[Classic] Celestial Mysteries, or How To Get T4 Stones

[Laeluan]

Celestial Mysteries; how to find, how to farm, and how to do


In Doom Bog and Wildlands, ordinary monsters may drop a specific, yet semi-rare item:

CELESTIAL MYSTERY

Also known as one of the very few ways of collecting the highly-prized Mystic Whitespirit and Mystic Bluewonder stones required for any character that wants to progress to T4 (you can also get Redsoul stones, but, let's face it, those are kinda worthless at the moment). Now, this one differs from the other drops that you will find, as these will auto-activate when picked up off the ground. That means that the quest will start immediately, and as it has a mere 5-minute timer, well... Suffice to say that you need to catch it in the act to avoid it simply timing out and the only proof of its existence being a message box on your screen informing you that You Found Celestial Mystery By Chance. (Also, make sure that if your Esper is set to only picking up specific things, you have added Mystery to the list, as otherwise your grinding character will ignore all the precious scrolls on the ground).

How to Stack The Mysteries

There is, however, a trick to avoiding any Celestial Mysteries from triggering automatically: Filling up your quest log. If there is no quest slot available for the Celestial Mystery to go into, then the item will remain in your bag and can be e.g. moved to your stash or simply sold to any NPC merchant. Celestial Mysteries cannot be traded to other characters, though, and although they are picked up off the ground, they cannot be dropped either. The quest log can contain 20 different quests, after which any attempt to take another will simply meet you with a "Quest Log Full" error. Note that you cannot take more than 5 quests from the dispatcher before this message pops up, even if your quest log is still capable of holding more quests. I am personally fond of using alliance provision quests for this, as you can get an easy 10 quest slots filled. Add in the 5 quests you can take from the dispatcher, and you just have to locate 5 more, which should be an easy task. Now, with your quest log crammed full, any and all Celestial Mysteries picked up will simply go into your bag and stay there until you leave open a quest slot for it to go into. If you make sure to put all of your Celestial Mysteries into your stash before you turn in quests (as quest-items will not auto-trigger within the stash), you can accumulate vast quantities of them.

Beware, Beware, Beware of God's Blessing

The greatest danger to Celestial Mysteries is that quest logs contain one quest that will auto-complete and auto-renew itself: God's Blessing.

Every 5 hours, the quest finishes counting down, flags itself as complete, you get a portal scroll and a meditation orb (possibly a taichi pill pack as well), and then the quest goes back into your log and starts ticking down again. Normally, this is little bother except for the inventory slots that the two (potentially three) items take up.

However, for the Celestial Mysteries, this gives them a tiny window of opportunity where you have a quest slot available, and it may take the slot left vacant by God's Blessing's finishing. This means that every 5 hours, you run a serious risk of losing 1 Celestial Mystery.

Of course, there is also a solution to this little issue.

The easiest method--albeit the one that is not at all recommended due to the nature of the Celestial Mysteries as dropped items--is to split stacks of items apart, so that you have filled every available slot in your inventory. When God's Blessing finishes its countdown, there is no space for the portal scroll and meditation orb to go, and so the timer instead goes into the negatives and continues counting down until you go back to the character screen, after which you will get the usual rewards and it goes back to counting as normal.

The more time-sensitive but far more stable solution--and the one recommended to use while farming massive quantities of Celestial Mysteries--is to take advantage of the brief moment between when God's Blessing finishes its countdown, and when it auto-renews itself into your quest log. It does require some considerable timing, so I would recommend both putting God's Blessing into "Track" mode so that you can see how far along it is, and also set an alarm on the side a minute or two before it finishes so you have time to locate a quest to fill the spot with.

At the moment that God's Blessing finishes its timer and deposits the scroll+orb in your inventory, immediately accept a different quest. This can be a Lunar Blessing, a Mystic Treasure Charm, a dispatcher quest, anything. It just has to be a quest that will not time out on its own. If done swiftly enough, you will now notice that God's Blessing does not appear in your quest log--and until such a point that you clear a space for it to pop into by handing in or trashing a quest, it will stay out of your log entirely. Even across realm-hopping, logging in and out, and all sorts of other shenanigans!

Congratulations! You can now farm as any Celestial Mysteries as you can fit into your inventory!

How to Do The Mysteries

(There is a random chance that your NPC will ask for 3 different imbuing talismans. Therefore, make sure you are carrying a minimum of one of each talisman: Focus, Lifeblood, Sharpness, Shield, Spirit, Steadfast, Tranquil, Unfettered, Unwavering, Windflying, and Vigilance) Now that we have found a way to stack potentially hundreds of Celestial Mysteries onto one character, and have about a stack of each talisman, let us find out how to actually do the quest that the Celestial Mystery gives: First, you have to check your quest log for details, as the popup does nothing but inform you that the quest is now active for the next 5 minutes. You will be sent to talk to one of 7 different NPCs in the map that the Celestial Mystery goes off in. So if it goes off in Doom Bog, you will need to find a NPC in Doom Bog, and if it goes off in Wildlands, you will need to find a NPC in Wildlands. Note that even if you picked up a Celestial Mystery in Wildlands, it can still trigger in Doom Bog, and vice versa. Head immediately to the NPC that you have to talk to. Make sure you get as close to them as possible--the quest requires close proximity to the NPC's coordinates, so simply being within "talking distance" will not be enough. I recommend standing on their head to make sure they notice you. After a few seconds of pretending to be a hat, you should receive a quest popup informing you that you managed to locate the proper NPC.

