User talk:ShadowKatze/Salvage

If you are part of my salvage LS, could you please let me know if you have read this, by leaving a message on my main talk page or in game.

PET PEEVE: SHOW UP ON TIME OR DON'T COME AT ALL I ask if the time is good for people. People say yes. People plan other events in game for the same time. I don't get it (the real life stuff I get). On a side note, the day we enter can have a huge impact on some runs (and possibly drops) so if everyone is on time we can choose the day we enter rather than going whenever people get around to showing up. If you need help with Assault points to go, try to be on early and we will help. I'm free most days to help with that. Lastly, I'm just plain tired some nights, so having a WHM that is awake may be something that will help the group. Current run is Silver Seas Remnants Megaboss. We will run Bhaflau Remnants Boss run to finish ares body pieces soon if the SSR runs get working. We should be able to take it with a BRD, and good supply of mages to heal. Honestly, 6-8 is the perfect number for a salvage run, but we'll use what we have. It would be best to split the group into two sets of 6 some runs and if more than 12 come it's almost required. Saturday run was a frog run. It was an utter failure due to poor leadership. I did not properly explain the plan to the new members resulting in several wipes and mistakes in lotting. The biggest being not giving the BRD range. Tuesday run was a SSR Boss run. We split 18 Alexandrite, but timed out on the Boss due to some stupidity on my part. Over all it was a good run though. We ran F1 West and F2 SW. The following pieces nearing completion on main sets: 2 Ares Bodies (need BR Boss), (1 of these is Dragoss who has not been on lately) 1 Ares Hands (need BR door 3), (This is also Dragoss) 2 Skadi Legs (need ZR frog 5 for one and AR boss for other), 2 Skadi Body (need BR door 4), 1 Marduk Feet (need ZR Boss), 1 Marduk Body (need AR boss), 1 Marduk Legs (need SSR Boss), 1 Usukane Head (need ZR boss), 1 Usukane Hands (need AR Boss). Secondary sets that are 2/3: These are low priority for lotting, but get first chance if people with main present have the needed item. 1 Ares Head (need AR ghost), 1 Skadi Legs (need ZR frog 5), 1 Morrigan Hands (need SSR Boss).

Intro
I know that few bother to read this, but below is the information on TeamSpeak and the runs that Seeko and I planned. Personally, I feel that if everyone reads thru it and sees what we are doing, things will go smoother. If you want to read more about the areas (and I really encourage this), I added links to each remnant area on this page (below) as well as the main salvage page (above). This plan is not set in stone. Ideally, everyone that reads thru it should have questions. It would be better to get these questions answered now than during a run. We both know that the plan is not perfect and that each of you know more about your respective jobs than we do (than me anyway I won't speak for Seeko). Therefore thru the questioning process we can fine tune the plan. '''THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! IF YOU ARE NEW, SHUT UP AND FOLLOW ORDERS.''' I'm fine with answering questions after a run (or to certain extent after a wipe), but really, we do know what we are doing and if we ask you do do something we probably have a reason other than we all want you to die. This is especially true of cell drops. I know you really want to help and show off your gear/abilities/ect. However, we give the cells in an order for a reason Requesting cells because you feel left out usually just delays the runs (and causes fights). Ask me in /tell (don't distract caller) and I can tell you why you didn't get the cell or pass on to the caller you need it (although usually there is a very good reason you don't get it). Demanding a cell in party is the best way (or certainly one of them) to start a fight I've seen and will not get you the cell (it may in fact move you down the list even if you are right about needing it). Now after you have been running with us a while and see how it works, if you feel you were skipped accidently, feel free to ask, but do it nicely. My Main point is ALL QUESTIONS AFTER THE RUN. I'm willing to forgo a little sleep to answer then then, but hate forgoing drops because we have to stop and answer them during. My personal opinon is that if we can make this an interactive process, we will find more success. This isn't like a Dynamis group that has a major number of people and only a few leaders running the show. This activity only requires a few people and therefore is much better designed to involve everyone in the planning. My personal frustration has been over the fact that no one wants to be involved in planning, but then complains about the plans we use. The TeamSpeak will help with this. Even is you prefer not to talk (and everyone talking at once is bad), if everyone can listen it will speed up cell lots and overall speed. Lastly, if you do mananage to read thru all my boring prattle here, please encourage the other members of our group to do so as well. ShadowKatze 15:27, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

VoIP info (by Seeko)
I totally agree that having a voice chat system would help us more than anything else to speed things up. The only problem I see with it is that it would potentially alienate non-PC users. As far as your comment about not being able to use it with playing the game in full screen: The programs I've tried using (TeamSpeak and Ventrilo) are designed to be background programs. You start them up before you log into the game, and then they just run in the background (minimal cpu usage) while you play the game. It would suck for people I know who would love to chat while playing but are on 360 or PS. Unless they are able to have a laptop or something nearby to connect them to us, they'll be hosed on the VoIP. I found a public server already set up for FFXI in Teamspeak. All you have to do is go to the Teamspeak website (http://www.teamspeak.com), download tab, and download the client (~6MB). Once you download/install, start it up, click "connection->connect." Then click "change filter" and specify these fields: "show public servers only" "show servers witout passwords only" "show servers containing: FFXI" click ok. you should see: "FFXIUnited." click "connect" from there after you are connected, double click "Leviathan." This is a public server that probably seldom (if ever) gets used, so we can feel free to use it. It can host up to 64 people on it, so we'll be good. --Seeko 16:55, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

This toy has helped us a lot and I think we need to all use it. 2 things about it though. First, while it is fun to "just chat" with people please, during the run, only talk about the run. Second, let the leader(s) talk. It's much easier to let one voice give orders and everyone obeys. In this respect it can get worse than typing, but I can do this and play, I can't type and play. ShadowKatze 17:33, 23 May 2008 (UTC) We have had some random people intentionally disrupting us from time to time when doing other stuff, but I still feel we should all be on something like this. ShadowKatze 19:24, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Xain has generously offered to let us use a server he rents for Ventrillo. This will give us a private server that we can password protect and only have LS members on. I still plan to use the teamspeak system for more general events or just chating, but if we can get everyone set up and running on Vent for salvage, that would be great. If you are interested (and by interested I mean interested in doing salvage with us) please contact Xain or myself for the info. If you can not connect to the internet using a PC, then please talk to me about that as well, so we can work something out.ShadowKatze 15:05, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Gear Drop Overview
In salvage various mobs drop gear that can be upgraded into the "Salvage armour" that people want. A full overview is given on the main salvage page but here is a quick review. Please note that where these pieces drop is listed in the planned runs below. To upgrade a piece, you must first find a level 15, a level 25, and a level 35 piece of the desired type from that set (all hands for hands for example). Once you have these, you trade them AND 10 Imperial Gold coins AND a stack of the requested Synth Material to a NPC and wait 1 real day for your item. The level 15 pieces are decent drop rates from either random mobs or forced pops depending on the area. The level 25 pieces are all dropped by the megabosses with 2 dropping at random from that mob's list every time a megaboss is killed. The level 35 pieces are from forced popped NMs in the various areas, but have a horrible drop rate even with TH (10% or less). I personally have a pet theory about the day of the week affecting drop rates for armour. I feel that each set has a day where the % is increased for it to drop (possibly also with a matching lo % day). I have observed the vast majority of our Ares drops have occured on Fire day. The other sets I have not paid as much attention too, but I have noticed that Usukane has dropped on Dark day and Marduk on Light Day. Seeko feels that Skadi may be related to Wind Day and if forced to guess, I would pick Thunder day for Morrigan. I will continue to watch our drops and see if they hold to this pattern. Again, this does not generate 100% drops, but seems to increase the odds, especially from mobs droping multiple sets. Ares's Cuirass Set - WAR,PLD,DRK,DRG - Enyo's Breastplate Set(15), Phobos's Cuirass Set(25), Deimos's Cuirass Set(35) Skadi's Cuirie Set - THF,COR,RNG,BST - Njord's Jerkin Set(15), Freyr's Jerkin Set(25), Freya's Jerkin Set(35) Usukane Haramaki Set - MNK,PUP,SAM,NIN - Hoshikazu Gi Set(15), Tsukikazu Togi Set(25), Hikazu Hara-Ate Set(35) Morrigan's Robe Set - BLM,RDM,BLU - Nemain's Robe Set(15), Bodb's Robe Set(25), Macha's Coat Set(35) Marduk's Jubbah Set - WHM,BRD,SMN - Anu's Doublet Set(15), Ea's Doublet Set(25), Enlil's Gambison Set(35)

Current listing of sets
Our group has the following people going for the following sets. Core Group Ares: Balivia (Head 15, Body 15-35, Hands 15, Legs 15, Feet 0) (has not been on)Dragoss (Head 15, Body 15-35, Hands 15-25, Legs 15, Feet 15) Skadi: Hodrobond (Head 35, Body 15-25, Hands 15, Legs 15-35, Feet DONE) Seeko (Head DONE, Body 15-25, Hands 15, Legs 15-25, Feet DONE) Usukane: Terrous (Head 15, Body 15, Hands 15-35, Legs 15, Feet 15) Merlincloud (Head 15-35, Body 15, Hands 15. Legs 15, Feet 15) Morrigan: Psycosmic (Head 0, Body 15, Hands DONE, Legs 0, Feet 15) Marduk: Shadowkatze (Head 15, Body 15-35, Hands DONE, Legs 15-35, Feet 15-35) Newer/Part-time members Ares: (has not been on)Gafgarion (Head 0, Body 0, Hands 0, Legs 0, Feet 0) (busy with school most runs now)Khiana (Head 15, Body 15, Hands 0, Legs 0, Feet 0) Malfoy (Head 0, Body 0, Hands 0, Legs 0, Feet 15) (trying it out)Exotic (Head 0, Body 0, Hands 0, Legs 0, Feet 0) (trying it out)Dumbwhiteboy (Head 0, Body 0, Hands 0, Legs 0, Feet 0) Skadi: Free lot after Hod & Seeko at present. Morrigan: Freelot after Psy at present. Usukane: Brido (Head 0, Body 0, Hands 15, Legs 0, Feet 0) Marduk: Freelot after Shadow at present.

