Ifrit's Cauldron*

[RunningDemon]

Reserved for information on Ifrit's Cauldron.

[RunningDemon]

Re: Ifrit's Cauldron*

Allak salvage:

62-65 bees on bombs
69-71 bats on higher bombs

[Bov]

Re: Ifrit's Cauldron*

NOTE: This is by Climhazard and is reposted here with permission


Recommended Level of BST

70-72 (Could be done at Lv69)

Mobs in the Area

Nightmare Bats

-Lv66-72 (I think it's more like Lv68-72 and I think the Lv66 is BS)

Aggro: Sound
Linking: Yes

Abilities:

-Jet Stream: big damage to one target
-Sonic Boom: AoE ability that lowers the Attack Rating.

Volcanic Bombs

Lv71-78

Aggro: Sight/Magic
Linking: No

Abilities:

-Berserk: Boosts attack, lowers defense
-Self-Destrust: Big AoE fire damage. The damage caused from this AoE is related to how many HP the Bomb has left.

Objective:

-Use Nightmare Bats to kill Volcanic Bombs.

Gear/Items:

-DEF, VIT gear
-DEF, VIT Food
-Yagudo Drinks for emergencies
-MP food if you don't have a decent amount of MP

You will be casting a lot of Sneak and Invisible here. However, you will also be resting a lot so there's no need to have a huge amount of MP. I have 157MP and I use AF gear. I eat Boiled Crab or Nebonimite Bake (I know that's spelled wrong).

Useful Info:

-Suggested level of BST is Lv70+. I came here at Lv69 and there were way too many Tough Bats to deal with. Of course, now that I'm Lv70, I see a lot of DC Bats. So the choice is yours, but expect to spend a lot of time converting Bats if your under Lv70.

-Bombs hit hard... I mean HARD. They hit me for 150-200 per hit and have critical hit me for almost 400 and I'm Elvaan with almost 380 DEF and like +9 VIT. Keep Blink and Stoneskin up at all times. I recast these on every mob right before I rest. If my Stoneskin is still up, then I click it off and recast it. I do NOT want to get hit without this.

-Always know which mob you killed first and know the spawn points. This way you'll know when everything is about to respawn and you'll know if you need to cast Sneak, Invis, or both to get to your next pet/mob. This will all be second nature once you spend about an hour here.

-Don't start killing Bombs until at least two Bombs have respawned (I personally wait for three to respawn. This will keep you from breaking your Exp Chains due to a Bomb prematurely Self-Destructing.

-Make sure you're far enough away from the Bombs before you cast. These things aggro magic and it would hurt to have more than one on you at a time.

-Keep the battle between Bats and Bombs at the edge of your radar. That way you can read the chat log what's going on and you'll know when to release your Bats to get the full exp for when the Bomb Self-Destructs.

-If a Bomb has 1 or two hits left in it, don't be afraid to release your pet and finish off the Bomb yourself. Self-Destruct is related to how many HP the Bomb has left. If it only has a couple of hits left in it, then you're only gunna get hit for a nimute amount of damage from Self-Destruct. Ensure that Blink and Stoneskin are up when you're physically attacking a Bomb for the final blow. Also ensure that you don't aggro any of the Bats around when you engage the Bomb.

-Overall, this is a very, very safe place to exp. I've heard horror stories about Ifrit's, but my guess is that these BSTs just weren't in the right place. Everything flows smooth here and it's very nice exp. About 3k an hour and I've gotten more than 3k an hour here. Don't get intimidated by this place. There are so few mobs in this cave I am talking about, it's hard to get aggro unless you do something stupid. The mobs are spread out over enough distance and 8 out of 10 times, you're only going to have to cast Sneak to rest and not Sneak + Invis. The next tunnel over, however, is death waiting to happen.

How to get there:

First, buy an Ice Cluster from the AH and then head to the east entrance of Ifrit's Cauldron by way of Yhoator Jungle (H/I-6). Once inside Ifrit's, turn right at every available opportunity. You will eventually come to a Flame Spout. Charm a Bee and send it to fight the Volcanic Gas (Bomb) that hovers around the Flame Spout. The Bomb will be EP or DC, but Self-Destruct will still take your HP to 0 in an instant. Heel your pet to get it away from the Flame Spout and then have it fight the Bomb again. Go back to the Flame Spout and trade the Ice Cluster to it and the huge flame wall will disappear and allow you to pass. You have to be quick here because the flame will only disappear for about 5-10 seconds. Get over the crack where the flame shoots through and then let your Bee finish off the Bomb if it hasn't done so already. Once the Bee kills the Bomb, release your Bee and cast Invisible on yourself. If it's between the hours of 18:00 and 05:00 (might be 06:00), then you will need Sneak because Dire Bats aggro sound.

