Talk: Sugar-coated Directive

Recieved a 50000gil reward for tagging all 6 protocrystals.

Beat the living crap outta Shiva, although something interesting happened: She got to 1% and stayed there through three rounds of combat. After her sixth Diamond Dust, she was suddenly vulnerable again. This may be a glitch, or a point of the fight. More research later. --Baroness 04:49, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

This is part of the fight sequence. I don't know why, but the avatars seem to use the 2-hour ability at HP percentage intervals, not per TP gain as the guide suggests. I've found that they use it at 80%, 60%, 50%, 20% and 1%. The one that it charges at 1% MUST go off before the battle ends. In other words, even if you killed the avatar, it will remain at 1% and invulnerable until that last ability goes off (it seems to take a longer charge than the others, I'm not sure why). --Ameliadycehart 12:58, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

Not completely true; I soloed this on pld/dnc and a properly-timed Shield Bash will stop the final AF from going off. It does take longer to charge, but its still a joke, even if it lands.Lyall 14:46, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

Had an upsetting occurrence, I got only 3k after doing all six fights. The only reason I can figure for this was that I did three one day, got tired, and did the other three the next. Do the counterseals disappear at jp midnight or something? If so, that should probably be on the page somewhere. --VonCrown 02:45, June 6, 2010 (UTC)

Testimonials and Strategies[]

Very easy solo as 70PUP/DNC with EVA setup. Avatars missed most of the time, rarely hitting for 60~80 damage (plus 6-30 or so with enspells). Raos 09:42, December 28, 2009 (UTC)

Very easy solo on both 75PLD/NIN and 75PLD/WHM. I solo'ed 3 on /NIN and 3 on /WHM. Of the two, /WHM is recommended since the Blood Pacts wipe all 3 shadows and deal direct damage, whereas Stoneskin and the corresponding Bar spell fully mitigated the damage.

very easy solo as MNK75/RDM37, the 5 "2hr blood pact" barely break my stoneskin, almost never hit me on regular mele attack. took 3mins including buffes --Mira el dito 15:35, November 15, 2009 (UTC)
- Indeed lol. Just did Leviathan on Watersday as MNK/RDM. No buffs other than Stoneskin, which was broken through on final AF, took 54DMG total =D --Brewtus 14:47, February 21, 2010 (UTC)

I've done 2 of the 6 fights and have been able to solo easily on my 75SCH/37RDM. I've done Garuda and Titan so far and will be doing the rest later on. --Demonicpagan 09:37, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

Soloed Shiva as 75DRG/WHM, very easy fight. With stoneskin, blink, and barblizzara I only took 30 damage the whole fight. --NiteIce 01:05, November 11, 2009 (UTC)

Soloed Shiva, Garuda, Titan and Ramuh with extreme ease as WHM71/WAR35. Didn't bother with Ifrit and Leviathan because they're a pain to get to. Each fight, I only needed to reapply stoneskin halfway. Barspells up and just beat them up with Club or Staff. --Tamtu 01:44, November 11, 2009 (UTC)

Soloed All 6 as 75BLM/37RDM Taru. I was scared at first, but they are literally all pansies. just buff up, pro/shell blink/stoneskin/phalanx and maybe elemental spikes if you want. you should be able to take them out with a few Tier IVs, AM2 and maybe AgaIIIs, each cast should knock off about a quarter unless your doing a certain avatar on a certain day (Doing Leviathan, casting thunder on earthsday). Even if you run out of MP.. you should be able to melee them the rest of the way down if you want --Seanross

Trivial solo of all 6 for SMN75. Recommend not using Avatar's Favor since it decreases attack strength. Never ran out of MP even when I equipped attack gear over perpetuation cost reduction.

Soloed Ifrit as COR75/NIN37 using Corsair's Scimitar, Ermine's Tail and shooting with a Silver Cassandra. Standard gear, used Dnc Roll just for the sake of staying healthy. Put shadows up twice, but took Ifrit a few goes to drop them, plus a few more to land it's first attack. TP move was a pain but Slug shot hit for 1299, taking away the majority of his health. Pretty trvial, fun really! --Takun 02:07, November 13, 2009

Soloed all the Primes as SAM/BLM. Blood Pacts did no more than 50 Damage. Very Very easy fight.

