Tha MonkeyClan of the Angry Monkey (FFXI)
Empty Notorious Monsters... And You


ENM 60: Pulling the Strings
Submitted by sam on Tue, 11/08/2005 - 16:26.

Inside of Oldton Movalpolos there is an inveterate gambler. Play dice with him and you may be able to attack a Moblin who uses a puppet to fight you. If you can beat this puppet, experience and possibly a job-specific earring will be your reward. But beware, he is no pushover. Read on for more...






ENM Name: Pulling the Strings
ENM Location: Mine Shaft #2716
Level Cap: 60
Maximum Party Size: 1 Person
Time Limit: 15 minutes
Enemies:
  • Fantoccini x 1 (Hume)
  • Fantoccini's Avatar x 1 (Elemental)
  • Fantoccini's Wyvern x 1 (Wyvern)
  • Fantoccini's Monster x 1 (Beast)
  • Moblin Fantocciniman x 1 (Moblin)
  • Treasure:
  • 2000 EXP Points
  • Worm Mulch
  • Spirit Lantern
  • Healing Feather
  • Wyvern Feed
  • Astral Pot
  • Counter Earring
  • Gamushara Earring
  • Deadeye Earring
  • Naruko Earring
  • Janizary Earring
  • Getsul Ring
  • Sanation Ring
  • Assassin's Ring
  • Tactical Ring
  • Pacifist Ring
  • What if I lose? You can return to your HP and not lose any EXP

    How do I start this ENM?



    Head to Oldton Movolpolis where at E-13 (just by the southern exit to North Gustaburg) you will find Twinkbrix. At 60, you should be able to move about this part of Movolpolis without aggro, but if you are concerned about aggro anyway, just enter in the southern entrance. Twinkbrix will talk to you about gambling and about a stone. The stone takes you to another ENM, so just ignore it for this one.



    You can trade Twinkbrix between 1 and 10,000 gil. This will be your wager. When you trade him the money, he will roll a goblin die. The results of the roll will have to be between two numbers that he says. The more money you trade him, the better your odds will be at winning. For example, trading him 10,000 gil will make you have nearly a 50% chance of winning (the best odds you can get in his game). If you do not win, you can continue to trade him money until you do.



    Once you win, you will be awarded a key item that is needed to enter the ENM. With this key item you can either proceed through to the Mine Shaft via Newton, or you can trade Twinkbrix another 2,000 gil and he will teleport you there.



    The Mine Shaft is just a long corridor that leads to a gate. When you click on the gate you have the option of entering a couple of ENM battles. Choose "Pulling the Strings" when you are ready to proceed.



    Once you are inside, you will be level capped to 60, and your subjob traits will be stripped.

    The ENM Battle



    When you enter the arena, you will find the Moblin Fantocciniman and his puppet, Fantoccini. The puppet will be a Hume who will have your same job and be level 60. When you get within a certain distance, the puppet will aggro you, but the Moblin will not. You can attack the puppet and the Moblin, but you do not need to fight the Moblin to win the battle. Because of this, it is advised to just ignore the Moblin and focus entirely on the puppet.



    You can effectively think of this battle as a mini-Maat fight, because it does have all the same characteristics. You are fighting someone with your job traits, you have no sub-job benefits, and you are level capped. It does, however, have one twist.



    During the battle, the Moblin will roll dice and give boosts to either you or the puppet. These boosts could come in the form of healing (think Cure V, and you get the idea), granting status effects (such as defense boost), resetting 2 hours, and filling TP. The Moblin may also cause negative status effects such as paralyze, silence, or even curse.



    Because of this element, a lot of the battle really is luck. You can come in completely prepared, get the puppet down to a sliver of life, and then have a couple of bad rolls that saps your life and replenishes the puppet's life.

    General Strategies



    Generally speaking, you want to approach this ENM like you would a Maat fight. Come with your 2 hour full, have ample medicines for healing or mana regeneration, have decent Maat fighting level 60 gear (usually high def), and have everything you'll need for the battle macroed.



