Bhaflau Remnants Guide

From FFXI Wiki

This guide is designed for ~3 level 99 players. It assumes that you will be fairly well geared and knowledgeable. There are a variety of job combinations that can do the things described in this guide, but the same basic strategy applies.

The trip to level 99 has left Salvage monsters somewhat impotent, and utterly at the mercy of any evasive player. Using evasive DDs will make your Salvage experience a lot less stressful on your healers.



Party Setups

You should only need 3 people to complete this zone with near-maximum efficiency. How quickly you can move through the zone and how much you can benefit from time spent is limited by rampart pop rates, which you cannot effect in any way. The comparatively minor amount of time spent outside the rampart is not going to be substantially decreased by bringing more players.
That said, cells flow freely in Bhaflau Remnants, and there's very little penalty for bringing along extra players. You can expect everyone (as long as you don't bring more than ~6) to be fully geared by halfway through floor 2. This also means there are very few restrictions on what jobs can be brought.

Option 1: DDs/Healer party:

  • 2x DDs (At least one THF recommended if you want drops, but not necessary for cells or NM pouches here)
  • 1x Healer (RDM or SCH are best, WHM can also work)
  • This party will likely be able to do 2~2.5 Ramparts and Long-Bowed Chariot

Option 2: Throw BSTs at it

  • 1-3 BSTs, and make sure you have at least two pets with Treasure Hunter.
    • A solo BST may not be able to do 3 Ramparts + Boss, but I'd be shocked to find they can't do 2 Rampart + Long-Bowed Chariot.
  • 0-2 Anything else, other BSTs, Healers, or a good SMN preferred.
  • 2 BSTs will likely be able to do approximately as well as the DDs/Healer setup above

Option 3: For the magely among us

  • 1~3 RDM
  • 0~2 offensively-oriented mages (RDM, BLM, SCH, SMN).
  • 1 THF if you want drops.

Cell Distribution

There is nothing special about cell distribution in Bhaflau, except that you don't need to value Treasure Hunter slots for your Thief or Refresh slots for your mages because there are so many cells floating around.

Mage Cells : MP (Spissatus), Magic (Praecipitatio), MND (Pileus), INT (Velum), and CHR (Mediocris)

  • If you have a BRD or COR, they will need a Ranged (Undulatus) cell.

Melee Cells : Melees get priority on all but the 5 Mage Cells.

  • PUP and RNG will need a Ranged (Undulatus) cell

Walkthrough

Bhaflau is a flood of cells. The first and most important thing you can do is make at least 10 spaces in your inventory. Lotting the appropriate cells and passing the ones other people have lotted is essential for clearing the first floor quickly. Do not use cells when Paralyzed, and don't wait for anything that you don't absolutely have to wait for. After you're satisfied with your cells, load your lightluggage cell-passing profile.
In order to get 35-Armor pieces in this zone, you need to pop Dormant Ramparts, which will warp you to an area with a Reactionary Rampart. Do NOT attack the ramparts. You want them to live. Ramparts spawn one monster (via Reinforcements) about every 10 seconds, and they lose 1% HP also about every 10 seconds. 1000/60 = 17~20 minutes per rampart, and there's a lot of running around to be done as well, so you should not expect to clear all the ramparts. The Rampart-related instructions below have been marked in Italics, and you should ignore them if you do not want to do that floor's Rampart.
General consensus is that Ramparts can either be "on" or "off." If a Rampart drops to 50% HP and still hasn't spawned a monster, you can consider it "off" and kill it, then move on to another. You will need to decide for yourself what constitutes "on" or "off", but these are general guidelines to go by. It has been suggested that killing as early as 70% is fairly safe, and that might be worthwhile if you are looking to farm Alexandrite instead of armors if it lets you hit more ramparts.