Lotting System
General Idea: My system is based on obtaining an entire set before moving on to a new one as opposed to only obtaining certain pieces. The core group are the regulars who come every week (and have for a long time now), so they have priority lot for any piece in their set. Any new/part-time people will have wait until these people have the piece or do not want the piece to lot the rarer drops, but still need to commit to a set prior to lotting any. If anyone is 2/3 on their primary set they have priority over those who do not have the other pieces yet in most cases. I would hope that they would still allow free lot if they can not afford the upgrade in the near future. However, that is completely their decision. Salvage upgrades can be very expensive, but if someone in the LS is 3/3 on a piece, we can help them raise the money thru xNMs, farming, etc. The drops are divided into 3 types of armour plus alexandrite. Level 15 gear: Anyone attending regularly can lot the level 15s from their set even if the core members still need them. This is due to the greater frequency at which 15s drop. For Card popped NMs, the person winning the lot on the card has first right to the drop if it is from their set. If they do not want/need the piece, it goes to the rest of the people seeking that set and then finally to free lot. Most runs are not geared toward seeking 15s specifically, because they are easy to obtain if you have the other pieces. Level 25 gear: Currently we have defeated the SSR boss once. We plan to go against him again soon and see if we can repeat this with a high % success rate. If so the same policy used on the 15s will be extended to the level 25 pieces as well, since bosses always drop 2 pieces (although from random sets). I feel this is the fairest way to do the 25s, but only if we can establish that this group can kill the bosses somewhat reliably. Level 35 gear: I see no situation where 35s would not go in priority since they are so rare. This is so that the core members will get their gear first since they have put in the most time. The exception to this would be if the newer member is 2/3 on that piece and has been attending regularly. I would then not be opposed to allowing them the piece to complete a set. Alexandrite: With the 9/9/8 patch, Alexandrite has become much more plentiful. Now that the average number of drops has jumped from 1-5 to 20-40, and especially since they drop in pouches now, I feel it would be fairer to pool the alexandrite and split it evenly after the run. Those in the LS that want it for mythic weapons could then buy it from the other members at an ageeed upon price. Personally, I feel this price should be set at slightly below market average. Currently if we do a run with only singles dropping they remain free lot with the understanding that if you win one you will pass the rest until everyone gets one (which usually won't happen if we only get singles). On runs that drop pouches, I will lot all the Alex (including singles) and divide them evenly at the end of the run (/random for extras). Completed sets: Anyone completing a set and switching to a new set will be below the original priority lotters for that set. This would also be true of people switching sets, but I would prefer people not switch sets after they actually win a lot on a piece. Final notes:Several in our group would like to obtain more than one set, however, in the interest of fairness, we only allow the priority lotting on one set. If no priority lotters need/want a piece it then becomes free lot to the entire group including any new people. I would like to add that free lot does not mean grabbing stuff for no reason. If you do not plan to get the salvage armour for a given set you should not lot. If you do not want a piece, just pass it and let it fall to someone who may use it. I will say that since most level 15 pieces get passed by people, it is fine to just not lot pieces you probably won't upgrade. If they auto drop to you, obviously no one else had an interest and they are not bad pieces to use when leveling subs. Our focus has been on obtaining the level 35 drops with some success. We have collected a fair amount of incidental level 15 drops in this process. Our current focus is shifting to include boss runs which we are starting to show some success with. Obviously this is a long term project and only people willing to commit to that time frame should come. To date we have 4 completed salvage pieces and 12 pieces that are 2/3.

Basic Role of Jobs in Salvage
We will welcome any job in our group, but obviously some are more useful on certain runs. Here is my personal take on each job and how it relates to salvage. The jobs from our group are listed first, but I'll make notes on all of them. MNK - This is your Main Tank/DD. They should /nin for most runs. The big advantage to MNK is Subtle Blow as the NM TP moves can get nasty. Bringing some extra HP potions doesn't hurt either. The more MNKs the better mostly. WAR - Another acceptable Tank/DD. Again /NIN (weapon up to you) is better and HP potions nice. BLM - Main Magic DD. Stunning the Main TP moves of NMs is an equally important role. Some runs BLM has little value as a DD, but the stun is always apreciated. Back up healing is also useful as is Sleepga 2. RDM - Main Healer of the group. Refresh at the start is a must and a WHM has trouble keeping up without it. Once more things are unlocked the RDM can become a buffer/enfeebler and even a nuker in certain spots, but healing is main priority. As main healer /whm is best. WHM - Healer. RDM gets magic first, but once WHM get's magic, they should take over the main healing. Especially on the upper floors where they will draw less hate than a RDM. The 1 healer per DD stategy (below) works great with a rdm and whm. /SMN, /SCH, or /BLM is personaly preference, but some runs favor /SMN. THF - Treasure Hunter / Puller. The low drop rates on both cells and gear suck. They don't get a lot better with a THF, but they definitely do get better. Any good salvage run should have a THF. COR - Buffer/Puller. Dancer's Roll is amazing on the lower floors and the Monk's Roll for the NM fight makes things much smoother. I would suggest Chaos Roll as the other melee roll and then Evoker's and Scholar's roll on the mages. A wild card after the Melees 2hour is great to get double 2 hours. Random Deal is also quite nice with merits. It's a shame you don't see more people requesting CORs for stuff like this. BLU - They start out weak since other jobs get priority over them, but on the runs with lots of drops, they become a DD powerhouse. For the NM fights though, They are best held in reserve and used mostly to assist in healing and buffing (stoneskinga) unless another DD goes down. This is due to the rate at which they generate TP in their targets. BLU is great in salvage, but requires changes in role through out each run. BRD - Buffer/Puller. Marches for the melees and ballads for the mages are the usualy preference. This of course can vary in some situations. The true strength of a BRD, in my opinion, is Lullaby. It can sleep a lot of things that are immune/resistant to sleep and is great for crowd control in all runs. Runs in undead heavy areas and when you reach mech mobs greatly benefit from this. As Puller, you may prefer /nin, but honestly, /whm benefits the group much more. PUP - Another under appreciated job. Pup makes for a great DD in salvage. If you are lacking a MNK or he is down for bit, they can also tank. One thing to note, is that their automaton will have all the same weaknesses they have, so you if you want them to be effective you have to unlock more things. However, PUP serves well in most runs. DRG - Only taken DRG once, but it was a good DD. Unlike PUP they got to keep there Pet out on entry (not sure if this was a glitch or not). They would make another back up DD for the main NMs. Sub job would be up to player, but /NIN is almost required for melees on megaboss runs. /blu (or other mage) might work as well though for healing breath and the more traditional DD subs would be fine for most runs. PLD - Not the best job for salvage. It has uses on certain runs, but overall takes a lot of cells and doesn't do enough damage. You can use a PLD as your tank if needed though and no job is useless. SCH - This job is great for certain runs. However on a boss run, I would recommend a different mage as healer. The SCH's true strength is in -ga spells on the lower levels (invis/sneakga, En-ga, stoneskinga, etc.). They make a good magic DD or healer on the lower levels as well. The best uses for SCH I have seen have been as a subjob however. DNC - Only taken one DNC as well and we did not use him properly. DNC suffers like PLD from a lack of damage. Their buffs can be very useful, but undead are uneffected by some and the fact that they need to engage (and hit) the target to have an effect means they feed a lot of TP on NMs. If they can store TP leading up to the NMs, a support healing role would be useful, and like BLU, they could replace another DD if they went down. DNC does make a good subjob though. SMN - This is a high maintenance job. The AoE buffs and carby pulls are helpful in places, but as a DD it is usually lacking in salvage, due to resistance of mobs and shortage of MP. They can back up heal well with /whm, but should only be brought for specific runs where cell drops are plentiful. /SMN is just as good for carby pulls and that is where I see the most use for SMN in salvage. DRK - Great salvage DD. Should bring some HP potions for when they get a lot of hate. In a pinch DRK can tank for salvage. Their only issue is the lack of defense. Another Stun is always helpful too. SAM - Another great DD and acceptable tank for salvage. Should also bring HP potions. The Status effects on their weapon skills are very helpful, but some mobs react violently to certain status effects, so this should be watched. NIN - A strict DD build is best for a NIN in salvage. Tanking is handled by the other jobs, and really NIN would tank only if the others went down (which happens). Personally I would prefer a different job, but as with PLD it has certain uses on some runs. As with all melees, HP potions are useful. RNG - Great DD for salvage, but better on run where they can get most stuff unlocked. It does add more damage from a little used cell (ranged) however and I like having one on runs. BST - Seems to be an acceptable DD when short of Melee jobs. Requires JA and range cell to be truly effective, but other than that no issues. Have not tried charming mobs in salvage yet, but I would like to check that possibility. Current core group is as follows: Terrous MNK Baliva WAR Merlincloud BLMorPUP ?Dragoss THForMNK Hodrobond COR Seeko THF Psycosmic RDM Shadowkatze WHMorRDM Current part-time/newer members: ?Gafgarion DRK Khiana BLMorDRG Malfoy BRDorBLM Brido MNKorTHF

Basic NM strategy
Most of the NM mobs in salvage and especially the Megaboss mobs can be defeated by a simple 6 person strategy of Dedicated Healers. If you have 2 melee DDs (one being your tank) and 2 healers (rdm or whm) then each healer selects a DD and heals only him/her. Buffs should be done before the fight and the only one that really matters during the fight is haste (for /nin). Healer should ONLY cast Cure, Paralyna, and Haste during the fight with only a few exceptions. It's not that the other spells are not needed, it's that the damage spikes are severe at times and if you are casting another spell when they come it can be very easy to have someone die. The issue of enfeebling the NMs (especially as RDM) is tricky. Personally, they resist a lot since you don't always have full gear and I have seen a lot of unneeded deaths because the RDM was casting Para/gravity/dia/etc. instead of healing when a damage spike happened. Also it's just a waste of MP. With a good set of buffs, RDM should not have to rely on convert (although it's incredibly nice if things get ugly). If you really want to enfeeble it, I would suggest waiting until you see your DD reapply shadows (successfully) and only if your DD is not the "main" tank. The other 2 spots should be a THF (for TH) and a buffer of some sort (BRD or COR). If you have 7 the best set up is MNK, MNK, RDM, WHM, COR, BRD with THF in solo party. You can replace a buffer with a BLM for more damage in some runs or add BLM (for big nukes and stun) as an 8th. I have yet to see a NM in salvage that 8 couldn't kill safely with practice, but I have not fought everything yet either, so take that for what it's worth (just for the record the only NM mob I have not fought is in SSR and the only MegaBoss I have not fought is ZR).

Basics of Cells and Chests
First, let me say that all this info is on the main salvage page, and personally I keep a typed list handy during runs.

Cells
Each run is a little different for Cell order, so I'll note that in the individual runs as I go, but this is a simple list of what each does. Also please note that since the update, they now say what they do on them. Incus=Weapons/Shield Undulatus=Range/Ammo Castellanus=Head/neck Cumulus=Body Radiatus=Hands Virga=Rings/Earrings Cirrocumulus=Back/Belt Stratus=Legs/Feet Duplicatus=SubJob Opacus=JobAbilities/WeaponSkills Praecipitatio=Magic Humilus=HP Spissatus=MP Pannus=STR Congestus=VIT Fractus=DEX Nimbus=AGI Pileus=MND Velum=INT Mediocris=CHR

