Dungeon Guide for Another Merchant's Tale (Criterion)

The third of three difficulties from the new Variant and Criterion (V/C) Dungeon rework, Another Merchant's Tale is the Criterion version of the dungeon. This version of the dungeon aims to be the hardest of the three, requiring a full party of four level 100 Disciples of War or Magic. Additionally, players do not get access to the Variant actions that were available in the Variant and Advanced difficulties, instead everyone will have Variant Raise II, allowing them to revive another player once during battle. Players will be unable to use their job raise action as well, preventing healers, Summoner, and Red Mage from reviving players outside of the Variant Action.

To unlock the Criterion version of this dungeon, players must defeat all three bosses in a single instance in the Advanced version of the dungeon. Next, the players need to speak with the NPC Osmon in Old Sharlayan (X:11.9, Y:13.3).

There are a couple things that the party should decide beforehand to make the Criterion version of this dungeon easier:

1. Assign each player a quadrant of the arena, as all fights in this dungeon use a square arena, you can use the same spots for each fight. We recommend Tank northwest, ranged DPS northeast, Healer southeast, and melee DPS southwest.
2. Pair the Tank with the Healer, and pair the DPS together. Assign one of the DPS (usually the ranged DPS), and the Healer as flexers. Some mechanics will require a flex if the same pair gets both mechanics.

Unlike the Advanced version of the dungeon, where players could choose the order to face the bosses, in this version players will face Darya the Sea-maid, followed by The Lone Swordmaster, and finally Pari of Plenty in a boss rush style encounter.

Just like in previous versions of this dungeon, this is a raid-wide damage cast.

Darya will summon several sea creatures to assist her. This time, she will summon crabs, pufferfish, seahorses, and chocobos with life ring floaties. Unlike previous versions, these adds will do more than just line AoEs. Pufferfish will do a large point-blank AoE, while chocobos will do a large conal AoE. Crabs and seahorses will still do line AoEs.

Like in the Variant and Advanced versions, the boss will telegraph the order in which the adds will fire their mechanics on a music score above her head. However, this time each player will also get marked by an orange marker, indicating that they will be hit with a point-blank AoE that they'll need to be spread for. This functions identically to the Hydrobullet spreads from the Advanced version. Because each player has a spread AoE, they need to resolve the mechanic in their assigned quadrant.

Immediately at the end of the Echoed Serenade resolutions, the boss will begin telegraphing two sets of alternating cone AoEs. Start in the second set and rotate into the first set.

Each player will be marked with a Forced March debuff at the end of the cast. This time, however, two players will be marked with a stack debuff. Split into your assigned pairs, and flex if both in a pair have the same debuff. The stacks and Forced March will resolve during the next mechanic.

Just like in the other versions of the dungeon, the boss will move around the room leaving behind markers showing that there will be a point-blank explosion. There will again be two corners that are safe. Remember which corners were safe as the markers will vanish after a few seconds, the same as they do in the Advanced version. Unlike the previous versions, the safe corners are not always across from each other. Northwest and Northeast can both be safe. Because of this, assign a priority system for which pair goes where. For example, the support pair prioritizes Northwest, then counter-clockwise. The DPS pair prioritizes Northeast, then clockwise. The Alluring Order debuffs will resolve just before the markers explode. Each pair will need to use their Forced March debuff to get into their correct quadrant, where the stack markers will resolve on each pair.

Like in the Advanced version of the dungeon, this mechanic will summon two moving line AoEs on adjacent walls that will both advance at the same time. At the same time, each player will be marked with a green AoE that indicates that each player will explode in a plus sign AoE. The boss will also cast another Surging Current during this. The simplest way to resolve this is to have each player line up in a diagonal, in line with the corner that the two line AoEs overlap. For example, if the line AoEs are on the East and North walls, have the party line up from Northeast to Southwest. Each player should stand on a separate diagonal tile, and be ready to move into the overlap of the line AoEs as they move. For a visual of this mechanic, please reference this Raidplan.

The boss will follow up Ceaseless Current with another raid-wide damage cast, before moving on to the next mechanic.

Darya will again put Forced March debuffs on each player, and two players will receive the stack debuffs again. Make sure to flex if both in a pair have the stacks. Like before, these will resolve during the next mechanic.

The boss will summon donuts and orbs in the same configuration as she did in the Advanced version of this fight. Identify where the orb that cracks second is. The donuts next to it are the safe spots. Assign a priority for which pair goes where, you can use the same Northwest counter-clockwise and Northeast clockwise priorities from before. Each pair will need to use their Forced March to get to the safe spot. The boss will also cast Surging Current during this. You will have a second or two after the Forced March ends to make last moment adjustments to dodge the cleaves in the safe areas. Make sure to dodge the second orb afterward.

