RUN Empyrean Armor Quest

So I completed the quest for Amchuchu and got 2,000 Bayld and 12 Rarab Tails. I have no idea what to do for the next part in the quest. I waited for the next game day and even zoned but Amchuchu won't talk to e and the starting NPC (can't remember name) just tells me the same thing.

Edit: Boyfriend asked the question under my account, he found out what to do now, lol

Did you clear the fight yet?

Just went through it myself since I couldn't find any guides:

Prerequisite: Have acquired at least 1 piece of Futhark gear, thus "completing" the relic armor quest.

1) Talk to Octavernost in Western Adoulin (near Big Bridge) for a CS. He tells you to go to Ra'Kaznar.
2) Use the Outer Ra'Kaznar skirmish warp and check the Meeting Point from the relic armor quest for another CS, and you'll get a KI "Refined Ra'Kaznar fiber".
3) Return to Octavernost for a CS where he gives you a choice in 3 fights to take on, at different difficulty levels. You only need to beat one, and get different rewards based on the difficulty. The fight itself is against a Satellite Claymore-kinda NM called Arcus Blades. More on this NM further down. Talking to Octavernost again will give you the option to teleport directly to where the fight is held.
4a) Level 109 fight: Fought at the Strange Apparatus in King Ranperre's Tomb. Friends and trusts can be used, and you can even change jobs apparently. Rewards you with 10,000 bayld.
4b) Level 125 fight: Fought at the Strange Apparatus in Fei'Yin. Friends and trusts can be used, and you can even change jobs apparently. Rewards you with 3 synth materials used for forging the armor.
4c) Level 135 fight: *hidden option* Fought at the Strange Apparatus in Ranguemont Pass. This fight is done completely solo and you must be on RUN. Rewards with 10 synth items for armor upgrade, a Codex of Etchings (gives a random amount of Etched Memories, used for upgrading Empyrean armor to 119), and a title, Sword Saint.
5) Return to Octavernost for a brief message (might be skippable?), and then head to Amchuchu's Laboratory (door in the back of Inventor's Coalition) for another CS. A game day must pass before you can go to the next step.
6) Return to Octavernost who gives you the 109 body. If you've done the quest Quiescence (first stage of Ergon), you'll only require either 1 Isgebind Heart -or- 7 HP bayld per armor piece. Normal materials for upgrade are as follows:- Octavernost offers additional KIs to fight the NMs again, but won't give you them until Conquest tally probably.


ARCUS BLADES - Properties and 135 solo strategy
- You have about 3 minutes to kill this NM, and almost all buffs are removed. TP is reset. Food, and for whatever reason, Vallation/Valiance are not lost when popped.
- He casts Tier IV-VI elemental nukes (or Comet, Holy II) in a rotation, starting with the element of the current day. He moves to the next element (by day) when using his only WS, Dire Whorl.
- Most defensive buffs (Blink, Utsusemi, Shell, Phalanx, Protect I can say for sure) will have him respond with an incredibly fast Dispelga, which will strip 2 buffs and cause him to rage. When raged, he will move up to higher tier spells and gain considerable magic attack. Holy II went from doing 1200 to 3000 in MDT gear on the 135 fight.
- He will progress to a higher tier spell as he remains on his current element. Depending on your gear, nukes will range from about 500-1200ish on the 135 fight.
- He will absorb his current element.
- His melee attacks/WSs are comparatively weak, and since Battuta can't be dispelled and the fight is so short, that's probably enough.
- Fairly evasive at 135, sushi and accuracy gear recommended. Will not attempt to dispel Hasso, Sekkanoki, Swordplay, Regen, or Foil. I'd estimate his HP being around 10-12k.
- Immune to stun from /DRK, but susceptible to Arcana Killer.
- My original strategy involved using Vallation to protect against the day's element before popping. Upon spawning, put up the proper runes, and meditate, Hasso, Swordplay, and Battuta. Build TP to 2000% and then perform self-skillchain with Dimidiation to Dimidiaation and burst Lunge/Swipe. For me, this put him around 40%. I kept TPing, and then did another Dimidiation, popped an Icarus Wing, and one more Dimidiation, which nearly finished him off, meleeing the last 2%.
- Using Gambit aligned with your Lunge MB will help tremendously, though you'll likely need to Gambit the appropriate rune when he's one element away (ie: Flabra Gambit when he's in Fire phase, so he'll be ready when he gets to Earth phase).
- Defensively, you need to know the order of the days of the week and be ready to change runes. He'll only get through 4 elements before vanishing, so we a pre-buffed Vallation, you could have a Ward for every element. Wear MDT armor since you can't use Shell. Shadow Ring helps immensely. One For All can't be dispelled either, and you can always fall back on Sforzo or Subterfuge in a clutch.
- Defeating it solo at 135 grants the title Sword Saint and Octavernost will henceforth only address you as such.
Drops:

Does he attempt to dispel Inspiration?
What SC does Dimi>Dimi produce, I forgot, Light?

