NEW NM SYSTEM:

(stolen from a forum ....yes someone else did the work and I am passing on the information....thankyou Drexis from Alla) Getting Started: To get zeni, you have to take pictures of mobs, just like in Pankration. Grab some imperial coins (a couple gold pieces will go a LONG way), and head to The Pit. When you zone in, look left and talk to the guy with his hands down his trousers (Zandjarl). Trade him your coins for jettons, the Pankration currency. Now talk to him, browse his wares, and select 2 jetton items. Buy a soul-trapper, and a couple stacks of soul plates. You'll need to buy a new soul-trapper after each trip, so try not to forget. Picking Your Target Now that you have a camera and frames, you need to know what to take pictures of. Head to Whitegate, near the Al Zhabi zone, and talk to Sanraku, then Ryo. Ask Ryo what the current subject of Sanraku's interest his, and he'll give you a mob type. These seem to change on a random or timed basis (idk yet why it changes), but so far it's been about once every 2 hours or so. Now, find the highest level version of that mob you can think of that type you can handle holding solo (or with your group, if you're bringin' friends), and that will be your target. Taking Pictures Head to the zone with your target in it, and equip your soul-trapper in the ranged slot. Now, put your soul plates in the ammo slot. To take a picture, use the soul-trapper from your inventory. Once all the charges are used up, toss it, and head back to the Pankration NPC for a new one. Likewise, when you run out of plates, you can buy more from him. Find your mob, and start snapping! See below for tips on how to get the most points for your pictures though! Turning Them In After you've got your pictures, head back to Whitegate and trade them to Sanraku to see how many points you got. You can trade them to Ryo first if you want to know how many zeni they are worth beforehand. The limit is 10 soul plates traded to Sanraku per game day. Also, don't forget a new camera! Making the Most of Your 10 As I said, you can only turn in ten pictures per game day. Obviously then, you want to make them good ones. Here are the things I have found to increase the number of points you get for each picture: -Low HP. The lower the mob's HP%, the more points you will get. -Claim. Taking pictures of a mob that is CFHed or claimed to someone else will get you very low points. Make sure your party has claim on your mob. -Front. Stand in front of the mob, so it's facing you. -Lock. Lock target on it so that it is centered in the frame. -Level. High level mobs give higher points. -Distance. Stand about 3 feet away (if using distance plug-in), or maximum melee range (if not) for just the right distance. -I have not found any difference between NQ and HQ camera, and NQ and HQ plates. HQ camera just seems to let you take more pictures before needing a new one, but it's so many jettons that I don't think it's worth it. -Sleeping the mob helps a ton, both in keeping it facing one direction so you can stand in front, and in keeping it off you while you wait for the 1 minute cool down on your Soul -Trapper. A sleeper makes an enormous difference, so bring one if at all possible! Getting Your Pop Item Talk to Sanraku and ask about the monsters. He will list all of the NMs by name. Select an NM and he will tell you how many zeni it costs for the pop item. This cost seems to go down by 100 per gameday, and up by 100 whenever someone buys one (?). Once you have enough points, buy the information, and you'll get a pop item specific to that NM. There is also an option about information about the inlet. If you pay the 500 points, you get a salt item. This allows you to access the previously un-travelable islets via the stone slabs. The salt is lost when you teleport out there, and each person needs a salt to get there. There is only a ??? on the islets. They are used to pop the new Hydra/Cerberus/Khimaira NMs, according to the hints in the ??? text and the data-mined pop items. The islet is instanced too; only people in your party can travel out there once you've "reserved" it, similar to how the sky God islands are when the God is popped. Finding the ??? New ???s can be found all over ToAU areas. These are the new NM pop spots, and each gives a hint to the pop item when examined. Gather your group up, and when you're ready, pop the NM by having one person trade their item. The other people in the group do not need the item to participate in the fight. Kill the NM, and it will drop one rare/ex item specific to that NM 100% of the time, plus a <100% chance of dropping one or more of the new armor/weapon/items. Whoever traded the pop item should probably get the rare/ex item for fairness, but that's up to your group. Here are the NMs: Tier 1 Vulpange (Puk) - Karura Hachigane Chamrosh (Colibri) - Erato's Cape and Dragoon's Earring Cheese Horder Gigiroon (Qiqirn) - Armadillo Cuisses, Beast Slayer Brass Borer (Wamouracampa) - Ritterhenzes, Lion Tamer Claret (Clot) - Kerykeion Ob (Automaton) - Coiler, Attuner, Guignol Earring Velionis (Skeleton) - ? Lil' Apkallu (Apkallu) - Numerist Pumps Chigre (Chigoe) - ? Tier 2 Antantaboga (Dragon) - ? Reacton (Bomb) - ? Dextrose (Flan) - ? Iriri Samariri (Poroggo) - ? Iriz Ima (Marid) - ? Lividroot Amooshah (Malboro) - ? Now what? Enjoy your new gear, if you got any. You can head back to Whitegate and trade the 100% drop to Sanraku for a key item. This key item gives you access to harder NMs that cost more points. More info on them once I've tried ;)