Mission Name
|
1-2 / 1-3 - Below the Arks / The
Mothercrystals
|
Locations
|
Promyvion - Dem, Promyvion -
Holla, Promyvion - Mea
|
Level Cap
|
30
|
Estimated Time
|
2-3 hours
|
Special Items:
|
Anima, which have various
effects on the bosses
|
Difficulty:
|
Medium. The level cap and
true-sight mobs propose a harsh learning curve
|
Medicines Needed:
|
Vary depending on the Promyvion.
See boss strategies below
|
Recomended Jobs:
|
WHM for Raise. RNG for Widescan.
SMN has
a very effective 2-hour. BLM, WAR/NIN or PLD are also popular jobs.
Most jobs
can go if the party has a SMN and/or a RNG. BRD and BST are not very
effective
though, and RDMs would be better going as a WHM or BLM.
NOTE: any decently balanced party can beat any CoP mission. These are
recomendations, not necessities for victory.
|
Brief synopsis:
|
a party of six (or an alliance
of parties
of six) travels through a dungeon. Along the way, they fight Memory
Receptacles
to progress. At the end, there is a 6-person BC against one mob. |
Promyvion is the first new area in the CoP storyline. There
are actually three of them. Promyvion-Dem, Holla, and Mea, and they
corespond
to the three crags. You complete one Promyvion (of your choosing) for
mission
1-2, then complete the other two in 1-3. You must complete all three to
progress.
It’s a great introduction to the kinds of
challenges you’ll
face in Chains of Promathia missions. True sight enemies that aggro
funny, mobs
that can’t move but have an AoE attack, and NMs with some truly nasty
abilities
that require new strategies to beat. If you enjoy new challenges and
tricky
opponents you’ll have a blast with CoP. If you find this place tedious
and
generally not fun, you might want to go back to camping Fafnir or
something.
These missions, being the first in the story, are
highly traveled and well-documented. My guide attempts to gather the
most generally useful strategies and tips. If you find it lacking, the quests forum at
Allakhazham has quite a few additional guides on this mission that
you may find helpful.
Cutscenes before Promyvion:
Zone
|
NPC name
|
Location
|
Other
|
Ru'Lude Gardens
|
Rainhard |
(H-6)
|
|
Upper Jeuno
|
Pherimociel |
(G-6)
|
|
one of the three teleport crags
|
Shattered Telepoint
|
varies
|
|
Hall of Transference
|
Large Apparatus
|
|
the one on the left
|
Into the Darkness:
After assembling your
party and getting all the meds you need, teleport to the crag of your
choosing. In order to get into a
Promyvion, examine the shattered telepoint and the large apparatus.
After you
complete it, or if you fail and try the same promyvion, you get in
through the
large door behind the apparatus.
IMPORTANT: if you fail to complete a
Promyvion,
you not be allowed to go into another until you use the large apparatus
again.
This is called "sealing your memory." For example, if you attempt Dem
but fail, you must use the large apparatus at Dem again before
attempting Holla
or Mea. Be sure to inform your party that you need to do this process.
It's
fairly common to seal memory before going in, but if you can do it
beforehand,
so much the better.
A six-person party can complete Promyvion alone,
although
teaming up with another party can be helpful. Obviously, both parties
should be
able to beat the BC at the end, so balance them well.
If you plan on using animas (a good idea), either buy them off the
auction house or farm your own by going into
any
Promyvion and fight basic enemies on the first floor until they drop
recollections. Then take these to a man in the Archduke's house and
give him 2k
gil, and he will give you an anima for the boss. I HIGHLY HIGHLY
RECOMEND THE ANIMA!
Note: total Promyvion newbies might want to try Mea first. I
believe it is the easiest. Dem is medium difficulty, and a lot of
people have
trouble with Holla. But if you’re in a competent and confident party,
just go
wherever they want, and you’ll probably be okay.
Farming:
- Obtained: various empty inside of Promyvion. Cannot be
bought or traded; must be farmed.
- Number recomended: at least two
- Optional or mandatory: optional, can now be bought off the
auction house (though it would probably be easier to buy the anima
outright)
- Use: used to obtain anima in the Jeuno quest Empty Memories
- Notes: each recollection can be traded for an anima. Anima
weakens the BCNM boss significantly and turn these fights from
challenging to rather easy. Generally speaking, most promyvion parties
won't leave town unless they're either planning on farming anima or
have some already. They help that much.
Inside Promyvion:
All three Promyvions have the same basic layout.
There are
four "levels" of Promyvion. Your goal is to track down Memory
Receptacles (MRs) and defeat them. After you defeat your first Memory
Receptacle, a glowing disk that functions as a teleporter appears, and
you can progress up to the next level. However, on
levels two and three, some MRs do not generate a disk, so you can't
progress up
and need to find another MR. These are called "fakes." Sometimes you
get two or three fakes before reaching the top, sometimes none. It's
all luck.