NOTE! If you are carrying a lot of Celestial Mysteries and have already done a few in a row, there may be a very notable delay before this next part starts! Therefore, limit yourself to carrying 5 or less Celestial Mysteries at a time while doing them, as otherwise the delay may, in fact, start exceeding the time it takes for another Celestial Mystery to trigger!

Once the NPC gets a green flag over their head, they are ready to talk. Once this point happens, the quest stops ticking down and will remain indefinitely with the NPC at this stage! You can still have a Celestial Mystery trigger, however, as the quest right now sits with the NPC rather than in your log. As this can make it confusing fast, I recommend finishing off one NPC's quest before moving too far away from them.

When you start talking to them, however, the quest will go back into your log and a fresh timer of 5 minutes will start, so do not take too long with your answers.

While the text of each NPC varies slightly, the answers to the line of questions determine your odds of getting the various stones--while Whitespirit and Bluewonder stones have equal odds of dropping, the risk of getting a Redsoul stone can vary from 20%, 30%, and 29.5% which has an additional tiny 0.5% chance of a Yellafairy stone instead. While it has not been confirmed, it appears that the answers for each probability are the top, middle, and bottom answers ("I know nothing", "You seem knowledgeable", and "Sure" respectively). You will also get between 10,000 and 80,000 points of experience, with more experience paid out in Wildlands than in Doom Bog.

This is where there is an additional risk that the NPC finishes off the quest by asking for talismans. As we have already made certain to keep one of each talisman in our bag, however, simply tell the NPC to take what they need. Your final answer does not seem to influence what kind of stone you get, but at this point you are guaranteed to get one.

Then, there is a cooldown of 5-10 minutes before another Mystery can trigger. You can use this time to return to town and make sure you have all the talismans you might need for the next round, or simply go back to whatever you were doing, aka sleepless and trying to wipe out all Yasho in the vicinity, because that is what we all do on this server.

Oh My God There's Too Much Text You Can't Expect Me To Read All Of That

• Fill up your quest log with 20 quests


• Murder things until they drop a Celestial Mystery


• Trash or complete a quest so the Celestial Mystery triggers from your inventory


• Find the NPC the quest mentions within 5 minutes


• Talk to the NPC and answer their questions


• Give the NPC the talismans they require


• Enjoy your shiny new stone

Wait Where Do I Find All Those NPCs?

What, you don't want to comb the lands to try and locate the specific NPC you have to find and talk to within 5 minutes which is about the time it takes to cross a map on foot? Psh, you have no sense of adventure.

Have some maps!

Abadom:  -304, -366 Abasiama:  -128, 421 Baridi:  -5, 220 Barine:  283, -333 Jino Yanchee:  345, 35 Nyo:  -130, 293 Zah Wu:  257, 312	Abayomi:  -52, -307 Abalunam:  238, 436 Abazee:  -145, -290 Bamitola:  -331, -360 Baritsom:  -207 357 Nwaro:  415, 140 Nwosu:  -146, -93

... Where In The World Is Bamitola?

Bamitola is a walnut, simply put. The guy is trying to prove something about his lack of an entirely sensible fear of heights, or he thinks he's a bird. Either way, he likes to hang out at a rock in Wildlands. Waaaaaay above the portal to Kunlun. You will need a skyblade to talk to him. If you use the correct combination of Charge and movement buffs and jumping in just the right spots... You will notice that it is impossible to climb the lower parts of the slope on which Bamitola stands. So, get a skyblade. Rise up, as far as you can go, then look up. See that tiny spot on top of this pointy rock? That's the dingdongdingus we want to talk to.

This is the path you will want to take. Fly up as high as you can, and aim for a little stone outcropping at the flight limit. Land somewhere along the red line; if you land too far on either side, you risk sliding right off again or glitching through the stone. Then follow the blue path to the top. Make sure you keep an eye on your minimap, as straying too far to the right side of the cliff may cause you to touch the portal to Kunlun. Stay just left of the center of the rock (you should see a visible line in the texture where the two slanted sides meet), and you should be good. When you have passed the Kunlun portal, try to stick to the center of the rock to avoid falling off. Take your time to approach Bamitola on his dumb spot; it takes longer to climb back up than it does to nudge yourself forward a step at a time.

Now go get those shiny rocks!

[CompeR]

Bounty granted: 2500 GJ.