Resheph's Golden Salvage Guide for Puppetmasters

=What is this Article?= This article is a guide which explains a technique developed by myself and the PuppetShow linkshell on Cerberus. I have created it to assist my fellow Puppetmasters in obtaining the valuable Pahluwan Khazagand by revealing an easy and inexpensive way that Puppetmasters or someone with Puppetmaster as their support job can be as effective at soloing Golden Salvage as a Summoner can. However, the execution of this method is so different and complicated that I felt it was necessary to make a separate article for it rather than a simple note.

=What is Golden Salvage?= Golden Salvage is an Assault mission wherein you are given the task of locating a treasure chest which contains a golden figurehead. The catch is that there is only one correct chest and many mimics which will attack and draw-in anyone who gets too close. There are also true-sight/true-sound mobs in the zone called Percipient Fish which can cause some problems. You have to be able to survive the mimics and the fish and locate the golden figurehead in order to achieve a victory.
 * See the article Golden Salvage for more detailed information.

=Getting Ready= You will need at least three people and there are several possible Job and Support Job configurations that can give you different advantages for the method which I am about to describe. The most advantageous ones being Puppetmaster/Ninja or Ninja/Puppetmaster with at least Utsusemi: Ichi. This is so that you can have an automaton activated and shadows ready so that you can take a few free hits from the mobs before you activate the macro which is vital to this strategy. Configurations such as Puppetmaster/Red Mage for spells like Blink and healing magic or any job with a Puppetmaster Support Job can also work but are less effective. You must also have a Flashbulb in order to execute this technique. There is no alternative.

Requirements Summary

 * Puppetmaster main job or Support Job.
 * Utsusemi or Blink.
 * An Automaton.
 * A Flashbulb equipped on your automaton.
 * An Animator for maneuvers.

=How it is Done= When you enter the zone, the first thing you will want to do is cast your buffs and activate your automaton. It is vital to keep in mind that in order to perform this technique your automaton must have been activated for one full minute and have completely full HP. If it has not been at least one minute, or your automaton has taken a hit, the macro that is used for this technique will fail, leaving you without the ability to re-activate and therefore unable to perform the macro a second time. This is because:
 * Deactivate will only work when your automaton has been active for at least one minute.
 * Your automaton must have full HP when deactivated in order to be able re-activate it immediately.

Directly to the east of your group will be a path that leads to areas with no Percipient Fish, a little ways north a path leading west will lead to another such area. It is often easier to check these two paths before proceeding out into the open area where the Percipient Fish are located. A lot of times you can locate the correct chest and win without ever needing to deal with the aggressive monsters.

Once you have located a Cursed Chest you need to use a Light Maneuver so that your automaton will be able to Flashbulb it and approach it. If it is not the chest containing the golden figure-head, that means it is a Mimic and it will become a mob and attack you. It is a good idea to let it get its first round of attacks on you/your shadows. At this point, between it's attack rounds and while it is not claimed, you can execute the following macro to neutralize it without having to get your hands dirty.


 * /pet "Deploy" 
 * /wait 1
 * /ja "Deactivate" 

That's all it takes.

The chest will return to it's previous state (temporarily ceasing to be a Mimic) and you can run away from it without being drawn-in or attacked. I have not tested how long the chest will remain like this before it becomes a Mimic again. Since there is no reason to hang around /poking it anyway, it's recommended that you get away from it as quickly as possible.


 * Afterwards you will need to wait at least one minute for the timer on Deactivate to be ready again and you are set to check another chest.

How This Method Works
This macro causes your Automaton to briefly engage the chest just long enough to Flashbulb it, grabbing just enough hate to aggro it without claiming the mob, then deactivateing and releasing all hate entirely. The result is that the chest will return to a green "Cursed Chest" state and you can simply run away from it.

Handling Percipient Fish
You can use the same macro on the Percipient Fish in the zone. But, since Precipient Fish are Notorious Monsters, they will behave like they do when they kill someone and there is no other hate being generated on them by a party member. They will lose all hate and sit there for a moment and then begin to return to the point where they spawned from. It is recommended that if you have to enter the northern area with these fish that you split-up teams and each handle them separately.

Handling Normal Mobs and Links
This technique can be used on normal mobs and links to de-spawn them. When the macro is used on a normal type of mob, they behave like any mob that has just killed a person does. If they have moved far enough from their starting point they will de-spawn. If they are still too close to their spawn location, they return to a docile state unless someone pulls aggro again by the usual methods.

The Risks Involved
The major risk with this technique is that if it doesn't go 100% flawlessly, you will fail. If you do not follow the instructions exactly you will likely end up without your Automaton to help you, get drawn in, and die a pitiful death.
 * You must have a Flashbulb.
 * You must have a Light Maneuver in place.
 * You must wait one minute after using Activate

=Recap/Abridged version=


 * Have Shadows up.
 * Have Light Maneuver up.
 * Use the following Macro:
 * /pet "Deploy" 
 * /wait 1
 * /ja "Deactivate" 
 * Run!
 * Reactivate your automaton.
 * Wait one minute.
 * Lather, rinse, repeat!

=Credits/Disclaimer= As mentioned at the beginning of this article, this is only a guide. If you find that something here is incorrect or has changed since the last date that this article was updated please feel free to leave me a note in the discussion area or send me a /tell on Odin and I will do what I can to investigate and make the necessary corrections.

I would also like to make mention of my friends in the PuppetShow linkshell back on Cerberus. It was these folks who showed me how to use the macro on normal mobs, who worked together to get everyone in the linkshell their Pahluwan Khazagands, which gave me the idea to try the macro out on the chests and lead to the development of this article.

Thanks you guys, I miss you.