I Choose You! A Pankration GuideFollow

This is my first guide, so please bear with me. Hopefully it is better than the terrible “guide” that came in the release notes. This is also a Work In Progress. I will update it as needed in response to posts.

I Choose You! A Pankration Guide

Contents:

I. What is Pankration? 
     a.	 What is Pankration? 
     b.	 Where is Pankration? 
II. Starting Out 
     a.	 Meet George Jetton!  (Buying Jettons) 
     b.	 Shopping With Jettons 
III. Catching Monsters 
     a.	 Equipment 
     b.  What Mobs Can I Fight With? 
     c.	 Catching 
     d.	 Helpful Tips 
     e.	 Turning Plates into Monsters 
IV. Naming Monsters 
V.  Fighting Monsters 
     a.	 Inspection 
     b.	 Choosing A Cage 
     c.	 Cage Warping 
     d.	 Registration 
     e.	 Checking Your Opponent 
     f.	 Fight! 
     g.	 Collecting Your Spoils 
VI. Feral Skills 
a.	Equipping Feral Skills 
b.	Free Feral Skills (also called “Natural” or “Inherent” Feral Skills) 
c.	Skilling Up Feral Skills 
VII. Tips and Hints

I. What is Pankration?
I.a. What is Pankration?
Pankration is a feature that was added to FFXI on 10 September 2007. It is essentially a Pokémon-like system where you go out and catch monsters, then fight them against other PCs’ monsters.

I.b. Where is Pankration?
Pankration matches and registration are carried out in the Pit, which is located on the south wall of Gladiator’s Alley in Aht Urhgan Whitegate (on the line between J-11 and K-11). You enter by talking to “Gate: The Pit”.

II. Starting Out
II.a. Meet George Jetton! (Buying Jettons)
The first thing you need to do is obtain some jettons, which are the currency for Pankration. To do so, you trade Imperial Currency Pieces to Zandjarl. He is located just left of the entrance tunnel (in Annihilation cage, F-7). The Exchange Rate is:

1 Bronze = 1 jetton
1 Silver = 10 jettons
1 Mithryl = 30 jettons
1 Gold = 200 jettons

II.b. Shopping With Jettons
In order to spend your jettons on Pankration gear, speak again with Zandjarl and select the option, “I’d like to browse your wares.” He will then give you three options: 2-jetton Items; 500-jetton Items; 5000-jetton items.
His wares are as follows (from wiki):

2 Jettons
A Soultrapper – 12 uses, 60 second cooldown
12 blank soul plates – 1 consumed per use
500 Jettons
A Soultrapper 2000 – 48 uses, 30 second cooldown
12 blank high-speed soul plates – 1 consumed per use
5000 Jettons
Zoraal Ja's Helm
Dartorgor's Coif
No.3's Garland
Cacaroon's Hood

III. Catching Monsters
III.a. Equipment

• In order to “catch” monsters you will need a Soultrapper (your “camera”), and some soul plates (your film). Buy them from Zandjarl, then equip them in your Ranged and Ammo slots respectively.
• Using your Soultrapper once will consume 1 use of the Soultrapper, and 1 soul plate, regardless of success.

III.b. What Mobs Can I Fight With?
This section will be added to over time, as the list becomes more complete. For now, (because it is easier to list what you CAN'T fight with), I go by the rule of thumb: "If it's smart enough to talk, it won't fight for you." (Imps break this rule, since there is a talking Imp in the TAU storyline.)

In other words, no Beastmen, Wyrms, Gods, Kings, Sea-gods, TAU gods, etc. Also, you cannot use many CoP mobs including Hippogryphs, Snolls, Sea mobs. No Elementals.

III.c. Catching

• Now go out into Vana’diel and find some monsters. As far as I know, you can capture any monster on a soul plate. However, only some monster families can actually be used to battle.
• To capture a monster’s image on a soul plate, equip the Soultrapper and plate(s) and use the Soultrapper on the mob through item menu, macro, or whatever.
• Note: You cannot use the Soultrapper while Sneak or Invisible are on you.
• Your result will appear in chat log following the animation. You’ll either capture, or you’ll fail to capture.

III.d. Helpful Tips
There are several things that you can do to increase the chance that you’ll get the monster on your plate. These are just from my personal experience, so if you don’t agree please say so and say WHY you don’t agree. Any other tips will also be added.

• Lower the monster’s health. This weakens the monster and makes it easier to catch.
• Get as close as possible to the monster.
• Face the monster. Look directly at it.
• Have the monster face you. Being behind it doesn’t seem to work nearly as well.
• Fight your own monster. You are more likely to get a plate if you take a picture of a monster you have claimed, than one that somebody else has. (Thank you, Salodin.)
• Get the monster’s attention. Having hate seems to increase success rates. (Thank you, Salodin.)