Chests
Chests are a little more straight forward. Most have minor items that can help, but all the toys from Besieged are available if you are lucky. All are temp items so you might as well use them. However, since they are R/E, be sure you take only the ones you can actually benefit from. The following is a list and my idea of who should get them. Please note these generally say what they do on them as well, although sometimes power is unclear (like refesh per tick and such) Assasin's Drink = Magical ACC boost - BLMs should get and save for NMs. After BLM, I would say BLU, RDM, Free. Barbarian's Drink = ATT bonus - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Body Boost = 50% extra HP - Melee DDs starting with Tank. After DDs, Healers then Nukers. Save for NM. Especially nice for Megaboss runs. Braver's Drink = +15 to all stats - Melee DDs starting with Tank. After DDs, Nukers then Healers. Save for NM. Champion's Drink = Crtitical Hit Rate boost - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Cleric's Drink = AoE Negative Status Remover - Melee or Buffer should get first to remove effects on Melees during NM fights. It will remove most ailments, but not all (such as charm) Dusty Elixir = 25% HP&MP - BLM first then Main heal followed by BLU then free. Use as needed, but try to save for NM. Dusty Ether = 150 MP - BLM, Healers, Magic DDs. Use as needed. If extra in chest, use and grab one for the road. Dusty Potion = 300 HP - Melees & Puller first. Use as needed. There are almost always extras so be sure to check chests again if backtracking. If no backtracking planned, all should take one. Dusty Reraise = Reraise 3 (15 minute duration) - Melees and puller first. Save for NM or sac pulls, because of sort duration. All mages should have reraise of some sort up anyway is why I would give this to the others first. Dusty Wing = 300 TP - DDs. Great for Self Skill chain. Save for NM. Fanatic's Drink = Invincible to Physical damage - Melee DDs starting with Tank. Save for NM. Especially nice for Megaboss runs. Fighter's Drink = ACC bonus - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Fool's Drink = Invincible to Magical Damage - Melee DDs starting with Tank. Save for NM. Especially nice for Megaboss runs. Gnostic's Drink = Enmity down - Healers and Range/Magic DDs. Who gets first is dependent on situation. Save for NM. Healing Powder = Curaga 2 effect - Melee or Buffer should get first to use on Melees during NM fights or whenever it is called for. Hermes Quencher = Flee effect - Situational. In Arrapago all Melees to chase rats, but usually Puller or whoever loses the vote on the sac pulls should get first. Use as needed. Mana Boost = 50% extra MP - Healers then magic DDs. Save for NM. Especially nice for megaboss runs. Mana Powder = 25% MP to those in area - Any mage. Use on NM or if needed sooner. Megaelixir = Full MP/HP. Healers, Nukers, Melees. Save for NMs. Especially nice for boss runs. Monarch's Drink = TP regain of 1 per second for 3 mintues - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Oracle's Drink = Magic ATT bonus - BLMs should get and save for NMs. After BLM, I would say BLU, RDM, Free. Revitalizer = (Very Rare Item) Resets all ability timers - COR should get first (2x Wild Card). Then MNKs (2x Hunderd Fists). After that other Melee DDs then the range/magic DDs. Definitely save for NM. Great for Megaboss runs. Shephard's Drink = Heals Your Pet - PUP is primary pet job in Salvage. After that DRG, BST, SMN, /SMN. No one else should really need. Soldier's Drink = ATT bonus - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Spy's Drink = 30% Haste for 3 minutes - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. It's nice if you can tell the mage healing you when you use it and when it wears so they don't haste you during it. Strange Juice = Refresh 3 per tick for 3 minutes - WHM, BLM, BLU, RDM, free. Use as needed but try to save for NM, especially if it is a megaboss run. Nice to tell your RDM when you activate it and when it ends so they don't refresh you during. Strange Milk = Regen 5/tick for 3 minutes - Melees and puller first. Use as needed. Vicar's Drink = Remove Multiple negative status effects from self - Melee's first then healers (for silence). Use as needed. Other besieged items (Wizard's Drink, Giant's Drink, Etc) maybe be possible, but I have not seen them so am not adding them at this time. If they do drop, they must be very rare, as you would expect from their power.

Cell Notes
This run is very exact about cell drops. This was obviously designed as a 6 person run where everyone is mostly unlocked. Chest has: 2 Weapons - Main DDs. You will get 4 more of these by clearing the first room in each wing so a party of 6 will all get them. Give them to DDs in order of damage output (including BLMs). If you want more, clear the Puk wing to farm them. 1 Subjob - Main heal, assuming you are using a RDM/WHM or a WHM/SMN. Otherwise BLM or SMN for /WHM or tank for /NIN. You will get 4 more clearing the same rooms as above and more can be farmed by clearing the bugard wing. They should go to /heal and /NIN. 1-2 Job Abilities (1 shared with Magic)- Main tank/DD, second DD. You will get 4 more as with the above cells and extras are farmed in the Raptor wing. A party of 6 will get should have everyone unlocked except a BLM (everyone if 2 are in chest). Order is by physical DDs since they also unlock weapons skills. RDM should get convert after DDs, and WHM is after RDM. 1-2 Magic Use (1 shared with JA) - Main heal. You will get 4 more as above. Getting 2 in the box is rarer than getting 2 JA cells. If you need more, farm the Ziz wing. A party of 6 will have 5 for sure possibly 6. If no one can live without magic, consider holding 1 to duplicate on the next floor rather than farming. After Main heal cells should go to any magic DDs then /NINs. Back up healer would be last. Last 4 box drops are random so I will discuss the cell types by floor: F1: As covered above. These drops are SJ, WS/JA, Magic, Weapon. Once you leave this floor do not plan on getting any further drops. Every room has 2 droppers and 2 non droppers. The first room of each wing drops 1 of each type, but then the rest of that wing drops only 2 of the given type per room. F2: All gear cells (other than melee weapon) drop here. Once you leave this floor do not plan on getting any further drops. For reference, the drop pattern in each room is the same. The group at the door will have 1 drop. The group to the left of the door (towards back of room) will have 2 drops. The group to the right of the door (towards the back of the room) will have 1 drop. Each drop will be 2 of a set type (by room) with TH possibly generating a body piece (and in the NE room rings & ranged). Body - These are random drops for all dropping mobs on this floor (meaning TH helps). Main Tank/DD, then DDs, then anyone with refresh on a body piece, and finally free lot. Range/Ammo - These are random drops in the NE room (TH helps). BRD, Puller (if not BRD), RNG, then free. Note on a frog hunt to make sure the 3 main people get these. Duplication is an option. Rings/Earrings - These are random drops in the NE room (TH helps a lot). Main Tank/DD, Then DDs (all types), then Healers. Note on a frog hunt to make sure the 3 main people get these first as they are usually the rarest drops. Duplicating is always an option. Belt/Back - 8 drop in the NE room. This is usually the room cleared on a frog hunt so everyone can have. Main Tank/DD, DDs, Mages. Hands - 8 drop in the SE room, although generally you won't clear this room. Main Tank/DD, DDs, Free (unless someone has exceptional gear) after main 3 on frog hunt. Legs/Feet - 8 drop in the SW room, but who wants to kill that many Wyverns. Main Tank/DD, DDs, THF (for Flee with AF) after main 3 on frog hunt, Free. Head/Neck - 8 drop in the NW room, but again with the wyverns. Main Tank/DD, DDs, Free after main 3 on frog hunt. F3: Only the mobs to the west drop cells. They drop all the stat cells and also the MP/HP cells. The MP & HP cell rates are affected by TH. On a frog hunt the main 3 should get all cells first (including MP even if they have no MP). I will list the following however more for a boss run (or after main 3 unlocked). HP - Main tank/DD, Melee DDs, Puller, Main heal, Any remaining DDs, Free. MP - Main heal, Any Magic DDs, Back up heal, Free. STR - Main Tank/DD, Melee DDs, Range DDs, Free. VIT - Main Tank/DD, Melee DDs, Main heal, Free. DEX - Main Tank/DD, Melee DDs, Range DDs, Free. AGI - Main Tank/DD, Range DDs, Melee DDs, Free. INT - Magic DDs, Weapons Skills based on INT(?), Free. MND - Main heal, Back up heals, Weapon Skills based on MND(?), Free. CHR - BRD, DNC, WEapon Skills based on CHR(?), Free. F4-F6: Mobs on these floors have a low percentage chance (even with TH) of droping random cells. If you are relying on this to get cells you are probably screwed.

