There are many Strange Apparatuses around Vana’diel.

Check this website out posted on the Mystery Tour website:
http://mysterytour.web.infoseek.co.jp/ffxi/us/tips/strangeapparatuses.htm

There you’ll find out exactly what it is and what you need to trade to it for random items which are:

– Infinity Core - Dropped in Dynamis and one of the new BCNM 60 fights or you can buy in the Auction House for anywhere of 4,000 - 100,000 gil
— Compatible Chip - Bought in semi-hidden Goblins in San d’Oria, Bastok, and Windurst for 21,000 gil

Just look at the above website for all the details.

There is just one thing that the website does not explain or is unknown to so many, this is what the password you have to put in is for. There is an 8 digit password that no one knows about. It’s so mysterious.

When you examine the apparatus you basically get this:

It is some sort of device.
(Some clue is put here that indicates what elemental chip you are supposed to use)
The voice of a young woman rings in your head.
"Wel…to the…morph Matter Emulato…
Inser… an infinity core and…elementally c…patible chip to begi…item replicat…process…"
"If you…registe… doctor, emula…settings will…djuste…accordin…"
"…emulator…ill now conduc…user auth…zation. Please inp…your 8-digit passw…"

(A password box comes up in the text area and you can enter whatever your heart desires. Whatever password seems to be put in, which I’m sure is wrong, the following message will come up)

"Passw…error…"
Reg…tration comple… Your access lev…is assistant."
The voice in your head has gone silent.

Then if you trade an infinity core and whatever chip is compatible to the Strange Apparatus, a short cutscene occurs showing the machine operating, and then this appears on your screen:

The voice of a young woman rings in your head.
"…commencin…rocess.."
You obtain (Random Item).
"Syste…shutting…own."
"It is….will…Altan….
…heaven…lory….ve…mercy…"
The voice in your head has gone silent.

After you do this and target the Strange Apparatus again, it comes up with the message you started with in the first place.

If you DON’T trade the right Elemental Chip, what happens is an NM Elemental spawns. This is NOT something you want to happen.

I imagine that the only reason for doing this is to get the Arcane Flowerpot or a level 70 weapon. You just have to get lucky with the random Item that is given to you.

————-

Now that that is out of the way, just when you thought I was done, I have more. There are rumors that to me are unverified. I’ll make easy on all of us and just list them. The ones with the stars by them are the ones I think are true:

1 - If you keep using the same password over and over you gain status of "Assistant" until you reach "Doctor" Status.

2 - When you go to all of them and use the same password you will gain the rank of "Doctor" status.

*3* - If you gain Doctor Status you won’t lose the Infinity Core that you use, only the Elemental Chip, hense the name "Infinity Core."

*4* - The strange apparatus holds a bigger role in the Chains of Promethia expansion for FFXI.

*5* - Infinity Core prices are dropping a lot in the Auction House
(Going for as low as 30,000 gil now on some servers)

6 - The only reason Infinity Cores go in and out of the Auction House quick is because people are buying them thinking that when they DO figure out how to use them effeciently, they’ll be worth more money.
(I think that this is false. Someone HAS to know what they are used for! It maybe true for some people, but try to talk to the people who are buying them, you don’t get really any good responses)

7 - No information exists on English or Japanese servers about this as of yet.
(Who knows if this is true. Anybody know both English and Japanese and can scroll through them for us?)

*8* - They all are hidden by inside an invisible wall.
(This is true, definitely)

*9* - None of these are really guarded by anything at all pass the hidden wall.

10 - At Dangruf Wadi, it is protected by Goblins (Buthers and Ambushers) and There is a stone pedestal that has a ??? at the exit. There’s nothing unusual about it when examined so something might have to be traded to it or something activated for it to have a comment or two.

11 - The invisible walls can be targeted.
(uh… I don’t know about this one)

12 - These are connected to the mysteries of the Crags
(I doubt it. They have to have their own thing going on. It may be connected, the whole world of Vana’diel is connected somehow, but not the way people are talking about.)

13 - There is a quest to that involves the Strange Apparatus
(Whoever got told this was LIED to. Ha ha. Curently there are no quests, there maybe in the future, but not this expansion.

