IntroductionI've never written a Guide before and I'm not exactly computer savy so there will be no pictures or anything fancy I'm afraid. I just wanted to write a guide for those members who haven't yet familiarized themselves with doing ZNMs (and those that thought I was making
ZNMs up
).
Zeni Notorious Monster (ZNM)Zeni Notorious Monsters are a group of
Notorious Monsters (NM)s that are spawned by trading a
Rare/Exclusive item to a specific
??? in the
Aht Urghan Expansion regions. The Rare/Exclusive items are purchased from
Sanraku , found in
Whitegate {E-8}, in exchange for
Zeni. These ??? are in fixed locations all over the Aradjiah Continent.
Obtaining ZeniThe only way to obtain Zeni is to trade
Soul Plates to Sanraku who will then evaluate the plates and reward you with Zeni. The more he likes your picture, the more Zeni he will give you. If you wish you can trade your plates to
Ryo (standing next to Sanraku) to find out the amount of Zeni Sanraku will reward you with. Personally I only do this if I have extra plates and want to use the least value plates in
Pankration. To have more chance of Sanraku liking your pictures, talk to Ryo and ask her about Sanraku's current subject of interest. She will mention the family and type of monster that Sanraku wants to see; i.e Undead family and in particular Qutruub. You will still recieve good Zeni from other undead monsters but the best Zeni will be from Qutruub.
Pankration, Soulplates, Soultrapper, Jetton???So what does Pankration have to do with ZNMs? Well, if like me you don't like to spend
Gil or
Imperial Standing Points, then you will want to start doing Pankration. Why? To obtain Zeni you need to trade in Soul plates. To get Soul plates you need to successfully capture a monsters image on a
Blank Soul Plate using a
Soultrapper. To get your hands on a soultrapper and Blank Soul Plates you need to trade
Jetton. To get free Jetton you need you need to do Pankration, so it does have a little to do with ZNMs, honest!
JettonJetton is the currency used in Pankration at The Colosseum (Whitegate). There are 2 ways to obtain Jetton. The first is to pay for it using
Imperial Pieces. 1 Imperial
Bronze Piece = 1 Jetton, 1 Imperial
Silver Piece = 10 Jetton, 1 Imperial
Mythril Piece = 30 Jetton, 1 Imperial
Gold Piece = 200 Jetton. Simply trade the Imperial Piece to
Zandjarl {F-7}, in the Colosseum, in exchage for Jetton. The second way is to participate in Pankration, where you recieve Jetton as a reward.
SoultrapperSoultrapper and Soultrapper 2000 are available for purchse from Zandjarl for 2 and 500 Jetton respectively. The Soultrapper allows you to take 12 pictures whist the Soultrapper 2000 allows you to take 48. If you have the Jetton I find the Soultrapper 2000 more convenient as you can stay out and take more pictures before having to come back to town.
Soul PlatesSoul plates start out as either Blank Soul Plates or Blank High-speed Soul Plates. Both are in a stack of 12. Blank High-speed Soul Plates will cost you 500 Jetton and the Blank Soul Plates 2 Jetton. If you lots of Jetton then the Blank High-Speed Soul Plates will allow you to take your pictures faster.
PankrationPankration is an activity in The Colosseum that pits Monster v's Monster. The reward for participating in pankration is Jetton. You choose your pet, have it do battle and claim your reward.
Starting out in PankrationTo start out in Pankration you need your own monster. Bring an Imperial Silver Piece and trade it in to Zandjarl. Now purchase a Soultrapper and 12 Blank Soul Plates from him (2 Jetton each). Now you need to start thinking about what kind of monster you want as your pet to send into battle. For a full list of monster's to choose from check here: http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pankration/Pit_Monsters
I chose a Spider and it does ok.
To take a pictureof your chosen monster, equip your Soultrapper in your
Ranged Attack slot and your Blank Soul Plates into your
Ammo slot in your equipment. Next you "use" the Soultrapper, just like you would for a piece of food. When taking a picture of your pet you do not need to engage it. You cannot take a picture under the effects of sneak or invisible, so take care if you want a high level aggressive monster. You can take a picture of a monster someone else is fighting. Sometimes a picture you will take will fail. It needs to say that you captured the monster's image successfully.
Take a few pictures of the pet you've chosen as spares can be traded in to upgrade your pets skills. When you're done, grab an
ice crystal and head to The Colosseum. Trade your Soul Plate to
Abhrem {G-7} who will check its suitability. If it's suitable trade the plate and the ice crystal to Abhrem and for 1 Jetton he will turn it into a
Soul Reflector. Trade the Soul Reflector to
Kadjayhal (next to Abhrem) who will turn it into an
Official Soul Reflector. If you wish to name your pet or add some skills talk to Abhrem. To add skills you need to trade the Soul plate with your Official Reflector, you will be charged 1 Jetton.
Now you have your Official Soul Reflector you are able to start to battle. To participate talk to
Kaheema {G-6/7} to register your pet. Trade your Official Soul Reflector to Kaheema and coose to fight a random monster or a party members monster. If you're in a party and want to battle each other the other person will need to trade their plate close to the time you do, and will also need to confirm to do battle you. I'm pretty sure it cost Jetton to begin a match but I can't remember how much at the moment. Once the battle is over trade your Official Soul Reflector back to Kaheema for your Jetton reward.
That is as much detail as I'm going to go into for Pankration. If you want to know more about it, Mannings has the highest level pet that I'm aware of in Linkshells, so have a chat to him about it.
Back to ZeniSo you now have a pet making you enough Jetton to buy the good stuff hopefully. So when you are out collecting Zeni there are a few things to remember. Talk to Ryo first and get the subject of interest. Take enough Blank Soul Plates and have enough shots left on your Soultrapper 2000. The reason I like to take enough for 20 is because Sanraku will take 10 plates per game day. Its usually not too long to wait for the next day to trade in a second set of 10. I dont spend hours at it but if you are inclined to then by all means take all 48 and check in with Sanraku each hour. Just remember that you will fail sometimes. Failing does use up a plate and a charge on your Soultrapper >< To get more success to capture the image its best to stand in front of the monster with a clear view. To help get higher Zeni its said that its best to be engaged with the mob, close to it and for it to be at low HP. My pictures are usually in the 70s and 80s, the highest is 99. Michaelxx has been rewarded 99 Zeni so for any tips try asking him. Also each successful picture will take up 1 space in your inventory, they will not stack, remember to make some room before you leave.
Once you reach just over 1000 Zeni you will be able to purchase the pop items for the Tier 1 ZNMs. These all drop an item of proof 100% of the time. Take your proof back to Sanraku and he will take that and give you the next level colored seal in your
Key Items (KI). You then need to earn 2000+ and have that KI to have access to purchase the Tier 2 pop items. This is the same for Tier 3, but 3000+ Zeni, Tier 4 you need 4000+ Zeni and Tier 5 will require 5000+ Zeni.
ConclusionThis isnt a comprehensive guide only a start-up guide. Im finishing up here. I wont be going into the fights, where to find them or anything like that. All of those things are easily found on Wiki and it would take me forever to do. Anyways hope it was informative, not too confusing or boring. Sorry I couldn't put in pictures. This is the fourth time I've written it out now. 1x baby deleted it, 1x I deleted it trying to put in a picture and 3rd time Akk's PC froze n shutdown, so its not as good as it should be but I got annoyed
6 hours for 1 guide ><
Hope it helps someone lol
