This is kind of a “Treasures of Aht Urhgan FAQ” page – a
place with a lot of information that people keep asking about but
doesn’t fit
very well into other pages and is too short for their own guides. The
material
on this page composes the most common questions I hear while
researching the
new expansion. This will be updated and modified as I see new questions
and
hear different answers.
Aht Urhgan is Different
I’ll give the programmers credit on this one. Rise
of the
Zilart and Chains of Promathia seem to tie in smoothly with the rest of
FFXI,
but when you sail off to Al Zahbi the rules seem to change a little and
it
feels like a bit of a different game. It’s not that your abilities or
spells
change (they don’t) or that the tactics to fight monsters are different
(not
really) but there is a pretty big learning curve on figuring out how to
get the
most out of Aht Urhgan and there are many exclusive features to the
area that
don’t work anywhere else. This page attempts to explain at least most
of them.
| Imperial Standing |
| Sanction |
| Imperial
Currency |
| Mog Locker |
| Runic Portals |
Hit points, magic points, points of STR, points of
VIT,
conquest points, weapon skill points, exp points, merit points… this
game sure
has a whole friggin lot of points to keep track of. Well here’s one
more:
Imperial standing points, aka ISPs. ISPs are basically like Conquest
points for
Aht Urhgan areas. You earn them by fighting monsters with sanction on
(see
below), by helping defend the city during a siege, turning in archaic
mirrors,
and by completing a few various quests and missions (such as ToAU
mission 2).
Why do you want Imperial standing points? Like
conquest
points you can use them to buy a number of pretty good things. There
are three
maps (Halvung, Mamook, and Arrapago Reef) that can only be obtained by
trading
1000 ISPs. Each assault run requires someone to buy an armband that
costs 50
ISPs. You can also trade in ISPs for imperial currency (again, below).
And do
various other stuff with them as well. ISPs are another form of
currency in the
ToAU areas and so having a healthy supply of them can get you a number
of
pretty nifty things.
Unfotunately the quests that give ISPs are few and
besieged
events don’t happen all that often. The best way to get ISPs are to
fight a
goodly number of monsters in ToAU areas with sanction on. Each 10 exp
you get
with sanction active gives you 1 ISP. So 1000 requires 10,000 exp. Not
such a
big deal for level 75 players burning up mobs and getting in excess of
14k/hour
(or so I hear) but for everyone who’s not a highly merited level 75
player your
options are more limited. Hey, don’t blame me, I’m just saying.
You earn Conquest points by fighting monsters on
the
conquest map with Signet. Likewise, you earn Imperial standing points
by
fighting monsters on the besieged map with Sanction. Sanction is a
status
effect just like Signet that you can obtain from gate guards after you
have
completed mission 2 and become a mercenary. At the lowest rank, Private
Second
Class, it lasts 3 hours. Grab it before heading out to get some exp.
Sanction quick facts:
- If you have signet on and are fighting in ToAU areas you will gain neither conquest points nor imperial standing points.
- Likewise, if you have sanction on and are fighting in normal non-ToAU areas you will gain neither conquest points nor imperial standing points.
- You cannot have both on at the same time.
- Getting signet from a gate guard overwrites sanction and vice versa. They both have the same icon so you can manually check it if you’re not sure which you have.
- Any equipment that requires signet to function, such as equipment with the “in areas outside own nation’s control”, will not work with sanction.
- This equipment will also not work in ToAU areas at all, regardless of if you have signet or sanction on.
- A signet staff, such as the Republic signet staff, cannot
give someone signet if they already have sanction on.
Imperial Currency
Also exclusive to ToAU areas is Imperial currency, yet another thing you need to worry about when you’re just trying to get stuff done in the
Certain NPCs want Imperial currency for their services rather than gil. For example, in order to get advanced imaging support from an Al Zahbi crafting guild you need to trade them an imperial bronzepiece. Bronzepieces are pretty cheap and common to obtain though it does get a bit tiresome hauling around so many items.
You can trade Imperial standing points for Imperial currency by talking to Ugrihd at (G-9) on the upper level of Aht Urghan Whitegate. Also you can “downgrade” currency by talking to a man in Nashmau. For example, trading him a silverpiece gets you 5 bronzepieces in return.
The main reason everyone is making a big deal about Imperial currency is that you can obtain a very powerful piece of headgear by trading 1000 brozepieces to a certain NPC. To get enough imperial standing to afford those would take a whopping 200,000 exp with sanction on (1000 bronze * 20 ISP for every bronze = 20,000 ISP, 20,000 ISP * 10 exp for every 1 ISP = 200,000 exp if you’re concerned about the math) Of course, those with deep pockets could just buy 20 goldpieces off the auction house (20 gold * 50 bronze for every 1 gold = 1000 bronze) and get the thing today. Your choice.
Mog Locker
Another good reward obtained after completing mission 2 and becoming a mercenary is access to your own mog locker. This is pretty much Al Zahbi-specific storage space. Your locker initially has 30 spaces for storing all your wacky item needs and can be upgraded in size by trading Fubruhn at (F-11) of Aht Urhgan Whitegate (right near the residence) some Imperial currency.
Don’t toss everything in right away though. Shortly after you gain access to the locker you lose it again. In order to renew your lease on the locker you need to trade Fubruhn a bronzepiece. Doing so lets you access your locker for exactly 7 days, after which time you’ll need to give him another bronzepiece. In the time you don’t have access to your locker you simply can’t open your storage but all your items stay where they are, similar to trying to open your storage from Jeuno.
A bronzepiece every week may seem expensive but it’s really not. Considering missions 6, 7, and 8 get you 10 bronze and 2 silver, and 2 silver = 10 more bronze,
just by doing cutscene missions you get 20 bronzepieces, enough to support your locker for 20 weeks. And that’s without buying any off the AH (they’re cheap) or trading in ISPs for them. So don’t sweat it and take advantage of the space.
Runic Portals
Scattered throughout the dangerous wildernesses are small areas controlled by the Empire called Staging Areas. These are linked with Al Zahbi through a system of Runic Portals. You can travel from the Staging Areas to Al Zahbi for free whenever you want. Doing so the first “attunes” yourself to the portal so that you can make the return trip (from the Chamber of passage in Aht Urhgan Whitegate) out into the wilderness whenever you need to. It’s a glorified version of supply runs and outpost warps.
When you do an assault run and obtain the orders for a specific assault you are allowed to use the Runic Portal in Whitegate to teleport out to the staging area near the assault area you’re about to enter for free. However, you are not allowed to leave the Staging Area, slacker, so get on that assault mission.
If you want to teleport out without doing an assault (such as to go to an exp party near a staging area) you must by a pass from a tarutaru named Sharin-Garin at (L-8) in Aht Urhgan Whitegate. Buying the pass and using the portal costs 200 Imperial standing points (are you seeing how useful these things are yet?) and is a one-shot trip so you need to buy another for another trip out of the city. But using the portals to return is, as I said, always free and doesn’t requite a pass.
You can only buy passes to and do assaults at staging areas you’ve actually physically visited by finding them in the wildnerness the hard way and “attuning” yourself to the portal by returning to the city. By completing mission 2 you got one of the five (if you followed my recommendation it was the Azouph Isle Staging Point in Caedarva Mire) and that will be the only place you are allowed to go at the start. If you’re interested in assaults or exp parties in the new areas I’d recommend tracking the other four down. I will post guide maps and hints on getting to them all alive on the individual assault pages eventually.
(back to the main page)