Dark Knight AF Guide

[Sorath]

Hey all.

Finally got my full Dark Knight AF Armor, and decided to make a simple guide detailing the 5 AF Quests.

Warning-- This guide is based on my memory and notes which I took down while doing the quests, so take my info with a grain of salt. The Recommended PT figures are based on what I felt when doing the quests. It never hurts to be safe, so try to get good help. I will also include what I had when I completed the quest. --Warning

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DRK AF1 :: Dark Legacy
Conditions: Level 40 DRK at least.
Quest NPC: Raibaht (Galka in Cid's Lab, Bastok Metalworks)
Quest Reward: LV43 Raven Scythe (Dmg68 Delay528 STR+2 INT2) (Rare/Ex)
Recommended PT: At least 2 members of LV60 and above. (I had 70 Nin/war, 70Blm/whm, asked them for help on the way to the NM)

Raibaht needs you to find the Book which contains Darksteel Ore Smithing Techniques. Find it and return to him.

Steps:

1) Talk to the NPCs in the Blacksmith Rooms of Metalworks, one of the Galkas will give you a key item.

2) Take this key item to Windurst and speak to Cochal-Monchal in Windurst Waters, if I'm not wrong his loc is in F-8 or the Optistery. He tells you to slay Vaa Huja the Erudite in Giddeus to reclaim the Book you seek.

3) Obtain a Yagudo Cherry from either a merchant or the Auction House. Journey to H-14 in Giddeus (where the Votaries, Theologians and Priests hang out) and trade the Yagudo Cherry to the ??? in the southwest corner (it's a hole in the wall).

4) Vaa Huja the Erudite spawns, kill him. Check the ??? after the battle to get your key item (book). You may now return to Raibaht and complete the quest and receive your Raven Scythe.

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DRK AF2 :: Dark Puppet
Conditions: To have completed AF1, and be LV50 DRK at least.
Quest NPC: Cid (Cid's Lab in Bastok Metalworks)
Quest Reward: LV52 Chaos Sollerets (AF boots, Def10 HP+15 MND+5 Enhances "Arcane Circle" Effect.
Recommended PT: 6 members of LV60+ (I had a 73BLM/WHM, 74WAR/THF, 72 RDM/WHM)

Zeid has sent Cid a letter. The letter tells of how a weapon created by the Great Darksteel Blacksmith, Gerwitz, has turned evil and is somewhere in the Ordelle's Caves. Journey to Ordelle's to assist Zeid in whatever way you can.

Steps:

1) Buy/Craft a Darksteel Ingot.

2) Enter Ordelle's Caves and there will be a cutscene. After that, journey to the deepest part and fall through the hole there. There is a ??? in this room.

3) Trade the Darksteel Ingot to the ??? and a NM called Gerwitz's Axe will spawn. Kill it, and you will get the Axe.

4) Find a 2nd ??? and trade this newly obtained Axe to it. A NM called Gerwitz's Sword appears. Kill it. You get the sword as an item.

5) Find the 3rd and final ??? and trade the sword you got from the last NM battle to it. A NM called Gerwitz's Soul will spawn. Slay it and you're done.

6) Exit the Ordelle's Caves from the zone where there are Napalms, and a cutscene will follow. Congrats you get your boots then and there. This quest automatically develops into AF3, and thus there is no need to visit Cid again.

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DRK AF3 :: Blade of Evil
Conditions: To have completed AF2, and be LV50 DRK at least.
Quest NPC: Quest continues from AF2
Quest Reward: LV60 Chaos Burgeonet (AF helm, Def23 HP+12 STR+4, Dark Magic Skill+5 Enhances "Souleater" Effect)
Recommended PT: 12 members of LV60+ (I did it together with a raiding PT of 12, levels ranging from 55-70, most were 60+)

Gerwitz's Scythe runs amok. You are to lure it out with the blood of a powerful Quadav where the crystal lines converge, or something like that.

Steps:

1) Head to Beadeaux. There is a cutscene with Zeid. Find and slay any Topaz Quadav till you obtain its blood. (it is not a key item, its a normal item.)

2) Head to the 7th floor of Delkfutt's Tower, the room you need to go to is an isolated circular room with no entrance except a teleport. You must go to the 8th floor and take another teleport back down to the 7th. The isolated room is on the northeast part of the map of 7th floor.

3) Have one of the DRKs doing the quest, or yourself, trade the blood to the ??? next to the teleport. 3 NMs will spawn at once, 2 are skeletons and one is the Gerwitz Scythe itself. This is a pretty challenging battle but not impossible if your alliance is strong enough. After the battle is over, take the teleport out of the room and a cutscene will follow with you getting the helm and some words from Zeid.