Piece of cake as SCH75/RDM37 Taru. 1st battle I was scared as well, super buffed me, charged sublimation full and so, just to notice I finished the avatar really quickly. Even Shiva was too easy on Iceday. Just go, Light Arts > Protect/Shell/Stoneskin > Rest > Bar-element/Weather > Dark Arts > Add:Black > Ebullience > nuke Tier IV and Helix, rinse and repeat. Stoneskin wore off very rarely and even Ifrit's Inferno did 0 damage at the end with no stoneskin. Never cured me and never ran out of MP. Most of the time avatars died because of helix just after they did their very last Astral Flow LOL --Karakuri 07:18, November 17, 2009 (UTC)

75 RDM/BLM, solo'd using regular buffs. Melee'd with enspell. Most avatars didn't even break stoneskin. Radhaz 04:18, November 20, 2009 (UTC)

Just did Leviathan as DNC75/RDM37 and took a grand total of 60 damage when his last Tidal Wave destroyed the only Stoneskin I put up. MlrlOhki 01:20, November 22 2009 (MST)

Soloed Titan as 75BLM/RDM due to its weakness to Wind leading to a weakness to Gravity. Used Normal buffs and Barstone, Tried to sleep but each one resisted, even Elemental Seal > Sleepga II was resisted! Had to eventually Manafont due to the lack of MP. Spammed Gravity, Aero IV and Aeroga III. --Kurosen 02:30, November 27, 2009 (UTC)
- Soloed the other 5 Avatars today, Brought a Pro-Ether+1 with me to each fight, casted till I couldn't cast anymore and then auto-attacked with the Enspell of its weakness for the remainder of the fight --Kurosen 06:38, November 29, 2009 (UTC)

To emphasize just how easy these fights are: Solo'd Garuda as WHM75/BLM37 using prot/shell/haste/one stoneskin and a meat mithkabob, while taking no action other than putting Dia II and Paralyze on the avatar, then auto-attacking. Went to the kitchen to make something to eat. When I returned a few minutes later I had won and was down about 500hp. --Jackanape 07:58, December 4, 2009 (UTC)

Soloed them as a 71SCH/RDM34 quite easily. Helix spells of the opposing element work quite well on these fights too. Akeda 04:56, January 15, 2010 (UTC)

These fights are extremely easy at 75, all were done solo pretty much effortlessly. I did Shiva first, as DNC75/NIN37. I went in expecting something at least slightly challenging, but was disappointed in that respect. With uncapped evasion (231) +21 from gear, Shiva never broke through my first 3 shadows with melee attacks. I simply cast Utsusemi, put up Saber Dance, and put out a few steps for Finishing Moves, so I could stun her Astral Flows. I ended up stunning all but one (due to her using two in a row after Dancing Edge). The one that got through landed for a whole 199 damage, on a neutral day, with my -27 Ice Resistance (From Scorpion Harness and Spectacles.

After this fight, I did four of the others as DNC75/BLM21 for the free warp afterwards, and still won easily. Never used a Samba or Waltz, just put up Saber Dance, used Dancing Edge at 100% TP, and watched them die. Didn't even bother stunning Astral Flows on the others. For the 6th I went /NIN again, but only because it was my first time to the Cloister of Tides, and I needed to get the Paintbrush of Souls for access. Ramuh was the only one to ever drop my HP below 50%, which he barely managed on his final Judgment Bolt (He had higher melee accuracy than the other avatars, which I assume is due to DEX being associated with Thunder). Overall, Astral Flow damage was unimpressive, as none of the others broke Shiva's 199 (which was only that high thanks to my -27 Ice Resistance). Their melee attacks could do some decent damage to someone without good evasion (mainly thanks to their enspell damage), but I don't see many 75s having any problem with these fights. Considering how quickly my daggers were bringing down their HP, I wouldn't be surprised if mages could melee these things to death. --Siluvaine 20:24, March 19, 2010 (UTC)

