Vana'diel Bestiary: Tribunus VII-I  

Since most of the information posted thus far has been from strong soloing classes or full parties, I hope this is a somewhat helpful assessment for others wanting to fight this NM. :)

I duoed this NM as a 72 DRK/THF with a 60 WHM/BLM, and it ended up being a very fun fight. It was a more strategic battle than an outright beat down, but I can't say that we were ever in any really serious danger.

I ate some steamed crab to absorb its attacks a bit better, and used bloody bolts since drain wasn't going to do a whole lot to an antican. Through the fight I kept dropping bio2 and absorb-STR on it, and the WHM would occassionally Flash and keep me healed. His other enfeebles, unfortunately, were resisted quite often, but probably due more to his level vs that of the NM.

I was somewhat concerned about its magnetic cloud ability since some here wrote that it could do 600-900 damage, but it never did any more than about 90 to me. His other specials were along the same lines, nothing to get upset over.

About 1/3 of the way through, it used Mighty Strikes. It resisted my Stun, so I used flee and fled up and down the tiny corridor and a bit out into the larger chamber to avoid its criticals until it wore.

About halfway through, my WHM ran out of MP, so I told him to rest while I used Blood Weapon. It was enough to buy us the time we needed for him to get his MP back. ;)

Also, as already noted here by others, the NM is not level 72, since he gave me 15 XP when we killed it. I'd guess more around upper 60s, like 67-68. We also got about 4800 gil each and the Tungi dropped.

what do I do? I ran to rabeo and accidently got caught up in quest that required me to find the ??? in quicksand caves and get some item for a guy. After getting quest item, will having not completed quest effect my ability to get tag? I've hit about 4 different ??? and none have given me tag so far.

Solo'ed as 75Brd/37Nin i got the axe on first try. But it took me like 2hrs to get the Antican Tag.

NM is incredibly easy. Took three kills before axe dropped, killed it as 75 bst/whm with a 74 thf/nin friend and we didn't take any damage to speak of in any of the battles. I've found the Antican Tag four times (went back for a 4th after I got my axe because a friend wants it and this way we can pop it twice in a row without having to wait 2 hours) and always in the spot at G-10 through the K-7 E. Altep entrance. Four times in a row, too, on four consecutive spawns. Just thought that was strange. Also, the first time he dropped a pauldron, three pieces of iron ore, second time he dropped that and a piece of mythril ore. Third time he dropped all of that, plus a darksteel ore, adaman ore, kindred seal, piece of rotten meat and the tungi (it was a HUGE drop). My friend also mugged 3103 gil from him.

Edited spelling error.

Edited, Fri Mar 4 12:40:17 2005

i solo'd him earlier @71thf/nin he never hit me once w/ axe only with magicite cloud thingy he used once, took about 8 mins to kill him ><

I went with a party of 4 last night to fight this NM for the Tungi. Party consisted of war62(myself), war62, whm63, rng67 and we had no real problems with him (thanks mainly to the {Sidewinder} brutality, heh). Got Tungi on the first drop, then waited to fight him three more times trying for a second for the other war in the party...Didn't get it, but we'll be going back again.

The directions listed elsewhere are quite accurate. We entered Quicksand Caves at J-9 in Western Altepa, proceeded down the tunnel and across the open space to another passage opening which looked like it had collapsed (it showed as E-9 on our maps rather than D-9, but close enough). We even got two coffer keys while clearing the nearby anticans in between fights with Tribunus, and I now have my Tungi. ^^

Edited, Thu Jan 20 09:30:43 2005

Ok I spent a lot of time on this thing. Fought him 6 times total and spent a lot of time looking for tags.

The Antican Tag: Obtained in Quicksand caves entered through Eastern Altepa Desert by examining a ???. 2 known locations of ??? by me are G-10(Decurio area) and G-7 of the other map. Other 2 rumored spawn points are the 2 circle areas with Quicksand holes. The ??? is tricky though.

The ??? does not despawn when someone examines it like another poster said. The ??? seems to be on a timer. For example the ??? can be at G-7 for a set amount of time, but it doesn't stay spawned 100%. It instead spawns and respawns at random in the same spot. I tested this by having a friend at G-10 and me at G-7. I watched the ??? spawn and respawn at random in front of me for a good 20-30 minutes while my friend never saw the ??? This makes it difficult for someone to just go tabbing through the caves if you don't know all locations. I also had 3 guys including myself get a Tag from the same spot at the same time.

The NM: Trade Antican Tag to ??? at D-9 in Quicksand Caves. Entrance to this area is J-9 of Western Altepa. The NM is not lv72. He is is lv 60 or 65 like other sites have listed. Very easy NM. We beat him easily with 3 level 60 BST. Each with 1 DC pet. Hope this helps clear up some confusion about the ??? spawn pattern and the level of the NM.

Edited, Sun Jan 2 06:43:36 2005

Ok guys - here's how this is done. You obtain the Antican Tag by clicking any of the ???'s found that randomly spawn throughout Quicksand Caves. This ??? disappears once you obtain the tag, and reappears instantly at one of the other spawn points.

Once you have the tag, you go to WESTERN ALTEPA desert, and enter the caves @ J-9. Once inside, just follow the cave and then cross the large room until you get to the small dead end @ D-9. There will be a ??? there. Trade the tag to THAT ???, and it'll spawn Tribunus VII-I.

This ??? reappears after 12 minutes, so you can fight him as often as you like, provided you have tags.

I killed this NM the other day. We had a party of 3 warriors 60(me),62, and 68 1 dragoon somewhere in lower 60's a 68 thf and a a lower 60 whm. We killed this thing in like 30 secs the 68 war and thf did a huge skillchain and brought him down to about 60 life. Then me and the other warrior rampaged him for bout 1,000 damage each.
We got tungi and adaman ore and some other ant stuff.I got out lotted on the tungi was unhappy:(
Then me and some other friends when to go kill it party was: 60 war<me>, 75 rng , 55 thf ,and a 55 whm thst fight was very easy too. Me and the ranger did slug shot rampage skillchain a brought him down to bout 60 hp then rng and thf do split shot viper bit and he was dead soon after> NO tungi:(
The ??? for the Antica Tag spawns in the Centuio X-I room on the rock. I learned this after about7 hours of running around quicksand caves spamming tab.
Name: Conarc job 60 war Rank 8 San d'Oria
Server: Siren GO Siren!!!
Go Galka's
Hope this helps

while i was hunting for Shamans Cloak my friend sent /tell to ask for help with Tungi NM, i said ok and she asked if the ??? spawned i said no. she arrived and stayed there for 2 hrs camping the NM and the ??? neither popped i gave up and she logged ; ; where does the ??? spawn

fought him the other night
i was a 62war/nin, had 74war/nin, 62drg/war and a 70-something whm with me as well
incredibly easy NM
i used Armor Break at the beginning of the fight
then the drg and war did a skewer - rampage - distortion skillchain and it was dead soon after
dropped the Tungi and other stuff listed except for darksteel and adaman ore
as for the Antican Tag, i got it in area D-11 of quicksand caves. this is from the H-10 entrance of Eastern Altepa Desert
and as for the Tungi having any hidden effects, havent seen anything substantiable yet