Quests: It's Raining Mannequins!

A long time ago, we started the quest It's Raining Mannequins!. Fyi Chalmwoh at the Goldsmithing Guild shop in Mhaura told us that if we could find an old mannequin catalog and a set of mannequin joint diagrams and all five parts, she'd be able to make a mannequin for us. We found the catalog and diagrams talking to people in Selbina and San d'Oria, and started looking for the parts. We obtained mannequin feet and legs from our Garrison Runs, so Elboron, Grymalkyn, and Tsakiki needed to get the body, hands, and heads. These three pieces are guaranteed drops from three different BCNM 20s.

Crustacean Conundrum

We decided we'd try for the Mannequin Body first, from Crustacean Conundrum. This BCNM has you face 3 crabs, all with very low HP, but any damage you do to them will be either 0 or 1, even Astral Flow or a Black Mage's strongest nuke. We decided we'd need to do it as two Red Mages and a Monk. Since Elbo's MNK was at 0 and his RDM at 14, Grym (WHM43) and Kiki (RDM58) powerleveled Elbo's RDM to 20 over three days.

From 14-16, he fought things in Tahrongi Canyon and Buburimu Pennisula, then the second day we moved to the Maze of Shakrami and got him to 16. The next day, Grym switched to her RNG19, and Kiki powerleveled the duo on worms in Korroloka Tunnel, getting Elbo's Red Mage to 20 and Grym's Ranger to 21.

We picked up our orbs in Jeuno and headed to the Waughroon Shrine in Palborough Mines. Elboron as RDM/WHM, Kiki as RDM/BLM, and Grym as MNK/WAR. The RDMs both had Platoon Daggers (very low delay) and used enthunder to hopefully get an extra point of damage per hit, while Grym used Tropical Punches, which are also very low delay and +10 Accuracy. Our plan was for Elbo and Kiki to each bind one of the crabs (the big one and one little one), while Grym would voke the third. We'd beat on the one and move on to the next. This worked very well for us, and we got better at it over our three runs, going from just over 6 minutes for the first, 5 minutes for the second and 4 minutes for the third. Grym used Hundred Fists on the first run, but we didn't think it was essential, so we did the second run with no Hundred Fists, though we did wait until her 2 hour was up again (logged out to keep our 3-hour Jack O'Lanterns active). This let us do the third run right away as well.

Besides the Jack O'Lanterns, we also used melon juice (mages) and pear au laits, and had hi-potions handy just in case. Our (not very original) strategy worked quite well, and once we get our mannequins completed, I can see us doing more runs and selling the parts. Besides our Mannequin bodies, the rest of the drops were really nearly worthless, totalling 40k for the three runs.

Charming Trio

Next on the list was Charming Trio, a Balga's Dais battle with three Leeches that have some annoying attacks. This battle drops the Mannequin Hands 100% of the time. For this, we opted to go as MNK/WAR, WAR/MNK, and RDM/WHM. Our strategy was to have the WAR "body aggro" all the leeches and to attack Pepper first. The MNK would use 100 Fists and then we'd move on to Prune and finally Phoedme. Since Prune and Phoedme hadn't been attacked by the WAR, neither the MNK nor the RDM would get their attention and the WAR would maintain the hate. Elbo's RDM would keep us healthy and help beat on the leeches.

For our first bout, we had Grymalkyn as MNK and Kiki as WAR. For food, Grym and Kiki used Dhalmel Pies, while Elbo opted for an Apple Pie. We had Pear Au Laits and Hi-Potions handy as well. The first run, Kiki actually voked Pepper, but we decided to have the WAR shoot Pepper with an Acid Bolt at the start and have the MNK provoke Pepper for the second and third runs. All three runs went smoothly, and we got our Mannequin Hands and some relatively worthless junk (mytril beastcoins, wool cloth, a cheap katana and pole). Each fight took us about 5 to 7 minutes, and again, was so easy, I can see doing it again some time.