Frog Hunt (F5&6 Focus, Card used)
This run requires a THF (for Treasure Hunter) to get enough drops on F2 and to get drops fast enough on F3. It is also a low man run. 6 is perfect and once you go over 8, it slows you down too much to complete all the frogs. However, depending on your goals, this may not be a problem. This run will describe how to equip a party of 6, but I will note where the other cells can be found if you need more. This area is very uniform about cells, so if you don't get one of an available kind before going to the next level you are out of luck. NOTE THE DAY YOU ENTER, as this will be need later and frogs will all be immune to that element. F1: Pick one person to not use any cells on this floor. This person can hang out in the first room after you clear it. They should lot cells (AND PASS) but not use any cells. Every room has 4 mobs. 2 will drop cells. 2 will not. Treasure Hunter does not effect drops on this floor. If possible, leave any mobs in the room after getting 2 that drop. The exception to this will follow. There is a mamool gaurding each wing in the hall after the first room of that wing. Killing him will generate a chest, but no cells. The first room of each wing will drop 1 SJ, 1 JA, 1 Magic, & 1 Weapon Cell (2 cells from each dropper). The rest of the wing will drop 2 cells of the same type in each room. The best plan to farm extras with a bigger group is to send a few people (a BLU and a healer can duo) to the hallway passed the second room and then pull mobs from rooms 2 & 3 in that wing. They will need sneak/invis to get to this location and back. Room 1: Puks. Clear this room. If you need extra weapons, head east until you have enough. Otherwise head North. Room 2: Ziz(DO NOT silence them unless you like dying). If you need more magic, head north until you have enough (note that your 2 main DDs should get magic even if they cannot use it). Otherwise head West. Room 3: Raptors. If you need more JAs head West until you have enough. Otherwise head South. Room 4: Bugard. If you need more SJs head South until you have enough. Once these first 4 rooms are clear, kill all the mobs in one wing. The Bugards are probably the easiest, so from Room 4 head south, kill the mamool and clear the room behind him. Head west and clear room. Head North and clear room. This should pop a Gent Frog. Kill him quickly (his worst move is single target charm). He will drop 2 SJ cells (or 2 of whatever wing you are in), but that shouldn't matter at this point. He also drops a chest. As soon as the chest is checked, everyone log off except the lonely person back at the start. If only people who have not used cells are in the zone at this point a Frog Madame will spawn at the start. Teamspeak makes it easy to know when to log back in, but just count to 15 and you should be good if everyone was paying attention. Reform party/alliance and gather at the start (person holding cells can use them now). Kill frog. Limit melees for TP build. Keep DoT on her for charm. She has 2 bad moves. AoE Charm (large area). Everyone should stay within the charm radius or be ready to kite (mov+ gear nice). Waterbomb (medium area damage + silence). Bring echo drops for this if you like to cast. Mages shoud try to stay inside charm radius, but outside of waterbomb to avoid silence. When she dies she has an average chance to drop one (or more?) of the following level 15 pieces: Marduk Legs, Skadi Head, Ares Hands, Morrigan Hands, Usukane Feet. Send one person (best to leave when fight close to over) with sneak to the NE warp. Warp when frog dies. F2: 3 People need to be fully unlocked for this run (in a low man run I'm assuming everyone got each type of cell on F1), so before run you should designate a lot order for gear and stats. I would go with 2 main melees (or maybe your RNG) and the main heal. Gear/stats after that would be free lot for those that can use. Kill everything starting to the south of pad and circling to the west. Make sure to have treasue hunter on these mobs. Lot, but do not use any ring and/or range cells until you are sure your 3 main people will have enough. You should get 8 back/belt cells but a random number of the other 2 as well as random body cells. When all lizards are dead, a Mamool will pop. Kill him. He will also drop cells of these same types and a chest. After looting the chest, trade the type of cell you want more of the Socket here. This will pop a Frog Madame. Kill as on F1 and she will drop 2x the cells you traded. Head south out of room and then south to SE wing. Sneak past lizards at start of room and kill the 3 in the NE corner (only 2 of these drop anything, so if you get lucky, let the third one live). You will get 4 Hand cells and random body cells. Sneak back out of room and head west to the SW wing. Invis past Wyverns at start and kill the three (again only 2 drop) in the SE corner. You will get 4 Feet/Legs cells and random body cells. Best to give the extra feet cells to THF for extra flee time on AF (see why later). Invis back out of room and head North to NW wing. You can have 1 person stay at the porter to save time if you are confident in your group. Invis past Wyverns at start and kill the three in the SW corner (again 2 drop). You will get 4 Head/Neck cells and random body cells. If not there, someone should head for the porter now. At this point your 3 main people should be fully geared (including range and weapon), have magic (even if unneeded), have SJ, & have JA. There is a slot in this room to trade the SSR Card to. If you have a person wanting the Skadi Level 15 body, trade the card and kill the imp that pops. It may be safer to clear the room first unless you can get a clean pull to a safe area (like were the wyverns you killed were). The Skadi drop is 100%. Fighting the imp (especially if you have to clear the room burns time), so if no one needs the body piece, pop the imp (he must be popped, but fighting is optional) and warp immediately. If you do not have a SSR Card, you probably won't complete the final frog on this run, but see below for an option on F3. F3: Head West. Cells drop fast here, so being able to lot fast and still fight fast is essential. IF you can only do one, please choose FIGHT, as the cells can be sorted out later and the deaths slow us down. Each small room contains 4 mamools of the same type. The final big room has 12 of mixed types. Each mamool usually (not 100%) drops 3 stat cells (all the same) with a chance to drop a HP and/or a MP cell. Again let you main three get the first 3 of each type. This applies to MP EVEN if they don't use MP. It's most important for these 3 to lot their cells fast as most likely a lot of cells will auto drop. Don't worry about using the cells as much as fighting (HP cells the most important, but not getting others killed is more important). Room 1 in NIN mobs. Room 2 is DRGs. Room 3 is BSTs. Be ready to sleep links and just keep killing. You should easily have all stats unlocked for your main 3 by the time you clear these 3 rooms. When heading into Room 3, send one person with invisible back east. They will follow that path east past the start, then north, then west, then south to a door and the exit. When the main 3 have their stats, HP, MP cells (at least 1 should hold a stat cell and not use it) and all the rest have HP and those that need have MP, warp. A larger group, will have to not unlock everyone on HP or not complete all the frogs. If you did not bring a SSR Card to trade on F2, kill all the mamools in the big room as well. Links are deadly here if not controlled well. Once all Mammools are dead, have person head to the warp (same path as above, it's very important to use the north warp). Kill the rampart and anything it summons. Then kill the Frog Madame that spawns behind it (she is non aggro so rest if needed). She will drop 5 each of MP and HP cells. Warp immediately as time will be getting short. F4: 1 Person heads east to the exit. The rest head west and invis past the room full of mamools. You can start sorting out any extra cells now, but have 1 of the 3 fully unlocking people continue to hold the last stat cell they need to unlock (if they forget and unlock that's ok too, just a little safer the other way). If for some reason you screwed up and do not have 3 people fully unlocked, the mamools have a low chance to drop HP/MP cells and the frogs in the room north of the start have a very low chance to drop random cells. However, this is usually not worth it at all and you should be looking to farm gears for cards and alexandrite on F5 at this point. Party will find 4 numbered ramparts in room after mamools. You must kill one to unlock exit. Which depends on the day you entered. Fire/Earth = 1, Water/Wind = 2, Ice/Lightning = 3, Light/Dark = 4. It can call a marid to help, but just sleep it and warp as soon as rampart dies. F5: Finish sorting cells (still hold last to unlock) and buff. Head north into the hall. Have THF enter the room to the west and aggro (truesound&linking) all 12(!) gears mobs and train them back to the start using perfect dodge as needed. The rest of the party runs into the room and then south to the room with the ramparts (non aggro). Party should head for the SW corner (if frog up carefully). When THF hits the start room he hits flee and loses aggro on the gears by out running them to the party. They should lose aggro in the room the started in (or slightly before), if this was done correctly. At this point the last person to be fully unlocked should use their stat cell. This pops the Frog Madame, so if it was used prior to this she will be up when you enter the room. Kill her as you did the previous ones. The ramparts are non aggro, but if you hit one with a spell you are probably screwed. Sleep it and hope you get charmed before it wakes up (there is a chance it will reset while you are charmed, but you still need to pull fight out into hall at this point). Remember to limit the melees on the NMs. When she dies she drops 0-3 of the following level 35 Pieces: Marduk Body, Skadi Legs, Usukane Hands. Low drop rate here as with all 35s. After frog is dead, THF needs to head to the exit. Have Reraise up. Use Flee as needed (thus the AF boots). I like to have 1-2 others follow the THF in case he doesn't make it all the way to the door, but if he has reraise he can probably still reach after getting back up. Those following should have reraise and sneak up (a few of the mobs are not truesound). The first room is the same mobs the THF trained earlier. Head west and south from there and pick up a second room of gears and a rampart. Head West and South from the room to the main room. There will be a bunch more gears and a chariot here. Exit door is to the east (behind the chariot). The door will ask if you want thru (duh, why you think I clicked on you?) so if solo you must get it open before dying. The warp also asked if you are done here (this I get a little more). If others following, THF can just kite around the main room while they open the door and warp. Chariot is sound aggro, the rest are truesound. The risk here is that if the THF loses aggro (or dies) before getting to the main room, the gears can head back and catch the followers (which is why I send 2). F6: You appear in a large mostly empty room. There is a chariot, but he is non agrro (see boss run for info on it). To the south will be the final Frog Madame. This frog is only present IF you killed 4 others or 3 and popped the F2 imp. Kill her as normal. When she dies she will drop 0-3 of the following level 35 Pieces: Marduk Head, Ares Feet, Morrigan Feet. If you have time left after this, you had an amazing run. If you have 20+ minutes left (possible with skill, luck, and practice), check out the boss run below if you want to try that as well. Otherwise, firefly.

Other Frogs of Zhaylom (Level 15 Gear)
There are 2 other frogs to fight for gear and a possible alternative to popping the F6 frog. However, these frogs exclude the other runs for the most part (possible exceptions noted), so are only useful if people need a specific item to complete a set. I will list them seperately for this reason. Please note that when I say farming cards it means that all mechs in this area can drop the ZR card that is used to pop the NM dropping the level 15 Ares AND Morrigan bodies in SSR. F3 FROG A larger group can do this run if you want. Have them split as soon as possible into 2 groups able to farm cells to increase speed on F1 and F2. F1: Stays the same as frog hunt although you can skip popping the frog and warp when people have all the cells they need if you desire. F2: On this floor you can stay until everyone is geared if you want (I hate fighting wyverns, but that's me). This run would be a great time to fight the Card Pop Imp (Jakko) for anyone wanting Skadi Level 15 Body, since time will not be a huge factor. F3: If you have 2 groups, one goes west to farm stats and HP/MP cells and the other goes east. With just one group check your time and farm west until you have HP/MP or until you have 50 minutes left. Personally, I would skip some gear farming on the previous floor to have HP/MP here, but that is a group decision. Once headed East, kill everything. Room 1 is WHMx4. Room 2 is BLMx4. Room 3 is BLUx4. Big room is WHMx6, BLMx6, BLUx8. Everyone of them must die, so this can take a while and links must be handled well. Also, NONE (as in 0) will drop cells. Once they all die, kill the rampart and anything it summons. When it dies a Frog Madame will pop. Frog will not aggro so you can rest then kill using the normal strategy above. When she dies she drops Ares Hands AND Morrigan Hands 100%. Both pieces are level 15. If you have time left, you have 2 options. First option is that if you were paying attention and unlocked 3 people fully you can use the warp behind the frog and go to the F4 section of the Frog Hunt run. By doing this you can fight the F5 Frog, but not the F6 Frog. Option 2 is to still warp up, but instead of aiming for another frog to farm mechs for cards and alexandrite. You can always firefly as well. F4 FROG This is really a 6 person run. It's all about speed. Any extras should be aware that no extra cells will be farmed so they are probably just leeching. F1: Kill first 4 rooms. Hoping you only have to kill 2 in each room. When entering last room, have THF sneak and flee to the NE warp. Warp as soon as the second set of cells drop from the 4th room. F2: Have 1 person (not THF) head south for warp as soon as you enter the level. Rest kill as many lizards as they can before the warp. F3: Group heads west and starts killing. THF Invis and heads east. Use Flee when ready. When you reach the warp check the time. You must warp onto the next floor prior to the 30 minute mark. Let party farm until 29 minute mark and then warp. Note that this is the North warp. There is a bonus frog that pops for using the south warp in under 47 minutes, but no gear drop has been recorded for that frog (possible chest). F4: If you reached the north half of this floor in 30 minutes or less, a Frog Madame will be in the room to the north (with a dozen Frog Gents). Go west and clear the room of Mammols for more HP and MP if needed, but be careful of links. When ready, attempt to clear Gents to pull madame. You should have a lot of time so be careful. When Madame dies she drops all the following Level 15 Pieces 100%: Skadi Head, Usukane Feet, Marduk Legs. Once dead you can continue to the F5 to farm cards and alexandrite if desired, but may be best to firefly. See Frog Hunt to unlock door to warp. Alternate F5 Frog If your party does not need any of the drops from the F5 frog or is more focused on reaching the F6 Frog or including the megaboss in the run or you reach F3 and someone (one of you main 3) suddenly remembers they didn't get a cell they needed, then you can go this route. It is easier to pop and slightly safer to reach F6 this way, but has no recorded gear drops (should drop a chest). F1: Same as Frog Hunt. F2: Same as Frog Hunt except only 1 person needs to be fully unlocked. You can still unlock more as time allows but you can split gear for better use. You might also use this extra time to fight Jakko (the Imp) but that will eat more time than you save I think. F3: Same as Frog Hunt except only 1 person needs to be fully unlocked and different exit warp. You can still unlock more as time allows but you can split stats for better use. Good chance everyone gets stats by the time you have HP/MP on them anyway. When you exit this level make sure you exit to the SOUTH on this run. This is the opposite of the normal Frog Hunt. F4: Same as Frog Hunt except all directions are reversed. F5: This should be handle the same as the regular Frog Hunt with 2 exceptions. First all directions are reversed since you are on the opposite half of the map. Second (and more importantly) the Gears Mobs are replaced with Gear Mobs. This makes training them much easier. Everything else is the same so kill this frog (loot chest it drops) and then warp to F6 just like on the regular Frog Hunt.

