Farming Arrapago Remnants II as THF/PUP

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Arrapago Remnants II as THF sub PUP by Spicyryan

That's me with no armor. That's me ev-er-y night. Farming my Alexandrite.

Trying to make- a - Mythic, and I don't know if I can do it. Oh no, I've farmed too much; I haven't farmed enough.

Foreward:

Oh how years fly. It was about three years ago I slapped this together. It was my first guide, and the entire premise was completely tongue-in-cheek.
However, I suppose it was still a guide, and still my first go at it before writing the more popular entries like Out of the BLU, Here Be DRGs, or Quickstart 1-119.

That being said I still receive tells about this guide in game every now and again which is the reason I am revisiting this page to leave this foreword.

If you are seriously looking to farm Alexandrite then personally I would just spam Bhaflau Remnants II on BLU/thf. Not that you couldn't farm it on any job. You can, but that is my preference. Just follow the wiki page, it is easy enough to blaze through the map.
Ignore the small gears as they rarely drop a single, and clear the rooms and NMs quickly on the way up. Frankly I ignore the dragon etc and just blaze through the zone in 20 minutes as the two rooms of gear triples and the mega boss are most of what matters. -- 13:31, 18 February 2018‎

Why Would Anyone Sub LOLPUP? A Few Pros and Cons

  • Pros
    • Protectra III
    • Shellra II
    • Regen II
    • Haste
    • Erase
    • No JA delay on maneuvers anymore
    • Infinite MP if you Deactivate and Reactivate at the puppet at full HP
    • No TP loss from the typical sub of DNC.
    • Different playstyle that you won't use in pretty much any other event in FFXI
    • Fun
    • Companion for those long lonely nights that isn't a volleyball
    • Faster run than sub DNC
    • Snowflake status
  • Cons
    • Requires you to understand PUP
    • Requires you to sub PUP
    • If you don't already have certain attachments you have to buy them
    • Aggroing all seven gears is more dangerous
    • No Spectral Jig
    • Requires you to pay a little more attention (not sure if this is a pro or con)
    • Sometimes the puppet decides it wants to be a dipshit and get stuck walking back and forth into a pillar until you go poke it
    • Rare moments where you get gravitied at the end of a gear and have no way of erasing it without another mob to deploy on
    • Have to position the puppet appropriately for a few NMs to avoid physical AoEs

Double Pros and Cons, What Does it Mean?

Weighing the pros and cons should make it pretty obvious why I think this is the best Salvage sub job for THF. Everyone subs DNC when they solo and frankly that would drive me insane. BLU destroys salvages, and I would sooner take TH2/3 honestly. That being said, THF is not the best job for Salvage. The only thing you gain is treasure hunter which only really helps on getting cotton coin purses and increasing your odds at an extra linen purse. There will be many nights where you get no cottons at all and average ~120 a run. Then there will be nights you get 1-3 cottons with your overrated Treasure Hunter, and those other times when you get nothing you wonder why you spent an extra 25+ minutes fighting NMs. However, when it is all said and done. Kenbishi ("Kenny") and I had fun and even died once time or two to make it exciting.

Making Salvage Fun

I just mentioned that I had fun being /PUP on THF, but let me give you some pro-tips here :P

Salvage is a joke now at 99 cap iLvl 119. Sure if you don't pay attention you can still die, and if your gear is lacking you won't have such an easy time. Overall, I find A-Rem II to be the easiest zone to farm compared to your other high yield option of B-Rem II.

I have played XI since June 26th 2006. In close to 9 years I have learned that it is best to never take this game too seriously or treat it like a job. Turn on some Netflix or something while you do this. Post some junk on the BG Forums. Have a good time, and have a beer or whatever your cup of tea is.

You can make this run last either ~20 minutes, ~45 minutes farming the important stuff quickly, or an hour plus from either a full clear or because you kept watching House of Cards or Breaking Bad with a beer after a long day.

