COMPLETE PLD AF Guide.

Now that this has been Sticky'd, I think I'll get to work fixing the Grammar and Spelling and other Issues. I'll keep updating as I find mistakes. Probably will add Stats too.

PLD AF1: Honor Sword. Quest Name: "Sharpening the Sword"
The quest is given to you by that damn crybaby boy Ailbeche.
IMPORTANT: You have to have completed the quest: "Father and Son", and have to have given the Fishing Rod back to the Boy.
After talking to him, you are to investigate the Stalagmite in area (H-10) of Ordelle's Caves. Any of the entrances will do. The Stalagmite is on the upper most floor, behind a hole that drops down to one of the popular RSE Camp spots. After touching the Stalagmite, Polevik will spawn about 1 or 2 seconds later.

The Battle: He -usually- opens the fight with Stonega II (I have helped 5 time with this, 3 out of 5 times he opened the fight with Stonega II). This hits a lvl 40 PLD for about 300ish dmg. He is an Earth Elemental, so Earth Resist helps a lot (e.g. Barstonra, Earth Carol). He has uber Defense also, and at lvl 60 I hit for around 7 dmg~. He attacks pretty slowly, but hits hard nonetheless. Silence'ing him reduces his ability to damage you greatly. A party of lvl 40s should have no problem taking this out, but might need to use 2-Hours. A lvl 55 PLD can solo this with Spirits Within (With 300 TP, of course)

After defeating Polevik, touch the Stalagmite again to obtain the Key item: "Ordelle Whetstone". Go back and talk to Ailbeche, and he will give you your Honor Sword!
Congratulation, you have just completed the first PLD AF quest ^^.

PLD AF2: Gallant Leggings. Quest Name: "A Boy's Dream"
The quest is given by Ailbeche again (By AF3, you'll want to kill him). Talk to Ailbeche, visit Exorache, his father in Helbort's Blades, then go back to Ailbeche. He wants a "Giant Shell Bug", which you can buy from the AH (10k on my server) or you can obtain this by killing the NM Crawler in Crawler's Nest, which will drop around 2 or 3 of these. The Crawler is in (H-9). You have to touch the ??? and the crawler will come down the tunnel. A party of 52's should have no problem, it has the usual Crawler special attacks and the Cocoon move, so bring along a RDM or BRD. He has a lot of HP, but it's not a hard fight.

IMPORTANT: You MUST go back to Ailbeche now, and trade him the Bug. He gives it right back to you, but you cannot skip this part.
After this, grab a Fishing Rod (preferably one to catch Big Fish, but I don't know if this matters or not), and head to the pond in (H-9) of Castle Otroja, in the Meriphitaud Mountains. This pond is a few steps away from the door to the Magicite Room for Rank5. There are Oozes and Various Yagudo in this room, so you should clear them all. Now go to the pond and start fishing.

NB: This is the part which stirs up a lot of debate. Many people say Fishing Skill matters, I say it doesn't. The longest it's taken me is half an hour, the shortest it's taken me is 5 min, all with people of various fishing skill.

The Battle: Who fishes up Odontyrannus doesn't matter. The fish would be a challenge to a party of lvl 52's, but with 2-Hours it shouldn't be a problem. The first time I did this a lvl 70 PLD tried to solo it, but the fish spams Screwdriver. A LOT. Once he is defeated, he drops a Rare/Ex item (ONLY 1) called "Odontyrannus". Have the PLD lot this and take it back to Ailbeche in Northern Sandy. Then, tale it to Zaldon, a Galka in the back of the Fishing Guild in Selbina. After tearing off the stomach of the fish, you obtain a Key Item "knight's boots". Go to Prince Trion's room in Chateau D'Oraguille, and after the cutscene he'll reward you with your Gallant Leggings!

NOTE: I will describe the coffer quests now, and AF3 last, because the numbering of AF Quests can get confusing. I'll just go by the level of AF.

PLD AF4: Gallant Gauntlets. Quest Name: "Borghertz's Stalwart Hands"
This was by far my hardest coffer AF piece.