Boss Run (by Seeko)
Plan I would do is thus: 1F: farm until all who need have JA and magic. SJ if needed, but not as vital 2F: clear the usual room (because of the ranged/ring drops). *maybe* do a little more gear farming, but likely not. 3F: head West, as usual. kill 1st room (for Int cells, mainly, but Dex and Agi are nice, too), -skip- 2nd room (drops Agi, str, and chr). kill 3rd room (str, vit, mnd...I think chr, too) hope for HP drops, if not many, keep killing to try and get more. Warp South 4F: kill rampart, warp up. 5F: skip, warp. 6F: *should* be around 45-50min in by here. even 60 would likely be ok. sac chariot. IF we have 12ppl, be split already into 2 balanced groups. Each group picks a different camp corridor so we don't step on each other, and kill the room. Very important to limit # of DDers on gear(s)/chariot because of their deadly TP moves. On chariot: only allow Terr and Bal (or other main DD's) to melee. Even though B would hate it, I would sit his blu for that fight (his main spells each give ~40-50tp i.e. hysteric barrage, etc) 7F: time check should be ~70-80min here. 70 would be better for comfort, but I think 80 would be fine. DD would just be Terr and Bal again...maybe a Sam, too, if we had one. Everyone else gather inside discoid range, but outside normal AoE range. Anyone with RA can shoot away at it, brds and cors keep their rolls up. rdm's (or rdm and whm) would be on tank healing duty, while I'd put MrB on pt healing duty. I think that we'd honestly have a good chance at winning with this plan. also with 12ppl+2 pets (automatons), =314dmg/discoid. definitely doable. especially when you consider shell would reduce that, too, as well as diamondhide, etc. And discoid is only 1 of the TP moves it could do. *likely* wouldn't spam it, but just do every so often.

Regarding MrB and my comments up there for 6F and 7F: I value B as a heavy DD, but I don't know quite enough about BLU to be definitive on that. I'm basing the 50tp/spell comment on what Tso told me. Maybe if we had him switch to single hit spells, would be better? I dunno. --Seeko 17:45, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Note's on ZR boss run by Shadow
Ok I edited Seeko's plan a little above to take out the stuff not relating to our run. Here are some additional notes that may or may not help based on my personal opinions. F1: If we have 12 that can evenly split into 2 groups we will as soon as we had 1 DDtank & healer for each group. Should go pretty fast. We would assign paths PRIOR to entering. EVERYONE would need to bring sneak/invis so we could skip non dropping mobs to farm cells faster. F2: IF we farmed more armour, we would use the same split. It would be a time issue on deciding if we did, but most likely only need to grab feet for seeko. F3: This floor is basically the farm until we get full HPs for all floor. The stats are nice, but we'll have them easily by the time we have the HP cells if we have very many people. Speed is the key here. If you can't lot/pass and fight, then just fight. Don't worry about using the cells either. It's more important to keep killing. for speed. We can pass out cells on F5. One note here is that for boss run we should exit on the south side warp instead of the normal north side one. F4: One person (usually seeko) heads west for door. Everyone else uses Invis and heads east to rampart room to kill it. Which one depends on the day. F5: 2-3 people go forward, but rest can stay and distribute any extra cells that dropped in the confusion before (use bazzar). All should use reraise now as any used at start will be wearing soon assuming it survived the wyverns. Seeko (as THF) and anyone else will work. THF aggros entire room of gears and takes off east using flee (perfect dodge as needed). Other person(s) follow. Next room THF picks up a couple more gears and a rampart and contiues east. Last room has a bunch more mechs gaurding the door to warp on the west wall. THF should try to clear the path and draw them away, while other person(s) get door and warp as soon as possible. I suggest 2 people to follow THF just in case things go bad we have a second kiter. Seeko likes to do this solo, but on a run where he can't come, I really plan to use this multiple kite strat. F6: Have to clear everything that pops when chariot attacked. Main thing is slow and steady for safety. With 12 should go fast. Carby pulls if SMN or /SMN in group. After our last run, it is proabably better to not split up and just focus on fast kills unless we have more DDs for an even split. Carby pulls will help a lot for links so need to unlock JA for that. F7: Kill Boss as above. Things to note on Discoid though. It is a move like 1000 needles except it does 4400 damage. This is divided evenly between everything within 10' of the target. Most of the chariot's other moves are centered on itself or forward facing cones. So best to stand off to the side a little, but still sort of close to the DDs. I would think that the DDs should try to stay right together to make this easier. Better to be too close than too far though. As stated above, BLUs need to focus on healing and diamond hide. Each main healer should take there own tank to heal/unparalyze. The more pets out the better. Free carby is good for this, but without the mitts it may drain MP too much on a main healer. Boss fight should last 10-15 minutes, but can be done faster if time short as we should all have 2hours. Final:Everyone should be ready to lot/pass quickly if time is short. If people are dead they need to be raised quickly for lotting. If that is not possible, they can be dropped from the party if the items are not for them. If items are for them, then they can be made party leader and everyone else should drop so they will get. If party leaders are dead and no time remains, then all dead must home point to let the people get the drops. If the party/alliance disbands or the time ends with the items still in the pool, then they are lost. Well, those are my notes. I hope some people actually read them before our run. Feel free to modify anything you think is wrong. ShadowKatze 16:07, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Card Run
This is the run plan when we have ZR cards to use. It is a Floor to Floor breakdown. Mainly the things to note here are which directions we are going, since opening a door to go one way will generally lock the doors going other directions. Everyone should bring sneak and be aware of blood aggro for this area F1: East (see below for possible west run). I actually prefer the west run for F1, but here is the east run. Formors are fairly weak but drop completely random cells. This will be a very different effect than in ZR that we have been running lately. Each fomor drops multiple cells, so we want to kill them all quickly an keep moving. Still very important to lot/pass quickly. Room 1 has only 1 Fomor. Room 2 will have 2. We will camp there and pull from the east and west. 4 Fomors in each direction. Once they are dead, we head south and kill 2 more. The next room holds 8 more that are a little tougher, but have set drops(HumeMNK=weapon,magic,str,feet; ElfCOR=JA,HP,mnd,feet; HumeRNG=SJ,head,rings,vit; MithraRDM=range,MP,body,waist). Depending what we have for random drops and time we will kill some or all of these to get our main Melee's geared up to kill things. After we are done in this room we contiune west then north to a big room with a group of 16 Fomors. One person will sneak past them to warp us, but if we have some time, we will farm these before the warp. Just have to have the person there in case it gets out of control. These fomor have about 500 HP and will follow you in the room even with sneak up. They will not aggro unless attacked, sneak drops, or low HP. The idea would be to gather them all up and ~ga3 them. They have a low drop rate though so not staying here long(nuking them once would be good though). Should be off this floor in 40 minutes roughly but will stay as long as it takes to clear room of 8. 30 minutes is perfect run, but we should have time even with a slow run here since mostly skipping most of F2. F2: Immediately head south from start.  We have 1 person left with Skadi or Marduk as main. If they do not come, we then head East and North from main room. One person will sneak thru large room of fomor/imps (careful of imps truesight) and warp us. If we need more drops and have time, we can farm these fomor/imps for them. Puller should note that links here are not the normal ones you expect. Imps link to fomor by sight and Fomor link to imps by sound. Imps do not link imps and fomor do not link fomor. If people do want Marduk or Skadi drops, we head West and North from main room. NM deadpan Devilet is gaurding the door. Kill him. He has a lot of HP and all the normal imp moves. When he dies he drops 10 cells and unlocks the door. He also pops the real NM here, Dekka. Dekka is about the same as Deadpan. There are 4 crates in this room, so we need to get them as the items will be useful in the fights. Killing Dekka would be long fight because of HPs. He will drop Skadi Level 15 Feet 100% with a small chance to get Marduk Level 35 Feet as well. Once he is dead one person needs to hurry to the warp just north of this room, while the rest buff and get any items left in the crates. Need to be off this floor before the 1 hour mark to give us time on F3 for the fight as it is really 3 NMs in a row. I would prefer to be on F3 with an hour left to be honest, but 40 minutes is plenty of time. F3: Head East (west if we did Deapan/Dekka) from start and south to main room. Need to clear 8 gear mobs. Consider Carby pulls on these. 10 minutes is good goal, but 15-20 more likely. These gear mobs can drop the Silver Seas Card that give the Skadi Level 15 body in ZR. This card will also make it possible for us to trigger another NM frog (F6) in ZR when we run there again. This pops a NM Gear mob. 10 minutes is realistic goal. May go faster depending on his TP moves. It will be best to let only 2 DDs hit him with melee to slow TP build. Having 1 healer assigned to each and everyone staying back out of AoEs. Killing it will drop Marduk Level 15 Hands 100% with a small chance of Skadi Level 35 Hands also dropping. As with Dekka, we could skip this fight for time constraints. However since our main goal is also in this room, we will probably be forced to kill the gear to have clear area to fight and since we still have people needing the Skadi drops this is plan anyway. Also in this room is a Devilet. It flys at flee speed (or faster) and does not aggro. When attacked, he fights, but will go back to patrol after 10-15% damage inflicted on him. He must die to pop our target mob (thus the need to clear the gear NM). 10 Minutes to kill him is the most it should take (would be quicker if he would just fight). Having a PUP (or other pet) to chase him down is nice here. He will drop 5 armour cells when he dies (2body, 1 each of hands, legs, head). If pressed for time, 4 can fight gear mob by pulling it out into hall (so no overlap on AoEs) while the rest kill the devilet. A slot will appear near the center of the room when devilet dies. This is our main goal for this run. Trading a ZR card to this slot pops a NM frog. Hopefully we have 10-15 minutes left for this and can 2hour and put him down quick. Only main Melee DDs should engage (for TP reasons) unless very short on time. This fight will be easier than the ZR F5 frog, due to the room being clear of other possible aggro (if NM gear is dead). He will still use all the normal frog moves that everyone is so fond of. Must keep DoT on him at all times. He does both the AoE charm and a single target charm. When he dies, he will drop Morrigan Level 15 Body AND Ares Level 15 Body. When he dies, we are done for this run so lot fast(see below for NM to kill if time allows). After doing this run last night, I would like to add this about the frog. His Water Bomb is no joke. Much larger radius than the normal ZR frogs. Only the 2 Main DDs should engage melee and only the 2 mages healing them should be anywhere near them (I would suggest max casting range for cures). These 4 people should have echo drops if they plan on casting. Any other healers in the group (including BLUs, SMN, BRDs) should stay well back and focus on healing the healers after water bombs. BRDs & CORs should still run in to buff the respective people, but are on their own for healing. Anyone with Stun should attempt to stun the Water Bombs and the Frog Songs, but again would be on their own for being healed. When charm is used, kite/Sleepga the frogs and kite the NM. If only the DDs are charmed (especially if only one with the single target is) sleep him (them) and have next DD(s) ready to jump in until charm wears. Last night we almost won this fight in 7 minutes so reaching the goal with time to spare should make for reliable win. If skipping F2, then we can also attack another NM on this floor. After killing frog everyone heads south then east. This room holds 4 gear, 4 gears, and 4 ramparts. All 8 gear(s) mobs need to be killed. They can drop Silver Seas Card as above. They are truesound and link with each other and the ramparts so pulling can be tricky (carby?). Once the gear(s) are dead a NM Gears mob pops. Kill it with the same strat as the Gear NM and the Frog. When it dies it will drop Ares Level 15 Head 100% with a low percentage chance of dropping Ares Level 35 Legs as well. To access the next floor, one of the ramparts must be killed. It will show up on widescan as the 9th mob in this room (first rampart), when the room is full. At present, the next floor would be of use to us as a card farming area mostly, as we will be out of time shortly into it. However, there is also NM here that can drop gear(Morrigan Level 15 head 100%, Usukane Level 35 Body Low %), so as we get the items from the other mobs and start skipping them we will focus on this. See F4NM run for more info on him. Other things to note about this run. This will be pushing our time very close, but will get three to four (depending on pathing) 100% drops with a low chance at 1 more. I think that for time we should decide who's card to use at the first and who will lot. Since the Card mob drops 2 sets, the person popping may not need both and one will go up for lot to people listing that set as primary. However, since we do have a good supply of cards I would not have a problem with the card holder taking both if they can use them. Either way, we should discuss this before the run.

