September 11, 2007 Update Notes (FFXI)  

In this update Pankration was added.

Pankration (pan-kra-tee-on) is an ancient sport that pits fierce beasts against one another in a winner-takes-all melee. The Pankration battlecages are located in Al Zahbi, meaning that only players who have installed the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion pack can access this exciting new feature.

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Where is Pankration? How Much is Pankration? Pankration Participation

Where is Pankration?

Pankration matches are held in one of four special battlecages located in an area of Whitegate known as the Pit. A Pankration official near the Pit entrance can instantly teleport adventurers to any of the cages for the low, low price of...nothing.

• Please note that a tax of 10% will be placed on any bazaars held within the Pit.

How Much is Pankration?

Pankration would be free...if the word ‘free’ meant ‘requiring monetary funds.’ Unfortunately, that is not the case. Pankration participation requires a special type of currency known as ‘Jettons.’ Jettons can be earned by participating in matches or can be bought with Imperial currency. Speak with Zandjarl near the Pit entrance for details.

Pankration Participation

1. Finding a Monster Before you can participate in Pankration, you’ll need to find a monster. Here are the steps:

I. Purchase a Soultrapper and some blank soul plates from a Pit vendor.

II. Equip the items in your Range and Ammo slots

III. Find a monster and “use” the Soultrapper on it.

IV. Keep trying until you capture the monster’s image on a Soul plate.

• Some monsters’ images cannot be recorded.
• It is possible to capture the image of monsters claimed by other PCs.

2. Making a Soul Reflector Now that you’ve found a monster, you’ll need to prepare it for battle. Here’s how it’s done:

I. Trade a soul plate to the appropriate Pit official and confirm if it can be forged into a soul reflector.

II. If it can, trade the plate with an Ice crystal to the same official, and for a small jetton fee, he will present you with a new soul reflector.

III. Trade your soul reflector to the appropriate Pit official for inspection. If it passes a series of tests, it will be deemed an official soul reflector.

• Access options such as monster status confirmation and name adjustment by trading a soul reflector to the soul-forging official.
• Some soul plates cannot be forged into soul reflectors. However, their data can be used to enhance existing soul reflectors. See below for more details.
• Once a soul plate image has been added to a soul reflector it cannot be returned to its original state.

3. Entry The Pit consists of four “battlecages” where Pankration matches are constantly being held. Once you have acquired an official soul reflector, take it to a registration officer to sign up for one of the following two types of battles:

• Exhibition (Battlecages “Annihilation” “Bloodlust” “Carnage”)

As long as there is an opening, players can enter their monsters in exhibition matches at any time they wish. However, there are no level restrictions in any of the three cages, and no records of winners or losers will be kept. If players wish, they can have their monsters pit against those of their choice by forming a party with another monster’s owner and both submitting their applications at the same time.

• Tournament (Battlecage “Diablo”)

Here, players can pit their monsters against the current cage champion. If it wins, it is declared the new champion and will continue to battle opponents until it is dethroned.

4. The Cage When a player’s match is about to begin, he or she will be paged. Once the battle begins, the monsters will be released into the battlecage. The monster that reduces its opponent to 0 HP within the allotted match time (3 Earth minutes) is declared the victor. Matches can be viewed from the following two locations.

• The Command Platform

After being paged, participants can proceed to one of the cage officials to be transported to a platform where they will be able to give simple orders to their monsters via a system of speaking tubes.

• The Viewing Stage

Adventurers whose monsters are not currently participating in a match can take in all the excitement of the other matches from an elevated stage in front of each battlecage.

5. Confirming Results Once a battle has ended, players must trade their official reflectors to a registration officer to confirm match results. Only after confirming match results will participants receive their rewards, and their monsters earn experience and skill points. DO NOT forget to complete this process as the results and rewards for each match will only be available for a period of 3 days (Earth Time), after which time they will be lost.

• The maximum amount of EXP that can be earned in one confirmation is 2000 points. Adventurers with monsters competing in the tournament should confirm results regularly to avoid EXP loss.

• Draws

If both monsters are still standing at the end of 3 minutes, the match will be declared a draw. In this case, the experience point and jetton reward will be split evenly between the participants.

If a tournament match results in a draw, the current champion will continue into the next round.