord
  • Sylvie is the only general-purpose Geomancer trust available, and unfortunately she's tied to Unity Concord, of which you can only join one. While this means you can always have access to her, it does mean you'll have to make a tough decision in choosing her over some other useful Unity trusts. She certainly not a bad choice, however - her geomancy buffs are unique (meaning she won't conflict with any other support trusts) and quite powerful, providing large phys/mag attack boosts, hastes, refreshes, and will even help out with healing. As a new player I think I would recommend choosing one of the Unity healer trusts over her, but once you get some more healer trusts under your belt, don't be afraid to swap over to Sylvie.

Healers

• Kupipi - Complete the Trust: Windurst quest.
  • Kupipi is one of the most reliable healer trusts available, with excellent status-removal capabilities. Once she engages the enemy she won't move, allowing you to pull the enemy away from her if you need to protect her from AOE damage, or keep it close by so she can hit it for TP, which she'll use to recover her MP. Otherwise she has a fairly standard assortment of Cure spells, and will do a good job of keeping your team healthy.

• Apururu (UC) - Join Apururu's Unity Concord
  • Apururu is an incredibly strong healer, often considered one of the best available. She has effectively unlimited MP - she will use Convert, has a native Regain for free TP which she'll also use to recover her MP, and will even use Devotion to recover the MP of allies. Furthermore, she has a lot of powerful AOE healing, making her great for tough fights that hit your whole party.

• Yoran-Oran (UC) - Join Yoran-Oran's Unity Concord
  • Yoran is tied with Apururu for "best healer" and which one you choose often coming down to personal preference. Like Apururu, he too has near limitless MP, however he swaps out her AOE healing potential for better survivability - he has very high Magic Evasion meaning he'll very often dodge status effects, and will keep Stoneskin up on himself.

Damage Dealer Trusts

Damage Dealer trusts will be very useful early on in the endgame, before you start getting decked out in powerful gear. Unfortunately, they tend to become less useful as time goes on and their damage begins to pale in comparison to yours. The most useful DD trusts are those that retain some other kind of utility - debuffing enemies, providing extra healing, setting up skillchains, dealing AOE damage, etc. That being said, if ever you're leveling up other jobs, DD trusts will be significant sources of damage and will speed up the process significantly.

Always useful

• Shantotto II - Acquired from Login Campaigns (300 Login Points)
  • Easily the strongest damage dealing trust in the game - if you see her available in the login campaign, grab her ASAP. She will use her WSs to close skillchains, and will use very strong single-target nukes to Magic Burst off of all skillchains, often multiple times from a single SC. She's one of the few Damage Dealing trusts that will continue to output good damage even as your own damage begins to skyrocket once you can self-skillchain, as she will instantly add several thousand extra points of damage to each of your SCs. As a bonus, she will almost never run out of MP! Her only real weakness is she has low defense, and thus can be killed quite easily by AOE damage. Additionally, she only deals magic damage - anything requiring physical damage she won't contribute much.

• Selh'teus - Complete RoV Mission Call of the Void.
  • Selh'teus won't deal absurd amounts of damage like Zeid 2 or Shantotto 2, but he more than makes up for it with utility - he has a unique weapon skill called Rejuvenation, which will restore HP, MP, and TP in an AOE. He's a great choice when going up against any enemy that deals consistent AOE damage to help out your healer trusts.

• Iroha II - Complete RoV Mission The Orb's Radiance.
  • Iroha 2 is similar to Selh'teus - her damage is fine, but nothing to write home about. Instead she makes up for it with her unique ability called Rise from Ashes, which will restore 25% HP to each party member, and give them a 500 HP Stoneskin effect. She will also attempt to perform solo skillchains, and can Magic Burst off of fire SCs.

• Naja Salaheem - Acquired from Login Campaigns (100 Login Points)
  • Naja deals okayish damage, but her main draw comes from her unique Weapon Skill Peacebreaker, which reduces the enemy's Defense and Magic Defense by a whopping 50%! This can be a huge boost to your own damage, sometimes more than another "regular" damage dealing trust might provide.

Useful early on / while leveling

• Teodor - Acquired from Login Campaigns (100 Login Points)
  • Teodor is unique in that he cannot be healed by regular most curative magic. However, he makes up for this by dealing quite high damage, and can heal himself when he gets below 50% HP. His damage does start to fall off as you progress through the endgame, but early on (or when leveling other jobs) he can deal VERY respectable damage.

• Ullegore - Acquired from Login Campaigns (100 Login Points)
  • Another solid damage dealer for early endgame / low levels, Ullegore is a powerful spellcaster that is especially potent at low levels (before level 50ish). Be warned he too can occasionally use AOE spells.

Useful for farming

• Lion II - Complete RoV Mission A Land After Time
  • Lion 2 deals okay damage, and she will attempt to SC with you. Her more notable feature is that she has the Treasure Hunter trait, increasing the rate of item drops from enemies. If you don't have THF leveled yourself, then Lion 2 can be useful for speeding up times where you need to farm item drops.
  • Note that the regular version of Lion also has TH, but she is only available from Login Campaigns, and thus may be less reliable to attain.

• Fablinix - Acquired from seasonal Adventurer Appreciation Campaign
  • Fablinix is 1) the only goblin trust, which is great, but also 2) uses lots of AOE skills, making him useful for farming large groups of enemies.

• Gadalar - Complete the quest Embers of His Past
  • Gadalar, like Fablinix, loves to spam AOE damage - fire spells, in this case. If you need to farm up large groups of enemies, he's another good choice.

• Romaa Mihgo - Have the Key Item Bundle of half-inscribed scrolls, complete the quest At Journey's End, then talk to Romaa Mihgo in Windurst Waters (S) (G-11)
  • Romaa Mihgo is the only trust that will actually Steal items for you! Specifically she will use Aura Steal to remove buffs from enemies, and any items stolen while doing so will be added to your inventory. This won't be useful very often, but when you DO need to steal something she can be a big help.

Cannot be acquired until later, but good to know about

• Ark Angel GK - Complete some of the RoE Trust Quests
  • Ark GK doesn't have any bells or whistles, he just does a lot of damage. He will spam Jump, High Jump, and Meditate to get TP quickly, and will both close skillchains you start and perform his own solo skillchains. He also is fairly survivable with a high HP pool.

• Ark Angel TT - Complete some of the RoE Trust Quests
  • Ark TT is unique in that he is the only trust that will freely cast Sleep spells, and can even cast them in an AOE. While this is a fairly niche use, it can come in handy and be a nice utility to help keep you from getting overwhelmed if you get lots of links. Additionally, he will Magic Burst off most skillchains.

Tank Trusts

Tank Trusts are almost always helpful to bring along, though as you progress through the endgame you'll probably notice that you begin to steal enmity from them. Because of this, you'll sometimes need to purposefully hold back on your damage to ensure you don't die, or may wind up replacing the tank entirely. You may also consider bringing a subjob such as THF or DRG that will allow you to manipulate enmity more easily, to help keep it on the tank.

• Amchuchu - Can be purchased from Ujlei Zelekko in Eastern Adoulin (F-7) during Spring & Autumn Alter Ego Extravaganza events
  • Amchuchu is one of the best tanks when it comes to magic damage. Being a RUN, she will tailer her magic defenses to whatever you're fighting, and can spread those defenses to the rest of the party - along with giving everyone a Fast Cast buff!

• Mnejing - Purchase from any non-Nyzul Isle Assault Counter during Spring & Autumn Alter Ego Extravaganza events
  • Mnejing has lower HP thank most tanks, but has very high damage resistance and is decent at holding hate. He is another trust that can make for an easier time on your healers, as it'll be easier for them to top him off.

Cannot be acquired until later, but good to know about

• August - Complete all of the RoE Trust Quests, or from Sinister Reign
  • August is arguably one of the strongest tank trusts in the game. He possesses every Killer trait, has a high resistance to Terror, can give himself powerful defensive debuffs, and can cure party members. He tends to struggle with holding hate at times, but overall is a very strong tank.

• Ark Angel EV - Complete some of the RoE Trust Quests
  • Ark EV is one of the strongest all-around tanks available. She can cure, holds hate well, will try to interrupt enemy spellcasting, and will rarely interrupt your skillchains. Just an all-around good tank.

Support Trusts

Support trusts are usually brought along to make YOU (and your other trusts too, I guess) more effective - usually by increasing your damage output. This is often through giving you haste, multi-attack, buffing your (physical or magic) attack/accuracy, giving you refresh so you have less downtime, etc. Support trusts are some of the most universally useful trusts available, as they more or less multiply your effectiveness - early on the boost support trusts give will be nice to make up for your lack of gear, and later on the boost will be worth more damage than even the strongest DD trusts. Generally, I recommend bringing along one RDM trust (for haste + debuffs), and then at least one non-RDM trust (COR, BRD, etc) - that way you'll ensure you have a variety of (de)buffs being applied.

• Qultada (COR) - Purchase from any Records_of_Eminence NPC during Spring & Autumn Alter Ego Extravaganza events
  • Qultada is easily the best COR support, and one of the best supports in general. He'll provide a variety of buffs, and can even dispel. Most notable is that if you have the Dedication buff from using an EXP / CP buffing ring (such as Empress Band or Echad Ring), then he will use Corsair's Roll to further increase your earned EXP. This makes him a must-have for leveling or earning Job Points.

• Ulmia (BRD) - Complete CoP mission Dawn (the final mission of CoP) and then examine the Dilapidated Gate in Misareaux Coast (I-11).
  • Ulmia behaves similarly to Joachim, but she trades the ability to heal for generally better buffs and song management. She prioritizes Haste songs (March) much more highly than Joachim does, and unlike Joachim will even double them up. She's also more proactive about keeping songs up, often refreshing them before they wear off.

• Arciela (RDM) - Complete Adoulin mission The Light Within (the final mission of Adoulin) and then speak to Ploh Trishbahk at the castle gates in Eastern Adoulin
  • Arciela gives up the healing benefits of other RDMs in exchange for her unique move Guiding Light, which is an AOE buff to physical + magic attack + defense. This is quite a potent buff, and she comes with the general suite of other RDM buffs and debuffs as well. While she doesn't have any Cure spells, she does have a unique AOE healing move she can use, though this is less reliable than other RDM trusts' cures.

• King of Hearts (RDM) - Purchase from any Records_of_Eminence NPC during Spring & Autumn Alter Ego Extravaganza events
  • King of Hearts (KoH) is a useful go-to RDM. He'll start every fight with Dia to reduce the enemy's defense, will keep up Haste, Refresh, and Phalanx on you regardless of your job, and will attempt to Magic Burst off of skillchains. However, he debuffs less than Koru does, and doesn't prioritize healing as highly. He will perform weapon skills, but they don't deal much damage and can wind up just interrupting your skillchains.

Healer Trusts

You'll pretty much always want a healer trust to keep you and your party alive. Most healer trusts will get the job done of healing + debuff removal, though under the pressure of harder content the differences between them will become more apparent. I'll call out ones I think are notable, but most all healer trusts are worth using.

• Ferreous Coffin - Purchase from any Records_of_Eminence NPC during Summer & events
  • Ferreous Coffin is a unique healer in that he is the only trust that can cast Raise III on fellow party members. This can be extremely useful if you're running content with a friend or two! Even if you're not using him as your primary healer trust, it's incredibly valuable to swap out a trust for him, pull over a weak mob to fight, then wait for Coffin to raise your dead friend. He also has a higher-than-normal success rate for Cursna which can be very valuable for dealing with Doom, though he'll only cast it on whoever has hate.

• Monberaux - Redeem 480 Deed of Heroism (minimum 12 months' worth of completing monthly objectives)
  • Monberaux is a unique trust, as he is the only "Chemist" in the game - he uses unique potion-themed skills to heal. He's quite a powerful healer, one of the strongest in the game. His heals are instant, he is functionally immune to the Paralyze status effect, and his healing skills aren't prevented by either Silence nor Amnesia - making him incredibly strong against enemies that use those statuses (such as). Furthermore, if you donate gil to Monberaux in Upper Jeuno (G-10) then this will buff up the Monberaux trust for the rest of the week, turning his status removal skills into AOE. He also has a variety of status buffs he can provide! His only real downside is that he lacks reliable AOE healing - he does gain an AOE heal if you donate an Elixir and/or Hi-Elixir to him in Jeuno, but each of those only provides one use of his AOE healing before needing to be restocked, meaning you'll need to constantly supply him with them for this to be reliable. Finally, his Protect/Shell only lasts a few minutes - he'll reapply it quickly, but this does mean you'll have a higher chance of getting caught without them, especially between fights.

• Cherukiki - Complete the CoP Mission One to be Feared
  • Cherukiki is a great backup / secondary healer for tougher fights that one healer just can't keep up with. She tends to provide lots of strong Regen effects before pure heals, and she will keep her distance from enemies - keeping her relatively safe from AOE damage. Her main weakness is her poor MP management, in long fights she'll probably struggle to keep up with MP demand.

Fresh 99 & Initial Gearing

Initial Gearing - Sparks, Bayld, and the AH

Your first goal upon reaching level 99 is to reach "i119" - referring to "item level 119." While 99 is the max level, "item levels" will increase your strength FAR beyond a fresh lv99. Notably, the strength of your trusts is determined by your average item level, so raising this will vastly increase your soloing power. Go buy some i117 Armor and an "eminent" weapon from Sparks vendors. This armor is only i117, but this will do for now - buy whatever is available for your job.

Depending on what content you've done, you may have some Bayld from Adoulin in your pocket - you can check your amount by going to Status > Currencies 2 in the main menu. If you have some, I recommend buying some i119 equipment from Vesca, found in Eastern Adoulin at (F-7) in the Peacekeepers' Coalition. This gear isn't amazing, but it will likely be your first i119 gear. If you don't have any Bayld, you can earn some quickly by exchanging Copper Vouchers, however it may be a better idea to complete some Coalition Assignments, detailed below.

Stepping Stone Gear
I'll take a moment here to talk about "Stepping Stone Gear." A lot of players tend to focus on trying to get the Best in Slot (BIS) gear as soon as possible. I do not recommend doing this. It's an easy trap for new players to fall in to - "If I get the best item for this equipment slot, I'll never need to worry about it again!" sounds enticing, but it is a flawed mindset.

Always remember, you have sixteen item slots, each as important as the last. Rarely is any one piece of equipment hugely impactful on its own. BIS gear will often cost TONS of money - from 10m gil all the way up to 100m+. You will be better served by buying ten pieces of gear for 1m each than you will be buying one piece of gear for 10m.

Don't focus on finding the BEST gear - focus on finding gear that's better than what you have. You won't go from hitting 3k Weapon skills to 30k ones in a single gear upgrade - you do so by upgrading ALL of your gear, bit by bit. Cheaper options will usually get you most of the way to a BIS option, for only a fraction of the cost.

Upgrading Gear
"But how do I know if a piece of gear is better than what I have?" you might ask. You want to ask yourself WHY you're wearing a piece of gear, and what it accomplishes. Is another piece of equipment better at fulfilling that role? If so, replace what you currently have. If the point of a piece is to increase your magic damage, look for a piece of gear with more Magic Attack Bonus or INT than your current piece. If the gear is meant to increase your TP gain, look for gear with more Store TP, Double Attack, and Triple Attack. I can't cover every situation here, but hopefully this will help point you in the right direction.

The Auction House
The Auction House (AH) is actually a solid place to start getting some gear as a fresh 99. Yes, quite a lot of it is (very, VERY) expensive, but you can get some very solid pieces for under a million gil, sometimes for under a hundred thousand! I would advise taking some time to browse around the AH and see what's available in your price range, and pick up some equipment to get started on some basic gearsets.

Coalition Assignments

While working through your lv99 adventure, you want to ensure you're doing your Coalition Assignments. If you're at all interested in playing as RUN or GEO, you'll want to eventually reach max rank in every Coalition. This will take 7-8 months of IRL time, minimum - it's literally impossible to complete faster than this, so you want to get started early. Don't worry, you can complete some Coalition assignments very easily, even before level 99! Here are two coalitions that are particularly easy:

Inventors' Coalition
Has the easiest Coalition Assignments to complete, in my opinion. They ask you to retrieve items from specific locations around Adoulin areas. However, you can easily buy these items off the AH, often for very cheap. I like buying stacks of Twitherym Wings to complete the Gather: Yahse Hunting Grounds assignment. You just accept the assignment and immediately turn in the item, easy peasy.

Couriers' Coalition
Has the next easiest assignments. The only requirement for them is to go talk to an NPC at one of the waypoints in an Adoulin area. You may not have all of the waypoints yet, but you can just use the ones in Ceizak Battlegrounds for easy completion. (And if you're brand new, you have to spend 40 imprimaturs before you can use any other areas anyway.)

Mog Garden

It's also recommended you begin taking care of your Mog Garden early. Simply pop in and gather from everything once a day. You'll likely throw out everything you find, or at least sell to an NPC - almost none of it is worth AH'ing unless it's given to you by the Moogle that's there or found on the beach. As you gather more and more times from each area of the garden, you can upgrade it by buying Key Items from either a Skipper Moogle (found in various Port areas of the three major nations) using gil, or from Zenicca in Western Adoulin using bayld. You'll need to fully upgrade your Mog Garden to get some useful endgame things, such as upgrading your Adoulin Ring of choice, the Ygnas trust, and Monster Rearing. Like Coalitions, this is constrained by IRL time, so it's better to get started on it sooner rather than later.

Intermediate Records of Eminence Objectives

Intermediate RoE Overview

Soloable? Mostly
Requirements: Lv99
Notable Rewards: Access to several endgame areas, Permanent Capacity Point bonuses

These RoE objectives become available once you reach level 99, and will walk you through an introduction of many endgame-relevant content. It will also get you started with some good i119 gear, and unlock several endgame-relevant areas for you. It skips ahead of this guide a bit, so feel free to either continue following along with this, or use this as a reference for further explanation of how the various events work in more detail.

Unfortunately, these objectives can be quite involved - too involved for me to go into detail in this guide. Fortunately, there's already a guide just for that thing! The Fresh 99/RoE Intermediate Quest/119 Gear Guide will walk you through these objectives in thorough detail.

Reives

Soloable? Partially
Requirements: Varies
Notable Rewards: Permanent Capacity Point bonuses

Reives are spur-of-the-moment events that occur in Adoulin areas. You'll require various Key Items (KIs) to participate in many of them, however the Intermediate RoE objectives above will walk you through getting those. Completing Reives DOES reward some equipment, but it's not worth using. However, there are many RoE objectives for completing Lair, Colonization, and Wildskeeper Reives. I would recommend taking some time to complete some of these, as they provide permanent Capacity Point bonuses. Most Reives can be soloed, but Wildskeeper Reieves can't at your level. If you return to this section later, you may be able to solo them depending on your job.

How to Earn Gil as a New Player

Overview

Money makes the world go round, and unfortunately FFXI is no different. Making gil as a new player can be difficult, but there are ways to line your pockets even as a fresh new lv99 player. Generally when it comes to making gil in FFXI, the key is consistency. There aren't many get rich quick schemes that are consistent or reliable. Instead you tend to earn money by consistently earning smaller amounts that add up day by day.

Gobbie Mystery Box

The easiest way to get gil, requiring no effort but quite a lot of luck, is to open up the Gobbie Mystery Box, as long as your character is at least 45 days old. Selecting to spin the Special Dial for 50 Tally (you automatically earn 10 Tally every day) will award you with a random item, selected from almost any item in the game. This means you can get a lot of junk, but you can also surprisingly often get equipment or crafting materials worth quite a lot of gil on the AH. It's perfectly free to spin, so never forget to do so!

You can also get 50 Tally points by trading the Goblin a Coffer Key, which are buyable from Curio Vendor Moogles for 5000 gil each. This lets you spin the special dial once a day for 5000 gil a day, which, in the long run, results in a lot of profit.

Sparks of Eminence & Acheron Shields

One of the easiest way of making money is by using Sparks of Eminence to buy Acheron Shields. They can be obtained by speaking to a Sparks NPC and selecting Equipment (Lv.71 - 98) and then scrolling to the third page. The shields cost 2,755 sparks each, and can sell for up to 28k gil (depending on your Fame in the nation you sell them in). You can spend a maximum of 100,000 sparks each week, resetting on Sundays - this will earn you in total roughly 1,000,000 gil for basically no effort! I recommend waiting until near the end of the week (either Friday or Saturday) before doing this, just in case you need to spend Sparks of Eminence on other items.

Unity Accolades

Similarly easy to Sparks & Shields is using Unity Accolades to purchase items. You have two options for how to spend your accolades: you can either buy Prize Powders, which cost 10 accolades each and stack up to 99, or buy SP Gobbie Keys to gamble on the Goblin Box (assuming your character is at least 45 days old). Just like with Sparks, you're limited to spending only 100,000 Unity Accolades each week. Prize Powders are the more reliable source of gil - they sell to NPCs for around 100g, so with the weekly limit on spending you'll earn another free 1,000,000 gil every week.

AMAN Trove

The AMAN Trove is a special battlefield you can access once you hit level 99 and have a character that's at least 45 days old. Speak with Greyson near the exit in Lower Jeuno (G-11) to get started. There are Records of Eminence objectives you can set each month for AMAN Trove, under Content > A.M.A.N. Trove, to earn Silver Vouchers. Some of these you won't be able to clear yet, but many of them you can. You trade these vouchers to Greyson, and can then exchange them for Mars Orbs or Venus Orbs, which can be traded to the Burning Circles in Horlais Peak, Waughroon Shrine, or Balga's Dais to enter the battlefield.

The battlefield for AMAN Trove is essentially a push-your-luck minigame, where you open up chests to get more and more rewards - but if you open up a Mimic, you will almost certainly be killed and lose all the treasure you accumulated. There are ten brown chests and one gold chest in the center. Opening the brown chests will either result in some amount of rewards, or a Mimic. When you're satisfied with the amount of rewards you've received, open the gold chest to end the battlefield and actually get your rewards. Note that when you open a brown chest, you will not see what specific rewards are received - just a hint about what kind they are. When opening a brown chest you will either hear a noise (lowest rewards), a thud (moderate rewards), or a loud thud (best rewards). Mimics are almost always a run ender - they technically can be beaten, but it's very difficult to do so, even for a very well-geared player.

It's up to you how many brown chests you want to open before going for the gold chest to lock in your rewards. I tend to go until I get either a thud or a loud thud, but feel free to be more risky or conservative than that. Venus Orbs provide better rewards in general than Mars Orbs, but cost more Silver Vouchers to purchase from Greyson. There's a large variety of possible rewards from AMAN Trove, including very rare lategame drops and AMAN-Trove-specific drops that sell for absurd amounts of money.

Note that if you don't trust your luck with AMAN Trove, you can always /yell offering to sell the orb. While you can't sell the orb itself (it's rare/ex), you CAN bring someone else into the battlefield with you, then just warp out so they can get all the rewards.

Crystal Clusters

As you play, you'll notice you start amassing quite a lot of crystals. If you trade your crystals to an Ephemeral Moogle, found in most crafting guilds, they will store your crystals for you. When you ask for them returned to you, though, they'll be returned in clusters if possible. Each cluster is worth 12 crystals, and clusters stack up to 12. This means if you ask the Ephemeral Moogle for 144 of a specific type of crystal back, the Moogle will give you a full stack of clusters! These are used by crafters, and sell quite quickly on the AH. Prices vary depending on server and the type of crystal being sold, but generally you can expect them to sell for around 100k gil very quickly.

Enemy Drops

Enemy drops are, unfortunately, rarely worth selling on the Auction House. However, many of them sell for decent(ish) gil on to NPCs. You're almost never going to sell something for more than maybe a few thousand gil, however this DOES add up surprisingly quickly. Especially early on, when your inventory isn't completely filled with stuff you need yet, it's easy to find that each trip to a vendor nets you 50-100k that you easily would have just thrown away. However, selling to NPCs is time consuming, so if you're willing to use Windower Add-Ons I recommend checking out SellNPC.

Domain Invasion

Domain Invasion Overview

Soloable? Yes
Requirements: Access to Escha Zi'Tah, Access to Escha Ru'Aun, or Access to Reisenjima
Notable Rewards:Domain Point Rewards such as Sanctity Necklace, Eabani Earring, Grioavolr, Colada, Solemnity Cape, Izdubar Mantle, Odr Earring, various other powerful weapons and armor, Escha Beads

Domain Invasion (DI) is the first major endgame event you can take part in, and the rewards will remain relevant throughout your entire endgame career. This will likely be some of your first really strong i119 gear. You can participate in DI in Escha - Zi'Tah, Escha - Ru'Aun, or Reisenjima.

You enter DI by speaking to the NPC at the start of the zone, and selecting "Receive Elvorseal" - then accepting when they offer to teleport you to the combat area. After a 3~10 minute intro period for players to join, a wave of enemies will spawn. After these enemies are defeated, a boss dragon will spawn. Once the dragon is killed the DI is a success and all players that participated will be awarded Domain Points, which can be spent with the NPC Zurim in Norg. Note that you can only get a limited number of Domain Points per day. - usually one or two DI runs will cap you on these. DI also rewards a currency called Escha Beads, but you don't really need to worry about these yet. The amount of DI you earn, and the daily cap, varies depending on how many times the DI boss has been killed - for more detailed information, please see the Domain Invasion page. The game will let you know if you cannot receive any more DI points for the day.

You don't need to worry about contributing much to the boss fight itself - there will likely be many players around to help kill it, and anyone can attack it regardless of whether or not they're in a party. If you happen to die, don't warp to your home point! You can still get Domain Points for participating even if you're dead when the boss is defeated. Note that you can freely summon trusts during the fights, even while engaged with an enemy or boss, so if your healer dies just resummon another one.

DI is only active in one zone at a time, so you may need to hunt it down if the entrance NPC doesn't have the "Receive Elvorseal" option. The order is Zi'Tah -> Ru'Aun -> Reisenjima -> Zi'Tah. If you're in Unity Chat, your Unity leader will let you know where DI is as it moves around, otherwise you'll need to either ask another player or go looking for it. If you're on the Asura server, there's a player-ran bot named Whereisdi that you can send a /tell to, and it'll tell you where DI is - if other servers have similar bots, someone please let me know. If you don't have Reisenjima access yet, you can still get points by participating in Escha Zi'Tah and Escha Ru'Aun.

DI Rewards

You can spend your DI Points at Zurim in Norg (I-7). Rewards are divided up into different categories, based on how many DI points items within that category cost.

• The 10 point category has items used to augment gear in other categories. Eschalixir +2 is the one you'll probably be buying most of here, but you don't need to buy any until you have gear to augment and a stack of 12 is about 100k on the AH so you may never buy any with points.
• The 100 point category has a few powerful pieces that many jobs can benefit from such as the Sanctity Necklace, Eabani Earring, Solemnity Cape, and Izdubar Mantle.
• The 200 point category is full of weapons that can be further improved via augments from the NPC Nolan, details of which can be found below. Some of these weapons are very very strong (Shijo for THF, Rhomphaia for DRG), but others aren't worth wasting your points on (Emissary for RDM)
• The 400 point category is filled with Abjurations. These are very useful, but for now you probably don't have the cash to make use of them. I'll touch on these more later.
• The 600 point category is full of earrings that boost various skills. The combat skill ones are mediocre, but the ones for magic skills such as Healing Skill, Enhancing Skill, etc, are all very valuable and worth picking up for mages.
• The 800 point category is full of powerful weapons and armor. Almost everything here is worth getting if your job can use it. I would recommend picking up a weapon first, as it will likely last you a long time. All the equipment here can be augmented with the NPC Oseem, details of which can be found below.
• The 1000 point category is full of more powerful equipment, but the pieces are generally more niche. If something here looks good for your job feel free to pick it up, but your DI points will likely be better spent on gear in the cheaper categories.
• The 1200 point category only has one item, Wyrm Ash. This is used for high-level crafting - unless you're interested in being a crafter (which is out of the scope of this guide), then this basically exists only for selling on the Auction House. Depending on server, this can fetch you anywhere from 3m-7m gil. Good if you're broke, but honestly you're probably better off buying equipment from the earlier categories, as there are other ways to get gil. Only start buying these when you literally need nothing else from earlier categories (which won't be for a long, long time).

Nolan & Oseem Augments
The equipment you receive from DI points will likely be the first pieces you can Augment. There are different "kinds" of augments, augmented from different NPCs. Augments add various stats to gear, further improving them.

Nolan
Nolan augments gear from the 200 DI point reward category, which are also known as gear from Escha Zi'Tah and Escha Ru'Aun because they can be also be gained from NMs in those zones. You can augment gear this way by trading it to Nolan, then telling him you want to "Mezzotine" it. Nolan will then propmt you to pick a "path" for the augment - this determines what stats the augmenting will add to the gear. Don't stress too much about this, as you can change the augments later on without losing progress. Once a path is selected, the equipment's info window will gain text showing its "Rank" of augmenting. it will look something like this:

<Type:A/Rank:14[20]/NextRP:720>

Type:A is what path has been chosen, in this example it's Path A. Rank:14[20] shows the current rank of augmenting, with the maximum rank in brackets. NextRP:720 shows how many Rank Points (RP) are needed to reach the next rank. You earn RP by trading the gear along with Eschalixirs to Nolan. Three Eschalixir +2s will max out one of these items, so I recommend buying those off the auction house (they're not expensive) and fully augmenting gear as soon as you get it.

Nolan can also augment gear made with abjurations from the 400 point category of DI rewards, but we'll talk about those later.

Oseem
Oseem augments gear from the 800 point category of DI rewards. His augments can potentially be VERY strong (many of these gears can be BIS) - however, they are random. The system for these augments is fairly complicated (I would recommend reading over Oseem's page for details), but the short version is: you trade Oseem Pellucid Stones, Fern Stones, and Taupe Stones, then use them to augment gear you trade to him. You then pick what "type" of augment you want (melee, healing, mage, etc) and then what stone to use, and Oseem will present you with randomized augments based on your choices. You can then choose to keep the new augments, or keep the equipment how it is. Once you make this decision, though, it's locked in until you roll for a new augment - any old augments are gone forever.

While the augments ARE random, you can slightly influence them via stone choice. Pellucid stones tend to give Attack and Accuracy augments, including Magic Attack/Acc and Pet Att/Acc. Fern Stones tend to result in "Job Ability" augments such as Double Attack, Damage Taken-%, Fast Cast, etc. Taupe Stones tend to result in more base stats, such as STR, DEX, INT, etc. You can also trade Oseem Dark Matter to use for augmenting instead of a stone. These can result in ANY kind of stat occurring, including ones that normally can't with the other stones such as Treasure Hunter or Refresh. However, these are extraordinarily expensive, and good augments with them are rare, so I wouldn't recommend doing so unless you have more gil than you know what to do with. (Note that monthly campaigns can include a "Dark Matter Campaign" that lets you augment pieces of gear with Dark Matter augments for free 6-12 times a day. This is a good time to hunt for specific augments once you know exactly what you want.)