Usukane focused run (F1/F2)
F1: West from start. Layout:  Room 1 has 1 fomor. Room 2 empty camp here. There are 2 rooms east of here and 2 west. Each has 4 Fomor and 4 chests (be sure to get and use items). When all dead head south. Next room is empty but conitune south to large room. It has 6 Fomors in a party. Kiter (mov+ is good) should grab one and head toward the start until they lose hate (or die if they are slow). With 2DD + 2healer set, each DD grabs a Fomor on the way by. Pull them to the south side of the main room and kill them. As the others lose hate and return the DDs should be able to continue to grab one each. If any extra link, the kiter should be able to pull them back off again and lose hate. Everyone should have reraise up anyway of course. There are generally some dusty reraise scrolls in the chests prior to this room. When the 6 die, NM Fomor pops in room. He'll go down fairly fast after short rest to full. He has no 100% drop, but has low drop rate on Usukane 35 head (rumor is extremely low). After he dies, one person exits thru the big room as with the other run here (only 1 exit from F1), while others buff. F2: Everyone heads South, East, South to a big room. It contains 16 fomors and 4 imps. In this room imps link to fomor (by sight) and fomor link to imps (by sound?) so puller needs to be very careful. This is most dangerous at the start of the room clearing, because a mistake can bring so many angry mobs down on the party. When room cleared, NM fomor pops. He will die easy like the first one after a full rest. He drops Ususkane 15 Legs 100% and has a small chance of droping Morrigan 35 Legs as well. It is likely we will not have a lot of time left after he dies, but if we do, we will warp to the next floor using the pad north of this room. F3: East from pad to large room full of various mechs. If time is short, we can farm these for cards as mentioned on other run(although maybe should just firefly). If time is good we would like to bypass this room and go north then east. Gears are true sound and magic aggro so depending on positioning it may be tricky to bypass. A sac pull may be needed (THF could probably use Flee/Perfect Dodge to train them back to warp in site and then lose aggro). Once past this room, we are back to the same Gears NM that we fight on the card run. See that section for strategy and plan for going to F4 (although very doubtful on time).

F4 NM
F1: Head east and kill everything as with a the card run. If you have done the run and feel comfortable trying, heading west is also an option, but with the killing required to pop the F4NM, I do not recommend the delay. F2: Skip this floor. Exit using the SW tele pad. It is unlikely you would have time to fight either NM on this floor and still reach the F4 NM. Since going to the North exits requires fighting more mobs on the next floor, SW is the best option. F3: Head South then East to the first room. Kill gears if needed to clear path, but if everyone can make it thru this room without aggro do so. Remember that gear/gears are truesound. Head North from this room and then East again to the second room. You will need to clear some of the mechs from this room (maybe all). To unlock the door you must kill a specific rampart. This rampart is random, but can be detected by using the following methods: 1) Kill them all to be sure. This is the only 100% safe way, but obviously takes time. 2) Have your THF aggro them all and flee. The key door will cannot move. This method obviously benefits if all the gear/gears are cleared first including the NM. However if you make a mispull or feel like doing a sac pull, then just sprint around the room and see which ramparts don't move. Then clear the gear/gears from around it and kill it so you can exit. With practice, a THF could probably do this without dying, but I'm not sure. The party would stay well out of the room so that the train would not aggro them on it's way back. 3) Some people say that the correct rampart is #9 mob (the first rampart) on widescan for this room. We have had some problems with this, so not sure it is correct, but this is the one I would go with if at all possible.  Just clear the gear/gears from around this rampart then kill it. When rampart dies head north and warp. F4:  Head south immediately.  If your THF has flee ready, use it to catch the group of 6 gear mobs before they reach the main room and pull them back to the party.  These 6 gear mobs can be slept and then killed one at a time.  If not killed they patrol the level and can be messy to deal with if they show up while fighting other mobs.  If this does happen though, remember they can be slept and don't panic (and have reraise up).  Once they are dead head south to the main room and start pulling gears mobs.  There are 10 in the room.  They do not all "need" to die, but again they make for messy links. Pull the ramparts as it becomes safe. Once all 4 die, a fifth one will spawn in the center of the room. Ignore any gears mobs left after killing the fourth rampart (unless they aggro you). Do not attack fifth rampart. It will call a giant turtle (Citadel Chelonian). Pull the turtle (it does not link any of the mechs), and kill it. When it dies it drops Morrigan Level 15 Head Piece 100% and has a low chance of dropping Usukane Level 35 Body Piece. If you still have time left at this point, it was great run. Kill the last rampart and any gears left (rampart is to unlock exit, gears just for alexandrite) and exit to the south. You can now fight the boss if you have the time or just firefly.

Boss Run
Our group has killed this boss and this is the run we use for it. It seems very repeatable to me. F1: West from the start and clear everything just like a usukane run above. Kill NM and warp up. F2: Southwest exit. Skip everything unless you need cells or want to try on of the NMs above. Not recommended to try the other NMs on the first couple boss runs. Get used to fighting him before you try extra stuff. Also this group does not need the imp and the fomor will burn time. Farming cells here is a good plan though as it will save time over farming gears since imps have set drops. You can do this with the SE fomor NM, but if you die much on the run you will likely time out on the boss. F3: West exit. Skip everything unless you need cells or want to try an NM. This is a good floor to farm cards/alexandrite on if you need cells too. If you do fight the NM you will have to exit East which makes next floor much harder. F4: Skip unless you need cells or want to try an NM. This is a good floor to farm cards/alexandrite on if you need cells too. Same note as F2. May want a THF to flee thru here to door as everything is truesound. Reraise should definitely be up on this person. With practice you may be able to do this NM on the way to the boss, but since we have not yet tried it, I would advise against it for now. Note that to do the NM you must exit the previous floor to the east as stated above. F5: This boss goes down a lot faster than the others. At least he does while you are hitting him. The basic dedicated healer strat is fine here and should not lead to any abnormal problems. However, his special move sucks, so I will review that. Brainjack: a move SE invented when you thought they couldn't screw you worse. Brainjack is a single target charm that also inflicts a 24/tick damage. The boss can use it multiple times in a row and honestly if he can charm the whole party, that may be best sometimes. If that is your plan though, you need to make sure you have good DoT on him. Another way to do him (and more reliable) is to have someone with move+ gear kite him when (not if, when) he charms your tanks. He's not overly fast (he has mov+ but corners horribly) so any speed gear is good for this. Kiter needs to be careful not to lose hate though since the auto-regen on unclaimed megabosses is 10%/tick (yikes). WHM should definitely try to keep regen 3 on the tanks. This helps negate the brainjack damage and may shorten duration. The best time for a 2hour is immediately after brainjack wears off or at the start of the fight. However, it's still risky. As I said, he is softer than the other bosses, but he does hit pretty hard and brainjack sucks. One nice thing is that if you die charmed it's no XP lose. As with other chariots, Paralyze should be removed immediately, however, since he'll likely charm the tanks at some point, if he binds them first, it's all good. Just leave them bound and have a good laugh about AIs. If you have quick tanks (anyone else can do this too) have them macro to unequip/change weapons when he goes to jack them. If you stand to the side, he will turn to face before using Brainjack, giving you a chance to hit a weapon swap/unequip macro. It helps but is not a game breaker. A RDM with move gear is great for this, since as healer they are probably next on the hate list if the tanks get charmed anyway. I have found that it seems easier to pull the Megaboss down to the start area and then kite him thru the 3 rooms there during brainjack. Doing laps in the main room works as well, but is riskier, especialy without mov+ gear. Brainjack is usually used on everyone in melee range when he decides to do it (although he has to hit you 1 at a time). It's best to just let all the tanks be charmed and have the Healer kite him or have a THF accomplice the healer and kite him if healer does not have mov+. Having a hate macro to see who he is after when the kiting is going on is very very nice. Macro would look something like this: /assist  /wait 1 /p  has HATE! When defeated, it drops 2 of the following at 100% (can be 2 of the same). Morrigan Hands, Marduk Legs, Skadi Head, Skadi Body, Ares Hands, Usukane Feet. All level 25.

Cell Notes
THF has a large impact on cell drop rate here so always bring one. That said, cell distribution is a huge key to this run. Here are my thoughts on that. The opening box has these cells: 2 Weapons: I would give these to your MNKs. I know they already can fight H2H, but the increased damage will speed you up and you will get more cells. These other drops should go THF (with TH knife), melee DDs (if you have more), BLM, Healers. BLM must have before leaving F1, so can move ahead of DDs if drops extra stingy. They drop from Qutrubs though, so even low rate should get everyone needing one a weapon. 1 SubJob: I would give this to your main heal. You will not get another until F4 (can steal one on F2). Tanks don't need shadows until then and the healer does need the other spells. I would also make this healer the RDM and I will explain as I go. When you do get more drops, they go to /nin melees (starting with tank obviously) next and then /whm and backup heal. 1-2 Job Abilities: 1 for sure the other drop is 50/50 with magic. First JA goes to Main MNK because Asuran Fists kills things quickly. Order after that would be DD (to kill), COR (to buff), THF (steal), DD, RDM, Free. THF needs before F2 to steal. TH is automatically on from what I have read, so THF can be later drop on F1, but these only drop from Lamia, so you can get hosed by the drop rate. 1-2 Magic: 1 for sure other drop 50/50 with JAs. First goes to RDM. This is for healing, refresh, and dispel. All other spells are just bonus. Second goes to BRD (if present). After that, back up heal, BLM, BLU, /NIN (starting with main tank obviously). As with JA cells these only drop from Lamia, so may not get what you would like on F1. More will come later, but BLM needs before you exit F1. Next 4 share 2 spots. Might get 2 of the same, but probably not. 0-2 HP: This would be nice, but you also will get these dropping for sure from skeletons so probably best to get something else. Order Main Tank, DDs, Puller, RDM, back up heal, BLM, Free. BLM needs because of his job nuking rats after F1 but, since you should try to have for everyone before leaving F1 can be moved down in the order. They drop from Skeletons and even a low rate shouldn't hurt you. 0-2 MP: This would be nice. They only drop from Lamia so even though few needed, you can end up short. Order Main Heal, BLM, Back up heal, BLU, Free. BLM second because of needing MP to nuke after F1. If 2 drop in initial box it is probably safe to move BLM down on and give both to healers. 0-2 Body Armour: This and all Armour (see below for exception) should go to Main tank then second DD. After that, Mages with Refresh gear, then BLM to nuke, then free. Usually not a lot of Armour drops, but will discuss more later. 0-2 Range Weapon: This is mostly a "luxury" for the puller (as in not having to sight aggro). Order would be Puller, BRD(if not puller), Range DD (if any), Free (some people have really nice gear here, so if you don't, pass like I do). Rest of the cells share 2 random spots. Could be 2 of the same although unlikely. 0-2 Armour (other than body): As I said above, gear tank and second melee then Mages with refresh, then BLM to nuke. One exception would be if you have a THF with TH gloves. He would be first. 0-2 Stats: INT = BLM (nuke), THF (Steal?), BLU(Spells?), RDM(Enfeebles), DDs (WS?), Free. MND = RDM(main heal), WHM(or other back-up heals), MNKs, BLU, BLM, Free. CHR = THF, COR, Free. STR = Tank, melee DDs, Free. DEX = Tank, melee DDs, Free. AGI = Tank, ranged DDs(puller included), THF, melee DDs. VIT = Tank, Melee DDs, Puller, Free. As I said above (and say again below), this run is light on cells (until you hit F6). The test here is how you distribute them for maximum benefit. A group of 6 can be reasonably geared and the rest are not as important. You want DDtank, DD, Nuker, Healer, healer, Buffer to be unlocked as much as possible and the rest is bonus.