Soloed them with DNC75/NIN37 pretty easy fights. I went in one of this fight (Titan) with BLM66/WHM33 and I did it even with laughtable equip XD. Darkpearl 14:46, April 1, 2010 (UTC)

Soloed easily with SCH70/RDM. -Trauts 07:59, July 23, 2010 (UTC)

Strategies[]

The avatars' damage resistances are significantly less potent than those fought in the "Trial By..." quests. Physical attacks do much closer to "normal" damage, and elemental damage attacks not corresponding to an avatar's weakness will only have damaged reduced by half instead of being fully resisted.
- Additionally, these avatars are not immune to enfeebles that do not correspond with their weak element, like the "Trial By..." avatars are. However, they are still immune to enfeebles corresponding with their own element. For instance, Titan still cannot be slowed. Their resistances are actually rather low with support job enfeebles sticking quite well.
The avatars will automatically use their Astral Flow ability upon reaching 80, 60, 40, 20, and 1% HP, regardless of their TP. (Each usage will still consume the avatar's TP)
- Dropping an avatars HP from 100 down to 20% in 2 weaponskills will result in the avatar using its 2 hour 4 times in a row (once for 80% 60% 40% and 20% HP).
- If the avatar is allowed to accumulate enough TP before reaching one of the above percentages of HP, it may use it on a different Blood Pact ability. Astral Flow attack usage is determined solely by their remaining HP, not TP.
The avatar must attempt to use its Astral Flow attack 5 times before it will be defeated. Even if it is brought down to 1% HP faster than it can use its preceding Astral Flow attacks, it will pause at 1% until it has attempted 5 usages of the attack. It should be noted that the avatar only has to ATTEMPT the attack: Stunning the move still counts as a use.
The Astral Flow attacks used by these avatars are easily resisted by level 75 characters hitting for about 10 DMG~ over 80% of the time.
- The avatar's 5th Astral Flow attack has a much longer readying time than normal.
Soloable easily by generally any level 75 job given a standard melee/solo build.

Soloable by 70+WHM/BLM

You can join in on the fights provided someone in the party has the mission and starts the BC.
Any gear will do HQ staves and Vermillion cloak very easy fights.

Soloable by 62SMN/BLM

With Ramuh just entered used Titan and let it fight
Judgement Bolt did 20~dmg on titan
very easy fight, not even wasted half my mp

Notes[]

All Avatars spam their Astral Flow ability throughout the fight, though it is considerably weak.
Unlike primes fought during the Trial quests, physical attacks seem to be more effective than magical ones.
Garuda uses Aerial Blast repeatedly but did ~100 damage to a 75 BLU/NIN
The Avatars do use some of their normal blood pacts such as Crimson Howl, but with the low frequency, possibly TP based.
400 Experience/Limit points gained for winning battlefield with the mission flagged.
It may also be noted that if you're doing all the battles, you can collect the elemental stones for the quest The Wondrous Whatchamacallit while at the protocrystals.

Gil Reward[]

10k for tagging 4 crystals. I'm guessing its 25k for tagging 5.Lyall 14:46, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

I got 30k for 5 crystals. Tye 00:28, November 11, 2009 (UTC)

A linkshell friend of mine got 3k for 6 crystals. JMorgan 13:12, November 11, 2009 (UTC)

50k for all 6 crystals soloing --Kurosen 02:09, December 2, 2009 (UTC)

10k for soloing 5 crystals Cutter0000 23:13, December 2, 2009 (UTC)

This needs further investigating but i believe its based on both how many you do and the time taken to win. Seeing as how the avatars are extremely weak, going in with 6 full attack the avatar should be dead in less than a minute. Maybe it adds the tally of all the wins and puts it into a bracket for reward. This is by no means confirmed but just a suggestion. Chaosprime 11:30, November 12, 2009 (UTC)

Did all six crystals as 75WHM/37BLM, taking 4-5 minutes for each battle, still got 50k. --Nyagchilios 08:20, December 13, 2009 (UTC)

50k - solo'ed all 6 on PLD/NIN-/WHM (see above). Took about 4-5 minutes each fight. Perhaps the gil reward is based on number of crystals, time per fight, and number of people per battle?