14 - The Strange Apparatus is something you deal with on the Zilart Missions.
(Um… I have no idea about this one.)

15 - Rumor has it the password is 44981567.
(This was posted on ffxi.Allakhazam.com and is, yet, another false statement ^^)

What are my personal thoughts about it? I’m glad you asked.

Maybe there are clues in San d’Oria as to what the password is. The the reason why I say this is because it mentioned something about the Goddess of Altana if you actually trade an Infinity Core and Elemtnal Chip saying:

The voice of a young woman rings in your head.
"…commencin…rocess.."
You obtain (Random Item).
"Syste…shutting…own."
"It is….will…Altan….
…heaven…lory….ve…mercy…"
The voice in your head has gone silent.

I imagine the translation is something to the effect of "It is the will of Altana heaven, glory, love, mercy…" Maybe there are more things in San d’Oria that is the "will of Altana" that we are over-looking here. Are there more things than heaven, glory, love, and mercy? This might have NOTHING to do with it, but then again, who knows?

Anyway, any new information about this would be VERY much appreciated. In the mean time, who’s up for a BCNM? ^^

In the new ToAU city: Whitegate, you can easily clear the Ilrusi Atoll Assault mission. You have to find the correct chest out of 20. 19 of the treasure chests are monsters in disguise. Only one of them is the real one. But this isn’t a problem.

Just go into My Computer to C:/Program Files/PlayOnline/SquareEnix/FINAL FANTASY XI/ROM/8 and go down to file number 113.. replace it with any other DAT file you want. Just make sure to backup file number 113 and rename the file you are putting in its place to 113.
Changing the new files name like that will trick the game into thinking its the exact same file.

Now all treasure chests will appear to you as whatever you replaced that file with. All you have to do now is run around until you see something labeled ‘Treasure Chest’ but looks nothing like one.. and that will be the chest that doesn’t kill you. Open it and run back to the start MISSION COMPLETE! You may do this once a day for as long as you want.

Enjoy the easy Assault points!

Last week, scans from Weekly Shonen Jump popped up and everyone was introduced to Hope’s summon, Alexander, and the fact that the series staple chocobo can be ridden whilst journeying Pulse. The week prior to that, scans from Weekly Shonen Jump showed up depicting the character growth system, Crystarium.

Now the time has come, as per usual, for Famitsu to run a full, detailed feature. The issue on sale tomorrow covers all of the above, along with some new area screenshots that look rather pretty - as far as you can tell from the small, low-quality images, anyway.

Source: 2channel

Contest: Win 1 of 5 BlizzCon Cards For Future Beta Access

Miss out on BlizzCon last year? At the event, everyone received a Murloc card, which gives them a special treat in World of Warcraft and access to a future Blizzard game’s beta. Today, we have five of them to give away. Enter to win this prize before February 13th.

Click below to enter.

The bazaar is actually a quite useful way to make money and to buy products. This is a basic tutorial about setting one up or buying from it. It includes tips that new and intermediate players alike can appreciate about using the controls.

To buy products from a bazaar, simply check a character with the bag by his name. Click on the product you want. If the item is numbered, you will have the option of buying more then one. Even when buying a stack you will be charged the price listed per item bought. Note: This is often forgotten, items in a bazaar cannot be bought per stack, only per item. Still, you may see people selling items at stack level prices, don’t buy from these people.

To set up a bazaar go to the second main menu. You can get to this menu by pressing twice "-" on the numeric keyboard or "- " with compact keyboard chosen on the "config 2 option", in the "config" second menu option or by using the middle mouse button (or wheel) twice. The long way is to press the menu button once and then use the arrow keys or select the arrows that appear along with the main menu
Now select bazaar. This will bring up two options: set prices and edit comment. You may sell unequiped items by selecting the items. You can put a (per unit) price on any item that doesn’t have the green "ex" circle or is a linkpearl. You also have the option to of "edit comment" which allows you to put or edit the comment in your bazaar window. Please again pay attention that the price is per item even if you put a price on the stack, and that buyer will have the option of buying as many items in the stack as he wants paying per unit. You will be amazed how many people forget this. When you are selling items they are not selectable for other use like equipping, selling at auction, or simply use and dropping. Items once they have a price set on them cannot be stacked. Bazaar items will be faded in the item menu. To remove an item from the bazaar go back to the bazaar window and set the price to zero (quickest way is using the back button). While in the bazaar window itself people cannot buy from you, the bazaar takes effect once you leave the window.
Often people who sell using a bazaar would like to do this afk or even away from FFXI. To stop auto logoff go to the "global" submenu in the "config" option in the second main menu. There will be an option on the length of autolog off. Turn this to "off." You may use temporary logout ("play online" in the 2nd main menu above logout) to go to play on-line with your character still in FFXI. However make sure you set your "online status" in your friends list is set to "invisible" or you may simply show an "unavailable" circle looking like (***).
That is all about setting up a bazaar. You can see how your bazaar looks by checking yourself (F7 to target) and selecting "view wares." I will write another tutorial as to how use the bazaar system to your profit.