Recommended Augments

• For melee DDs, I would recommend aiming for Store TP, Double Attack, Triple Attack, Crit rate/damage, Dual Wield, and Weapon Skill Damage. You want these along with some Accuracy and/or Attack, and STR and/or DEX.
• For offensive casting, I would recommend Magic Attack Bonus, Magic Accuracy, Magic Burst Damage, Enmity-, Fast Cast, and Magic Damage. Also look out for decent INT numbers as well.
• For healing casters, I would recommend Cure Potency, Enmity-, Damage Taken-%, Fast Cast, and MND.
• For Pet jobs such as PUP, BST, and SMN, Pet:Attack, Pet:Accuracy, and Pet: Physical Damage Taken are good ones to aim for. Summoners specifically should also look out for augments that benefit Blood Pacts.

Ambuscade - Very Easy Difficulty

Ambuscade Overview

Soloable? Varies, but is often soloable
Requirements: Lv99
Notable Rewards: Ambuscade Armor, Ambuscade Capes, Various Weapons, Various items worth selling

Ambuscade is likely where you'll get decked out in your first full i119 gear! Ambuscade is an event that rotates every month, changing up what enemies and rewards are available. While this does keep things fresh and interesting, this also has a side effect where some months are easier for certain jobs than others. However, most months can be solo'd on Very Easy difficulty, even in i117 gear!

There are two different fights available for each month, known as Volume One and Volume Two. Volume One (V1) is known as "Intense Ambuscade" while Volume Two (V2) is "Regular Ambuscade" - as the names imply, V1 is higher level, but provides more rewards. Somewhat counter-intuitively, V1 is not always harder than V2! It is always higher level, but the two fights have different mechanics and gimmicks to them. For example, a V2 fight may spam Silence, and thus as a mage that may be nearly impossible to reasonably solo. This means that depending on the month and your job, you may actually have an easier time soloing an "Intense" Ambuscade (V1) compared to the "Regular" Ambuscade (V2). V1 fights are always themed around fighting some beastmen (orcs, antica, tonberries, etc), and V2 fights are themed around fighting non-beastmen enemies (spiders, treants, birds, etc)

To participate in Ambuscade, first start the Stepping Into an Ambuscade RoE quest and talk to Gorpa-Masorpa in Mhaura (G-9). This will net you a free Key Item for entering into V2. After this, you'll be able to set more RoE objectives to earn more Ambuscade entry Key Items. These can be found under Content -> Content (Ambuscade). The entry items for V1 and V2 are Ambuscade Primer Volume One and Ambuscade Primer Volume Two. Each Ambuscade has five difficulty levels - Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Difficult, and Very Difficult. Assuming the month's ambuscade doesn't have any annoying gimmicks, you should easily be able to solo Ambuscade Volume 2 on Very Easy difficulty, known as V2VE.

Mercifully, the entry KIs are only lost when you successfully complete an ambuscade! This means there's no punishment if you fail an ambuscade, beyond the minor exp loss. Because of this, I highly encourage you to take on a harder difficulty than you think you're ready for! I would recommend trying out either V1VE or V2N - they both give the same rewards, and are against the same level of enemies. If that's too hard, try downgrading to V2E, and then again to V2VE.

Ambuscade Rewards

Upon winning an Ambuscade, you'll be rewarded a currency called Hallmarks - if you're in a group with other players, you'll also receive a currency called Gallantry. You can talk to Gorpa-Masorpa to spend these on various rewards. Most relevant to you right now are various armor sets, weapons, and capes. Note that you don't actually buy the armor, weapons, or capes directly - instead, you buy a voucher, and exchange that for the equipment desired by trading it to Gorpa-Masorpa. You can also obtain an item called Abdhaljs Seal that, when used, will TRIPLE the Hallmark and Gallantry rewards for the next Ambuscade that you win - losing or dying won't make the effect go away!
Warning: when the Ambuscade changes at the end of the month, you lose any Hallmarks and Gallantry you have saved up. Make sure you spend them before this! If you're not sure when this is, feel free to ask people in Mhaura, and someone will likely tell you when to expect the change to happen.

Items Available for Total Hallmarks
In this category, you get FREE rewards, just for getting a total amount of Hallmarks over the course of the month. You don't spend your hallmarks in this category, you simply get rewards for free.
Items Available to Purchase with Hallmarks
Here is where you actually spend your Hallmarks. There's a lot of rewards to buy here, but the ones that are important to you right now are vouchers for armor/weapons/capes, and the items used to upgrade those. We'll cover other items here later, and in a moment I'll cover what specific upgrade items you want to buy.
Items to Purchase with Gallantry
There is no category for total Gallantry earned, instead your Gallantry can only be spent traditionally. The rewards in Gallantry are very similar (often identical) to those in the Hallmarks category, but with different pricing. Again, you mostly want to focus on buying upgrade items at this point.

Note: Many of the rewards here sell for a LOT of money on the AH (such as Riftcinder and Alexandrite) but farming enough Hallmarks / Gallantry to afford lots of them while spamming VE will take a LONG time. I recommend instead spending your Hallmarks / Gallantry on upgrading your equipment directly, and then later on when you can reliably complete harder difficulties such as Normal or Difficult, come back to earn them much more quickly.

Ambuscade Capes
Ambuscade Capes are special, as there's one for each job and they are VERY customizable. These are universally extremely strong pieces, and you should pick one up as soon as you can by buying an Ambuscade Voucher: Back with Hallmarks. Also using Hallmarks, you can buy Abdhaljs Threads, Abdhaljs Dusts, Abdhaljs Saps, Abdhaljs Resins, and Abdhaljs Dyes to upgrade the cape and customize the stats on it. Generally, the first three (threads, dusts, and saps) are the most important for you now - they're also the cheapest!

• Threads add on base stats, such as STR, DEX, INT, etc - 1 point per Thread used, up to 20.
• Dusts add on Attack and Accuracy (physical, magical, or ranged) to a cape, or Evasion and Magic Evasion. You get 1 point of each per dust used, up to 20.
• Saps add on a job trait augment, such as Double Attack, Store TP, Magic Attack Bonus, Fast Cast, etc. Each Sap used will add 1 point, up to a cap of 10.
• Resins add on defensive stats, such as Damage Taken-%, Magic Evasion, etc. The amount added varies depending on the stat chosen, but you can use a total of 5 Resins on a single cape.
• Dyes add on a variety of stats from Threads and Dusts, and can add a total of 10 extra.

Your First Ambuscades

So, there's a lot of stuff you can buy. What should you buy first, and what's the best way to get it? Follow these simple steps!

1. I would recommend starting with either V1VE or V2N - preferably V1VE because it'll be more relevant to learn the month's V1 fight. You can get a V1 KI by completing the Ambuscade Primer Vol. 1 (Daily) RoE objective, found under Content -> Content (Ambuscade). This quest will be to kill one experience-granting enemy of the same family as the Ambuscade fight for V1 and will reward the entry KI, but can only be done once every day. Completing this will also unlock a quest under the same category called Ambuscade Primer Vol. 1 which will often require you to kill multiple experience-granting enemies of the same family as the Ambuscade fight to get the KI, but can be repeated indefinitely.
2. There's another RoE objective you should set before you go in to win the V1VE, also under Content -> Content (Ambuscade) - Ambuscade (W) and Intense Ambuscade (M). Each of these will reward an Abdhaljs Seal when completed, which are VERY useful, as they triple the Hallmark and Gallantry rewards from winning an Ambuscade. The (W) quest can be completed once every irl week (resets on Sundays) and the (M) quest can only be completed once a month (resets when the Ambuscade does).
3. Once those objectives are set, go win a V1VE Ambuscade! If you can't solo this with trusts, attempt a V2N, then V2E, then V2VE.
4. If you won the V1VE, you should now have completed both of the RoE objectives you set in step 2. That means you have 2 Seals, and 200 Hallmarks. Go into the Rewards for Total Hallmarks category and claim another Seal for free. If you weren't able to solo the V1VE, don't worry too much about it - even if you only were able to clear V2VE, you can still get the seal from the weekly RoE objective, and the one from Total Hallmark Rewards. If you were able to clear V2E, V2N, or V1VE, then you'll also be able to get a free Monthly Feet Armor voucher. Trade this to Gorpa-Masorpa for a free piece of foot armor - just pick out whatever is available for your job for that month.
5. Use one of your seals, then go complete another ambuscade (don't forget to go get another entry KI!). Don't stress if you die, you'll keep the seal buff. With your new feet armor, completing a V1VE should hopefully be easier now.
6. Continue using Seals and winning Ambuscades until you use all three seals, and pick up more equipment vouchers. If you've been able to do all four fights on V1VE, you'll have earned a total of 2000 Hallmarks! If you haven't been able to get that many, don't stress out - you can either get a bit less upgrades, or go complete a few more Ambuscades.
7. You should be able to get vouchers from the "Total Hallmarks" rewards to get a full set of NQ Ambuscade armor, a weapon, a ring, and +1 feet armor. Congrats, you should now be completely i119!
8. You likely haven't spent any of your actual Hallmarks yet. What to spend them on? I would recommend picking up an Ambuscade Voucher: Back for 500 Hallmarks. You'll have 1500 Hallmarks left over to spend, and I'd recommend buying either 15 Abdhaljs Threads, 15 Abdhaljs Dusts, or 7 Abdhaljs Saps. You can then trade those to Gorpa along with the ambuscade cape of choice (you'll need to trade the voucher to Gorpa first to select a cape) to augment it with additional stats.

At this point, you can keep farming solo ambuscades for more cape upgrade items (not a bad idea) but it'll be much slower going without Seals. Feel free to start joining groups (you're well enough geared to meaningfully contribute to any groups doing V1VE or V1E) but otherwise it might be better to continue on to other content until you're strong enough to handle harder difficulties.

Main Storylines

Storylines Overviews

Soloable? Yes
Requirements: None
Notable Rewards: Permanent Capacity Point bonuses, Brutal Earring, Rajas Ring, Suppanomimi, Ethereal Earring, Adoulin Rings, Moonshade Earring

Once kitted out in some 119 gear, I would recommend starting up on some of the main storylines. These vary wildly in length (and quality) but are overall worth it. Many provide useful rewards, and all of them give permanent bonuses to Capacity Points earned via Records of Eminence.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend rushing to complete ALL of the stories ASAP, though - many will take a long time, and this is a good way to burn yourself out. Instead, work on them as you work on other content.

Top Priority, finish as soon as possible

• Rhapsodies of Vana'Diel
  • This will give you a taste of all the other expansions, and you've probably already done some of this storyline already at this point. Completing this story should be top priority, as it provides TONS of useful quality-of-life improvements for almost all other content, and also unlocks several areas that are required for endgame. Unfortunately, the final boss is probably not easily soloable at this point, unless you've taken the effort to get lots of +1 / +2 Ambuscade gear. You can either wait until you're better geared, or try /yell'ing for help in town - many players will be willing to help.

High Priority, try to work on these when possible

• Rise of the Zilart
  • This storyline is very short, you can probably get it done in a few hours. Required for accessing some endgame fights. Gives access to the fight Divine Might which can reward the Suppanomimi earring, which is very strong for jobs that Dual Wield. After completing both this and Chains of Promathia, you can also tackle the fight Apocalypse Nigh to get the Ethereal Earring which is a fantastic defensive piece.

• Wings of the Goddess
  • This is the longest storyline, but luckily the story is decent. Completed almost entirely for the Moonshade Earring which is phenomenal for both melee and mage jobs. It also gives access to an endgame fight with spectacular rewards... that you're unfortunately not ready to tackle yet.

Medium Priority, work on these when you have the time

• Seekers of Adoulin
  • This storyline has quite a lot of unfortunate interruptions in the form of in-game day waits, but provides access to some strong trusts and an important endgame event. It also rewards you with the choice of one of several very powerful rings.

• Chains of Promathia
  • This is required to access some relevant areas later in the game, and gives you the powerful Ulmia trust. Also allows you access to Limbus which can be used to get the very strong Brutal Earring item for melee DD jobs. Rajas Ring is also a direct reward for finishing this storyline, which is very strong for a player fresh to 99, but gets outdated somewhat quickly.

• Abyssea
  • This "storyline" is more like a long series of quests with a thin story stringing them along. Abyssea areas are an alternate reality of the regular world of Vana'diel, and you can only stay in them for limited periods of time. Abyssea is a bit too complicated to go into full detail in this section, so you can find further details below. Completing this story will make farming several endgame items easier later on.

Low Priority, work on these when you remember to, but don't forget they exist

• Treasures of Aht Urghan
  • This is my personal favorite storyline, but unfortunately the rewards aren't particularly relevant anymore. The main reason to complete this is for an endgame fight or to build a Mythic weapon - neither of which I would recommend for you at this point.

• Bastok, San d'Oria, and Windurst Missions
  • You'll need to get to Rank 6 in your home nation to complete the RoV storyline, but beyond that there's little reason to complete these beyond the Capacity Point bonuses. That is a valid reason, of course, but I wouldn't put it as a top priority.

Other Storylines

There are a handful of other storylines you can complete as well: A Crystalline Prophecy, A Shantotto Ascension, and A Moogle Kupo d'Etat. Their usefulness in the current endgame is very niche, and completing them will pretty much just be for fun. I know the helmet reward from A Kupo d'Etat has niche uses for Dancer and maybe also Puppetmaster? The Shantotto pants are useful for Corsair. Beyond that, complete these if you have some free time and feel like it.

Weapon Skill Quests

Overview

Soloable? Yes
Requirements: Varies, but most are available right away
Notable Rewards: Various Weapon Skills There are many Weapon Skills that are locked behind quests, that the game never really tells you about. Some of these can be VERY strong, and are fairly easy to solo with minimal gear. It's worth noting that not ALL weapon skills are worth questing for, so it may be worth doing some research for your job to see what is/n't worthwhile. More options is never a bad thing though, so when in doubt you may as well go unlock them.

WSNM Weapon Skills

The first WS Quest you're likely to encounter is the WSNM Weapon Skill Quest for your weapon type. There's a unique quest for each weapon type to be completed, though they're all very similar - to tell which quest you need, please check the WSNM page. You'll be given a "Weapon of Trials" for your weapon, and need to earn 300 "Weapon Skill Points" with it by performing weapon skills and skillchains while having the weapon equipped. A standalone WS will earn you 1 point, closing a Lv1 Skillchain will earn 2 points, closing a Lv2 SC will earn you 3 points, and closing a Lv3 SC will earn you 5 points. The easiest way to accomplish this is to summon the Ayame Trust, who will open skillchains for you to close when you have 1k+ TP. This can make for easy Light and Darkness skillchains, if your weapon + job combo allows you to close them.

Unfortunately, there's no obvious tracking for how many points you've earned. Instead, your Weapon of Trials will have a latent effect on it that will provide HP+20 and then +10 each into two elements. When you've finally earned 300 points, this latent effect will go away - when this happens, return to the NPC that gave you the quest and trade the weapon to them. You will then need to go kill an NM unique to your quest. Once you kill the NM, make sure you check the ??? point that spawned it to receive a Key Item (KI), and then return to the quest giver to complete the quest and unlock the Weapon Skill.

Merit Point Weapon Skills

You've likely noticed by now that there's a Merit Point category for Weapon Skills. You've also probably noticed that you can't actually unlock any of them - that's because you first need to complete the quest Martial Mastery. This is very easy - simply bank up 15 merit points and turn them in to the Nomad Moogle next to Maat in Ru'Lude Gardens. You'll then be able to start putting merit points towards unlocking Weapon Skills. How many points to put towards a weapon skill will vary depending on your job and how useful the WS is for it, so you'll need to do a bit of research on your own for your job.

Empyrean Weapon Skills

Empyrean Weapon Skills, named after the Empyrean Ultimate Weapons, are unlocked via the Kupofried's Weapon Skill Moogle Magic series of quests - there's one for each weapon type. However, in order to unlock those quests, you'll first need to complete the quest Guardian of the Void, and then upgrade a Magian Trial weapon via Walk of Echoes. Magian Trial weapons are upgraded in stages from a base form, in this case using materials from a zone called Walk of Echoes. Guardian of the Void meanwhile is a Voidwatch (VW) quest. VW is a bit too complicated to fully go into here, but I'll touch on what you need to know.

Upgrading your Magian Trial Weapon and working on Guardian of the Void can be done in any order, and can be worked on in tandem. I recommend switching between the two if you start feeling burnt out on one - they can both be a bit time consuming.

Voidwatch
Voidwatch is a system where you can spawn NMs from points you've probably seen before called Planar Rifts. In order to get started, you'll need to have cleared the WotG mission Cait Sith and have entered Walk of Echoes via the Veridical Conflux in Xarcabard (S) at (H-9) at least once before. Once you've completed those prerequisites, speak to a Voidwatch Officer in any of the three main nations of Bastok, San d'Oria, and Windurst to get started on Voidwatch. You'll need to work through a chain of NMs in areas around the three main nations, spawning and defeating them to upgrade key items called Stratum Abyssite. These NMs are spawned using KIs called Voidstones, which are generated over time once you talk to a VW officer. Note that while you can only hold a limited number of Voidstones on you at a time, you CAN request for NMs to spawn using voidstones from your supply - to do this, speak to a Voidwatch Officer and select Ask a bunch of questions > Voidstone consumption > Stock. The details on how to fully complete Guardian of the Void is a bit too complicated to go into here in this guide, so I'd recommend heading to the wiki page for that quest for a detailed guide.

Magian Trials & Walk of Echoes
To get started on your Magian Trial weapon, head to Ru'Lude Gardens (H-5) and speak with the Magian Moogle with the red pom-pom. Then, get the weapon associated with your weapon skill from the Splintery Chest next to the moogle - you'll want to grab the "-1" weapon of the type you want to unlock the weapon skill for. Then, trade your new Weapon -1 to the Magian Moogle to get started on the trial to upgrade it to the weapon you need. There are four trials, each of which requires you to get items from Walk of Echoes Battlefields. Which items you'll need varies depending on your specific weapon, but you will need a total of:

• 30 of one of the following coins:
  • Coin of Advancement
  • Coin of Birth
  • Coin of Decay
  • Coin of Glory
  • Coin of Ruin
• 100 Devious Dies
• 100 Liminal Residue

All of these can be earned from Walk of Echoes Battlefields. Walk of Echoes (WoE) can be entered via the Veridical Conflux in Xarcabard (S) (H-9) - right next to the only Home Point in the zone. When you enter, you'll find 13 different confluxes leading to different "walks". Each walk has its own victory conditions, and the higher the number generally the more difficult the zone. These can mostly be soloed, but some of the later ones may be more difficult depending on your job. Note that sometimes a zone will become "surged" and thus have much harder enemies in it. Each walk can drop any of the items listed above that you'll need, but note that Devious Dice and Liminal Residues tend to come from higher-tier walks. I'd recommend trying all the walks and seeing which ones are easiest for you, different jobs can have a harder/easier time with some walks than others. Note that all players can attack all mobs in the walks, so if there are other players farming walks I'd encourage you to follow along with them - it'll make clearing the walks that much faster and easier! Note that if you start getting tired of farming WoE, you can instead buy the coins / dice / residue you need from player bazaars. They can't be auctioned, but you CAN look up the items on https://www.ffxiah.com/ to see which players are offering them in bazaars, and what their prices are listed as.

Once you've fully upgraded your magian trial weapon and have completed Guardian of the Void, equip the weapon and head into Walk of Echoes. There you'll find a ??? point near some stairs, which will trigger the start of the corresponding quest. Simply select the corresponding weapon type, and then trade your weapon to the ??? to complete the quest and unlock the weapon skill.

Mythic Weapon Skills

Mythic Weapon Skills, named after the Mythic Ultimate Weapons, are unlocked via the Unlocking a Myth quest. There is a unique Mythic Weapon Skill for every single job in the game, rather than being tied to weapon types. To begin the quest, you'll first need a Vigil Weapon for your associated job, which can be found from the Nyzul Isle Investigation Assault mission. You may not have done any Assault missions yet, so to get started you'll need to first speak to Rytaal in Aht Urghan Whitegate (K-10). Once he walks you through Assaults and gives you the entry Key Item (KI) needed, head over and talk to Sorrowful Sage nearby to select Nyzul Isle Investigation. Then, head to the Chamber of Passage to warp out to Nyzul Isle.

Nyzul Isle Investigation is a mission where you have 30 minutes to go up as many floors as you can, with each floor being randomly generated. Every 20 floors you'll encounter a boss. The combat encounters are trivially easy for any lv 99 player, but some of the puzzle floors may prove annoying to do solo. One of the ultimate weapons in the game requires a lot of Nyzul Isle progress to complete, so it's fairly easy to find players willing to help you out if you /yell for some assistance. All NMs in Nyzul Isle will drop Vigil Weapons, so eventually you'll wind up finding one for your job. The floor 100 boss is guaranteed to drop your job's weapon if you're the leader of the assault.

Once you have your Vigil Weapon, equip it and talk to Zalsuhm in Lower Jeuno (H-9) to begin the quest. Just like with WSNM Weapon Skills, you'll need to earn 250 "Weapon Skill Points" with it by performing weapon skills and skillchains while having the weapon equipped. A standalone WS will earn you 1 point, closing a Lv1 Skillchain will earn 2 points, closing a Lv2 SC will earn you 3 points, and closing a Lv3 SC will earn you 5 points. The easiest way to accomplish this is to summon the Ayame Trust, who will open skillchains for you to close when you have 1k+ TP. This can make for easy Light and Darkness skillchains, if your weapon + job combo allows you to close them. You can tell when you've earned enough points because you'll see that the Mythic Weapon Skill you're working towards is available to you while you have the Vigil Weapon equipped! Trade your finished weapon to Zalsuhm and you'll permanently unlock your job's Mythic Weapon Skill to use with any weapon.

Job Points & Capacity Points

JP & CP Overview

Soloable? Yes, although it'll be MUCH faster with a group
Requirements: Lv99
Notable Rewards: Various job-specific stat bonuses and bonus spells.

Now that you're fully decked out in i119 gear, it's as good a time as any to start thinking about earning some Job Points. If you played back in the 75-era days, Capacity Point parties will feel very familiar - they're essentially the exp / merit parties of old. Capacity Points (CP) are similar to Experience Points, and you earn BOTH when you kill a mob that's a high enough level. You'll need 30k CP to earn 1 Job Point (JP). Most of the time groups will go to "Gates" areas - Doh Gates, Moh Gates, Sih Gates, etc. That's because these areas contain Apex Monsters, which provide abnormally large amounts of Capacity Points.

While you may be able to solo Apex mobs with trusts depending on your job, JP will go MUCH faster with a group. Keep your eyes open on the /yell chat for groups forming that may want the role you provide, or try making a party yourself! If you follow the 2xDD, 2xSupport, 1 healer, 1 tank rule outlined in the Party Composition section above, you should be just fine.

If you just want to solo some JP to kill some time, early on an easy target are the frogs and pugils in Marjami Ravine. If you head to Frontier Station #2, you'll find yourself at the perfect camp to farm them. Marjami Ravine in general has mobs that are fairly good for farming Capacity Points, as few of them have any particularly annoying TP moves.

Once you have some better equipment, I recommend hunting Apex Efts in Moh Gates (J-8)/(K-8) for solo JP. The fastest way there is via the Morimar Basalt Fields Frontier Station waypoint. They don't link or aggro, and there's so many of them that even when the camps are heavily crowded, it's easy enough for a lone person with trusts to make decent experience. There are also Apex Eruca nearby that are decent targets as well, but note that they aggro (but don't link). The nearby Apex Raptors can be good too, but are more difficult - they also aggro without linking. Note that you'll need Sneak to reach these camps, so bring along Silent Oils if you don't have that naturally.

Level 119 UNMs

UNM Overview

Soloable? Varies, but mostly yes
Requirements: Completed All For One RoE objective
Notable Rewards: Bleating Mantle, Cloud Hairpin +1, Assid. Pants +1, Nourish. Earring +1, Evalach +1, Imperial Wing Hairpin +1, Regal Pumps +1

Unity Wanted Notorious Monsters, known as UNMs, are monsters that are spawned using Unity Accolades at Ethereal Junctions around the world. To fight aUNM, you'll need to set a Record of Eminence objective for the specific boss you're looking to fight, found under Unity -> Unity (Wanted 1). The objective will also tell you what zone the boss is in, and what POS locations it can be spawned from. An easier way, though would be to talk to A Unity NPC and request to be teleported to a location - this will usually teleport you very close to one of the Ethereal Junctions used to spawn the UNM.

There are many UNMs at a wide range of levels, but you'll probably have difficulty handling level 122+ UNMs at this point. Many UNMs have some kind of light gimmick to them, but for the most part they're straightforward and should be relatively easy to solo for you at this point, though some jobs may struggle more than others. Be sure to summon Trusts before you spawn the UNM, as it will spawn aggroing you. When you spawn the boss you and your party will be granted full HP+MP, so don't worry about resting in between fights. You even keep buffs + TP, so be sure to buff yourself up before spawning the boss.

UNM Rewards

After beating a UNM, you will receive a coffer unique to that UNM in your inventory. Using that coffer item will give you a random reward - either a piece of equipment, a drop item unique to that UNM used to upgrade that equipment, or one of many other possible drops (gil, crafting material, etc). I would recommend looking through the list of UNMs to see which ones drop equipment relevant to your job - I've pointed out some notable ones up above. Other drops to look out for are Plutons, Beitetsu, and Riftborn Boulders - these won't be useful to you yet, but they will be later on. They also sell for decent gil if you save up 99 of them.

While UNMs can drop +1 versions of equipment, most likely you'll have an easier time getting the regular version, and then upgrading it to +1 manually. This is done by collecting 50 of that UNM's unique drop - such as Imperator's Wings from Valkurm Imperator. Once you have 50, trade them along with the equipment to a Unity NPC, and (as long as you can afford the 10k Unity Accolade fee) then the next in-game day the +1 gear will be yours!

Yorcia Weald Alluvion Skirmish

A. Skirmish Overview

Soloable? Yes
Requirements: None
Notable Rewards: Various Augmentable Weapons, Various Augmentable Armor

Alluvion Skirmish is where you'll start decking yourself out with some good weapons and patch up some holes in gear from your Ambuscade set. Not to be confused with regular Skirmish, which doesn't reward anything worth keeping anymore. Alluvion Skirmish can be done in Rala Waterways, Cirdas Caverns, and Yorcia Weald - however, you generally will only want to participate in the Yorcia Weald A. Skirmish nowadays, as the other areas have outdated rewards.

Before you can enter A. Skirmish, you need to talk to Lola and Oston in Eastern Adoulin, near the large goddess statue. You'll likely need to talk to them each multiple times. In order to enter A. Skirmish, you'll need four items: three Simulacrum Segments and a Eudaemon item. All of these can be purchased from the Auction House, or you may have some from Reives.

• Simulacrum Segments - You'll need one each of a Visage (head), Torso, and Legs. The head determines which area you'll be cleared for (so you'll want a Yorcia Visage), and the level determines some of the rewards you'll receive. The Torso determines how big the generated dungeon will be, your time limit within it, and how many rewards you receive at the end. The legs determine some randomized boosts you can get within the dungeon.
  • It's nice to get the highest level possible for the Visage and Torso, but even at rank 1 you won't need to farm for too long, so just get whatever you can afford. For the legs, buy whatever's cheapest, as the bonuses granted will be negligible for you.

• Eudaemon Items - This will determine what helper monster you get during the skirmish (I'll explain in a sec) - the best one is Eudaemon Sash, so just get one of those.

Clearing Alluvion Skirmish

The A. Skirmishes in Rala Waterways and Cirdas Caverns work differently than in Yorcia Weald, so we'll ignore those and just focus on how it works in Yorcia. This can be quite confusing, so if reading this seems overwhelming, I also recommend watching Cloudchief's video guide on Yorcia's Alluvion Skirmish.

You enter by trading the three Simulacrum segments together with the Eudeamon Sash to Oston in Eastern Adoulin, then using a Waypoint to travel to the Augural Conveyor in Yorcia Weald. Examine it to enter the A. Skirmish. There is a timer in A. Smkirmish, the length of which is determined by the torso you traded. However, it begins running down as soon as you enter, so you'll want to summon your trusts and buff yourself right away and then go examine the Living Cairn to enter A. Skirmish proper (you start in a safe area).

In Yorcia's A. Skirmish, you must protect a Marchland. Enemies will advance toward it in waves, and if it's destroyed (or you run out of time) then you fail. Don't worry though, because you can summon friendly monsters to advance towards the enemy base, known as a Stronghold - if you defeat this, you'll be able to advance to the next floor. There's a UI component beneath the timer in the upper-left of the screen, showing the health of your Marchland, the enemy Stronghold, and how many monsters you each have alive.

To spawn monsters, use the Ars Monstrum book, which can be found near where you begin. However, you need to spend a currency called Puissance to spawn them. You start with 1000 Puissance for free. Select the option Call Forth a Valiant - monsters that are friendly to you are called "Valiants". Since you used a Eudaemon Sash to created the A. Skirmish, you'll be able to select "A Shijin" at the bottom of the list for a full 1k Puissance. This will summon a Valiant Kirin, which is the strongest enemy available.

On the first floor of the skirmish, Kirin will basically be able to solo everything. I do not recommend attempting to attack the enemy units that advance toward the Marchland!! These monsters are going to be way too powerful for you to handle at this point, which is why we'll let Kirin do the dirty work. They will NOT aggro you, though they CAN aggro your trusts. If one of your trusts gets aggro, you can dismiss them or let them die, then just resummon them. While Kirin starts killing stuff, feel free to explore around and kill off other enemies that are in the area, called Escalents - the Twitherym type enemies are easiest. You may be able to find rare NMs that are either a slime or a Fomor - killing them may be a bit challenging, but will grant extra rewards and are generally worth hunting down.

When the enemy Stronghold has reached half health, the game will tell you what rewards you'll receive upon completion of the skirmish. Valiant monsters cannot defeat the Stronghold - you'll need to deal the final blow. Any amount of damage will do, so you can throw a Dia or something on it if you want.

If you need more Puissance to summon more Valiants, there's two ways to get some. First, you can use the option Convert to Puissance in the Ars Monstrum to generate more at the cost of a resource called Obsidian Fragments (easily obtained from exchanging Copper Vouchers.) Second, whenever you kill Escalents, you'll get small amounts of Puissance.

Once the Stronghold is defeated, a chest will spawn, as will another Cairn. If you open the chest, then THE EVENT WILL END. Only open it if you're ready to leave! If you want to move on to another floor, then examine the Cairn and continue on. The next floor will be more difficult, and you'll likely need to summon more monsters than just Kirin. The second floor is fairly easy even then, just be sure you keep mental track of where the Marchland is (it'll always show up on Wide Scan) and summon more Valiants if needed - keep a close eye on your monster list and Marchland health. If you don't think you're ready for the next floor, leave after completing this one - there's nothing wrong with leaving early!

