[Ichthyos]

Before I start, all the credit for this info goes out to my friends on Titan, Shimmy (for stumbling upon the Sachets that everyone's been looking for) and Avinor (for finding some more ???'s and verifying the information). Thanks also go out to everyone who read this thread, investigated with or without success, and replied with new information to help everyone else.

In the recent summer patch, they introduced race-specific Lv30 throwing ammo with stat bonuses:

Taru: INT+2
Elvaan: STR+2
Galka : VIT+2
Hume: STR+1 INT+1
Mithra: DEX+1 AGI+1

They drop from force-pop NM's in the three RSE zones. To pop them, find and touch a ??? during your RSE week in your RSE zone. It has to be your race/gender combination RSE week in the zone for you to successfully spawn the NM. Whether you've finished the RSE quest or not has no bearing on your ability to spawn the NM. Note that the Taru sachet isn't gender-specific so if you're Taru you can get the drop from the NM during the other Taru week if you have a friend to pop the NM for you. Once you kill the NM, the ??? repops somewhere random in exactly 30 minutes from when the body disappears.

The NM's are easily soloable by any job at Lv75. The Aroma Crawler has about 3300 HP, as reported by Stinkypoo of Bismarck. I suspect that the mobs are all soloable at Lv60, maybe at lv50 by RDM, BLM, NIN, THF, DRK, RNG, WAR etc. using Sleep+Nuke or Sleep+Utsusemi. From the collective experience of people who posted on this thread, It looks like the drop rate is around 15%. Bring TH if you have it. The NM's apparently also drop the colored drops that are obtained through various events.

To find out when your RSE week is, open up Vana'naVi and then click on the sixth icon along the bottom (the shirt).

Here are known locations for these ???'s with credit to those who found them:

Maze of Shakhrami: Aroma Crawler
F-5 on the first map, near Attohwa Chasm zone (Avinor, Titan; Kaisha, Asura)
J-6 on the first map, at the bottom of the dropoff (Avinor, Titan)
I-8 on the first map, at the dead end south of the T-intersection (Alexandra, Remora)
-- map from Vana'diel Atlas

Gusgen Mines: Aroma Fly
I-8 on the second map (the one with the Strange Apparatus) (Mertron, Fairy - map from Amethyst, Titan)
H-8/H-9 on the map with Teleport-Holla Quest and MNK AF1 (smokeyser, KI - map from Amethyst, Titan)
F-7 on the map with the clay for the Mhaura quest (deepest part of Gusgen) (Yorlan, Alexander - map from Amethyst, Titan)

Ordelle's Caves: Aroma Leech - "An unsettling odor wafts through the air."
F-4 near the first rank missions (Kamakaze, Bismarck)
G-8 near the Stalactite Dew for PLD Flag Quest (Shimmy, Titan; Sothis, Lakshmi)
-- map from Cjskater, Leviathan
I-11 on the map with the Strange Apparatus (Garota, Asura, Lokus, Fenrir - map from Cjskater, Leviathan)

Before the October patch, many people were having trouble finding the ???'s, presumably because the code governing its pop was broken. (Old timers, think Steam Cleaner in fall/winter of last year.) It seems to be fixed for now, so gogogo get your sachets!

There was another KI thread that provided some information about the ???'s, along with people speculating about their uses, but I have compiled all of the information there into this post.

Screenshots of the sachets for those interested:



Happy hunting, everyone!

[Avinor]

I ran around Ordelles for a while at various points during my RSE week and never found a ??? that wasn't related to something else (PLD flag quest or DRK AF). Fortunately I went back the next time to Shakhrami and was able to find the ??? 3 times.

The 2 points that I can confirm in Shakhrami (found it 2 times at one point) are right next to the zone line to Attohwa, and at the bottom of a drop off on the way to the Abyss worms area (I think J-6 of the first map but I don't recall). There was other talk of points in the other thread linked. I'm still not totally sure on the pop conditions, but it can repop. The second time I spawned the crawler was at the Attohwa zone spot. I logged for about 15minutes, then started searching again - at that time the ??? wasn't up at the Attohwa location yet. But, when I came back to that point 25-30 minutes later, it was up there again. So I'm assuming it has a repop similar to a Treasure Chest.

I had a thought that it might actually be a lottery with the Treasure Chests, but after checking a map the ???'s don't correspond to Chest locations. I'm not sure if they are related at all, I do remember popping a chest in between finding the first and second ???s.

As for the mobs themselves, they're trivial for a lvl 75, but I can't really give a good estimate for their actual level. The crawler can proc a slow effect on its hits, as it actually landed on me once when it managed to hit me. I can assume the others have some sort of special attribute like that as well, but for many high levels hunting these things, it won't matter.

Obviously the usefullness of these varies from race to race and job to job. For Elvaan DD's that can't use a bomb core or decen ranged weapon, these are great - I was glad to get one for my monk. It sure beats spending a bunch of cash on a Tiphia Sting, and doesn't have the negatives.

[sporky]

Thanks for this info - alternative to Phantum Tathlom !

[Ozoko]

god damnit. i want more STR not useless VIT ;_;

damn you SE!

[Tythera]

Ozoko :
god damnit. i want more STR not useless VIT ;_;

damn you SE!

Yours is at least useful on a PLD, mithra one is completely useless (

[Esvedium]

Thanks for the info. I'll be looking for mine soon.

[HAcoreRD]

i remember a few weeks ago sitting in ordelles for a day, not one pop.

[kayu]

to pop it just touch the "???" ?

[Jynx]

what do the aroma mobs drop?

[Yasmine]

i agree, the mithra one is useless

[Ozoko]

the only good ones are the taru and elvaan.

my VIT is hardly i need of a boost as it is, seeing as my base VIT on a 55 WAR is almost equall to that of a 75 hume PLD >_>

[Eladamri]

lvl to kill aroma (sp?) mobs ? as always full aliance of 75 NIN/BLM ?

[djsaltynuts]

If you bothered to read the thread you wouldnt be asking what it takes to kill them -.- some people, cant even be bothered looking when its on the same page

[Ichthyos]

Updated post with a few ??? locations. If you find more, then please post them.

[Jared]

Well the whole point of these Sachets are apparantly to boost the race's strong suits even more. Hume satchet is awesome for a hume DRK lol

[Ichthyos]

Masenko- :
The point at J-7 is for the Blade of Death quest to obtain the Deathbringer greatsword. I stood around at the H-8/H-9 point for 5 hours during Mithra rse time yesterday and never saw the point pop.

Ah, thanks for the correction.

[Shadowlynk]

Ooh, thanks for the info, I'll have to look for this. Having +2INT in that slot that early is a big boon for a Taru BLM. If I were a Hume BLM I'd probably go get the item, too. Wonderful alternative to the overpriced (and on some servers, gilseller-controlled) Morion Tathlum.

[Kamakaze]

I'd much rather have this for DRG right now then my egg. >.>