A guide to soloing Tsukikazu Armor (seriously!)Follow

NECROPOST! YAR!!! This is a guide I wrote for last year's feast of swords event. Back then you had to deal the final blow to get any drops- so the competition was fierce. The problem has been resolved this year by allowing any near by players to simply trade their katana to a ??? that spawns to get items. The reason I'm necroposting this is because eventually the event will die down, and all the late comers will be forced to try to solo these armors. I'm going to leave the guide unchanged as the general rules still apply. Enjoy!

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Ok if you're crazy (like me) and you want to try soloing the Tsukikazu Armors that are running around (some are called by other names) here is how:

1) Buy your gear: You need at least SOME level 1 gear. Dream Robe +1 is nice because it enhances selbina milk effect. I have one but completely forgot and wore my aketon. So this is proof you can beat one even w/o the robe.

2) Buy your food. You'll need a few stacks of selbina milk and some sort of pie (melon are nice and go for 3-4k a stack).

3) Use Whitemage. GASP! It's the weakest job in the game! Yeah right. {White Mage}{Impossible to Gauge}. You have cure at level 1. Ok so you can sub whm and still get cure- but your MND will be lower and you'll have less mp (unless you do a mage with /whm sub).

4) Grab your katana and high tail it to the nomad moogle outside of the zone. I did this in South Gustaberg- but it's the same in every hometown.

5) Eat your pie and heal up mp. You'll need it. ***It has been noted that you can cast stoneskin, protect, phalanx, shell, blink, haste or w/e before talking to the moogle to obtain these effects. This is a great idea and I recommend it if your WHM is high enough. The effects will, however, wear off eventually so you'll need to rely on strategy.

6) Find one of the armors. This is trickier than it sounds. They're using speedhack software too apparently and it's only a matter of time before the GM's find them. Until then- you can lay waste to their candy behinds.

7) Drag the armor away from the Rogue Armor territory. In South Gustaberg the Rogue Armor owns Vomp Hill. You go up there and you're a dead man. When I solo'd mine I had to drag that Armor all the way to the middle of Gustaberg. To do this simply attack the Armor and back up in the direction you want to drag. As long as no one else is around he will follow you.

8) Use Selbina milk at the beginning of the fight. This is important because the Armor is going to use Edge of Death and bring you down to 1 hp. If you have your selbina milk on you'll begin regaining hp immediately buying yourself some time and saving yourself from death.

9) Repeat steps 8-9 for 20-30 mins and you have a dead Armor.

Battle strategy: Armors cast Aetheral Toxin which gives you Dia and causes you to lose hp faster than selbina milk gives it. THIS IS BAD! You can avoid this 100% of the time however. I've found that if you begin backing up from the Armor as soon as you see that he is readying it- you will avoid the move. Somehow this works even if you are still within a fairly close range. Don't panic during the battle. Try to keep your hp around 10hp or higher. DON'T WASTE CURES! Only cure yourself when you have 1 hp. It's useless to cure to full health since it's just going to be smacked back down to 1 anyways. Sometimes, if you back up while Edge of Death is cast, you can just stand there and regain hp from the selbina milk while the Armor just stands there like an idiot. This is an awesome way to regain your 10+ hp without wasting a cure.

Well that's my strategy. Yeah you can throw 10+ people at an Armor and win- but there will be a lot of homepointing- and sometimes you cause so much commotion others join in and you'll lose the drop. Soloing takes more time and patience, but you're guarunteed to get the drop all to yourself if you drag the Armor far enough away from the nomad moogle area where everyone hangs. Good luck! Post if you tried soloing one- or if you see anything I should alter/clarify in this guide! Good luck!

***Added a notation about spells cast before talking to moogle.

Edited, Sat Apr 29 17:39:47 2006 by whetstone

Edited, Apr 27th 2007 9:02pm by whetstone

That's very helpful. ^^I was struggling soloing one, and I made a party like I did last time. ^^;

I guess I just get bored of soloing stuff, but that's a wonderful guide for people who don't want to have to deal with lotting drama and stuff.

  ,------------------------------------------------. 
 /    {Uschi}      ~Taru female. Green hair ftw!    \ 
/  (70WHM/35BLM)   ~Social LS: JokersWild <3         \ 
|  (30BRD/15WHM)   ~Dynamis LS: Kyte                 | 
\  I like CoP too much.                  Sea+Sky: O / 
 `-------------------------------------------------´

Rate up! That was really helpful. Sometimes the fundamentals are what people miss.

No because I don't it would hurt it.

Just to add, MNK can use hundred fists even with a lotus katana. I found this extremely helpful. Not to mention MNK has such high HP.

untill I take it away and pull it to my party. you don't like it, ask to join.

With Protect II on, the Ubu (Taru) Armor hits me at 1hp per hit.
When my Protect II wears off he hits me at 2hp per hit.

So, I can say pre-buffing does help a big deal.
Not sure about the equipment though.