Alluvion Skirmish Rewards

You're guaranteed to get one piece of gear per floor. The notable armor sets are the Yorium Armor Set and Acro Armor Set for heavy DPS, the Taeon Armor Set for light DPS, and the Telchine Armor Set and Helios Armor Set for mages. There are also a variety of Alluvion Skirmish Weapons for all jobs. All of the Alluvion Skirmish equipment is very strong at this point, because they each can be augmented to be much more powerful. The other reward you want to keep an eye open for is Mellidopt Wings - you can trade multiple of them to Lorissa at Yorcia Weald (I-10) in return for the above armor and weapons. The amount of wings required varies depending on the piece, between 1 to 3 wings per item.

You may also receive various stones from A. Skirmish, with names such as "Dusktip Stone" or "Snowslit Stone". These stones are used for augmenting A. Skirmish gear - definitely hold onto any +2 stones you find, and if you're low on cash also consider holding onto +1 versions. Any normal-quality (NQ) stones you find you can probably either try to sell or just throw away.

Alluvion Skirmish Augments
Augments on A. Skirmish equipment are semi-random. There are various "slots" that can be rolled with different stones, and while each roll is random, if you get a good roll in that slot you can re-roll other slots without losing it. There are three slots on each piece of gear for augments, one for each type of stone: Snow, Leaf, and Dusk. Each of these three types of stones also has four subtypes: -slit, -tip, -dim, and -orb. The type and subtype of stone used will determine the general type of stats that will be rolled. For detailed information on these, please see the Alluvion Skirmish Armor Augmenting and Alluvion Skirmish Weapon Augmenting pages.

To actually augment the gear, trade it along with a stone to Divainy-Gamainy in Western Adoulin (J-10), at the Inventor's Coalition. You'll need some Obsidian Fragments to augment the gear, which can easily be gained by trading in Copper Vouchers. I would recommend using only +2 or +1 stones for upgrading - the higher-quality the stone, the more likely the augment will be the maximum possible value. +2 stones can get expensive for the ones that provide better stats though, so a +1 stone can work, just be prepared for getting more subpar augments.

Recommended Augments

• For melee DDs, I would recommend aiming for Store TP, Double Attack, Triple Attack, Crit rate/damage, Dual Wield, and Weapon Skill Damage. You want these along with some Accuracy and/or Attack, and STR and/or DEX.
• For offensive casting, I would recommend Magic Attack Bonus, Magic Accuracy, Magic Burst Damage, Enmity-, Fast Cast, and Magic Damage. Also look out for decent INT numbers as well.
• For healing casters, I would recommend Cure Potency, Enmity-, Damage Taken-%, Fast Cast, and MND.
• For Pet jobs such as PUP, BST, and SMN, Pet:Attack, Pet:Accuracy, and Pet: Physical Damage Taken are good ones to aim for. Summoners specifically should also look out for augments that benefit Blood Pacts.

Reforged JSE Armor

Reforged Armor Overview

Soloable? Yes
Requirements: Varies
Notable Rewards: Reforged Artifact, Relic, and Empyrean armor

There are three sets of Job Specific Equipment (JSE) that can be "Reforged" for every job - Artifact Armor (AF), Relic Armor, and Empyrean Armor. You likely already have your Artifact (AF) Armor, which is earned through a series of quests unique to each job. Relic Armor is obtained from Dynamis, and Empyrean Armor is earned in Abyssea areas. These sets are all below level 99, however they can be "reforged" into i109 versions, and then upgraded into +1 versions that are i119. AF and Relic can then be further upgraded to +2 and +3 versions, but we'll handle those later.

The usefulness of reforged JSE varies wildly by piece and by job. Some pieces are pretty much worthless, while others can be gamechangers and BIS. I would recommend looking up a guide for your job, or at least looking over the reforged pieces to see if they're worth the effort - reforging can be time intensive, and sometimes quite expensive.

Before we get into Reforging JSE, though, you'll need to get your base Relic and Empyrean armor sets.

Relic Armor - Dynamis

Soloable? Yes
Requirements: Varies
Notable Rewards: Relic Armor, Ancient Currency, Archon Ring, access to endgame areas.

Dynamis is an event that takes place in an alternate-reality Vana'diel - think the dark world from Link to the Past. You have a limited amount of time to spend in each zone, but can increase this time by killing statue NMs. Beastmen in these zones drop Relic Armor, most of which will provide extra effects to your job abilities or traits. There are two "groups" of dynamis zones - "Original" Dynamis, and "Dreamworld" Dynamis. You'll need to complete the final areas of both original and dreamworld dynamis to access some endgame areas.

The enemies in these areas won't post much trouble to you at 99, however it is easy to get overwhelmed by many foes, so be careful and don't get cocky. If you die or otherwise leave Dynamis, you'll need to wait until the next day (in real life) before you can re-enter. However, the key item Rhapsody in Azure from Rhapsodies of Vanadiel Mission 1-16 will remove this limitation.

Original Dynamis
Requirements: Lv65, Rank 6
Initially, you'll have access to Dynamis Bastok, Dynamis Jeuno, Dynamis San d'Oria, and Dynamis Windurst. Each zone has a boss that can be spawned using an item dropped from NMs in that zone - once the boss is defeated, you'll have "beaten" the Dynamis zone. You won't be kicked out of the zone or anything, so you can confirm you've completed the zone by checking that you have the title "Dynamis Bastok Interloper" for the zone. After completing these four cities, you'll have access to Dynamis Beaucedine, and completing that gets you access to Dynamis Xarcabard.

Dreamworld Dynamis
Requirements: Lv65, CoP Mission 3-5
The "Dreamworld" dynamis zones initially consist of Dynamis Buburimu, Dynamis Qufim, and Dynamis Valkurm. Once all three of these have been completed, you'll have access to Dynamis Tavnazia.

Dynamis Procs & Ancient Currency
Dynamis will likely be your first foray into the "proc" system present in FFXI. Basically, by completing specific actions, various symbols may appear - , , , and . Also known as "weakness triggers," fulfilling the appropriate condition will produce a message about staggering the enemy and resulting in one of the above symbols. What causes a stagger varies depending on the event, and sometimes even the enemy themselves. Successfully proc'ing an enemy can have a variety of effects, from preventing them from casting spells to freezing them entirely. It's a bit too much to go into here, so I'll direct you to the Dynamis Proc System page.

Proc'ing in Dynamis will primarily be used to get Ancient Currency - this isn't particularly useful to you yet, but stacks of 99 (or single 100-pieces) sell for a good bit of gil. Farming Dynamis for this currency can be quite profitable at this point in the game. I recommend watching This video guide by youtuber Cloudchief which will walk you through farming this currency in Dreamworld Dynamis zones.

Relic Armor
Relic armor is dropped exclusively by Beastmen in Dynamis zones, with each zone having one piece of relic gear per job. For example, mobs in Dynamis Bastok can only drop the Relic Body piece for Thief. Generally the Original Dynamis zones are best for farming these drops, as they are filled almost entirely by beastmen mobs. Drop rates for these can be rough, so be prepared to farm for a little bit to get the drop you need. Aside from Relic Armor and ancient currency, you probably don't need to hold onto any other drops from Dynamis zones.

Empyrean Armor - Abyssea

Soloable? Yes
Requirements: Started the quest Dawn of Death
Notable Rewards: Empyrean Armor, Epona's Ring, Twilight Cloak, Twilight Torque, various quality-of-life KIs

As stated in the above Storylines section, Abyssea is an alternate reality of Vana'diel. Most of the gear is out-dated, but the Empyrean Armor that's found here is similar to the Relic Armor from Dynamis. There's a long series of Abyssea quests, which you can honestly do at your leisure. However, it is worth entering Abyssea now to get a full set of Empyrean Armor for your job.

Important Abyssea NPCs

• Conflux Surveyor - When you enter Abyssea, you will initially only have 5 minutes of time. Speak to the Conflux Surveyor NPC somewhere near the entrance, and request to receive Visitant Status - this lets you stay in Abyssea for a longer period, and lets you interact with things in the zone. If you run out of time, you'll get ejected out of the zone you're in, and can't return for an hour of real-life time - if you leave with less than 10 minutes left on your timer, you'll also suffer this lock-out, so be sure to leave early! You can check how much time you have remaining by resting.
• Cruor Prospector - Cruor is the currency in Abyssea, not Gil. You'll receive Cruor by defeating enemies and NMs in Abyssea, and by opening chests in Abyssea as well. You won't have any to start with, so I recommend exchanging some Copper Vouchers for some to get a head-start. At the Cruor Prospector you can buy various Key Items such as maps, but more importantly you can buy enhancements to all of your primary stats.
• Atma Fabricant - You can spend Cruor to buy Abyssite from Atma Fabricant NPCs, which can be infused for stat buffs while in Abyssea
• Atma Infusionist - After buying Abyssite from the Atma Fabricant, you can infuse them with this NPC. These buffs can be quite significant, and you can only have 1 active at once - though this can be increased to up to 3 by gaining specific Key Items throughout Abyssea.

Abyssea Chests
When you kill enemies in Abyssea, they can leave behind treasure chests - known as Sturdy Pyxis. There are three that can drop - Gold, Red, and Blue. Each color of chest also has a unique minigame associated to open it.

• Golden chests can drop Empyrean Foot equipment and Key Items used to spawn some important NMs. They can also contain a variety of other items and equipment, but these usually aren't worth keeping. If you're really strapped for cash, some of the materials or spell scrolls may be worth selling on the Auction House, though.
  • Opening a Gold Chest is identical to opening up brown treasure chests in normal Vana'diel zones, but it also gives you a clue with every attempt.
• Red chests can give you different colors of Abyssea light, detailed below.
  • Red chests give you a target range of "air pressure" (aka, an arbitrary number) to reach, such as "23-47" - you then choose to move the pressure down/up one, two, or three notches. You don't know how much each notch will adjust the pressure, so you need to feel it out.
• Blue chests give temporary items, experience points, and time extensions.
  • To open these, you play a higher/lower guessing game. You need to guess if the next number will be higher or lower than the previous - so if the previous number was low, guess that the next number will be higher, and vice-versa.

Abyssea Light
One of the key mechanics of Abyssea is the Visitant Lights system - as you defeat enemies, you will receive messages about your body glowing with different colored lights. These lights will impact what chests enemies drop when they die. You can check the intensity of light you have by resting. It's generally a good idea to focus on getting only one kind of light, usually amber, as that will ensure you get the most of that one type of chest.

• Pearlescent Light- This light will increase the likelihood that enemies will drop chests, and is increased by killing enemies with melee attacks.
• Amber Light - This increases the chances of golden chests appearing when monsters are defeated. You increase your amber light by killing enemies using elemental weapon skills such as Raiden Thrust and Seraph Blade.
• Ruby Light - You'll likely get lots of this light if you're not careful. The more intense your ruby light, the more red chests will drop from enemies. Earned by defeating enemies with physical weapon skills.
• Azure Light - Increases the rate that blue chests appear, and is earned by defeating enemies with magic.
• Golden Light - Confusingly, this does NOT increase the change for gold chests to drop. Instead, it increases the amount of experience points enemies yield. Abyssea enemies don't give much exp, so you can safely ignore this. Only found in red chests.
• Silvery Light - Causes enemies to drop more Cruor. Only found in red chests.
• Ebon Light - Causes enemies to yield both more exp and cruor. Only found in red chests.

Abyssea Procs
Like Dynamis, Abyssea NMs have a series of Weakness Trigger Procs that are worth learning about. That link will provide full information, but what's relevant to you now is to learn about Yellow and Red procs.

• Yellow Procs - Triggered by casting a specific magic spell. The spell is chosen randomly when the NM is spawned or claimed. The spell will be aligned with the element of the current, previous, or next in-game day. Only one spell will be chosen, and you can't cover all of them with a single job, unfortunately. When triggered, will prevent the enemy from casting spells, and will guarantee the NM will drop some Empyrean Seals, which are used for upgrading reforged Empyrean Armor.
• Red Procs - Triggered by using a specific elemental weapon skill. The WS is chosen randomly when the boss is spawned or claimed. The chosen WS is completely random - luckily, the list of available WS's is much smaller than for yellow procs - if you're a NIN/WAR or a WAR/NIN, you can perform all of the possible WS's. Proc'ing Red will guarantee a boss will drop any KIs it can - these are often used to spawn more NMs.

Empyrean Armor
As with Relic Armor, each job has a unique 5-piece set of Empyrean Armor. Most pieces can be bought with cruor from Cruor Prospectors. One piece needs to be bought with Dominion Notes from a Dominion Tactician - simply use Copper Vouchers to quickly earn these. Another piece is bought from an NPC called a Bastion Prefect using a currency called Resistance Credits, which can also be purchased with Copper Vouchers.

Empyrean Footwear
Empyrean Footwear is unique in that it is found in Gold Chests in Abyssea. Each piece of foot armor can only be found in gold chests within a specific Abyssea zone, so you'll need to look up where the one you're after is. The easiest way to farm this is to go find a place with lots of enemies, and kill them with either melee attacks (for Pearlescent light) or elemental weapon skills (for amber light) - this will ensure you get the most chests possible, and they will primarily be golden ones. You'll want to aim for around 100-120 amber light, as those chests tend to drop the footware most. You may stumble upon some other jobs' empyrean foot gear while doing this - you can tell because it'll be Rare/EX, only equippable by one job, and will be level 81. If you collect 3 Empyrean foot pieces, you can trade them to Lame Deer in Abyssea - Misareaux for any Empyrean footwear of your choice - so if you have bad luck and can't find yours, make sure to keep others you find!

Reforging Armor

Reforging your AF, Relic, and Empyrean armorsets are all done at the NPC Monisette in Port Jeuno (I-8). You need to trade her the original piece of AF/Relic/Emp gear, specific Rem's Tale chapters, and then a handful of other items depending on your class and the item you're reforging. The gear will first be reforged to i109 versions, and then can be upgraded in a similar way to i119 +1 versions. Later on you'll be able to upgrade AF and Relic pieces to +2 and +3, but that won't be for a while.

Rem's Tales
Rem's Tales are items needed to reforge and upgrade JSE. Chapters 1-5 are used to reforge to 109 versions, and then chapters 6-10 are used to upgrade those to 119. You can get these by spending Sparks of Eminence, but they're quite expensive. I'd instead recommend going to complete some BCNM fights to earn them. take a look at the Rem's Tale page for information on what BCNMs provide which chapters.

Reforging & Upgrading Empyrean Armor
While AF and Relic can be reforged straight-away, unfortunately Empyrean armor cannot - you'll need to upgrade the Empyrean gear to its +1 version first, then you can reforge it. To upgrade the armor, you'll need to collect several seals for that specific armor piece. I would recommend going to the Empyrean Armor +1 page for information on what seals you need, and from there you can find out where to acquire them. They will all come from Abyssea NMs though, and being able to proc Yellow will improve your chances of getting multiple at a time. It may also be worth seeing if the currently-running campaigns award Kupon I-Seals, as these can be used to instantly provide a full set of seals for a single item. If you don't urgently need to reforge your Empyrean armor, I'd recommend waiting until the "Additional Seal Battlefield Spoils Campaign" is active to get Kupons and save yourself a lot of Seal-farming hassle.

Ambuscade - Normal Difficulty

Recommended Upgrades

Soloable? Probably not
Requirements: Lv99
Notable Rewards: Ambuscade Armor, Ambuscade Capes, Various Weapons, Various items worth selling

This is a good time to return to Ambuscade for some upgrades! You're likely ready at this point to tackle Vol 1 on Normal difficulty, although you won't be able to solo it. It's a good idea to join in with a group and tackle some V1N runs though, as it will net you FAR more Hallmarks compared to running solo - the Gallantry will be a nice bonus, as well.

At this point, it's a good idea to upgrade your Ambuscade Armor to the +1 version, and maybe even the +2! You can get vouchers for a full set of +1 armor for free from the "Total Hallmarks" rewards category by earning a total of 14,500 Hallmarks over the course of the month. Soloing V1VE will only net you 200 hallmarks, so that will obviously take a LONG time. However, Normal runs will award 1200 each, which will only take you 12-13 runs to earn enough hallmarks - fewer still if you use Abdhaljs Seals! Normal runs with a group will likely go much faster than your solo V1VE attempts, anyways. You may also consider upgrading one or two pieces to +2 - this is done using 10 Abdhaljs Metals or Abdhaljs Fibers, depending on the armor set. You'll get up to 5 of each for free each month via Total Hallmark rewards, and can buy up to 15 more using Hallmarks/Gallantry.

It's also a good idea to upgrade your Weapon to the "Kaja" version. This is done using Abdhaljs Nuggets, Abdhaljs Gems, and Abdhaljs Animas. You'll probably want to think about creating a second Ambuscade Cape too. That's right, you can make multiple of the same cape! It's a good idea to create different capes for different niches and roles. Mages will probably want ones for different types of spells, such as one for healing (MND, Cure Potency, Enmity-) and one for enfeebling / offensive casting (INT/MND, Magic Accuracy). Tanks will want capes for tanking (HP+, Enmity+, Damage Taken-%) and one for dealing damage (Store TP, Weapon Skill Damage, etc). Melee DPS Will want one for gaining TP (Acc/Att, Store TP, Double Attack, Dual Wield) and one for using Weapon Skills (STR, DEX, Weapon Skill Damage, etc). You can make up to 3 full capes per month.

Escha Ru'Aun Warders

Overview

Soloable? Mostly
Requirements: Lv99, Escha - Ru'Aun access
Notable Rewards: Incanter's Torque, Combatant's Torque, Dedition Earring, Refoccilation Stone, Baetyl Pendant, Lissome Necklace, Thereoid Greaves, Halitus Helm, Flanged Grip, Vatic Byrnie, Rufescent Ring, Darraigner's Brais, Melic Torque, Deceiver's Torque, Henic Torque, various other specialized gear.

There are a number of NMs that can be spawned in Escha - Ru'Aun that can drop a lot of very useful gear. These are known as the "Nazar" NMs because they all drop "Nazar" Key Items, and are also called Warder NMs because each of them has "Warder" in the name. The Nazar KIs are used to spawn a very powerful endgame boss that you don't need to worry about just yet, but the NMs themselves have some very useful gear.

Each major section / island of Escha Ru'Aun has a variety of enemies, and each type of enemy has a chance of spawning a Warder when killed. This is a fairly low chance, so it may take a while for the Warder to show up, but it'll make for some good Merit Points and Job Points while farming.

List of NMs

• Warder of Dignity
• Warder of Faith
• Warder of Fortitude
• Warder of Hope
• Warder of Justice
• Warder of Love
• Warder of Loyalty
• Warder of Mercy
• Warder of Prudence
• Warder of Temperance

You should be able to solo nearly all of these with trusts. Warder of Love will probably be the most difficult, but is also the one you're least likely to encounter. All these NMs have a chance of spawning when you kill specific enemies in Escha - Ru'Aun as long as you're NOT carrying a Mollifier - so don't buy one if you're hunting these. One thing you SHOULD buy are Rare Enemy Vorseals. These NMs have a very small base chance of spawning, and some of the drop rates aren't great, so you'll want as many of these as possible to help alleviate farming time.

Notable Rewards

There's quite a lot of notable drops from these NMs, honestly too much to mention all at once. I'd recommend looking at each NM's page and seeing if anything they drop catches your eye. Some baseline guidance, though:

• Melee Jobs
  • Dedition Earring from Warder of Fortitude
  • Lissome Necklace from Warder of Loyalty
  • Flanged Grip from Warder of Justice
  • Rufescent Ring from Warder of Mercy
  • Thereoid Greaves from Warder of Dignity
• Mage Jobs
  • Refoccilation Stone from Warder of Hope
  • Baetyl Pendant from Warder of Love
  • Melic Torque from Warder of Mercy
  • Deceiver's Torque from Warder of Loyalty
  • Henic Torque from Warder of Dignity
• Tank Jobs
  • Halitus Helm from Warder of Justice

You may have noticed that all of these drop some king of Torque equipment. If you get all of the magic skill torques, they can be synthesized together to make the Incanter's Torque which is VERY strong for many mage jobs. The combat skill torques can also be combined to make the Combatant's Torque, which is good for some Weapon Skills but is generally more niche. The combat skill torques can be used for higher skills in some weapons to meet requirements for Abyssea Red Procs, particularly for Katana (Yarak Torque) and Great Katana (Agelast Torque). I'd recommend finding another player to help out with getting the synergy to create these, though, unless you want to be a synergist on your own.

NQ Abjuration Gear

Abjurations Overview

Soloable? Yes if you're willing to spend DI, probably not otherwise
Requirements: Lv99, Escha - Ru'Aun access
Notable Rewards: Various powerful armorsets

"Abjurations" is a name commonly given to a series of armorsets that are obtained by trading a Cursed Item along with an Abjuration to the NPC Alphollon C Meriard in the North Sand d'Oria church. There are many armorsets that can be made this way, but the only ones still relevant are the Escha Ru'Aun abjuration armorsets. These abjurations are dropped from Escha Ru'Aun Geas Fete NMs (we'll cover those in more detail later) and unfortunately are likely too strong for you to easily solo right now. However, you can get them easily by spending 400 DI points on the appropriate Abjuration. I'd recommend getting some friends to kill the NMs instead, but if you can't (or don't want to tspend the time) then feel free to spend DI points instead. The cursed items are made via crafting, and thus you will most likely need to buy them from the Auction House - they can be quite expensive, unfortunately.

I would recommend looking at the list of armorsets and pick out a few key pieces that seem beneficial to you. The HQ pieces are more powerful, but are quite a lot more expensive. Rather than spending 20m on one HQ abjuration piece, I recommend buying multiple NQ pieces instead - they'll add up to be much more benefiical.

Also note that Abjuration pieces can be augmented! They're augmented with Nolan just like the 200-cost DI weapons, and it takes 3 Eschalixir +2s to fully augment them. What path you pick depends on the piece and the job you're using it on, so I'd recommend looking up a job guide for more assistance there.

Level 122 UNMs

Lv. 122 UNMs Overview

Soloable? Varies, but mostly yes
Requirements: Completed All For One RoE objective
Notable Rewards: Sailfi Belt +1, Gelatinous Ring +1, Acuity Belt +1, Handler's Earring +1, various other gear.

Now that you're likely decked out in full +1 Ambuscade and a few NQ Abjuration / +2 Ambuscade pieces, you should be able to tackle the level 122 UNMs solo. Just like the 119 UNMs, they drop coffers which can give equipment, upgrade items, or other misc. drops. I've listed the notable drops for various jobs up above, but there are a decent number of job-specific drops that may catch your eye, so I'd recommend checking out the List of UNMs to see if there's anything more specific to your job.

You might be able to solo some of the lv125 UNMs at this point, but it'll likely be very difficult. If you can grab a friend or two to join you, or do some /yell'ing in town, you can likely tackle them, though.

High Tier Mission Battlefields

HTBF Overview

Soloable? Varies depending on battlefield and difficulty
Requirements: Various mission and quest progress
Notable Rewards: Cessance Earring, Ginsen, Metalsinger Belt, Pernicious Ring, Immolation Grip, Bloodrain Strap, Malignance Attire Set, Hjarrandi Helm, Hjarrandi Breastplate, Gere Ring, C. Palug Stone, Culminus, Mizu. Kubikazari, Voltsurge Torque, Freke Ring, Daybreak, C. Palug Crown, Malignance Earring, Benthos Grip, Sacro Cord, Lebeche Ring, Plumose Sachet, Supershear Ring, Sacro Gorget, C. Palug Ring, Dread Jupon, Gyve Doublet, tons of other equipment.

High Tier Mission Battlefields, abbreviated as HTMB or HTBFs, are ilvl versions of notable fights from Mission and Quest storylines. There is a frankly ridiculous amount of powerful equipment obtained from these, the list above leaves quite a lot out.

You enter into HTMBs by speaking to one of three specific NPCs in the three main nations and then trading in Merit points for an entry KI. It typically costs 10-15 merit points to get a KI. Unfortunately, in order to access any given HTMB, you need to have completed the associated mission or questline - for example, if you want to participate in The Warrior's Path HTMB, you must already have completed the CoP mission The Warrior's Path. I would recommend looking through the list of Battlefields and seeing which rewards you want to aim for first, and then focus on completing missions / quests up to that point.

Unlike Ambuscade, you lose the entry KI as soon as you enter a battlefield! Thus, I would recommend picking Very Easy difficulty for your first attempt at your battlefield of choice. You will very likely have few problems clearing VE with how well equipped you are now, however the drops rates for VE are generally very poor (the Lilith HTMB is the exception) so you should try to work up to Easy and then give Normal a shot. Once on Normal difficulty, the drop rates generally become fairly reasonable, so if you can't solo those yet (whether or not you can will depend heavily on the battle itself and your job) I would recommend /yell'ing for help or asking your LS, even getting 1-2 other people will make things much easier, and many people are looking for the valuable rewards from these fights.

RoE Trust Quests

Overview

Soloable? Most Likely, but is tricky
Requirements: Completed CoP, have Access to Ru'Aun Gardens, Completed RoV mission "Exploring the Ruins" and Gathered many specific trusts
Notable Rewards: Cipher: Ark GK, Cipher: Ark EV, Cipher: Ark MR, Cipher: Ark TT, Cipher: Ark HM
Now that you're familiar with HTBFs, you may want to consider getting started with the RoE Quest Quell your rage. This begins a series of 5 quests to unlock all five of the Ark Angels as usable trusts. Most of these are very strong trusts that you will definitely want to unlock as soon as possible.

To get started, you'll first need to have unlocked the following Trusts: Naji, Ayame, Volker, Iron Eater, Excenmille, Curilla, Trion, Kupipi, Nanaa Mihgo, Ajido-Marujido, and finally Shantotto. You'll also need to have completed the CoP mission Dawn, and have access to Ru'Aun Gardens. Once you've unlocked all of those, go speak with Jamal in Ru'Lude Gardens (H-5) to get started on the quest, which will appear in your RoE logs under Other > Quests 3. Simply accept the RoE quest, then go kill the corresponding AA HTBF, then report back to Jamal to receive the cipher and unlock the next AA RoE quest.

The fights themselves may prove too challenging to solo depending on your job, but you likely will be okay if you stick to Very Easy difficulty. The main thing to watch out for is that you don't pull hate away from your trust tank. All the AAs will try to skillchain, which can take you down very quickly. Additionally, the AA Mithra can Charm you, even if she has a pet out. The only other notable danger is AA Hume's ability to use Mijin Gakure, which WILL kill you. I recommend bringing along Reraiser and Hi-Reraiser items along just in case, and when he starts getting low (20-30%) back up to at least 20' away and wait for him to pop it on your trusts.

Why do you want the Ark Angels? Almost all of their trusts are quite strong. AAGK is one of the best damage-dealing trusts for when you decide to level another job up to 99 - he will spam out self skillchains very quickly for tons of damage. AAEV is one of the best tank trusts in the game - she stays alive, keeps hate well, and will heal both you, herself, and party members. AAMR is another strong damage dealer for low levels. AATT is probably the weakest of the bunch, but has a unique property: he is the only trust that will cast AOE sleep, and he is very accurate with it too. This can make soloing groups of enemies much easier for jobs that lack debuffs or forms of crowd control. Finally, AAHM is another great tank, and will tnak via casting Utsusemi to avoid damage. Note that you will not be able to turn in the Ciphers for these trusts until you have completed the Rhapsodies of Vana'diel mission Exploring the Ruins.

Capacity Quests

After completing all five of the AA Trust quests, you may be able to get started on the RoE Quests Filled to Capacity, Over Capacity, and Way Over Capacity by speaking with Marjory, who is near Jamal in Ru'Lude Gardens. However, in order to receive this quest, you must first have a total of 86 trusts unlocked, NOT counting Unity leaders. To accomplish this, you'll need to take full advantage of monthly login campaigns offering free trusts, and you'll need a fair number of ones from completing quests and storyline missions as well.

Once you've amassed enough trusts, Marjory will give you the first quest, Filled to Capacity. To complete it, you'll need to amass 500,000 Capacity Points with at least one trust summoned in your party. Completing it will award you with Cipher: Ingrid II if you don't already have it. The second quest is identical - obtain 500,000 CP with a trust summoned, and you'll receive Cipher: Rosulatia if you don't already have it. Finally, the third quest will once again request you to earn 500,000 CP with a trust summoned, and will reward you with a Filled memory gem Key Item and Cipher: August if you don't already have it.

August is arguably the strongest tank trust in the game, but the REAL draw here is the Filled memory gem. With this KI, all your trusts will gain a level bonus depending on how many other players are in your party. If you're solo, each of your five trusts will gain +1 level. With one other party member, each trust will gain +2 levels. This continues until you have 4 other party members, where your lone trust will receive +5 levels. These extra levels can make soloing content much much easier.

Master Levels

Overview

Soloable? Yes, although it'll be MUCH faster with a group
Requirements: Job Mastered
Notable Rewards: Increased Sub Job Lv Cap, increased stats.

If you're Job Mastered, now would be a good time to consider earning some Master Levels. Master Levels (MLs) are very similar to regular job levels - you earn exp and when your bar is filled you'll Master Level Up, which provides a variety of benefits.

Each Master Level will give you +1 to all base stats (STR, DEX, etc), +1 to all of your job's base combat and magic skills, +7 Max HP, and +2 Max MP. Additionally, for every 5 MLs you get, your support job's level cap will be raised by 1. Notable breakpoints are usually ML5 (subjob raised to 50) and ML30 (subjob raised to 55) - though some jobs specifically have other important breakpoints. Master Levels cap at 50, bringing your subjob up to level 59. Increasing your subjob level has an obvious benefit (access to additional Abilities, Traits, and Spells), but don't sleep on the stat increases either. Individually, each ML provides a fairly small benefit, but once you have a lot of them it will be VERY noticeable. 20 MLs is the equivalent of +20 attack/Mag att, +20 (mag)acc, +210 HP, +40 MP, and +20 to ALL base stats - these are incredibly large boosts, the equivalent of an entire extra main equipment slot.

Go speak with the Nomad Moogle in Ru'Lude Gardens (H-5) to unlock Master Levels - your job will then appear as ML0 when you are examined. Once unlocked, any job that you master will automatically switch over to progressing on Master Levels. Once you're ML 0, you'll begin earning Exemplar Points instead of experience points. Just like with regular exp, Exemplar Points are earned when defeating enemies and are lost upon dying without a raise - and yes, you CAN Master Level Down. Exemplar Points are earned much more slowly than regular exp, and as of writing the ONLY way to increase the amount earned is via COR's Corsair's Roll.

All enemies with Locus in the name will award additional Exemplar Points, and most parties choose to farm these accordingly. Just like with CP, you can solo farm these with trusts on most jobs, but it will go much faster with a group, and parties recruit via /yell chat somewhat frequently on most populated servers. Be warned that Master Levels can take a LONG time to earn, especially from ML30+ the amount of exemplar points required is quite high. I recommend Getting started on earning MLs as soon as you can because of this.

