Conquering Vana'diel

[Nix80]

Conquering Vana'diel - A Guide to the Conquest and the Expeditionary Force

The most efficient way to conquer a region of Vana'diel is through Expeditionary Force missions.

First off, all players in an EF group must have Rank 3 in their nation. You can also not EF for a nation that is not your own.

You must gather a group of 4 to 6 (the number varies with your nation's rank) of your countrymen and speak with your local Signet guard. You can only take EF missions from the guards in your home city; you cannot take them from Jeunoan Ducal Guards. I do not know if you can accept EF missions from guards at foreign consulates.

Upon speaking with the guard regarding the Expeditionary Force, you will be offered a selection of Regions to Conquer. To be offered a region you must have visited at least one zone in that region, most likely the Outpost region (not sure on this), and your country must not currently be in control of the region.

Next to each Region is a "X~" where X is a number referring to the minimum level required to join that particular EF. What is not stated is that the NM monster battles you do in an EF are level capped. It's best to have a group consistant with the level cap. Higher level players will be de-leveled to this cap, so it's best to have level appropriate gear. These are the four starter EFs. There are more at higher levels.

Level Cap 30 EFs, their minimums, and what you fight.
Derfland/Pashhow Marshlands 20~ NM Goblins and NM Quadav
Norvallen/Jugner Forest 20~ NM Goblins and NM Orcs
Aragoneu/Meriphataud Mountains 20~ NM Goblins and NM Yagudo
Qufim Island 25~ NM Goblins and NM Gigas

Once your party all chooses an EF to join (it must be the same one), you must all speak to the guard again to receive your Gate Crystal and to be teleported to the zone in the Region in which you will be fighting. The Gate Crystal you receive is essentially a free Warp back to your city, so make sure you have inventory space or else you have a long walk back.

Once you arrive in the zone your party must hunt down a Beastman flag. These randomly spawn in one of five static spawnpoints found throughout the zone. You can go to www.prideofbastok.com for some great maps of the four level 30 EFs I mentioned above.

Once you find a Beastman flag, gather everyone together to buff up before the battle. Then have one player, preferably with high evasion or blink, go and check out the flag, which is targetable. This will spawn a number of Beastman NMs that you must defeat. A 6 man party will spawn roughly 4 NMs (more if the NMs have pets).

To be successful in EF, you must be able to quickly dispatch this group of monsters and then find the next Beastman flag and fight once again. This has the effect of a Conquest Chain., i.e. the more flags you can defeat in succession, the more influence you will earn for your nation in a region.
You may also gain influence in the Region by going to the local regional dungeons and opening treasure chests. This only counts while you have that Region's EF marker.

If you and your group are able to influence the region, and if that region does switch to your nation at the next conquest tally, you can then go to your Signet guard to receive your reward, which is a large number of Conquest Points.

You can form alliances to do EFs, however, it is a bit tricky. Each group must be the exact size for the EF (which is normal). Each group must then seperately be teleported out to the region. Only then at the region will you be able to form an alliance. Be cautious though, because an Alliance will spawn more NMs from a flag than a smaller group would.

Keep in mind that during an EF you are gaining "high levels of experience," as that is the only way to capture a region (hence the level caps). You do gain XP while EF'ing, and it's comparable to normal XPing - just a lot harder and takes more skill. You will also lose XP upon dying (I do not know how this effects higher levels doing lower capped EFs).

If your country already controls the region, you cannot EF there. You can however XP in the region, which will help gain influence over time. Beastmen have a chance of dropping armor when you fight them. You can turn in this armor to the local Regional Outpost's shopkeeper, which will further help you gain influence in the region.

Although a little unorthodox, if a group or LS is really interested in the Conquest of Vana'diel, then they would be best to only XP where they are needed (as opposed to the "common" XP zones). They would also raid dungeons together and turn in armor to the shopkeepers.

Another good thing about the EF is that you never really "graduate" from it - that is, you never have to stop EFing in a certain zone because your level has become too high. Just make sure you have the right equipment and you're good to go at every EF.

