Of a potential eight, five of us banded together for a run. Suicide run mostly, as (at least I for one) we weren't sure how far we'd get or if we'd even make it. The details are a little fuzzy, but if I recall it costs a gold relic to get in, so it can be a little spendy. As soon as you go in you earn the [Castilla Relic Explorer] Medal.
A map for convenience.
1. The first boss is the Diablo of Chaos, and he's rather huge, as most all of the bosses in the Castilla Ruins are.
2. The 2nd is called Wetis of Chaos. Wtheck a wetis is, I've no idea, and I'm not too interested in finding out. But he looks a little like this.
Behold! The fearsome Weits of Chaos.
A little bit beyond that is this pretty little scene..
The last calm, serene view before many a pioneer's demise.
3. Arito of Chaos is the next boss you get to meet. Looks liek a seriously old man in epic armor. Kinda spiffy looking, if I may say so myself.
4. Part four of ze tour is a very small boss called simply 'Nana'. A small young red-headed female who packs quite the 68 AR punch.
Coincidentally, she's also prophetic.
5. Here is Tempest. A giant armored knight with purple glowing eyes and an arsenal of pain that will make most anyone become very friendly with their Soul Crystals. At 69 AR/DR, there really was nothing the Family could do that the time to damage it, so the time was spent best running around and ressing our teammates when possible. For that large area right before where Tempest arrives? You need that space to defeat the other bosses. Yes, the other bosses you just defeated. You get to defeat them, again, all at once.
The mighty Tempest in the vast Arena.
The roulettes seem to vary between dishing out more e84 items (yuck >_<) to gold bars, lv 100 items, and even some rings. Given our moderate success at Castilla Ruins, our group continued on our adventure even further - into the Tower of Chaos!
- - - - -
I've heard a lot about ToC, and seen a lot of pretty pictures from there too. As far as I know, no-one has yet completed ToC. I know it *has* been defeated in like.. one of the versions/servers for Granado Espada, but not to my knowledge has it been done on the Sword 2 servers. It cost.. actually.. I don't recall what it cost. But it involved gold relics and it was spendy. Regardless, we were fortunate to have enough with us so everyone could enter, so in we went!
Just a short ways in, but already a gorgeous interior.
One thing of interest to note, is Tower of Chaos absolutely reeks of exp. Granted I hadn't tried vesping before this point, but it certainly isn't anything to thumb your nose about. It's very nice exp - assuming your party can survive long enough to get it. I wouldn't advise trying to bring a nab to plvl though. Now when I went in I brought in a Lv 1 Master scout, Lv 3 Ele (cringeworthy, I know), and a Lv 1 Master Soso. Their exp % was 15, 63, and 91% respectively.
A thing to note is that - for starters - ToC begins with 68 AR/DR mobs. By the time we reached Einschwer of Chaos, (Einwind, essentially), Niyone was up to 30%, Margaret my Ele up to 96%, and Mei (Soso) was 6% into the next level. On that note, Ein completely slaughtered a number of us, but it was fun all the same.
Tanking: It's srsbsns.
All in all, it was a lot of fun. Personally, I can't wait to go there again. xD It's freaking expensive though. @_@ But the experience was worth it, and I'm not referring to the character %'s either. I've no idea when the next time I'll be able to/can afford to go to CM let alone ToC, but I'm looking forward to it. I have this thing where if there's a boss that's tough and hard to beat - I just want to defeat it all the more. So with that in mind - ToC is like a ideal *cue angels singing* challenge to me. Teehee, can't wait.
~Alze.