A Mythic is a long process that is not nearly as rewarding from an elitist perspective as it was back in the day. So rushing your way through things, buying all you can find and farming when you can't with the sole purpose of being stronger is not what Mythic is in my opinion. I used to think that is what it was about too, but after doing one in an honestly patient manner within an impatient time (2.5 months start to finish).

Okay, So WTF About /PUP? Ins and Outs

So you wanna be a Thief Master, egh?

Maneuvers

Element: Light Light: Promotes the use of cures. The Puppet will not decide to immediately cure you in yellow without this, and by the point of orange a Cure IV might have you a bit far behind the 8 ball. Dark: Ride one of these at all times to keep MP up from your Mana Tank. Water: Promotes the use of enhancing magic and -na spells. Earth: If you use the Shock Absorber; to activate it.

Positioning and AoEs to the Puppet

Believe it or not you would think a level 49 puppet in a zone released for level 99 characters would die very easily, and it doesn't. E.g A fulmination will never kill the puppet. It seems to only take it to about 40% HP.

However, these various scenarios need to be addressed:

  • Acrolith NM
    • Do not have the puppet near the big arm of this jerk. Dismemberment is a narrow AoE where this guy who was obviously made in Taiwan or someplace with no QC. Launches his arm at you in a narrow AoE which kills the puppet. It is easy to position against even if the puppet is right at your side unengaged.
  • Armored Chariot
    • Mortal Revolution almost always kills the puppet, but it is a narrow AoE. Deploy the puppet and move the NM away a little bit.
  • Khimairas
    • Tourbillion will kill the puppet. So deploy and pull the Khimaira back.
    • As mentioned, Fulmination will only take half the puppets HP away.

That is the limited worry you must have with dragging your faceless friend around with you.

Attachment Layout

Here are the attachments I chose for the Soulsoother puppet.

The Guide

First Floor

Floor Information

1F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Unlocks
Vulture Sub Job, Head/Neck, Back/Waist
Leech Sub Job, Ranged, Rings/Earrings
Merrow Kabukidancer Job Abilities, HP, Legs/Feet
1F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Cell
Lamia Dancer Magic, Hands, MP
Merrow Shadowdancer Magic, MP, Hands
Lamia Dartist Job Abilities, HP, Legs/Feet
Arrapago Remnants 1F

Northwest Wing

Southwest Wing

Southeast Wing

Northeast Wing

There are four wings which each spiral out to a teleport leading to F2 (no prerequisite necessary to use). Each wing contains four rooms containing four monsters each. Lamia type monsters are found in the first and third hallways between the rooms of each wing.

Notorious Monsters

Chigoe Stinger: In the second hallway of one of the four wings, an untargetable chigoe will be present. This NM can only be aggroed and fought after clearing all monsters in that particular wing.

Floor Advice

Fast and Efficient

Go through the first room.

  • Unlock head and feet on a vulture or two.
  • Donkey punch the Merrow in the hallway then use Hide and go to the door to go up.
    • If you didn't get legs/feet then kill the other Merrow
    • If you get aggroed by vultures dropping hide you can try a few times to open the door.
      • With movement speed of 16%+ (Skadi +1) you can outrun this aggro to the porter and go up.

I find it worthwhile to skip the Chigoe Stinger here even if it is in the first wing. You have to spend ~10 minutes of time (not including seek time) to clear all these mobs out. You don't even have hands at this point in the first wing for extra TH. Unless you get them from the lamp at the start. Even then I don't find the time to reward ratio rewarding enough.

I Wanna Farm

Find the Chigoe NM

  • Clear that whole wing and go up

Second Floor

Floor Information

2F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Unlocks
Vulture Sub Job, Head/Neck, Back/Waist
Leech Ranged, Rings/Earrings
Merrow Kabukidancer Job Abilities, HP, Legs/Feet
Merrow Shadowdancer Magic, MP, Hands
2F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Cell
Lamia Dancer Magic, Hands, MP
Merrow Icedancer Magic, Head/Neck, Sub Job
Lamia Dartist Job Abilities, HP, Legs/Feet
Merrow Chantress Magic, MP, Hands
Arrapago Remnants 2F

Northwest Room

Southwest Room

Southeast Room

Northeast Room

Central Area

  • Archaic Gear 4x
    • Spawned by defeating the 2 Lamia in the starting room.
    • One within each hall connected to the center room.

