Promathia Mission 1-3 ~ The Mothercrystals

Mission Name: The Mothercrystals
Start NPC: N/A
Requirements: None
Suggested Level: 30
Title: Ancient Flame Follower
Repeatable: No
Reward: Access and transportation to Lufaise Meadows and the Tavnazian Archipelago, 1500 Experience Points

Previous Mission: Promathia Mission 1-2: Below the Arks
Next Mission: Promathia Mission 2-1: An Invitation West


Walkthrough:
Head to any of the Shattered Telepoints to enter Promyvion.

The Basics:
The level cap is 30.

Experience will be earned here as if you are level 30. All deaths received carry a Level 30 penalty (350-400 after returning to your Home Point).

The EXP penalty does not apply while inside the BCNM.

Promyvions are entered from the Shattered Telepoints at the corresponding Crag. For example, if you wish to access Promyvion - Dem, head to the Shattered Telepoint at the Crag of Dem.

Promyvion zones are keyed upon entry; if you've gone into Dem you can skip the entry cutscenes by talking to the Cermet Door in Dem.

Conversely you can't warp directly to Mea and enter the crystal there. You'll receive no message explaining your inability to enter. If you want to leave the Promyvion you're working on and go elsewhere, use the Large Apparatus on your way out. The Apparatus will erase your memory, allowing you to enter any Promyvion zone.

After a Recent update, it is no longer necessary to erase the memory of a prior Promyvion at the specific crag. You will instead get a brief message when attempting to enter another Shattered Telepoint, asking if you wish to seal the memory of the other Promyvion. From there, you can enter as normal.

Mob's behavior:
Enemies in Promyvion are called "The Emptiness". Each Promyvion has 4 different kinds of mobs: Wanderers, Weepers, Seethers and a final mob that is exclusive to each Promyvion. The Seethers and exclusive mobs have a level range depending on floors like so:

1st Floor: Easy Prey to Decent Challenge
2nd Floor: Even Match to Tough
3rd Floor: Very Tough to Incredibly Tough
4th Floor: Incredibly Tough++

Weepers and Wanderers are always a little lower being Tough or Very Tough on the last floor.

Do not bother with Sneak or Invisible, all of the mobs are active on True Sight. It is possible, therefore, to walk behind them on the lower levels. Take note that everything is active on True Sight, however. The mobs on the higher levels are also active on True Sound. The best bet is to give them their right of way. All of the mobs will aggro, but none of the mobs will link when pulled.

Before you head out:
Begin the Empty Memories quest in Ru'Lude Gardens from Harith. This is a repeatable quest, and he will ask you for Recollections. These are dropped from any mob in Promvyions, and have been updated so that they may be purchased from the Auction House under Alchemy. Upon trading this item and 2,000 gil to Harith in Ru'Lude Gardens, you will receive Rare Animas that can be used on the Promvyion bosses. It is advisable that at least four people in your party, if not all six have at least one Hysteroanima and one Psychoanima. (This may entail farming Recollections prior to heading out.) The purpose of this is that the Animas will weaken the boss of each Promyvion for a limited amount of time, and make the fight easier.

Animas alone will not win the fight, sadly. Although not imperative, everyone should obtain some form of Reraise spell such as Scroll of Instant Reraise, Reraise Earrings. This will put a lot less strain on the WHM. The WHM, on the other hand, must have some form of Reraise. Melee should purchase several Hi-Potions, regen drinks, and attack food. Mages should purchase refresh drinks, Ethers, Echo Drops, and a couple Remedy. For Holla, melee will need Holy Water and Poison Potion.

Walkthrough for all Promvyions:
Upon entering the Promvyion, all buffs except food will cancel. It is recommended you use the maps found at: Promyvion Maps. It shows the locations of all the Memory Receptacles and tele-points.

To go up a floor, you must find and defeat a Memory Receptacle. Have someone with Wide Scan track the Memory Receptacle. MRs always appear on platforms and the platform locations are fixed. Although there are several possible locations on the second and third floors, the MR may not be at all the locations. The MR will pop several strays, which will die in a single ranged attack. If the MR is real, a Memory Stream will pop, and you have three minutes to enter this stream and go into the next level. If the MR is fake, nothing will pop up. Be sure to kill all the strays before entering the portal because if you attempt to use it while being attacked, you will get an error message.

If you need to go down a level, search for a platform that has a live portal, but no MR sitting on it. That will be the portal down. Try not to get separated from your group!

