lolGuide: Jailbreaks in Halvung
Lately a group of us have been getting our thrills by freeing prisoners from Halvung. When we tell people about it usually the response is people saying that they've always wanted to try it too! Well, after doing it a few times, I don't think it's difficult, but there's a pile of information to dig up.
What I've done under the cut is to consolidate the things we've discovered online and learned on our own. I've *cough*borrowedstolen*cough* maps from FFXI-Atlas and filled in more detail about cell locations, Archaic Mirrors, and quirks about the areas that people should know when they're crawling around. I've also tried to make sense of some sketchy information about what mobs drop keys / are True sight/sound. This is a work in progress and very well may have inaccuracies, especially concerning all of the cell positions (I've only added cells that we've seen ourselves.)
PART I: Getting a key
First thing's first, you need a Halvung Brass Key to open the cells. Wiki has a few of the key droppers listed. We've been getting them from the Woodtroll Monk, Ranger, and Dark Knight that can be found right outside of the Wajaom Woodland's (C-8) entrance to Halvung. There is a Woodtroll Warrior that is also in that clearing, but since we're usually in a small group, just the three closest mobs keep us busy with their short respawn time. The mobs check as DC@75 (level 72-73 according to Somepage). We've killed them in a duo with no problem at all (MNK/NIN and WHM/BLM.)
Other key droppers listed on Wiki are Troll Shieldbearer in Bhaflau Thickets. They're level 72-74. Personally, I killed an awful lot of these while trying to help a BLU learn spells and never saw a key drop, so I'm not overly confident that they do. I'm willing to concede that my luck can be horrible, but the Wajaom mobs are a bit lower level and we've had no problems getting keys from them.
Wiki also has Troll Gemologist, Stoneworker, and Cameist (Wiki: level 72-74, Somepage: 71-75) inside of Halvung as droppers. We haven't tried these mobs. The only times we've stopped to look for camps to kill them they were mixed in with Puddings, which we didn't want. There probably are safe camps in Halvung, we just haven't explored for them.
PART II: Mobs to be aware of
Before you start searching, let's take a moment to list out what's dangerous and what isn't. I'm going to assume that people know that Trolls are sight and that you shouldn't cast magic around bombs or elementals. I will focus on the TAU-unique or oddball mobs.
Halvung (map 1)
Wamoura: True Sight/Sound, Magic Aggro, Linking
Wamouracampa: Non-aggro, but will link with Wamoura
Ebony Pudding: Sight and Job Abilities
Dorgerwor the Astute: True Sight, located at (I-6)
Mirror Guards: Sight (not True Sight)
Archaic Mirrors: Non-aggro
Halvung (map 2)
Any Troll you see here that is not a Mirror Guard or Kirlirger the Abhorrent you should assume is True Sight/True Sound. I haven't gone to poke every NM on this map to test if they were or not, but all of the "normal" Trolls are True Sight/Sound.
PART III: The Search
I'd be stating the obvious by saying the Widescan will help extremely with discovering which cells have prisoners in them currently. The prisoners come up on the bottom of the scan list if one is present in the cell.
You cannot open a cell while you are death sick (it's just like a coffer).
Another thing to be aware of is that each "cell block" has at least one mob standing in the immediate area acting as a "jailer". They don't path outside of the little nook that the cells are in. On the first map, the "jailer" usually checks as DC@75. If you're traveling in the same group you farmed keys in, you could take the "jailer" out and then pop the cells. If you're opening cells solo, know that the "jailer" moves every few seconds. Watch it carefully before acting because it's constantly on the move. For the cells on the second map of Halvung, the "jailers" are a VT@75 True Sight mobs. Getting prisoners from there can be a bit more interesting...
It's easiest to think of Halvung as three sections in terms of where prisoners are kept. For the first section consider everything on the map below (map 1) from B through F as section 1. Everything from G through N as section 2. The second Halvung map is section 3. We'll look at sections 1 and 2 first.
On this map "Cast Bronze Hatch" = Prisoner cell.
