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N.A. Field Operations

OC New Player Guide

The Short Verison

Section titled “The Short Verison”
  1. Finish Dawntrail MSQ, reach level 100 on a combat job, and reach item level 690+
  2. Start and progress “One Last Hurrah” located in the South East of Tuliyollal.
  3. Grab the “Arcane Artistry.” to start your relic(s)
  4. Enter Occult Crescent and do some of the story.
  5. Grab all survey locations before reaching knowledge level 5.
  6. From there you can:
    • Complete FATEs and Critical Encounters. Note: Knowledge/Phantom Job level does NOT matter when participating in FATEs or CEs!
    • Level Phantom Knight and Bard to level 2 and Phantom Monk to level 3 for knowledge crystal buffs.
    • Get the South Horn Riding Map from the Expedition Antiquarian ASAP.
    • Master (reach max level on) as many Phantom Jobs as possible for the extra damage/healing potency stacks.
    • Farm silver for Arcanaut’s Gear from the Expedition Antiquarian.
    • Go to Persistent Pot FATEs when you can. These FATEs spawn every 30 minutes from the last one spawns.
  7. Progress more of the Occult Crescent story and complete the “Past and Crescent” quest by defeating the Calamity Bound CE. (Note: You can spawn this CE yourself by killing Crescent Inkstains at the bottom of the map)
    • Finishing the South Horn story quests will immediately grant access to the North Horn upon its release in 7.55 (July 28th).
    • Completing Forked Tower: Blood is NOT required for story progression.

What to do once in OC

Section titled “What to do once in OC”

The first thing you will want to do is progress the story as far as possible. It’s actually easier to complete the story at lower levels since there is no EXPpenalty for returning on death until Knowledge Level 5.

In order to progress the story, you will need to pick up a few Occult Records from around the map in the following locations (Source):

  • The Lost Citadel - X: 31.4, Y: 17.4
  • The Vanishing Slope - X: 20.2, Y: 12.2
  • The Fell Warren - X: 10.2, Y: 22.5
  • The Shadowed City - X: 24.2, Y: 32.8
Survey Point visuals

(Click to expand in new window)

Once you start the quest Past and Crescent, you can safely stop doing the story and begin focusing on leveling. To level both Knowledge Level and Phantom Jobs, it’s advised to focus on FATEs and CEs, though chaining mobs is also an option.

Being in a party can help quite a bit for FATE and CE farming; even if a party has only 1 healer, it opens up far more job options. Solo play tends to be limited to tanks and healers until you reach high phantom mastery stacks.

As one final note, get the South Horn Riding Map from the Expedition Antiquarian at base camp as soon as possible. It costs 3,000 Silver Coins, which is quite a bit, but it allows you to get to FATEs and CEs far more easily.


The Occult Crescent HUD

Section titled “The Occult Crescent HUD”

Inside Occult Crescent, info about your currencies, party level information, and access to Phantom Jobs is in the Occult Crescent HUD.

Here’s a graphic breaking down what it contains:

Survey Point visuals

(Click to expand in new window)


Useful Information

Section titled “Useful Information”

Here are a few helpful pieces of information to keep in mind while in OC:

  • There are 2 leveling systems. Knowledge Level and Phantom Job Level. Each Phantom Job has its own Phantom Job Level.
  • You only lose Knowledge Experience if you return after dying. This doesn’t kick in until you reach Knowledge Level 5. You cannot lose Phantom Job EXP.
  • What does Knowledge Level do?
    • Enemies below your Knowledge Level do not aggro onto you.
    • Enemies above your Knowledge Level will deal more damage to you.
    • Enemies above your Knowledge Level take less damage from you.
  • What does Phantom Job Level do?
    • Determines the actions and traits available to you for a specific Phantom Job.
    • Once a Phantom Job reaches max level, you obtain a stack of Phantom Mastery. Each stack of mastery grants a 2% damage/healing potency increase.
  • Silver Coins can only be obtained from CEs, FATEs, Persistent Pot FATEs, Fortune Carrots, and Forked Tower: Blood. Read more on this here
  • Gold Coins can only be obtained from killing overworld enemies, Persistent Pot FATEs, and Fortune Carrots. Read more on this here
  • When in a party, you only gain EXP and gold from enemies that you can chain. This changes based on the number of players in party:
    • 2 players: 3 levels higher
    • 3-4 players: 4 or 5 levels higher
    • 5-6 players: 6 or 7 levels higher
    • 7-8 players: 7 or 8 levels higher
  • The levels of the players in your party don’t matter for FATEs and CEs, but you will not receive EXP or gold coins from overworld enemies if your party is not within 3 levels of the lowest level player unless your party has Knowledge Level Sync enabled.
  • Getting the Phantom Bard/Knight to level 2 and Phantom Monk up to level 3 is important as it gives you access to Knowledge Crystal buffs.
    • Phantom Knight’s Enduring Fortitude decreases all damage taken by 10%.
    • Phantom Bard’s Romeo’s Ballad increases phantom job exp by 10%.
    • Phantom Monk’s Fleet-footed increases movement speed.
    • Phantom Dancer’s Quickstep increases damage done by 2%.
  • Once the initial 3 Phantom Jobs are at level 2 or 3, it is advised to level jobs one at a time to gain as many stacks of Phantom Mastery as possible.