I would recommend getting to ML5-10 around now, it'll be a nice boost in stats and won't take a horribly long time, especially with a party. Then when you have some free time or don't feel like focusing on other content, try to farm up some MLs. More are better, but once you're at around ML30 you should be plenty strong enough to handle most content the game has to offer, and anything above that is mostly icing on the cake (or for the hardest content available).

Odyssey - Sheol A

Odyssey Overview & Rewards

Soloable? Yes
Requirements: Lv 99
Notable Rewards: Lustreless Scales, used to augment Unity Equipment (or to be sold for fairly good gil!)

Odyssey is relatively new content to the endgame. Odyssey is divided into three difficulties, known as Sheols - A, B, and C. Finally, there's Sheol Gaol which is a mini boss rush. Sheols A/B/C are small, instanced dungeons containing multiple floors containing big groups of enemies and some spooky near-invisible beastmen. As enemies are killed, players will earn a special currency called Izzat, which is lost upon exiting the run. Izzat can be used to open chests (which can also be picked by THFs) to get additional rewards, and can be used to spawn NMs throughout the Sheol.

At this point, you should be able to solo some of Sheol A, maybe all of it depending on how lucky you get. Players tend to not group up for Sheols A and B, as they're fairly easy to solo once decked out in good gear. You can enter by speaking to the ??? to speak to a Pilgrim Moogle in Rabao (G-6), who will give you a Moglophone key item, which is then used at the Veridical Conflux next to the ???.

Each floor of the dungeon has groups of 10 enemies, called Nostros mobs. All enemies in Odyssey will aggro both sound and sight, even if they normally don't, so be careful! Arcana enemies will also still aggro magic, and Undead will still aggro low hp. On odd-numbered floors, there will also be an Agon Halo placed in one of the enemy groups. Around this halo there will be various near-invisible beastmen, which will aggro true sight and sound. The beastmen cannot be targeted, but CAN attack you - destroying the Agon Halo will make them finally targetable, assuming they haven't killed you by then. Wiping out a full group of enemies, beastmen included, gets extra rewards.

Moogle Mastery

As you perform various actions in Odyssey, you earn Moogle Mastery - a point system that makes farming in Odyssey easier in general. The more Moogle Mastery you have, the stronger your trusts are in Odyssey and the cheaper it will be to open chests or spawn NMs. Moogle Mastery is increased by doing almost everything in Odyssey - killing enemies, the Agon Halos, NMs, and opening chests. Note that it's more important to do a variety of content rather than focusing on one thing - you can't max out Moogle Mastery by ONLY killing NMs, or ONLY opening chests, etc. Unfortunately, there are currently conflicting reports of how precisely one raises Moogle Mastery, and the precise numbers aren't fully known yet.

Odyssey Rewards

The primary rewards from Odyssey are "Lustreless" items (Lustreless Scales, Lustreless Hides, and Lustreless Wings) which are used to augment Unity Equipment. You can only enter Odyssey once every 20 hours, and it's a good idea to get into the habit of doing so. Once fully augmented, many of the UNM items can be extremely powerful, often best in slot. Even if you don't have any interest in the augmented UNM gear, Lustreless items are also in high demand so you can also sell them pretty quickly and easily for a tidy profit as well. You likely aren't geared enough now to fully clear Sheol A, but you ARE geared enough to do some farming to get some Lustreless Scales and get started either selling them or augmenting some of your UNM gear.

Alternative Vagary Battlefields

Vagary Overview

Soloable? Depends on the boss and your job.
Requirements: Completed the SoA missions Watery Grave, Reckoning (Mission), and Abomination
Notable Rewards: Ability to upgrade Reforged Empyrean Armor

Vagary is an event that is fairly complicated, but luckily you don't need to know a ton to begin participating in it. While you CAN start participating in the primary version of Vagary, which requires at least 3 players and thus cannot be solo'd, it's not commonly ran anymore. The rewards from Vagary can still sell for a decent amount of gil, but the equipment drops are mostly niche.

The most relevant reward from Vagary is unlocking the ability to upgrade your Reforged Empyrean Armor to +1, however there are alternative battlefields availabe to unlock them. These alternate battles do not give any other rewards - no exp, no equipment drops, can't complete RoE objectives, etc - but they can be entered solo with trusts, or with a few friends if you want. These days, most players just tackle these Alternate Battlefields instead of doing Vagary proper. There are five battlefields, each against a single boss - each one you defeat will unlock the ability to upgrade one of your Reforged Emp. Armor pieces.

Entering Vagary
To gain access to the first three battlefields, you'll need to clear the Seekers of Adoulin mission Watery Grave, to unlock the fourth boss you'll need to complete Reckoning (Mission), and to unlock the fifth you'll have to complete Abomination. Then you'll need to trade a vial of Befouled Water (dropped by Fomors in Outer Ra'Kaznar) to the odyssean passage found in Leafallia. This will give you the Prototype sigil pearl KI needed to enter into the battlefields. Head to Ra'Kaznar Turris in Ra'Kaznar Inner Court (fastest way there is via Home Point warp), and then examine the Ominous Postern to pick which battlefield you wish to tackle.

Battlefields

There are five battlefields available, each containing a single boss from Vagary. You'll have thirty minutes to complete the fight, but this usually won't be an issue.

After completing Watery Grave

• Pallatoritus - Unlocks Head. Palloritus doesn't really have any major gimmicks, just lots of dark damage. He does have an AOE doom to watch out for, and has a hate reset. Make sure to bring plenty of Holy Waters, otherwise he's not very notable.
• Putraxia - Unlocks Hands. [[[Putraxia]] has unique auto attacks, which can knockback, stun, or triple attack. He can also inflict various status effects, but nothing a few vials of Panacae and Remedy can't fix.
• Rancibus - Unlocks Feet. Rancibus has a lot of AOE damage and a powerful poison aura, which can be hard to deal with using trusts. I recommend bringing many trusts with AOE healing, such as Cipher: Selh'teus and Cipher: Iroha II.

After completing Reckoning (Mission)
Perfidien - Unlocks Legs

• Perfidien can be difficult, as he is originally a secret boss from base Vagary. Perfidien will choose a random element to become weak to, and will absorb all damage from that element's opposite. For example, if he's weak to thunder magic, then he will absorb water. If you heal Perfidien by casting the wrong element on him, he'll inflict Encumberance - the more he's healed, the longer it lasts. If healed too much, he'll use an AOE full dispel + damage move called Vivisection and then level up. Also take care because Skillchains WILL heal him if he absorbs even ONE of their elements. For example, if he absorbs Fire, then Light skillchains will heal him. After dealing ~23k damage of the element he's weak to, he will be proc'd, and then he'll change weakness after 2 minutes. He can also change weaknesses after a fair amount of damage has been done in general, so don't get lazy with checking what he absorbs. Luckily, there's a noticeable visual effect when he changes elements. The easiest way to check his weakness is to pepper him with weak elemental spells to see their effects - often it's easier to tell what element he absorbs, so you know its opposite is his weakness. Aside from this elemental weakness/absorption system, he actually doesn't have any particularly threatening mechanics. Just be sure to bring a job (or friend) that can deal with all these different elements.

After completing Abomination
Plouton - Unlocks Body, must have completed Abomination

• Plouton is the final boss of baseline Vagary, and thus will be the most challenging to beat solo. For the first 10% of his health bar, he will exclusively use a TP move called Impudence, which is a conal damage + zombie + hate reset. Starting at 90% HP, he'll begin elemental switching just like Perfidien. Just like Perfidien, if healed he will cause Encumbrance, and if healed too much he'll use Vivisection and level up. If you deal enough damage to his weakness, you'll proc him which will trigger a delayed elemental switch. It's far more important to proc Plouton though, as he will build significant damage resistance if he goes too long without being proc'd. Once he reaches 50% HP, he will gain some cool looking wings and begin using some powerful TP moves. Notable ones are Eternal Misery, which is a more powerful version of Impudence; and Bane of Tartarus, which dispels ALL buffs (including food) and inflicts Weakness. Plouton will also begin cycling through physical resistances along with his elemental ones - one of Blunt, Piercing, or Slashing will deal extra damage to him, and the other two will deal 99% reduced damage.

Once you have defeated a boss succesfully, you'll be able to upgrade the corresponding Reforged Empyrean Armor via Monisette in Port Jeuno (I-8). The items needed to perform the upgrades can be earned from regular Vagary, or you can purchase them off the Auction House or from player bazaars.

How to Earn Gil as an Experienced Player

Overview

You should now be geared enough to solo some harder content, so the options available to you for making gil are more robust now. All the old methods still apply as well, so don't forget about them! Like mentioned before, earning gil in FFXI is a matter of consistently making smaller amounts that will add up.

Ambuscade

Ambuscade is an excellent way to earn gil at this point. You generally should be getting upgrade materials you need first, but after that look into buying items to sell. What's available shifts month to month, but things to look out for are: Heavy Metal Plates, Alexandrite, Riftcinder, Riftdross, High-Purity Bayld, and Beitetsu. Check out the Ambuscade Rewards page to see how many Hallmarks/Gallantry each of these cost, and then check the auction house prices on your server to see what is most worth spending your Hallmarks on.

UNMs

It may be worth considering spending your Unity Accolades on spawning UNMs rather than purely on Prize Powders. Spawning UNMs does NOT count toward your 100,000 weekly accolade limit, and their drops can get you a good bit of pocket change. Notable UNMs to consider farming are Warblade Beak, Voso, Tiyanak, Joyous Green, Emperor Arthro, Valkurm Imperator, and Jester Malatrix. Most of these are fairly easy to solo and stacks of their drops can net you a good chunk of gil. In general I recommend looking through the list of UNMs to see what you can handle and how much their drops sell for on your server.

Odyssey Sheol A Lockpicking

Now that you're familiar with Odyssey, it's a good idea to try farming the chests for Lustreless Scales. This is done by going as a THF and picking the locks of the chests with Living Keys and Skeleton Keys, and subbing WHM for sneak/invis. WHM sub also gives infinite reraise, which is useful as getting a Mimic from a chest is otherwise certain death. You may not have THF at 99 and WHM at 49, but it may be worth considering leveling them up solely for this purpose. On average you can expect to get 100-200 lustreless scales per run, which is easy money you can get every day.

When you head to Sheol to pick some locks, you want to summon as many tank trusts as you can, along with a healer and maybe a support. Skeleton Keys have the lowest chance of resulting in a mimic, but are much more expensive compared to Living Keys. If you get a mimic while picking, you want to engage quickly so the tanks can grab hate. You then want to run at least 20' away from the mimic and let a normal mob kill you in a place that's safe to reraise. Mimics can draw in, so you need a tank to distract it. Mimics also have an aggro range of around 20', so you need quite a bit of distance between you and it in order to reraise safely. When it comes to picking the locks, you want to take care that getting a mimic won't cause you to die immediately due to getting aggro from nearby monsters. If one of the chests is near a group of monsters, you can either avoid it and come back later after picking all the other safe chests or you can try using a Skeleton Key for a better chance at avoiding a mimic. Remember that undead enemies will still aggro low health, so it's generally not safe to pick any chests that are near undead.

NextGames on youtube has an excellent video guide on how to farm Odyssey chests as well, if you'd like an example of how to do this safely.

Omen

Omen Overview

Soloable? Yes for very basic gil + upgrade card farming,No for getting equipment or lots of upgrade cards.
Requirements: Completed Rhapsodies of Vana'Diel
Notable Rewards: Reforged AF Armor +2 and +3, Sherida Earring, Anu Torque, Knobkierrie, Niqmaddu Ring, Yamarang, Ashera Harness, Utu Grip, Ilabrat Ring, Dagon Breast., Iskur Gorget, Dingir Ring, Kishar Ring, Enki Strap, Erra Pendant, Ammurapi Shield, Adad Amulet, Shulmanu Collar, Enmerkar Earring, various other equipment.

Omen is a very popular bit of endgame content, that requires you to have completed the Rhapsodies of Vana'Diel storyline. If you haven't done so yet, DO IT NOW! Omen is a super important piece of endgame content, so hop to it. Omen involves you (and likely a full party if not full alliance) going through multiple floors / rooms and fighting either groups of enemies or individual bosses. Rewards from Omen come in two major varieties: Job Cards / Scales, and Equipment. There's tons of good equipment in Omen, but there's also Job Cards and various Scales, which are used to upgrade your reforged AF to +2 and +3, respectively.

You enter Omen by first talking to Incantrix in Reisenjima, though Ethereal Ingress #10. He will give you a Mystical canteen key item, and will then begin generating them every 20 real-life hours. Incantrix can hold up to 3 canteens, and you can hold 1 at a time - so you can have a maximum of 4 canteens available at any one time. Once you have a Mystical Canteen, examine the Earthly Concrescence near Incantrix to enter Omen - if you're in a party, your party leader needs to do this, and everyone in the party / alliance needs a canteen.

Omen Objectives

Once in Omen, your group will be given a random Main Objective, and several random Additional Objectives, all of which are stated in your chat log.

• Main Objectives must be completed to open the portal to the next floor of Omen. This will be:
  • Kill a specific monster (which is not identified to your group)
  • Kill a specific number of "Sweetwater" monsters
  • Kill all of the "Transcendent" monsters
  • Kill all of the monsters
  • "Free" floor, which has no main objective and will allow you to move on immediately if you so choose.
  • On floors with a boss, the main objective will always be to kill that boss
• Additional Objectives are optional, and reward Job Cards when completed. These objectives are given to your entire alliance, and any member can contribute progress toward any of them. If a floor is a boss floor, you won't have any Additional Objectives.
  • There are too many different Additional Objectives to reasonably cite here, so check out the Omen#Additional_Objectives page for a full list of them. They tend to be along the lines of "Use X Physical Weapon Skills" or "Cure over 500 HP X times" etc.

At first you'll only have 10 minutes in Omen, but completing main objectives and moving on to new floors will increase that time limit, up to a maximum of 50 minutes. Each floor of Omen will either have multiple large swarms of "Sweetwater" monsters each with one stronger "Transcendent" monster, or there will only be one individual boss. The first two floors each contain two swarms of monsters. After this your group can choose to go to a floor containing only a boss by selecting "Go into the larger light" after the second floor, this is the midboss. After beating the midboss (or choosing not to skip its floor) you'll enter a large floor with 4-7 swarms - there will be more swarms if you skipped the midboss floor. If your group killed the midboss then after this floor you can proceed to fight the previously-selected Omen boss. If you skipped the midboss by selecting "Go into the smaller light" after the second floor, then the Omen run ends after this larger floor.

Generally when your group enters Omen, it will have one of two main goals: Job Card farming, or taking out the bosses. If your group is card farming, then the jobs chosen will generally be those that can easily fulfill Additional Objectives - Samurai for easy skillchains, Black Mages for easy Magic Bursts, etc. These groups will tend to skip the midboss, since the group likely may not be set up to take it out - and it doesn't give Additional Objectives anyways. If your group is tackling bosses, then they will generally ignore any Additional Objectives that aren't very easy, and will usually focus on clearing the floors relatively quickly to have more time to fight the bosses. Boss attempts will involve more traditional party / alliance setups.

Omens & Bonus Floor
So the event is called Omen, and as you play you'll earn a "currency" called Omens. Generally these can be ignored, because "Omens" are more like a lottery ticket than an actual currency. As your group enters Omen, a number is chosen at random from 1-999, and is hidden. Whenever an enemy is killed each member gets a random number of Omens, which acts like a lottery ticket for that number combo. One enemy might give you 326 Omens, then the next may give 875. If the random number was 326 or 875, then you'll have the matching number! If someone has a matching number when clearing floors 3 or 5, then your party gets sent to the rare and elusive Bonus Floor. At the bonus floor, there will be a large circle of chests. A limited number can be opened, so coordinate with the alliance to try to see who is opening what. The chests can contain any drop from Omen, even drops from the final megaboss, Ou! Drops will be added to the alliance treasure pool for people to lot on.

Omen Bosses

There are 3 possible midbosses for Omen, 5 typical final bosses, and 1 special superboss. All of the boss' HP scales with the number of players, so a full alliance may not alwasy be the best choice for taking them down. Which midboss you encounter is entirely random - because of this, if you want one of their drops, it may take quite a while as the drops themselves aren't guaranteed either. For the 5 main bosses, the party leader will select which one to encounter after defeating the midboss. Each main boss can drop scales and equipment - which scale you'll need to upgrade your AF to +3 will depend on your job.

To fight the megaboss, Ou, you'll need to have Key Items from all 5 of the previous main bosses (or at least, the party leader will need them). You then take the smaller light after the second floor, and after the third floor the leader can choose to face Ou. Note that when Ou is encountered, ALL alliance members will lose ALL of their Key Items, even if they don't have all 5 needed. You likely won't be well-geared enough to tackle Ou until you get some drops from the other bosses here in Omen, but it's good to know for later.

Mid Bosses

• Glassy Craver - Craver doesn't have any major pain-in-the-ass gimmicks, luckily. The main one is it'll draw in everyone in a 25' radius, then use a large knock-back AOE move. Mages should stand far away, and everyone else should likely group up near a wall so that they won't get flung too far.
• Glassy Gorger - Gorger has a move called Blessing Sync where it will steal buffs from nearby players, and it gains a strong Damage Reduction effect for each buff or debuff it has. Any melee DPS players should remove as many buffs as they can, and supports shouldn't go too crazy with debuffing. Luckily, stolen buffs can be dispelled.
• Glassy Thinker - Thinker has a move called Pain Sync which deals damage in a 20' AOE - the kicker is the damage dealt is proportional to how much damage it took while readying Pain Sync. This can (and will) wipe parties if they're not careful! Groups either tend to use pets to deal damage, or have two "waves" of players, expecting one to get wiped out by Pain Sync at least once. Thinker can also use a move to wipe debuffs off of it, so supports can limit the number of times it uses Pain Sync by keeping it loaded with debuffs.

Main Bosses
The main bosses each have a special move that kicks in when the boss hits 75%, 50%, 25%, and 10% HP. It's highly recommended you use an addon that lets you see the enemy's HP percentage so you can prepare for these moves. All of the main bosses will also use a party-wide Draw In if someone pulls aggro outside of a 20' range - this can prove fatal if the boss follows up with an AOE, or worse its special move. It's recommended you also install an addon that shows your distance to a target, to ensure you're not too far if you pull aggro, or not too close to get hit by any AOE moves.

• Fu - Fu's special move, Ebullient Nullification, is unique in that it's also used right off the bat when he's at 100%. Similar to Glassy Gorger's Blessing Sync, this will copy (not steal) all buffs from players within 20' - however, it does NOT count non-dispellable buffs such as Rune Fencer runes, food, re-raise, Aftermath, etc. Fu gains an attack boost with the more buffs he copies. However, he ALSO gains a potent intimidation effect if he does NOT copy many buffs - the fewer the buffs, the more potent the intimidation. Because of this, most groups aim to let Fu copy 4-7 buffs, depending on how the tank and healers have been doing. When Fu starts reaching one of the HP breakpoints, it's recommended for everyone to run away to not accidentally feed him too many buffs.
• Kyou - Kyou's special move, Unfaltering Bravado, deals 10,000 damage in a frontal cone. However, it works like cactuars' 1,000 Needles - the damage is evenly split between all targets that are hit. The main strategy for Kyou is thus for the whole group to clump up in front of it. Kyou DOES have some other AOE attacks though, so squishy mages may be fine hanging back, depending on your party setup. Otherwise Kyou doesn't have anything notable.
• Kei - Kei is arguably the most difficult for an unprepared group. Kei's special move is Dancing Fullers, which is fairly simple - it deals 2500 damage which cannot be reduced by any means for each target hit in a 10' AOE. This is relatively easy to avoid, even as a tank, by moving 12' or so away - just make sure the tank doesn't go 20' away and trigger Draw In. Kei's real threat is his gimmick: he has a shield that will grant hima powerful Regen, massively reduce Physical Damage, and Absorb all but a single element of magic. To drop the shield, you must perform a skillchain on him - however this will only drop the shield for a few seconds. In order to avoid timing out, your party must plan to magic burst off the skillchain that drops Kei's shield, as the boss will take extra magic damage once the shield is down. Kei will also cycle between either Blaze Spikes or Wind Spikes, which will determine which element of magic can deal damage to him - either Water or Ice, respectively. Mages should pelt him with the element he's weak to in order to counteract his Regen, while Melee try to set up a skillchain - then prepare to MB off of it pronto! Kei can also use Benediction, dragging the fight out longer (luckily, it won't re-use Dancing Fullers at HP levels it has already used it at). If your party doesn't have solid mages and melee coordinated for SCing (or a Scholar capable of solo SCing) you WILL run out of time while fighting Kei.
• Gin - Gin is fairly easy without any major gimmicks. Its special move is Zero Hour, which deals heavy percentage-based damage and resets hate in an AOE. This likely means healers will grab hate as they heal up the low hp tank + DDs, so the tank needs to be prompt on getting attention back. Gin can also absorb magic (and skillchains!) of a random element, so just be careful about not topping him off too much.
• Kin - Kin's main gimmick is that while readying a TP move it will absorb all Physical damage, and while casting a spell will absorb all magic damage - including skillchain damage! Your melee DDs need to be very careful fighting Kin, or they can easily heal him for huge swathes of health. Often Kin will be fought with only a few melee DDs on it at once to avoid over-healing it. Kin's special attack is Target, which causes his eyes to glow. That's all it does. Spooky!! Okay, if Kin stays on the same target for the duration of Target (1m30s), then Kin will use Eleventh Dimension, which inflicts a 3 minute-long terror on the affected player. This essentially deletes that player from the fight, but it can be avoided by temporarily switching hate away from your tank. Once hate switches, Kin's eyes will stop glowing and it will lose access to Eleventh Dimension. Stealing hate is usually done with a backup tank, as having too many DDs trying to steal hate can easily lead to healing Kin accidentally. Aside from this, Kin doesn't have any notable gimmicks, but he does do quite a lot of magic damage, and can cast a potent Doom - healers better be prepared, and you should carry a stack of Holy Waters just in case.

Ou
Ou is the Omen megaboss, requiring all five other main bosses to be defeated before he can be tackled. Ou can use ALL of the special attacks from the 5 other main bosses, at various HP thresholds, and has a few of his own too.

• 95% Uses Fu's Ebullient Nullification
• 75% Uses Kyou's Unfaltering Bravado
• 60% Uses Kei's Dancing Fullers
• 55% Ou levels up, and begins casting stronger AOE magic spells
• 45% Uses Gin's Zero Hour
• 30% Uses Kin's Target, and then eventually Eleventh Dimension if hate is not changed within 1:30.
• 15% Uses a new move, Gardez - a 20' AOE terror for 3-10 seconds
• 10% or less, uses another new move called Prophylaxis. This will cause Ou to immediately recover to 22% HP, and then after 30s he'll recover to 100% HP. When this is used Ou WILL gain access to all his previously-used special attacks. This is basically a complete fight reset, and functions as a test to finish off Ou as fast as possible - you can kill him before he gets a chance to use this, or before he gets a chance to finish the 30s charge up time.

Killing Ou requires a lot of careful coordination among your group. Melee DPS will often take "shifts" moving in and out depending on the phase Ou is in, with ranged / magic / pet jobs dealing damage in exchange. Listen carefully to your alliance's leader to ensure you're doing the right thing at the right time.

Omen Rewards

As mentioned earlier, your group will generally be aiming for Job Cards or boss drops when entering Omen. If you're not clear on which your group is aiming for (usually it's specified beforehand) then feel free to just ask your alliance leader. Below I'll list some notable rewards from Omen. Note that there are more rewards than those just listed here, so I recommend looking at the Omen page along with looking at the pages for specific Omen bosses to see if they drop anything relevant that's more specific to your job.

All Jobs

• Job Cards - These are used to upgrade reforged AF+1 into AF+2 and AF+3. To fully upgrade your armor to +2 you'll need a total of 40 cards for your job, with each piece needing 6-10 cards. To fully upgrade from +2 to +3, you'll need 200 job cards, with each piece needing 35-50 cards. In total you'll need 240 cards, which is quite a lot, hence why there are parties dedicated to farming them.
• Swart Astral Detritus Crystals - are dropped by any Sweetwater or Transcendent monster. They're not super common, but expect 5-10 of them to drop per Omen run, depending on the chosen floors and if you have Treasure Hunter. These are used to augment Ultimate Weapons, which we're nowhere close to accomplishing yet - however, they sell for quite a bit of gil on the Auction House, usually between 150k-200k depending on your server and the current market. At this point you can likely solo farm Omen for these crystals + Job cards, which will earn you a fair bit of gil and also some easy Job Points!
• Scales - Dropped by the 5 main bosses, these are used to upgrade reforged AF+2 to AF+3. Each piece requires 1 scale, so to upgrade your whole set you'll need 5 scales. They cannot be bought or traded, so you'll need to get them the hard way. Scales are loosely associated with different job archetypes:
  • WAR, MNK, PLD, DRK, and SAM need Kin's Scales
  • THF, NIN, DNC, and RUN need Gin's Scales
  • BRD, RNG, COR, and GEO need Kyou's Scales
  • WHM, BLM, RDM, BLU, and SCH need Kei's Scales
  • BST, DRG, SMN, and PUP need Fu's Scales

Heavy DD

• Knobkierrie - dropped from Glassy Thinker
• Niqmaddu Ring - dropped from Fu
• Utu Grip - dropped from Kin
• Dagon Breastplate - dropped from Kin
• Regal Cpt. Gloves - dropped from Ou
• Regal Ring - dropped from Ou

Light DD

• Sherida Earring - dropped from Glassy Craver
• Anu Torque - dropped from Glassy Craver
• Yamarang - dropped from Gin
• Ashera Harness - dropped from Gin
• Ilabrat Ring - dropped from Kin
• Regal Gloves - dropped from Ou
• Regal Ring - dropped from Ou

Tanks

• Regal Gauntlets - dropped from Ou

Mages

• Kishar Ring - dropped from Glassy Gorger
• Enki Strap - dropped from Glassy Gorger
• Erra Pendant - dropped from Glassy Gorger
• Ammurapi Shield - dropped from Kei
• Shamash Robe - dropped from Kei
• Regal Cuffs - dropped from Ou
• Regal Earring - dropped from Ou

Pet Jobs

• Adad Amulet - dropped from Glassy Thinker
• Shulmanu Collar - dropped from Fu
• Enmerkar Earring - dropped from Kyou
• Udug Jacket - dropped from Kyou
• Lugalbanda Earring - dropped from Kei

Ranged Jobs

• Nusku Shield - dropped from Glassy Craver
• Nisroch Jerkin - dropped from Fu
• Iskur Gorget - dropped from Kyou
• Dingir Ring - dropped from Gin

Escha Ru'Aun Geas Fete

Geas Fete Overview

Soloable? Depends on your job and which boss you're fighting
Requirements: Escha Ru'Aun Access
Notable Rewards: Abjurations for powerful armorsets, various augmentable weapons, Ishvara Earring, Petrov Ring, Grunfeld Rope, Caro Necklace, Assuage Earring, Diemer Gorget, Philidor Mantle, Fortified Ring, Balarama Grip, Kurys Gloves, Evanescence Ring, Nodens Gorget, Hydrocera, Evans Earring, Halasz Earring, Reti Pendant, Vertigo Ring, Tutyr Sabots, Shango Robe, Yemaya Belt, Various Vorseals.

Geas Fete is a really weird name for a fairly simple system. In Escha - Ru'Aun you can get Key Items from Dremi to spawn bosses that have a wide variety of drops. Almost every job can get something useful from these fights, so they're definitely worth looking in to. The bosses also drop Abjurations, which we touched upon back in the NQ Abjuration Gear section of this guide. While I advised buying them with DI points earlier, this is how you get them for free! Well, "free" - you'll still need to spend a bit of gil to pop the bosses.

Geas Fete Bosses

To spawn a boss for Geas Fete, first look up the items requested for the boss - once you have the item for the boss(es) you want to fight, trade them to Dremi and request the appropriate Key Item for your boss. All the Tier 1 NMs can be spawned with any item from a big list; the cheapest item tends to be Bhefhel Marlin, but those don't stack in your inventory so you may be better off with two Steel Ingots. Once you get the KI for your boss, you'll need either a Tribulens or a Radialens, also obtained from Dremi in exchange for Escha Silt. The tribulens is good for a single boss spawn, then needs to be purchased again (at an increasingly more expensive price, until you go 30m without buying one). A radialens will let you fight an unlimited number of bosses, but expires after an hour irl time, or when you leave Escha. It's generally recommended to buy a radialens, unless you're only planning on fighting one or two bosses. Both for convenience (so you don't need to keep running back to Dremi) but also for saving silt.

This is normally where I would outline all the bosses and their gimmicks, but honestly there are just way too many to cover here. The Escha page lists all the bosses, I recommend spending some time looking through them and seeing which ones have drops relevant to your job. You can probably solo most of the Tier 1 NMs by now, but some of the Caturae might be risky - bring along a friend or two and you should be safe. Tier 2 and Tier 3 NMs will require a few other people, though. Drops aren't guaranteed though, so it's probably a good idea to bring along multiple pop items.

Dynamis Divergence - Waves 1 & 2

Dyna-D Overview

Soloable? No
Requirements: Beaten Dynamis Tavnazia, completed Rhapsodies of Vana'diel
Notable Rewards: Items used to upgrade Reforged Relic to +2 and +3, and Various currencies which can be sold for lots of gil.

Dynamis Divergence, also called Dyna D, is the current major endgame piece of content (as of Dec 2020) and is basically an ilvl version of classic Dynamis from 2007. It provides a variety of rewards, many of which can be used to upgrade your reforged relic armor to +2 and +3 - or sold for quite a lot of gil! While it can be farmed with a small party, much more often it is ran with a full alliance of 18 players. This is due to the "lockout" period - after entering any Dyna D zone, you'll need to wait 60 hours earth-time before you can re-enter - so players tend to bring a full alliance, so they can get more bang for their buck.

In order to enter any Dynamis Divergence zone, you must first beat Dynamis Tavnazia at least once, and complete all Rhapsodies of Vana'diel missions. After completing both of these, examine the ??? in Ru'Lude Gardens (G-8) (near the AH) to speak with Aurix the goblin. Then trade the one of either 100 Byne Bill, M. Silverpiece, or L. Jadeshell to the ??? to receive the permanent KI Empty hourglass - this will give you access to all four Dyna D zones - Dynamis - Bastok (D), Dynamis - San d'Oria (D), Dynamis - Windurst (D), and Dynamis - Jeuno (D).

