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This guide is designed for ~3 level 99 players. It assumes that you will be fairly well geared and knowledgeable. There are a variety of job combinations that can do the things described in this guide, but the same basic strategy applies.
The trip to level 99 has left Salvage monsters somewhat impotent, and utterly at the mercy of any evasive player. Using evasive DDs will make your Salvage experience a lot less stressful on your healers.
Party Setups
You should only need 2-3 characters to complete Arrapago Remnants with near-maximum efficiency. Treasure Hunter and small party sizes are the best way to limit the number of monsters you have to kill and get you off the first floor quickly, which is the key to a successful run.
There are large penalties to pursuing a non-specific strategy in this zone, but there are several specific strategies that are very successful.
This strategy basically relies on getting a Ranged Cell right away, which isn't a 100% chance. Though it is still possible, I would not recommend this setup for this zone.
0-2 Anything else, other BSTs, Healers, or a good SMN preferred.
This pretty much just works for Macha's Coat and Archaic Chariot farming, and going with more is better if you can.
Cell Distribution
Arrapago is designed to keep you naked until the sixth floor. Do not expect equipment of any kind (or a sub job), and be prepared to pass quickly when cells do finally drop. The monsters are weak enough that it compensates for your total lack of equipment.
Ultimately, the key cells that you want (for an Option 1 party) are:
2-3 Abilities Cells (Both Melee, mage if lucky but don't go out of your way for it).
3 Magic Cells (Both Melee, Mage)
2 Sub Job cells (Both Melee)
2-3 Weapon Cells (Both Melee, mage if lucky but try to avoid extra Qutrub)
1 Ranged Cell (if you want to kill the Psycheflayer NM)
Mage Cells : MP (Spissatus), Magic (Praecipitatio), MND (Pileus), INT (Velum), and CHR (Mediocris)
If you have a WHM or SCH, you should consider giving them a Refresh armor early on as well.
If you have a RDM or SCH, you should consider giving them the subjob cell from the starting chest.
SCH will obviously require a Job Ability cell to be fully useful, which (combined with the other two cells) are why I would shy away from them in this zone.
Melee Cells : Melees get priority on all but the 5 Mage Cells.
Arrapago Floor 1 is where hopes and dreams go to die. As if Ice Spikes wasn't bad enough, the cell drop rates are atrocious. You will want to keep the number of monsters you fight to a minimum, especially after you have the cells you need.
Rats are silly, frustrating fights. Your melee will benefit greatly if they learn to run in front of running monsters so they can keep meleeing while running.
A throwing weapon (if you want to kill the Psycheflayer NM)
For BSTs: At least two TH pets (more recommended), some pet food, and the spare Dawn Mulsum for emergencies.
Floor 1
Enter, open the chest, and lot/pass quickly.
Go kill Qutrub westward for the other Weapon (Incus) cells you need.
Once you have the Weapon cells you need, keep heading into the Northwest spiral, avoiding Qutrub (including HP aggro) and kill the Lamia for Ability, Ranged, and Magic cells.
Your Thief should get an Abilities cell before you leave the floor.
Head back, and go South. Qutrub in this wing have Ice Spikes, so avoid killing them if you can while you snipe any additional Lamia you need. If you're moderately lucky with the Northwest spiral (check the minimum required cells above minus Sub Job), then you probably can skip this wing entirely.
Go East to the first small intersection/room and kill Reserve Draugars for STR, HP, and Belt/Backs for your melee.
Continue North, killing more Reserve Draugars, and head into the North-East spiral.
Kill your way around, especially hitting the three Gespenst.
When you zone up, you will be done farming cells. Get anything you still *need* on the first floor before porting up. Where you go up doesn't matter, though you will end up in the far north-east due to the Gespenst.
Build TP on the last monster, and then go up to the next floor
Exit the room and head to the center, splitting up to look for the Qiqirn Astrologer
Once aggroed, he will make his way towards the center porter (with short breaks), and then warps. You need to kill him before he starts his Warp animation.