Once passed the Flame Spout, keep sticking to the right wall and you will come to a cave opening the houses more Volcanic Gases. Make sure Invisible is up and head on through until you come to Ifrit's core. Turn left and keep going until you come to what is seemingly the end of your path. Notice the 2 poles standing at the end of this path? That's telling you you can drop off. As far as I know, anywhere you see these poles, you can drop down to a new area. Once you come to this point, make sure no Bombs are around and cast Sneak and Invisible. Go between the two poles and drop to the new area with higher level mobs.

There will likely be a Volcanic Bomb here. It will be T-VT. Take note of what it /checks. Ignore the cave entrance that is closest to you (dubbed by me: The Evil Tunnel). Head to H-7 for another cave entrance. This will be the cave you experience in. Make a trip through the cave to get the layout of the place and familiarize yourself with your surroundings: There will be 2 Nighmare Bats in the cave and one Volcanic Bomb. Keep heading through the cave and it will open up and there will be two Volcanic Bombs and three Nightmare Bats (one of the Nighmare Bats is down a path between the two of the lava pools. Further up through the open area, the cave narrows some more and there are no Nightmare Bats and one Volcanic Bomb. Check Widescan to get the general layout of the mobs. If you're lower than Lv72, use the trip through the cave to check out what all the Nighmare Bats /check. If all are DC-EM, then you're good to go. If all Bats are DC-EM, then you're ready to start exping. If not, then start by using DC-EM Nightmare Bats to kill the Tough Nightmare Bats and this will start your Exp Chain.

I can't find a map of where I am talking about, but the open area (chamber) looks like a backwards "E" of sorts. I'll try to draw a text diagram to let you see what I mean (NOTE: The periods "..." is simply filling in space. I don't know else how to do it without screwing up the digram. Sorry.):

____
........\
____|
........|
......./
__/

-At the north part of that chamber, it narrows into a long passageway. There is one Bomb in that passageway and nothing else until the map changes.

-At the south part of that chamber is another narrow passageway that leads back to the core of the volcano.

-In the center path (the covey hole) there is a lone Bat that always spawns there.

-There two Bats and two Bombs that spawn in the chamber.

I'm not going to tell you all how to exp here, because if you're here, then you're at least Lv69 and you know what to do. I will give my strategy here, but it's likely the same strategy any BST of this level would use.


My Strategy

Being Lv70, there is still a good chance of Bats spawning T to T+ to me. So the first thing I do is make a run through this area and /check all the Bats and Bombs. The Bombs are 99.9% of the time Tough, but the one outside near where you dropped down (the one I told you to make a note of what it /checked) spawns VT about 2 out of 5 times. If it's not VT, then it's normally T++ which is nice to end your exp chain on.

There are 6 Bombs to kill in this area and there always seem to be one Bat that is T. 4 of the Bombs are inside this one cave and two are outside roaming the path. One is particularly hard to get because there's a ledge that blocks you from getting close to it. So keep an eye on that Bomb via Widescan and when he gets with in range, grab him immediately.

There are Bombs and bats more in the next cave over (i.e., The Evil Tunnel), but it's far more dangerous than this cave. The Bats seem to all be spawn Tough more often than DC and EM too. I rarely went over there because there are Bats that are in groups and Bombs too near to cast magic. It's more of a headache than it's worth in that cave, but if you run out of Bombs from the other cave I am recommending, then feel free to head over here and kill a couple of Bombs. Just be very careful.

On my exp chains, I try to get Exp Chain #3 and then Exp Chain #2. I start off by killing Bats to start my Chain IF there is a Tough one in the area. I try to end Exp Chain #3 on the Bomb outside that I told you to take a note of because it's often VT or T++ which yields a higher exp bonus. One can easily Chain #4 here. I mean, it's hard to not get it. But when I do that, I try to push myself to get that elusive Exp Chain #5 and often throw all caution to the wind. So I settle for Exp Chain #3 and Exp Chain #2. If there's no Tough Bats to start my first chain, then I get Exp Chain #4.

Now, looking at my horrible diagram, I start off my first chain (if no Bats need killing) by killing the lone Bomb that is farthest away in the north passageway passed the open area. The first Bat I use is one in the open area. After I need to swap, I use the one in the "covey hole."

