Seagull Grounded - Private Second Class

Requiem - Private First Class

Saving Private Ryaaf - Superior Private

Shooting Down the Baron - Lance Corporal

Building Bridges - Corporal

Stop the Bloodshed – Sergeant

Seagull Grounded – Private Second Class
Time limit: 30 minutes


This is the first of the “escort the NPC” missions. You have to get the NPC Excaliace from the north of the map to the far south. You cannot issue any orders to him but can sort of influence how he moves, and if he sees monsters he will attempt to escape. You must clear them out of his way to get him to proceed on his path.

This mission is kind of a pain, and since many people spam private second class missions for assault points, this quickly turns people off from Periqia. Luck plays a large part between you finishing with time to spare or very close to the wire.

Excaliace is waiting for you. The first person to approach him will have pseudo-control. This person will be keeping an eye on him the whole mission. Keeping him under tabs requires a bit of finesse (and likely a THF or /THF subjob to catch him at times.) The following table is a list of how he operates:

Excalance's Action	Your reaction
Excaliace is moving forward	stay close behind him
Excaliace is at a crossroads	keep close to him and face him
Excaliace complains about your garlic breath	back off from him a bit and he will move again
Excaliace gets too close to monsters (claimed or not)	he will flee to the exit – catch him!
The escorting player gets too far from Excaliace	he will flee to the exit – catch him!

You can catch him by getting in front of him and making sure to face him. Eventually he will calm down and resume his path. If you fail to catch him before he gets all the way back to the beginning, it’s game over. Don’t be afraid to use flee if it ain’t looking good on catching him.


At the first three crossroads Excaliace will pause before choosing left or right. One of the rooms has three crabs, the other has no monsters. Which way he will go is random. If you get lucky and he picks an empty room, the escorter keeps with him while the rest of the party moves on to the next set. If he picks a monster room, unless the party is exceptionally good at pulling all three crabs to the side, he will see a crab and take off running. If caught he’ll return to that same room so you’ll have to clear the room of mobs to proceed.

There are three sets of rooms like this, so you’ll likely have to fight 1 or 2 sets of crabs before moving on.

In the southern caves there are Periqia Pugils and Debauchers (doomed). Excaliace’s path again is random. Try to get in front of him and pull the mobs out from his path, though again it’s quite likely he will see one, flip out, and run off again. The pugils are considerably more threatening than the rather squishy doomed mobs.


Before going down the last straight tunnel to the south, he’ll pause again. Use this time to pull the last doomed mob in the final room all the way to the southeast corner. Excaliace will enter the room and won’t see it and the rune of release will spawn – mission complete.

Strategy tips:

• The person escorting Excaliace has the thankless but vital job of not letting him get away. This is a noncombat position so put your weakest member here. Maybe someone that’s done this assault before. THF sub is very useful.
• Excaliace seeing a mob and running isn’t the end of the mission. Just be sure to catch up with him.
• Try to pull as many mobs as possible out of the main path since it only takes one for Excaliace to freak out.
• Don’t get spread too thin dealing with the southern pugils. Pugils in general are nasty mobs.
• Sleeping the mobs isn’t reliable – they’re resistant and build further resistance. You’ll have to kill most of them.

Job-specific tips:

• THF or /THF – makes a good escorting job. Excaliace may get ahead of you: flee could be vital in ensuring he doesn’t escape and the assault end in failure.

 
 


Requiem – Private First Class
Time limit: 30 minutes


A straightforward kill-em’-all assault made somewhat complicated by the fact you’re fighting undead with their usual AoE HP drain moves. You have 18 mobs to fight total, plus a few wyverns. Time will likely be a bit tight as you try to defeat them all.

This mission was my melee WHM’s rare day in the sun. I get so few chances to use some of my toys, but between my Prudence Rod on skeletons and Cleric’s Mitts enchancing banish on the ghosts, I took a few steps forward and switched from passive healer to all-out damage machine!

Roughly half the mobs are to the north and half to the south, but keep your party together for faster kills. Gates block off part of the map but there are no mobs past them so don’t worry about it.

ToAU skeletons are kind of annoying. As if blood saber wasn’t enough, they have Malediction, which is an AoE life drain move that can steal up to 200+ from all party members. Some of the skeletons can also summon a wyvern which must also be killed.