An old strategy was to start the fight off with a timed nuke. Now it is more practical to open with weapon skills and perhaps try for a Skillchain. He will always try to cast on you, but is true sound so he's hard to sneak up on. If he casts Bind, you will need to remove it quickly. If he uses Faze or the Amnesia move, it can be rough but you should still win. They don't have much HP and level 99 players WS hard even with no gear/stats.
For an Option 2 group, putting a pet on him and Ruinatoring/Snarling should pretty much seal his fate. Pets have the benefit of being able to hit monsters that are running away, which is very useful against the rats.
Gather your party at this point, in case of true sound/sight/JA/magic aggro, then continue past.
After the small room of Psycheflayers, there is a larger room with a few either Psychflayers or Gespenst. Sneak past the flayers if you can, but do it as a group so that you don't get separated with aggro.
Feel free to open the door if you pull a Psycheflayer aggro to the far side of this room, just do not venture near the portal room.
When you are suitably buffed, prepare for the second type of Rat fight against a Qiqirn Treasure Hunter.
This time, the rat tries to run away almost immediately, and you have to let him go.
Before you start the fight, look to the left from the entrance of the porter room and find the "doorway" outline on the wall. As soon as the rat leaves the room, your whole party needs to stand in that "doorway."
For an Option 2 group, just put your pet on him. Use Reward after a minute or two, as his bomb damage can add up.
Aggro him much the same as the last one, but prepare for a TP move at the very beginning. Do as much damage as possible, but once he leaves the room go stand in the "doorway" until he comes back.
The Thief should attempt to Steal a Body (Cumulus) cell.
Because of the way this fight works, DoT spells like Bio III and Poison II are a great damage source.
If using Option 3 and soloing the zone on RDM or BLU, simply cast your debuffs or Disseverment and go stand in the doorway. You burn the time you saved on the first floor (no farming, solo player gets everything from the box) by taking longer with these fights.
After the rat is dead, check the box he drops for good temp items and then warp up.
You will warp into a room with three doors. With your back to the wall, go through the left-most one to find some Archaic Gears to fight.
These gears drop Sub Job cells, if you're lucky. Stop killing when you get as many as you need. Leg cells are a bonus.
Go back to the main room and pull the (large) Notorious Monster from the crowd of smaller ones. You will know it when you see it.
Do not worry about linking. Though they will aggro, even the Psycheflayers on this floor do not link with the NM.
Kill the NM you chose.
Perdition (death) is the scary TP move of the Bhoot, while Reprobation is the scary TP move of the Psycheflayer (full Dispel).
There are two ways to deal with Perdition.
1) You kill fast and hope it won't choose to use it. This will actually probably work much of the time at 99. It has about 15k HP. If this fails and your group only has one melee, you will probably wipe.
2) You Stun it using a weaponskill (like Brainshaker), Violent Flourish, or by having your mage sub BLM for Stun.
After the NM is dead, return to where you enter the level and head to the Fifth Floor Teleporter.
Kill the Qiqirn Treasure Hunter. It's much the same strategy as the second floor, in that you can just follow him and kill instead of waiting like you did on the third floor.
Steal a cell if possible
Option 3 Soloers will need to DoT him and then run to the corner of his room furthest from the floor entrance in order to trigger him to return.
As soon as you enter this floor, a timer has started. You need to kill all of the monsters on this floor in under 7 minutes in order to spawn two bonus Qiqirn Treasure Hunters. This is not very difficult at 99, but Artificial Gravity can make it difficult for a party without Erase.
Choose a direction for the party to move as soon as you enter, and don't be afraid to aggro multiple monsters. Avoid Ramparts until you're ready to kill them, but bring and kill them quickly. Try to team up on them to avoid Reinforcements.
The mage should pull as many monsters as responsible, and everyone should kill everything within arms reach.
This is the floor where you finally get armor. Lot/pass it as it shows up, but you need to mostly focus on killing the monsters quickly.
Kill the Qiqirn Treasure Hunters one at a time, which shouldn't be an issue now that you have gear.
They will spook and run away if you aggro them (by normal sight), but they won't warp.
As soon as they're dead, teleport up to the 7th floor.