For our second run, we headed to Windurst and switched Grym to WAR and Kiki to MNK, since Kiki hadn't used her two-hour. We did the third run with Grym back to MNK and Kiki back to WAR after Grym's two-hour was back up again.

Shooting Fish

The final piece, the Mannequin Head, is a guaranteed drop from Shooting Fish, a Horlais Peak BCNM facing a Sniper Pugil and his two Archer Pugil buddies. The fish don't melee, but use splash attacks against you that knock you back. Most people do this with two Summoners using Astral Flow with Ramuh, but the three of us haven't leveled Summoner at all (Kiki refuses to until she has all, yes all, of the avatars), so we had to come up with another strategy. We did some research, and learned that some people have used a RNG/WAR, PLD/WAR, WHM/BLM combination with great success.

We geared up with Elbo as WHM, Grym as RNG, and Kiki as PLD. Kiki used Dhalmel Pies for food, Grym opted for Rarab Meatballs, and Elbo used an Apple Pie. Kiki had a couple Hi-Potions and an X-Potion, as well as Pear au Lait and Melon Juice. Since this strategy seems to require the Ranger's two hour, Eagle Eye Shot, we couldn't do the fights all at the same time, so we split them over two days.

We really weren't sure how it would go, and were fearful of failure, but as with the other BCNMs, it went quite well. Elboron cast protectra and shell and barwatera on us. Kiki ran in to get aggro, provoked one of the Archer Pugils, and basically stood there getting pushed against the wall with the three pugils shooting water at her. It was kind of amusing, but a bit annoying that she kept getting "You cannot see the Archer Pugil" messages while trying to shoot arrows at the pugil. So Grym pretty much did most of the damage, at least for the first two fish. Grym used Eagle Eye Shot, and it didn't seem to do anything, but after we killed the first Archer Pugil, we realized that Grym's EES must have hit the other one, since it was at less than half life when we auto-targetted it. I'm not sure why it hadn't been attacking her, but it was a good thing, as Elboron would have had a tough time keeping both Kiki and Grym healed.

Kiki used Invincible when we were left with just the Sniper Pugil, but looking at the damage log, the aqua balls were hitting her through Invincible. It probably helped a bit with hate, but certainly didn't give us a break on Cures.

Kiki wasn't able to get too many Cures off at the start of the fight, so she used a Hi-Potion and an X-Potion to help Elbo out. Kiki was able to pretty much keep hate off of Grym until we were left with just the Sniper Pugil (Kiki was wearing her Pumpkin Head II and Dash Sash for +3 Enmity, which probably helped). The fight took us about 7 minutes, and in addition to the Mannequin Head, we got a platoon gun, shall shell, Thunder Spirit Pact, and something else of minor value. The Thunder Spirit Pact actually sells for 150k, so that was a nice surprise. Elboron ran off to Mhaura to get the Mithra to put together his mannequin, but wouldn't be able to get it until the following day.

The next evening, the two runs went a bit smoother, and rather than being nervous about it, I actually had a fun time. Kiki switched to Tavnazian Tacos for the extra defense and vitality over the Dhalmel Pies (plus another 20 MP wouldn't hurt). We didn't use any potions for these two runs either. The first Archer Pugil went down fast with Eagle Eye Shot, and Grym would get hate by the time we got to the Sniper Pugil, so Kiki got to run up and smack it a few times for both runs. We didn't get worthwhile drops other than our Mannequin Heads, but it sure was fun.

Putting It All Together

Grym and Kiki warped to Windurst to get the rest of their mannequin parts out of storage and headed off to Mhaura to get Fyi Chalmwoh started on their mannequins. She said it would take her several days to put the mannequin together, so we came back later and got our very own mannequins! We hurried back to Windurst to get them set up in our moghouses.

Now that we're done with this quest, and have seen how easy it can be to get the heads, bodies and hands, I'd like to do some more runs on these BCNMs and sell the parts to finance purchases of another mannequin or two. I'm also looking forward to doing the Tavnazia quest for the Mannequin Pumps!