WarCry is proud to bring you another chance to get in on the Fury 24/7 Beta test! This PvP MMO has weekend Open Betas, but only through WarCry can you get your chance to fight it out all week long. We’re giving away 400 more keys to the test. Just enter below for your chance to win.

Sign up here!

For more information on Fury, you can visit Fury on WarCry or their official website.

17 New Final Fantasy Screenshots from Famitsu
Famitsu have uploaded the direct feed screenshots featured in the Final Fantasy XIII feature from the 26/11 issue of Weekly Famitsu - 17 of them. They include Hope and his summon Alexander, the Crystarium character growth system and some stunning new environments - featuring dancing monsters, Vanille touching things she probably shouldn’t and Siren appearing on a monitor.

Thanks to forum member Squirrel Emperor for the heads up.
Source: Famitsu.com

New Final Fantasy XIII Video in Playstation Home this Friday
The US Playstation Blog has posted an update on what we can expect from the super special Final Fantasy XIII announcement this Friday. Apparently a “never-seen-before” Final Fantasy XIII Video is going to be aired in the 10-Screen Theatre on Playstation Home. We aren’t sure if this is going to be a trailer, cutscene or gameplay video but at least we know the wait isn’t all for nothing.

We don’t know if this will be the only part to Friday’s “Huge” announcement but we are promised that Yoshinori Kitase will be part of it in some way. Who knows, if the video does turn out to be a trailer it could possibly be the last we’ll ever see.

Source: US Playstation Blog

The virtual console on the wii has been updated with the original Final Fantasy! If you havent ever played this two decade old classic, or dont own it…

Final Fantasy XIII Insert Song “Eternal Love” Preview
The single for Final Fantasy XIII’s main theme is being released on the 2nd of December and as well as containing the song Kimi ga aru kara, a second insert song announced at the Premiere Party will also be included.

The company Sugawara is contracted to, For Life Music Entertainment, has uploaded a preview of the song Eternal Love. Below, I have it ripped to an mp3 and uploaded onto Megaupload for you to enjoy all 45 seconds of it.

Eternal Love preview
Source

Pirates of the Burning Sea Dev Chat: Tonight at 8pm Eastern!

It’s tonight! Flying Lab Software live on our IRC servers to talk about Pirates of the Burning Sea. For four lucky fans, some time cards await in a random draw, and one will get a t-shirt. So stop in at 8:00pm EST to talk to the developers. Here are the details:

When: 04/09/2008 8pm Eastern / 5pm Pacific (Wednesday)

Where: irc.chatspike.net 6667 in #WarCouncil
General chat will be available in #warcry

Who: The following Flying Lab developers will be on hand.

• Russell Williams (FLS CEO)
• Kevin Maginn (Lead Game Designer)
• Joe Ludwig (Producer)
• David Hunt (Game Designer)
• Drew Clowery (Game Designer)
• Troy Hewitt (Director of Community Relations)
• Tom Atkinson-Edwards (Community Specialist)

Need a way in? No problem just use our Java Client , Chatspike’s IRC Client or an mIRC Client.

We look forward to seeing you there!

WarCry is proud to announce that on Thursday March 20th, we’ll be hosting the developers of Pirates of the Burning Sea. The event is a chance for fans to get their questions in with the guys from Flying Lab Software in real time. The chat will kick off at 8:00pm EDT (5:00pm PDT).

