Artifact Tails

I always loved how interesting Mithra look with their armor, and how creative the tails look when they come out of the armor. Yes, I'm a cat lover, so I am very partial to tails. I remember the first time I got a new artifact armor, how dissapointed I was that it just came out. I mean the Iron Curass that is worn by Jeuno guards has little tail guards that are the cutest thing!

Anyway, I wanted to write a short article about Artifacts; not a complete one, but about the Artifacts that I have obtained. And blogger makes me look good, and will let me take pictures too. Who knows.. maybe people will find this useful instead of long winded.. hehe.. naw.. not way I could be anything but long winded.

The first place to start with Artifact Quests is to say what is common to everything. Understand, this doesn't count for the three new jobs -- Corsair, Blue Mage, and Puppet Master -- who have their own rules. This is for all the jobs from the start to Rise of Zillart. But even then, the reason for the artifact quests are to give people FREE and (hopefully) useful artifact equipment to use. There are many arguments about what is better than what...and heck... some of them might be right. But its free, useful in some level and worth getting. If nothing else but for the nifty title.




The first step in EVERY quest is at level 40 to obtain the artifact weapon. Each job has a different weapon, and each one is different levels. The ninja and bard weapons are level 40 weapons (making them very good BCNM equipment), but the Dark Knight weapon is 43. Even if you cannot equip the weapon, you can still obtain the quest once you reach level 40. No matter what, you must complete this quest BEFORE you start your Artifact Armor quests.

The next step does not start until level 50, when you can first obtain the new set of cut scenes. The important part to remember is that to FLAG a quest, you MUST be the job that you are doing the quest to get. This only applies to quests. The first step is to talk to the "Big Red Galka" in Upper Jeuno.

(sorry, my first time ever doing 3-3 mission, I couldn't enter the BCNM because I failed to speak to a "Big Galka wearing Red" in bastok. That became to symbolize to me the one last thing I forgot to do before some event)

This Galka (Guslam inside the armor shop) will tell you about "the best guantlets" were made by the legendary man named Borghertz. (He must have been amazing since he does the same thing for every job and spreads them all over creationg). He then says that he heard rumors that they were seen inside some dungeon some place, and names the place. The place itself depends on the job, but it translates into "Coffer Hunt" (I'll go into that later). The only difference is that you get the key item "some old guantlets" and you return to Guslam. He will then tell you that he could never repair them, and only the Great Borghertz can fix them.

So how do you find this man; well, he's dead now. But he haunts his old tool box. If you goto Port Jeuno, and head to the Auction House, next to the "Duty Free" shop (love that name) you will find a tool box with a ??? on it. However, you first need to be told by an NPC Yin Pocanakhu in the Tenshodo shop of Lower Jeuno before you can really "know" its there. Yin will require 1000 gil for this information, except you only have to pay this once (which gets inportant after your 3rd or 4th armor set). Once you find it, you will get a cut scene with the Bog-man himself who asks if you want to make an order with him (yes.. you HAVE to say yes if you want your AF), and says "bring me shadow flames" and walks away. Whats that? Its yet another NM that must be killed.

Now you must travel to the northlands (here's a map) Xarcabard to Castle Zvahl Baileys. Once there you get to summon a bomb Notorious Monster Dark Spark. The part to remember in this castle is that deamons link like nobody's business, and will even a slight agro on one corner can bring 10 or 12 training right ontop of you in no time flat.

At F-8 on that map, there are four torches that you can examine. Once you examine it, the bomb will appear, and attack. This NM actually casts black magic and yes can self-destruct killing everyone. Once dead, the people who need the shadow flames simply examine the SAME torch that was used to spawn the ugly thing and you will have your prize. Simply return to the haunted tool box and you will obtain your new artifact hand armor.

The next step is what is lovingly called "Coffer Hunt" where you must travel all over creation to find at least three coffer keys (and some cases four) and three coffers to go with it. The two most important thing to remember is that you must first at least speak to the Galka Guslam before you open any coffer AND you must be the job that you need that coffer to obtain artifacts. If you are after white mage armor, you must be a white mage as you are opening the coffer. And speaking with Guslam starts you on the coffer quests, and sets the job you are working on at that time. (Take this from someone who took 5 coffer keys on one piece.) You will need at least 3 coffers in total, two for random pieces and one for the hands.

The last part of the artifact hunt is the "Artifact Quest." These quests are continuations of the first quest to obtain the artifact weapon. They are usually refered to as AF1, AF2 and AF3; each getting to be harder than the previous one. The white mage artifact quests starts with an easy Shade monster to obtaining two easy drops to one of the hardest Shade monsters in the game (lots of arguments there, but it was a pain). In some cases items are required like an extra coffer key in the cases of Paladin and Ninja, or velvet cloth like the red mage quest. Once you have completed these quests, you immediatly get the title of Paragon of your job's excellence.. even if you haven't finished your coffers yet. Some of these are really good cut scenes. The red mage hat and the paladin body are both my favorites.

Now that I have described the general, I will try to entertain everyone with what I went through to obtain my four sets of artifact armor.