Strategy tips:

• Treat this largely like an old King Ranperre’s Tomb party. Blunt weapons like clubs and monk knuckles quickly destroy the skeletson.
• The Banish spell can remove ghosts’s natural resistance to melee attacks, doubling your damage to them for a time.
• As always, if you’re low on time send someone to the rune location to pop it after the final mob is defeated.

Since the mobs are grouped and there aren’t many places for them to hide, widescan isn’t necessary. But it doesn’t hurt.

Job-specifc tips:

• MNK – the workhorse of the old KRT parties will be a great asset here.
• WHM – with NIN sub and a good DD setup, a WHM can beat up skeletons and banish ghosts, making this one of the few missions where WHM DD is not only tolerable but outright recommended. Just don’t let the party die – you’ll need curagas often to fight the AoE drain moves.

 


Saving Private Ryaaf – Superior Private
Time limit: 30 minutes


This is sort of a luck-based assault, but you can hedge the odds a bit with some preparation. You need to locate three NPCs: Ryaaf and two others. There are five prison rooms – three contain the NPCs you want and the other two a rather strong fomor.

Teehee at the name. I’ve always loved FFXI’s rampant puns.

The five prison rooms are the large ones at the four compass directions and the center. Patrolling between them are true-sight Experimental Undead – rather strong fomors that appear to be all bards. If you get aggro from one of those goons you can kill it or just run away. Even without movement enhancing gear you can lose hate on a following Experimental Undead if you keep moving.

Guarding the entrance to each room are three Cursed Chigoes. Like all Chigoes they hit absurdly fast, but like all chigoes a single critical hit or weaponskill will defeat them instantly. I recommend all melees using weapons with area of effect weaponskills and build TP, the person use their AoE WS to destroy the chigoes while the others save TP for the next room.

Inside is a mysterious hunched over figure. If it’s facing to the EAST it’s a fomor, with the exception of the east room. So go to the east room last and don’t approach any east-facing figures in any of the other rooms. But if it isn’t facing east approach it and it will reveal itself to be an NPC. And then warp away. Which JUST BEGS THE QUESTION why they didn’t warp away to begin with! Well, whatever.


Despite the name, you have to save all three NPCs, not just Ryaaf. Once the third one flees to safety your objectives are complete.

Strategy tips:

• Avoid the Experimental Undead if possible, but if you aggro one, just run away. Eventually it will lose hate on you.
• Gather the three Cursed Chigoes in each prison room and use AoE weapon skills to smite them all in one move.
• Don’t approach any east-facing figures in the prison rooms, except in the east room itself. If you see an east-facing figure it’s a fomor; that means your NPCs are elsewhere and you should move on. Because the prisoner and the fomor both face east in the east room, go to this room last.

Job-Specific tips:

• SAM – its all you, boys. Meditate up and let loose an AoE weapon skill to get rid of the only enemies in the mission you’ll need to fight singlehandedly. Even considering poor luck on finding the NPCs and Meditate’s 3-minute timer, a single SAM could probably solo this mission with Seigan and Third Eye.

Shooting Down the Baron – Lance Corporal
Time limit: 15 minutes


Periquia’s boss fight is against an Imp named the Black Baron. This fight plays out sort of similar to the SP Mamool Ja Sagelord Elimination mission: periodically the Baron will warp away and you’ll have to deal with aggro pugils in the area, but it’s generally less annoying than Sagelord.

The first thing you should notice is the 15 minute time limit. Thankfully the Baron isn’t too strong and it’s a small map. But, even so, move quickly. The Baron spawns at a random point and cannot be seen in widescan, so split up as much as you dare. Generally it’s probably a good idea to send someone with sleep along with someone that can voke in each split-up group.

Once you’ve found the Baron, engage at will! He doesn’t have too much HP and has only the usual imp moves, but they’re FREAKING ANNOYING moves. Sleepga, silencega, amnes…ga… or something. I hate imps. Periodically, The Black Baron will teleport away and respawn at a different point on the map. He did this for my group twice. While unclaimed he does not regen HP.

Split up again, re-locate the Baron, and continue the fight. Try to aggro as few Periqia Pugils as possible, but they sleep easily with a decent enfeebling build.