NOTE: All DRKs who have activated the cutscene in Beadeaux will be able to complete this quest if they are in the same pt/alliance at that time. The blood need only be traded once.

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AF Gloves :: Borghertz's Shadowy Hands (All jobs)
Conditions: To have completed AF1, and be LV50 DRK (or other job) at least.
Quest NPC: Guslam (NPC in the Armor shop of Upper Jeuno)
Quest Reward: LV54 Chaos Gauntlets (AF gloves, Def12 HP+11 DEX+3 Dark Resistance+10, Enhances "Weapon Bash" Effect.)
Recommended PT: 2 members of LV60+ to farm for the Eldieme Coffer Key (not chest). at least 6 members of LV60+ for the NM battle in Castle Zahvl Baileys. (I had 74War and 73Whm help with key. PT for the NM was 55DRK, 55RDM, 68DRG, 75DRK, 75PLD, 73WHM)

Guslam tells you about the legendary armorcrafter Borghertz. You are to get a contract with him and get your AF gloves.

NOTE: This quest is similar for all jobs, I believe. Everyone gets their AF gloves the same way.

Steps:

1) Talk to Guslam, get quest.

2) Head to Eldieme Necropolis and farm Tomb Mages, Tomb Warriors, Tomb Wolves or Utukku to get the Coffer Key. These are the mobs I know of that drop the Coffer Key.

3) After you get the key, find and open the Coffer to get a key item. "Pair of Old Gauntlets."

4) Head back to speak with Guslam and he says those gauntlets were made by Bolghertz, but they need to be restored as they are useless in that state.

5) Head to the Tenshodo branch in Lower Jeuno, speak with Yin Pocanakhu. Pay the money she asks for (small sum) and go to the Duty Free shop in Port Jeuno. Outside the shop there's a box on some crates. It targets as a ???. Inspect it and a cutscene will follow. You must now head to the Castle Zahvl Baileys and slay the Torch NM to get key item Flame of Darkness and return to Borghertz.

6) Now either Teleport-Zavhl if you have the gate crystal, or head through Ranguemont Pass to Beaucedine Glacier and finally on to Xarcabard. Enter the Castle Zahvl Baileys and press on till you find the closed gate with 4 target-able torches.

7) When ready, inspect a torch and do battle with the NM that appears. After the battle is over, check the torch again to receive the Flame of Darkness.

8) Return to Borghertz (same box in Port Jeuno) and receive your gloves.

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DRK Leggings :: Monastic Cavern
Conditions: To have completed 'Borghertz's Shadowy Hands', and be LV50 DRK at least.
Quest NPC: None
Quest Reward: LV56 Chaos Flanchard (AF leggings, Def31 HP+15 INT+3 Evasion+5 Parrying skill+10)
Recommended PT: 6 members of 60+ at least. (More the merrier, farming the key is a headache. I was unlucky and spent a total of 12 hours on 4 different days before it dropped. Different bunch of people each time, finding help is hard.)

There is no story, just head to Davoi/Monastic Cavern and hunt Orcish Farkillers, Orcish Dreadnoughts, Orcish Dragoons, and above. Once you get the Davoi Coffer Key, enter the Monastic Cavern (unless you were killing the aforementioned mobs in the Monastic Cavern itself) and locate the Coffer. Open it and you get the leggings.

Personal note: My last PT could not locate the Coffer after all the grueling hours of hunting, so they left and I solo searched with Prism Powders(for invis). Found the coffer in a room of orcs after an hour or so. When their backs were turned I dropped invis, opened the coffer, used another Prism Powder, exited the Monastic Cavern and Flee'd outta Davoi.

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DRK Body Armor :: Castle Oztroja
Conditions: To have completed 'Borghertz's Shadowy Hands', and be LV50 DRK at least.
Quest NPC: None
Quest Reward: LV58 Cuirass (AF Chestpiece, Def46 HP+20 VIT+3 Attack+5 Enfeebling Magic skill+5)
Recommended PT: 6 members of 60+ (to farm for key). I only had a 75DRK and 56RDM along with myself (56DRK at the time). The 75 DRK had the classic endgame set up, and he subbed WHM to help with the soloing. Fights were long but doable, and there were other PTs around so if trouble cropped up we could call for help. I recommend more help as usual, since it's better to be safe than sorry. Was lucky and got the Coffer key on the 5th or 6th mob.

