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Promyvion Dem/Holla/Mea Guides
Provided by the staff at The Vana'diel Lobby
By Wingchild -- posted originally at
Allakhazam
Started: September 24th, 2004
Rewrite: December 13th, 2004
Last edit: 01/21/2005 - It's been a month since the last update and the
information here is now static; I expect no further major revisions for this
guide. You may consider it to be a complete work - all the information inside is
tested and verified. Added some notes about the Memory Flux gates. Still no data
on NM Remnants.
For those of you that have not seen this post before, I bid you welcome. For
those battle-scarred veterans of Promyvion who helped contribute data, I bid you
thanks.
Table of Contents
How do I get to Promyvion?
What should I know about this
zone?
What enemies will I encounter?
Normal Enemies
Crag-specific Enemies
Notorious
Monsters
Enemy Core
Types
How do I reach the Spire?
What kind of
drops can I expect, and what do they do?
What's waiting for me in the Spire?
Combat
Reports
Why do I want to do the
Promyvion missions?
So what happens next?
Credits
Help us out! Information still needed
How do I
get to Promyvion?
Short form of the Emptiness access quests:
0) You must have Chains of Promathia purchased and installed. Remember to
register the Content ID.
1) Visit Lower Delkfutt's Tower. Cutscene as you zone in.
2) Visit Upper Jeuno. Cutscene as you zone in.
3) Go to the Upper Jeuno infirmary (on the map), talk to Monberauxe. It's his
infirmary. Cutscene.
4) Go to Ru'Lude Gardens and head into the palace. Proceed left around the main
stairweel go through the door. You'll have entered the guard room. Talk to
Pherimociel for the last cutscene you need.
5) Go visit a shattered crystal. Each of the three main telepoints has one. If
this is your first visit, or if your memory is erased, you'll be prompted twice
before entry.
6) You'll spawn the Hall of Transference. If this is your first time in, talk to
the Large Apparatus. If you have been in this Promyvion before, you can walk up
to the Cermet Door and talk to it for entry.
What should I know about this zone?
General details about the Emptiness:
* You're going through this stuff because it's the only way to access the
Tavnazian Archipelago. If you ever want to get to that part of the world, this
is the way. It's CoP's version of the Kazham Key quest.
* The level cap is 30.
* Experience will be earned here. If you are at or below level 30, you will earn
experience as you normally would. If you are above level 30, your experience is
reduced. All XP earned is applied to your main class. All deaths received
carry a Lv30 penalty (350-400 after returning to your Home Point).
* Experience earned in a level-capped zone is either...
Formula 1) You earn the xp you'd get
if your class were at it's full level.
Formula 2) You earn 1/2 the xp of
your capped job.
... whichever is greater. If you're on a lv31 main capped down to 30, you'll get
lots of xp and can do xp chains. If you're on a 60 main capped down to 30,
you'll get 1/2 the xp a lv30 would earn, and you can't do xp chains.
* Promyvion zones are keyed upon entry; if you've gone into Dem you can skip the
entry cutscenes by talking to the Cermet Door in Dem. Conversely you can't warp
directly to Mea and enter the crystal there. You'll receive no message
explaining your inability to enter. If you want to leave the Promy you're
working on and go elsewhere, use the Large Apparatus on your way out. The
Apparatus will erase your memory, allowing you to enter any Promy zone.
* Erasing your memory does not remove drops acquired, experience earned, or key
items obtained. It is only there to untie you from a given Promy zone.
* Enemies in Promyvion are called `the Empty`. There are several classes,
detailed below.
* Each Promyvion has four floors of enemies.
1st: Easy Prey to Decent Challenge
2nd: Even Match to Tough
3rd: Very Tough to Incredibly Tough
4th: IT++
* To go up a floor, you must find and defeat a Memory Recepticle. MRs show up on
Wide Scan. MRs always appear on platforms and the platform locations are fixed
(thus memorizable/mappable). When you beat an MR, if you're fortunate, a portal
to the next level will appear. Some MRs will not generate portals. More MR
details are found below.