Rat Run
On a rat run, it is better to just have 6 people (max 8) because of the low cell drop rate. If more are present, they should know up front that they will not be getting unlocked and will be leeching most of the run. They will become somewhat useful on later floors depending on drops, but they should be prepared to be bored and in all honesty, if they are not after a drop that night, they should save their points for another run. F1: Room 1 Clear. Head west. Clear room. Head north. Clear Room. Head east. Clear Room. Head back to room 1. Make sure to get items from the chests that drop as doing this and restock on way back. From room 1 head south. Clear room and kill Lamia SMN to the south (pull COR also if clean). Head east. Clear room. Head east. Clear room. Head south. Clear room. Head west. Clear room. At this point, you should have essential weapons, JAs (THF important), HP, Magic, MP. If you get all these things prior to clearing all the rooms, you can exit early to save time. Exit thru SE Warp (where you end on this walk thru). Ideally, will have spent 30 minutes here but possibly an hour (although this will eliminate some rats from end of run). One variation to this plan would be to exit thru the SW Warp if you are short on 1 type of cell (See other options for details). F2: Room one should be skipped unless you need the cells for your main 6 (see Other Options for NM here), Although you may wish to pull 1 to build TP for the rat NM. Lamia drop Magic, MP, and JA. Skeletons drop STR, HP, INT, AGI, Belt/Back. When you exit the room, be careful to look for your first rat. He will be in one of the hallways connected to the central room (where the warp pad is). All doors except the one you enter from will be locked. Rat is a BLM and immune to stun and silence. He will usually resist sleep (all forms), gravity, & bind. He will fight a little and then retreat a little. Kill him as quickly as possible, because if he reaches the telepad he will eventually warp. If the target of his spells runs out of range, he will follow, but this is useful only if a BLM is MP burning or DoTing him. He has around 6k HP. THF should Steal from him if possible as this will get a SJ cell, which are quite rare here. The best way to steal is to hide, then steal to open the fight. When he dies he will drop a few cells and a chest. He also has a small chance to drop the Ares Level 35 Body piece. Once he is dead or warps, warp up to next floor (if he died get items from chest first). 10 minutes for this floor covers it well unless you are farming for more cells and can be done in 5. F3: EAST! (unless you really enjoy the soulflayer experience - see Other Options section). 2 options: If you still need cells clear rooms 1 and 2 (probably skip this step most runs). Everyone sneak/invis and head to warp pad. Stand in the Northwest corner of the room to fight. Have BLM nuke the rat and then engage wit heveryone. He is THF and drops bombs as he runs. he will fight then run. When he runs, LET HIM GO. everyone go stand in that Northwest corner and wait. He will come back shortly to see why no one folowed him. Let him enter the room and whack on him til he runs again. Repeat until he dies. Based on our run I would say he needs to return 2-3 times. When he dies, he drops a few cells and a chest. There is also a small chance of him dropping the Morrigan Level 35 Body Piece. Once he is dead (and chest checked if present) warp. 10 minutes for this floor with no farming. If something happens and the rat doesn't come back right away, don't wait long. I would wait until the DoT on him wears. After that he will come back, but will be full HP again. Better to go to next one. F4: East (unless you did the soulflayers last floor in which case you have my condolences and you should go west). Room will have a door (if not you went wrong way), a warp and another rat. This rat is identical the to the one you just fought, just less distance for him to run, so you can chase this one (just watch the bomb drops 50-100 damage). He also has a small chance of dropping the Morrigan Level 35 Body Piece. Once he is dead (and chest checked) warp. See Other Options for another NM on this floor. 5 minute floor. If you are 1 hour (or a little less) in at this point you are doing great. If you have 20 minutes left you are doing ok. F5: North (or south if you running other path for some reason - only 1 exit either way). Clear first room of gear mobs. They will drop SJ cells which should start helping. All mech (gear, gears, ramparts, chariots) can also drop the Level 15 pieces for Ares Legs, Skadi Hands, Usukane head, Morrigan Legs, and Marduk feet as well as the Card needed to pop the NM dropping the Marduk Level 15 Body Piece (See the BR run). Head south (or north) from this room and kill gear in hall. 1 person head to main room while rest continue to room at end of hall and find another rat (this person should have reraise up just in case). He is the same as the first rat you fought back on F2 and can also drop the Ares Level 35 Body Piece. He will also fight / retreat toward the warp. If he makes it to an occupied room, LET HIM GO! Linking the entire floor will only result in deaths. Remember that Mech mobs generally aggro truesound and casting (although ramparts seem to me to aggro sight?/sound in addition to casting). After Rat dead (or out of reach), have everyone fully buff. If brd present they should soulvoice the melees with whichever songs they think are the best (haste/attack?) once everyone ready have the person at exit warp (see Other Option for NM here). Ideally at this point you have 20 minutes or a little more left. However it will likely take a number of runs to get the timing down and some runs will always be unlucky, so if you time out here (or earlier) don't get down on yourselves. F6: The clock is running as soon as you enter this death trap so don't wait. There are 4 gears, 4 gear, and 2 ramparts in the main room. The ramparts can summon seasonal Treants. Everything in this room must die in under 7 minutes. If it becomes apparent that this will not happen, pull back and take your time. As above, all mech can drop the level 15 pieces so this is not a wasted floor even if you fail the 7 minute goal. Have some melees 2hour the first rampart and the rest 2 hour the second, as they are the most dangerous things and the treants add time if they are summoned (they are usually called regardless). Mages need to remember that gear/gears aggro casting. These should be slept/kited (if they aggro) as possible until first rampart dies, then the gears (they bing more dangerous than the gear mobs) on that end can die. Since it's highly likely that cells/armour will be dropping quickly here, everyone that needs the level 15 pieces should be responsible for lotting them as they drop. No need to pass until room clear, unless time very short. If you make the 7 minute mark, which really takes practice and/or luck, you pop 2 more Rat NMs by the warp in pad. They are the same type as you fight in floors 3 & 4 and also have the low drop rate on the Morrigan Level 35 Body Piece. They do the whole fight, flee, fight, thing (mines included) as well. You can fight them one at a time. When they die you can lot and firefly. If you have any time left, you were amazing. You can exit this floor to the north and see the Mega boss here, but should not have time to fight him. See below for that info. Other info on Rat Run You can of course skip rats for time or to focus on certain sets. Fighting all the rats on the same run is possible, but takes practice and some luck. There are other level 35 drops here as well, so read the Other Options section for some suggestions on which rats to skip if you wish to include some of those. All in all, this would be my run of choice to do repeatedly for a starter group. SSR is also a good option.

Boss Run
Boss run will be essentially the same as the Rat Run with the obvious exception of skipping some (or all) of the rats. Changes to the run would be as follows. F1: Stay on this floor until everyone has Weapon, JA, & HP and those that need have Magic and MP. Even if this takes an hour you are fine, but it should take less time. This boss can be handled by the regular farming party of 6, but more can help if time taken to unlock them. Exit to next floor makes no real difference Unless you are doing the card pop NM there (see Other Options). F2-F5: Same as rat run. Based on time remaining, you can fight any of these rats on the way up. The ones on F2 & F4 are particularly easy since they are quick and dierctly in you path. The main reason to kill these rats is that they can drop chests that provide nice items for the boss. F5 you should allow some time to farm a few SJ cells as well from the gear mobs. The goal will be to hit F6 with at least 30 minutes remaining. 40 would be great and 20 would be cutting it close for most parties. F6: You must clear the main room you appear in to unlock the boss door. If you have the time, you can do the full buff on F5 and then 2 hour this room as with the above rat run, to pop the rats here. You should not "need" to 2hour the boss, although obviously it can make that fight faster. As noted in the rat run all mechs on floors 5 & 6 can drop level 15 gear. Once the room is clear you can exit to the north. If anyone died in this room, it may be better to wait on the weakened to warp so they get full HP/MP (if you have time). Boss fight should take 10 minutes or less with no deaths, but allowing 15-20 is safer. F7: Boss is Armoured Chariot. It uses all normal chariot moves (watch for Para and Bind). It's special move is Mortal Revolution. This is ~600 AoE Damage + Stun. NIN shadows will negate this. I would suggest just having 2 melees on the chariot for TP build reasons. All other melees should be held in reserve and if someone dies, they should be ready to jump in to replace them. You should also have 1 dedicated healer for each of your 2 main melees. After that having 1 or more BRDs/CORs is nice for buffs and a third healer that can focus on buffs/debuffs is a bonus. As I said, 6 can do this as THF, DD, DD, Healer, Healer, Buffer.

Other Options
This is a listing of alternate NMs to kill for Level 35 items (and 1 Level 15 item) when you are ready to skip some rats. Listing is by NM showing the gear and change to rat run route.

Vile Wehzil: Drop 2x the cells traded to spawn him. End F1 by exiting the SW warp. on F2, clear the room and then trade the desired cells to the socket to spawn him. This would only be worthwhile to get Magic or JA cells in my opinion and really I would not recommend it unless you are taking a large group on a boss run and need the Magic Cells. He will duplicate up to 5 cells traded so have 1 person hold those cells on F1 if this is your plan. In the case of Magic only unlock the main heal and save any others you find for this purpose.

Pricess Pudding: Drops Usukane Level 15 Body 100%. Same path as Rat Run. On F2 there is a slot in the room you warp into normally (Southeast room). Clear this room (can leave some, but full clear safer) and trade a BR Card to the slot here. Pudding will generally spam AM(mostly Quake?) and nasty ga spells. It may be best to allow your tank the 1st SJ cell if this is your target instead of your main heal, but this is a judgement call. Once it dies, resume rat run with the first rat. This fight typically will slow the run quite a bit, especially if it gets in some lucky hits with spells.

Deviate Bhoot: Drops Ares 35 Head Low %. Same path as Rat Run. On F4 after you kill the rat (can do before as well), pull the largest of the Deviate Bhoots (ghost mobs) from the room to the North of start. They all have the same name, but the big one is the NM. He does not link with the others, but all are sound aggro. He likes to cast a lot of ice spells (Blizzaga 3 is really bad) so barblizra if possible. He also has a death move called "Perdition". This needs to be stunned if at all possible. If he uses it the target dies instantly. Once he dies, raise and continue as planned for rat run. This mob can really slow down a run with his perdition move so killing fast is important. One important thing to note is that if you are short on Magic cells, the "normal" Bhoots drop them, as can the Rat on this floor. Also the Gear mobs here can drop SJ. It would be wise to get your /NIN melees both before pulling NM.