So what actually happens in Dynamis Divergence? Just like regular Dynamis, you'll be in a shadow-version of the four main nations. These areas will be populated by beastmen statues that either stand in a designated spot, or wander on a preset path. If one is aggroed, it will spawn a group of beastmen enemies, each of which is capable of using its job's SP move. "Wave 1" is the group of spawned statues that are present when entering Dynamis, and there will also be a boss spawned from the start. When this boss is killed, all remaining Wave 1 statues will despawn and a full new set will spawn, Wave 2. A second boss will also spawn, which is significantly more difficult than the first. You may not be ready to meaningfully contribute to the Wave 2 boss yet, but you can still meaningfully contribute to killing Wave 1 and 2 mobs!

When first entering Dyna D, your group will have a 60m time limit. Every time a statue is killed, 1 minute will be added to the time limit. When a boss is killed, 30 minutes (minus any time added by killing that wave's statues) will be added. The time limit can be raised to a maximum of 120 minutes. Generally, groups will work through Wave 1, killing statues and NMs to farm drops. Alliances will usually have Corsairs that are well-equipped enough to one-shot statues with a weapon skill, which will give the 1 minute time extension but NOT spawn the corresponding mobs. This is done to give more time for farming, since there usually won't be enough time to farm both waves.

Note - When the Wave 2 boss is killed, there will be a Wave 3 of enemies and a new boss, but that's some of the hardest content in the game (as of Dec 2020) and you're unfortunately not ready for that yet.

Statues

When first entering Dynamis Divergence, all the enemies will be Statues with strange icons on their nameplates - a moon, a snowflake, or a cherry blossom petal. These icons correspond to the glow of the statue's eyes, and aggroing the statue will result in different effects depending on the color of their eyes / the icon on the nameplate. Most statues will cycle back and forth between Green and Blue, and others will only remain Red. Rarely there will also be a statue whose eyes don't glow at all. Green and Blue-eyed statues will spawn enemies with different strengths and weaknesses depending on what Dyna D zone you're in. Red-eyed statues will always spawn an NM, and blank-eyed statues will always spawn a special NM named Aurix, who will quickly escape but is guaranteed to drop valuable loot.

All statues will aggro True Sight, and they will link - if you're pulling, be VERY careful to only grab one statue at a time, otherwise your group may get overwhelmed and wipe.

Dyna D Bastok
Green-eyed statues will spawn Quadav that take 95% less damage from light-aligned elements (fire, wind, thunder, and light), and 30% more damage from dark-aligned elements (ice, water, earth, and dark). Blue-eyed statues result in the opposite. Which one you pull generally doesn't matter much as your alliance will probably be able to deal plenty of damage from all sources. Still, may be worth checking with the leader if you're pulling. NMs spawned from Red-eyed statues will gain access to the ability Wrath of Gu'Dha, which is deals large knockback in an AOE and applies a heavy weight status effect. Because of this, most NMs in Dyna D Bastok will be fought with melees having their backs to a wall, so they won't have to sloooooowwwwwwly crawl back into the fight if they get hit by this.

Dyna D San d'Oria
Green-eyed statues will spawn Orcs that take 75% less magic damage, but 25% more physical damage. Blue-eyed statues result in the opposite - 75% less physical damage, 25% more magic. Which damage type you want will depend on your alliance's strategy. NMs spawned from Red-eyed statues will have access to the ability Orcish Counterstance which gives a VERY potent counter effect. All melee DDs should NOT stand in front of Orc NMs, or they will very quickly kill themselves with enemy counter attacks.

Dyna D Windurst
Green-eyed statues will spawn Yagudo that take 33% less damage from ranged sources and magic, while Blue-eyed statues spawn ones that take 50% less melee damage. Again, which you'll want to spawn will depend on your group. NMs spawned from Red-eyed statues will be able to use Doom, which will have a 10-second timer. It's generally recommended that everyone carry several stacks of Holy Water to Dyna D Windy solely for this reason, even fi you're not a tank.

Dyna D Jeuno
Green-eyed statues will spawn Goblins that take 20% extra damage, but will heavily resist all enfeebling magic, including sleep and lullaby. Blue-eyed statues spawn enemies that take 50% extra damage, but take 99% less damage from AOEs. Most strategies rely on sleeping most of the enemies spawned with statues, so it's likely your group will want to focus on blue-eyed statues - the enemies will die faster, too! NMs spawned from Red-eyed statues will use Goblin Dice which can deal a variety of effects. If you're lucky the goblin will roll a 2, which will refresh your whole party's SP moves! If you're unlucky you might get fully dispelled, hate reset, or a full heal for the NM.

NMs
As noted above, each zone's NMs have different gimmicks to them. However, there are some aspects they share across all Dyna D zones. Each NM will have two jobs associated with it - for example, Dyna D Sandy's Squadron Skullcrusher is WAR & DRK. These NMs have access to the SP abilities of both of their jobs - so the Skullcrusher can use both Mighty Strikes and Blood Weapon. NMs that are half BST CAN use Charm even when a pet is summoned, so be VERY careful when fighting them. If you get charmed, let your alliance know immediately so a support job can put you to sleep before you kill half the alliance. If you're a support, take care to keep an eye out for charmed party members so you can disable them, and always be sure to put any NM pets (BST pets, SMN avatars, DRG wyverns, etc) to sleep ASAP.

Aurix
When entering Dyna D, one statue at random will be chosen to "host" Aurix, and its eyes won't ever glow. When you see a statue whose eyes never glow, point it out to your alliance immediately! Take note that statues' eyes dim for a few seconds when changing between green and blue, so be sure that the statue's eyes are truly blank. When Aurix's statue is aggroed, Aurix will spawn alongside the regular mobs. If Aurix is left alone without being damaged, he'll run away after a few minutes. When Aurix is engaged, he will run away if his health is dropped below a certain percentage. He CAN be killed before running away, but it's really hard to do so. Don't fret if he runs, though, as another statue will randomly be chosen to be the new host, and Aurix will still be at the HP he had when running. Usually it'll take 2-3 Aurix fights to finally kill him, at which point he'll drop some guaranteed valuable items. There's a limit to 1 Aurix per wave, so if you kill Aurix before beating the Wave 1 boss, a second can be encountered in Wave 2.

Bosses

At this point, you're likely only going to be fighting the Wave 1 boss, and MAYBE some attempts at the Wave 2 boss, depending on the rest of your alliance. The Wave 1 boss is very similar across all four Dyna D zones, but the Wave 2 bosses are more unique, but all go through a "phase change" at 50% HP, where they become MUCH more threatening. If your alliance wipes against one of these bosses and they regen back up to 100%, they will remain in this second phase and generally be unbeatable. This usually means the attempt at killing them is a failure, even with lots of time left on the clock. All the W2 bosses also have powerful AOE moves, and are often fought by having the tank pull the boss to a lower area, while the rest of the party pelts the boss with ranged attacks and magic from a higher area that won't be hit by the AOEs.

Wave 1 Bosses
Each zone's W1 boss is a large statue - Mu'Sha Effigy in Bastok, Overseer's Tombstone in Sandy, Envincing Idol in Windy, and Impish Golem in Jeuno. These take reduced physical damage, but extra damage from most magic elements. These bosses generate a lot of TP naturally, and thus will spam a lot of TP moves. Each one has access to Seismostomp (a strong AOE damage move that stuns) and then a breath attack that inflicts a status effect depending on which Dyna D zone you're in. Bastok's NM inflicts Gravity, Sandy's can inflict Paralysis, Windy's can inflict Curse, and Jeuno's can inflict Sleep. Due to the abundance of AOE damage in this fight, most alliances just kill the bosses with ranged attacks and magic, while a tank holds it far away from the group. If you're a melee job and want to help kill the boss, you WILL want to be wearing a hybrid / DT set to soften the damage you're taking, and ask your party leader if it's okay for you to melee before you do.

Note that as soon as the statue dies Wave 2 statues will spawn. Particularly in Dyna D Windurst, it's VERY easy to accidentally aggro statues as soon as they spawn. Don't be That Guy that aggros a bunch of statues as soon as Wave 2 starts and wipes the alliance. The Wave 2 bosses will ALSO spawn immediately, but usually you won't be in a position to worry about immediately pissing them off.

Bastok W2 Boss - Ka'Rho Fearsinger
Ka'Rho Fearsinger is a MNK & RUN, and has access to both Hundred Fists and Elemental Sforzo. He will use TP moves as soon as he is able - so expect LOTS of TP moves to be used. Once he goes down to 50%, he'll gain a potent Addle and Slow aura with a massive 50' radius. He will also gain access to a variety of new TP moves, mostly conal and AOE ones, including the Red-eyed Statue NM move Wrath of Gu'Dha (knockback + gravity) and a suped-up version called Torment of Gu'Dha that deals knockback + Defense Down + Slow + Petrify. If that's not enough, he also gains an enhanced Elemental Sforzo called Aetherwal that causes him to absorb all magic damage, an enhanced Invincibility called Repulsor that reflects 400~900 damage whenever he's hit by a physical attack, and an enhanced Hundred fists called Thousand Fists that also adds various debuffs to his auto attacks such as blind, plague, paralyze, and silence.

San d'Oria W2 Boss - Halphas
Halphas sucks, and is arguably one of the hardest bosses in all of Dyna D, even Wave 3. He has access to Invincible, Elemental Sforzo, Mighty Strikes, AND Blood Weapon. He has access to general Orc TP moves, and once he hits 50% HP he'll gain a Defense Down and Avoidance Down aura, along with a variety of new TP moves. All his SP moves get upgraded to Repulsor (Invincible with 400-900 damage reflect), Aetherwall (Elemental Sforzo that absorbs magic damage), Flailing Blow (Mighty Strikes along with 1.5x damage), and Sanguine Blessing (Blood Weapon with 20x the drain effect). But the REAL threat actually comes from his TP moves. He has a variety of buffs that NEED to be dispelled, and some very threatening other moves alongside. He can use Orcish Counterstance to give himself a very potent counter that melees will need to be aware of, Berserker Dance for a very strong Haste, Bilateral Shield for a huge Defense Boost, and Shriek for a massive attack damage boost. On top of these, he also has two very strong attacking TP moves: Yarkhushta is a 25' AOE attack that deals 700-1500+ (or up to 2000-3000 after Shriek is used) damage, and Full-On Tackle which is a single-target damage + Hate Reset + potent Gravity.

What this all adds up to is a fight where mages need to constantly be applying Dispel to get rid of his potent buffs, but in order to get in range they risk getting one-shotted by Yarkushta. If they stay at range, then when Halphas uses Full-On Tackle the tank will be gravity'd be unable to catch up to the boss when it runs off to go kill the mages that are standing at a distance. The general strategy to beating him is to pull him over to one of the walls that run along the Ronfaure zones, and have mages stay atop the walls in order to safely be out of range of Yarkushta but still be able to heal, debuff, etc. When the boss uses Full-On Tackle, a secondary tank needs to be ready to pull hate ASAP, since the primary tank likely won't be able to as the boss runs off to try to get up to the mages. This fight can go south VERY quickly, and will require a very coordinated team in order to take down.

Windurst W2 boss - Fii Pexu the Eternal
Fii Pexu the Eternal isn't too bad for a coordinated group, but can catch unprepared parties by surprise and easily cause a wipe. He can use Perfect Dodge, Blood Weapon, Mighty Strikes, and Hundred Fists, and can cast spells VERY quickly. He likes to spam Silencega, Stonega IV, and Aeroga IV. However, he CAN be silenced by a very well-equipped RDM. Once Below 50% HP, he'll gain an aura that inhibits TP. His SP abilities get upgraded to Pristine Evasion (Perfect Dodge that can also dodge magic, but not ranged attacks!), Sanguine Blessing (Blood Weapon with 20x the drain effect), Flailing Blow (Mighty Strikes along with 1.5x damage), and Thousand Fists (Hundred Fists that also apply various debuffs on each hit). The threatening TP moves he'll bust out in this phase are Stroke (25' AOE damage + stun), Verticose Sands (25' AOE wind damage with silence + knockback + removing 1 piece of gear), and Double Punt (single-target Terror+knockback). He can also give himself a powerful Regen + evasion boost with Riposte, and a strong Attack Boost + Regain by using Guttural Roar. And, of course, he can cause single-target Doom.

The main thing to look out for when fighting him is the AOE, as it can really mess up your mages. Fighting him at the Heaven's Tower bridge is recommended, so mages / ranged attackers can safely stand atop of it and still be in range to hit the boss - tank pulls the boss over to where the home point crystal would be, and the rest of the party stays on the bridge. A skilled healer is important in this fight to get rid of status effects and keep anyone alive that is getting hit by AOE spam, and a RDM or SMN to debuff is potent regen and regain.

Jeuno W2 Boss - Obstatrix
Obstatrix is probably the easiest of the four cities' Wave 2 bosses. He gets Blood Weapon, Mighty Strikes, Hundred Fists, and Invincible. Below 50% all his SPs get upgraded the same as the previous bosses, and he gains a -50 MP/tic Plague aura, that ignores height differences. Like the red-eyed statue NMs in Jeuno, he gets Goblin Dice, which upgrades to Fixed Dice below 50% - both do randomized effects, with Fixed Dice's effects generally being more threatening. He luckily doesn't have any strong buffs, but DOES have a wide variety of strong AOE and conal attacks. Generally he's fought down near the Mog House entrance, while the ranged members of the group stand on the bridge above to stay out of range. Overall not a terribly hard fight if your team has proper positioning to not get obliterated by his AOEs, and so long as your healers can keep up with healing the melee members of the group.

General Advice & Tips

• The most important thing in Dyna D is to listen to your alliance leader! They'll let you know what you should be doing and what your group's gameplan is.
• When a statue is pulled there will be a bard or scholar in charge of AOE sleeping the group of enemies. Then there will be a main tank who will engage the enemies one at a time, and DD jobs should ONLY attack the enemy/enemies that the tank is engaged with.
• Paladin and Thief enemies are usually fought first, so when they use Invincible or Perfect Dodge then the group has other enemies to fight to not waste time.
• White Mages are often killed late in a group, since Benediction will wake up any slept adds.
• Ninja enemies should ALWAYS be fought last, as Mijin Gakure can (and will) kill multiple party members - if any adds are remaining when this happens, it could lead to a wipe.
• Don't go off and kill enemies that the group isn't engaged with, even if you can kill them quickly and easily on your own. Usually your alliance will have a THF there to plant Treasure Hunter onto enemies, and killing one solo will mean one less enemy killed with TH.

Dynamis Divergence Rewards

The main reward from Waves 1 and 2 of Dyna D are materials to upgrade reforged relic armor to +2 and +3. This is primarily done through "shard" items and "void" items. For example, to upgrade your relic headgear you'll need "Headshards" specific to your job, and for +3 you'll also need job-specific "Voidheads". These are rarely dropped off of mobs of the corresponding job, and are highly likely to drop off of Red-Eyed statue NMs. Wave 1 tends to drop shards, while W2 tends to drop voids. Shards and voids can also be bought from bazaars and the AH, so if you're only missing one or two (or don't feel like farming more Dyna) then you can just go that route. It is worth noting that depending on your jobs, these can be VERY expensive.

The other main reward from W1/W2 Dyna D are the various Dyna D currencies. There's a ton of them, but the most relevant ones are Rusted I. Cards and Beastmen's Medals.

JSE Necks & Reinforcement Points
Oboro is an NPC in Port Jeuno (E-6) that offers augments specific to gear created from Dyna D materials. He offers a variety of JSE Weapons, but more specific to Dynamis Divergence is his ability to augment JSE Necks with Reinforcement Points (RP). These neck pieces, once fully augmented, are often the best in slot for their respective classes for one or more gearsets.

You can buy the neck pieces off of the AH or out of players' bazaars. Because of their strength, the +2 versions are often very expensive - easily costing 50m+ depending on job and server. The +1 versions are often much more reasonably priced, costing around 10m or less. The base versions are usually dirt cheap, luckily. I recommend At least shelling out for the +1 version for your job, and saving up for the +2 version if you're really serious about pursuing your job.

To augment the pieces, you need to RP towards them. This can be done by trading the piece along with a Heroism Crystal for 10 RP or a Heroism Aggregate for 50 RP. Whenever you have the piece of gear equipped when a Dyna D beastman dies, you'll also get RP - 10 points for a W1 monster and 20 for a W1 boss, doubling to 20/40 for W2. The crystals / aggregates drop in Dyna D, or can be bought off the AH. NQ Necks cap out at Rank 15, which requires a total of 5,950 RP; +1 Necks cap out at R20, requiring 13,060; and +2 necks cap at R25 needing a total of 25,150 RP. These can be VERY expensive to try to just buy all the crystals/aggregates required to max out, so it's recommended to go with a mix of buying materials, killing Dyna monsters, and getting Dyna drops to max them out.

Ambuscade - Very Difficult & Pulse Weapons

Ambu VD Overview

Soloable? Almost certianly not
Requirements: Lv99
Notable Rewards: Ambuscade Armor, Ambuscade Capes, Various Weapons, Various items worth selling

By now you should be well-geared enough to start tackling V1VD Ambuscades. It's recommended at this point you have multiple +2 versions of Ambuscade Armor, and multiple different variations of your job's Ambuscade Cape. If you're using an ambuscade weapon, you definitely want it upgraded to the Kaja version by now as well, or maybe even the final version, which requires a Pulse Weapon.

Pulse Weapons

While you unfortunately can't earn a Pulse Weapon from Ambuscade, you DO need to use a pulse weapon to fully upgrade an Ambuscade Weapon. Pulse Weapons aren't anything special on their own, but are necessary to upgrade a Kaja Weapon to its final form. There are multiple ways to get a Pulse Weapon, but unfortunately none of them are particularly easy. Fortunately, you don't need a specific pulse weapon to upgrade your Kaja Weapon - any pulse can be used to upgrade any Kaja. You can trade the pulse knuckles to upgrade the kaja knife, for example. Here are how you can try to get a pulse on your own:

• By far the easiest way to obtain a pulse is by exchanging a Kupon W-Pulse with a Dealer Moogle. Each character gets 1 free Kupon in exchange for 170 Deeds of Heroism - which will take a bit over 5 months of completing monthly RoE objectives. You HAVE been completing those objectives like I recommended earlier, haven't you? (You can also earn these Kupons from the annual Mog Bonanza lottery, but good luck with that)
• Get one to drop from a Voidwatch NM. We haven't touched on Voidwatch (VW) yet, because honestly most of it isn't very relevant to today's endgame. I don't really recommend this option, as the drop rate is VERY low.
• Trade 5 Pulse Cells to to Ardrick in Jugner Forest (I-8) (behind the Outpost) after having defeated the weapon's associated Voidwatch NM. The drop rate for the cells isn't very good, but you CAN buy cells from other players' bazaars, so this is an option if you have plenty of money.
• Get one to drop from a Tier 3 Escha Zi'Tah Geas Fete NM. We also haven't touched on Escha Zi'Tah's Geas Fete yet, because most of the rewards are fairly niche or already obsoleted by the time you can kill the NMs. The T3 NMs can drop Pulse Weapons with a fairly low drop rate, but they may be too difficult to solo for you at this point. It depends on your job and which NM you attempt. It could be worth trying!
• Pay someone for one. The pulse weapons are rare/ex, and thus can't actually be bought or traded, but many players will be willing to kill the T3 NMs listed above to try and get one to drop into their loot pool - you then would head to Escha Zi'Tah, pay the player, and join their party to lot on the weapon. This can be quite pricey though, since pulse weapon drops are rare and it'll cost the farmer money to spawn the NMs. I've seen them go for anywhere from 20-50m, it depends on your server and the current state of the in-game economy. You can find people to merc this for you via /yell, and if you're not sure what to offer simply ask people to send you offers in their replies.

Level 125-128 UNMs

Lv 125-128 UNMs Overview

Soloable? Varies, but mostly yes
Requirements: Completed All For One RoE objective
Notable Rewards: Demers. Degen +1, Ternion Dagger +1, Kentarch Belt +1, Cacoethic Ring +1, Seeth. Bomblet +1, Emet Harness +1, Warder's Charm +1, Odnowa Earring +1, Pukulatmuj +1, Hike Khat +1, Ghastly Tathlum +1, tons of other equipment

By now you can probably solo most lvl 125 UNMs. Some are harder than others of course, but for the most part they should be easy enough for you. There are also some lv 128 UNMs that you may be able to solo, but become much easier with a friend or two. There's too many possible rewards here to list off, including lots of ones that are job-specific, so head on over to the UNM page to see what's available for your job.

Odyssey - Sheol B

Sheol B Overview

At this point, you probably will want to consider tackling Sheol B in Odyssey. To unlock Sheol B, you'll need to have reached the end of Sheol A while having the appropriate Records of Eminence objective set. The objective is under Content > Odyssey > Sheol A. Once completing, you'll then be able to enter Sheol B. B works the same as A, but with different enemies, a different layout, and by rewarding Lustreless Hides instead of scales. Hides can be used to upgrade different UNM equipment, primarily from the level 125 UNMs we just covered! Hides also sell for even more gil than Scales, so they can be good moneymakers too.

Reisenjima Geas Fete

Reisenjima Geas Fete Overview

Soloable? Usually no, but some jobs can pull it off
Requirements: Reisenjima access
Notable Rewards: Begrudging Ring, Hetairoi Ring, Sarissapho. Belt, Digni. Earring, Agema Cape, Pemphredo Tathlum, Various augmentable armor and weapons

Just like Escha Ru'Aun, Reisenjima has its own set of Geas Fete NMs to tackle. With exceptional gear these bosses can be soloed by some jobs (RDM, BLU, NIN, DNC, maybe BST and PUP?), but otherwise you'll need a group to defeat them. Much of the drops from these NMs are rewards in the Domain Invasion 800-point category. So while you may already have much of the gear, it's nice to get ones for "free" without needing to farm DI for days. Also, there are some pieces of gear which cannot be gained elsewhere, and are often very strong.

The list of NMs is quite long, a bit too long to fully tackle here, so I recommend you read through and see which ones have drops relevant to your job and then check their wiki pages to see strategies for defeating them.

Sinister Reign

Sinister Reign Overview

Soloable? Probably, but you won't want to
Requirements: Finished Seekers of Adoulin storyline
Notable Rewards: Taming Sari, Samnuha Tights, Dampening Tam, Ta'lab Trousers, Vampirism, Lilitu Headpiece, Leyline Gloves, Malevolence, Witching Robe, Plenty of other weapons and armor

At this point you're plenty ready to tackle Sinister Reign, and if you have yet to complete the SoA storyline now is a good time to prioritize it. Here you can get some amazing gear, but it'll require some luck. Sinister Reign, better known as SR, is a short event where a group faces off against three bosses in a row. Which bosses are faced is randomly selected, and the rewards earned have random augments on them. Because of this, it can take quite a lot of attempts to get the drops you need. There is good news, though! With good / perfect augments, these pieces are VERY strong, and are often best in slot. Furthermore, SR goes by VERY quickly - the bosses are fairly trivial at ilvl, and so a reasonably well-geared group will wipe the floor with them. Thus, each run will only take a few minutes, so most groups do a dozen or so runs in a row.

In order to enter SR, you must speak to Malobra in Ra'Kaznar Inner Court (I-8) and pay him 5,000 bayld in exchange for a Macabre simulacrum key item. Once all party members have the KI, the leader needs to examine the Infernal Transposer next to Malobra to register the group. A few seconds after the group enters, the first boss will spawn. A few seconds after it's dead, the second will spawn, and so on. Once all three bosses have been defeated, speak to Malobra again to choose which reward you want to receive - you only get one per run, and each party member gets their own unique rewards. Equipment and weapons get random values for their augments, up to a "perfect" cap - good luck with getting perfect augs!

I could go into detail on the mechanics of each boss, but honestly all of them will die too quickly for it to matter much. Just avoid standing in front of a boss (unless you're a tank) to ensure you don't get hit by any conal attacks or counters, and you'll probably be fine. You might be wondering if the fights are so easy, why not solo them? It's fully possible, but the problem is that the drop rates for well-augmented gear is very low, so attempting to solo it will take quite a long time to get any reasonable rewards.

HQ Abjuration Gear

HQ Abjuration Overview

Remember NQ Abjurations? Well, now is a good time to look into upgrading them to their HQ versions! These can be quite pricey, but are definitely worth the cost. As a reminder, you can buy the abjurations themselves using Domain Invasion points, or you can farm them from various Escha Ru'aun Geas Fete NMs. You're more than well-geared enough by now to likely solo many of the NMs, depending on your job, so I recommend taking that route instead, depending on the specific piece you need.

How to Earn Gil as an Advanced Player

Overview

At this point you have quite a lot of options available for earning gil. All the previous options listed in the beginner and experienced sections still apply, but here I'll list some new ways you can earn gil that have opened up to you. Remember to keep in mind that making gil in FFXI is more about steadily earning money every day, not just trying to get huge chunks of gil all at once.

Omen

At this point you can likely solo farm Omen fairly easily, if you avoid the bosses. The primary item you're looking for is S. Astral Detritus, which can sell for a good amount on the AH. With THF sub, you can expect to get between 5-10 of them per run. Simply make sure that on the second floor of Omen, you choose to walk into the "smaller light" instead of the "light" - this will avoid the Omen midboss. As an added bonus, farming Omen will also net you some free Paragon Job Cards to help +2 / +3 your AF gear.

Odyssey Sheol B Lockpicking

Just like farming Sheol A, Sheol B is a great place to lockpick chests as a THF/WHM. By now you should have no problem leveling THF up to 99 and WHM up to 49, and it's very much worth it to farm Lustreless Hides from Sheol B chests.

Monthly Campaigns

It's a good idea to keep an eye on the monthly campaigns for gil-making opportunities. Obviously this changes from month to month, but most months have at least one or two campaigns that can be very good for moneymaking. Some notable ones are:

• Surge Walk Campaign - This forces all Walk of Echoes confluxes to be "surged", which increases the chance of rare drops. Pixie Hairpin +1, Windbuffet Belt +1, and Flume Belt +1 all sell for quite a lot of gil.
• Unity Wanted Campaign - This doubles the drops from UNM kills. At this point you can likely solo lv125 UNMs fairly easily, so farming them for drops is a fantastic way to make gil.
• Assault - Nyzul Isle Uncharted Area Survey Mysterious Item Campaign - This makes extra rewards drop from completing Nyzul Isle Uncharted Area Survey, also known as New Nyzul Isle or simply NNI. Almost any item in the game can drop during this campaign, so you can get some very expensive and rare drops such as Orpheus's Sash, Epaminondas's Ring, Menelaus's Ring, Kyrene's Earring , or even some Pulse Weapons.
• High-Tier Mission Battlefield Campaign - This allows extra drops from HTBFs. Farming an easy one like Leviathan on Difficult isn't super hard, and can get you tons of free Plutons, Beitetsus, and Riftborn Boulders to sell.
• Macrocosmic Orb Campaign - Similar to the above, but for Macrocosmic Orb battles. I personally enjoy farming Kindred Spirits II, and it's fairly easy to get lots of rewards worth quite a lot of gil from this campaign. Save your S. Kindred Crests for when this pops up!
• Dynamis - Divergence Statue Crusher Campaign - While you can't solo this, while active you'll get tons of free personal loot drops while going through Dyna D. Beastmen's Medals and Kindred's Medals are nice to get for free, but also keep in mind you'll get drops for your job! This could either help you finish making your relic +2/+3 gear, or you could consider selling the drops you get for nice amounts of gil. RDM, BLU, THF, COR, BRD, and GEO drops all tend to be worth quite a lot of gil.

Geas Fete HELMs & Gods

Overview

Soloable? No
Requirements: Reisenjima access
Notable Rewards: Telos Earring, Reikiko, Shukuyu Ring, Reiki Yotai, Nzingha Cuirass, Iktomi Dastanas, Sayadio's Kaftan, Kerygma Belt, Alber Strap, Genmei Shield, Zendik Robe, Hermetic Earring, Rahab Ring, Kobo Obi, Vedic Coat, Navon Crackows, Oranyan, Empath Necklace

Around this time you should be well-geared enough to help contribute meaningfully to Geas Fete Gods and HELM NMs. These are the hardest Geas Fete bosses, and come with some of the best rewards! The HELMs are spawned with items gained from HELM'ing - Harvesting, Excavating, Logging, and Mining - but you'll probably just go buy them from the Auction House.

Escha Zi'Tah HELMs

Most of the Escha Zi'Tah HELMs are luckily not too threatening. A well-geared party shouldn't struggle with any of them, with the exception of the strongest one, Wrathare. Wrathare has en-death on its regular attacks, and has quite high evasion and can give itself a large number of shadows to avoid damage, and can reset enmity often. It's usually fought without too many melee players, to avoid feeding it too much TP.

Escha Ru'Aun Gods

Escha Ru'Aun has a set of Geas Fete NMs referred to as Gods, the equivalent of HELMs for the zone. The Escha Ru'Aun Gods are much more threatening compared to Zi'Tah's HELMs, and most of them require a coordinated group that pay close attention to the mechanics.

• Ark Angels - Technically there are five different Ark Angels, one for each of the five races. I've grouped them up because while they're challenging, they're not quite on the same level as the other NMs listed below. Notable mechanics:
  • AA EV will use Benediction whenever someone heals for more than 800 hp, so for this fight you want to only use lots of smaller cures rather than single big ones. SCH is good for this due to lots of regen it can provide.
  • AA GK's biggest threat is that he'll use skillchains on you, which can really wipe the floor with your tank fast. Make sure healers are prepared.
  • AA HM can Mijin Gakure at basically any time, so ensure that everyone nearby is in DT sets.
  • AA MR can charm (even when she has a pet) and can also skillchain, so be prepared for all that. Either make sure you use a Charm Buffer or stack on tons of light resistance and make sure supports are ready to sleep charmed players.
  • AA TT will teleport around which can be annoying. He also has the hilarious combo of sleepga + meteor, which he will use multiple times. Either pop a poison potion to wake yourself up early from the sleepga, or just make sure you're using DT gear.

• Heavenly Beasts - Beefed-up versions of the old sky gods, these are mostly easy to handle for an experienced group. Kirin is the only one that will generally be a roadblock, and boy is it ever a big one!
  • Byakko uses AOE amnesia, but otherwise isn't too bad. It levels up throughout the fight, but darkness damage will bring its power back down - and cancel its perfect dodge!
  • Genbu is a big wall of HP. It absorbs water damage, so uh, don't use that.
  • Seiryu will ignore the tank to go attack anyone that casts magic on it. Blue Magic and Geomancy don't count, though.
  • Suzaku will chainspell, but otherwise isn't very notable.

