Random Question Thread (FFXI Related)

This is a very off the wall question, but, does anyone happen to know what affects the scale of the moon in-game? Is it just the time of year Vana'diel time or are there other factors?

...the scale of the moon changes?

Just going by memory, Abyssea always has the big moon?

I could be misremembering, but I swear it gets bigger at certain times of year. Suppose I'm looking for a sanity check on it.


moon's haunted (Abyssea's moon is different yeah, doesn't change colour for the day of the week like ours either)

What's the ideal 3-5 pop items to take with you into odyssey B? (which NM's are quickest to down i guess)

trying to unlock Cut and Cauterize III, anyone know if this repitition based or player number based?

I'd just pick the least harmful targets. Only thing I'd suggest is save the Atk up Aura NM's for floors 1-3 if possible. I dont remember all the details, and I cant be bothered to dig through my logs to find it, but I popped the Colibri on floor 6 once and it ruined my run when adds popped. That was the last time I did that.
PD/Invincible isnt much of an issue since you'll be switching off to kill the adds anyways while that timer runs itself down.

I haven't fought them all yet since I'm currently in the process of working on MM in B, but so far the easiest have been
Akidu (Vermillion Fishfly)
Apollinarus (Centurio Armor)
Bes (Azrael Eyes)
Fleet-footed (Clawberry Coat) - Astral Flow doesn't hurt at all; we're mostly still in white HP after the damage
Fornax (Volatile Cluster)
Haven't fought it yet, but I can see Taniwha (Bakunawa) being an easy 6th to bring since both his 1 hour and aura isn't too bad.

Any monster that is natively weak: the fly, beetle, worm (has perfect dodge, annoying).

You can cheese-depop the adds though. They spawn linked to the main NM, but are actually hateless:

Call Valaineral, fight NM to 50%, add will pop. Val will use Uriel Blade to tag everything. Disengage immediately after, before one of your trusts acts on Val (no cures, or they will share hate). Let Val die, and the two adds will depop. Then re-engage and kill.

The main NM will retain his aura through the entire fight, though, so if it's something annoying you have to deal with it. Might be easier than dealing with 3 mobs, if you're solo.

Or if you are BST for some reason like I was, use Generous Arthur, and when adds pop, use Corrosive Ooze then let him die. Adds will depop once the only hate monster that acted on them is gone. Then you can just re-summon him.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Damage_Type

In this page there's a thing talking about Colibri's having a 25% piercing weakness but a 0% ranged weakness which has no citation and I can't find anything to back that up, including the families own page on bgwiki. Is there testing somewhere or is this a thing?

Seems weird, because the pages for both colibri and mosquito families show the same weakness for piercing and ranged. But it is right for the 12.5% group. Maybe it was updated at one point and this page wasnt?

Repetition, what’s worst is if you don’t wait for a week where the battle strategy is not set for troop conditioning it takes 20+ completes to unlock.

If you're solo fighting NMs in Sheol B, definitely pop them on the first floor.

They get stronger as the floors get higher, and if you pop anything solo on the top floor it will likely ruin your life run.

I'd do the fly or the worm, both pretty harmless. Switch to adds if the main NM has PD or invincible. If you decide to kill adds before NM, kill them as soon as they pop. Do not let NM get <25% before starting to kill adds.

This. If attempting multiple NMs then you should bring pops for various difficulty levels. Start with the most difficult and reduce the difficulty as you increase floors. I learned this one the hard way and needed Monberaux to perform surgery to remove the tentacles.