The safest camp I have found is by the Hume Bones section, which you get to by dropping down the center hole from the first floor. Clear the adjoining room of Fallen Knights and Liches (Fallen Knights won't link to Liches, and vice versa). Beware of low HP though, once someone goes into Yellow HP all the undead within a BIG Radius will aggro your ass ><. Pull Tomb Warriors and Mages from the tunnel next to the Lich Spawn, and the occasional Spriggan or Haunt if you have a high level tank (65+). Once you have fought 1 round of Tomb Warriors/Mages, wait a while for the Fallen and Liches to respawn, in case they Link and/or screw up your pull. The drop is pretty horrendous without a THF.

After getting the key, (which was the easy part) you now have to go search for your coffer. I will refer to the maps here. This coffer requires 2 people to find, because someone will have to be your "door bitch". Your friend will have to stand in the East Plate room and open doors by hitting the plate while you run around this accursed place. All Undead aggro Low HP and Sneak, while Bombs (Azer) aggro Sight. If the coffer spawns in the Beaucedine Glacier side, (you'll know if it does, because you won't be able to find the coffer anywhere) you'll have 2 options. Basically you can go there (DUH!) or just log out and come back tomorrow, after the coffer is hopefully opened. Coffer respawn time is around 35-45 minutes. (again, in my own experience).

After you have gotten your coffer, and have recieved the key item "old gauntlets", go talk to Guslam in Upper Jeuno Armor Shop, then to Yin Pocanakhu in the Tenshodo. Pay her 1000G and she will place the box outside of the Duty Free in Port Jeuno. Examine the box, and your cutscene with Borghertz starts. He tells you to go get some "Shadow Flames" from Castle Zhval Baileys (horrible place also). After entering Castle Z, put up Sneak and Invis (Unless you want to fight everything for TP) and take a straight path until you reach a gold door with 4 Torches around. Have 1 person touch a torch to initiate the fight.

The Battle: Dark Spark is a Bomb NM, so Fire Resistance would help, especially when he does his Self Destruct move. He isn't very hard, he hits slowly but hard, and try to Stun him when he does his Self Destruct. A party of lvl 54's would own him.

After defeating Dark Spark, touch the torch used to initiate the fight and get your key item "shadow flames". Return to the box and Borghertz gives you your Gallant Gauntlets!

PLD AF5: Gallant Coronet.
Believe me, once you get this thing you'll be glad you got rid of that lousy helmet you've had since lvl 40. This is one of the easiest coffer keys, but the coffer is rather challenging to find.

In my experience, the best camp spot is in the basement, in the tunnel which connects the oval part to an adjacent room. In this round room are plenty of mobs to pull. You can pull Fallen Majors and Fallen Mages, or Wraiths if you're brave, Over and Vault Weapons, along with Tainted Flesh and Magic Pots have higher drop rates, but are significantly harder. Hellmines should be avoided. Although they might have the best key drop rate, they also have the best PLAYER drop rate, if you know what I mean. Drop rate is decent, and if you have MNK in the Party it helps a lot. Monks own Skeletons.

After obtaining your key, grab 3 friends and go find your coffer! Again, I will be referring to the maps here. This coffer is hard because you need 4 people to open Banishing Gates. If you notice a lot of traffic, (You'll know if you see a lot of Gates opening and closing), then I suggest just logging out behind the 2nd gate, and searching for the coffer another time. The best place to camp is behind the second gate, because most of the spawns are there. Beetles sight, Bats and Flesh and Skeletons aggro Sneak. Happy hunting ^^

PLD AF6: Gallant Breeches.
In terms of mobs fought, this is a pretty tough coffer. The key drop is pretty high in my experience, and the coffer is easy to find because it does not require you to have 2 or more people to help you. I suggest camping in (K-7) of the second map, in the tunnel which leads to the round room and "The Mute". There are 3 coffer spawns nearby, so If you do get your key you could get lucky an find the coffer too (I got lucky this way^^), Darksteel Quadav, Sapphire Quadav, Ancient Quadav, and Platinum Quadav drop this key. The only thing tough about these mobs is their incredibly high evasion. Most will check VT to a lvl 58 PLD, but with high evasion, and boy do they mean it. I could barely hit them.