Several floor tiles will glow orange, indicating they will be covered with a water puddle that will apply a hefty Dropsy damage over time debuff if touched. At the same time, each player will get a yellow pyramid marker over their head. When the marker resolves, each player will create another tile that is covered in water. Each player will drop their yellow marker in their assigned place, covering one of the safe tiles each. Each player should be in their own L-shaped safe area left after dropping their yellow pyramid marker.

After the Aqua Spear yellow pyramid markers resolve, the boss will immediately cast Familiar Call followed by Echoed Serenade. Like previously, she will spawn adds and then telegraph the order in which they will fire. This time, she will only summon line AoE adds. Be sure to remember what order these adds fire in, as it will repeat a second time later without the order being telegraphed again!

While the adds resolve their AoEs, the boss will cast Aqua Ball. At the end of the cast, each party member will get another green marker indicating they will explode in a plus sign AoE, as well as be targeted by three baited AoEs. The green marker will resolve after the third AoE shows up, but before it explodes. Please reference this Raidplan for a visual of how to resolve this mechanic as it is rather complicated to explain with words only.

The boss will summon another set of adds, and this time she will not telegraph the order that they will fire. Instead, she will use the same order as the previous set of Echoed Serenade, so make sure to keep track! At the same time as this second set is resolving, the boss will cast another Surging Current.

For the final mechanic of the fight, the boss will tether one DPS to the Tank, and the other DPS to the Healer. Players will need to immediately move to be the correct distance from their partner, but there are a couple of seconds for a grace period. The boss will then cast Sunken Treasure. This time, four donuts and four orbs will spawn, with the donuts being in the corners of the room, and the orbs being diagonal from each of them toward the center of the room. Two orbs will crack first. One player from each pair will have a spread AoE. This makes it so that both pairs of tethers cannot go to the same safe area, or the spread AoEs will overlap and kill everyone. Identify which corners have the orbs that cracked second.

Assign a priority system to know which tethered pair takes which quadrant. One possibility is to have the pair with the healer always go Northwest counter-clockwise, and the other pair go Northeast clockwise. Do note that the tethers can be either close tethers or far tethers. Close tethers are easy as both tethered partners need to go to the same spot regardless. Far tethers add an extra layer because now one person from each pair will be in the safe area. This is a concern specifically for the spread AoE debuffs. This can be resolved by having the spread debuff players act as the anchor. Have the spread player from the Healer-DPS pair follow the Northwest counter-clockwise priority, and the other person in the pair go Northeast clockwise. For the Tank-DPS pair, have the spread player go Northeast clockwise, and the other player go Northwest counter-clockwise.

The boss will also cast another Aqua Ball during this, targeting each player with three puddle AoEs. The donuts resolve just after the third AoE is baited, so be sure not to cover the safe area with the puddles!

After this mechanic finishes, the boss will continue on to her enrage sequence before ending the fight.

After defeating Darya the Sea-maid, the party will continue onward to face The Lone Swordmaster!

The Lone Swordmaster will open the fight with this raid-wide damage cast.

Like in Advanced, the boss will have one or two swords floating around her body during the cast, and one person will be marked with an orange marker. The number of swords floating around her indicates how many people need to be stacked with the orange marker person, including that person in the number. For one sword, no one stacks with the orange marker, for two swords, one additional person needs to stack. Two players will also be marked with a 1 or 2 "limit cut" style marker. Unlike in the Advanced version of the fight, where the boss is the one doing the point-blank or donut AoEs, the people marked with the limit cut numbers will be the sources of those AoEs. If it is Near to Heaven, the player marked 1 will have the point-blank AoE while the 2 player does the donut AoE. If it is Far From Heaven, the 1 player will have the donut AoE while the 2 player has the point-blank AoE. To resolve this easily, during the cast have the player who will have the donut AoE stand directly under the boss. Have the player with the point-blank AoE go just outside of the boss hitbox at the front of the boss, have the orange marker player go just outside of the boss hitbox at the rear of the boss, and have the remaining player either stack with the orange marker person or with the donut AoE person, depending on how many swords circled the boss.

Each player will get a ring around them with three quadrants that are red. Identify the player that has the same ring orientation. They will be your partner for the upcoming mechanic.

The boss will telegraph two conal AoEs. These AoEs will spawn aetherial blades that will do the Unyielding Will L-shaped AoEs from the previous versions of the dungeon.

At the same time as the Unyielding Will AoEs spawn, the boss will spawn two tethers with a green directional arrow showing which direction it will damage players' Malefic Quartering rings. To resolve this mechanic, each pair of players will have one person with an L-shaped AoE. The other person in the pair needs to take whichever tether will not damage the red quadrants of their ring.