III.e. Turning Plates into Monsters
Next thing to do is turn your newly-caught monster plate, into a real live monster. You will need 1 Ice Crystal for this.

• Find any Pit Official. There is one of these officials in each cage. When standing in entrance tunnel and facing the cage, go to the right wall, there are two NPCs there. The LEFT one is the one you’re looking for. These NPCs’ names are: Abhrem (G-7), Idjham (J-9), Biwhal (I-7), Whashai (I-9).
• Trade the soul plate that you want to make into a monster plus one Ice Crystal to this person and he will make it into a Soul Reflector if it is possible for that monster family. If it is not possible for your family, he will tell you so.
• NOTE: Your monster will not necessarily have the feral skill that was on the plate you created it with. For me out of ~35 mobs, only 2 came with the skill on their soul plate.

Congratulations! You now have your very own monster for the pit!

IV. Naming Monsters
This gets its own section because it is the single most asked question I see in /shouts or on message boards.
In order to name a monster, you trade your Soul Reflector (or Official Reflector, if you have one) to one of the Pit Officials that also make plates into monsters. The official will then give you several options.

• Select “Change monster name”.
• Say “Yes” to “Would you like to change this?”
• You will be then given a list of first names. Choose one (there are several pages, so be sure to go through them all).
• Then you will be given second names. Choose one (there are several pages, so be sure to go through them all).
• If you like your monster’s new name, say, “But of course!” Otherwise, select, “Never mind.” and repeat the process.

Your monster is now no longer another Pit Monster in the masses.

Possible Names
First Names:
• Pit
• Bloody
• Brutal
• Celestial
• Combat
• Cyclopean
• Dark
• Deadly
• Drachen
• Giant
• Hostile
• Howling
• Hyper
• Invincible
• Merciless
• Mighty
• Necro
• Nimble
• Poison
• Putrid
• Rabid
• Radiant
• Raging
• Relentless
• Savage
• Silent
• Tenebrous
• The
• Triple
• Undead
• Writhing
• Serpentine
• Aile
• Bete
• Croc
• Babine
• Carapace
• Colosse
• Corne
• Fauve
• Flamme
• Griffe
• Machoire
• Mandibule
• Patte
• Rapace
• Tentacule
• Voyou
• Zaubernder
• Brutaler
• Explosives
• Funkelnder
• Kraftvoller
• Moderndes
• Tosener
• Schwerer
• Sprintender
• Starker
• Stinkender
• Taumelnder
• Tolles
• Verlorenes
• Wendiger
• Wuchtiger

Second Names:
• Monster
• Beast
• Butcher
• Carnifex
• Critter
• Cyclone
• Dancer
• Darkness
• Erudite
• Fang
• Fist
• Flayer
• Gladiator
• Heart
• Howl
• Hunter
• Jack
• Machine
• Mountain
• Nemesis
• Raven
• Reaver
• Rock
• Stalker
• T
• Tiger
• Tornado
• Vermin
• Vortex
• Whispers
• X
• Prime
• Agile
• Brave
• Coriace
• Diabolique
• Espiegle
• Feroce
• Fidele
• Fourbe
• Impitoyable
• Nuisible
• Robuste
• Sanguinaire
• Sauvage
• Stupide
• Tenace
• Tendre
• Boesewicht
• Engle
• Flitzpiepe
• Gottkaiser
• Klotz
• Muelleimer
• Pechvogel
• Postbote
• Prinzessin
• Raecherin
• Riesenbaby
• Hexer
• Teufel
• Vieh
• Vielfrass
• Fleischer


V. Fighting Monsters
V.a. Inspection
The first step toward pitting your monster against another player’s is having your Soul Reflector inspected. This is a relatively simple process.

• Simply trade the Soul Reflector of the monster you would like to use to any Inspector NPC – they are located to the right of the Pit Officials (when facing the Official). These NPCs are: Kadjayhal (G-7), Ghalizham (G-9), Wharoub (I-7), Zhashdi (I-9).
• The Soul Reflector is now called an Official Reflector.
• In order to “un-officialize” your monster’s Reflector and thus have a different monster able to fight, all you need to do is trade the Official Reflector back to any Inspector NPC.

V.b. Choosing A Cage
There are four cages available to have your monster fight in: Annihilation, Bloodlust, Carnage, Diablo.

In Annihilation, Bloodlust and Carnage, your monster will be battling against a monster randomly chosen from other entrants. After the fight, both monsters will have to re-register to fight again.