When: 03/20/2008 8pm EST

Where: irc.chatspike.net 6667 in #WarCouncil
General chat will be available in #warcry

Who: The following Flying Lab developers will be on hand.

• Russell Williams (FLS CEO)
• Kevin Maginn (Lead Game Designer)
• Joe Ludwig (Producer)
• David Hunt (Game Designer)
• Drew Clowery (Game Designer)
• Troy Hewitt (Director of Community Relations)
• Tom Atkinson-Edwards (Community Specialist)

Need a way in? No problem just use our Java Client or Chatspike’s IRC Client.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Lord of the Rings Online: Dev Chat On January 23rd

WarCry is proud to announce that on Wednesday January 23rd, we’ll be hosting the developers of Lord of the Rings Online live on IRC for fans of the game to get their questions in, face to face. The chat will kick off at 8:00pm Eastern (5:00pm Pacific).

When: 01/23/2008 8pm EST

Where: irc.chatspike.net 6667 in #WarCouncil
General chat will be available in #warcry

Who: The following Turbine developers will be on hand.

• Jeffrey Steefel (Executive Producer)
• Brent Schmidt (Content Lead)
• More to be announced…

Need a way in? No problem just use our Java Client or Chatspike’s IRC Client

We look forward to seeing you there!

Square Enix has rather subtly begun promoting Final Fantasy XIII in the West. Some English screenshots were released last week but there are still more to be had. This time around, Fang looks about ready to have words with Sazh over his perceptions of Pulse and also having to delay a “talk” with Vanille.

Source: scrawlfx.com

Reminder: DDO Dev Chat 12/12/2007

Just a reminder we are hosting a chat with the developers of Dungeons & Dragons Online tonight:

Come join us for a dev chat this Wednesday, December 12 2007 at 8pm EST.

When: 12/12/2007 8pm EST
Where: irc.chatspike.net 6667 in #ddo
General chat will be available in #warcry

Need a way in? No problem just use our Java Client or the Chatspike Java Client

So bring you questions on the new level cap, module 6, and the extra tough ones on new quests.

We look forward to seeing you there.

See you there!

Pirates of the Burning Sea: Dev Chat on March 20th

WarCry is proud to announce that on Thursday March 20th, we’ll be hosting the developers of Pirates of the Burning Sea. The event is a chance for fans to get their questions in with the guys from Flying Lab Software in real time. The chat will kick off at 8:00pm EDT (5:00pm PDT).

When: 03/20/2008 8pm EST

Where: irc.chatspike.net 6667 in #WarCouncil
General chat will be available in #warcry

Who: The following Flying Lab developers will be on hand.

• Russell Williams (FLS CEO)
• Kevin Maginn (Lead Game Designer)
• Joe Ludwig (Producer)
• David Hunt (Game Designer)
• Drew Clowery (Game Designer)
• Troy Hewitt (Director of Community Relations)
• Tom Atkinson-Edwards (Community Specialist)

Need a way in? No problem just use our Java Client or Chatspike’s IRC Client.

We look forward to seeing you there!

I wanted to let everyone in on the Ranger class. I’d like to post more on some other jobs and such, guess I’ll see how well this one is accepted first. Hope it’s helpful! ^^

So rangers are the premium melee damage dealers, and one of the most expensive jobs to sustain in the game. The nice thing is you usually won’t have a problem getting a party. Seems everyone wants rangers for their damage, and majority of the time you’ll be asked to pull. I myself have been asked to tank as well when the obvious options aren’t available. I rarely agree to do it unless I’m absolutely confident in my healer(s), and that this mob isn’t going to knock me for 500 pts. In those situations, Ranger has the ability to control the hate rather well, and with the moderate defense, agility/evasion, it’s better if we do it than a mage try to handle it ( I would highly discourage doing it unless you really need to get some xp going ). Now for the nitty gritties of ranger-dom

Ranger is a melee class, and consequently melee stats matter, but they are looked at differently than how a Warrior utilizes their stats.
The most important stat for a ranger, in my opinion, is Agility. There really is no way around it. Agility is the basis by which your ranged accuracy is determined. It works out nicely because the more accurate you are, the less likely you are to get hit. Woot for Agility!
The other stats can really go in any order; Attack(derived from strength and combat skill), Dexterity, and Defense.
I prefer to take pure attack over Strength. Ranged Attack is derived from your Ranged Combat Skill + Attack + Dexterity. Likewise your general Attack comes from your Strength, but Attack is a small part of Ranged Attack, and Strength is a small part of Attack, so Strength plays a decreased roll in the final result, however it does help. Now by having a higher Dexterity, you’re going to have a better melee accuracy and crit potential as well, meaning your TP will raise quicker also.