If you fail what do you have to do to retry the fight and how long do you have to wait?

Some more info...

The CL 125 and 109 fights work the exact same as what Jeanpaul explained for the hard one. They're all against "Arcus Blades", at various Strange Apparatus. For me, 125 was Fei'Yin and 109 was King Ranperre's Tomb.

Seems that the main differences are in drops:
- 135: As you can see from Jeanpaul's screenshot, lots of drops (including a Codex of Etchings)
- 125: When I popped, it said "victory may yield up to 3 items".
- 109: No items, but you do get 10,000 Bayld for win.
- You'll notice that Jeanpaul's drop pool contained lots of stuff used for the 109 reforge materials.

You can use trusts on the fight, but be careful not to use ones who will give you buffs that cause the Arcus Blades to rage. I had Koru-Moru out and his Phalanx II caused the CL126 Blades to dispel and then promptly maul me. HOWEVER... BRD buffs are fine. I went back and won easy mode 109 with Joachim, Ulmia, and Sakura - no dispels (Joachim is nice too since he'll cure you).

You can get a new KI instantly if you lose, just have to go back to Octavernos and pick one up (then run back to the Strange Apparatus).

After getting the CS in Inventor's Coalition, you don't need to even zone after 0:00 game day change to get the Erilaz Coat.

109 win, no Ergon progress prices for the additional items:

Head (Erilaz Galea):
(i) 1 Isgebind heart + 1 moldbdenum ingot + 1 moybdenum ore, OR
(ii) 15 HP Bayld

Hands (Erilaz Gauntlets):
(i) 1 Isgebind heart + 1 flocon-de-mer + 1 Ceberus hide, OR
(ii) 10 HP Bayld

Legs (Erilaz Leg Guards):
(i) 1 Isgebind heart + 1 galateia + 1 Ceberus hide, OR
(ii) 25 HP Bayld

Feet (Erilaz Greaves):
(i) 1 Isgebind heart + 1 molybdenum ingot + 1 Ceberus hide, OR
(ii) 20 HP Bayld

If nobody confirms 125 win and resulting armor prices, I'm gonna go back and do that fight tomorrow and see if things change at all. You can get the pop items again once you've completed a fight [UPDATE: while there's a menu option, I'm still unable to get the pop items, Octa says they're not in stock yet and may take a few days. I waited past one JP midnight from getting first win, but I didn't yet have 5/5 set].

109 win gave no title, so I'm gonna practice up and get that 135 eventually!

Can summon trusts before the fight? If so I think I'll try Mumor, Uka and Joachim.
Stuns, sambas, heals, songs and no buffs.

Ferrous Coffin may work well too, since he doesn't use Pro/Shell. Not sure whether Haste causes dispelga/rage, but seems like it probably wouldn't since the ones we've seen are defensive buffs.

So... I didn't know about the buff rage... I just assumed that's how the NM works...
So 3x pro/shell WHMs.
So after the 3rd or 4th time eating it to four T6s in a row...
I said *** it: Astral Conduit.
Cause that's my response to basically everything... This mob charms? Astral Conduit. Has doom or endoom or a 1hitKO thing? Astral Conduit. Person is being a ***? Astral Conduit. Annoying Baby? Astral Conduit. Betrayal? Astral. Conduit.

Doesn't seem to have stun immunity cause I spammed Ramuh's Volt and Chaotic Strikes and the thing took one autoattack on Ramuh and never could do anything else.

I also question the "current day" progression, didn't fight on a darksday, but it always opened with Comets... However, it DID follow the week elemental flow. Eg: comet, fire, stone, water...
Probably later but I died from all of those being x4 T6s with water every time. (Though I DID get him down to ~10%...)
Nice to know that buffs cause him to do the rages.

So you do not have to be on RUN to do the fight?

...I need to start playing again, I've missed two months of crap.

I didn't know about the rage stuff, I did the 109 version with joachim, cherukiki, and arcelia, and he certainly spammed comet and holy 2, I just popped 1 hours right away then got buffs up and powered through it in -MDT set.

I don't know about the others, but for the 135 fight, you have to fight as RUN, completely solo (not even trusts). If you die/time out, you can just go back to Octavernost and get a new KI without any waiting. I don't think he tries to dispel Inspiration, nor Regen. I used Epeolatry, but I think a more offensive weapon like Macbain would perform better.

Looking like I can't get another core for more fighties til conquest update. I'm guessing title is exclusive to the 135 version.

I hate you for having Epeolatry. :P (Just kidding, grats!)