* MR Portals last for three minutes. Do not panic and rush the Portal, lest you
leave someone behind. Make sure you take the time needed to clear any residual
strays before ascending to the next level.
* If you need to go down a level, search for a platform that has a live portal,
but no MR sitting on it. That will be the portal down. Try not to get separated
from your group!
* The fourth floor has no MR; instead, you must find and enter the Spire. The
Spire is a tower-like structure and has an archway that you zone through.
Reaching it can be highly entertaining.
* The Spire is an empty room with a door at the end. The level-cap is removed
inside the Spire. The door acts like a Burning Circle; talking to it lets your
party enter for a BCNM battle against the Spire's boss. The level-cap is
re-applied when the battle begins and all non-food buffs will be removed.
* Enemies drop several types of items, but the most important are the
Recollections. These rare/ex items can be synthed into special animas by Harith
(found in Ru'Lude in the building past Maat). Farm recollections and make the
special animas before the boss fight. Farming these should be mandatory! See the
appropriate section below for more information.
* Boss fights are single-party only. If you went up with a partial alliance
someone is going to sit out during the fight. This can be good or bad...
* If you die against the boss, you are ejected back to the Spire after three
minutes is up. If someone's there, they can Raise you. If you win, your party is
teleported back outside the shattered telepoint. If someone is left behind in
the Spire, the only way to retrieve them is to go UP. (It pays to bring a warp
scroll.)
* The Memory Flux gates are not used during the original Promyvion runs.
I am told they come into play while doing Promyvion-Vazhl, a later CoP
mission, which is outside the scope of this document. Don't worry about them.
What
enemies will I encounter?
Each Promyvion zone has three regular enemies, plus an additional crag-specific
beast. All Promy enemies can be thought of as Sight aggro, and all of them have
True Sight. It is possible to stalk through without a single needless
engagement.
The crag-specific enemies are important, as the NM in each crag is based off
that class, as is the boss waiting in the Spire. If you want to learn how to
fight the boss, spend some time fighting the crag-specific enemy - the boss
typically gets one extra special attack. Not that it matters; you should
be slamming it with Hysteroanima instead of eating it's special attacks.
Normal Enemies:
Wanderer: Floating wisps of memory; these are the most common creature
and are sometimes found in packs.
Aura of Persistence - Defense boost.
Mirage - Evasion boost.
Vanity Drive - Damage attack, one target.
Empty Beleaguer - Damage attack, AOE.
Weeper: These look like dinosaurs; specifically, like a tiny stegosaurus.
Quite common and often found near Wanderers.
Hexagon Belt - Defense boost.
Empty Cutter - Damage attack, one target.
Vacuous Oscillation - Damage attack + poison, one target (and it licks you. If
only it used it's tongue for good!).
Auroral Drape - AOE Silence + Blind.
Memory of <Element> - AOE Elemental damage based on the Weeper's core; be
careful fighting a green Weeper on Windsday, etc. I've seen this spammed fairly
hard before.
Seether: Walking eyeballs. Less common but still appear from time to
time. Most parties refuse to fight these.
Occultation - Utsusemi-like skill, unsure of total # of shadows.
Vanity Strike - Damage attack, one target.
Empty Crush - High damage attack, one target.
Lamentation - Damage attack, AOE.
Wanion - AOE Transferrance; any debuffs stacked on the Seether are pushed to
your party.
Crag-specific
enemies:
Dem / Gorger: Large ticks, fat and lumbering.
Stygian Flatus - AOE Paralyze.
Quadratic Continuum - Damage attack, one target.
Promyvion Barrier - Defense boost.
Mea / Craver: Sort of an obscene Daddy Longlegs. They stand straight and
tall; the central leg is a whip-like tail. These can be a pain to fight.
Material Fend - Evasion boost.
Brain Spike - Damage attack, one target.
