Watersday, 12/9/1032

Bibiki Bay. Level 34. Defeats = 0

Bibiki Bay is great! It was a toss up between this place and Gusgen Mines. I did a Search and the latest reports told me several adventurers were roaming in Gusgen. Hence, I decided on Bibiki since I would be more likely to find a good camp in a more secluded area.

I arrive at the bay after a long Chocobo ride from Jeuno, and there is not a soul to be found, save the dozens of roaming beasts and goblins. I ride around for a bit and soon come upon a dock run by some fellow Mithra. The dock is crawling with many strong but non-aggressive beasts like Efts, Ravens, and Island Rarabs. This seemed to be a good campsite, so I dismounted from my Chocobo and made small talk with the dockmasters while casting defensive buff spells upon myself. Apparently, ships come around to these docks and give tours of various parts of the Bay. I may have to take a ride one day. But not today; I was here for adventure, not tourism.

I first scouted out the surroundings and found that the Efts and Goblins had auras from Decent Challenge to Tough, the Island Rarabs and Marine Dhalmels were Even Match to Tough, and the Ravens were Tough to Very Tough. There were lots of Efts wandering around the docks, a few Ravens, and one Goblin Shaman. If I went further out toward the zone to Buburimu Peninsula, I would find some Rarabs and Dhalmels as well. I decided to play it safe and start with the Efts, which seemed to be the weakest potential pets and prey overall. While none of the beasts were aggressive, I suspected they would all link with beasts of the same type (and I was right). My first fight was a Decent Challenge Eft vs an Even Match Eft. After a quick Dia, I fought alongside my pet the entire time. It may have been the roast mushrooms and Healer's Earring, but my Eft pet kept hate exceptionally well. Even better than the leeches in Qufim Island. My pet and I make short work of the Eft, and I move on the the next one sending my almost-dead pet at it while looking for a replacement pet. Since Efts are everywhere, new pets are easy to find. Several times I hit chain #3 during this adventure, and experience flowed fast and furious. It was a lot of fun!

There are only a few issues with this place that might be of some concern to a new adventurer. First, as I said earlier, everything here links, but only the goblins are aggressive. So take your usual precautions while charming and fighting so you don't get any unexpected additional monsters joining the party. Secondly, Efts are interesting creatures with some powerful TP moves. Of special note is Geist Wall, which seems to be an area Dispel effect. That can be bad news if it happens to rid you of a precious Reraise (but it usually got my Protect; maybe i just got lucky). Reportedly, some of the other Eft TP moves, like Toxic Spit and Numbing Noise, ignore a Ninja's Utsusemi shadows, so be wary of this all you BST/nin and NIN/bst trying this area. Toxic Spit is a very potent poison, so it's great if your pet uses it but bad if you get hit by it (use Poisona asap). Also, it seems that level 34 is a little low for this area, as sometimes all of the potential pets at the docks would pop up as Tough or stronger. In those cases you may have to walk out a little further and pick up an Even Match Rarab or Dhalmel, if you can find one. One last thing to note: the Ravens are much stronger than the other creatures here. Even a Raven that is only Tough will rip into an Even Match pet for 70 to 80 points of damage per hit. As a result, pets have a harder time holding hate against the Ravens too, which makes fighting alongside your pet more dangerous. Still, each Raven gives a lot of experience, so you might find it worth the risk.

I preferred to chain the Even Match and Tough Efts, throwing in a Goblin Shaman (hoping it would blow up), Rarab, or Dhalmel occasionally to shake things up. The Goblin Shaman is a black mage, so it has very low hit points and defense. I found that even a Decent Challenge Eft would often take down an Even Match Shaman. If you ever run into problems, the zone is a relatively short run away; but you might not make it if you get a lot of links along the way. However, I never even came close to defeat in this area. Bibiki Bay is fast, safe experience. Using my Empress Band I was well over 4k experience per hour (and remember, I was playing it safe).

In no time, I hit the magical level 35, and got an new pet command, Leave!! Now, among other things, reusing pets becomes a very real possibility.

I think I'll try Gusgen Mines next, if only for comparison purposes. I hear it is much more dangerous, but the experience is said to be extremely fast as well.