It's a game mechanic that grows with you, not away from you.

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A few things to clarify:

- EFs must begin in your home nation.
- The minimum number of people required per party is based on what rank your country is in. 6 for 1st place, 5 for second, 4 for third.
- You are given a "<region name> EF Insignia" key item and a glyph when you are teleported out from your nation. The glyph teleports you back to the guard when used, similarly to a scroll of Instant Warp. You must have a free inventory space to receive the glyph.
- The number of beastmen that spawns is always 4. The jobs of the beastmen are random (unless that type of beastman only has 4 jobs like giants or sahagin). BST, DRG, and SMN mobs have their pets.
- When one person touches the banner, everyone in the party/alliance will receive the level cap status. The mobs will also start attacking this first person.
- After all the beastmen have been defeated, every person in the party/alliance must touch the banner to lose the level cap status. After about 30 seconds, the flag will despawn. If they don't lose the cap status, it stays for a while (about fifteen minutes, I think).
- Banners have a spawn time of about 5 minutes before they respawn elsewhere in the map.
- Anyone with an EF Insignia who touches the banner during the fight will be given the level cap status and can help fight the beastmen.
- People from other countries or those who don't have insignias can join EFs as long as they're in the zone with the party/alliance when the flag is touched. They won't receive the CP bonus or the glyph to warp home, but they can help fight.
- No EXP is gained from the fights unless your original level would have gained experience from fighting mobs of those level with the rest of the party/alliance being at the capped levels.

Some more level cap crap:

Level 30 caps:

Zulkheim: Valkurm Dunes (minimum 20) - Orcs, Quadav, Goblins
Kolshushu: Buburimu Penninsula (minimum 20) - Yagudo, Goblins

Level 40 caps:
Elshimo Lowlands: Yuhtunga Jungle (minimum 35) - Sahagin, Goblins

It always seems like gobbies are everywhere. I'd add more but my LS hasn't done much outside of the 30 caps.

I've also never heard of a Conquest Chain, and I've been doing EFs for 7 months.

EDIT: I just checked the Pride Of Bastok forums, and it turns out you need to keep your level cap status on between flags to get this Conquest Chain I've never seen. Gah! We always touched the banner so everyone could use all of their buffs before beginning a fight (Refresh, Haste, higher level Minuet/Madrigal, etc.). We also don't sleep our mobs most of the time due to lack of BRDs (and because often times there's always one guy who wants to attack said mob, despite the BRD spamming in /p not to do so).

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Excellent guide, maybe this'll pique more peoples' interest in the Expeditionary Force (and the free LS site pimpage is always nice too ^^)  As someone that's been doing EFs for a little over 6 months now, there's just a few things here that I feel the need to add/clarify:

* Party/alliance size has NO bearing on the number of NMs that spawn, it's ALWAYS 4 NMs

* Leaving the level cap on has no effect on banner chaining; it's based solely on the amount of time between banners, so there's no reason NOT to uncap between banners. While you don't see any messages about chaining the banners, there WILL be a noticeable difference in the amount of influence per kill (and the banners will get progressively harder and harder). And yes, I know that the forum needs to be updated to this effect

* Like the other poster said, the mobs WILL 2hr when they're below about 50% health, and some of them will seriously mess you up (Astral Flow = PAIN)

* Bard makes the battles go SO much faster and smoother that it's not even funny. Seriously. One thing that's helped us is to have a designated "spotter" that calls out which target to focus on

* As for Beastmasters: For the love of all that is holy, do NOT kill the BST's pet until the BST itself is dead; otherwise, it'll be able to charm one of your party members, which is a very BAD thing

Other than that, StevieJay has said in his post pretty much everything there was to say ^^ (rate up for that, BTW)

Oh yeah, if you're on Leviathan and Bastokan Rank3+, feel free to register on the board and drop us a line, or join in in-game ^^ We do EFs every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday evening, and we're always happy to get new recruits [/blatantpimp]

Raji's Pedantism effect wears off.