The boss will target each player with a large baited puddle AoE that will explode and then immediately do another effect based on the cast name. Echoing Orbit will cause each puddle to immediately do a donut AoE, while Echoing Eight will do the same starburst AoE pattern from the previous versions of the fight. To resolve this easily, have everyone stack up under the boss until the puddles spawn, then move out of them. Immediately move back in for Orbit, or stay out and avoid the starburst AoEs for Eight.

This works exactly the same way as it did in previous versions. The boss summons three sets of AoEs that explode in the order they spawned. Start in the third and dodge into the first for an easy dodge, but starting in the second and dodging into the first is fine as well, but may require using Sprint.

Handled the same way as earlier.

Each player is marked with an orange marker and a large AoE telegraph. At the end of the cast, each player will explode in a point-blank AoE that gives a Physical Vulnerability Up debuff, preventing players from stacking. Immediately after, each AoE will explode again with a starburst pattern. Have each player drop their AoE in the corners of the room, then dodge into the safe area it creates when the starburst spawns.

At the end of the cast, the boss will fire an untelegraphed 180-degree half room cleave in the direction she is facing. Quickly move behind her after Silent Eight to avoid it.

This is a line stack AoE that hits three times. Have the tank stand in front of the party.

Another raid-wide damage cast. This time, the boss will turn half of each quadrant into fire tiles, like at the end of the Advanced version of the fight. There will be one tile worth of an open spot along each wall.

Each player gets a ring around them with two opposite quadrants marked as red at the end of this cast. Two players will have north and south open, while the other two will have east and west open. Pay attention to what you have as this will determine which safe spot you can go to later.

The boss telegraphs an alternating series of cones. Start in the second, dodge into the first after it goes off. These cleaves will spawn aetherial blades around the room. Each player will get an Unyielding Will L-shaped AoE. At the same time, the room is divided into quadrants by large aetherial blades that telegraph a direction. These blades are the same as in previous versions of the fight. To resolve this, each player will need to position so that their Unyielding Will AoE will hit one non-red side of their ring, while the other is hit by the large aetherial blade on the wall. Be aware that it is possible for some players to be able to take one of two possible spots, while others may only be able to take a single spot. We recommend prepositioning around the middle of the room so that everyone knows where everyone else is going before moving out. If two people go to the same spot, they will both die due to Silent Heat!

At the same time as the players are situating for their Malefic Quartering rings, each player will get marked with another orange marker with a point-blank AoE, preventing players from going to the same safe spot due to the Physical Vulnerability Up debuff. After the AoEs fire, each player will leave behind a fairly large fire puddle that will inflict damage over time if touched.

This is the same as before, but with slightly less room as the fire puddles and tiles are still present.

Each player is marked with a ring with two adjacent quadrants that are red.

The boss will again telegraph alternating cones. Walk into the first from the second to dodge. Aetherial blades will spawn that will telegraph more directional cleaves. Each player needs to pay attention to the arrows on the ground, and resolve each cleave in a way that satisfies their Malefic Quartering ring. Before the first blades fire, the boss will cast another Maw of the Wolf frontal cleave. If your safe area is on the same side that is being cleaved, wait for it to go off then immediately walk into it. There are two sets of aetherial blades before the boss casts Malefic Portent, one during, and one after.

This time, the boss will summon four tethers that cannot be passed among players. Each player will get one more quadrant of their ring marked red. Players should start thinking about where they need to go next, as the aetherial blades will fire again, requiring players to move to a spot where only one blade will hit them on the non-red quadrant of their ring.

This works the same as it did in the previous versions of the fight. The boss will telegraph four cleaves, each with a directional arrow. Each player should stand in the cleave that satisfies their Malefic Quartering ring.

Another three-hit line stack AoE.

Another raid-wide damage cast. This one clears the fire tiles from the floor. Random AoEs will appear on the ground, and a proximity damage AoE will appear somewhere near a corner as well. Dodge the AoEs and move to the side of the room away from the proximity AoE. Immediately players should return to the middle of the room for the next mechanic.

Toward the middle of the room, two Fallen Rocks will spawn in opposite intercardinal positions. Stack in the center of the room for the tethers that are spawning. Look at the rocks, if the rocks are Northwest and Southeast, then the party will be going Northeast and Southwest, and vice versa. For this mechanic, send the supports Northeast or Northwest, and the DPS Southeast or Southwest to break the chains. The boss will cast another Silent Eight here. It is very important that they be dropped in the corners. If they are positioned incorrectly, the starburst pattern that will spawn from the AoEs will destroy the rocks, leading to failure in the next mechanic. Be careful not to touch the rocks, as they are surrounded by a small instant death puddle.