Recommended Supplies:

  • Attack food
  • A throwing weapon (≥10 if stackable), ideally with low delay
  • No medicine required

Floor 1

  • Enter, open the chest, and open the west (left as you face the chest) door
    • Lot and pass quickly, but don't wait for people to lot/pass any longer than you have to.
  • Kill all the monsters as you work towards the 4-way intersection.
  • Send your LVP to check which side Mad Bomber is on while the rest of your group clears the intersection
  • If you aren't missing any essential cells (like Ammo for a BST), go kill Mad Bomber.
    • He explodes if you take too long, so kill quickly.
    • One half-geared DD should have no issue killing him at 99.
  • Head North, avoiding unnecessary fights if you are capped on gear.
    • If you are going to clear the large room, it is recommended that you use whatever Area of Effect weapon skill you have available. Phalanx is very useful for this. Make sure your inventory is open and you're looking for the cells you want.
  • Skip the monsters in the final large room.
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Floor 2

  • If you want to pop the second floor Rampart, it is essential that you not do any form of magic damage to the Empathetic Flans. Skillchain, En-effect, and nuking are all prohibited. You also need to wait for them to shake up the spikes on their heads. Fatal magic damage is technically okay, but you need be absolutely sure it's going to be fatal.
  • Zone up to the second floor and run north to the rectangle of rooms with one Empathetic Flan on each side.
  • Kill each Flan (clockwise) for more Job Ability and Magic cells.
    • Use melee (non-magic) damage only and make sure they have spikes on their heads before they die if you want this floor's Rampart
    • North and South Flan are strong to melee, weak to magic.
    • East and West Flan are weaker to melee, stronger to magic.
    • The Dormant Rampart appears when you kill the final flan before opening the door.
  • You should have ended on the East side, so head through the East door and go to the northeast path.
  • Farm the Trolls and Sulfur Scorpions for Stat cells.
    • One room will likely be sufficient, but if you need more you can farm the southern similar room.
    • It is very likely that you will not need any more stats at this point, even if you brought a full party.
    • Go up to the next floor when you have the essential stats.
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Floor 3

  • By this point, you should be capped out on cells.
  • This Rampart may be difficult to pop by a solo BST.
  • Go to the middle of the floor and pull the Archaic Gears from each side.
    • If there are Archaic Gear links, kill them quickly while holding/sleeping the Gears.
  • Feel free to clear all the gear/gears on this floor for Alexandrite if you have time.
  • You need to kill the Archaic Gears at almost the same time. They have Regen and can use Restoral, and level 90s do a lot of damage to them, so you will need to be careful. This is the only Rampart that has gotten harder to spawn on the way to 90.
  • When you kill both Archaic Gears, the Dormant Rampart will spawn in the room of whichever one you killed last. If you aren't sure which it was, just send people to both rooms.
  • Go up on the West side or whichever side the Rampart was on.
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Floor 4

  • In order to weaken the zone boss (Long-Bowed Chariot) and spawn the Dormant Rampart, it is necessary to pull and kill the 10 Archaic Gear on this floor with a throwing weapon, Songs, or Ninjutsu. Throwing weapon is recommended, as it has a long range and relatively short delay.
  • If you successfully pull and kill all 10 gears, the Dormant Rampart will spawn and Long-Bowed Chariot's worst TP move will become a joke. If you kill ≥6 and ≤10 gears, it will be weakened but still pretty substantial and the Rampart will not spawn. If you kill ≤5, there is no known effect. So after five gears Warp, you may as well just skip the rest.
  • There will be 2 or 3 Archaic Gear per room for 10 total.
    • They are aggressive to True Sight, True Sound, Magic, and Job Abilities, and they link. If they Aggro or Link, they will Warp.
    • Wind weather dramatically increases their linking range.
    • They Warp approximately 1 minute after being pulled, so killing quickly is essential.
  • After you have killed the first 5, you will come to a room with a bunch of gears and a Chariot in it. If you wish, killing the Chariot is rumored to enfeeble the boss' attack (east side) or defense (west side). Pull and kill it if you wish, but neither are deal-breakers at level 90.
  • You can clear this entire room if you want just for Alexandrite.
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Floor 5

  • Long-Bowed Chariot is a joke if you were successful on the last floor, or the worst boss in Salvage if you weren't.
    • This is a good description of the fight against him.
  • Notable points:
    • He's blind against any level 90 character with an ounce of evasion.
    • Try to avoid standing directly in front of him. Diffusion Ray is conal like a breath, though its maximum isn't that high.
    • He will often turn and then use Homing Missile. If you have the ability to Stun, use it when he turns instead of when he readies it.
      • Weakened Homing Missile does less damage than Discharge and doesn't drop shadows, which makes it actually desirable.
    • Option 1 and 2 kill him the way you'd predict (Fight it or put Pets on it and AFK, respectively).
    • For an Option 3 group, kite him around/out of the main room.
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