Section 1
From what we've confirmed there are at least 4 cells in this section and we suspect more around (D-7) and possibly (E-8). There are a couple ways to get into this area. The easiest, in my opinion, is via Mount Zhayolm #4 marked on the FFXI-Atlas maps. If you are going this route to free prisoners from (E-11) you will need 4 people to work the Operating Lever. (I still haven't figured out how to open the Operating Lever at (F-11).)
Here is the Mount Zhayolm map. Entrance #4 is behind the Gates of Halvung requiring the Cast Iron Plate. If you don't have one of those yet, the map has potential spawns marked on it already. Touch the Gate to get a message, find a ??? and touch it to get the plate, then return to the Gate and you can now open it. If you zone while doing this you must touch the Gate again to restart. For those who are familiar with the area behind the Gate, the entrance is the one closest to the Ebony Puddings (behind where the BLM parties tend to camp.)
From this entrance you have access to the cell(s?) at (C-7). No key or anything is required to pass through the Cast Bronze Gate, but you can't be Invisible while you click it. To get to the (E-11) cells you need 4 people to click on the Operating Lever to lift it. Each person will be held there for several seconds before they're free to pass through the door. Don't worry, everyone will get through if they don't dally once they're freed.
Section 2
We've confirmed 4 cells on this map, but, as always, there could be more. Getting to the cell block at (G-5) is considerably more tricky. If you entered the map from the Wajaom Woodland entrance make your way north. There is a True Sight NM at (I-6) named Dorgerwor the Astute. Just wait for him to face a wall and continue on by. The Mirror Guards aren't True Sight, so they won't bother you as you pass.
When you get to (I-5) stop. From (G-4) to (I-4) there are a mixture of Wamoura and Wamouracampa all over a narrow bridge. Keep in mind that the Wamoura are True Sight/Sound and the Wamouracampa will link with them if one is aggroed. There are a couple ways to approach this problem. One is to try to muscle your way through by killing the Wamoura and Wamouracampa. I've tried this before and don't really recommend it. The fights tend to be too long and difficult. The approach we've been using is to have someone suicide pull the bridge to clear the way for others (or themself if they have Reraise up) to get to the Cast Bronze Gate. Jobs that are good at this are THF (Perfect Dodge and Flee), Paladin (Invincible), Summoner (avatar train them), etc. Having said that, a WHM in our group (Nif) has managed to get to the room by himself and free a prisoner. I have no idea how he accomplished it, but if you're going to try it, make sure you buff outside of the Wamoura magic aggro range.
Section 3
To get to this map you need to enter from #6 on the FFXI Atlas map. There are two ways to get out there. You can go via the the Alzadaal Undersea Ruins, but the entrance to get to Mount Zhayolm is accessible from Caedarva Mire, which isn't saving much travel time in my opinion and it doesn't cut out the most dangerous part of the walk. Easier is to either use the Staging Point or Escape out of Halvung to get onto Mount Zhayolm. From there you're going through the Gates of Halvung to re-enter Halvung at #8. This is just a little underground bridge to get out to the island. You'll need Invisible through this area. You will come out of #5 and then walk around to #6.
Things of note during your walk: Dahak are sound aggro, but there are only 4 spawns and they're rather hard to miss. When you get to the tunnel entrance at (C-6, 7) there are usually 5-7 Wamoura hanging in the area. Usually following the coastline and approaching the tunnel from wall is safest, but be careful. Once you exit the tunnel there are no more Dahak or Wamoura between you and #6.
I want to repeat this because it's very important on this map. Any Troll you see here that is not a Mirror Guard or Kirlirger the Abhorrent you should assume is True Sight/True Sound. These Trolls check as VT@75. Here is the map:
Assuming you're headed for the cells, you shouldn't encounter any Trolls until you're past the bridge at (G-8). From then on, be on your toes. The first cell block is at (E-7) and is pretty straightforward to get to (just dodge mobs). As I mentioned earlier, there will be a "jailer" in the area that is True Sight. You'll need to distract it or get lucky with not being detected while opening the cell.