Empty Thrash - High damage attack, one target.
Murk - AOE Slow + Gravity.
Promyvion Brume - AOE damage + poison + hate reset.
Holla / Thinker: Sort of reminds me of the living trees in Jugner, but
more squat in appearance. Two clearly defined eyes.
Winds of Promyvion - Erase.
Stygian Vapor - AOE Plague (sets TP to 0, stops TP growth).
The Thinker likely has more skills but we weren't letting them live long enough
to find out for sure.
Notorious
Monsters:
On 12/9/2004 NMs were added to the Promyvion zones. The NMs always appear on the
third floor of the zone. The NMs can range and have no predefined area or
movement pattern that I can find; we wound up chasing the Coveter for quite some
distance after he killed my party.
The NMs drop a rare/ex Remnant keyed to their type, and may also drop Memodrops
for that crag. See the relevant sections below.
The NMs are hard, but can be beaten by a party of six; alliances should worry
only about the AOE skills. Animas cannot be used against the NMs. My
Promy strike-team was able to take the Coveter and the Cerebrator in the same
evening. The fights are hard; there isn't much difference between the NM and the
boss, save for a single skill and the boss having a few more HP. NMs are
significantly harder than their crag-specific counterparts.
Dem / Satiator (Gorger type)
Drops: Remnant of a satiator, Beryl Memodrop
Promyvion Barrier - Defense boost.
Vanity Drive - Damage attack, one target.
Quadratic Continuum - Damage attack, one target.
Mea / Coveter (Craver type)
HP: ~3,600 (thanks, Prim)
Drops: Remnant of a coveter, Indigo Memodrop
Material Fend - Evasion boost.
Brain Spike - Damage attack, one target.
Empty Thrash - High damage attack, one target.
Murk - AOE Slow + Gravity.
Promyvion Brume - AOE damage + poison + hate reset.
Impalement - Huge damage, single target. Damage can vary. I've seen it hit for
100, I've also seen 500. Throat-stab type?
Holla / Cerebrator (Thinker type)
Drops: Remnant of a cerebrator, Teal Memodrop
* Spirit Tap - Steals 1 status effect from one target.
* Binary Tap - Steals 2 status effects from one target.
* Trinary Tap - Steals 3 status effects from one target.
Spirit Absorbtion - Drain, one target.
Binary Absorbtion - Drain, one target.
Empty Cutter - Damage attack, one target
Negative Whirl - Damage attack, AOE.
Stygian Vapor - AOE Plague + hate reset.
Winds of Promyvion - Erase.
* Utsusemi doesn't do a thing versus these attacks, as the enemy steals your
shadows for itself.
Enemy core-types:
Pay attention to the core of the Empties; by noting the color, you can tell what
it's elemental properties are -- and from that, you'll know what weakness it
has. The excellent photos below are from Prim:
Fire
Earth
Water
Wind
Ice
Thunder
Light
Dark
How do I
reach the Spire?
To reach the Spire you must locate and fight Memory Recepticles. MRs are large
glowing balls that sit on the various platforms found in Promyvion. An MR will
have a number of Strays surrounding it. Strays look like Wanderers and appear as
a clustered group.
When you arrive at an MR it will not attack, though it's Strays will aggro. The
MR remains inactive until engaged. Clear the Strays first, then set a camp to do
battle from.
MRs fight using two techniques. First, they'll spawn Strays throughout the
fight. You can see this happen when the MR goes up into the air. Second, the MR
has an attack called Empty Seed. This is a high range AOE damage skill with an
incredible knockback effect. It's lots of fun to get slapped by.
Best practices:
If you are a damage dealer, get on the platform with the MR. Set your back to
one of the four pillars on the platform. This will keep you in melee range and
prevent the knockback effect from sending you flying. It will also keep you
conveniently close to one another for Curaga spells. Empty Seed can also be
blocked with Utsusemi.