After obtaining your key, go search for your coffer if it didn't pop in the round room. Happy hunting ^^

PLD AF3: Gallant Surcoat. Quest Name: "Under Oath"
Ok, this is the biggie now, and you want to look sexy in that Surcoat don't you? Well, it ain't going to be easy. First, talk to Prince Trion to get the quest. Then talk to Vemalpeau, then to Najjar, and then Ullassa. Now you are flagged to open the coffer with a different job.

First off, I would like to refer to this excellent excellent guide written by Loial, (I take no credit whatsoever) here. You can basically use this for your key hunt and coffer hunt. I'd suggest fighting Ahrimans only if you do not have higher level help, as Demons are pretty challenging. Another way to get help for this is to enlist some lvl 70 SAMs, since their Samurai Testimony drops off of the Key mobs as well.

The key thing to finding this coffer is NOT PANICKING! If you can see the coffer, but can't get to it, please don't panic. Try dropping down the other holes (Orc, Yagudo, Quadav) and remember the holes you have previously dropped down. There are very few places that you can recast Sneak and Invis safely, so I suggest making a Macro to save you time. Also, make a Invincible+Instant Warp macro just in case. After obtaining the key item "Mique's paintbrush" from the chest, go back to Sandy and talk to Vemalpeau, then go upstairs and examine the Painting and the letter hidden behind it. Now go talk to Exorache, and he will tell you to go to Davoi. KI suggest 18 people of lvl 58, but you might not need that many. Get your alliance together and go to the Village Well in Davoi, which is located at (G-9). The only Orc that should cause probalems on the way is the Orcish Dreadnought, which should check VT or IT to a 60 PLD. After clearing the area of orcs, have a PLD touch the Village Well. Three-Eyed Prozpuz and One-Eyed Gwajbo should spawn.

The Battle: Three Eye is the RNG, One Eye is the PLD. In a 3 party alliance, have 1 party, or even just a PLD + Healer tank the PLD Orc while the rest of the alliance dispatches the RNG Orc. The PLD Orc is very very very weak. He hit me for aroun 40ish dmg, and attacks slowly and misses a lot. The RNG Orc on the other hand, is very strong. He has low Defense and low HP, but his attacks hit very hard. If you have enough damage, have the PLD Voke him and Invincible to avoid taking a lot of damage. I've never seen him use RNG 2-Hour. After the RNG Orc falls the alliance should now be focusing on the PLD Orc. He has a ton of HP, which I'd estimate to be around 8000-10000. He uses Invincible at around 1/3 Health, so bring along nukers. After he falls, you recieve a Rare/Ex item "well weight". Have the PLD trade this to the Village Well to get a cutscene.
(SPOILER: I would have been happier if I found Ailbeche at the bottom of that well =/).

NOTE: 1 Fight per Paladin, since only 1 item drops every time. After getting the cutscene, go back and speak with Ailbeche again. He mentions Jugner Forest, which you should now head to. Maiden Springs is your destination, and as you approach the pond a cutscene takes over (if you are on a chocobo stay on). You will get a sweet cutscene (Ranks among the best in the game), and then you will have to head back to Prince Trion. After a cutscene in his room, you recieve your Gallant Surcoat.
Congratulations!!! You have now completed PLD AF!

"In terms of mobs fought, this is a pretty tough coffer. The key drop is pretty high in my experience, and the coffer is easy to find"

yes that makes absolute sense, its hard but the key drops quick and the coffer is easy...

and coffer key drops are pretty much all luck, dont listen to anyone on drop rates, only the strength of the type of mob as well as location and the difficulty of pulling them, getting to the coffer mobs takes a bit of time and you need to go through all those stupid status things to get there, pulling them is sometimes dangerous because they are rather close, but there are a lot of mobs to pull so thats good, and the mobs really arent that strong, nothing super easy, nothing hard, coffer is very easy to find, theres basically like 4-5 spots and they are all like right next to each other

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