The location of the room you start in on F2 will correspond to which teleport you used on F1. You may open the door to exit the room without defeating any monsters, but the doors leading to the remaining three rooms will be locked.

Notorious Monsters

Archaic Gear: Spawns within the center room after defeating all four Archaic Gear.

Floor Advice

Fast and Efficient

  • Kill a Leech or Bird, depending on your Chigoe philosophy.
  • Knockout the 2 Lamia.
  • Defeat the four Gears.
    • These have a low chance of dropping Alex.
  • Defeat the NM Gear
    • Floating stupid jerk face.


I Wanna Farm

  • Same as above.

Third Floor

Floor Information

3F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Unlocks
Qutrub Job Abilities, INT, MP
Lamia Dancer Magic, Hands, MP
Lamia Dartist Job Abilities, HP, Legs/Feet
Lamia Fatedealer CHR, VIT
Lamia Graverobber MND, Magic
3F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Cell
Flytrap DEX, AGI, MND
Merrow Chantress Magic, MP, Hands
Merrow Icedancer Magic, Sub Job
Merrow Kabukidancer Job Abilities, HP, Legs/Feet
Merrow Shadowdancer Magic, MP, Hands
Arrapago Remnants 3F

East/North Path

West/South Path

East Path Notorious Monsters

Acrolith: Automatically appears among the Qutrub
Archaic Gear: Appears in the northern teleporter room after defeating the single Archaic Gear among the Lamia

West Path Notorious Monsters

Chigoe Stinger: Appears in the southern teleporter room after defeating the single Archaic Gear among the Lamia

Floor Advice

Fast and Efficient

  • Take the east path
    • Qutrubs aggro sound and sight. You can either come prepared or make it a Mission Impossible scene everytime of avoiding the Quturubs. I chose the latter, obviously!
  • Defeat the Acrolith
  • Defeat the lone Gear floating around the Lamia.
    • Save Hide for this as the gears in here are all true sound aggro and the Lamia are all sight only.
    • This way you can avoid any Lamia aggro on your pull through.

I Wanna Farm

  • Same as above

Fourth Floor

Floor Information

4F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Unlocks
Qutrub Job Abilities, INT, MP
Merrow Icedancer Magic, Sub Job
Merrow Kabukidancer Job Abilities, HP, Legs/Feet
Merrow Shadowdancer Magic, MP, Hands
Merrow Chantress Magic, MP, Hands
4F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Cell
Flytrap DEX, AGI, MND
Lamia Dancer Magic, Hands, MP
Lamia Dartist Job Abilities, HP, Legs/Feet
Lamia Fatedealer CHR, VIT
Lamia Graverobber MND, Magic
Arrapago Remnants 4F

North Side

South Side

The half of F4 that you start on is determined by where you teleported from F3. Each side is completely isolated from the other.

North Side Notorious Monsters

Acrolith: Appears in the Acrolith room after defeating the two Acrolith.
Lamia Spoliator: Appears in the western room after defeating the Lamia Fatedealers and Lamia Dartists. Uses Eagle Eye Shot.

South Side Notorious Monsters

Acrolith: Appears in the Acrolith room after defeating the two Acrolith.
Qutrub Devourer: Appears in the southern room after defeating the 4 Dark Knight Qutrub (they can be differentiated by their weapon - DRKs wield a sword while BLMs wield a dagger).

Floor Advice

Fast and Efficient

  • Go North
    • Kill a Flytrap
  • Return West
    • Defeat the two Acroliths and the NM
  • Go to the next floor.