I've added an A and a B insert to this map because it does something that is wonderfully confusing. The map splits into multiple levels that are on top of each other. On widescan it appears that there are many clumps of mobs together, when in actuality the mobs are on two different levels and no where near each other. The A insert shows how to get to the upper level, which is going across the bridge at (I-7), and then up the ramp at (H-8). This is not where you want to go!
At (I-7) you want to continue down to (J-8) and you'll come to an area that has many Friar's Lanterns (DC@75). Keep going down until you're at (J-9) and you'll be in a tunnel that ends in a small room with 4 cells. Once again, True Sight "jailer" and it can see pretty far.
Interesting note, when we went through (I-7) there was an Archaic Mirror up without any Mirror Guards. Only one True Sight was in the area, so we carefully took the Mirror out with an avatar and ranged attacks. That's probably the only easy thing to accomplish on this map.
PART IV: Credits
Online sources used in ferreting out how to do this:
Somepage - They have pretty good information on mob levels and how they detect.
FFXIclopedia - I usually say that I don't trust Wiki further than I can toss it, but it did get me started on finding which mobs dropped the Halvung Brass Key.
Vana'diel Atlas - Their maps have been invaluable. The cell location information isn't complete, so I've filled in more with the maps I've posted here. If they wanted to take the information in penance for *cough*borrowingstealing*cough* their maps, I'd be happy.
Lovely people who didn't tell me to GTFO when I said "Let's go save some prisoners :D :D :D!":
Nif - Crazy Taru WHM. How did you get across that Wamoura bridge :/?
Danoille, Tharpy, Thistle - For farming help and being patient while we figured out how to use the Operating Levers
Nyiri - The original "Solid Cat" /MSG
Neresh - Always willing to lend a hand, no matter how many times he might die... :3
Corrections and additions are welcome. Let information run free. I hope this encourages others to start running their own Jailbreaks. It's really not too hard once you've gotten the hang of it and are willing to take a risk to save a prisoner.
Beanie - FantasyInsanity - Midgardsormr
04.06.07
What I've done under the cut is to consolidate the things we've discovered online and learned on our own. I've *cough*borrowedstolen*cough* maps from FFXI-Atlas and filled in more detail about cell locations, Archaic Mirrors, and quirks about the areas that people should know when they're crawling around. I've also tried to make sense of some sketchy information about what mobs drop keys / are True sight/sound. This is a work in progress and very well may have inaccuracies, especially concerning all of the cell positions (I've only added cells that we've seen ourselves.)
PART I: Getting a key
First thing's first, you need a Halvung Brass Key to open the cells. Wiki has a few of the key droppers listed. We've been getting them from the Woodtroll Monk, Ranger, and Dark Knight that can be found right outside of the Wajaom Woodland's (C-8) entrance to Halvung. There is a Woodtroll Warrior that is also in that clearing, but since we're usually in a small group, just the three closest mobs keep us busy with their short respawn time. The mobs check as DC@75 (level 72-73 according to Somepage). We've killed them in a duo with no problem at all (MNK/NIN and WHM/BLM.)
Other key droppers listed on Wiki are Troll Shieldbearer in Bhaflau Thickets. They're level 72-74. Personally, I killed an awful lot of these while trying to help a BLU learn spells and never saw a key drop, so I'm not overly confident that they do. I'm willing to concede that my luck can be horrible, but the Wajaom mobs are a bit lower level and we've had no problems getting keys from them.
Wiki also has Troll Gemologist, Stoneworker, and Cameist (Wiki: level 72-74, Somepage: 71-75) inside of Halvung as droppers. We haven't tried these mobs. The only times we've stopped to look for camps to kill them they were mixed in with Puddings, which we didn't want. There probably are safe camps in Halvung, we just haven't explored for them.