I possess a fairly decent DD Macbain, and from what I've seen I won't need the PDT from my (inferior) Aettir. Since I've been afk for two and a half months, there's likely gear that I do NOT have that could help... considering the thing shifts elements accoding to day, would the AF119 body be better due to elemental resistance, or should I dig up something else?

Do you have to repeat this fight x5 for each piece?

I'm likely to try to do the 135 just for the hell of it, even though I may well get my *** handed to me.

Sorry for all the questions, like I said, I've been gone for a bit.

To start making gear, you only need to beat any one of the fights. The advantage for doing 135 is that you get a bunch of materials for upgrade, as well as the Etched Memories for upgrading any Empyrean piece to 119 (which you can also sell).

Wearing MDT gear helps tremendously (relic body, Defending ring, Engulfur +1, etc). I had Shadow Ring proc several times as well, so I highly recommend using one if you can.

Ah, interesting. I've fought both the 125 and 109 with trusts, so looks like the true solo is 135 only.

Sword Saint indeed, good job Jeanpaul.

I don't have a Defending Ring because KB is a stingy ho.

Shadow Ring, though... yes, I could see where that could be helpful. And I actually have that.

Hmm, so MDT turtle set and squish. /NIN sub , /BLU, or /SAM?

I saw what you obtained as drops... that's one reason I think I'll at least attempt 135.

Thank you for the info. ^^

With no D.Ring, I think Minerva's Ring would be a really good option to pair with Shadow Ring. Physical damage is minor on this fight, so the PDT+8% shouldn't be a big deal and will be worth the tradeoff for MDT-8%. If you don't have that, Dark Ring or whatever for MDT-.

For sub, /NIN is out because Utsusemi causes rage/dispelga. I didn't try /BLU but I'd guess stuff like Cocoon will do the same. I used /SAM like Jeanpaul - Hasso, Meditate, Sekkanoki, base Store TP trait are all quite helpful.

So it rages when you buff yourself with magic (but hopefully not from JA)?

Dear Lord, have to remember not to mash my Phalanx button. Sword Saint indeed, testing you without your magic.

I suppose you could eyeball his spells and toss up a Liement if you really, really need a heal (provided it doesn't screw with your Valiance/Vallation, not really sure why this happens).

So, the strategy seems to be pop the NM, toss up some runes/Regen/defensive JA, and knock the crap out of it with a couple selfchains.

Is Dimi/Dimi better than using Resolution, assuming that one doesn't have an Ergon? (IIRC Dimi+Reso= Light)

Only sub NIN if you intend to Dual Wield. Casting Utsusemi just makes it rage. Dunno about /BLU because I don't have it, but I personally think /SAM is ideal since you can use Hasso, and Meditate and Sekkanoki help a lot with increasing your damage. After I had him figured out, the issue became a matter of killing him in time.

Self SC options for Greatsword include:
Power Slash > Resolution = Distortion
Any Frag WS (Res, Dim, SS, GS) > Ground Strike = Distortion
Herculean Slash > Herculean Slash = Impaction
Dimidiation > Dimidiation = Light
There are probably others I'm overlooking.

Another thing of note, if you have an elemental obi (or the combined one), you can wear it to reduce damage if the day/weather are strong to whatever it is casting. Double ice weather occurs there sorta regularly, so if you make self-Distortion, you can get the weather bonus on a Gelus Lunge.

By the way, a special Sylph shout out to Gobbo for helping me figure out the NM. The two of us had been repeatedly attempting this NM until we figured it out. I went to sleep after I killed it so I didn't get to watch Gobbo's win later in the evening, but mad props to him.

If you have Epeolatry or Idris in the case of geo you don't really need to do 124 or 135 unless you want to make some money and help others in the community.

That is due to the fact you just need one material item from an Abyssea NM or HP Bayld for the items

Just putting it out there for people who might be getting frustrated etc.

The aby NM piece seems to be Isgebind's Heart.

For a RUN, that's basically an afk fight. (Just like, oh, 99.9% of anything that's in Abyssea.) Why spend the HP?

Money is always a good thing, so...

I missed the whole combined obi/gorget thing and don't even know where one would obtain one.

Combined Obis/Belts/Gorgets are made through Synergy, you have to have acquired all 8 of that type. It's not an easy recipe, though, so having multiple synergists might help.

Will my lack of skill in anything regarding synergy or crafting hinder this process?

Sorry for the thread derail, guys.

You don't need any skill other than having completed the initial quest to be able to interact with the furnace.

Fotia Gorget/Belt combo is amazing esp if you are having good luck on the proc. Back to Back 3kTp WS are good times.

Hachirin belt is nice in that you don't need intricate conditions to use it effectively.

Thanks, guys, for all the useful info.