In Diablo, your monster will be battling against the reigning champion – the winner of the previous round. If your monster loses, you will have to re-register it to fight again. If it wins, it will have to fight the next challenger. Your monster will stay fighting until it is defeated by another monster.

V.c. Cage Warping
You may Warp to a specific cage by speaking to any Cage Warp NPC. These NPCs are located to the right of the entrance tunnel (when facing the cage). Their names are: Kanawa (F-7), Kumumu (F-9), Nalpupu (J-7), Kiwawa (J-9)

Select which cage you would like to go to, and you will be Warped to the Warp NPC in that cage.

V.d. Registration
Also called application, this is the hardest part of Pankration because it is so crowded that most matches are backed up by 42 minutes.

• In order to register for a match, trade your Official Reflector to any Registration NPC. These NPCs are located on the left side of any cage (if facing cage). Their names are: Kaheema (G-7), Rayeewa (G-9), Tadeewa (J-7), Salyadh (J-9).
• Note: You can only register in one cage at a time! If you want to change cages you have to cancel your registration in your current cage.
• Registration opens the second that the winner of the previous match fades out of existence. You have to be very, very fast to get registered.
• Registering for a match will cost you 1 jetton.
• If you are in a party your menu options will be different than if you are solo.

If you are solo:

• You will be shown your monsters stats, hit enter.
• Hit enter again.
• Then you will have the following menu items:

•        Yes. (1 jetton fee required) 

•        No. 

“No.” is the default selection, so you will have to hit up very quickly. If you manage to get registered you will be placed against a random monster and told approximately how long until your match (usually 42 minutes, or 87 minutes for Diablo). Otherwise, you will be given some message about too many applicants, or have your application dropped in a puddle.

If you are in a party (and other member is unregistered for a fight):
You have the option of reserving a slot for your party member. If you do this your monster will fight against your party member’s monster. This will not work in the Diablo cage.

• You will be shown your monsters stats, hit enter.
• You will be informed that you can reserve a spot for your party member, hit enter.
• Then you will have the following menu items:

•        Quit.

•        Yes. (1 jetton) 

•        Submit entry only. (1 Jetton) 

“Quit.” is the default selection. You will have to quickly hit down once to battle against your party member. You will have to very quickly hit down twice to battle against a random opponent.

If you are registered to fight with your party member, he or she must talk to the same Registration NPC that you are registered with within 5 minutes of registration. If he or she does not do that, the spot will be filled by a random opponent.

You may cancel your registration by trading your Official Reflector back to the NPC you registered with. Select “I’d like to cancel my application.” Then select “Yes.”

V.e. Checking Your Opponent
Another section added because I hear this question a lot: “How do I see who my opponent is?”

It is quite easy. Simply talk to the NPC you registered with. They will give you a menu. Select, “I’d like to confirm my opponent.” Your opponent’s name, family type and level will then show in your chat log.


V.f. Fight!
When your fight is up, a “page” will appear in your chatlog. It will say:



YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE PRESENT FOR YOUR MONSTER TO FIGHT – it will fight without you even being logged on.

Once you have been paged, you may go to the NPC (in the cage you registered in) that will Warp you to the platform behind the cage. This is optional.

• The Red NPC will be on the left of the stairs, while the Blue will be on the right side.
• Talk to the NPC and say, “Yes.” You will be Warped to the platform.
• On the platform there are some Speaking Tubes. These are used to tell commands to your monster as it fights. Once the battle starts you will be able to select them and get a menu with various commands.
• The commands (Thank you, valid.) are:

•        Quit. 

•        You're on your own! 

•        Think, and then think again! 

•        Watch your opponent, then attack! 

•        Less thinking, more striking! 

•        Don't think, kill! 

•        Guard! Block! Parry! Hold! 

•        Back off a bit! 

•        Give 'em a little more bite! 

•        Show no mercy!!! 

• When the battle is over, you will be Warped back to the ground floor of the arena.

Not a lot of information is available about what these commands do. I will update when more is known.

Here is a theory from valid:


My own theory for this is that the more you use commands, the more disciplined your mob will become (and more tame). Also I believe that the attacks it’s willing to listen to are based on its defensive/aggressive rating.

Any other theories will be posted here until concrete proof is found.


V.g. Collecting Your Spoils
When your fight is complete, you must return to the NPC who registered you. Trade your Official Reflector to them and you will be told: how many experience points your monster got, your monster’s level if it levels up, any abilities or traits that leveled (such as Resist Gravity or Evasion Bonus), and how many jettons you won. Jettons seem to be equal to the amount of experience you received.
You must perform this step in order to register for another fight.