PART II: Mobs to be aware of
Before you start searching, let's take a moment to list out what's dangerous and what isn't. I'm going to assume that people know that Trolls are sight and that you shouldn't cast magic around bombs or elementals. I will focus on the TAU-unique or oddball mobs.
Halvung (map 1)
Wamoura: True Sight/Sound, Magic Aggro, Linking
Wamouracampa: Non-aggro, but will link with Wamoura
Ebony Pudding: Sight and Job Abilities
Dorgerwor the Astute: True Sight, located at (I-6)
Mirror Guards: Sight (not True Sight)
Archaic Mirrors: Non-aggro
Halvung (map 2)
Any Troll you see here that is not a Mirror Guard or Kirlirger the Abhorrent you should assume is True Sight/True Sound. I haven't gone to poke every NM on this map to test if they were or not, but all of the "normal" Trolls are True Sight/Sound.
PART III: The Search
I'd be stating the obvious by saying the Widescan will help extremely with discovering which cells have prisoners in them currently. The prisoners come up on the bottom of the scan list if one is present in the cell.
You cannot open a cell while you are death sick (it's just like a coffer).
Another thing to be aware of is that each "cell block" has at least one mob standing in the immediate area acting as a "jailer". They don't path outside of the little nook that the cells are in. On the first map, the "jailer" usually checks as DC@75. If you're traveling in the same group you farmed keys in, you could take the "jailer" out and then pop the cells. If you're opening cells solo, know that the "jailer" moves every few seconds. Watch it carefully before acting because it's constantly on the move. For the cells on the second map of Halvung, the "jailers" are a VT@75 True Sight mobs. Getting prisoners from there can be a bit more interesting...
It's easiest to think of Halvung as three sections in terms of where prisoners are kept. For the first section consider everything on the map below (map 1) from B through F as section 1. Everything from G through N as section 2. The second Halvung map is section 3. We'll look at sections 1 and 2 first.
On this map "Cast Bronze Hatch" = Prisoner cell.
Section 1
From what we've confirmed there are at least 4 cells in this section and we suspect more around (D-7) and possibly (E-8). There are a couple ways to get into this area. The easiest, in my opinion, is via Mount Zhayolm #4 marked on the FFXI-Atlas maps. If you are going this route to free prisoners from (E-11) you will need 4 people to work the Operating Lever. (I still haven't figured out how to open the Operating Lever at (F-11).)
Here is the Mount Zhayolm map. Entrance #4 is behind the Gates of Halvung requiring the Cast Iron Plate. If you don't have one of those yet, the map has potential spawns marked on it already. Touch the Gate to get a message, find a ??? and touch it to get the plate, then return to the Gate and you can now open it. If you zone while doing this you must touch the Gate again to restart. For those who are familiar with the area behind the Gate, the entrance is the one closest to the Ebony Puddings (behind where the BLM parties tend to camp.)
From this entrance you have access to the cell(s?) at (C-7). No key or anything is required to pass through the Cast Bronze Gate, but you can't be Invisible while you click it. To get to the (E-11) cells you need 4 people to click on the Operating Lever to lift it. Each person will be held there for several seconds before they're free to pass through the door. Don't worry, everyone will get through if they don't dally once they're freed.
Section 2
We've confirmed 4 cells on this map, but, as always, there could be more. Getting to the cell block at (G-5) is considerably more tricky. If you entered the map from the Wajaom Woodland entrance make your way north. There is a True Sight NM at (I-6) named Dorgerwor the Astute. Just wait for him to face a wall and continue on by. The Mirror Guards aren't True Sight, so they won't bother you as you pass.
When you get to (I-5) stop. From (G-4) to (I-4) there are a mixture of Wamoura and Wamouracampa all over a narrow bridge. Keep in mind that the Wamoura are True Sight/Sound and the Wamouracampa will link with them if one is aggroed. There are a couple ways to approach this problem. One is to try to muscle your way through by killing the Wamoura and Wamouracampa. I've tried this before and don't really recommend it. The fights tend to be too long and difficult. The approach we've been using is to have someone suicide pull the bridge to clear the way for others (or themself if they have Reraise up) to get to the Cast Bronze Gate. Jobs that are good at this are THF (Perfect Dodge and Flee), Paladin (Invincible), Summoner (avatar train them), etc. Having said that, a WHM in our group (Nif) has managed to get to the room by himself and free a prisoner. I have no idea how he accomplished it, but if you're going to try it, make sure you buff outside of the Wamoura magic aggro range.