Kirin
Kirin is the big boy, and is arguably the hardest HELM NM in Escha Ru'Aun. His first form, a manticore, isn't anything particularly notable or difficult - the only threat is Deadly Hold, which deals massive damage. Once he hits 50% HP though, he will despawn and change into Kouryu, and all hell breaks loose. First thing to note is that all hate will be reset, so the tank needs to establish control ASAP. Kouryu is a wyrm, and thus has access to Spike Flail if someone pulls hate from behind - this WILL wipe your alliance. When he transforms he will also spawn one of each of the above four gods. These are often just ignored in favor of killing Kouryu, as once it dies the others do as well. Kouryu is prone to using Absolute Terror, which will inflict a VERY potent terror, so the tank needs to be prepared with a Steadfast Tonic or they may essentially be removed from the fight. Kouryu also has access to Horrid Roar, which is a single-target full dispel and enmity reset. This essentially leaves your tank high and dry and Kouryu on the loose, ready to Spike Flail. Whether or not your alliance can successfully take down Kirin mostly comes down to how skilled your tank is, and how quickly your DDs can take it down before things go bad.

Warder of Courage
Warder of Courage, also called WoC, is the beefed-up version of the legendary Absolute Virtue. It has access to a huge number of abilities, many of which are SP Abilities - in fact, it can use any SP ability from any job pre-ToAU at will. It also gains a building damage resistance as its health drops, up to -50%. The SP abilities often even have properties unique to Warder of Courage:

• Call Wyvern - will summon many Wynavs, targeting the person highest on WoC's hate list. These will cast elemental magic and use breath attacks based on the current in-game day.
• Soul Voice - when used, WoC will immediately us Maiden's Virelai to try to charm the tank. The summoned Wynavs will also use Soul Voice followed by Maiden's Virelai!! This means the tank will need to resist ALL of the charms in order to avoid getting charmed. The best way to avoid this is via a Charm Buffer.
• Mijin Gakure - as if it wasn't threatening enough on its own, any summoned Wynavs will also use it. If WoC decides to use this after summoning its pets, you're nearly guaranteed to wipe.
• Familiar - will beef up all wynavs, and make them simultaneously use a breath attack. Your tank better be prepared for a huge amount of magic damage coming their way.
• Astral Flow - will also be used by all summoned wynavs. More AOE damage!
• Benediction - will not only fully heal WoC, but will also remove any status ailments on it. Depending on when it decides to use this, the fight may be a foregone conclusion.
• Eagle Eye Shot - will use this multiple times in a row
• If all those weren't bad enough, once WoC hits 50% HP it will go into "bracelets mode" - at which point, it will begin using multiple SPs in preset orders.
  • Invincible → Benediction → Mijin Gakure
  • Chainspell → Manafont
  • Blood Weapon → Mighty Strikes → Hundred Fists
  • Call Wyvern → Soul Voice → Mijin Gakure
  • Call Wyvern → Familiar → Astral Flow
  • Meikyo Shisui → Eagle Eye Shot

If WoC gets off a Benediction after entering bracelets mode, the fight is essentially over as it will remain in bracelets mode. Defeating WoC unfortunately largely comes down to luck, as many of its SP abilities can end the fight outright. However, there are some countermeasures your team can take! If an elemental spell hits WoC within 1-2 seconds of it using an SP ability, that ability will prevent the SP from going off. Specific elements are needed to counter specific SPs:

• Wind damage will prevent: Call Wyvern, Invincible, Benediction, Manafont and Hundred Fists
• Water damage will prevent: Meikyo Shisui and Mijin Gakure
• Fire damage will prevent: Chainspell
• Ice damage will prevent: Perfect Dodge, Mighty Strikes, Blood Weapon and Soul Voice

Often groups will prioritize Wind damage in an attempt to prevent a fight reset with Benediction or to prevent the wynavs from being summoned. Water damage is also useful to prevent Mijin Gakure causing a wipe. However, even with these counters, the window to stop an SP ability is very tight and problems can easily occur even with an attentive group.

So what about Warder of Courage's abilities aside from SP ones? Luckily they're nothing really to write home about. The only notable one is Medusa Javelin which will cause a very potent Petrify. Your healer should be prepare to stona, and should set up the tank with barstone / barpetrify. While all this may make WoC sound super imposing (and it is), it's actually not the hardest fight in the universe. Much of it comes down to being able to prepare for its bad SPs and kill it before it gets a chance to really unleash hell. With lucky choices of SPs, it can actually be a surprisingly easy fight. The threat comes from the variance, and possibility for disaster.

Reisenjima HELMs

Reisenjima's HELMs are the big leagues. Each can be extremely difficult, on par with Kirin or Warder of Courage.

Albumen
Albumen luckily isn't too difficult, but is particularly annoying. It spawns with four adds - a RDM that will cast debuffs such as silencega and graviga, a WHM that will Benediction (healing all adds and Albumen itself), a NIN which can Mijin Gakure, and a DNC. These adds will use their SP abilities very quickly after being summoned, and Albumen will summon a new set of four adds every ~2 minutes, until summoning a total of 12 adds. Albumen itself can use Hundred Fists, and tends to spam out AOE status effects. Scream is an AOE terror. Fatal Scream is an AOE doom. Tepal Twist is an AOE Max HP down -50%, which is very brutal with Hundred Fists and will amplify to -75% when Albumen is under 25% hp. Petalback Spin inflicts Poison, Paralyze, Blind, Silence, Plague, and Amnesia along with a hate reset. Additionally, during nighttime hours it will gain access to Phaeosynthesis, which will increase all of Albumen's stats - because of this it's almost always fought during the day. Finally, Albumen also has a very high counter rate that melee DDs need to be cautious of. Beating Albumen mostly comes down to being able to burn it down quickly enough so that things don't snowball, and carrying LOTS of remedies and panaceas. The adds are generally ignored in favor of killing Albumen as quickly as possible, since spawning more adds is based on time rather than health percentages.

Erinys
Erinys is a gigantic pain in the ass, and again is more annoying than difficult. It summons up four adds called Boobries (which are usually ignored), but really only has one major gimmick. Unfortunately, it's a very annoying one - a DoT and knockback aura. This means killing Erinys by meleeing is nearly impossible. Instead most groups tend to use ranged options to take it down, with a tank backed up against a wall to deal with the knockback.

Onychophora
Onychophora is a callback to the old abyssea NM Glavoid. When above 50% HP, Ony will absorb all damage while readying a TP move. Below 50%, it will also absorb during spellcasting. It will also switch between two different modes below 50% - when it casts a fire spell, it will begin absorbing ALL magic damage, including skillchains. When it casts an earth spell, it will switch to absorbing ALL physical damage. It will also spawn between 2-8 Onychophora's Sandworm adds whenever a skillchain is performed on it, the number of adds summoned depending on the skillchain performed (higher lv SCs resulting in more adds). If the same skillchain is used on it too often, it will use Doomvoid, which will 1-hit KO your entire alliance. It can use Gorge to drain HP from players hit, which will power-up Disgorge to deal more damage if more HP is drained with Gorge - often dealing enough damage to one-shot your tank. Dust Void will strip anyone hit of ALL of their equipment, which can be particularly harsh on your tank - ensure everyone has macros ready to equip their gear again. Finally, Ony can use Psyche Suction which will steal up to 1-300+ from each main (STR, DEX, VIT, etc) stat from those hit. Most of its attacks are conal, so only the tank should be standing in front of it. Due to its ability to absorb a ton of damage, running out of time against Ony is the bigger threat than it killing your group. Generally, only a few melee DDs will engage Ony, and will coordinate to ensure none of their Weapon Skills will skillchain. Generally this is done by spamming Resolution and Savage Blade. As long as your DDs are vigilant to not heal it, Ony shouldn't cause too much trouble.

Zerde
Zerde is a fight decided almost immediately once it begins. Its most threatening move is Just Desserts, which spawns 4 adds that contain Bio, Poison, Doom, and Curse auras. If Just Desserts is used again, another set of adds will spawn. It attempts to use Just Desserts immediately upon spawning, and if it goes off successfully the fight is often unwinnable due to these powerful auras. Zerde is generally killed by having mages spamming stun as often as humanly possible to prevent Just Desserts from going off. Aside from this, Zerde isn't anything particularly threatening and is a fairly straightforward fight. The only other notable move Zerde has is Slimy Proposal, which is a charm + dia, but your tank should be able to handle it with either a lot of magic evasion or a Charm Buffer. Zerde takes extra fire damage, and strong enough fire damage can terrorize it, so if a stun gets resisted and adds spawn, your group can try burning him down (literally) before the fight ends from the auras.

Schah
Schah is the grand-daddy of Abyssea caturae NMs, and the first of what are known as the "big three" of Reisenjima HELMs. While Schah spawns alone, every 30 seconds it will summon an add - summoning 14 in total. Killing these adds is top priority, as each of them is uniquely threatening, and if two or more adds are alive then Schah will gain a powerful damage reduction effect.

• Bhata - 7 are spawned in total. the first is spawned at 30 seconds, and then each will spawn 48 seconds after the previous was killed. The weakest of the adds and doesn't have any large threats on its own. However, if left alive for over 2 minutes, it will transform into a Mantri, which is the strongest of the adds. Has the unique ability Dark Arrivisme which is an AOE knockback that also dispels 3 effects
• Ashva - 2 are spawned, first at 60s and the second 48s after the first one dies. Has the unique ability Banneret Charge which is a 20' AOE that sets everyone hit to 1 HP and resets hate.
• Gaja - 2 are spawned, first at 90s and the second 78s after the first one dies. Its unique ability is Besieger's Bane, which will inflict an AOE Bio, Terror, and Zombie - likely resulting in deaths from the bio unless the zombie gets erased. Gaja is fairly weak, however can use Stygian Sphere to reduce all incoming damage to almost nothing. Enough magic damage will break the shield, but generally the strategy is to try and burst down Gaja before it gets the shield up.
• Ratha - 2 are spawned, first at 120s and the second 78s after the first dies. Unique ability is Shadow Wreck - AoE damage and 50% Defense Down, and can give Ratha powerful Dread Spikes.
• Mantri - only 1 is spawned, 180s into the fight, but if any Bhata are allowed to live for 2 minutes they will transform into Mantri. Its unique ability is Enthrall, which is an AOE charm.
• Schah - has access to ALL of the unique abilities of the above adds. It also has its own unique ability, Royal Decree, which will deal AOE damage and reset Job Ability timers.

The priority of which adds to kill tends to vary from group to group, so check with your leader on the order to kill them. The main obstacle when it comes to Schah is the time limit. The first half of the fight needs to be spent killing the adds, and that leaves considerably little time to kill Schah itself. Some groups choose to leave the Mantri alive in order to save time, since Schah will only get the -DT% effect if two or more adds are alive. However, that isn't to say Schah itself is a pushover. Because Schah uses all of the adds' unique abilities, this means you have to deal with constant Zombie, dispels, dread spikes, Stygian Sphere, and charms. What may be worst of all is Banneret Charge, which will reduce everyones' HP down to 1 - if you still have Bio from Besieger's Bane then it's an instant alliance wipe. Even if bio's been cleared, Schah has access to AOE spells and isn't afraid to use them. Schah is a very difficult fight, but if your group is coordinated and skilled then you should be able to take it down.

Teles
Teles is another doozy, and the second of the "big three" HELMs. At 79%, 59%, 39%, 29%, 19% and 9% HP, she will use either Invincible, Manafont, or Soul Voice. Below 9%, she will just constantly use these. Each SP has its own unique set of behaviors and a powerful 25-30' aura:

• Invincible - Teles will begin casting white magic such as Protect, Shell, Cures, and Banish. She will also gain a Dia aura, which will tic for ~300 damage.
• Manafont - Teles will begin casting black magic such as Aero, Aeroja, Aeroga, Impact, and Death. She will also gain a powerful Magic Defense Down aura.
• Soul Voice - Teles will begin casting various bard songs, including Maiden's Virelai, a charm. Not only that, but she also gains access to Entice, which is ANOTHER charm move. She will also gain a Mute aura.

When the SP ability ends, there will be a second SP animation, signaling her returning to her normal AI behavior. Similarly to Warder of Courage, if ice or dark damage is deal just as she uses an SP, there's a chance to interrupt the SP and either force her to use a different one, or cancel it entirely. Finally, if large damage is dealt to her from a range (either via ranged attacks or magic), then she will reset her hate on the tank. This often encourages her to use Clarsach Call, which deals very strong wind damage in a VERY large AOE, and gives Teles a variety of stat buffs. Teles is a very chaotic fight, but luckily you always know when an SP is going to come up. If she uses Invincible your group will need to back away ASAP to not get melted by her Dia aura, and the tank will need to use Lucid Potion IIIs and any other healing they have at their disposal, as the group healer likely may not be able to get close enough to support them without taking significant Dia damage. When she uses Soul Voice your tank will need to be quick with the Charm Buffer, and if she uses it multiple times then hope your tank has a good magic evasion / resist set. While muted your tank will also likely have trouble keeping hate, doubly so if Clarsach Call goes off, so your party's DDs should take it easy to not steal hate.

Vinipata
Vinipata is a royal pain, and the last of the "big three" HELMs. It summons two Vinipata's Narakas, smaller versions of itself, which will synchronize TP moves with Vini and are difficult to control the hate of - they're usually slept, as it will just resummon them. As the fight goes on, Vini will continue to summon more and more adds, up to a maximum of 6 up at once, which should also be slept. Vini itself hits VERY hard, with stronger physical attacks than any other HELM and a potent Quadruple Attack chance. Vini will also swap between two stances, which determine what abilities Vini will use after using Meikyo Shisui (which it will use a LOT throughout the fight) and also determine the behavior of its adds:

• Raksha Stance - this is the stance you want Vini to be in if you're going with a melee strategy. It has a -50% MDT buff, and Vini will swap to this stance if someone around it is buffed. While in this stance, blue adds will share Vini's hate, but green ones will go after any player that takes almost any action. When Vini uses Meikyo Shisui, it will perform the following TP moves in this order:
  • Raksha:Judgment (damage, silence, amnesia, and bind) or Raksha:Illusion (damage, paralyze, and Curse that reduces max HP and MP by 50%).
  • Raksha:Judgment or Raksha:Illusion
  • Raksha:Vengeance (damage, Muddle, and Weakness)
  • Yama's Judgment, an AOE doom with a 5-second(!!) counter - BRING HOLY WATERS!!
• Yaksha Stance - this is the stance you want Vini to be in if you're going with a magic strategy. It has a -50% PDT buff, and Vini will swap to this stance if Vini is debuffed with any erasable debuff. While in Yaksha stance, green adds will share Vini's hate, and blue ones will go after any player. When Vini uses Meikyo Shisui, it will perform the following TP moves in this order:
  • Yaksha: Bliss (damage, attack down, and mag. attack down) or Yaksha: Damnation (damage, defense down, and mag. defense down)
  • Yaksha: Bliss or Yaksha: Damnation
  • Yaksha: Oblivion (High damage, hate reset, and reduces all stats by 110)
  • Sakra Storm, an AOE damage and hate reset move that also inflicts zombie, paralysis, and muddle.

Whenever Vinipata switches stances, it will also remove all of its debuffs and wipe 3 buffs from anyone around it. Vinipata is a major threat, and will pump out huge damage numbers while also resetting hate constantly. There's really no right answer for fighting Vini - a melee strategy means he will be spamming Max HP down along with Weakness (very big problem with how strong he hits) and short-count dooms. A magic strategy means he'll be resetting hate left and right while also obliterating your party's stats. Beating Vini is a matter of holding on for dear life and doing your best. Good luck.

Dynamis D. - Wave 3

Wave 3 Overview

Soloable? No
Requirements: Dyna D Access
Notable Rewards: Demon Medals, Volte Armor Sets, M. Astral Detritus, Masks of Darkness/Light

You're finally ready to tackle Dynamis Divergence Wave 3, which is currently some of the hardest content in the game. Wave 3 works differently from the previous waves - there are no statues to deal with anymore. Instead, elemental circles are scattered around the zone, and can be defeated to weaken the final boss of the wave, which can be fought at any time. Fighting (or better yet, defeating) the boss will earn progress toward transforming a Masks of Darkness into a Mask of Light, which is required for augmenting Ultimate Weapons (REMA), or at the very least for free M. Astral Detritus, which can be used to augment your REMA or can be sold for a fair bit of gil.

Wave 3 is time consuming and difficult, so when your alliance is going to attempt it, they will likely rush through Waves 1 and 2 as fast as possible, killing as few enemies as possible. Even for experienced groups, killing the Wave 3 boss within the time limit is very challenging - you'll need to be at the top of your game, regardless of your job or role in the party.

Elemental Circles

Replacing the statues from Waves 1/2, Elemental Circles are the primary target for much of Wave 3. After defeating the Wave 2 boss of the zone, 8 Elemental Circles will spawn in preset locations throughout the zone - one for each element. Destroying the circles will weaken the Wave 3 boss in various ways (elaborated on in a bit), so most groups will attempt to destroy all 8 circles before tackling the boss itself.

Each Elemental Circle will be protected by a group of Volte mobs - there will be 3 normal mobs, and 1 NM. Just like with W1/W2, each of these enemies and NMs has a dedicated job associated with it and can use said job's SP move. Once an action is taken on the circle, it will "Aggro" and spawn a Disjoined ??? NM, which is very strong. Additionally, if whoever the circle has hate on is within 15', the circle will constantly pulse out elemental AOE damage. Generally, groups will pull the initial enemies and NMs a safe distance away from the circle to kill them, and then engage the circle to finish it off. When engaging the circle, one tank will pull the Disjoined ??? away from the group and hold it there while the rest of the group kills the circle - defeating it will also despawn the Disjoined ???. A second tank will establish hate on the circle itself while staying at least 15' away from the circle, so the rest of the alliance can defeat it.

A second strategy for clearing the circles is a sacrificial one - one or two party members (usually beefy tanks) are considered the "sac pullers" and will run through the circle, aggroing all the mobs including the Disjoined ???. The sac pullers will then run to a safe location to die while the rest of the party kills the circle. The sac pullers will then reraise when it is safe to do so and rejoin the rest of the group. This method is faster, but riskier - if the party can't defeat the circle before the mobs return, then it will likely result in a wipe. Furthermore, it kind of sucks to be the sac pullers. However, it's hard to deny that if your group is struggling to defeat all 8 circles in time to beat the final boss, this is an effective strategy to save time.

Disjoined Bosses

Each of the Dyna D zones has their own unique Wave 3 final boss, but they actually all share the same mechanics and have only minor differences. Bastok has Disjoined Galka, San d'Oria has Disjoined Elvaan, Windurst has Disjoined Tarutaru, and Jeuno has Disjoined Mithra. By default each boss has a native -80% DT trait and will absorb all elemental damage. However, every time you defeat an Elemental Circle, the boss will lose 10% of its DT, stop absorbing that element, and lose all DT for the opposing element. For example, destroying the Fire Circle will make the boss stop absorbing Fire damage, and will make the boss take full damage from Ice. Note, however, that the boss still does absorb Ice damage until the Ice Circle is destroyed.

Additionally, every 20% HP the boss loses, it will spawn 4 Volte helper mobs - this will occur at 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20%. These mobs need to be killed ASAP, and your alliance leader will likely call out a priority for doing so. Note that these mobs will have access to their jobs' SP abilities, which means a Benediction can fully heal the Disjoined Boss. Volte Corsairs cal also use Wild Card, which will ALSO fully heal the Disjoined Boss, also making it a top priority. Other notable threats are Volte Ninjas and Volte Summoners for Mijin Gakure and Astral Flow, and Volte Beastmasters for charm.

If that wasn't enough, at any point in the fight, the Disjoined Boss can summon Disjoined's Odin, which will immediately use Shin-Zantetsuken, an AOE Death move. However, if you have reraise up, then instead it will simply wipe your reraise. The boss summoning Odin is a hard reraise check - if you don't have reraise up, you WILL die. Don't be the only one in the alliance without reraise and force your healer to spend time raising you instead of keeping the tank alive. Carry MULTIPLE sources of reraise on you at all times to prepare for this, because the Disjoined Boss can summon Odin multiple times per fight.

Each Disjoined Boss can also use multiple different SP abilities and spells, and have access to special AOE weapon skills. Common SPs are Mighty Strikes, Perfect Dodge and Invincible. It's heavily recommended that the boss is kept silenced, as it can easily spam very disruptive spells such as Silencega - ensure your alliance has a RDM with a strong magic accuracy set for landing these.

Finally, there ARE some slight differences between the bosses, outlined here:

• Disjoined Galka - Uses Axe weapon skills, which means it will be putting your tank (and eventually your party, as WSs start becoming AOE) to sleep. This is annoying for your tank, but can wind up being fatal if it delays your DDs so much that the time limit runs out.
• Disjoined Elvaan - Uses swords, and hits like a truck. This one will be particularly stressful on your tanks and healers. The Elvaan also REALLY enjoys casting AOE dispels and debuffs, so silence is mandatory against it.
• Disjoined Tarutaru - Uses knives, and luckily doesn't cast many spells. However, it will use Energy Drain, which can annihilate your tank's MP and make it difficult for them to hold hate. They should hopefully be aware of this, but it can complicated things. The Taru's AOE version of Rudra's Storm also hits very hard, so your DDs may want to consider wearing a hybrid of DT and DPS gear.
• Disjoined Mithra - Uses katana, and likes to use paralyzing weapon skills. This paralyze is particularly potent, which can complicate things for your tank. Your healers need to be ready to paralyna, ASAP. Its AOE weapon skill is also quite strong, so DDs need to be prepared for that as well.

Aside from all of these points though, the bosses are fairly straightforward with no tricky mechanics to deal with or plan around. Killing the boss is mostly a matter of how well-geared your alliance is, because everyone needs to be at the top of their games. The tanks need to be geared enough to take serious punishment, DDs need to be geared enough to kill him within the time limit, supports need to be geared enough to provide strong buffs and to be able to land debuffs, and healers need to be geared enough to keep everyone alive and free of status effects. Good luck.

Masks of Light / Darkness

The first time you defeat an elemental circle in a zone, you'll receive a Mask of Darkness Key Item for the zone - a Galka Mask of Darkness for Bastok, an Elvaan Mask of Darkness for San d'Oria, a Tarutaru Mask of Darkness for Windurst, and a Mithra Mask of Darkness for Jeuno. As your alliance deals damage to that zone's Disjoined Boss, the Mask will gain progress, tracked via a meter in the upper-left corner of the screen while in Dyna D. If the boss is defeated then the mask's meter will instantly fill up, and the mask will change to a Galka Mask of Light, Elvaan Mask of Light, Tarutaru Mask of Light, or Mithra Mask of Light depending on the zone. Note that you personally don't need to deal the damage, you just need to be in an alliance with people dealing the damage. If your alliance can't kill the boss in time, the meter will keep its progress and resume when you return to that dyna zone. A grand total of 30,000,000 HP worth of damage needs to be tracked by the mask to fill it - the bosses have 20,000,000 HP, for reference.

So what does a Mask of Light do? If you've made one of the Ultimate Weapons (REMA Weapons) yet, then you can begin augmenting it once you attain a Mask of Light. If you don't have one yet (not surprising if you don't), then the first time you fill up the mask won't mean much. However, after you fill up the Mask the first time, you can get ANOTHER Mask of Darkness to begin filling up. Whenever additional masks are filled, you will receive a free M. Astral Detritus. These can be used to fill progress in a REMA augment, but can also be sold on the auction house for a good amount of gil.

Odyssey - Sheol C & Segment Farming

Sheol C Overview

Just like Sheol B, Sheol C is a yet more difficult series of floors, now providing Lustreless Wings rather than Lustreless Hides. These are unfortunately less in-demand that Hides, as they are used to augment fewer pieces of equipment. However, Sheol C does have a benefit - it's the best Sheol to use for farming Moogle Segments, a currency used for entering Sheol Gaol, which is the ultimate goal of all this Odyssey stuff.

The Gaol is a huge series of boss fights, and rewards some of the strongest gear in the game - however, you'll need a lot of "segments" to enter it repeatedly, so we'll cover Segment Farming first.

Segment Farming Overview

Moogle Segments are a currency that's in extremely high demand in order to repeatedly enter and farm Sheol Gaol. While you CAN farm segments solo with trusts, it will be very slow and inefficient; I recommend going with a few friends at the very least. Sheol C enemies are very threatening, so if you're solo farming it may be worth trying to farm in Sheols A or B instead for better safety.

If you have a coordinated party though, or a few skilled friends, then farming Sheol C is the way to go. Generally, a PLD will gather up an entire group of enemies, then a BRD will put them all to sleep. Then the group will kill them one by one as quickly as possible, then repeat the process again with the next group. DDs slots are pretty flexible, but ideally they'll be jobs that can target different damage weaknesses to clear groups faster. Healers tend to be WHMs, but SCHs can work too. CORs are commonly brought along for the movespeed buff, as well as their good damage and general buffs. Groups usually tend to head straight toward the final goal of Sheol C, killing as many enemy groups as possible on the way. Reaching the end goal gives bonus gil based off how many enemies were killed, which adds up quite quickly to a free 1m+ gil on a good run. Groups may skip over specific enemy packs that can't be slept or are too difficult for the group to kill quickly.

NOTE: Segment farming groups are fairly common in /yell chat (as of writing), however many players have very high standards for these groups. Since each player can only enter once per day, most groups will expect players to already know what to do and to be efficient so as not to "waste" the entry. If you're inexperienced with farming segments, I recommend either forming a party yourself while advertising it's a learning run or do a few runs with friends. If you haven't got any friends to run with, then it doesn't hurt to send a /tell to a recruiting party and let them know you're new but wanting to learn.

Odyssey - Sheol Gaol

Sheol Gaol Overview

Soloable? At base-level difficulty, yes. At easy-middle difficulties it depends on the boss, your job, and the difficulty level. At harder difficulties, no.
Requirements: Finished Sheol C RoE Quest
Notable Rewards: The extremally powerful all-jobs Nyame Armor set, Coiste Bodhar, Schere Earring, Tellen Belt, Beithir Ring, Obstin. Sash, Hesperiidae, Various other incredibly strong armor and weapons

Sheol Gaol (pronounced 'jail') is the end goal of Odyssey, and it has some very interesting mechanics that make it unique among FFXI's endgame. The event itself will pit you against up to 3 NMs in a row, with a resting area in between each. What makes Gaol so unique is that subjobs are disabled, multiple of the same jobs cannot be used, and once a job is used against one boss, no one in the party can bring that job when facing the next boss(es). This means each party member needs multiple UNIQUE jobs at 99, which are well-geared enough to face down the bosses. If you only have one job geared at this point, you may have difficulty completing this content, so I definitely recommend gearing some others up. Trusts CAN be summoned for these fights, and their strength will be determined by your Moogle Mastery from Sheols A, B, and C. Trusts can even be summoned while in the middle of fighting one of the bosses! However, once a trust is summoned, it CANNOT be summoned again for the duration of the run.

To enter Gaol, you'll need three Moglophone II key items, which can be purchased from the Pilgrim Moogle outside the odyssey entrance for 3,000 Moogle Segments each. When you fight a boss, you'll only use up a single Moglophone II, however you do need all three in order to enter. This is one of the main uses for Moogle Segments, and why farming them is such an in-demand activity. While up to three bosses can be fought in a row, most groups only fight one boss and then exit due to the restrictions on job selection mentioned above. Choosing to fight against three bosses in a row (your party chooses which ones in between each fight) does have a benefit - it "charges" the next Moogle Amplifier for each party member. You don't need to worry about what that does yet, I'll elaborate on it in the Sheol Gaol Rewards section below.

Gaol bosses are divided into four tiers, called Atonements, and each boss has many different difficulties available, referred to as Vengeance level. While unlocking new Atonements and Vengeance levels to enter as a party leader requires a fair amount of work, once you have Sheol Gaol unlocked you can fight ALL bosses at ALL Vengeance levels if someone that does have them unlocked is the party leader. I'll still explain how to unlock all atonements and vengeance levels for yourself, but note that it's not required to begin earning rewards.

Atonement Tiers
To unlock a new Atonement tier, you'll need to defeat all the bosses on the previous tier - to unlock Atonement 2, you'll need to beat all Atonement 1 bosses; to unlocked Atonement 3, you'll need to beat all Atonement 2 bosses, etc. Atonement 1 bosses are easy enough to where you will very likely be able to solo them easily at this point. Atonement 2 bosses become a bit more difficult and it depends on your specific job and gear. Atonement 3 and 4 bosses are likely too difficult to solo, so you'll want to bring along some friends to take them down. Since they provide some of the best gear in the game, though, it should be relatively easy to find help.

Vengeance Levels
There are up to 25 Vengeance levels for each boss, with every Vengeance level increasing the difficulty (and rewards!) of the boss. Players refer to these with the letter V, then the associated level - V5, V10, etc. Vengeance levels are divided up into groups of 5, and you'll need to beat all bosses in an atonement at the highest available Vengeance level in order to unlock the next. For example, beating all A1 bosses at V5 will unlock V6-V10 for Atonement 1. When increasing the V level of a boss, not only will it gain stronger stats (including more dramatic damage type resistances), but the fights will begin introducing new mechanics. V0-V5 tend to be fairly easy, and many jobs can kill them with trusts. V6-V10 gets a bit harder, you'll probably need a couple real players to kill them. V11-V15 starts getting difficult, and your group will likely need both good gear and coordination, probably over a voice chat program such as Discord. V16-V20 is quite hard, requiring very good coordination and gear. V21-V25 is some of the hardest content available in the game, especially for Atonements 3 and 4 - successful strategies often require precise execution, very specific party setups, VERY good equipment, and often a fair bit of luck.

Sheol Gaol Bosses

All bosses in Gaol share mechanics that become unlocked as Vengeance level is increased: V5+ Gaol bosses gain access to SP abilities, which it will use at 75% HP. V10+ bosses will get a random debuff aura when it uses an SP ability. The Aura will always debuff a random secondary stat - Attack, Accuracy, Magic Defense, etc. V20+ bosses will summon an additional monster when using an SP ability. The add will always aggro onto whoever has SECOND most enmity - usually this will be the strongest DD in the group, and will cause the boss to regenerate health if kept too close. Strategies for dealing with the adds vary depending on the difficulty of the boss itself and your party's strategy - sometimes groups put them to sleep, sometimes groups kill them, sometimes they ignore them, etc. These adds do not need to be killed to win the fight, only the primary boss. V25 bosses use an additional SP move at 40% HP, which will also summon an extra add and possibly change the debuff aura.

Many bosses will also begin using TP moves back-to-back when below 50% HP - this can lead to VERY deadly combos. If a group is fighting at V15 or harder, it's recommended to always be in hyrid or DT gear to help with survivability.

Gaol bosses have a special property where repeated uses of the same Weapon Skill will cause reduced damage. Groups can avoid this by having Melee DD use a variety of WSs, or by focusing on ranged magic setups. Additionally, GEO spells have reduced effects on Gaol Bosses, and the bosses also build up a cumulative resistance to SMN Blood Pacts. GEO and SMN are still viable in these fights, but this means that they're not mandatory / able to ignore bosses with spam.