If you have not done so already, be sure to use your reraise item upon reaching the third floor. Although the previous floors may have been easier, things can get extremely difficult from here on out. On the fourth floor, there is no MR. You will have to look for the zoneline. It may be very difficult to avoid aggro on the fourth floor, but if you get caught and the castle-like structure is nearby, you should be able to zone easily. You will zone into the Spire, and your level restriction will be lifted. However, just rest up because the level restriction will go back in effect upon entering the BCNM.

It is advised that before entering the BCNM, you set an order of use for animas. They last 30 seconds and do overlap (in that by using one during the effect of another of the same type the timer of effect will reset to 30 seconds), but panicking and using three at once is clearly not neccessary.

The NM boss fight.
Boss fights are single-party only. If you went up with a partial alliance someone is going to sit out during the fight. The fight you want is "Ancient Flames Beckon."

Do not rush up to the boss, as all buffs except your food will cancel upon entering the battlefield. Instead use a Reraise device, food, drinks, and cast your buffs first. It is not recommended doing these fights on Darksday, as blood pacts and Eagle Eye Shot may heavily be resisted.

Anima have the same effect on all three bosses:

Psychoanima causes the boss to be 100% intimidated by players for ~ 30 seconds, stopping all normal attacks (prevents 7-8 attacks).

Hysteroanima causes the boss's special attacks to fail for ~ 20 seconds. They are still readied, but do not execute. This is especially useful in the last 20% of the boss' HP, when they start to spam their TP attacks.

Terroanima causes the boss to run away from the player with hate for ~ 30 seconds.

The effects of anima stack, so you can use Psychoanima and Hysteroanima in pairs to stop all attacks. This also helps you to time the Hysteroanima.

Promyvion - Holla:
For Holla, the boss is the Wreaker (Thinker type). His TP attacks are:

Trinary Tap: Drains 1-3 status effects (including Food, Reraise and Utsusemi) or 200 HP from the target.
Trinary Absorption: Drains HP from the target.
Shadow Spread: AoE Curse and Sleep. Use Poison Potions to prevent sleep and Holy Water to remove Curse.
Stygian Vapor: AoE Plague + hate reset?
Negative Whirl: AoE Ice? damage.
Winds of Promyvion: Erases one negative effect on the NM.
Empty Cutter: Single target physical damage.

The tank should eat Nashmau Stew due to its potent debuffing effects; these effects will be transferred to the boss when it does Trinary Tap. Other than this, the tank should not have any positive buffs. However, be sure to give the tank a useless buff like Barstonra for the boss to absorb instead of the tank's HP. If you have a Bard in your party, they can give the tank songs that won't cause too much trouble when absorbed, like Ballad.

Promyvion - Dem:
For Dem, the boss is the Progenerator (Gorger type). His TP attacks are:

Fission: Spawns an Offspring.
Vanity Drive: Directional AoE damage.
Spirit Absorption: Drains 200 HP from the target, ignores Utsusemi.
Promyvion Barrier: Defense boost (for Offspring?).
Stygian Flatus: AoE Paralyze.
Quadratic Continuum: Single target damage.

At 50% HP he will start popping kids but he can pop them also if he has still 90-95% HP left. The Offsprings are smaller than normal Gorgers and are weak. The Progenerator is immune to Sleep and Bind, the Offspring are not. The maximum number of Offspring in play is 6. Offspring will continue to be generated if some are killed off.

Promyvion - Mea:
For Mea, the boss is the Delver (Craver type). His TP attacks are:

Carousel: AoE physical damage and knockback. Absorbed by Utsusemi.
Promyvion Brume: AoE damage + Poison (+ hate reset?)
Murk: AoE Slow + Gravity.
Impalement: Drops the target to 5% HP and resets hate on them, like Throat Stab. Can avoid by running away.
Empty Thrash: Single target damage.
Material Fend: Evasion boost.

Carousel is a bothersome attack as healing your damage dealers often requires Curaga, which can shift hate in unpleasant ways. Promyvion Brume will reset hate and is an AoE poison effect. Utsusemi can't block the AoE Poison effect from Promyvion Brume. This is an incredibly nasty skill to face.

Make sure you bring Antidote potions to self-cure poison; your healer will not have time to give Poisona to people. The hate-reset also makes doing so a dangerous proposition. This boss is incredibly hard to fight if let him spam his skills.

[edit] Notes
While it is completely possible to get the experience point bonus from each of the 3 Promyvions in one day, There is a cool down period before you can recieve the bonus for the same Promyvion. This cooldown period is likely a 24 hour period.