Now that we got the stat lineup out of the way, next is the races. There really is no bad race, there may be races better than the other, but each seems to have their advantages. Mithra is the obvious choice, natural Agility and Dexterity, however a generally lower Attack/Strength. Elvaan and Galka are a toss up, both having a low Dexterity and Agility, but a high Attack. Taru have an especially high Agility, but incredibly low Hit Points. Humes are just balanced across the board, they don’t stand out anywhere but have no real deficiency anywhere either. My personal choice was Elvaan, but Ranger wasn’t my first choice, it just kinda happened, and it’s happened rather well for me I think.

Next on my checklist is the Traits and Abilities.
First you have Alertness at 5, a general low effective Sneak. Never rely on this to happen, but it does generally let you get closer to a Sound Aggressive mob.
Then you have an Accuracy Bonus at 10 that affects both Melee and Ranged.
Third Ability is Rapid Shot at 15. It basically allows you to fire your weapon without the cocking cast time.
At 20 you get a natural resistance to Poison. I have honeslty seen this work 3 times. If the Resist Poison kicked in, the screen will read Resist! an something to the affect of it being resisted.
When you reach 30, you’ll receive another Accuracy Bonus. You won’t see it because it just stacks on the previous bonus.
There’s another Poison Resist bonus at 40, and a third Accuracy Bonus at 50.

Now for the Abilities you get. The Two Hour skill is first, but you also get Sharpshot and the option for Wide Scan under your Map and Markers screen.
The Two Hour is Eagle Eye Shot, a devastating short-ranged attack. Sharpshot lasts about a minute and increased your Ranged Accuracy; recast is 5 minutes.
Wide scan allows you see all NPC and Mobs within a certain area of the map. It also allows you to Track a particular subject, or scan a smaller area outside of your immediate scan for a particular type Mob. It’s incredibly useful for NM Hunts and for general farming.
At 10 there’s a relatively useless skill called Scavenger. It allows you to “scavenge” the immediate area for resources or the occasional quiver of arrows. I supposed you could run a Scavenge Macro while you sleep and see what comes up; recast is 5 minutes.
You get what will be your favorite ability at 30, Barrage. That will basically notch in 5 arrows or other ammo and fires them in one blow. You can miss any or all of them, so I’d recommend using Sharpshot just before Barrage; recast 5min.
Shadowbind is the skill at 40. It’s a fast shot, deals no damage, and temporarily binds the target. I’ve yet to see it fail and I had to use it on a Lesser Manticore recently. The length of bind however will vary on difficulty of the target; recast 5 minutes.

Your Weapon Skills are pretty effective also, goes right along with the Ranger’s high damage theme. I’ve only maxed out my Archery skill, but as far as the three Weapon Skills prior to the first level cap, Marksmanship and Archery skills have the same effect.
Flaming Arrow will be the first one. It’s a high damage, Fire based attack. The higher the TP, the more damage.
Piercing Arrow is second. It’s also a high damage weapon skill, but with greater TP, it’s more likely to ignore defenses.
Dulling Arrow is third. It’s a moderate damage weapon skill, but with greater TP, it’s more likely to lower target’s Intelligence.
I will update the Weapon Skills, Traits, and Abilities as I learn more about them, these will take you up to 50, your first level cap. At this point, I’m nearing 48 myself, so I don’t want to talk about anything I’m not completely confident about. I will mention that Sidewinder is the fourth weapon skill and will be able to learn it around 55. You go a long time and several levels between Dulling Arrow and Sidewinder, but once you get Sidewinder, the Weapon Skills become more frequent again.