    Because this is basically a Maat fight, every job will have slightly different variants in strategy. Research how your job would fight Maat and use similar strategies. Beyond that, some more universal advice is as follows:

    • If melee, you may want to bring an Icarus Wing. You cannot build TP by using an Opo-opo Necklace at this level, so the only real option for starting the battle with a full TP is an Icarus Wing. Be careful, however, as this will limit your ability to chug healing potions later on.
    • Weapons or abilities that have HP drain are highly desirable. Especially if they are also ones that the puppet will not have. For example, HP drain bolts can really help if you can equip a crossbow. Anything you can do to simultaneously heal yourself and hurt the puppet is a good thing.
    • Kill the puppet fast. Obviously, the longer the fight, the more likely it is you will get a bad roll and have the fight turned in favor of the puppet.
    • Know your best moves. You really do need to know your job well. You have to know what your best moves or abilities are, and how to counter them, because chances are the puppet will use them against you. For example, if you are a Monk, you cannot be cocky in the fight. First of all, the puppet will have your subtle blow (thus not giving you much TP), and second of all the puppet will have your Raging Fists weaponskill.

    Myths



    There's a number of myths concerning this ENM. I'll list some of them here and add my comments concerning them:

    • Goblin Die in inventory helps with the Moblin's Rolls : I think this one is doubtful. Why? Well I've had a Goblin Die in my inventory EVERY SINGLE fight, and Thersty hasn't, and yet he has had a lot more luck with this ENM than me. Basically, I don't think this thing helps at all.
    • 4 Leaf Mandy Bud or some other "Luck" item helps : Again, I think this is doubtful. I've had these items while others haven't and haven't seen any improvement in my roll results.
    • Enter ENM Naked : This is an oft sited Maat myth. The myth says that Maat will take on your exact stats when you come in for battle. In other words, if you enter the battle naked, or with horribly crappy gear, and then switch to your uber gear, you will have and advantage. This does sound possible, and some people swear by it, but I have never seen it make a difference personally.

    If you can beat this puppet, you may get an item that will be useful in the real Maat fight. Or, you may just get crap. Who knows? It's a gamble.

    Thersites Ranger Puppet Guide

    Nice guide Maior. I'll say a few words about my strategy for fighting this as a ranger. I have won about 9/10 times using this strategy. You will notice that I don't use Icarus Wings. I find that opening the fight with Barrage gives me plenty of TP up front. I also don't use HP Potions. I find that Bloody Bolts serve this function more efficiently.

    Gear: Full RNG AF, Hawkers Knife, Heavy Crossbow +1, Blink Band

    Ammo: Acid Bolts, Darksteel Bolts, Bloody Bolts

    Food: Squid Sushi, Peristrikos Aulait

    1. Enter the gate to the puppet arena.

    2. Use Blink Band, then put AF Hunter's Beret back on.

    3. Eat food and drink.

    4. Approach the arena within ranged attack sweetspot.

    5. With Darksteel Bolts equiped, fire a Barrage before the puppet runs toward you.

    6. Now enter attack mode. Equip Acid Bolts (should be macroed).

    7. Soften him up a bit with Acid Bolts till TP reaches 150.

    8. Equip Darksteel Bolts and fire off a Slugshot.

    9. With Darksteel Bolts still equiped, use Eagle Eye Shot.

    10. Switch to Bloody Bolts to recover HP until TP is ready again.

    11. Use Slug Shot and Barrage and Eagle Eye Shot again every chance you get. The key to victory is killing him fast before the moblin has a chance to roll his crooked dice too many times. LOL

    HP Drain

    Yeah, I think the key to your success has been your Bloody Bolts. That's why I mentioned that anything with HP drain is good.

    My biggest problem is, as Monk, there's only one thing we can fight with that does HP Drain, and it is a drop from a NM in the Aqueducts :-(

    I'll admit I haven't tried with the blink band.. I've honestly never even used one... If the timing was right, I could hold off on using it until I nearly get him dead (I find with Monk that I always get him down to where he is almost dead and then he has enough TP to fire Raging Fists on me which usually does 400+ points of damage to me).

    Vis Maior's Journeys
    http://maior.samhart.net/

    Blink Band

    I would not recommend using a Blink Band during the battle. The casting time is ridiculously long. Similar to using a warp scroll.

    Also... MNK

    For me, my mob is a MNK... Blink will be chewed through by a 60 MNK.

    Right now, I'm looking at the stoneskin band... I think it should be better against a MNK.

    Vis Maior's Journeys
    http://maior.samhart.net/

    About ClanAM

    ClanAM FFXI is the website for the Clan of the Angry Monkey Linkshell community on the Phoenix server.

    New to ClanAM? Read our "About" page.

    Also, be sure to join us in the IRC channel #clanam at FreeNode (irc.freenode.net). Don't know how to use IRC? Check our IRC Guide.



    Search


    User login


    Who's online
    There are currently 0 users and 41 guests online.


    Active forum topics


    New forum topics


    Syndicate
    Syndicate content


    A division of
    Clan of the Angry Monkey



    Copyright Information

    Copyright Information