VI. Feral Skills
You may have noticed that every soul plate has the name of some trait or ability and some FP assigned to it. These are called “Feral Skills” and are used to make your monsters stronger.

VI.a. Equipping Feral Skills
Once you have a plat with an ability you like, find a Pit Official – you will be spending a lot of quality time with these NPCs.
Trade your Official Reflector or Soul Reflector to a Pit Official. Hit enter 3 times (you will be shown your monster’s stats), then you will be given a menu with the following options:

•        Quit. -  Exits the menu. 

•        Change monster name. – Change your monster’s name.  

•        Confirm feral skills. – Check which skills you have equipped.  

•        Remove feral skills. – Remove skills.  

•        Confirm FP total. – Your monster’s used/total FP.  

•        Confirm level and EXP. – Your monster’s level and TNL.  

•        Confirm monster temperament – Monster discipline/tameness/aggressiveness.  

•        Review terminology.  – Definitions of Pankration terms.  

• First see if your monster has any natural abilities by selecting “Confirm feral skills”. “With help” will give you some help text describing what the skill does. “Without help” gives you only the skill name.
• Occasionally you’ll get lucky and a monster will come with a “free” feral skill – this can be a random ability and/or the ability that was on the plate you created the monster with. These cost no FP and cannot be removed.
• Now select “Confirm FP total.” to see if your monster has enough FP to learn the skill on your plate. You will be charged 1 jetton every time you remove a skill.
• If you lack sufficient FP, you may want to select “Remove feral skills.” to make some room for your new skill.

Once you have enough FP available, you will want to learn the skill. To do this, trade the Pit Official your Soul/Official Reflector plus the soul plate with the skill you want your monster to learn. He will charge you 1 jetton for this.

VI.b. Free Feral Skills (also called “Natural” or “Inherent” Feral Skills)
Most monsters that you create don’t come with anything special beyond maybe a Job or Subjob. However, from time to time you’ll get lucky and the monster you create will come with one or more feral skills that do not cost any FP. From what I’ve seen, there are two kinds of free skills:

• Skills that come from the plate you used to make the monster. For example I made a Korrigan with a plate with Evasion Bonus feral skill. As a result, the monster came with a natural Evasion Bonus. This seems to happen very rarely.
• Skills that come from seemingly nowhere. For example, the same Mandy from the example above also came with an inherent Auto-Regen +5 feral skill. This seems to occur a bit more commonly than the first type.

These free feral skills cannot be removed from your monster’s ability list.

VI.c. Skilling Up Feral Skills
Certain feral skills appear to skill up as your monster gains experience points. It seems like for every fight you participate in, the applicable skills raise by 1 level. At this time, not much is known about how these levels affect the skills themselves.

Feral skills that increase in level include: “killer” traits; “instant” buffs (Stoneskin, Phalanx, Spikes, Bar-spells, etc); and “resist” traits (Resist Gravity, Resist Blind, etc). Will add more as they are found.

VII. Tips and Hints
In this section, I will share some observations that I have made over my Pankration career. Please note: these are my opinions based on my experiences. If you wish to dispute them, or would like to add your own, please respond. I will also add more as I think of them.

• If you fight a monster higher than you and lose, you will still get experience points.
• You will get more experience points from a fight the higher a monster is, win or lose.
• If you lose to a monster the same level than you or lower, you will only get 5 experience points. (souleman says that 1 is the minimum. Can anyone confirm?)
• If you fight a monster that is very far below your level and win, chances are they go the same, or even more, experience points as you.
• Experience points awards seem the same as against xp mobs, so fighting the same level monster as yours (Even Match) will yield 100 experience points for a win, etc.
• Instant Buff skills (Stoneskin, Spikes, etc.) are your friends. The buff is automatically on your monster at the beginning of the fight.
• Don’t waste all your IS/gold coins on jettons. Once you have a fighting monster the jettons will start to pile up.
• A more defensive pet seems more willing to follow defensive commands, while an aggressive monster seems to listen to offensive commands.
• Defensive commands seem more likely to make your pet buff itself with its TP attacks, while the offensive ones seem more likely to make your pet use an attack. For example, my Korrigan pet will use Scream for defence, and Head Butt for offence.
• The more disciplined and less wild your pet is, the more likely it seems to listen to your commands. For example, my Korrigan wouldn’t listen to me at level 8 when I first caught it, now it listens to me on occasion.
• Your pet seems more likely to listen to you against weaker monsters. For example, my Korrigan ONLY listens regularly if it is fighting a monster that is lower leveled than itself.
• From erdrickalso: I like fighting the Diablo champion. When I lose I get 100 exp and 100 jettons as opposed to beating someone in the exhibition bouts.
• From ShonasSeraph: I've traded numerous plates to NPC trying to get an advantage by having a monster that is born with natural feral skills.