With Protect IV it would often hit me for 0. Protect IV lasts about like it would at your full level, not the 30 seconds it would at a real level 1. Also, reraise lasts, so you don't have to set your homepoint somewhere you don't want to just because of the possibility of dying.

I solo them with some X-au lait (whatever happens to be handy, pear or the new drink from Whitegate @ 800g) and some pineapple juice (just in case). I carry around a stack of milk in case I run out of au lait, but the 2/tic really is a difference compared to the 1/tic.

Now, a question... has anyone gotten any of the neck gear from any of the armors in areas besides the ones immediately around the main towns? I spent a few hours in Rolanberry and Pashhow but didn't get any neck drops. Anyone else have any luck?

Nez

Just so i can get some kind of overview for this event....i'd like to solo it but i prefer to play on the safe side on unfamiliar ground so will probably form small party 1-3 players. I'm only a level 9 Hume MNK, living in Bastok, no subs levelled yet.

1.
How many armours/different types of armours do i need to kill to fulfill the quest ?
2.
What are the drops, and do i need all of them, what happens if someone else in party gets drop ? What do i do with the drops.
3.
If i do solo it then what happens if i die, does event end or is there some other negative impact on event ?
4.
Will the lotus katana level up sword skill when being used during event ?
5.
What are the rewards for doing this event, the drops from the armours or a reward once those are returned to moogle ?

Note:
Maybe these questions have been answered somewhere else but if not then answers recieved and posted here should be useful to all future interested individuals.

Ok feedback time.

I just spent a solid three hours playing the Feast of Swords event and this is how it went.

BTW thanks to the OP you made all this possible.

I am a MNK lvl 9, Hume, based in Bastok.

My equipment for the event was

Lotus Katana

Bronze Cap
Bronze Harness
Bronze Subligar
Bronze Leggings
Bronze Mittens

White Belt: STR +1
Bastokian Ring: HP+3 DEX+1 VIT+1

So nothing at all special and well within reach of all newb players like myself.

Solo just wasn't an option with only a lvl 9 MNK, so i decided to make a small party of 3 people and see how it went from there.

Made a MACRO saying: Looking for Feast of Swords party ?
Rules explained before committing !
Tell me if you're interested !

Shouted this for maybe 30mins until i got a response from a couple from a nice HL player called Madalena. She had to buy and equip some lvl 1 armour so i went back to trawling the Mines, Port and Markets looking for potential members.

After fielding a few responses from a selection of idiots, last minute quitters and people with incurable language barrier difficulties i then lucked upon two other excellent individuals known as Assan and Keji.

Everyone has thier lvl 1 armour, a katana and a rough idea of what is to come, i had purchased the requisite Selbina Milk (thanks Whetstone) and some Potions, the others only came around to the idea after being killed some 5 or so times in a row.

So we sally forth, psyching up and running circles round each other in a frenzy of new found speed granted us by the nomad moogle.

At first we don't even have to run anywhere to find the armours, a large Japanese LS has camped on the nomad moogle and has pullers running the armours back to them. So what are our tactics, do we run madly around looking for armours of our own or do we poach them off the LS, your damn right thats what we did. To start with anyway.

So we start hacking into this Galka armour that already has like 15 people surrounding it poking it gently with sticks. Im pure MNK while others in party are WHM so i whip out my Hundred Fists and let fly when the mob is about 25% of its HP from death, the others in the party are all hacking in from the sides, everyone's high speed jostling for position and the resulting lag means the mob seems to be teleporting from spot to spot one shotting whoever it comes near.
But the end result is one dead Galka armour at my own hands /emote triumph. It's always nice to start on a roll and i didnt even have to use any Milk or Potions on that first one it was so outnumbered.

At this point it becomes clear to everyone in the party that MNK is the way to go and so we all switch to a pure MNK party.

But the LS has learnt some lessons too and as they begin spreading out into the landscape so do we, hot on thier heels we jump on every mob that they find spamming it with Hundred Fists, we get maybe 2-3 more kills this way.

Now at this point i really should clarify that this is not unfair to the LS, the fact is that whenever anyone comes close to an armour they will most likely be dead before they see it so talking of claiming an armour is ridiculous. These things are runnning around at 100mph up down round and over the hills all the while just flicking out with thier katanas leaving another body lying on the field of battle. I've seen more carnage today than ever before in my short FFxi life. The Mithra armour in particular seems to have some kind of Sneak attack whereby you literally do not know what hit you just a flash in the corner of your eye and it's back to the home point.

Basically at this point the sun came up, there had been far less armours at night-time but in the day there seemed to be at least double the number. So it takes us maybe a ratio of 5 instant deaths to every armour we manage to pin down and all bundle on to. The LS appears to have given up or at least is hunting somewhere else but this seems unlikely as you spend so much time revisiting the moogle.