Section 3
To get to this map you need to enter from #6 on the FFXI Atlas map. There are two ways to get out there. You can go via the the Alzadaal Undersea Ruins, but the entrance to get to Mount Zhayolm is accessible from Caedarva Mire, which isn't saving much travel time in my opinion and it doesn't cut out the most dangerous part of the walk. Easier is to either use the Staging Point or Escape out of Halvung to get onto Mount Zhayolm. From there you're going through the Gates of Halvung to re-enter Halvung at #8. This is just a little underground bridge to get out to the island. You'll need Invisible through this area. You will come out of #5 and then walk around to #6.
Things of note during your walk: Dahak are sound aggro, but there are only 4 spawns and they're rather hard to miss. When you get to the tunnel entrance at (C-6, 7) there are usually 5-7 Wamoura hanging in the area. Usually following the coastline and approaching the tunnel from wall is safest, but be careful. Once you exit the tunnel there are no more Dahak or Wamoura between you and #6.
I want to repeat this because it's very important on this map. Any Troll you see here that is not a Mirror Guard or Kirlirger the Abhorrent you should assume is True Sight/True Sound. These Trolls check as VT@75. Here is the map:
Assuming you're headed for the cells, you shouldn't encounter any Trolls until you're past the bridge at (G-8). From then on, be on your toes. The first cell block is at (E-7) and is pretty straightforward to get to (just dodge mobs). As I mentioned earlier, there will be a "jailer" in the area that is True Sight. You'll need to distract it or get lucky with not being detected while opening the cell.
I've added an A and a B insert to this map because it does something that is wonderfully confusing. The map splits into multiple levels that are on top of each other. On widescan it appears that there are many clumps of mobs together, when in actuality the mobs are on two different levels and no where near each other. The A insert shows how to get to the upper level, which is going across the bridge at (I-7), and then up the ramp at (H-8). This is not where you want to go!
At (I-7) you want to continue down to (J-8) and you'll come to an area that has many Friar's Lanterns (DC@75). Keep going down until you're at (J-9) and you'll be in a tunnel that ends in a small room with 4 cells. Once again, True Sight "jailer" and it can see pretty far.
Interesting note, when we went through (I-7) there was an Archaic Mirror up without any Mirror Guards. Only one True Sight was in the area, so we carefully took the Mirror out with an avatar and ranged attacks. That's probably the only easy thing to accomplish on this map.
PART IV: Credits
Online sources used in ferreting out how to do this:
Somepage - They have pretty good information on mob levels and how they detect.
FFXIclopedia - I usually say that I don't trust Wiki further than I can toss it, but it did get me started on finding which mobs dropped the Halvung Brass Key.
Vana'diel Atlas - Their maps have been invaluable. The cell location information isn't complete, so I've filled in more with the maps I've posted here. If they wanted to take the information in penance for *cough*borrowingstealing*cough* their maps, I'd be happy.
Lovely people who didn't tell me to GTFO when I said "Let's go save some prisoners :D :D :D!":
Nif - Crazy Taru WHM. How did you get across that Wamoura bridge :/?
Danoille, Tharpy, Thistle - For farming help and being patient while we figured out how to use the Operating Levers
Nyiri - The original "Solid Cat" /MSG
Neresh - Always willing to lend a hand, no matter how many times he might die... :3
Corrections and additions are welcome. Let information run free. I hope this encourages others to start running their own Jailbreaks. It's really not too hard once you've gotten the hang of it and are willing to take a risk to save a prisoner.
Beanie - FantasyInsanity - Midgardsormr
04.06.07