/gimpest RUN ever un-derails

All this said, why was SE so lazy as to give this the same set bonus as PLD? I'm not saying it's a BAD bonus, but still... it seems very sloppy.

Oh, and the set is butt-ugly and I'd rather wear pink and get called Salmon Fencer all day.

With the lockstyle update, you could wear SMN armor on your RUN if you really wanted. Actually, now that I think about it, you could wear full Nashira and dress like the lady Mystic Knights/Spellfencers.

I'll probably figure out a way to slap on full-time RDM empy so I can wear what I consider to be the best-looking set in the game (except the Daisy Dukes, every damn armor set for females is perv-bait, just about).

What pieces do you guys think are actually worth upgrading to 119, and in what order? I'm liking the MP return on the body armor but the loss of -DT makes me sad inside.

I intend to upgrade head, hands, legs, and feet to 119. Some thoughts on each piece:

Head: Worth having at 109 for Refresh, Pulse, and other buffs. 119 is a boost on that, so I'll upgrade that. According to Amchuchu's notes, the Pulse augment removes bad status of the element the rune is strong to.
Body: Doesn't seem worth upgrading or even carrying to me unless the set bonus is significant. Taeon, Futhark, and Emet bodies kinda cover the spectrum of offense to defense already.
Hands: Quite nice, a sort of magic protection alternative to Umuthi. I love status resistance glove, it's so bad.
Legs: High Mevade, Phys damage taken, Enmity, this is a very solid piece. Only thing other tanking oriented legs have are AF's status resistance, or offensive stuff on Iuitl/Qaaxo. I'd like to know what the Inquartata bonus does, though maybe I should check Amchuchu's notes again.
Feet: Another exceptional tanking piece.

Here's the stats on the +1 set, thanks to Martel for posting them in the other thread (and BG people for digging it all up):

....yeah this will probably be my first piece, should I get the chance. (regarding what I bolded)

I do like the enmity+ on a lot of the pieces, it can help augment things if your DDs jump the gun. Also, enmity cap went up, I heard. Yay.

I'd probably go:
1&2) Legs/Feet
3) Body
4) Hands
5) Head

Legs: are boss with PDT-6%, Enm+10, strong M.Eva/MDB, and of course contributing to the set effect. Swap in AF119 for a resist build if you're fighting mobs with particularly nasty status effects.

Feet: are also kick *** PDT-, AND resist all elements+20. Very nice stuff.

Body: is an odd one but I see it being probably my default choice. If you can cap PDT without Emet/Futhark, it's the obvious call. Even if not, if you can survive one-shots I'd say Erilaz gives more utility in most cases due to better offensive stats, enmity decay, and PDT to MP. The new enmity system changes in particular make it more appealing to me for tanking.

Note that for pure turtle build I've already mostly replaced Futhark body with Emet+1, since I can still cap PDT with Emet's PDT-6%, and you're capping MDT anyway whenever you can get Shell. And Emet+1 gets more Acc, Eva, Enmity.

Capping PDT without body IS possible now, making Erilaz sort of the easy choice if you can pull it off:
10% - D.Ring
8% - Evasionist's Cape with DT-5% aug
6% - Dark Ring (or could do 7% Vocane Ring if you have it, or get close with 5% Patricius or Dark Ring)
6% - Erilaz legs [3/29: and +1 are 7%]
5% - Twilight Torque
4% - Erilaz feet [3/29: and +1 are 5%] or Iuitl+1
4% - Umuthi Hands
4% - Futhark Bandeau +1 or Iuitl Headgear +1
3% - Flume Belt
-----
50% total (before PDT- II)

[EDIT 3/29: didn't realize that +1 legs/feet give an extra PDT, so makes it even easier to hit 50% without body. Allows for some flexibility on Evasionist's Cape augment, in particular, or to use Patricius Ring]

Could mix in stuff like PDT earrings (kind of yuck, but possible) if you're missing an augment.

Personally, my build without body is at PDT-48% (or 53% with Aettir), since my cape is -4% aug and I generally use a 5% Patricius Ring. Could grind out the 6% Dark Ring I never got or use a Colossus's Earring or something, but for now -48%/-53% is close enough for my liking and makes it so you're sacrificing very little from body slot to get the nice benefits of Erilaz.

Hands: are kinda nice, but not as strong offensively as Taeon, not as strong defensively as Umuthi. Cool for a resist build though, and of course the set bonus is tempting if you're using multiple other Erilaz pieces and debating hands.

Head is feathery. But it looks like a macro piece for Vivacious Pulse, Refresh/Enhancing. If the 119 doesn't enhance those stats over the 109, it's definitely a low priority. Only reason you'd want to TP in it seems to be for a max set bonus for the occ. absorb DT.

Body looks like it might be BiS for Resolution.(+1)