Dark Matter Mule Guide

Not usually one to post so apologies if this isn't in the correct channel. During this last Dark Matter Campaign I wanted to work on a very concise step by step guide of the fastest way to get a mule from creation to Oseem augment access for my own use. I complied everything in this Node and I thought maybe the community might find it helpful/useful as well!

Any feedback would also be appreciated!

Thanks!

Oh ***, great job!

Ok great but what's your best speedrun and can we start a rankings thread

That is much more in depth than my 15 lines speedrun notes, lol.

Good work.

holy moly

Cool guide, definitely helpful for anyone looking to use DM augments and can also be used for other beneficial stuff like AMAN Trove or Odyssey chest farming.

I personally would use whm/blm but that's preference. How long would you say it takes start to finish including the time it takes to go from 1 to 99.

I would think on average 12 hours if you were efficient and were carrying with another character through everything. Could maybe even get it down to 8-10 hours if you perfected everything and took a very speed run approach to finish the DM part.

Adding in 99, it is hard to say b/c of all the limit breaks. Would increase the time a a bit for sure. Might revisit the guide some day and add that in as an extra though!

can someone explain what a dm mule is? assume it's only useful during the campaign right?

Run a same-account mule through RoV up to the point where you have Reisenjima access, which will give you access to Oseem augments.

Get the reisen gear on a mule and augment it. If you like the augment, you send to your main.

Do notice how much time youre investing on it, and how much gear were added which would require near godlike augments to even out.

As time progresses and new gear is introduced, less appealing is doing this.

Most people now a days just use the dm for phalanx and refresh augs and maybe for weapon skill pieces.

There is many bis utility augment from DM, that probably wont ever be replaced (at least not all of them). Also such mules with a little more work can be useful for other things.

Yeah, you have access to free silver vouchers for Dynamis and Omen on a monthly basis which can be a worthwhile investment.

Im not denying the usefulness of multi mules with content progression at all.

Im saying as a person that managed to bring 4 mules from same account to DM augments. Plus, from 6 accounts resulting in like 24 spins with DM.

Add a single minute to rotate all of the rolls, plus login/logout time, plus inv management, grabbing enough pieces, sending/retrieving or managing augments where you need to make sure an augment is new within a same account. Then consider all this hassle for, idk, 2~3 weeks? Thats a huge amount of time investment for some augments.

Obviously deciding about doing it or not is an entirely personal decision, and by any ways im trying to convince people to either do or dont do it.

I just think its worth mentioning the downsides/costs about this grinding.

I came to that same realization myself and deleted 8 or so mules and discontinued my dual box like a year or so ago. Too much log in mess around time that FFXI excels in.

Having recently run my 2 mules to level 99 for AMAN Trove, I would like add the following points.

My focus is only level 99 to activate AMAN Trove, so I stopped at Rank 3 for nation quests. The main reason is to get the ROV KI Rhapsody in Umber so that Trusts can be used in the level 70 limit break fight.

1. Don't start in Bastok, there are bots farming Fetich items for crafting shields so you have to compete with them for the drops, not to mention that you need 4 different parts. My mule in Windurst has a comparatively faster rank up.

2. Use 5 copper voucher for Conquest points and exchange for Warp Ring. It speeds up the run considerably.

3. Start with Warrior, there are plenty of mobs in Davoi (LB3 location) dropping warrior testimony for Level 70 limit break fight. I went to the fight with level 1 gear and let the Valaineral (free from RoE tutorial quest) tank the fight with Shantotto II nuking.

4. My carry is a COR giving Bolter's Roll every zone for movement speed and Corsair roll for XP when leveling the mule in Escha Zitah on Lizards. Job change to THF for farming LB1 items while the mule sit at the zone line.

5. When doing the limit breaks, you can activate the next one immediately by using RoE quests to gain marginal xp. i.e. At level 50 with capped xp, finish limit break 1. Then activate the RoE quest for limit break 1 and get XP to reach 51. Talk to Maat again to start limit break 2.

This way, you can XP -> 50, LB1 -> LB 2, XP -> 60, LB3 -> LB4, XP -> 70, LB5, XP -> 75 with 7 Merits, LB6 -> LB7, XP -> 85 with 15 Merits, LB8 -> LB9, XP -> 95, LB10.

6. Get the seals from login campaign, seasoning stone etc as well.

The mules are usually deactivated. Only up and around during the free login period. I use them for AMAN Trove only. I did get a Dagon Breastplate out of one of the mules, so it helps somehow.

You can also start them on the Voidwatch quests to start accumulating Voidstones for the next Free Login campaign to farm heavy metal.