The Black Coffin

Mission Name	15 - The Black Coffin
Locations	Caedarva Mire, Arrapago Reef, the Ashu Talif
Estimated Time	About an hour
Special Items:	Key item: Ephramadian Gold Coin for every attempt
Difficulty:	Easy. The enemies are very weak.
Medicines Needed:	Oils / powders if you can't sneak / invis across the mire
Recomended Jobs:	Jobs that do damage very quickly, such as BLU, excel against these weak enemies
Brief synopsis:	Defeat two waves of easy mobs and one slightly stronger captain

This is your first ToAU BCNM. It’s very easy for a party of 75s and will make you start wondering of ToAU has any challenges. It does. Not quite yet though. Still, it would be embarrassing to lose to this fight, so read up and prepare for what’s to come.

First things first; you actually have to get to the Cutter. Yeah, Cutter. I know it’s a little ship, but still, emo. Anyway, like is hinted in the mission description in the log, the Cutter is to the west of Dvuuca Isle. There are three ways to get there, depending on what staging points you have available. Keep in mind that all three will require sneak and invisible.

The fastest way: take the Dvucca Isle staging point to Caedarva Mire. Head southwest across the mire into a tunnel at (H-10) then keep going west to the zone line at (G-9) into the Arrapago Reef. Head north until you see the little ship - that’s the Cutter.

The safest way: take the Nyzul Isle staging point to the undersea ruins. Take the northwest portal of the four at (G-8). You appear on another map - take the pad on the right. You’ll appear on a third map (yeah, the ruins can be somewhat labyrinthine if you’re not familiar with them). Head straight out to zone into the Mire. Head south and you’ll zone into Arrapago Reef, and continue south to the Cutter.

The “I haven’t gotten either of those staging points yet” way: get to Nashmau however you’d like and zone into the Mire through the west gate into the area where you fought Jazaraat. Go directly west from Nashmau and you’ll find an entrance into the undersea ruins. Pay the BLU a Silver Piece and travel through the ruins (this part is a single path, so no forks) and zone back into Caedarva Mire. You’ll be in the part of the mire described in the Dvucca Isle part above. Head west to the Reef zone line at (G-9) and north to the Cutter.

I can almost guarantee someone out of any given group of six will want to do that third way and will need to take the ship. In any event, gather up at the Cutter.

Zone	NPC Name	Location	Other
Arrapago Reef	Cutter	(H-8)	doesn't lead into battle

The cutscene will try to trick you into thinking you’re starting the battle; don’t let it freak you out. You do need to check it once before you can enter the fight.

Speaking of, let’s talk about the fight itself. You will face two waves of 5 enemies each - all fomors. They use the basic fomor moves but nothing terribly threatening. The first wave consists of five “Ashu Talif Crew” mobs. The second is four “Ashu Talif Crew”s and a single “Ashu Talif Captain”. The second wave spawns immediately after the first five are killed. The good news is that all but the captain are total wusses that will go down under only a little bit of firepower. All of them can be slept except the captain, though they resist occasionally.

Gessho, a Yagudo ninja NPC, will assist you in this battlefield and pick his targets at random. He does decent damage and you can cure and haste and protect him and stuff. He will engage when you do, unless you take a very long time, in which he’ll attack on his own. I honestly have no idea what happens if he’s defeated. It really has never come down to that on any of the runs I went on.

There’s two basic approaches to this battle:

Have the tank aggro all five and have every capable melee solo a crew member while the tank holds off the remainder.
Have the tank aggro all five and sleepga them (or just heal the tank a lot), then assist Gessho in whatever target he picks and pick them off one by one.

The second method is “safer” in a sense, but the crew members are so weak that it barely matters. I’ve done it both ways and both were easy enough victories.

In the second wave you have to deal with the captain and he can hurt a bit. Eliminate the crew members swiftly using either above method and then focus on the captain. He has one decent move, Vulcan Shot, an AoE damage move. Get him to low HP and the battle ends.

Strategy tips:

The crew members are all very weak. Any 75 melee worth their salt can solo one with ease. A blue mage can cut them down in seconds.
The crew members resist lullaby rampantly. They can be slept with dark-based sleepgas but can occasionally resist.
Take slightly more care with the captain, as his Vulcan Shot can hurt.
If you lose the fight or if you want to help someone, you need another coin from the gravestone in mission 13. Jazaraat won’t spawn again.

Low-manning the Black Coffin

I’ve never heard of anyone trying to low-man this. The fight is fun and its essentially an assured victory so it rarely comes down to people needing to go without a full party. I don’t want to speak beyond my experience, but if you did want to low-man it, a PLD, RDM with phalanx II, and two DDs might be able to do it. Supertank the fomors while the DDs and Gessho pick them off.

A cutscene will begin when the Captain’s at 20%. At the end of the cutscene you’ll be dropped in Nashmau.

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