Note about the "covey hole": It's safe to cast magic because nothing else spawns here. There is one Bomb that travels farther in (you will see him from time-to-time, but he's never came close enough for me to reach. However, do not get trapped in here. Self-Destruct will own you if you get trapped here. Once you pet swap and your pet makes contact with the Bomb chasing you, cast Sneak and Invisible and get out of there. Other than that, it's safe here. I log out here. When I log back on and something is hitting me, I know what it is. I already have my Light Staff equipped so all I have to do is charm it if the Bats are attacking me. No fear of being attacked by a Bomb here unless you drag one in.

Okay, so the first Bomb is dead, the next Bomb is on in the open area using Bats from the open area. I pet swap with the other bats in this open area when needed. Once this Bomb dies, that leaves one Bomb left in the open area.

Now, onto kill #3, Chain #2. I kill the Bomb in the south passageway using 1 Bat from the open area. When I pet swap, it's with the the Bats closest to me in the south passageway. Once that Bomb is dead, I move back towards the core of the volcano.

Kill#4, Chain #3: I kill the Bomb that I said to make a note on what it checked when you first enter this area. I use the bats near the entrance to the cave I am exping in. I swap with the other Bat I just used to kill my last Bomb.

After that, I kill the two remaining Bombs (one in the open area and the other one that's hard to get to that is outside). I sometimes head to the other cave and kill one of the Bombs close to the entrance. By that time, everything starts respawning.

And that's what I do if I cannot kill a Tough /check bat first. I adjust my strategy accordingly if I kill Bats to start my first chain. I make to where the Bomb I said to /check when you first drop off the ledge is my kill for Exp Chain #3. This Bomb can be pushed to Chain #4, but it's not worth trying. For some reason he doesn't like to Self-Desturct that much for me.

That's about it. I hope I've given enough info here to help some peeps out. I tried to give you an example of my strategy to give some of you ideas on how to conquer this place. Ifrit's Cauldron is very, very nice for a BST. No parties/farmers to compete with because they're all over in the Evil Tunnel killing Ash Lizards.

[Evanesce]

Re: Ifrit's Cauldron*

Quoted from Alla:

~~~

Jabsters @ Leviathan

"As recommend, I went here with my BST63. There are two entrances to Ifrit from Yho. Jungle. The left entrance is monkies and bombs, and the right entrance is bees and bombs. So try and get to the right zone.

Entering, it's a lot of right angle turns. A map is nice, but I went 8k of fight bombs, without one.

Bombs aggro on sight and magic. Bees do not aggro (awesome). Bats aggro on sound, but they only spawn at night.

In your best interest, you probably want to convert all the bees to decents and evens. Best way, with full BST AF, charm the tough bee. Get it to fight another bee. Wait and run some distance. Then use Heel. Then run around and collect all the bees you can. Nice suicide mission. Spawn rate is kinda slow tho. So when your bomb kills your bee in a Self-Destruct, it'll be a bit before another bee respawns.

Very very relaxing. I always pulled bombs to a certain area, so I could swap pets. Blink, stoneskin, barfira, Protect, Shell, and Signet were all the buffs I had on.

You can, if you want, take the risk of getting a last shot in, and not take the -30% exp. I've died once cause of this

Exp was alright. Around 2k exp/hour. But fighting bombs for 32k exp was very very boring."

~~~

Suji @ Phoenix

"I originally tried to go here at Lv61 just to see if it was yet possible to exp here. I love bombs, so I headed out to test it. Level 61 is definitely to early to exp here against the bombs solo. I suppose you could kill the bees but they are such a pain in the butt to kill (1100~ HP pollen, 1000HP Final Sting) that they aren't worth it.

That said, I went back at Lv63 solo and had the most fun I have ever had leveling BST in this place. As jaby mentioned, there are two entrances. The monkey entrance will be difficult since monkies are very resistant to charm and link like crazy. Go to the east entrance and you will find bats (nighttime), bees and bombs. At first I was a little disenchanted by this place because the level spread is somewhat unfavorable compared to that in Garlaige, but I soon learned to love this area.

At 63, bombs ranged from DC to VT, a pretty wide spread. Yes, the DC sucked, but they are so easy to kill, I didn't mind. Even with the occasional DC, I managed to get 313~ exp here two times on a #3 VT."

~~~

As for my own comments, I preferred the monkey side at night, took shots at monkeys when I had Tame ready and they were spread out (and did fairly well with Apollo's), and did rather well with experience. It can end up being on the low end (2k/hour) or the high end (5-6k/hour), depending on your luck. There are various routes one can map out for themselves.