As time will almost certainly be short near the end, sending a non-vital party member to the rune’s start location may be a good idea. Preferably someone with sleep since they’ll be running and almost certainly pick up a pugil or two.

Stratey tips:

• Black Baron’s start location is random. He won’t appear on widescan so you’ll have to split up to save time.
• The Black Baron will occasionally teleport to a random location on the map. Expect this about twice.
• Avoid the Periqia Pugils if possible and sleep them if not.
• I shouldn’t even have to mention it, but bring about half a stack of echo drops to counter the Black Baron’s Deafening Tantara move.

Building Bridges – Corporal
Time limit: 15 minutes

Picture a marriage of the Mammol Ja Breaking Morale and the Lebros Cavern Evade and Escape and you get this assault. You need to hit four switches (in any order and not in coordination with anyone else, unlike Evade and Escape) while dodging true sight NPC monsters. Once again there is no combat so movement enhancing gear / jobs and jobs with radar excel here.

The lamia roaming the area can see you from a fair distance away, but they need to be quite close in order to capture you and send you back to the starting point. You get a message when you’ve been seen so that’s the time to run. You can shake detection by getting far ahead or if enough time passes. The main danger from the lamia is being ambushed around a blind corner or getting sandwiched between two. This is where monster radar comes in handy. Remember that they are true sight, not sound, so you can sneak behind them if you’re crafty.


The first map is empty in the south so head immediately to the north. There are four switches at the four compass direction large rooms of the second map with the rune spawning in the middle. As stated, it doesn’t matter when you hit the four switches - just hit them! Even if it means getting captured, make a run for it.

The middle room where the rune spawns is probably the hardest since so many lamia patrol around there - it’s easy to get caught between two that haven’t even seen you but are heading together with you in the middle. Remember that getting seen isn’t the end if you can run away.

To complete this assault with a small group in 15 minutes is rather difficult and is heavily based on luck of lamia movements. This is one of the ones you want a larger group with. Fan out and use the buddy system to get to switches - one person can round up a lot of lamias while the second person makes a run through the cleared area to the switch or rune in the center.

Stratey tips:

• Do everything possible not to be seen by the lamias, but if you can't avoid it, run! You can lose aggro with persistance as long as they don't get too close to you.
• It can be uesful to have one member distract the lamias while another person sneaks into a room to hit the switch.
• Oddly enough, getting to the rune is the hardest part of this assault. Work as a team - send one or two people to distract the many lamias that roam all around the area.
  

Stop the Bloodshed – Sergeant
Time limit: 30 minutes

Killing chigoes is satisfying and this assault is all about killing chigoes. There’s a bunch of the little buggers on this map - your goal is to kill at least 35 of them.

A single critical hit or weaponskill will kill a chigoe. These chigoes are even easier because critical hit rate seems to be enchanced. It is utterly overkill for two melees to engage a single chigoe since they’ll likely be dead within mere seconds. Fan out in rooms and engage them all. Be sure to look in odd corners, down blind dead ends, under cages, and generally in places you don’t normally walk through.

There’s two sticky points with this assault. One is the Lamia Breeders, the typical assault mobs you don’t need to kill. These things are high level BLMs with a lot of MP and the usual BLM dangerous spells of sleepga and high-level damage magic. If you aggro a Breeder, and at times it is hard not to, you can either kite it around until you die and then RR up or engage it as a party. Be wary - they are quite strong and repop fast.

The second is that the chigoes are untraceable with widescan or monster radar. There’s a lot of them, more than the 35 you need to win, but it’s possible you may miss a few here and there and, having explored the map, be baffled where to find more. They spawn all over the place - in dead end rooms, in caverns, even in the main open areas where the lamis roam. They DON’T spawn over on the other side of the broken bridge that you can’t cross, so don’t freak trying to get there.

Once you kill at least 35 the Rune spawns near the broken bridge up top. Killing extra gets you more points, but if the lamias are on your case you’ll probably want to make a hasty exit.

Strategy tips:

• Look everywhere for chigoes. Explore every nook and cranny of the tight tunnels, upper platforms in the storage rooms, and the aeras the Breeders roam. They move a little, but not a lot.
• The Lamia Breeders are hard fights and can't be slept. Don't try to solo them - either take them with at least three people or run like heck.
  

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Information in part referenced from FFXIcyclopedia