There is no story as well. Just head to Castle Oztroja and go up to the 3rd floor. Mobs that drop the Coffer key as far as I know are Yagudo Flagellants, Yagudo Prelates, Yagudo Assasins, Yagudo Conducters. After obtaining the key, locate the coffer in the same area, or lower down in the room where the Yagudo Parasites have a little pool. Search around. Opening the Coffer will get you your Chaos Cuirass.

Personal note: Located Coffer in the Northwest corner of the 3rd floor. All 3 of us were invised, when the Yagudos in the room turned their backs (there were like 5 or so) or were not looking in my direction, I dropped invis and opened the chest while the 75DRK/WHM was in the middle of a Teleport-Holla (while invisible). Got the armor and teleported out before the Yagudos knew I swiped the armor.

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Sorry if it isn't very professionally done, but hope it's helpful to you other aspiring Dark Knights out there.

Feel free to send corrections/flames/comments to my playonline email at
sephiroth84@pol.com

Peace.

EDIT: Submitting this small guide to GameFAQs so it will be readily available in .txt ^^b

[Sasuke]

Wouldn't give it much complaint but you have one minor error with your bolds []
Although it is the second job I will be lving up I will sure to keep your guide in mind when the time comes around.
And gratz on getting all your AF armor and lets hope you get a sticky for your effort.

[Socrates]

awesome info, i will need this later =) i will definately save this to .txt file. thx!

[coff]

Cool thanks. I just got lvl 40 and was wondering how to do AF1.

[Sabre]

Do you have any advice for obtaining party members for these quests? Most are high level Japanese players, which makes it harder to get a party together.

[Sorath]

If you can't speak japanese and the auto-translate function isn't enough to get your message across, try to hook up with some bilingual friends, or people who know basic japanese.

Also, make friends with other DRKs if you wish, and tag along when they manage to get a raiding PT to do their AFs.

Sometimes you can get highbies to join you, let them know you need help, some are willing, many nice japanese players, but many are also busy. The lure of a potential Skill Up PT for highbies can get them to band together as well.

[Reinheld]

One question on the AF4 for the coffer key, what monsters drop the key? Some giudes say tombs wolves and the higher level ghost type monsters, but I've had no luck there. Any advice?

[Sorath]

Aye the tombwolves and ghosts have been known to drop the key in some places i've read, but personally I went with Tomb Mages and Tomb Warriors, and the key did indeed drop from these two, I can confirm that.

[MAK]

tomb wolves only drop the chest key they use to drop the coffer i think but that was a long long time ago

[Izual]

Haunts and spriggans drop coffer keys in eldieme as well, but you really don't want to be fighting them...trust me:sweat: Tomb mages/warriors are much easier.

[sdjk]

nice just, i dont think the recommendations have to be that high. :angel: i think lv 55s should suffice

[Sorath]

quoted from my text

"The Recommended PT figures are based on what I felt when doing the quests. It never hurts to be safe, so try to get good help. I will also include what I had when I completed the quest. "

It's a personal gauge, always better to be over-prepared than under imho. Just don't like ask a full alliance of 75+ to help with AF1 or something ^^

[Kodimus]

Did AF1 with a group of 41-42, AF2(boots) with a group of 52, and camped the key for gloves at 53, did the NM fight in castle zvahl at 54. You can basically do everything up to the 56 piece with your nightly xp group if they're willing to camp the stuff you need.

[Satyricon]

Any possibilties we could get <pos> for the ??? in Ordelle? No guide I have checked out seems to have em (they are all the same).

[Tlanyr]

Hey Dark Knights, I'm sure many of you are nearing being able to do AF2, and just thought I'd post my experience from earlier today.

My static party successfully completed this today, but it was one hell of a battle.

The party consisted of five members, all level 52. Ninja(me), Dark Knight, Dragoon, White Mage, Red Mage.

The first two weapons were cake, but the ghost was absolutely horrible, and if I wasn't tanking with blink ninjutsu, we wouldn't have taken it below 80% health. This thing drains health with almost every hit, casts -ga spells including sleepga, and occassionally double attacks. The average health drain per successful hit on me was 100-150hp. I ended up dying in the end when it had 10% health left, but we killed it. Do NOT attempt this with anything other than a Ninja tank at this level. Also, if you do get a Ninja tank, be aware that if it casts sleepga, the blink shadows will be overwritten, possibly resulting in the death of the Ninja(this is how I died).

Just thought I'd provide an alternate solution for those of you that don't have access to some level 60's to help out.