Atonement 1

• Dealan-dhe is a Twitherym boss that deals lots of debuffs instead of much damage - amnesia, TP resets, dispels, etc. Its SP Abilities are Perfect Dodge and Invincible. It's weak to piercing damage; so DRG, THF, DNC, RNG, BRD, and COR will all have an advantage - SAM and WAR can be good choices as well, if they use polearms. Since the boss doesn't deal large damage, most strategies revolve around trying to burn it down as quickly as possible while ignoring the adds. DNC is a popular choice for this fight - since damage is low, they can often be the main healer or tank the adds while still contributing good damage.

• Sgili is an Umbril boss that has a nasty AOE Doom, a potent Curse that prevents recovering HP/MP, and uses Hundred Fists. Due to the threat of AOE Doom, most groups will try for ranged magic setups, though even as high as V20 melee strategies are possible - you'll just need a skilled healer to remove Doom, and everyone should probably carry Holy Water vials just in case. Sgili is weak to blunt damage, so bring along some MNKs or PUPs to burn it down more quickly.

• U Bnai is an Acuex boss that likes to AOE silence and All Stats Down, and can use Perfect Dodge and Invincible. Overall it's not particularly difficult, especially if your group is a ranged setup to ignore the AOE damage + debuffs. But even if you're melee, it's not wildly threatening. A good RDM debuffing the boss will neuter much of its damage. Resists blunt damage, but is weak to slashing damage.

• Gogmagog is a Dullahan boss that can be extremely dangerous for short periods of time. It can use Mighty Strikes, Hundred Fists, and Blood Weapon - and when it uses one of its SP abilities, it gains access to Noahionto - an AOE attack that deals damage based on how much damage the boss has taken. This can easily wipe your group, especially combined with the SP abilities + adds. The adds can ALSO use Noahionto, oh boy! Most groups will use Bind/Gravity/Sleep on the adds AND the boss when it uses SP, and kite it around to avoid getting wiped to Noahionto. Alternatively, your group could just spread out to avoid it, but the adds can complicate that setup. Weak to Blunt damage, some groups use a MNK as their main tank due to their high damage and survivability.

Atonement 2

• Aristaeus is a Chapuli boss that likes to spam out high-damaging TP moves, and gains temporary invulnerability after using said moves. Not a lot of complication to this boss - it just spams tons of AOE damage. This will mostly be a test of your healers, but pretty much everyone needs to be in a DT set through the whole fight - especially at higher Vengeance levels. Weak to slashing damage, resists all other dmg types.

• Raskovniche is a Snapweed boss that heavily resists all physical damage and spams AOE earth damage. It has access to Blood Weapon and Hundred Fists, but its AOE spam is the more urgent threat. While it resists all physical damage, it is vulnerable to magic damage, thus most groups tend to go with ranged magic setups - this has the added bonus of avoiding the AOE damage. That being said, melee strategies can be successful with hybrid sets, especially setting up a BLM to magic burst.

• Marmorkrebs is a Craklaw boss that applies lots of debuffs, notably liking to combo from a Max HP Down debuff into a powerful TP move that deals damage based off the player's base Max HP - this can often be a guaranteed kill. Oh, and both of these are AOE moves! Healers will need to be quick to dispel the Max HP Downs to safeguard against this combo. Like Raskovniche, Marmorkrebs has high physical resistance but is vulnerable to magic, so most groups try for a ranged strategy to avoid the powerful death combo mentioned earlier. Summoned adds can also use the potent combo, so a skilled RDM that can quickly disable them is highly recommended.

• Gigelorum is a Matamata boss that resists all non-blunt damage, and uses a non-dispellable Zombie effect - making targets immune to being healed. It also likes to use a move called Tail Thwack which inflicts a very potent -50% Defense Down debuff while also dealing strong AOE damage. As if that wasn't bad enough, it'll also spam dispels on the main tank! Melee DDs should be careful to back off if they get zombified or hit by the defense down, to ensure they don't quickly get knocked to the floor afterwards. The boss can also use Elemental Sforzo, Invincible, and Mighty Strikes - making it not only hard to kill, but making it deal substantial physical damage as well (especially combined with its defense down debuff). Players should also heavily consider bringing a Panacea to dispel their own defense down debuffs.

• Procne is a Tulfaire boss that likes to use Amnesia along with defense-down debuffs and knockbacks. Overall a pretty straightforward fight, it will probably dispel the DDs but the tanks will likely be able to resist the dispels. Weak to piercing damage.

• Henwen is a Raaz boss that attacks incredibly quickly, with a very high guard / counter rate. It also has a very common double/triple attack rate, meaning it will almost never stop auto attacking. Not only that, it has an attack called Barreling Smash that deals high HP% damage and resets hate on the target hit. This usually means a DD will pull hate, which can often result in them quickly dying to the high counter rate. It's recommended for each party member to stand far apart, so when Henwen inevitably spins around after a hate reset multiple party members don't wind up killing themselves to counter-attacks. A kiting strategy is also possible, as Henwen is susceptible to Gravity. Weak to Blunt damage.

Atonement 3
A3 is where bosses start getting pretty difficult, and will require a fair amount more coordination and planning than the previous Atonements. Even V0 at this tier can be challenging solo, and may require a few friends / a party to clear. Additionally, all A3 bosses can spawn Fetters after using certain moves - these will inflict a status ailment and deal continuous damage in an AOE (usually around 500 hp per tic) and cause the boss to more aggressively use TP moves. Parties can deal with these by either relocating to avoid them, or by + proc'ing the boss. The proc conditions vary from boss to boss, and become progressively harder to proc each time. When a party successfully procs, that will open the window to proc - doing so successfully will remove the fetters. Finally, all of these bosses have extremely high resistance to all damage types they're not explicitly weak to - you'll likely have a hard time if you're trying to deal other types of damage.

• Xevioso is a Bztavian boss that inflicts a powerful poison, All Stats Down, and will flip-flop hate often due to a fairly common hate reset move. Not only that, but it will also use an AOE dispel and Perfect Dodge. It will spawn Fetters after using Droning Whirlwind (AOE damage + dispel) - it can then be / proc'd by landing critical hits. While Fetters are out, it will absorb all wind damage, so be careful with Light skillchains! Xevioso is weak to piercing damage, so DNC is a very good choice for this fight - it can increase the party's critical hit rate, can help with hastes in case of dispels, can help heal the powerful poison / fetter dmg, and can help manage hate with how often Xevioso can reset enmity.

• Ngai is a Rockfin boss that has a threat of instant death with its Tidal Guillotine attack, and will use Mighty Strikes. Like Xevioso, Ngai also has an enmity reset attack, though it's a bit easier to manage. You also need to position carefully for Marine Mayhem, which deals severe damage if you're within 5-19 yalms of the boss - either stay very close, or very far away. Ngai absorbs water damage when the Fetters are present, so beware Darkness or Distortion skillchains. Fetters will spawn after Ngai buffs its own damage with Carcharian Verve, and can be / proc'd by using WSs, so bringing at least a few melee DD is recommended. It's weak to Blunt damage, so PUP tanks and MNKs are good choices for the fight.

• Kalunga is a Gabbrath boss that has a variety of regular auto-attacks, which can inflict defense-down, stun, or deal AOE damage - additionally, its SP ability is Brazen Rush, meaning it will double-attack often. It will also use Incinerating Lahar, which will deal AOE damage + Weakness, making it very dangerous to remain close to the boss; most melee will want to back off until the weakness wears off. Kalunga will activate Fetters with Blistering Roar, which deals AOE damage + terror. Its / is proc'd by performing Skillchains - a 2 step SC will proc , while a 3+ step will proc . Remember that procs get progressively harder; this means that parties will need to perform progressively longer skillchains for each proc. Make sure to plan at least a 4 step skillchain! Kalunga is weak to slashing damage, and will absorb fire damage while Fetters are present.

• Ongo is a Waktza boss that has a very strong Damage Taken- status, making it very hard to damage normally. Once it spawns fetters with Crashing Thunder (which deals AOE damage + mag defense down), it can be proc'd by performing a Magic Burst - Ongo can then be proc'd with 2 more MBs, which will open a window where its Damage Taken- effect is removed. Ongo is weak to earth damage, so mages will rely mostly on Stone spells. While Fetters are up, it will absorb lightning damage, so take care to avoid light skillchains - though since your group will be MBing earth spells, this likely won't be a problem. Luckily aside from this, Ongo doesn't have any particularly rough status effects to worry about. Most groups run mage-heavy setups, using BRDs, RUNs, GEOs, and CORs to debuff elemental resistances while SCHs and BLMs deal heavy magic bursts (usually with a SCH setting up the skillchains). Ongo's SP ability is Elemental Sforzo, so mages will need to be careful not to waste their MP when this happens.

• Mboze is an Yggdreant boss with a uniquely powerful move called Timber: this deals AOE damage, damaging each person hit based on their Max HP - however, the more people that are hit, the less damage it will deal. If only 2-3 people get hit, then the damage will be more than their maximum HP, instantly killing them. Mboze also has another damage-splitting move in Canopierce, so make sure to have the whole party stand close to the boss. Due to needing to group up, this fight can be hard on healers, as EVERYONE will be taking AOE damage. Firefly Fandango will deal AOE damage + Paralyze, which can disrupt healers long enough to cause a wipe, so be wary. Mboze will spawn fetters with Uproot, which will deal AOE damage + slow and will reset hate on ALL players hit. This will usually mean that Mboze will immediately start target the healers + supports, so tanks will need to be prompt about re-establishing hate. Similar to Kalunga, Mboze can be / proc'd by performing Skillchains - make sure to have at least a 4 step skillchain planned. It can use Invincible, which will unfortunately drag the fight out longer. While Fetters are up it will absorb earth damage (so be wary of Darkness skillchains), and is weak to slashing damage. Pet jobs are common to help tank split-damage attacks, particularly BST for the slashing dmg from axes.

• Arebati is a Cehuetzi boss that has a lot of AOE knockback + debuffs. It spawns Fetters with Polar Roar, which will deal knockback + bind to lock players away from it, and will absorb all ice damage while Fetters are spawned, so avoid Darkness and Distortion skillchains. Like with Xevioso, it can be / proc'd by scoring critical hits. Because of its abundance of knockback attacks and its weakness to piercing damage, most groups will rely on RNGs and CORs as their primary sources of damage. Arebati can dispel up to 4 buffs at once, so RUNs in particular will be quite stressed while tanking - luckily its damage isn't wildly threatening. Its SP move is Yaegasumi, allowing it to dodge WSs while buffing the strength of its own TP moves.

Atonement 4 has only one boss - Bumba
Bumba is a Wyrm boss, and the final boss of Odyssey, and has several mechanics unique to other Gaol bosses. Every 60 seconds, Bumba will have a dust-cloud animation (similar to SP abilities) that will cause it to absorb one element of damage, based on the color of the dust cloud (red for fire, light blue for ice, etc). If Bumba takes any damage of this element (including skillchain damage!) then it will not only absorb it, but will also spawn a Fetter. If your party avoids triggering a Fetter, then Bumba will manually summon one on its own after a few minutes. While a Fetter is spawned, Bumba will stop changing (and absorbing) elements and will rapidly use TP moves. One of its Fetter-only TP moves is Denounce, which deals a 20' AOE damage which increases in damage the more players are hit while also resetting hate and inflicting Paralyze, Defense-, and Mag. Defense-. If all party members are hit, this is a guaranteed wipe, so players will need to spread out and be extremely careful. Bumba can be / proc'd by performing one of the Atonement 3 proc conditions (critical hits, WSs, skillchains, or magic bursts), selected at random. This means your party composition will need to be able to reliably fulfill all of these proc conditions. Additionally, while in Fetter mode Bumba will gain a stacking magic damage taken- buff whenever a spell hits for 10k+ damage - this means mages will need to be careful to only use weaker spells so as not to tank their own damage potential. Same deal with Physical Damage, so you'll need a variety of damage types to keep from getting resisted too hard. Even if your party wipes and tries again, these buffs will persist!

Beyond these Fetter mechanics, Bumba also has access to a variety of threatening spells and TP moves - it has access to Dispelga, Impact, Kaustra, and Absorb line of spells; has AOE TP moves that can dispel up to 4 buffs, and has multiple AOE damage + knockback moves. It has access to a wide variety of SP moves as well - Invincible, Brazen Rush, Yaegasumi, Elemental Sforzo, and Perfect Dodge.

Bumba luckily allows for a decent variety of party compositions to bring down, usually relying on burst damage tactics while avoiding skillchains to stay out of Fetter mode as much as possible. DRG is a popular job choice, as it has several JAs to strengthen the party vs dragons. Bumba has a LOT of HP, especially at higher Vengeance levels, so the primary challenge is dealing enough damage in the strict time limit.

Sheol Gaol Rewards

For each boss you defeat in Gaol, you'll earn a KI called "Information on <Boss Name>" - this will allow you to purchase equipment from the Odyssey Pilgrim Moogle with gil. The price of this gear fluctuates from server to server - the more times a boss is killed server-wide, the lower the price will be. If you're on a populated server such as Asura, the price will be quite cheap!

Augments & RP
Every piece of gear you can earn from Gaol can be upgraded with augments. Defeating a boss at V1 or above will allow you to upgrade the gear to at most Rank 15, then you'll need to defeat higher Vengeance levels of that boss to unlock a higher Rank cap. Beating a boss at V15 raises the cap to R20, V20 will raise it to R25, and beating a boss at V25 will max out the augment cap at Rank 30. If you ONLY beat a boss at V0, then you'll unlock the gear but won't be able to upgrade it via augments.

How do you earn Reinforcement Points (RP) to upgrade the augments? By fighting the corresponding boss, of course! You don't even need to defeat the boss, just damage it. After the fight, whether successful or not, RP will be awarded based on how much damage your group dealt to the boss and the Vengeance level of the fight. Your party needs to deal at least 5% of the boss' max health in order to start earning RP, which will be awarded upon winning the fight or timing out. If you leave the boss arena before winning or timing out, you will not gain RP! So if your party wipes, do NOT warp out or return to home point! RP is earned on a per-boss basis, and you "spend" them at the Pilgrim Moogle in Rabao.

You can also spend 1500 Moogle Segments at the Pilgrim Moogle to purchase a Moogle Amplifier]. This works similarly to a Abdhaljs Seal - it's a consumable item that gives the player a buff that will multiply the next amount of RP received from Gaol, and wears off after 72 hours. Furthermore, an amplifier can be "charged" by dealing at least 5% damage to three bosses in a single Gaol attempt, which will cause the amplifier to award even more RP. How much RP is awarded, both from a baseline and charge, is based on the Vengeance level of the bosses being fought - both when charging the amplifier and when using the amp itself. This can get kind of complicated, so if you want to know more I recommend reading the page on Moogle Amp.] itself.

Aside from Augments, you can also choose to spend RP on Moogle Segments, at a 1:1 exchange ratio, but this generally isn't advised unless you REALLY need segments.

All Jobs

• Nyame Armor Set - earned after defeating Bumba.
  • This is the big draw for Odyssey, and is arguably the single strongest armor set in the game. It most notably provides a large amount of defensive stats - tons of HP, DT-, and Magic Evasion. It's easy to slap a full set of this into your Hybrid/DT set and call it good. It also has 4 different augment paths - A buffs TP gain, B buffs WS damage, C buffs magic stats, and D buffs pet stats. Most players tend to pick B, as it's the most widely useful. You cannot change the augment path once you've started it! If you change your mind about the path you want to augment, you'll need to completely start over at R0, so think long and hard before you choose a path!

Melee DD & Tanks

• Sakpata's Armor Set from defeating Kalunga
• Mpaca's Attire Set from defeating Arebati
• Gleti's Armor Set from defeating Ngai
• Coiste Bodhar from defeating Gogmagog
• Beithir Ring from defeating Raskovniche
• Schere Earring from defeating Gigelorum

Mages

• Agwu's Attire Set from defeating Ongo
• Bunzi's Attire Set from defeating Mboze
• Bunzi's Rod from defeating Mboze
• Mpaca's Staff from defeating Arebati
• Obstinate Sash from defeating Henwen

Pet Jobs

• Hesperiidae from defeating Dealan-dhe

Ranged Jobs

• Ikenga's Attire Set from defeating Xevioso
• Tellen Belt from defeating Procne

There is also a wide range of job-specific weapons available, many of which are quite strong. I recommend looking at the Odyssey#Notorious_Monsters_&_Rewards#Gaol rewards page to see if any are relevant to your specific jobs.

Ultimate / REMA Weapons

Ultimate Weapons Overview

Ultimate Weapons, more commonly known as REMA weapons (Relic, Empyrean, Mythic, Aeonic), are the strongest weapons available in the game. Recently, some have started calling them DREAM weapons, including the newly crafted weapons from Dynamis Divergence. Most of them aren't actually all that difficult to get, but all of them are expensive and / or time consuming to create - usually both.

I've waited until near the end of this guide to discuss them for multiple reasons. First, a LOT of players focus on them way too early, and put way too much focus on them. Yes, they are very very powerful and will result in a huge performance increase, regardless of your job. However, they aren't mandatory for ANY content in the game. A player who knows their job well and knows the mechanics of the content they're playing will outperform a player with a REMA that doesn't understand those things. I've seen it time and time again, from DDs to tanks to mages.

Second, making them is a HUGE commitment of time and money. I've legitimately seen players burn themselves out while trying to create these and not only never wind up doing so, but instead wind up quitting the game entirely. If you do decide to attempt creating one of these, make sure that you pace yourself to avoid burnout. Most of them have multiple steps that can be worked on in any order - if you get burnt out farming for one part of the weapon, work on a different part to shake things up, or just go do something else. How long it takes you will depend on many factors - what specific type of REMA you're making, how much help you receive from friends, how much gil you're willing to spend vs farming items for yourself, etc. For reference, my first REMA (Twashtar, the Empyrean dagger) took me roughly a month of farming on average roughly 2~3ish hours a day.

Finally, not all REMA weapons are actually, well, worth it. Some are far more powerful than others. Before devoting any significant amounts of time or gil to any one weapon, make sure to do plenty of research to ensure there isn't another option that's better while being easier / cheaper to obtain.

If you understand all that, and are still ready to face the challenge, then let's start working on making you a legend.

Relic Weapons

The original Ultimate Weapons, Relic Weapons were the first ones introduced to the game. For a long time, people just called all ultimate weapons "Relic" weapons, and sometimes they still do. Relics are arguably the easiest REMA weapons to obtain - they're easily soloable, and with deep pockets you can avoid almost any farming and get one fairly quickly.

To get started on a Relic Weapon, you'll first need to get the base form to drop from Dynamis. Not Dynamis Divergence, but the original Dynamis. Each weapon only drops from a specific Dynamis zone, so I'd recommend checking the Relic Weapons page to see what zone drops the weapon you're interested in. Once you have the weapon in hand, speak to Switchstix in Castle Zvahl Baileys (I-8) to get started on the process of upgrading it into a real Relic Weapon.

Each stage of the upgrade process mostly involves collecting ancient currency, along with some items. The items and currencies vary depending on what weapon is being crafted, but in general:

• The first stage requires 400 of either 1 Byne Bills, O. Bronzepieces, or T. Whiteshells (or 4 of the 100 pieces, 100 Byne Bill, M. Silverpiece, or L. Jadeshell). This stage also requires 3 craftable items. Which specific currency and which items are required varies from weapon to weapon, but they each cost similar amounts of gil.
• The second stage requires 1400 total ancient currency, and four weapons of the same type as the relic you're making (daggers for relic dagger, etc).
• The third stage requires 6100 currency, and a weapon-specific Attestation. Attestations are dropped by Fomor NMs in Dynamis - Beaucedine. To spawn the NM you'll need a pop item, which is dropped from Hydra enemies throughout the zone.
• The fourth and final stage requires a 10,000-piece of ancient currency, so either a 10,000 Byne Bill, R. Goldpiece, or a R. Stripeshell, depending on your weapon. You'll also need a Necropsyche, which is a common drop from Vanguard Dragons in Dynamis - Xarcabard, and a weapon-specific fragment. These fragments are dropped from Animated Weapon NMs in Dyna - Xarc, which are spawned by getting a drop from regular animated weapon enemies throughout the zone. The Animated Weapons you need to kill will match the relic you're going for - so for example, those building the relic dagger will need to hunt Satellite Daggers to get the pop item for Animated Dagger, which will drop the fragment needed.

Upgrading to ilvl
Congratulations! You now have the level 75 version of your relic weapon! From here, you'll need to complete Magian Trials to get it up to the 119 version. Take your newly made relic weapon over to the Magian Moogle in Ru'Lude Gardens to get started. You will have to complete a long series of trials to slowly upgrade your weapon to lv99 - the vast majority of these involve using your weapon's associated Weapon Skill to damage or kill experience-yielding enemies of a particular monster family - Plantoids, Beasts, Undead, etc. Some Adoulin areas will be good for this, but Abyssea areas are prime places to go for these. Tons of groups of same-family enemies that are relatively weak and thus can be quickly killed with the WS. After completing all your WS trials, you'll need to kill 5 of a specific NM, and then 10 of another specific NM. Finally, you'll need to turn in 5 Umbral Marrow. This will earn you your lv99 relic weapon. The path splits here - you can continue with Magian trials to jump straight to the "Afterglow" version of your ilvl relic weapon, however you should never upgrade your relic directly to Afterglow! It will wind up costing you far, FAR more gil in the long run. Instead, take your weapon down to Oboro in Port Jeuno, where he will upgrade it to ilvl 119 for a mere 300 Plutons. Congrats on finally having a usable Relic Weapon! We'll cover Afterglowing it in another section down below.

Note that for all of the weapon skill and NM trials, you'll need to have your relic weapon equipped for it to count - don't forget!

Farming Tips
You'll need a grand total of 7,900 ancient currency and one 10,000 piece. This is a lot, but in terms of gil pricing is on the cheaper side when it comes to REMA weapons.

The ancient currency can be bought off the AH / bazaars, farmed from original Dynamis zones, and each month you can get currency (both 1 pieces and 100 pieces) from Ambuscade. I recommend taking a combination of all three of these avenues to farm your currency, so you don't burn out on any one farming method. Spend some time farming dynamis and sell off currency you don't need in order to fund currency you do. When that gets boring, farm ambuscade for a bit. Ambuscade has tons of rewards you can sell for easy gil too, so that can be used to fund more currency.

Notable Relics
Unfortunately, time has not been kind to relic weapons, even after being upped to ilvl. Most of them are outdone by other REMA options. Each job's relic is unique though, so I recommend doing research into your jobs and seeing which ones can get use from their relics. The ones listed below are by no means the ONLY usable relic weapons, but are ones that are commonly seen and recommended:

• Gjallarhorn for BRD is considered mandatory for lategame content
• Aegis for PLD is also considered mandatory for lategame content
• Apocalypse for DRK isn't the best weapon they have available, but it provides good utility and is much easier / cheaper to make than their other REMA, so it's a popular option (at least as a stepping stone)
• Kikoku for NIN is arguably the strongest REMA for Ninjas.

Empyrean Weapons

Empyrean Weapons come from Trial of Magians, and involve hunting a variety of NMs and collecting lots of expensive resources. Creating one is a long and expensive process, but is thankfully easy to complete entirely solo. Having a friend or two to help can definitely speed things up, though.

To get started, head to Ru'Lude Gardens and examine the Splintery Chest to get your starting weapon. There are a bunch of different weapons in here for different content, so make sure you grab the right one. Once you have your weapon, trade it to the nearby Magian Moogle to get started on the path to making an Empyrean.

First phase: NMs.
This phase will require you to kill a series of NMs, multiple times each. The first 3 NMs you'll need to kill 3 times each, with the weapon equipped! Don't forget that last part. When you kill an NM for the third time, take the weapon back to the Magian Moogle to progress to the next one. The next 3 NMs you'll need to kill 4 times each. After that, you'll need to kill 2 Voidwalker NMs 6 times each, and then a final 3rd Voidwalker NM 8 times. Don't forget to have your weapon equipped for all of these!

Voidwalker NMs

Voidwalker NMs (VWs) haven't been touched on in this guide yet, because they're mostly irrelevant in the current endgame aside from being part of making an Empyrean weapon. To get started with VWs, you need to speak to Assai Nybaem in Ru'Lude Gardens (G-10) and buy a clear abyssite KI for 1k gil. Then, when you rest in certain areas, you'll see a chat message telling you if there are any VW monsters in the area, and how close the nearest one is. The monster will be invisible, so you'll need to walk around resting and guessing where it is. When you rest within 5' of a monster, it'll appear and you can kill it. At first you'll find LOTs of monsters - these are T1 monsters, and respan in only a few minutes. Sometimes when you kill a T1 VW NM, your clear abyssite will upgrade to a colorful abyssite. Now, you'll only be able to find T2 NMs until you buy another clear abyssite. Again, sometimes when killing a T2 NM, your abyssite can upgrade - this time it will upgrade to a specific color depending on the area in which NM was killed - blue abyssite, orange abyssite, etc, which will let you find T3 NMs. When you encounter a T3 NM your abyssite will shatter, but there's a chance upon killing it that you'll get a black abyssite, which will let you fight the final boss of VW, which is T4 - when encountered, the black abyssite will shatter and no abyssite will replace it.

When hunting for VW NMs, you will "lock on" to the nearest mob you can detect, and resting will always point you towards it. However, the maximum range to detect a monster is 300' - if you run outside of that range, and another monster is closer, then you will lock on to the new monster instead. You can tell what you're locked on to by the message the abyssite provides when you rest:

• If the abyssite shines feebly, it will be T1
• If it shines softly, it will be T2
• Solidly, it will be T3
• Strongly, it will be T4

For the purposes of making an Empyrean Weapon, all the NMs will be T2s. This means you want a clear abyssite and to upgrade it to a colorful one to detect only T2s. However, there's a good chance that at some point your colorful abyssite will upgrade into a specifically-colored one, which means you'll now only detect T3s. If this happens, go back and get a new clear abyssite and head back to the area you need to kill NMs in. You'll likely lock on to T1s first, and then will be able to upgrade your clear abyssite to a new colorful one for T2s. Best part is, since you already have the colored abyssite for the area, your new colorful abyssite won't be able to upgrade, since you can only have one of them! Just be careful you don't accidentally lock onto and kill the T3, which will shatter that abyssite. Also take care that you don't go buy a new clear abyssite - as then you'll start locking onto primarily T1s, and won't be able to upgrade the abyssite until you kill the T3, then upgrade your colorful abyssite again.

Second phase: Abyssea
You'll be tasked to gather 50 drop items from an Abyssea NM, then 50 from a different one, then 75 from a third. This is most likely going to be very time consuming, depending on what NMs your weapon requires. There are generally two main strategies for farming these NMs as efficiently as possible: red procs or chest farming.

• Red Procs, as the name implies, means you mostly aim for hitting Red Weakness Triggers on the NMs required to get the pop KIs needed for your NM. There are a few jobs that area ideal for hitting these procs:
  • WAR/NIN will guarantee you to hit all red procs, but will require that you have a Great Katana and a Katana that Warrior can use, and will also require you to get some gear that ups your G. Katana and Katana skills. Debahocho is a mercifully easy Katana to acquire, but a GK will be harder. Unfortunately, there are NO readily acquirable GKs that warrior can equip - instead, you'll need to find a level 1 GK that's equippable by all jobs during a monthly login campaign, ambuscade reward, or seasonal event. There's no way to speed this up, or tell when one will be available, so you just need to wait and get lucky. Raising your Katana and GK skill is something you CAN control, luckily. First, you'll need to max out merits 8/8 for both Katana and GK. You can rise your Katana skill high enough to use all needed WSs with a Yarak Torque, which is dropped from Warder of Hope. When it comes to GK, you'll need two pieces - first, an Agelast Torque from Warder of Justice, and second either a Fazheluo Helm or a Kengo Hachimaki - either is buyable on the AH.
  • NIN/WAR can also hit every red proc, and luckily doesn't require you to worry about getting more skill through equipment, merits will be fine. However, you'll have a much harder time getting weapons that ninja can equip. You can earn a Hoe from Mog Garden quests to cover Scythe WSs, but unfortunately for Polearms and Great Swords you'll need to wait for a lv 1 All Jobs weapon from an event, login campaign, or ambuscade.
  • THF/WAR unfortunately can't hit all weapon skills - it won't have access to Katana or GK ones. It also has the same problems as Ninja - you'll need to wait for some event weapons. Why use it then? Treasure Hunter can really speed up the drops required to spawn the NMs themselves, and Flee can help speed up travel time. Overall I'd say it's the lowest priority of the three, but it's definitely usable.
• Instead of going for procs, many people choose to farm gold chests. Any job with a decent AOE weapon skill can perform this well enough. For this strategy, you'll want to focus on using Elemental Weapon Skills to kill enemies to build Amber Light - knife wielders are very useful for farming chests, as Aeolian Edge is both AOE and elemental. I recommend hunting down one of the roaming avatar NMs in the area you're in, as they give quite a lot of light when killed. You'll also want a good amount of Pearlescent Light, so that enemies will drop more chests in general. Once you're at 200+ amber light, start gathering up large groups of enemies and cleaving them down with AOE, then sift through the dropped chests for KIs. I recommend destroying chests you look in if they don't have what you need, to make looking through them all easier. People often run BLU for this, as they have powerful AOE spells to clear large groups. The magic kills also accumulates Azure Light, which means blue chests will spawn with abyssea time extensions.

Third Phase: Heavy Metal Plates and Rift items
The final phase of making an empyrean weapon is first collecting 1500 Heavy Metal Plates, and then 60 of either Riftdross or Riftcinder, depending on which weapon you're making. These are relatively hard to farm, so expect to spend a lot of gil during this phase. On the plus side, it's the final phase of the ordeal - once you finish both, you'll have your level 99 Empyrean weapon!

Upgrading to ilvl
At this point, you can technically continue magian trials to upgrade to the Afterglow version of your i119 weapon - however, you should never upgrade your weapon directly to Afterglow! It will wind up costing you far, FAR more gil in the long run. Instead, take it down to Oboro in Port Jeuno, where he will upgrade it to ilvl 119 for a mere 300 Riftborn Boulders. Congrats on finally having a usable Empyrean Weapon! We'll cover Afterglowing it in another section down below.

Note that for all of the weapon skill and NM trials, you'll need to have your weapon equipped for it to count - don't forget!

Farming Tips
When it comes to farming Empyrean Weapons, variety is the spice of life. You have to the NMs in the first phase in the correct order, however for Phase 2 and 3 you only need to turn in items. This means you can farm those items at any point! I recommend spending some time farming one Abyssea NM's drop, and then when you start feeling burnt out on that switch over to another, then to the third. If you're really burnt out on all Abyssea farming, then start working on regular NMs. Also make sure to keep an eye on https://www.ffxiah.com/ for your server's prices for Heavy Metal and Riftdross/cinder, depending on what you need. Don't forget to look at bazaar prices too, you can often find them for super cheap there if you're vigilant. As for farming the HMP / rifts themselves, the "best" way to farm them is via Voidwatch, but honestly that's very slow outside of campaigns, and still pretty slow even during them. It may be faster to just farm gil and buy them instead. You can also earn a limited amount of both from Ambuscade every month. Some people prefer to collect both Heavy Metal and their rift items together, others prefer to focus solely on one at a time - that way when they're done, they can sell any of the other that they get to help fund the rest. What route you decide to take is up to you, of course.

