Getting Started
Firstly to enter Abyssea areas you need to purchase the expansion "Visions of Abyssea" and watch a cutscene with Joachim [H-8]] in Port Jeuno. After the cutscene speak to Joachim and you receive a Traverser Stone. These stones are required to enter Abyssea areas.
With your Stone in your Key Items, head out to the new Cavernous Maws in either Tahrongi Canyon (H-12), Konschtat Highlands (I-12) or La Theine Plateau (D-4) and click on the Cavernous Maw. Some give you a cutscene the first time you click, so watch this and then Proceed to Abyssea.
At this stage you will just want to exit back through the Maw and return to Joachim for another cutscene. Now head back out to any of the 3 Maws once again for another cutscene. Proceed to Abyssea again. Once inside you need to find the "Conflux Surveyor". Request Visitant Status, this will expend your stone but will allow you to proceed beyond the starting camp.
Now that those Quests are out of the way, Joachim will start giving you more Stones. He will give you 1 every 20 hours for a total of 3 Stones. The Stones seem to just accumulate if you don't pick them up, you don't lose them so I only collect them to get the maximum 3 at a time.
You can take your stones to the Conflux Surveyor and get more time in Abyssea for a total of 120 minutes (4 Stones). You can then go back to Joachim and pick up 3 more Stones. This is only useful for parties where you time out, so you can re-enter with a new party without having to go back to Joachim. Please note though, if you are kicked out from Abyssea, you must wait 1 hour before you can re-enter. Where possible try and leave before you time out.
The first time you go to a party you will need to make sure you can sneak and invis yourself. You wont have a map but it is the same as the zones in the present Vana Diel. Before you head to camp find the Conflux at the camp area you zone in to. "Activate" the conflux. When you build some Cruor (similar to CP, AN, IS) you can start activating Confluxes around the zone. These allow you to warp around using Crour, making it faster and easier to get to camp.
Getting Experience Points
When joining an Abyssea Experience Points Party, you will need to have at least 3 Stones. Abyssea parties are generally a full Alliance. They usually consist of a Puller (THF, RNG, COR, BRD), a Tank (PLD, NIN, DD/NIN, DNC) a backup tank, a few BLM, a few support jobs, a few healers and the rest DD.
When you kill your first few mobs you will probably think to yourself.....the xp is suxor! This is true. Abyssea works a little differently to the rest of Vana Diel. Experience gained from defeating Abyssea mobs increases by killing more of the same type of mob. So for the first hour it will only be average but by the third hour you should be over 500xp per kill. The other way mobs xp is increased is by building golden light, more on lights later.
To get the best xp you can from Abyssea you need to be there a few hours or more. I have been in parties where members had been there for over 12 hours. I personally don't recommend doing that. 3 hours in a party will get you a good amount of xp and you don't need to burn yourself out.
Experience Point bands do not work in abyssea, nor does COR roll xp!
Camps
The most popular camps are:
Tahrongi Canyon - Pachypodium (mandies) [I-7] and Blood Bat (bat) [I-9]. Both close to Conflux 2
La Theine - Geier (birds) [F-7], Farfadet (pixies) [G-7] and Crapaudy (toads) [L-10]. Birds are close to conflux 3, Pixies to conflux 4 and Toads to conflux 6.
The Lights
There are 7 lights in Abyssea. Amber, Azure, Ebon, Golden, Pearlescent, Ruby and Silvery. When you kill a mob you have a chance to increase these lights. Think of them as a kind of status effect. The way you kill the mob determines what kind of light you will get. All the lights will work together, so getting 1 type wont cancel the other type.
Amber is gained by defeating mob with an elemental weaponskill and increases the amount of Gold Chests drop rate and the quality of the items inside.
Azure is gained by deafeating mob with magic and increases the amount of Blue Chests drop rate and quality of items inside. Items include Time Extensions, Temporary Items, Cruor, XP and Restore.
Ebon is gained only through opening Red Chests with Ebon light inside. Ebon light increases all lights.
Golden is gained only through opening Red Chests with Golden light. Increases experience.
Pearlescent is gained by defeating a mob with a melee attack and increases the amount of all Chests drop rate.
Ruby is gained by defeating a mob using a physical weaponskill and increases the amount of Red Chests drop rate and better lights.
Silvery is gained only through opening Red Chests with Silvery light. Increases Cruor.
What we want from the lights
Familiarize yourself with how each light is gained. Some leaders will just say what light they want and you dont want to be the person killing mobs with your weapon skills after they said "Azure".
Almost every party I have been to sticks to the same formula. Pearlescent for 30 minutes, Azure for 30 minutes and back to Pearlescent and Ruby for 15 minutes or so and then stay with Azure for most of the time. So Melee kills for the first 30 minutes is to raise your drop rates on all chests, then magic to get the blue chests to drop. The blue chests are most important in an experience party. The time extensions are what makes or breaks a party. If none drop you get kicked out with average experience gained.
For next time
If you've had a good party, you should have accumulated a fair amount of Cruor. I really think going around and activating the confluxes is a good idea. It can take you an extra 10 minutes to get to some of the camps by not having them. Talking to the Conflux Prospector and getting a couple of forbidden keys is a good idea. They open the chests and sometimes you will be in a situation where you might want to open a chest. When you have a lot of cruor I would get the Ancient Abyssites and maps and start using the enhancements also. I always get increased HP, MP and MND stats as well as a couple of temporary item. I'm a lil over prepared maybe but that's just me.
Here ends the guide. Feel free to edit if you have something to contribute.