My recommendation is to have one attacker stand back with the healer. Let this
attacker pull Strays as they're born and engage them solo. A Red Mage is
completely capable of soloing every Stray created during the battle.
Keep up the damage and the MR will fall. As soon as it dies, the main combat
team must engage and defeat any remaining Strays. Once the platform area is
clear, pray that a portal spawns to take you upstairs.
If you are in an overstrength alliance, it pays to know that you don't have to
call for help on a Recepticle fight. All available players may engage and kill
the MR together.
- `Fake`
Recepticles -
Sometimes you'll kill an MR and it won't give you a portal. You will have to
kill a new MR to go upstairs. Sometimes they spawn on other platforms; sometimes
one will respawn on the same platform you just fought. The rate of portal spawns
is unknown, but is keyed only to beating the MR - not to a particular platform.
What kinds of drops can I expect, and what do
they do?
There are four types of drops that occur in Promyvion. Note that Rangers cannot
Scavenge here.
Remnant of a memory
There are eight types, one for each element in the game. Alchemists are able to
synth these into Elemental Animas, which are used in a variety of other tasks.
The recipes for Elemental Animas are Alchemy Lv75~ and require the guild key
item. Here's the breakdown for which types synth to which elements:
Profane - Earth
Fleeting - Wind
Bitter - Ice
Burning - Fire
Somber - Water
Startling - Lightning
Radiant - Light
Malevolent - Dark
Memodrops
Memodrops are what give you the map to a given Promyvion. To get the map you
must locate the ??? point inside the Promyvion zone. This point will be inside a
blue structure; one of Promy's streetlights, if you will. It will be surrounded
by enemies.
Memodrops may fall very rarely from the crag-specific enemies; Gorgers in
Dem, Cravers in Mea, Thinkers in Holla. They also drop from the Notorious
Monsters.
There is a different color memodrop for each Promyvion. The colors and
associated crags are listed:
Dem - Beryl Memodrop
Mea - Indigo Memodrop
Holla - Teal Memodrop
Previously I had directions in here but recent testing taught me something new.
The ???-point for the map is not in a fixed location. It will always be
on one of the heavily guarded lamp-like objects out in the zone, but which one
gets the ???-point is a matter of chance.
Recollection of <x>
These are the most important of the four drops! These are what you'll
want to go into Promy for to farm up before taking a shot at the bosses.
Recollections are rare/ex memories that can be exchanged for special animas. The
special animas act like anti-boss weapons.
The special animas can be used like any item or food would be; the target will
be the Boss instead of yourself. Example macro: /item "Psychoanima" <t>
There are three types of recollections, and three types of animas to be made:
Recollection of Guilt -=> Terroanima
The enemy will become afraid and run around. Good as a defense if you're drawn
unfortunate aggro. You can also try to ElemSeal+Bind and pound on the enemy; he
will not fight back while he's trying to flee.
Recollection of Fear -=> Psychoanima
The enemy will be Intimidated for the duration. This will pre-empt any normal
attacks. Special attacks may still occur while Pyschoanima is in effect. If you
are able to use Psychoanima before the NM triggers a physical attack skill (such
as Carousel), the damage will be negated.
Recollection of Pain -=> Hysteroanima
The enemy will attempt to use special attacks, but they will not execute. This
is a fantastic anima as it prevents the boss from swarming you under with their
most powerful attacks. Sadly there is no message to let you know that
Hysteroanima is working, nor any to let you know when it stops.
These effects of these special animas <> stack
<>. If you farm up Psychoanima to go with your Hystero you can shut
down Physical and Special attacks for 25-30 seconds at a stretch. As long as you
can do sufficient damage to the boss and kill it before you're out of animas
you're going to be fine.
Some Recollections are easier to farm in certain crags due to the way they drop.
Wanderers will drop one Recollection, Weepers drop another, Seethers drop the
third. Seethers can only be found on the second floor and higher and are a pain
to fight - it may be to your advantage to change to an easier crag to farm a
particular Recollection.
