campaign battles  

Overview

Grab your sword, hoist your shield and join the Allied Forces of Altana to defend Vana'diel from the beastmen. Campaign battles put you shoulder-to-shoulder with other adventurers to drive out the beastmen and claim territories for the three nations of Windurst, San d'Oria and Bastok.

Campaign battles are like smaller versions of besieged. Once a zone falls under campaign status, the background music changes to a desperate, drum-filled beat. Players gather around fortresses or ramparts in each zones (which are the outposts, in zones where you can OP warp in the present) and fend off up to three waves of advancing enemies.

There is no level requirement, nor is there a limit on the number of people who can participate.

How to Join the Fight

Getting involved in campaign battles is easy. Just follow these simple steps:

Enlist the Army

You can only enlist in one nation's army. To do this, you must get a "letter of recommendation" key item from an area outside of Jeuno.

• For Windurst, go to Crawlers' Nest (S) and talk to Kalsu-Kalasu, near the entrance, for a green letter.
• For Bastok, go to the Eldieme Necropolis (S) and talk to Turbulent Storm, J-10, for a blue letter.
• For San d'Oria, go to Garlaige Citadel (S) and talk to Randecque, near Banishing Gate No.3, for a red letter.

After getting your proper recommendation letter, travel back to your home nation (in the past, of course) and show the letter to an NPC. The proper NPCs for each nation are:

• In Windurst, talk to Miah Riyuh at H-9.
• In Bastok, talk to Centurion Adelbrecht, to the left of where the present-day AH would be.
• In San d'Oria, talk to Mainchelite on the right of the auction house.

Each of the NPCs will ask you to perform a simple task. Do this, and you will then be awarded a bronze medal (key item) and enlisted in that nation's army. This is also part of the second Wings of the Goddess mission list: WG2 - Back to the Beginning

Get Around

In the world of campaign, an adventurer's best friend is speed, speed, SPEED!

With battles starting with very little notice, it is important to reach you desired battleground in as little time as possible. Thankfully, each of the starter cities in the past has an NPC called a Campaign Arbiter who will warp you to other zones of the past where you've been. Warping costs a small fee in allied notes. Most warps place you near the fortification where the battle is occurring.

Campaign Arbiters by nation:

• Windurst Waters {s}: Wenonah, C.A.
• Bastok Markets {s}: Narkissa, C.A.
• Southern San d'Oria {s}: Scarlette, C.A.

However, you must first go to a zone before the NPC will offer to warp you there. So before you start campaigning, make sure you've visited all the new zones at least once. (Doing so gives you a good excuse to unlock all your cavernous maws, too.)

Join a Union

Adventurers who are participating in campaign can team up with others by joining a campaign union. Members of unions can lot on treasures after each campaign battle ends.

Use Your Map

This is the easy part. Find a campaign by looking at your campaign map under the "region info" tab of your side-screen menu. Anyplace you see a sword icon, there's a campaign battle happening.

The best way to get there quick is be standing by your nation's warp NPC, ready to go. If you are focussed on campaigning, it would be wise to reset your home point in your city.

Battlefield Checklist

A few things to remember when you get to the battlefield:

• Talk to the battlefield NPC to get new allied tags.
• After the campaign battle ends (or whenever you leave), remember to talk to the battlefield NPC again to get your performance assessment, which grants you experience/limit points and allied credits.
• Bring reraise if possible. Dying during campaign doesn't result in experience loss, as long as you've obtained your allied tags for that battle. However, getting a raise mid-fight can be difficult. If you're fighting in a zone controlled by your nation, you can buy reraise items from the battlefield NPC for 30 allied notes.

Strategy

Campaign battles tend to have three main strategies:

• NPC-heavy fighting: Especially outside the starter cities, NPCs will often carry the load of a fight. All you need to do here is join in on the zerg-fest.
• One-by-One: When facing a group of mobs with little to no NPC backing, groups will often pull and kill one mob at a time. A mass link in campaign can lead to a certain wipe.
• Sleep/kill: If you have a mage handy, crowds of mobs can be slept while adventurers kill one mob at a time.
• Be aware of your surroundings: Be cautious about sleeping mobs if groups of NPCs are nearby -- especially NPC mages -- as they can quickly wake up the mobs you have slept, inadvertently MPKing you.
• Watch where you're fighting. Try not to be anywhere that you would catch agro from the next wave of incoming monsters.

Keep An Eye on Your Map

One last tip. Learn how to keep checking your campaign map so you know which battles have been going on for awhile, and which ones have most recently started. Always go to the battles that started more recently, or else you may waste allied credits warping to an empty battlefield.

Campaign Experience Points Calculations

The amount of experience points or limit points a player earns in campaign is determined by the actions performed by that player while wearing campaign tags during the course of a battle.

Learn more about Campaign Experience Points Calculations.

Some information for this guide was compiled by Frigian of Shiva.