Helping Others[]

Despite having done the BC before, was able to help another party win this BC. Do not know if someone who has not done the BC before can re-enter the BC this way. Asphe 23:57, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

I had a friend assist with one of the fights who had not even started the missions. --NiteIce 07:29, November 13, 2009 (UTC)

As with the other two add-ons, any player can help with the fights even if they don't have the addon, much less have that particular mission done. Tahngarthor^{talk-contribs} 23:18, December 21, 2009 (UTC)

Blood Pacts[]

The Avatars may use other Blood Pacts, outside their 2h ability. For example, I have seen Garuda use Whispering Wind. Proof : [1] Soily 23:58, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

Soloing as SMN[]

I went into this fight as a 75 SMN. I had the usual equip YY etc but i also had Blue Cape+1. Used Protect 2, Shell 2, Stoneskin, Blink and the relevant barspell. Called Carby and off i went. I sent carby on the avatar (Titan, Garuda and Leviathan) and he did on average 120-140 damage per hit. Meteor Strike did 240ish damage. The Avatar 2 hour was constantly hitting me for 0 damage with my current buffs up. Fight lasted 3-4 minutes each seeing as i wasnt taking any damage with the elemental defense being at near 70 i decided to melee along with carby xD

Very easy fight to solo and others shouldnt be intimidated by this quest. ESPECIALLY if you a SMN 75 --Chaosprime 11:26, November 12, 2009 (UTC)

Title change[]

I'll / my hand for the name change to "Sugar-coated Directive". That is how it is listed in our mission log. --Pyerzuka 16:50, November 24, 2009 (UTC)

That's done. --User:Charitwo/Sig 20:54, November 24, 2009 (UTC)

Immune to sleep?[]

I just soloed Titan and SleepII/SleepgaII Never hit once, could they be immune? more testing needs to be done --Kurosen 02:32, November 27, 2009 (UTC)

Approximate 2hr Damage & Overall Difficulty Level[]

Just so people know, while the Astral Flow x5 part sounds intimidating, it doesn't do anywhere near as much damage as regular 2hrs. After fighting all 6 avatars on 75THF/BLM with 5 2hrs each, I only saw 1 unresisted 2hr land for 160~, about 80-90% of the time the Avatar's 2hr landed for 10~ damage. The Avatars also went down so quickly that after the first 2hr, it didn't do much but spam the other 4 2hrs since it's HP dropped 20% faster than it could activate it's 2hr. This should be a really easy fight for any level 75 character (probably any naked 75 melee given they equip a weapon with at least F skill proficiency). Most fights ended in White or High Yellow HP with no attempts to heal.

Interesting tidbit[]

Just did all avatars. Followed each sugar-coated directive fight immediately with the real prime (the trial by XXX fights). Leviathan and Ifrit skipped the cutscenes for the trial fights, but Garuda, Titan, Ramuh, and Shiva didn't. I'm referring to the "Who disturbs my slumber?" cutscene. Anyone else have this happen? Aok1313 01:30, February 19, 2010 (UTC)

I had this happen the other day just going into the normal prime fight, no ASA fight (I dont have it yet ; ;), it happened for Ifrit and Levi too lol --Taruzard 19:17, March 21, 2010 (UTC)

Repeatable?[]

What are the conditions that allow you to repeat this mission? Do you have to make a new Enfeebling kit of X, wait a day, or something else entirely? Or is it "repeatable" simply because you can help someone else do the mission so long as someone else needs it? Dracoth 16:04, March 20, 2010 (UTC)

Answer found. Talk to Squintrox Dryeyes, and he'll give you a new set of seals. Thinking about adding something on the main page. Dracoth 23:14, March 20, 2010 (UTC)

To be specific, request a Bird key from Dryeyes to receive the seals.