Vana'diel Bestiary: Fungus Beetle  

Getting my MNK up to 10, and saw this guy running around. Nobody was going after him, so I checked him as "could not be determined", which I'd never seen before, so I assumed NM. Got my MNK up to enough EXP to ensure not leveling down if he destroyed me, then went after him. With about 4 stacked boosts, and hundred fists, it was a close fight, but he still got the best of me.

Edited, Jul 14th 2008 2:07pm by Dustrose

I tend to see this thing just wandering around at least a third of the time I pass by on chocobo. I usually give a shout to see if anyone wants the shield, otherwise I ignore it.

Edited, Jun 13th 2008 10:42pm by Aneirin

Was camping JEJ, JEJ popped and killed him, I was also farming some Sheepskins. walked 20 feet from JEJ's Corpse and seen this guy. Me and my brother never heard of him before so I killed him got the Clipeus.. assuming its 100% drop. 1/1 on Beetle 0/5 on JEJ

I found him today, but I didn't know he was a NM lol. My friend got killed by him (he was a low level, so I wasn't surprised), so, in revenge, I tried to kill it. When he started hiting me for 26, I started to wonder... lol. Killed my 8 THF.

Found him infront of southern sandy gates.

Solod him very easily as lvl 18 blm.

Shield dropped.

Encountered W. Ronfaure at H-9 with a Lvl 11 Elvaan Warrior (no sub; scale armor and Light Axe)

After camping for 45 minutes, and killing every Scarab Beetle I could find in the four-square area (H-8, I-8, H-9, I-9) I came into a gap in the ridge and saw my quarry: The Fungus Beetle. Wishing that it had a more intimidating name for purposes of retelling this story to my future grandchildren, I checked my stats: HP at 169, TP at 234. Situation was fairly excellent, and the area was congested with campers and PLers so I decided to jump the blasted NM with both barrels... of, uh, my light axe... blazing. I scarfed down a jerky strip, 'voked and waited. As soon as I was engaged (we were each trading about 12-14 pts of damage against each against each other) I 2-houred, unleashed my Rage Axe (140 damage and 90 damage) and was surprised at how well I was doing. I was also surprised by the fact that the bugger was still standing and that I was having Stone and Dia cast on me. Odd. Beetles, Fungus or otherwise, shouldn't be casting spells. If God wanted beetles to cast spells, he would have given them lips, cute beetle staffs, and linguistic capabilities which he didn't. This epic duel to the death suddenly became a manage e trois of wrong.

A lvl 24 Red Mage in the area was so kind as to nuke the Weaver that had aggro'd me from behind (nice players = teh awesome) leaving me at 50 HP and the Fungus Beetle at 10%. I popped a potion for good measure and held on as he unleashed his Power Strike which only knocked me down to 83 HP left (guess I didn't need to use the potion) and I responded by landing a critical hit ftw! I received an insect wing, the Clipeus, and an earth crystal as the drop.

I'm convinced that his spawn rate is somewhat close to what Somepage says, although it's important to remember that the Scarab Beetles are PHs for him so ridding the four square area of them is probably your best bet. I wouldn't try soloing him at less than Lvl 10 unless you're nicely outfitted with plenty of items/spells/Power Levelers to help you out in the fight.

Edited, Mar 5th 2007 5:31pm by Beltenebros

Tips for camping this NM:
1) Don't camp him in the wrong zone
2) Don't fight him as a 41Whm/20Rng with no gear and only enough MP for one banish spell ^.~

Oh, I won, but it took a while of super-strong, 0 skill whm punches :p

Is it just the beetles, or are there other placeholders for this guy?

so im guessing a lvl 16 war could take this beetle?

me and a friend was hunting this NM and Jagged Ear Jack. well JeJ popped with no drop, so we just continued looking. my friend was a 15thf/7war, and i was with my 30rdm/15rng. lol i was also PL another friend too, so i had my hands full. well about 5 mins after we killed JeJ there a shout from a Mnk that hes eing chased and need help. i look and sure enough, its Fungus Beetle chasing him lol. so me and my friend the thief kill and get the drop. we thanked the mnk and continued looking for JeJ lol

This was the first NM I ever got a drop from. In fact, the first time I fought it I got the drop. The second time I saw it I was running back from La Thiene as a 16 THF and decided to engage it for fun. I got him down to about 10% health and then began SEARCHing for a WAR/PLD/or DRK so they could get the drop as well, but for the love of the heavens there were none on that spoke english!

Since I already had the Clipeus shield I wasn't expecting it to drop again. That's what I get for trying to be kind to people though ^^, Nobody that can understand me.

I honestly don't see how this NM is so tough - I can see a Lvl 10 or 11 easily take it on if they have decent gear and use their 2HR ability.

Hehehe, it's always amusing seeing it pop about 5 times per pop for Jaggedy Eared Jack. Fought that little son of a gun twice now and still haven't gotten his drop.

if you ara lv 13 dont even try to get him cause, he's like a lv 15 beetle with 300 TP start out. Also the fungus beetle has about 300 Hp as well. If you want to kill him be a lv 20 i would suggest and if you a whm or rdm save your mp for healing yourself. If your a BLACK MAGE use all the spells you got to weaken him and hit him. If your a tank kind of job like WAR, THF, MNK get the most def you can get (would help if you got someone to PL you). If your a or PUP se your pupet to get him first and come in after. If BST get pets to weaken the beetle first then attack yourself. PLD should save your mp for healing at the risk of getting half way down of HP and DRK use all your MP to hit the Fungus Beetle and weaken him also while do that hit him in-between spells.




Turboscience lv 30 rdm, 19 mnk, 11 Pld, 8 WAR, 8 THF, 4 BlM, 7 BST.
thank you for reading this ^_^
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