Dem
Wanderers: Pain (Hystero)
Weepers: Guilt (Terro)
Seethers: Fear (Psycho)
Mea
Wanderers: Guilt (Terro)
Weepers: Fear (Psycho)
Seethers: Pain (Hystero)
Holla
Wanderers: Fear (Psycho)
Weepers: Pain (Hystero)
Seethers: Guilt (Terro)
I recommend Hysteroanima for your entire party at a minimum; Hystero + Psycho
for best results. Terroanima has caused me more problems than benefits - I do
not use it in combat.
Take these back to Harith in Ru'lude Gardens (the building back behind
where Maat is). Trade him the Recollection + 2,000g to get your special anima
back. There is a minor catch to this.
The animas are rare/ex, so you can't hold two.
If you synth up your Hysteroanima then give him a Rec. of Pain, Harith will take
it. He'll even make the Hysteroanima for you. He just won't give it to you!
He'll also refuse to do any other conversions while he's holding your
Hysteroanima.
Remnant of a <Notorious Monster>
Each of the NMs drops a rare/ex Remnant; the Coveter drops a `Remnant of a
coveter`, for example. The use of these items is not yet known. Things that
don't work:
- Harith doesn't talk about them
- Trading to Harith, even with money, does nothing
- Won't trade to the 2nd floor Memory Flux gate
- Won't trade to the 4th floor ??? (map point)
I possess all three of the Remnants, but have found no use for any of them at
this time.
What's waiting for me in the Spire?
Boss fights, of course. The Spire is a long room where your level cap is turned
off. At the end is a door that you can talk to; doing so will start a BCNM-style
fight called `Ancient Flames Beckon`. Your party is teleported into the arena
and the battle begins. You will have time to buff and med on the inside of the
door, so don't panic - just don't run forward after you zone in.
All bosses are a bigger form of the crag-specific enemy.
Dem /
Progenerator (Gorger)
Specials:
Fusion - Spawns an Offspring
Spirit Absorbtion - 200 HP drain attack
Promyvion Barrier (offspring only) - Defense Boost
Quadratic Continuum - Damage attack, one target
Vanity Drive - Damage attack, one target
The offspring are smaller than normal Gorgers and are weak. The Progenerator is
immune to Sleep and Bind; the offspring are not. The maximum number of offspring
in play is 6. Offspring will continue to be generated if some are killed off.
Fusion seems to start happening @ 50% HP and can be blocked by Hysteroanima or
by kiting the Progenerator around.
This NM is said to have a regeneration ability, though I did not see it in
combat. The only major problem it caused for my party was that the offspring
were generated faster than we could handle (our first run was with 0 anima in
hand).
Kiting is possible and is fun; it's especially do-able with a blink tank and
ElemSeal+Gravity. If you get an offspring and have no way to handle it, consider
kiting the boss or using a Terroanima; that should give you plenty of time to
handle the add.
Mea / Delver
(Craver)
Specials:
Brain Spike - Damage attack, one target.
Empty Thrash - High damage attack, one target.
Impalement - High damage attack, one target. Damage varies oddly.
Murk - AOE Slow + Gravity.
Promyvion Brume - AOE damage + poison + hate reset.
Carousel - Higher AOE damage.
Carosel is a bothersome attack as healing your damage dealers often requires
Curaga, which can shift hate in unpleasant ways. Utsusemi can block the Carosel.
Utsusemi can't block the AOE poison effect from Promyvion Brume. This is
an incredibly nasty skill to face; Hysteroanima will be your friend.
Make sure you bring Antidote potions to self-cure poison; your healer will
not have time to give Poisona to people. The hate-reset also makes doing so
a dangerous proposition.
This boss is incredibly hard to fight if let him spam his skills. Try triggering
hysteroanimas every 20 seconds (or six weapon attacks) to keep him from ever
getting one off. Bring poison potions - Brume resets hate; if your WHM is doing
Poisona repeatedly he may find himself being chased. Running away with Gravity
on is ... tricky.
