CS Ilrusi Atoll: Deserter

[Almalexia]

We spent 15 minutes of our first run exploring, looking for Imperials that didn't exist. It turns out the "Anti-Corsair" task force is the Lamiae and Merrows that scatter the zone!

You spawn by an NPC who will tell you not to kill your targets, and he will also serve as the rune trigger when you've collected your fill of prisoners (just tell him you want to abort). There are Lamiae, Merrows and Draugars that all check EM-T and you can invis/sneak past any of them.

The object of this mission is to collect the Lamiae and Merrows near or on the ship. Once there, weaken them until they give up. You'll know they give up when their names turn green and it says they surrender. You don't even need to escort them anywhere once they go green. There's a trick though: we managed to break the weapons of the first couple Merrows we captured and they stayed NPCs the whole time after surrendering. Our first Lamia, a BLM, refused to let her weapon break. We beat her all the way to 1% HP and finally decided to kite her back to the ship (this is when we realized proximity to the ship is necessary for capture). When she got near the ship, she turned green like an NPC and we carried on.

As we started on our next target, the BLM Lamia sneaks up and nukes us with Waterga III. She still has 1% HP, and she still had her weapon... I guess either she a.) wasn't close enough to the ship, or b.) they turn on you if you don't disarm them. Maybe both.

Anyway, the only prisoners we secured were the two Merrows. We got 300 AP as a trio, so it looks like 150 AP/member per prisoner... and there are at most a dozen fishwomen in the zone. Draugars appear to just get in the way and cannot be imprisoned.

[Miltani]

What appraised item you received?

[Almalexia]

??? Necklace. Gorget +1.

[Rentwokay]

Wow. Square-Enix is getting stingy with AP, aren't they? I have a couple of questions.

Was there a reason why you weren't just flat-out killing the Lamia? Is it because, like the Marids mission, you don't get points for killing them and need them to stay alive?

Second, when does the Rune of Release pop? Is it after you capture one Lamia, or do you have to capture a certain number before it's activated?

[Alexei]

My team and I did this one last night too (we're 4 people).

We also spent some time running around, expecting to find Imperial soldiers. After failing at that, we said fuck it, and started killing lamiae. We killed 4 of them - 1 right by the ship, and 3 near the NW edge of the map. We could never break their weapons.

*Spoiler regarding Anti-Corsair" task force* We didn't realize it at the beginning, but doing the latest batch of missions made us realize that some lamiae engineered by the Empire are the "Anti-Corsair" task force, so it made not to find regular soldiers in this Asasult. I guess some of the test subjects got tired and ran away!

When our time was about to run out, we just went back to the NPC and selected the option to abort the mission. At that moment, the Rune of Release spawned.

We got a ??? Ring from the treasure chest, which appraised into a Brass ring. We also received a whooping 270 AP!

[Almalexia]

Was there a reason why you weren't just flat-out killing the Lamia? Is it because, like the Marids mission, you don't get points for killing them and need them to stay alive?

The NPC at the start says you "should by no means kill them," so we figured you either get auto-fail or AP penalty for killing one. On the other hand, you could just miss out on points for the specific one you kill and the mission keeps going.

Second, when does the Rune of Release pop? Is it after you capture one Lamia, or do you have to capture a certain number before it's activated?

The rune pops right next to the NPC on the shipwreck where you start. After we captured our first prisoner, I ran back to the NPC and talked to him since I assumed it was like Breaking Morale. Sure enough, you get a dialogue box asking "Abort mission? Yes No" so I'm sure you can leave any time after the first prisoner for credit.

[Kaylia]

Just finished it, and capturing them near ship didnt see to do anything. The 4 lamia we captured turned green the moment their weapon broke, no matter where we were.

The other lamia never turned green, even when we kited them around the ship, and we ended up killing them.



Does anyone know how to break their weapon, other than a critical hit? I had one give up at 95% after a double crit on my first hit that broke her weapon.

[Kyreth]

Just finished it, and capturing them near ship didnt see to do anything. The 4 lamia we captured turned green the moment their weapon broke, no matter where we were.

The other lamia never turned green, even when we kited them around the ship, and we ended up killing them.

Does anyone know how to break their weapon, other than a critical hit? I had one give up at 95% after a double crit on my first hit that broke her weapon.

This sounds like a run that /THF would be handy on. Just have every SA the lamias as you go along until you get a weapon break.

[Kaylia]

Maybe, but 1 crit is far from 100% break.. We probably land like 15-20 crit on most of them and nothing.

[Almalexia]

Tried this one again. Complete disaster. I subbed THF this time time take advantage of the critical hit for additional attempts at breaking.

Well, 8 kills later, we start thinking there might be a trick to it instead of "lucky break on crit." We tried attacking from different sides, dragging to different parts of the map, I switched to staff and just whacked with Sneak Attack for the last 5 minutes. Nothing.

However, upon speaking to the NPC, we were able to abort the mission and spawn the rune! We got 200 points and an ??? box for killing every target.

[Judai]

Having leveled BLU, best way to break a weapon is to use a multi-hit WS as they are about to attack. That or a Critical WS like True Strike and such. Had a JP BLU I got Hysteric Barrage with(Lamia move) and he used warp cudgels and True Strike. Was pretty good at breaking weapons.

Using weaker weapons to get TP with helps as well, so you don't kill to fast.

Seems best to WS as they are going into their attack motion. Seemed to work pretty reliably.