I’d like to thank my LS (Go TEAMseaslug!) for asking multitudes of questions that I hadn’t even thought to answer in this guide. Also anyone who ever asked me a question about Pankration, which spurred me to write this guide in the first place. Also to Myrrial for the “George Jetton.” And last, but most, hubby Artos for being my hubby. <3

Thank you also forum members for all your support and helping me make this guide better and more complete: Salodin, valid, Imperial Ninja, souleman, erdrikalso and ShonaSeraph. If you contributed and I left you out, please let me know so I can properly acknowledge you.

Comments, suggestions and criticism encouraged… flames ignored.

Edited, Sep 13th 2007 5:35am by Inaya: Somehow totally forgot a "What mobs can I use?" section. Added.

Edited, Sep 13th 2007 10:00am by Inaya: Linked Items

Edited, Sep 13th 2007 2:08pm by Inaya: Added various contributions, expanded Feral Skills section, messed up then fixed formatting, credited contributors.

Edited, Sep 13th 2007 2:11pm by Inaya

GJ This deserves a Sticky

Well I personally don't think we know enough for 'guides' atm, since this is basically all what SE told us already, but good job nonetheless.

Also, I haven't 100% proved it yet, but I do believe your success rate is higher when the mob is under your claim as compared to trying to snapshot a monster under someone else's claim.

OR

Success rate rises when the monster is directly attacking you, I.E.: you have hate.

Like I said, I haven't tested it enough, but from my Sea Puk snapshots the other day, the first seemed true at first, then a friend joined the pt, and the second started to come true.

Hot.

Would be cool if you would do a [ link=allakhazam.com/item=xyz ]No.3's Garland[ /link ] for example. :)

I like fighting the Diablo champion. When I lose I get 100 exp and 100 jettons as opposed to beating someone in the exhibition bouts.

One thing I've noticed that I haven't seen anybody post about is the natural feral skills that your monster can be 'born' with. I've traded numerous plates to NPC trying to get an advantage by having a monster that is born with natural feral skills. I'm sure some of you have noticed that your monster may or may not have abilities that you never added to them. For example, I was levelling a ghost that was born with the feral skill 'resist gravity'. I never thought much of it. Then I thought, wouldn't it be great if you could start off with a monster that had feral skills on it that you didn't have to pay for. So from what I've seen, a monster can be born with up to 2 natural feral abilities. Perhaps people could post the natural abilities they come across.
I didn't write down anything and I've really only tested with monkeys I took pictures of from Den of Rancor. But I'll post a few that I noticed.

Auto-Regen + 5 from the monkey in Den of Rancor (38FP). When I created the monkey, it had the natural feral skill of Auto-Regen + 5.

One monkey I made had 2 natural skills. Accuracy +15% and HP Max +15%. Which to me was like getting 46FP for free since both those skills cost 23FP.

Edited, Sep 13th 2007 11:15am by ShonaSeraph

Thanks for this very nice guide Inaya.

I was actually planning on testing that, just haven't had the time.

Mobs don't always get FP when they level up. Don't state this, unless you've leveled one to the same level and have proven it has more.





It's possible to retain skills over 20 FP. Only a few posts above yours:
I personally have traded in at least a dozen 20+ FP plates that have retained the skills on the plates. These include: accuracy bonus (30 FP), defense bonus (30 FP), attack speed +50 (58 FP), and attack speed bonus (70 FP). I believe I've also had <20 FP plates fail at transfering the stat. I'm not really sure, because I usually just throw those plates away now.

Edited, Sep 15th 2007 2:06am by Nateypoo

Weapons gain FP after 3 levels - and as the example states, it deals with Weapons as an example that can be used generally.



I never said it wasn't; just stating that the likelihood of getting higher FP Skills on converting a Soul Plate to a Soul Reflector are low - 0/15 so far for me.

If you didn't find the post helpful then sorry, but ask questions before you assume I didn't do my homework.

Question: For those that did get a FP skill greater 30 on the Soul Plate/Soul Reflector transfer - which camera/film did you use? I used the 2000 Soultrapper and NQ plates for all my tests. It'd be nice to know if the HQ plates gave better results.


Edited, Sep 15th 2007 8:07am by Ulixes

Very nice.

I'm curious as to whether anyone has given their mob multiple instant buffs. Like instant stoneskin and instant ice spikes. Does anyone know if this is possible?

I'm leaning towards it not being possible 'cause you can only have one added effect on attacks, but I could be wrong.