A Fate Decided

Mission Name	8-2 - A Fate Decided
Locations	Grand Palace of Hu'Zxoi
Estimated Time	4-5 hours fighting, 1-2 sleeping. You're better off sleeping everything you can.
Special Items:	none
Difficulty:	Medium. Long long long. Thankfully even the mob at the end isn’t terribly powerful
Medicines Needed:	nothing
Brief synopsis:	Travel through a long dungeon and escort NPCs to open locked portals.

It’s not terribly impressive, is it? It’s just one corridor after another, occasionally breaking into larger rooms. It’s even more dull in game. This zone has no sound. No music, no weather effects, nothing. It’s mind-blowingly dull to be in.

There are NO ways to save progress on this mission. If you wipe or otherwise have to quit, you have to start ALL OVER from the beginning. So don’t even start this mission unless you know all your members have a good chunk of time set aside.

Check the Particle Gate on the right of where you zone in for a cutscene. Check it again to pass through and head into the mission.

Cutscene:

Zone	NPC name	Location	Other
Hu’Zxoi	Particle Gate	(H-8)	“Zone” into monster-filled section

More Wacky Lumoria Mobs

You read that Monsters of Lumoria section by now, right? Pop quiz! Do Aern’s link or aggro?
…
…
…
yeah, they link. But don’t feel bad if you didn’t know. Just try to memorize stuff like that and this will be a lot easier. And yes, I am pushing that Monsters guide. It took a lot of time and death to get all those screenshots.

The first new enemy you’ll encounter is the Euvhis. These look like small sticks when “closed” and flowers when “open.” Closed Euvhis don’t aggro, open ones do, and they never switch forms. Most of the ones you will encounter are closed, and the open ones you can mostly avoid. So try to do so. If you do find yourself in a fight with a Euvhis, it has an AoE bind attack but nothing too deadly.

Ghrahs are made up entirely out of hexagons. In their “closed” form they are little balls that float through corridors randomly but are confined to a small area, usually a hallway. In their “open” fom the hexagons reassemble into a bird or a spider (not randomly, dependent on area). Like the Euvhi, Ghrahs only aggro when open, but Ghrahs change forms sporadically. It is best to wait out of range until they switch to ball form, then run by.

Like the empty mobs from Promyvion, Ghrahs have a colored ball that is their elemental base. They can cast ancient magic and elemental debuffs (like drown and shock) but rarely any AoEs. Even so, they’re powerful monsters. Use the appropriate bar-element spell to avoid a lot of their damage.

Zdeis are often called similar to pots, but don’t aggro to magic. They aggro to sight. Their “front” is the larger of their eyes that is surrounded by smaller decorations. Some Zdeis are stationary, others spin. You can try to avoid aggroing in the spinning ones by going behind them while they spin. It’s hard, but possible. Practice going behind them as much as you can to avoid a lot of fights.

Quasilumin Guards

At certain points you will run into Particle Gates that will not open. That likely means there is a Cermet Alcove nearby. Check the Alcove and a Quasilumin NPC will appear. It will then progress on a pre-determined route. You can control the Quasilumin (tell it to stop and start again) much like the NPCs found in the escort quests.

And speaking of escort quests, as you may have guessed, you have to protect these little guys. Zdei mobs will attack if they see the NPC. Ghrahs will only attack if the are not in ball form. Keep the NPC alive and it will open Particle Gates for you. Eventually it will reach another Cermet Alcove. Once there, check the NPC again and it will open the final gate.

NOTE: Do NOT let the Quasilumin NPCs die. Even if you get past one locked Particle Gates, if that NPC doesn’t make it to the alcove, it will not open the last gate you need to progress. If your NPC dies, travel backwards (locked Particle Gates open from the “back” side) and get a new one.

The Long Haul

It’s a long path to follow, but fighting Ghrahs, sneaking behind Zdeis, and escorting NPCs is the gist of it. At times you will need to travel up and down these elevator systems to get to new maps. It will feel like you're going in circles, but you're not. There are forks in the road at points, but going the wrong way quickly leads to a dead end, so having an online map isn’t terribly vital.

Steady going is the key to getting done before next week. Fight continously but don’t push yourself beyond your limits. Have a lot of MP on hand as Ghrahs can take some time to kill. Make sure someone in the party has Reraise up in case you wipe totally.

Be on the lookout for Quasilumins that aren’t on the move. These are part of the Grand Palace map quest. Like their brethren outside in Al’Taieu, if you talk to them all, that last one will give you a map of this area. You’ll have to go out of your way to get them all, but if you plan on farming for sea gods, you’ll want this map.

There is one door that will ask you if you want to pass through when you check it. Say NO. This leads back to the main room. If you go through this door, all your progress (a few hours) will be lost and you need to go ALLLL the way back. Some ??? spots will also offer you a choice to return to the main room. Refuse these as well.

The Last Hu-Ghrah

After a painfully long time you will find a Cermet Portal that opens like a normal door. Beyond that is another Cermet Portal. Checking it spawns an NM called Ix’Ghrah. This one’s a bit different. It can change forms at will and it’s 2-hour is depedendant on whatever form it is when it wants to use it.

Form	Job	Weakness	Strength	Attacks
Ball	BLM	Phsyical Attack	Magic	High-level BLM spells
Bird	THF	Magic Attack	Evasion, Accuracy	Physical hits, Helldive
Spider	WAR	none	Strength	Physical hits, Sickle Slash
Human	PLD	Low Damage	Defense	Physical hits

The spider form is the most dangerous, having the overpowerful Sickle Slash move that hurts tanks badly. The bird form is hard to hit with weapons but takes lots of damage from magic. The ball form takes more damage from weapons and less from magic. The human form doesn’t take much damage AT ALL, but doesn’t do much either, and is a good time for mages to rest for a bit of MP.

My party had the Ix’Ghrah use the 2-hour in ball form. We were fearing a massive onslaught of magic, but instead it just cast Sleepga II. Like 15 times. Over and over for no reason. No attacking in the middle either. Just lots of Sleepga. I don’t know if this was a glitch or WHAT, but it was absolutely hilarious. Needless to say, the mages out of range got some MP while the melees got Sleepga’d over and over, and we finished the battle without any problems.

(Editor's note: the 2-hour is actually IS a massive onslaught of magic, but it's based on the day you fight the Ix'Ghrah. We were fighting on Darksday apparently and since there are no actual damaging dark-based -aga moves we just got slept. But I've heard stories about parties getting hit with Thundaga III over and over and over. So be warned and try to fight on Darksday or Lightsday if you can. I'm keeping the above paragraph in the guide because I still think it's funny.)

After you beat the Ix’Ghrah, check the Cermet Portal for a cutscene.

Cutscene:

Zone	NPC name	Location
Hu’Zxoi	Cermet Portal	?

You are now clear to Escape out, and checking the Gate of the Gods in the main room will lead you to The Garden of Ru’Hmet.

(next mission)
(back to the main page)