So now you think want to be a ranger? Yea, I like high damage too. It’s a power trip. You know the only other person netting your level of damage is the black mage, and he only has so much MP. Unfortunately, a warrior is only as good as his sword, a good sword comes at a price. Depending what stats you prioritize, you may not spend as much as some. Now you don’t need an Emperor’s Hairpin or a pair of Leaping boots, but they’re nice if you can get them. It is good to shell out top dollar for your ranged weapon. In my case it was +1 bows across the board, with the exception of my Ryl Archer’s Longbow. For maximum damage, longbows are the preferred bow. The speed of shortbows doesn’t make up for their lack of damage. Once you hit Power Bow +1, each subsequent +1 longbow does higher damage with greater bonus to Ranged Attack. The Artifact bow is a good bow, however it’s shortbow based, therefore lower damage, but good speed. If shortbows are your thing, you can look forward to the Sniper’s Bow. Otherwise just get it so you can continue with your AF quest.

My Bow order was: Shortbow +1, Royal Archer’s Longbow, Power Bow +1, Great Bow +1, Battle Bow +1, and have a War Bow +1 in my locker waiting for me. On Asura, my prices starting at Power Bow +1 were 30k, 55-60k, 60-70k, 75-95k.
As far as Arrows, I went with Stone Arrow, Iron Arrow/Fang Arrow, Silver Arrow, and I’m still using Scorpion Arrows. Iron and Silver you can get in Quivers, all others only come in 99 stacks. Now, because you run out of Quiver options, it’s good to do Gobbie Bag quests to increase your personal Inventory, and possibly even the Mog Safe quests to give you more room to store other items, like extra arrows for quick restock. It’s pretty obvious that crafting is worth your while. Creating your own arrows and bolts will cut down ammo cost considerably. The only downside is you have to continue to fund the crafting skill to keep it caught up to whatever you’re using. This can eat up a lot of time, and money that may have been better spent on arrows outright.

Our armor issue is both a curse and a blessing. We just don’t have very much armor to choose from. This can keep armor cost down, but you end up like me, and wearing Lizard set straight into Khazam. Killing Mandragora’s with my 60k bow … oh, and I’m wearing no0bish armor, don’t let me get hit. Your choice of armor and when you upgrade is completely up to you. I preferred to hold out for a piece that affected my stats as opposed to increasing my defense and wasting money on armor. The armor I’ve been usually seen in is…
Centurion’s Visor, Ranger’s Necklace, 2 Beetle Earring +1’s, Iron Scale Mail, Swordbelt, 2 Beetle Ring +1’s, Nomad’s Mantle, Martial Slacks, Magna M Gauntlets, and Magna M Ledelssons. However I recently replaced Iron Scale Mail with Brigandine, and sold my Martial Slacks for Gil, replaced with Iron Cuisses, and am in the process of getting the Magna M Chausses. As you can see, you don’t need all the absolute best gear, but instead make sure to have good gear, and keep a balance on your stats. If you gear too much for Agility and Accuracy, you hurt you damage. If you gear too much to damage, you’ll never hit.

If anyone needs it, I can post the Ranger Flag quest, and the AH Quests, but their pretty well discussed in other threads. I just wantd to cover some of the misconceptions and what goes into being a ranger

Guild Wars: Eye of the North is the first true expansion to the best-selling franchise and according to ArenaNet acts as a bridge between the original game and its upcoming sequel. For fans who have at least one version of Guild Wars, this expansion offers a wealth of new content to enjoy.

This contest is the chance for those of you who have been on the fence to get a copy of the recently released expansion. Simply enter your details and you could win one of 20 copies.

Click below to enter!

Lord of the Rings Online: Dev Chat On January 23rd

WarCry is proud to announce that on Wednesday January 23rd, we’ll be hosting the developers of Lord of the Rings Online live on IRC for fans of the game to get their questions in, face to face. The chat will kick off at 8:00pm Eastern (5:00pm Pacific).

When: 01/23/2008 8pm EST

Where: irc.chatspike.net 6667 in #WarCouncil
General chat will be available in #warcry

Who: The following Turbine developers will be on hand.

• Jeffrey Steefel (Executive Producer)
• Brent Schmidt (Content Lead)
• More to be announced…

Need a way in? No problem just use our Java Client or Chatspike’s IRC Client

We look forward to seeing you there!