Introduced in Seekers of Adoulin, the Delve battle system contains some of the most difficult battles that Vana'diel has ever seen. The primary rewards from Delve, however, are the best equipment obtainable for their uses by far. Delve is a multi-layered system that consists of farming pop and entry items, defeating individual notorious monsters with no time limit in field battles, and defeating multiple normal and notorious monsters in an instanced area known as a Fracture which culminates in a terrifying boss battle.
Getting Started
Eligibility Requirements
In order to participate in Delve Fractures, players must satisfy the following:
Seekers of Adoulin expansion pack installed and registered 3-18 alliance members at level 95 or above Alliance leader must possess a Yantric planchette key item
Field battles have no requirement other than access to the areas (Seekers of Adoulin installed and registered).
Delve Areas
Field-based delve battles take place in outdoor areas which correspond with the locations of the seven Naakuals. Event-related items involved in each area are distinguished with the color corresponding with the element of that area's Naakual. Delve Fractures take place in Cirdas Caverns (U), and are entered at Veils located in each field area. All players in the alliance and anywhere in the entry field zone will be taken into the Fracture instance upon entry.
Morimar Basalt Fields: Alizarin - Veil: (I-5) nearest to Bivouac #2. Foret de Hennetiel: Zaffre - Veil: (E-7) nearest to Bivouac #4, must cross a fallen Reive tree. Ceizak Battlegrounds: Celadon - Veil: (H-8) nearest to Bivouac #1
Progression
Each area is considered a separate path and has progression independent from the others. Within each delve area there are two levels of combat: Notorious Monster Combat and Boss Combat. In order to progress to Boss Combat, a group must defeat all five unique notorious monsters either outside in the Field or inside a Fracture.
Each of the 15 notorious monsters has a unique characteristic which can be exploited resulting in a faster and/or easier win (reference individual NM pages for details). The notorious monsters are divided into two difficulty tiers: NMs I-III make up the lower difficulty tier while NMs IV and V make up the higher difficulty tier in each area. Each area and tier has a corresponding key item which is automatically obtained after defeating any one of the associated NMs and allows the holder to use Mweya Plasm to purchase any equipment item which the associated NMs can drop.
Rewards
See : Delve Rewards
The reward structure in Delve is unique in that all equipment can be obtained in two ways: either a direct drop from notorious monsters/bosses or purchased with Mweya Plasm which can be collected in various ways as long as a notorious monster which can drop the item has been defeated at least once. Additionally, the three primary sets of Delve armor can be diversified and upgraded in stages through a set augmentation system by utilizing Airlixirs, also obtained through Delve.