I Wanna Farm

  • Also Kill the Lamia NM in the room next to the Acroliths.
    • I generally skip this because there is an almost certain chance of linking extra mobs, and spending more time there. This adds ~5-8 minutes to your run, depending.

Fifth Floor

Floor Information

5F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Unlocks
Archaic Gear Weapons, Ranged, Body, Head/Neck
Archaic Gears Magic, STR, DEX, INT
Arrapago Remnants 5F

North Side

South Side

No notorious monsters are known to exist on this floor. It can be used for Alexandrite farming and likely yields ~40 Alexandrite when fully cleared.

Floor Advice

Fast and Efficient

  • Hug the walls and avoid the Gears if possible.
    • If successful clonk one on the head in the middle of the large room to unlock body.
  • Fight the Ramparts in the corners to spawn 7 Gear triples.
    • Save TP and WS the Rampart once it spawns the Gears. You can try and switch targets and run away with one too if you are quick.
  • Try to aggro them separately obviously, but eventually they will mass link.
    • Remember your light maneuver, you can hold the puppet in reserve with one and deploy when you feel the time is right.
  • Go to the next floor after the gears have been eviscerated.
  • I generally deploy the puppet for buffs, and then retrieve it on this floor. An option aside from recalling the puppet.

I Wanna Farm

  • Clear the whole floor!
    • The triples are 100% on at least 1, but the single Gears are a low drop rate on one.

Sixth Floor

Floor Information

6F Pathos Unlocks
Enemies Unlocks
Archaic Chariot STR, INT, DEX, Magic, Job Abilities
Arrapago Remnants 6F

Central Room

Side Rooms

Notorious Monsters

Khimaira: There is a stationary Archaic Rampart against the south wall which can use Reinforcements to spawn Khimaira (NM) or another Archaic Chariot. The spawn condition for Khimaira requires killing Armored Chariot in under three minutes. The rampart will only use Reinforcements once. If you bring the rampart to too low of HP (under ~20%) too quickly, the rampart can have a significant delay (took over 10 minutes in one instance) in using Reinforcements.
Khimaira uses standard Khimaira TP moves and can use Fulmination (<30%, possibly 35% like other Khimairas.).

Floor Advice

Fast and Efficient

  • Defeat the Armored Chariot and the other few Chariots in the room.
    • Remember to kill the Armored Chariot in 3 minutes or less. If not you get no Khimaira NM from the Rampart.
    • Remember to keep the puppet out of melee range so it is not broken in half by Mortal Revolution.
    • The other Chariots sometimes get in the way so we take those out.
    • Remember you can fight behind the Chariot for SA+WS and the Relic body augment from Ambush. The face has the four beady eyes and the ass has the two.
  • Defeat the Khimaira.
    • Make sure the puppet is out of range so it does not murdered via Tourbillion.
    • Obviously, fight behind it.
  • Go to the next floor.

I Wanna Farm

  • There are four more Chariots, two in each of the rooms on the edges. Take those down before going up.

Seventh Floor

Floor Information

Notorious Monsters

Khrysokhimaira Elder: If Khimaira was spawned on the sixth floor, the final boss, Khrysokhimaira Elder, will spawn upon entering the last room. If Khimaira was not previously spawned, it will spawn here instead of Khrysokhimaira Elder.
Khrysokhimaira Elder uses standard Khimaira TP moves and can use Fulmination and Lithic Breath (Petrification and Weakness) at low HP (<25%).
Defeating this boss will yield the title Solar Sage.

Floor Advice

  • Is this a bad time to say that you should carry a remedy or two every run for Fulmination?
    • Honestly, you would think you are fucked when this happens because the puppet is crippled too, but I never died from this as long as I played it safe.
      • Save SA+AC+WS for ~25%
      • Keep yourself topped off on HP with a light maneuver.
      • If it is all going south don't forget Rudra's Storm inflicts gravity. Just run away.
  • Is it silly that I refused to use RR for my runs? Playing with your back against the wall can be enjoyable. Don't be a sore loser!

End of The Line

Clutch, right? Happy Salvaging!