Psycheflayer: Drops Morrigan Level 35 Head Low %. F3: You go west. This is much more dangerous, but if you can sneak everyone past the soulflayers (truesound) then you can kill this rat in the same way you do the one on the north side. It maybe better to just skip the rat though and have only one person sneak to the pad to warp. If you do fight the rat, stand in the Southeast corner of the warp room to do it. F4: You head West to the door for the telepad and the rat. This rat is the same as the one from regular F4 Rat Run, so see that for strat/drop. Kill the rat (can skip if wanted or kill after other NM). After rat dies pull Psycheflayer from room to the south of warp in pad. All have same name, but the NM is the largest in the room. They will not link, but do aggro truesound and JAs. Flayers are dangerous and this one has all the normal moves. Once he dies continue the rat run. F5: You are on the opposite side of the this floor, but run is still the same. Head south to gear room and clear. Send 1 person to open the door to the warp pad while the party clears north. When Warp room open the rat will appear here. See Rat Run for Strat. When you exit this floor you are back on the same path as normal Rat Run.

'''Archaic Chariot: Drops Skadi Level 35 Feet, Marduk Level 35 Legs, Usukane Level 35 Hands. All Low %.''' F5: This is the easiest/safest pick up to the rat run. When you open the door to pop the rat on this floor, it also pops this chariot mob in the middle of the big room. After killing the rat, have everyone sneak past the second gear room (can kill if needed, but safer to bypass rampart at least). The Gear/Gears in the main room will link by sound when the chariot pulled if it passes by them, so best to pull and kill them first if you are good on time (They can be slept if needed). Chariot has a lot of HP and all the chariot moves (para is the worst for this fight). Once it dies, head to warp and continue Rat Run. You could also farm level 15 pieces on this level if time short, as it is safer here than the next floor (Could also farm if you have extra time before going up). It should be noted that it is possible to have multiple pieces drop, but considering that all are very low % drops this is quite rare.

Bhaflau Remnants
BR is similar to Dynamis in that gear can drop from any mob killed on any floor. Mechs drop the Bhaflau Card used to pop the NM dropping the Level 15 Usukane Body Piece in AR (see that run for details). All the other mobs (except those spawned by ramparts?) can drop Level 15 pieces from the following sets: Ares Feet, Skadi Legs, Marduk Head, Morrigan Feet, Usukane Head. Having a THF is not vital for this run for cell drops, but always helps with gear drops.

Door Bashing
There is one rampart on each floor that will spawn if you meet certain conditions. This is a list of the triggers and drops. You should plan your run to aim for the gear desired. It is unlikely that you will get to all 4 on any one run. F1: West. Gear cells drop west and stat cells drop east. Also less aggro on the west when you want to skip mobs, but if you prefer you can go west. Whichever you choose the other door locks. Room one kill bomb, skip bugs. North. Kill bomb in hall. Room 2 Kill bomb, skip bugs. Pull bomb from east room then North. Kill bomb in hall. Room 3 kill troll, skip bugs. North. Room 4 kill bomb and trolls, skip bugs. East. South. Pull Moths from main room and kill. You should have Weapons, SJ, JAs, Magic, MP, & HP. The moths are the only things dropping JAs and Magic, but if you are short on the rest kill the trolls in this last big room for them. From last room kill your way back toward room 2. If you have widescan, have that person watching for the Mad Bomber. He will appear in one of the deadends off room 2. If you do not have wide scan, have someone manually check for him (a mage is good for this while they wait to have magic unlocked and they can do this as soon as you kill bomb in room 2). There is a 50% chance of him appearing on each run. If he does not appear warp as soon as you have everyone geared (or mostly geared). If he does appear, DO NOT ENGAGE/AGGRO him until everyone ready. Once aggroed, you have 60-75 seconds to kill him before he self-destructs. Self-destruct can not be stunned. If you kill him without him self-destructing a dormant rampart will appear in the same room. Click it to warp to another room with a reactionary rampart. Rest to full then have someone aggro the rampart. It is better to provoke or use a nondamaging spell such as silence. Once aggroed the rampart will begin to call reenforcements. It will call 1 every 12 seconds and can have maximum of 5 out at any one time. Also it will lose 1% of its HP every 12 seconds (even if no reenforcements can appear). Reenforcements are chigoes most of the time, but rarely it will spawn a spider (Gate Widow). It can summon multiple spiders on any given run, but does not have to spawn any. The faster you can kill the chigoes, the more chances you have of the spider spawning. Best to fight away from rampart so that party has time as chigoes approach and BLM(s) can us AoE. When Spider appears, Sleepga the chigoes and kill spider. Each spider has a small chance of dropping Marduk Legs and/or Morrigan Hands (Both Level 35). When rampart dies you are warped back to main area (even if fighting a spider at the time). You should be able to fight this rampart until it dies, but if you start to get overwhelmed by chigoes (or just want to move on) just kill the rampart and move on. Once back in main area head to the central room and warp. F2: North. The central rooms are connected in a circle. There is a Flan in each room. They drop Magic & JA cells. You must kill all 4 while they have spikes on their heads to trigger the dormant rampart here. Any magic spell cast on them, any level 3 Skill chain used on them, and using formless strikes on them can all remove the spikes (random % each time), so it is best to strictly melee them. The North and South ones are weak to magic (if spell kills them they will not change) and the East and West ones are weak to physical. If done correctly, the rampart will appear in the room where you make the last kill. Click on it to warp to another reactionary rampart room. Rest then aggro this rampart as the one on F1. This one calls wasps and rarely a Pephredo(as before can be multiple or 0). Same startegy as F1. Pephredo has a low % chance of dropping Usukane Feet and/or Skadi Head (both Level 35). Once back in main area exit level in any corner of the map. F3: Head directly to the center area. There will be a slot here. If you have the AR card, you can trade this to the slot to pop a NM soulflayer who will promptly wipe you party. If you are prepared for this fight it is still hard, but NM does drop Marduk Level 15 Body Piece 100%. Do not do this fight unless you have to. You need a larger group (or an extremely organized and prepared 6) to pop this rampart. Split into 2 even groups prepared to kill Gears mobs. Send one group East and one group West. You must kill the gears mob in these 2 rooms AND they must die at close to the same time. This requires good communication between the 2 groups. Alternately, you can take the first one down to under 5% and then sleep it. then go ot the otehr side and kill that one down as well. When both are low let your BLM ~ga them to kill them together. If done correctly a dormant rampart will spawn where they died. Click it to warp to the reactionary rampart for this floor. Rest then aggro as above (same strat). This one calls Colibri and may(same multiple or 0 chances) call a Ziz (Zebra Zachary). Ziz has a small chance of dropping Ares Hands and/or Skadi Head (Both Level 35). When back in main area exit on either side. F4: This floor sucks. Head out of room one (only one exit, direction dependent on exit from last level). Everyone stay well back in hallway. Each of the small rooms has 1-3 Gear Mobs. If you kill all 10, first let me say congrats. They are cheap little weasels and the designers need to be shot. They aggro/link truesound and magic. During wind weather, their detection range is greatly increased. If they aggro or link they simply warp away. If they are pulled by magic (including NIN magic, but not BRD songs) they warp. If they are pulled with any JA (such as provoke) they warp. Best to pull with normal ranged attacks. If you do not kill them within 60-70 seconds of initial pull, they warp. BLM is good for this as they can heavy nuke them (after pull obviously). However, they still have the gear TP move that heals for 1300+ and can spam it if they don't like you (it may be advisable to limit the number of melees you have on these gear mobs, especially if you have multiple BLMs). If you do kill all 10, a dormant rampart will appear in room where you kill the last one (see Boss Run for additional effect). Note that the large room does not have any Gear mobs, but does have several Gears and a Chariot. This room should be skipped. Click on rampart to warp to the reactionary rampart room for this floor. Rest then aggro it as the others (same strat). This one calls birds (the brown ones) and may (same multiple or 0) call a Roc (Peryton). Roc (and he's not a push over) can drop Skadi Body and/or Marduk Legs (both Level 35). Once back in main area, exit is in central room. This concludes door bashing. See boss run if you have time left.

Boss Run
You can include some door bashing in this run, but I would limit it to make sure you have time for the boss. The easiest one to include is the F4 Door, but see notes below for options. F1: Same as the door bashing above, except probably skip bomber if present. You can still try the rampart if you wish as long as you watch the clock and exit early (not recommened until you are sure of the timing). F2: Kill enough of the Flans to get the JA and Magic cells you need. You can fight this rampart a little if you wish too, but again kill it before waiting the full 20 minutes (only try this if you are sure of your group's timing). Then head east for more weapons/HP cells if you need. These mobs will also drop stat cells. If you are going to be short of SJ/MP cells warp South. If you will be short JA warp north. F3: Go directly to warp unless you need SJ/JA/MP/HP cells. If you need the cells kill everything you can while sending 1 person to warp. You could do the card mob, if you need too, but I would not recommend this rampart on a boss run (and would discourage the card NM as well). You can exit either east or west and gain bonuses on the boss. See net floor for details. F4: Fight this exactly like a Door run. If you pop the rampart by killing the Gear mobs, you could use any "extra" time you feel you have to fight it, but I would do a chariot as described below. The more gears you kill, the weaker the main boss' Homing missle special will be so take your time on pulls and get it right. Our Current 3x BLM set makes short work of these gear mobs. Megaboss should be a 20 minute fight (can be faster, but safer to plan long). If you have extra time, kill the chariot in the main room of the level will further nerf the megaboss. On the east path killing the chariot will reduce the Megaboss' attack rating. Kill the the one on the west path will reduce it's defense rating. Which is more useful depends o nthe group and this should only be attempted if time is not an issue. F5: Boss is Long-Bowed Chariot. People say this is the hardest boss. I disagree although it is the hardest to reach properly. He hits really hard, but attacks slowly, so shadow tanks should be fine. He has all the normal chariot moves (watch for para and bind). His special move is homing missle. At full strength, it does 90% damage AND resets hate. This will obviously wipe most parties. Each gear you succesfully kill on F4 reduces the amount of damage down to a minimum of 10%. 9 gears killed makes hate reset single target and all 10 eliminates it completely. He only uses hominig missle on targets in front of him, so tanks should stay to the sides if possible. If all gears killed, he goes down fairly easily. If gears not killed, then yes he is probably the hardest boss. When defeated, he will drop 2 of the following at random (can be 2 of the same). Morrigan Body, Morrigan Head, Marduk Hands, Ares Body, Ares Head, Skadi Feet, Usukane Legs. All pieces are level 25. The normal strategy of only 2 melees, each with a dedicated healer works well here. However, since our current group has 3 BLMs, I would suggest WHM heals tank, the BLMs tandem heal the second melee, leaving the RDM free to enfeeble/refresh/haste. This strategy should prevent the excess hate build up we have seen on RDM as main heal (also Enmity down food is nice). RDM should still heal as needed and any extra Melees would be waiting to join the fight if we lose a melee. With 3 BLMs, it should be easy to keep DoT on the boss as well. Runs with low SJ cells mean BLMs can't heal. They should focus on DoT and stun in the this event. Stun resistance build quickly so only stunning Homing missile (on an unnerfed boss) or as needed to give time to apply shadows/heal (if homing missile is nerfed) is advised. Honestly what we need (and have always needed) is a BRD, but until one is leveled we will make do.