Notable Empyrean Weapons

• Twashtar is arguably the best knife in the game, and it will do TONS of work for Thieves and Dancers.
• Almace is a very strong sword for RDM and BLU. They both have arguably better options, but the fact that it can be used on both is very nice.
• Caladbolg is a fantastic weapon when you just want to pump out crazy 10k+ crits on your auto attacks
• Masamune is arguably the best great katana, and is an amazing zerg rush weapon for dealing MASSIVE burst damage

Mythic Weapons

Mythic Weapons are special in that there's a unique one for every job, with the exception of GEO and RUN (who get Ergon Weapons instead). They often provide job-specific buffs and utilities, and can be VERY strong. Of course, they're arguably the most time-consuming REMA weapons to get, especially so for your first Mythic. You can solo everything for your Mythic, but a few parts will be sped up if you have some friends.

Preparation
Mythic weapons require a bit more set up than other weapons do. First, you'll need to completely clear the Treasures of Aht Urhgan storyline. Second, you'll need to reach Captain rank in Assault, meaning you'll need to clear all 50 assault missions. Third, you'll need the Runic Key KI, obtained from clearing floor 100 of Nyzul Isle. Finally, you'll need the Vigil Weapon associated with the Mythic weapon you want to make - luckily these are found in Nyzul, and you'll most likely already have the one you need from clearing floor 100. Most of these are easy to solo, but some Assault missions can be quite difficult without a friend or two, even at ilvl. Additionally, having multiple people will make Nyzul Isle runs go quite a bit faster. For soloing Assaults, there's a very useful guide up on FFXIclopedia which I would highly recommend. Once all of these steps have been completed, you'll be able to start the first Mythic Weapon quest. Zone into Salaheem's Sentinels to get a cut scene that starts the quest, and trade your Vigil Weapon to Abquhbah to begin the questline.

An Imperial Heist
The first quest for completing a Mythic weapon is An Imperial Heist. To complete the quest, you'll need to defeat a variety of NMs from around Aht Urhgan zones. Luckily, if you've defeated these NMs previously then it will still count, so you don't need to defeat them again. You'll need to kill all three Aht Urhgan beastmen bosses - Gulool Ja Ja, Gurfurlur the Menacing, and Medusa. Then, you'll need to defeat each of the four Salvage chariot bosses, meaning you'll need to clear all four Salvage chambers. Salvage is relatively easy to solo at ilvl, just make sure you bring a (sub)job that can heal itself in some way, as trusts can't be summoned and much of your equipment will be inaccessible for part of each run. Finally, you'll need to have killed Odin in the final chamber of Einherjar. Einherjar is also fairly easy to solo, especially if you have good AOE damage - some healing is recommended just in case, though. Odin himself can be difficult to solo because he can deal 10k damage that splits up between all targets hit. You can't summon trusts or reduce this damage, so you'll either want to bring along friends, use a pet job that can stand out of range, or bring a LOT of reraise. He'll use this attack at 75%, 50%, and 25% HP, so three reraise items should do the trick. If you're at ilvl, Odin and his summons won't deal much damage otherwise, so you'll have time to heal yourself after reraising. Once all of these NMs have been killed, you can move on to the second quest for your Mythic Weapon.

Duties, Tasks, and Deeds
Duties, Tasks, and Deeds will take up the vast majority of your time creating a Mythic weapon. For it you'll need to collect a total of 30,000 Alexandrite, 150,000 Nyzul Isle Tokens, and 100,000 Therion Ichor from Einherjar. In addition, you'll need to clear all 50 Assault missions over again, and you'll need to trade zone-specific items to the rune of release before finishing the Assault. Again, all of this content can be soloed, but having friends will help it go much much faster.

Forging a New Myth
Forging a New Myth is the next quest in the chain, and while easier than the previous one can still be time consuming. You'll need to get a Tinnin's Fang, a Sarameya's Hide, and a Tyger's Tail - all obtained from the 3 penultimate bosses of the Zeni NM System. ZNMs are trivial at ilvl, but it can be time consuming to work through the chain of NMs to get to the three you need. The Zeni NM System page has information about how to get to each of the three bosses, as it's a bit too complicated to explain here. Once you've turned in all three items, then you'll need to fight a boss to finish the mythic - you MUST fight this boss on the job you're making the mythic for, as you'll need to use your mythic weapon during the fight! The first phase of the boss is a hydra (Zahak) which is trivially easy. The second phase is against a fomor, Balrahn. Balrahn is impossible to kill, as once he gets to 1 hp you'll just deal 0 damage. First, wait until he uses the Mythic weapon skill associated with your Mythic weapon against you. Then, you'll need to activate all three levels of Aftermath from your mythic weapon against him. It's recommended to go in order - do a 1k TP weaponskill, then 2k one, then finally a 3k one. Higher-level aftermaths overwrite lower-level ones, but not vice-versa - so if you start with a high-level aftermath, you'll need to wait until it wears off before you can use a lower level one. Once you've used all three aftermaths against him, he will surrender and you'll win the fight.

Coming Full Circle
Coming Full Circle is the final quest in making a mythic weapon, and it is more of a formality than anything else. You'll some minor rewards, but most importantly you'll receive your level 75 Mythic weapon, congratulations!

Upgrading to ilvl
Congratulations! You now have the level 75 version of your mythic weapon! From here, you'll need to complete Magian Trials to get it up to the 119 version. Take your newly made weapon over to the Magian Moogle in Ru'Lude Gardens to get started. You will have to complete a long series of trials to slowly upgrade your weapon to lv99 - the vast majority of these involve using your weapon's associated Weapon Skill to damage or kill experience-yielding enemies of a particular monster family - Plantoids, Beasts, Undead, etc. Some Adoulin areas will be good for this, but Abyssea areas are prime places to go for these. Tons of groups of same-family enemies that are relatively weak and thus can be quickly killed with the WS. After completing all your WS trials, you'll need to kill 3 of one of the penultimate ZNMs, and then 3 of one of the Salvage chariots. The final trial will require you to turn in 3 Mulcibar's Scoria - these are dropped from Pandemonium Warden, the final ZNM boss. PW has a few somewhat dangerous tricks up its sleeve even for ilvl characters, so I'd recommend bringing some friends along just in case. Alternatively, they can be gotten from Ambuscade, though the hallmark cost is VERY expensive. The most accessible way to get them is just to buy them, though.

At this point, you can technically continue magian trials to upgrade to the Afterglow version of your i119 weapon - however, you should never upgrade your weapon directly to Afterglow! It will wind up costing you far, FAR more gil in the long run. Instead, take it down to Oboro in Port Jeuno, where he will upgrade it to ilvl 119 for a mere 300 Beitetsu. Congratulations, you finally have a usable Mythic Weapon!

Farming Tips
Similar to empyrean weapons, the key to surviving the process of making a Mythic weapon is variety. While you can't complete the steps in any order, you CAN make progress on them in any order. Most of them require turning in specific items, so you can work on farming them whenever you like. The only part that can't easily be done out of order is fulfilling the Assault journals for Duties, Tasks, and Deeds. Einherjar is notable because you can't speed it up AT ALL - you can only enter it once every hour at most. I would recommend doing an Einherjar run, then going to work on other parts, and then return to do another Einherjar run. Two Nyzul Isle runs aligns perfectly with the hour-long timer, but if you start getting burnt out on those it's a good idea to go run some Assaults or do some ZNMs. The most expensive step will probably be collecting all of the Alexandrite needed. You can get a decent number of alex from Ambuscade each month, and it can be farmed from Salvage. You'll likely need to buy quite a bit of your alex, as the main methods for farming them are quite slow.

Notable Mythic Weapons

• Nirvana is the de-facto Summoner weapon, and makes your blood pacts deal crazy strong damage
• Yagrush is in very high demand for White Mages, turning all debuff removal spells AOE
• Death Penalty is extremely popular on Corsair, and with it you can easily one-shot statues in Dyna D
• Tizona is hands-down Blue Mage's best weapon
• Terpsichore is an extremely strong choice on Dancer, allowing them to gain loads of TP while in full DT gear

Aeonic Weapons

Aeonic Weapons are probably the simplest REMA to get, however they are the only ones that cannot be soloed in any way shape or form. They also can be the cheapest, as there are no expensive items to buy thousands of. They are very powerful though, and are notable because they allow players to create the Lv 4 Skillchains of Radiance and Umbra.

To get started, first talk to Temprix in Reisenjima. You'll need to turn in Escha Beads - first 10, then 100, then 1,000. After that, you'll be able to purchase a Malformed Key Item from him for a whopping 50,000 beads. This is the biggest straight-up grind in the process of making an Aeonic, and is best done by spamming out Domain Invasion.

Once you've obtained the Malformed Weapon corresponding to the Aeonic you wish to make, then the next step of the process will be to defeat ALL Escha - Zi'Tah Geas Fete NMs. They can be killed in any order, but you must defeat ALL of them before you can continue to the next step. At this point you can probably solo most of them, and depending on your job all of them. Once all Zi'Tah NMs are down, check in with Temprix again. You'll next need to defeat all of the Escha - Ru'Aun Geas Fete NMs. This is harder - the first few tiers are easy enough to solo at this point, but eventually you'll reach a brick wall and need to get some help - probably for Kirin and Warder of Courage. Once all those are down, check back in with Temprix to get your next task. You guessed it, time to defeat all the Reisenjima Geas Fete. The first tier is easily soloable, but beyond that it gets tricky. Once you're at T3 or the HELMs, you'll be hard pressed to solo anything - especially the HELMs. You'll need a very skilled group to take down many of the HELMs, but I've covered those in sections above. Once you've finally cleared all the Reisenjima Geas Fete NMs and check back in with Temprix, he will request a specified Fragment and Attestation item from specific Dynamis Notorious Monsters. Which ones are needed will vary depending on your Weapon, so I recommend checking out the Aeonic Weapon page to see which ones you need.

Once you turn those in to Temprix, congratulations! You get your ilvl 119 Aeonic Weapon straight-away. No need to work on magian trials to upgrade it like other REMAs! It's even already Afterglowed, which will save you another step of grinding compared to other REMA weapons.

Notable Aeonic Weapons

• Godhands are one of the best weapon choices for Monk and Puppetmaster.
• Lionheart makes Rune Fencer capable of dealing out some very good damage, turning it into a strong heavy DPS.
• Chango is an absurdly strong weapon, arguably the best one available for Warriors.
• Trishula is one of the best polearms available, and a very good choice for Dragoons.

Ergon Weapons

There are actually only two Ergon Weapons available in the game - Idris for Geomancer, and Epeolatry for Rune Fencer. Both of these are considered essential for their jobs in endgame content - they are extraordinarily powerful weapons. They can mostly be soloed, but they do require completing quite a lot of Delve, which requires at least 3 players to enter. I suggest /yell'ing for people to help you out, as there are likely others that need to farm it as well.

To get started on Ergon weapons, though, you'll need to achieve Legend rank in all coalitions in order to even start the relevant quests. This takes six months MINIMUM to achieve, and that's if you do your coalitions as soon as you possibly can. This is a huge roadblock for many people, and it is no easy feat to achieve. I hope you've been working on them like recommended back at the start of the guide!

Once you've achieved Legend rank, you can get started on either Saved by the Bell for Idris or Quiescence for Epeolatry. The quests are unique, but will require collecting similar amounts of resources:

• First, you'll need 100 H-P Bayld, and then need to win a BCNM.
• Second, you'll need 200 Ghastly Stones, 500 H-P Bayld, and then a handful of other items that are chosen semi-randomly.
• Third, you'll need 200 Verdigris Stones, 2,500 H-P Bayld, and three more semi-random items.
• Finally, you'll need 200 Wailing Stones, 9,999 H-P Bayld, and a P. Yggrete Crystal - which can only be obtained from collecting 2,500,000 Mweya Plasm after having killed all 6 Delve bosses.

Once you do some final talking to NPCs unique to your quest, then congratulations! You'll immediately receive your ilvl 119 Ergon Weapon, ready to go without needing to mess with any Magian Trials.

Afterglow

Once you've obtained your i119 REMA, you'll be able to trade it to Oboro in Port Jeuno in order to begin the process of giving it an Afterglow. Afterglowed REMA weapons (also called 119-III versions of the weapon) have better stats than the base ilvl 119 versions (aka 119-I), will give nearby party members an Afterglow buff when you use the REMA's associated weapon skill, and will give you a neato glowey particle effect.

The process of Afterglowing a weapon is simple, but can be expensive. Oboro will ask for 10,000 of a specific item, depending on your REMA:

• Relic Weapons - Oboro will request 10k Plutons.
• Empyrean Weapons - Oboro will request 10k Riftborn Boulders.
• Mythic and Ergon Weapons - Oboro will request 10k Beitetsu.

Aeonic weapons mercifully bypass the need for these grinds, and will be obtained already Afterglowed.

REMA Augments

The final step of upgrading REMA weapons is Augmenting them. Once your weapon has been Afterglowed, trade it again to Oboro in Port Jeuno to begin the process of augmenting it. This is unlocked in one of two ways:

• Trade a total of 10,000 Job Points to Oboro from Mastered jobs. A total of 700 JP can be traded to Oboro per irl week, which means it will take a minimum of 15 weeks to complete, assuming you hit maximum JP each week. Note that you'll need to do this separately for each category of REMA weapons.
• Less time consuming, but more difficult is to finish a Mask of Light KI from Dynamis Divergence Wave 3. For details on how to unlock the Masks of Light, see the Dyna-D W3 section above. Which Mask of Light you need will depend on the type of REMA you're attempting to augment:
  • Relic Weapons require a Tarutaru Mask of Light from Dynamis - Windurst (D)
  • Empyrean Weapons require an Elvaan Mask of Light from Dynamis - San d'Oria (D)
  • Mythic and Ergon Weapons require a Galka Mask of Light from Dynamis - Bastok (D)
  • Aeonic Weapons require a Mithra Mask of Light from Dynamis - Jeuno (D)

Once you've fulfilled one of those two objectives, you'll be able to augment as many REMA weapons of that type as you like. For example, if you complete an Elvaan Mask of Light for an Almace, an Empyrean weapon, you won't need to complete a second one for a Twashtar, also an empyrean weapon.

To actually make progress on the augments, you'll need to trade the weapon along with either an S. Astral Detritus (worth 10 RP), or an M. Astral Detritus (worth 50 RP). Both of these can be found from Omen and Dynamis - Divergence Wave 3. REMA weapons cap out at R15, requiring a total of 5,960 RP. As a REMA gets augmented, it will gain better and better stats, however they will always require the weapon be wielded in your main hand to apply.

Dyna-D Weapons

There's some contention over whether or not Dyna-D Weapons "count" as REMA weapons. Some players have started using "DREAM" as a new acronym for Ultimate Weapons to include these. Often called Dyna D Weapons, and occasionally called Su 5 weapons because the player must be Su 5 for the corresponding job to equip them, these weapons are inarguably very very strong. These can ONLY be gained via crafting, so the vast majority of players will instead be purchasing them off of the auction house. They are very difficult to make, and thus will cost a LOT of gil - often so much that attaining one will cost just as much as any other REMA weapon. Dyna weapons are similar to Mythic weapons in that there's a unique one for each of the game's jobs, and they often compliment their corresponding job in unique ways. However, to get the most out of them, you'll first need to augment them.

You can begin augmenting your Dyna weapon by trading it to Oboro in Port Jeuno, where he will ask you to choose one of three augmenting paths for the weapon to follow. 'Once you select a path, it will be permanently locked in and can never be changed.' Furthermore, once a path has been chosen, you will be unable to sell the weapon. Make absolutely sure you know which augment path you want for the weapon before selecting it, as there is no going back once you've chosen. Paths A and B are the same for all Dyna Weapons - A will give a 30% chance for double damage and +15 Store TP, B will give a 30% chance for a follow-up attack (that can trigger after normal multi-attack) and +15 Subtle Blow. Both paths A and B also give DMG+11 for the weapon. Path C is unique to each weapon, and usually improves its corresponding job in a unique way.

Note that technically the Su 5 versions of the weapons are HQ+2 versions of the craft. There are corresponding NQ (SU 3) and HQ (Su 4) versions of each of these weapons. These can also be augmented in the same manner, but their stats are overall lower than the "ultimate" Su 5 versions. It is worth considering them, though, as they are significantly cheaper than their Su 5 counterparts.

Notable Dyna D Weapons

• Crocea Mors is Red Mage's best weapon, hands-down. It allows Red Mages to deal absolutely absurd amounts of damage, making it a top-tier DPS.
• Rostam gives a huge boost to Corsair's rolls, and is an excellent purchase for any career corsairs - it's so good, many will choose to buy TWO of them, to augment down different paths.
• Moralltach is a Paladin's best curing and idle weapon.
• Father Time is Dark Knight's best option for Draining, and has a hilarious name.
• Pangu is the axe of choice when it comes to keeping your pet alive as a Beastmaster.

Other Content

Vagary

Soloable? No - requires 3+ players
Requirements to participate: Outer Ra'Kaznar access
Requirements to host: Completed the SoA mission Watery Grave
Notable Rewards: Materials to make Reforged Empyrean Armor +1, Umbra Strap, Cryptic Earring, Befouled Crown, Odium, Tartarus Platemail, Etiolation Earring, various other equipment, plenty of expensive stuff to sell on the AH.

Vagary is an event that is fairly complicated, but luckily you don't need to know a ton to begin participating in it. There are three different raids that can be chosen, called Gates. Each gate has different enemies, bosses, and mechanics, which can sometimes be fairly complicated. There are also a few secret bosses, and encountering them can be quite tricky.

Vagary's difficulty does not scale with the number of players participating. However, the content isn't particularly difficult for a party of 6 (or often even just a party of 3 or 4) so if you're in a full alliance you may wind up just sitting around while 2-3 mages clean out the enemies. You should know your job's role well enough by now to figure out what you should be doing at any given moment, but don't be surprised if you're doing a lot of waiting during Vagary. Gunna be honest, Vagary can be pretty boring for some jobs.

Note! - There are RoE Objectives for each Vagary boss, BE SURE YOU SET THEM BEFORE ENTERING VAGARY! It's super easy to forget doing this, but they give good rewards! I'll detail them later on, but I wanted to call this out now.

Entering Vagary
If you're not the party / alliance leader, all you need to do is be present in Outer Ra'Kaznar when the leader begins the event.
If you ARE the party / alliance leader, you'll first need to have cleared the Seekers of Adoulin mission Watery Grave. Then you'll need to trade a vial of Befouled Water (dropped by Fomors in Outer Ra'Kaznar) to the odyssean passage found in Leafallia. This will give you the Prototype sigil pearl KI needed to enter your party into Vagary - at this point just examine the gate you want to enter in the first big room of Outer Ra'Kaznar - the fastest way there is via the Augural Conveyor in Ra'Kaznar.

The Gates

There are three gates in Vagary: the Deathborne Gate, the Brash Gate, and the Duskbrood Gate. Each has several minor bosses, and then one major final boss. The Duskbrood Gate is special in that it also has two secret superbosses, which we'll talk about later.

The Deathborne Gate
The most straightforward Gate, Deathborne is entered at (M-7) in Ra'Kaznar. For this gate, your group will be in a large room and fight off waves of undead enemies, mostly Fomors, before fighting the boss Palloritus. Palloritus doesn't really have any major gimmicks, just lots of dark damage. He does have an AOE doom to watch out for, and has a hate reset. Otherwise not very notable.

The Brash Gate
This gate, entered at (N-7), is simple but can occasionally be confusing. It also takes place in a large room, but one with six pillars which can be examined. 5/6 of the pillars spawn a wave of enemies when examined, and one chosen at random will spawn the next boss which will progress the event. If you get a wave of enemies, you'll need to kill them all to get another shot at the remaining pillars. The enemies spawned are all blobs of some kind, with various elemental weaknesses. Usually Blue Mages, Black Mages, Scholars, and Geomancers will AOE nuke down the waves all at once, since the enemies aren't particularly threatening.

The first boss encountered is Murkcrawler, who has an aura that gives all stats down but otherwise isn't very notable. After it's killed, another six pillars will spawn and the process repeats. The second boss you'll encounter is Brimboil - who is the first boss with a gimmick that needs paying attention to. If 3500+ damage is done in a single attack to Brimboil, it will split into clones (which can thus split into more clones). Whenever one clone TPs, ALL of them will TP in unison. This can (and will) lead to team wipes, so just be careful not to go too overzealous on the damage. Both bosses are usually pulled into a corner so mages can nuke them down safely.

After beating Brimboil, once again six pillars will appear, functioning similarly to before. The only difference is that the boss will spawn either WITH a wave of enemies, or in the middle of it. If the message "A thousand scattered memories begin to take shape!" is shown when a wave is spawned, it means the boss will spawn with the wave. The boss is Rancibus, which doesn't have any particularly punishing gimmicks. It does have a lot of AOE damage though, including a powerful poison aura. Like the other two bosses, Rancibus is usually pulled into a corner by the tank so that it can be killed safely from a distance. After killing Rancibus, you've finally cleared the Brash Gate.

The Duskbrood Gate
The Duskbrood Gate is easily the most complex, and is entered at (N-6). The basics are simple - you move through a dungeon, killing elementals and then bosses. However, the interior seems like a giant maze - but it's really just a linear path with a few misleading sections where it's easy to get turned around. The area map is good to keep on hand in case you get separated from your group. Killing an entire group of elementals will prevent the final boss from absorbing that element of magic, so it's up to your group how many elementals and which ones to clear out. There are also two secret bosses that can be encountered in the Duskbrood Gate, which can be quite challenging to encounter - I'll go into their details in a bit.

After clearing through fire, ice, earth, and wind elementals, your group will encounter the first boss, Blightslither. Aside from being able to inflict zombie, it's nothing notable. The path will lead to water elementals and then to the second boss, Insidivo. It can spam wind and holy magic, and has an AOE dispel + plague which sucks, but isn't very threatening overall. Both of these boss rooms also have some hybrid elementals, which must be killed to open the doors to progress further.

Finally the path leads to dark elementals and then to the final boss room, where Putraxia is encountered. As noted earlier, it will absorb an element unless all the elementals matching that element were killed earlier - killing all elementals of each type will also lock the boss from using ancient magic of that element. Killing all the dark elementals is highly advised, as otherwise the boss has access to Death. Aside from this gimmick though, it doesn't have anything your group will need to worry about or plan around.

Secret Bosses

There are two secret bosses in Vagary - Perfidien and Plouton. Both of the bosses have fairly strict and somewhat complicated rules before they can be spawned, and a careless group can easily lock out being able to spawn them. Follow instructions carefully and don't be That Guy that ruins the run for the group. These can technically be spawned in any Vagary gate, but 99% of the time they'll be spawned in the Duskbrood Gate, since the elementals are perfect for fulfilling the secret boss spawn requirements. WARNING: Perfidien's character model is a spoiler for the Seekers of Adoulin story, so if you care about that and haven't completed it yet, try not to pay close attention to his character model and image on the wiki page, or just go progress through the story.

Perfidien
In order to spawn Perfidien, the party leader must fulfill the following conditions:

1. Must have brought a party/alliance into Vagary once before
2. Must be in possession of all three Key Item rewards from defeating the final bosses of the Vagary gates, and trade them in Leafalia for a Prototype pearl of ashen wings KI.

But that's not all! Those are just the pre-requisites. In order to ACTUALLY spawn him, your party must fulfill the following while inside of Vagary (usually the Duskbrood Gate):

1. Kill 5 elementals according to their elemental weakness. The nuke must do between 5000-8000 damage - hitting harder (or weaker) than this won't count.
2. Kill 5 elementals with magic bursts. This can be done at the same time as the above, but be careful to not hit above 8k.
3. Perform a 4-step Skillchain. This is easiest to do with a Samurai spamming Tachi: Jinpu.
4. Having no party members die while fulfilling the above.

As soon as the three conditions are completed, Perfidien will spawn as long as no one has died. If ever anyone dies while fighting Perfidien, he will warp away and the run will be wasted. This is the biggest threat when fighting him - one person gets careless and dies, and your run is dead and your group will need to get the spawning KI all over again. As for the fight itself, starting at 90% HP Perfidien will choose a random element to become weak to, and will absorb all damage from that element's opposite. For example, if he's weak to thunder magic, then he will absorb water. If you heal Perfidien by casting the wrong element on him, he'll inflict Encumberance - the more he's healed, the longer it lasts. If healed too much, he'll use an AOE full dispel + damage move called Vivisection and then level up. Also take care because Skillchains WILL heal him if he absorbs even ONE of their elements. For example, if he absorbs Fire, then Light skillchains will heal him. It's very easy to skillchain accidentally and give him a heal big enough to level him up, causing Vivisection to proc, killing someone and causing him to warp out.

After dealing ~23k damage of the element he's weak to, he will be proc'd, and then he'll change weakness after 2 minutes. Note: if he's not proc'd for a certain amount of time, he'll warp away as though someone died - make sure to keep up elemental damage of his weakness! He can also change weaknesses after a fair amount of damage has been done in general, so don't get lazy with checking what he absorbs. Luckily, there's a noticeable visual effect when he changes elements. The easiest way to check his weakness is to pepper him with weak elemental spells to see their effects - often it's easier to tell what element he absorbs, so you know its opposite is his weakness.

Aside from this elemental weakness/absorption system, he actually isn't all that threatening. If your group is paying attention to his elemental weaknesses and keep their distance from him, he's pretty easy.

Plouton
Plouton is the second secret boss, and requires having beaten Perfidien and trading the rewarded KI in Leafalia to the KI to spawn him. Just like with Perfidien, he has a somewhat complicated list of requirements to be spawned. He too can be spawned in any of the Gates, but players almost always spawn him in Duskbrood Gate. Note that if the alliance leader has KIs for both Perfidien and Plouton, groups will often try to spawn Perfidien and then Plouton in the same run. To spawn Plouton in Duskbrood Gate, your group must:

1. Perform five skillchains and magic bursts on elementals without killing them.
2. Perform a 6-step skillchain
3. Defeat five elementals with a single magic spell

Also like Perfidien, Plouton will warp away if a player dies or he isn't proc'd for a length of time. For the first 10% of his health bar, he will exclusively use a TP move called Impudence, which is a conal damage + zombie + hate reset. Starting at 90% HP, he'll begin elemental switching just like Perfidien. Just like Perfidien, if healed he will cause Encumbrance, and if healed too much he'll use Vivisection and level up. If you deal enough damage to his weakness, you'll proc him which will trigger a delayed elemental switch. It's far more important to proc Plouton though, as he will build significant damage resistance if he goes too long without being proc'd.

Once he reaches 50% HP, he will gain some cool looking wings and begin using some powerful TP moves. Notable ones are Eternal Misery, which is a more powerful version of Impudence; and Bane of Tartarus, which dispels ALL buffs (including food) and inflicts Weakness. Plouton will also begin cycling through physical resistances along with his elemental ones - one of Blunt, Piercing, or Slashing will deal extra damage to him, and the other two will deal 99% reduced damage.

Vagary Rewards

The main reason to run Vagary is to unlock the ability to upgrade your Reforged Empyrean Gear to +1. If you can't find a group for Vagary, you can consider running the Alternative Battlefields. These are instanced battles against the various final bosses of each of the Gates, and the two secret bosses. If you don't have a group able / willing to complete the Gates, then this is your best option to still unlock everything.

Note that you won't be able to get any other drops, experience, complete RoE objectives, etc. These fights ONLY exist to provide easier access to Upgraded Emp armor.

The other rewards most players care about are Etched Memories, which are used to upgrade your Reforged Empyrean Gear to the +1 i119 versions. Depending on your job, the +1 versions can be MASSIVE game changers. To upgrade all 5 pieces for a job, you'll need a total of 90 Etched Memories. They can't be bought/sold on the AH, but they CAN be sold through player Bazaars. You can look on ffxiah.com to see what prices players have them listed for, but they tend to go for around 20-30k each (at least as of Dec 2020).

To upgrade your emp gear you'll also need a variety of drops from the five Vagary bosses. Depending on the slot and your server, these can sell on the AH for anywhere from 10k to 500k. If you're like me though (aka broke), then you can instead get a full set of these items for free every week from Records of Eminence. Each Vagary boss has a once-a-week RoE objective that rewards their drop for you when completed, so make sure to enable all the RoE objectives for Vagary before entering! They can be found under Content > Content (Vagary).

Aside from giving you stuff to upgrade emp gear, there's also a few notable pieces of equipment that can drop from Vagary. Notable ones are Umbra Strap, Cryptic Earring, Befouled Crown, Odium, Etiolation Earring, and Tartarus Platemail. There's various other gear as well, but it's more niche and may not be worth going for - I'd recommend looking through the Vagary page to see what drops and if it interests you.

Delve

Delve is content from Adoulin's endgame. Requiring at least 3 people to enter, Delve is a run through a dungeon fighting bosses eventually leading up to a final boss. The gear dropped from Delve is mostly outclassed now, but there are a handful of useful pieces for some jobs. Some of the crafting material drops can also fetch a good price on the AH. Overall it's not too difficult, and most i119 players can meaningfully participate in it.

Voidwatch

Voidwatch, also called VW (not to be confused with Voidwalker NMs) is a questline based around spawning and killing a series of NMs. These NMs are generally very easy for all i119 players, though some of the later ones can prove tricky until you get some better gear. The gear they drop is generally outclassed except for a handful of pieces - instead, they're farmed because they can drop items that are worth selling on the AH, particularly Heavy Metal Plates, Riftdross, and Riftcinder. They can also drop Pulse Weapons, though extremely rarely. The drops rates for these items are generally very low outside of monthly campaigns that boost "light" values. Overall you won't need to concern yourself much with Voidwatch, so I won't go into much detail here. Please read more on the Voidwatch page if you're interested.

Master Trials

Master Trials are the hardest content the game has to offer. There are only a handful of them, but they are EXTREMELY difficult and will require the best of the best equipment to clear. However, their drops are purely cosmetic trophies, offering no "real" rewards. I won't go into strategy details here because each one requires very specific strategies, but if you feel up to a challenge it's worth checking these out.

What Next?

So, what should you do now? Well, at this point, you've successfully completed all of the endgame content that FFXI has to offer! You finally get to stop playing the game!!!!!! Or, y'know, you can do it all over again on another job, or help new people do it their first time through. You're the expert now! Congratulations!!

Contact

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback on this guide or any of its contents, please feel free to contact me either here on the BG Wiki at User_talk:Cassiani, or send me a /tell in-game: I'm Cassiani on the Asura server.

This guide was last updated October 25th, 2023.