Eventually we get the tactics sorted, find the armour, follow from safe distance alerting all party members (3 MNKs) to location before downing some milk, using hundred fists if we've got it before all standard beating on it as vigorously as possible, generally just making sure that at least one of us is alive and holding the armour in battle while the others respawn and run back to the battle. We in turn lost a few to other parties that came creeping in at the edges in the last stages of a fight and stole our kill so revenge was had by all back and forth, but this was frustrating.

The armours dont seem to be able to kill you with a single blow once engaged only when they are running free, once engaged they can only reduce you to 1HP with thier special move, ignore thier Dia AOE move it is almost completely negated by the milk, just wait for the armour to hit you with its weapon special down to your last 1HP then drink a potion at that moment and you are fine again until the armour has enough TP to try it's special by which time it is hopefully dead or someone else has recycled through the home point to replace you, it's normal hit is weak as lettuce and the milk also here seems to restore more HP per round than the armour can take off you in normal DMG.

By this time i've gone through maybe two more party members as people were getting more drops than they needed and leaving. A japanese guy who couldnt use the auto translate but was a good backup sword name of Osene (i actually learned a lot about the auto translate by trying to comm with him tho) and the latest guy who stayed with me to the end was Kurei, i'm not sure what job he was playing things were too frenetic by then but he had widescan and could heal also, basically from that point on he and i teamed up and reaped huge drop splits until we were both groaning for rest from the mad paced running.

He located the mob as a scout using widescan and following visually from a distance, then i would come in and we would attack.

By this point it was actually seeming easy, it wasnt so much trying to kill the armour fast(my 2hr ran out long ago), just get your Milk and Potions timed right and the DOT takes care of itself. I'd become very used to the armours behaviour and could now manage to corral them into stopping thier mad running by sprinting in front of them and getting lock on just as they passed. This is hard as they move so damn quickly.

Galka and Elvaan and Hume armours seemed to be the most common with Mithras a close fourth but less frequently engaged in actual combat, didnt see hardly any Taru armours only 1-2, Galka is easiest to kill as it seemed slower.Hume and Taru were the next easiest as they seemed weaker with Elvaan third and quite difficult as it seemed well rounded but the untouchable Mithra's just ran around killing at will most of the time, invisible in a shroud of lag.

Anyway i could have gone into more detail but then this post would have been even more horrendously huge so i will just finish by posting my personal results from the day, can't vouch exactly for other party members drop amounts as i think i mentioned it was rather frenetic.

Duration of event participation: 3 hours
Total Party members overall: 6
Total party members at any one time: 3
Armours killed overall: 12
My pickups:
1 Red Drop
1 Yellow Drop
1 Purple Drop
1 Blue Drop
12 Hume Mochi's
16 Elvaan Mochi's
5 Tarutaru Mochi's
11 Galka Mochis

Republic Stable Medal !

1 level of skillup in Parrying, interestingly.

Had one of my most enjoyable days so far today, something to really get my teeth into and succeed at, feel i did that and got a feel on planning, forming and leading a party strategically for the first time.

Now i just need to figure out what to do with all this crap i picked up, the option to turn myself into a small child was never high on my agenda, is there anything i could still get from this event like another decent medal and what do i do with what i already have ?

Hope this is useful to someone:

Thanks to Madalena, Kurei, Keji, Osene and Assan who were superb, looking forward to more parties if our levels ever co-incide again. And a big lump of crap for dragongod who joined, hid then took the drop and quit. Also thanks to whetstone who provided via this post all the info i needed to get started.




Edited, Thu May 4 15:34:22 2006 by Taijiquan

Edited, Thu May 4 18:13:00 2006 by Taijiquan

9 out of 12 ? So there are 12 kinds of Armour ? I have only seen the five types in South Gustaberg so far and given my level(9), travelling to the other cities is just not possible as far as i know.

Is turning me into a child all the mochi's are good for ? If so, anyone who comes in range of me is going to get a free mochi. Drops look good though, i'm not sure but i heard that they can give stat bonuses when eaten, heard Red Drop gives STR+.
Could be useful for killing more armours if i know i'm going to pick up more as i can only carry one of each colour at a time it seems.

A simple list of the types of armour and thier locations would be a godly achievement of monumental value. I'd love to do all 12 and get the medals, please advise.

Note: I will work on evading the special attacks they do tomorrow, need to learn the animation that starts it but lag is really bad and that makes it hard. Been watching what the mobs up to mainly by checking my HP bar :)

Edited, Thu May 4 16:34:10 2006 by Taijiquan

Edited, Thu May 4 18:07:41 2006 by Taijiquan

Yeah the mochi is pretty much worthless- tho it can be fun getting 10-15 people to use it and run around town like little kids XD. The drops do indeed give small stat boots. Not really as good as food- but if you're poor you can use these while soloing to 10-12. Thanks for your experiences Taijiquan. Very interesting. :)

As for there supposedly bein 12 armors- there isn't. The previous poster meant that of 12 attempts at killing he had succeeded 9 times. Take care and happy hunting!

Necro'd! \:D/