Castle Oztroja Coffer GuideFollow

This guide is designed for people who are hunting coffers in Castle Oztroja for AF. As you all know, a lot of theives hunt coffers here (for astral rings), so this can be one of the hardest places to hunt a coffer. But if you have patience, and know how to get around, you will get your coffer.

Tips:
You WILL need invis. You might need to cast invis on yourself dozens of times, so I recommend subbing whm if you have it to 25, or get nin to 9 (for tonko:ichi) and bring a stack of two of shinobi-tabi. Like aurikan says below me, you can cast invisible right on top of itself. So if you see it start to wear off, cast it right away. You shouldnt need sneak in here. Bring an instant warp scroll, dont depend on warp.

How to get there:

http://www.speakeasy.org/~sticks/ffxi/treasure/Mp_Castle_Oztroja_01.html
First, you have to open a door. It is located in I-8. There are two handles, one to left, and another to the right. One of these handles opens the door. If you choose the wrong one, you fall, otherwise the door opens for you. If you fall, dont worry, it easy enough to get back up. The correct handle is random, and changes about every day.

http://www.speakeasy.org/~sticks/ffxi/treasure/Mp_Castle_Oztroja_02.html
This 2nd door is a little more complicated. It is located near f-8 on this map. There are 4 handles. Once you lift the right combo of handles, the door will open. Now, when i went through here as a 55 brd, there were two yags at the door that conned as EP, and would agro me. If you are going alone, and these mobs con EP or higher, unless you can kill them, you should probablly just wait until someone else opens the door. A lot of theives and coffer key parties come running through here, so it wont be too long before someone opens the door for you. Just be ready to go through the door the second they open it.

"The 4-handle door combination changes every vana'diel day. The correct combination can be found either by trial and error, or by going through an unmarked door at I-10 and viewing the combination of handles on the wall there."
-quoted from followup by aurikan

http://www.speakeasy.org/~sticks/ffxi/treasure/Mp_Castle_Oztroja_03.html
This map shows some coffer spawns in here, so you could camp here. One thing to be careful in here, is the parasites, which agro to sound. They hang out in a pool of water in the middle of the room, and they will agro you, and link, if you are low lvl enough, so just hug the wall.

Since they agro sound, you could use sneak here, but the only problem with that is when you cast sneak, your invis will go away.

http://www.speakeasy.org/~sticks/ffxi/treasure/Mp_Castle_Oztroja_04.html
This is where the money is made, and the best place to camp a coffer. There is a brass door at H-7, that has a big open room beyond it, and its a good place to camp, as no mobs spawn there. I'm not sure how to open that door, but I beleive it has something to do with the torch stands in the other rooms. Can someone let me know how to open the door?

Where to camp:

The map shows 3 spawns in this floor. Every room except for the one past the brass door has mobs in it. You will already know (because you camped them to get key) that the mobs here will aggro you. So you need to keep invis on yourself at all times.

Strategy:

If nobody is around to open the door, then you will need to camp at a coffer spawn. I think this is better than running around looking for a coffer, because there are going to be a few theives running around too, looking for coffers. The coffers spawn behind the torches, so just plant yourself behind it, and get ready for some fun! :P

Now, when you camp here, you need to pay attention, because if invis wears off, you will get agro, and you'll die. There are usually 2 mobs in each room, and they will kick your butt, unless you have a good escape plan (I'll cover that later). So, keep your eyes on the screen, and dont leave it for more than a few seconds. This is because invisible is very unpredictable, and you never know when it will run out.

Now, if you are lucky, there will be someone already camping mobs for coffer keys inside the room past the brass door. So you'll be able to sneak in there when they open the door to let more mobs in. This is the best place to camp because no mobs spawn in here, so you dont need to worry about invis. If you ever get in here, stay in here! This is also a good place because theives usually run solo, and they cant get in this room, so if the coffer spawns in here, it's all yours.

If you have to leave for awhile, but cant get past the door, then there is one safe spot in here. If you stand as close as you can to the brass door, you'll be just out of the aggro range of the mobs, and can sucessfully logout without having to worry about dying when you log back in.

Escape plan:

The best way to get out, is to just use your instant warp scroll. If you're subbing blm, you can try warping, but unless you sleep all the mobs around you, you aren't gonna get it off. Use your scroll, and get out. You could try to zone, but chances are it wont work, and you're gonna screw everyone else in castle oztroja, because there will be lvl 65 mobs near the beginning, where people are expecting lvl 30 mobs.
--thxs to aurikan for info

Victory:

Once you have a coffer, just use the key on it, and get out of there. Unless you're in the room behind the brass door, you'll get aggro, so follow the escape plan to get out. Even if you do die, the xp loss is well worth the peice of AF you just got.

If anybody has any more tips and tricks, or corrections, please let me know, and I will post them here.

Edited, Fri Oct 15 18:22:51 2004 by Gitaru

this wasnt from a thief persepective but...

At 52 i was able to light the torch and run to the room with flee, got in with time to spare and used hide to shed the agro.

Just thought I'd bring out that to cast Tonko: Ichi, the correct powder is shinobi-tabi, not tsurara (as you mentioned in the text).

Anyone know if u can still get the AF even though u have the AF gloves quest finished?