The Proms look basically the same, except for the second
level of Holla, that has an area of annoying fences. You'll have to do
some
fighting to get through. Take them one by one. Travel
through the Promyvion and look for the
Memory
Receptacles. A ranger with widescan is invaluable here. Emptiness is
sort of a
misnomer. Promyvion is crawling with all sorts of creepy monsters, and
in some
places they get quite thick. All of the enemies have true sight. They
detect sort
of funny, so treat them like sound-aggro enemies and give them a wide
radius of
travel. On levels one or two parties of six can fight two enemies with
no
problems. Above level three you only want to be fighting one at a time,
but you
can take any enemy in Promyvion (save the NMs) with a party of six.
Avoid as
many enemies as you can, but since true sight aggro is hard to avoid,
you will
have to fight several times. If you get aggro, STOP. Don't go running
off and
form a train.
As can be seen, even good players die hard in Promyvion.
Notice to BLMs and SMNs: each one of the empty has
a glowing
ball inside them of a certain color. This is their element. So a red
ball means
the empty is based on fire. Casting fire or ice on this empty will do
virtually
no damage, but water will be quite effective. I hope you memorized your
magic
flow chart and colored crystals.
Memory Receptacles:
MRs are glowing spheres in these
little areas with
four
pillars. (This picture does not contain the MR enemy) They usually have
a small cloud of Strays around them. Strays look
like Wanderer enemies. They are much weaker then actual Wanderers,
though they
can still hassle mages pretty well. The MR is non aggro, the strays
are. It is recomended you kill all the Strays before engaging the MR
itself. The MR cannot move or melee attack
but has
two abilities. The first allows them to spawn another Stray, which they
use
often. The second, Empty Seed, sends out a shockwave that does AoE
damage
and
knocks anyone within range backwards.
Memory Receptacle strategy tips:
Move Name
|
Effect
|
Empty Seed
|
AoE centered on the MR that
causes knockback to all in range.
|
(moves upward)
|
Another Stray enemy will spawn.
|
Character
|
Role in Battle
|
Melees with Provoke
|
provoke Strays and pull them
away from mages and Rangers
|
Melees without Provoke
|
get close to the MR and brace
yourself against a pillar to prevent knockback, and physically attack
|
Ranged characters / SMN
|
focus spells or arrows on the MR
outside of the range of Empty Seed. Summon an avatar to attack while
hanging back.
|
Main healer
|
stay out of the range of Empty
Seed and heal |
They aren't hard really and can be taken down quickly with some decent
party coordination. Just keep the softer characters out of range.
DO NOT REST AFTER DEFEATING THE MR. Instead,
finish off any remaining Strays, then gather where the MR was. If the
teleporter appears, get on and
choose to progress. It only stays open for a limited time, so be ready.
After
you teleport, rest up, then proceed to the next MR. If a teleporter
doesn’t
appear in about ten seconds, you’ve found a fake. Frustrating, but it
happens. Rest up, then track
down another MR and hope for better luck.
Hop on and choose to enter the memory stream. The teleporter disk only
stays active for a time. Even if you have to run from the outskirts of
the battle you will have plenty of time, but if a member
disconnects or goes AFK or something, they will likely miss the
teleporter. If someone fails to make it through the teleporter,
everyone else has
to go back down a level. Find this thing (above picture) that looks
like a teleporter
too, but
has no MR guarding it and is always active. It will take you back a
level. (note: there is one on the first floor right where you enter. It
will take you back to the Hall of Transference so you can leave
Promyvion).
Continue defeating MRs and avoiding as much
fighting as you
can until you get to the top.
Level four:
After the third MR teleport, you'll be on the top
level. You
need to find a zone line to the Spire BC area. Most Promyvion parties
will have
a guide by now, but if you're all Promyvion newbies, just follow the
path as
best you can and make a wild run for the zone. The enemies up here are
thick,
and you don’t want to fight too many. The zone looks like a thin path
leading
to the Jeuno Residential mountain thing with an arch on the front.
Avoid aggro
as best as possible, but if you start getting lots, run like heck. If
someone
dies on the mad dash to the zone, as long as it is not the WHM, you're
okay. Heal up in the spire, then send out a search team.
The Spire:
Once everyone is safely inside the Spire, you're
ready for
the BC battle. The strategies for each vary, but all three of them get
pretty
nasty when they are weakened. The key I have found, therefore, is to
save your
big-blast 2-hours (such as Eagle Eye Shot and Astral Flow) until the
boss is
about 30% life, then hit him with everything you have.
