Feast of Swords 2008/Guide

Starting Out
Head to Bastok, San d'Oria, or Windurst and talk to one of the Event Moogles to obtain your Ibushi Shinai.

Southern San d'Oria (J-9) / Northern San d'Oria (D-9) Bastok Mines (I-9) / Bastok Markets (G-9) Windurst Woods (K-10) / Windurst Waters (F-5) / Port Windurst

Next, head to the outside area and find the Event Nomad Moogle there. Talk to them to receive an enchantment. The enchantment restricts your Level to 1 and gives you a Flee-like effect.

West Ronfaure (I-6) / East Ronfaure (G-6) / La Theine Plateau / Jugner Forest Batallia Downs / North Gustaberg (L-8) / South Gustaberg (L-8) / Konschtat Highlands Pashhow Marshlands / Rolanberry Fields / West Sarutabaruta (J-8) / East Sarutabaruta (G-11) Tahrongi Canyon / Meriphataud Mountains / Sauromugue Champaign

Find and kill the armor mobs in the same zone, collecting malice as they use weapon skills. Anyone can engage the armor, much like besieged enemies.

Recommended Macros
Malice

/item "Ibushi Shinai" 

Remove

/equip main

Equip

/equip main "Ibushi Shinai"

Milk

/item "Selbina Milk" 

Strategy

 * Find as much help as possible. Creating a party and/or alliance will make this event much easier if other players are willing.
 * All of the Armors can been seen with the Ranger and Beastmaster ability Wide Scan.
 * Buffs used before accepting the level cap do stay, such as reraise and stoneskin, though stoneskin will be broken by any TP move you fail to absorb.
 * Unlike previous years, automatons do not stay out when the level cap is put on.
 * If you and others wish to participate in this event solo, it's recommended that all Chat Filters are turned off so it can be seen when the Armors will start to use their TP moves. This allows you to time your Malice accordingly.
 * The Armors perform two TP moves: Aetheral Toxin and Edge of Death.
 * Aetheral Toxin - AOE 20-60 damage. When Aetheral Toxin is used, you have to quickly put up Malice as soon as it is said in the chat log. This is hard to time because the casting time for Malice can take some time while Aethreral Toxin is being used.
 * Edge of Death - Reduces HP to 1, AOE. When Edge of Death is used, as soon as it is said in the chat log, wait approximately 2-4 seconds before using Malice. Edge of Death has a longer casting time than Aetheral Toxin and is difficult to time if Malice is put up too quickly.
 * Using a Selbina Milk can make the armors soloable, provided you have enough milk and are able to dodge or absorb Aetheral Toxin, as the armors hits will in most cases be canceled out by the milk's Regen. It is generally advisable to solo the armors that spawn furthest from the zone's entrance, as not to take them from players that want to fight them as a group.

Note: Aetheral Toxin has a very short delay before use, making it difficult to absorb unless you're fast. However, the AoE effect on the ability has a small radius. It is possible to simply backup and outrun the damage. The safer solution may be to ignore and run from Aetheral Toxin and only try to absorb Edge of Death which is a much easier task. Otherwise, be prepared to eat a lot of death.

Collect points towards your reward.

1 to 4 Absorbs - Mochi of the matching race. (Elvaan Mochi from the Hizamaru Armor for example). 3 to 7 Absorbs - Ibushi Shinai +1, which oddly enough cannot be used in the event as it does not absorb malice. 5 to 6 Absorbs - Republic Stables Medal, odd seeing how most people get this at 10, but our entire party just recieved the item. (Teleport medals/scarves seem to correspond to area you are currently in.) 10 Absorbs - Federation Stables Scarf (note, I was in East Sarutabaruta) (It has been known to happen on 8 although this is unsure, please test to find out for yourself and edit this page)

Obtaining Malice
The only real way to gain malice (and thus gain the prizes) known so far is to use the enchantment on the Ibushi Shinai BEFORE the armor uses it's TP skill. If timed properly, you'll get a message stating "A protective energy absorbs the malice of your enemy!" This is the only known way so far. Malice absorbed will carry over from 1 armor to the next if you do not trade your Ibushi Shinai to the ???, but it is unknown if it will carry over if you die and reraise and get recapped.

NOTE: Dying or rezoning will not result in you losing malice charges.

Obtaining Rewards
Once the armor has been defeated, a ??? will pop up next to it. Unequip your Ibushi Shinai and trade it to the spot. If you do not have enough malice to obtain a reward, a moogle let you know. Otherwise, you will gain a random reward from the list below.

Note on rewards: After 10 malice absorbtions, a player has received an Ibushi Shinai +1, then after 6 more, a Kingdom Stables Collar, and after 15 more, a Shinai, further testing is needed but it may be possible that reward outcomes may be one from a random selection of groupings, dependng on how much malice has been absorbed.


 * Note: In order to absorb any malice, the armor MUST use a TP move. In order for the armor to do this, they must hit for more than 0 damage. For this reason, using Stoneskin on anything other than the mithra is NOT recommended.

Omodaka Armor
This armor is able to deal more than lethal damage, 60 or more, to characters. This damage will one-shot any character regardless of job. Its behavior also includes aggroing far outside of its normal spawn and patrol zone, including halfway across the map. This seems to coincide with multiple players attacking a single other armor. The Omodaka Armor shares hate with the other Armors, though not the other way around. She will also aggro anyone in a party with a player she has aggroed and defeated, regardless of her distance from that player. Also the Omodaka Armor seems to continually attack players and run away and then come back (that are engaged to other Armor) multiple times, the hate share factor seems to be very high.

Possible Rewards

 * Hume Mochi
 * Tarutaru Mochi
 * Galka Mochi
 * Elvaan Mochi
 * Ibushi Shinai +1
 * Shinai
 * Lotus Katana
 * Hardwood Katana
 * Kingdom Stables Collar
 * Republic Stables Medal
 * Federation Stables Scarf