Holla /
Wreaker (Thinker)
Specials:
Trinary Absorbtion - Drain, one target.
Trinary Tap - Steals 3 status effects from whomever is targeted.
Empty Cutter - Damage attack, one target.
Negative Whirl - Damage attack, AOE.
Stygian Vapor - AOE Plague + hate reset.
Shadow Spread - AOE Curse + Sleep. This is what kills teams.
Bring poison potions (something slow) to make sure you don't sleep; bring Holy
Water to fix the Curse status.
Hysteroanimas are your friend. Every 20 seconds will do it for you. My team
fought this boss with six hysteroanimas on board; we used four by the time he
died. We were not affected by a single skill, so I can't fully update his list.
In truth, I never want to go up there to let him slap me around. Would
you? ^^
- Helping Others
-
People who have completed a BCNM fight are able to enter to help others, so long
as someone who needs the battle triggers combat first. In all respects, it's
just like the 2-3 Dragon fight, the the 5-1 Archlich Taber'quon fight, the 5-2
Shadow Lord fight, and many others.
-
Combat Reports!
-
Soloing a Memory Recepticle as RNG/NIN
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1096069103816519622
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1096079465828958160
vs. Mea
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1096088564279342550
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1096090211838113377
vs. Holla
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=109609584291161400
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1096102125330208841
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1096134769359188217
vs. Dem
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1096384424240591632
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1096467008127405991
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1096565317941636686
Why do I want to do the Promy missions?
When you finish your third Promyvion BCNM, you will be automatically warped to
Lufaise Meadows. This gets you a cut-scene and starts Chapter 2 of
Chains of Promathia.
After you have started Chapter 2, you will be able to use the
Swirling Green Vortexes in
Valkurm Dunes and
Quifm Isle.
Valkurm Dunes -=>
Lufaise Meadows
Quifm Isle -=>
Misareaux Coast
You will then be able to walk to the Tavnazian Safehold, where the next CoP
missions await.
If you complete your last Promy run with a Level 30 character, it's important to
know that there are aggressive enemies between you and the Safehold. Either wait
for friends, recruit some on-site help, or back up 'til you find the Portal and
jump over to Valkurm. Come back with Prism Powders (Orcs, Giants) and Silent
Oils (Bugards).
So what
happens next?
Phomiuna Aqueducts - The Minotaur - Get your
game on!
http://www.vanadiellobby.com/guides/aqueducts/
Riverne Site #A01 / The Mammet battle
http://www.vanadiellobby.com/guides/rivernea01/
Credits, etc
aziwoqpd - for the initial additional NM data
KiranaofIfrit x5 - for detailed Holla NM data, post-promyvion
information, more Mea NM data, and more post-promyvion info, Dem NM data, and
for a correction on Trinary Tap.
insideout - linked to recollection/anima data
agentvasz - more data on recollections
AmanoJ - info on going back down through portals
exilekiss - *tons* of confirmations and solid post-promyvion data! woo!
tekkub - Dem memodrop confirmation, Terroanima name confirmation, and the
info on colors of the Empty
Pyke, RoyalWolfy - Pso'xja information
Arkenstone - great combat data
XxShockerxX - Holla NM elemental data
Ganthrinor - Psychoanima effect
selebrin - Hysteroanima effect
BluesHawk - Terroanima effect
Prim - hp data on the Coveter
Prim, again - Great links for the core-types, info on the Portal
disappearance rate
Zarath - details on what drops what Recollections in promy.
Help us
out!
The following questions remain:
- Wondering where the three new anima types come from (talk to Harith;
recollections of animosity? what the..?).
- No information on Remnant of a <NM>, the rare/ex drops from the Promy NM
critters.
Copyright � 2005
Wingchild. Posted on The Vana'diel Lobby with permission. To link to this
guide, use the following URL:
http://www.vanadiellobby.com/guides/promyvion/
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