Medicine List for all Promyvions:
Tank
|
VIT or AGI food, a few Hi-Potions
|
DD Melee
|
STR or ACC food at your
discretion |
Mages
|
Yagudo Drinks. Several Echo
Drops
(normal Empty mobs have AoE silence)
|
SMN
|
At least one Hi-Ether for Astral
Flow
|
WHM
|
Scroll of Reraise (from conquest
points). A Reraiser is also a nice touch.
|
Promyvion-Dem Specific Strategies for Progenerator
Move Name
|
Effect
|
Fission
|
Spawns Stray-type enemies
Starts using around 50% life
|
| Quadratic Continuum |
Damage
|
| Vanity Drive |
Damage
|
| Spirit Absorbtion |
Life drain attack
|
Character
|
Additional
Medicines
|
Any character that can tank
reasonably well
|
Hi-Potions
|
Strategy Tips:
- Progenerator only has one real trick, Fission, but it can be
bothersome. Those strays need to be tanked or they will go after the
mages. They cannot be slept (or are heavily resistant to it, which
amounts to the same basic thing).
- Terroanima, which causes the enemy to flee in terror when used,
can be used on Progenerator in order to buy time to kill strays.
- If the main boss is defeated, the battle ends immediately with
your
victory, regardless of if the Strays are still alive.
Promyvion-Holla Specific Strategies for Wreaker
Move Name
|
Effect
|
Empty Cutter
|
Damage
|
Negative Whril
|
AoE damage
|
Shadow Spread
|
AoE Curse + Sleep effect
|
Binary Tap / Trinary Tap
|
Drains 2 or 3 buffs off of one
target
|
| Trinary Absorbtion |
Drains life from one target.
Used at low HP
|
Character
|
Additional
Medicines
|
Tank
|
Holy Water to remove curse.
|
All
|
Poison Potions to prevent sleep
|
Strategy tips:
- The Binary and Trinary Taps drain two or three random buffs from
the target.
WHMs should cast "useless" buffs such as Barfira or Barsleepra on the
party in order to increase the odds of the boss draining buffs that
will not help it.
- Keep poison potions going at all times to prevent the sleep
effect.
- The life drain move, Trinary Absorbtion is pretty nasty. Many
parties wipe when the boss
has a sliver of health because the boss just keeps draining to stay
alive. It is VITAL to save your powerful moves for the end.
- Anima, especially the Hysteroanima that prevents TP moves, is
especially useful on this enemy.
Promyvion - Mea Specific Strategies for Delver
Move Name
|
Effect
|
| Brain Spike |
Damage
|
| Empty Thrash |
Damage
|
Carousal
|
AoE damage (center of AoE is
the Boss itself)
|
Impalement
|
Does tremendous damage to one
target but does not kill. Hate reset.
Similar to a tonberry's Throat Stab.
|
| Promyvion Brume |
AoE damage + 12 damage/tic poison
|
| Murk |
AoE slow + gravity effect
|
Character
|
Additional
Mediines
|
All non-mages
|
Antidote potions to remove poison
|
Strategy tips:
- Delver has nasty AoE moves. Ranged characters such as RNG, WHM,
and BLM should stay out of range, then dart in, cast a spell or shoot a
few arrows, then get to the edge of the AoE range when the mob moves.
Constantly staying on the edge of the AoE can prevent a lot of damage
to these softer character.
- Impalement will put the tank in the red. Mea can do this move
even at close to full health. It is hate reset, so afterward it will
attack the character that is doing the most damage, probably the ranger
of black mage.
- Mea doesn't really get significantly harder when lower on life,
but
following
the strategy of hitting it hard when weak will still serve the party
well.
BCNM-Specific Items
- Obtained: from trading a Recollection of Pain and 2000 gil to
Harith in the Jeuno quest Empty Memories (can also be bought off the
auction house)
- Use: when used on an empty-type mob, prevents it from using any
special attacks for about thirty seconds
- Notes: in my opinion the most useful anima as it is often the
special attacks that kill parties. Having two or three of these will
make any fight a snap.
- Obtained: from trading a Recollection of Fear and 2000 gil to
Harith in the Jeuno quest Empty Memories (can also be bought off the
auction house)
- Use: when used on an empty-type mob, makes all of it's physical
attacks intimidated for about thirty seconds.
- Notes: extremely useful when things get rough since it stops the
boss from being able to attack at all, however special moves may still
be used.
- Obtained: from trading a Recollection of Guilt and 2000 gil to
Harith in the Jeuno quest Empty Memories (can also be bought off the
auction house)
- Use: when used on an empty-type mob, the target will run away and
not attack for about thirty seconds.
- Notes: a wacky item, it is none the less very useful since the
mob will do NOTHING to do you while it's active. However it may be
difficult to attack back since it will run out of range of weapon
skills, SMN 2-hours, and the like. Very effective at buying some time
to regroup.
The key with all three is to BLAST IT WHEN IT GETS
WEAK!
Seriously. Don't waste your 2-hours early unless you are in dire
straits.
Even Holla, widely regarded as the hardest, can be beaten with no
deaths if you
have a SMN that waits until about 35% health to hammer it with an
Astral
Flow or two. After you beat a Promyvion you will be outside the
Crag.
Once you beat your third and final Promyvion, you will find yourself in
glorious Lufaise Meadows. Tavnazia awaits!
Exp reward for completion: 1500 (per each promyvion for a total of 4500
for all three)
(next mission)
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