Lone Swordmaster will again put a ring on each player. This time, each player will have three quadrants that are red. She will cast another Cardinal Horizons, summoning aetherial blades after the cleaves. The room is divided into four quadrants that are all getting hit by two blades. Players must use the fallen rocks to line of sight one of the blades that would be dangerous to them, while their non-red side faces another. This repeats four times.

The boss will do one final line stack AoE before beginning her enrage sequence.

Players who defeat her will now progress to the final fight of this criterion dungeon, Pari of Plenty.

Like the other bosses, Pari will open the fight with a raid-wide damage cast.

Pay attention to the cast name for this mechanic. At the end of the mechanic, she will either do a stack AoE if it was Pyrelight, or everyone will have spread AoEs if it was Emberlight. The rest of this mechanic works the same way as Left/Right Fireflight from the Advanced version of the fight. The boss will telegraph three arrows to show where she will dash while telegraphing a line AoE to her side. During the dashes, she will cleave the room on the same side as that AoE. Pay attention to where she is dashing and stay on the safe side of her. Make sure to follow her as the boss will finish the third dash with a Sun Circlet.

The same as in the previous versions of the fight. This time, however, the stack or spread AoEs from Emberlight/Pyrelight will resolve immediately after. For Emberlight, everyone should be ready to run outward away from the boss a little bit to ensure the spreads do not overlap.

Pari will summon four clones of herself. Each will telegraph a line AoE as well as a clockwise or counter-clockwise arrow, indicating which way the clone will do a half room cleave like in previous versions of the fight. This will leave exactly one safe tile in one of the corners of the room. Identify where the safe spot is and have the party move to it. Pay attention, as the boss will either cast Scattered Kindling or Kindled Flame. Scattered Kindling will do a small spread AoE on each player. Each player should take a corner of the safe tile. For the players who are against the cleave from one of the clones, be ready to move into the corner of the tile as soon as the line AoE resolves. For Kindled Flame, there will be a two-person stack targeted on either both DPS or both supports. To resolve this, have the Tank and Melee DPS stack together in the corner closest to the boss, while the Healer and Ranged DPS stack together in the corner against the walls. The Tank-Melee pair should be ready to move into the line AoE when it resolves to ensure there is enough space for both pairs in the tile.

The Tank will get a tankbuster with a point-blank AoE before the boss casts the next mechanic.

Pari will telegraph a line AoE and clockwise or counter-clockwise arrows. There will be four arrows shown, indicating that she will cleave four times. At the same time as each arrow is shown, there are purple close together diamonds or blue far apart diamonds shown, indicating that the closest or farthest player will be targeted with a spread AoE. At the same time, the rest of the party will be hit with a stack AoE. For each cleave, have the party stand along the cardinal line that the line AoE makes, so they can take a step to the side to dodge each cleave. Assign an order for which player will take the spread AoEs. The spread AoE gives Dark Resistance Down, so more than one cannot be taken. We recommend Tank first, Melee DPS second, Healer third, and Ranged DPS last, as this is a common order used in party finder. Have the party stand on the ring of the boss hitbox. The player that needs to take the spread AoE will either go directly under the middle of the box, while dodging the cleave still, or will move out away from the party.

This is a raid-wide damage cast that also puts debuffs on each player. Two or three players will have a fire debuff, two players will have spread AoE debuff that looks like a circle, and one player will have a stack AoE debuff that looks like three people huddled together. Note for later, that one person will not have a spread or stack AoE. This person is responsible for stacking with the stack AoE player. Pari will also summon a clone of herself that will telegraph a line AoE and an arrow to indicate that she will diagonally cleave half of the room.

Next, the boss will cast Charming Baubles. This time, however, she will also summon a blue gem that will do an ice plus sign AoE instead of a fire AoE. This is important for anyone with the fire debuff. She will then cast Thieves' Weave, which summons three magic carpets that will shuffle where the blue gem is. Watch it carefully as the blue gem's new position determines how this mechanic is resolved! While the blue gem is being shuffled, two red gems will also spawn. These gems do the fire plus sign AoE like they did in previous versions. After locating the new position of the blue gem, take note of where the red gem is on the inner four tiles of the arena. The safe spots will always be directly diagonal to this tile.

Players with the fire debuff need to cleanse it by standing in the AoE formed by the blue gem, regardless of if they have spread or stack debuffs. The players without fire debuffs cannot stand in the ice AoE. Since there are only three possible safe spots, where each player goes can be simplified. Use where the clone is cleaving to orient. Position so that she is cleaving the relative northwest half of the room. From there, use a simple priority system. The stack players take the first spot clockwise of relative north that is safe to them. The spread players then take the two remaining spots, using the order of Tank, Melee DPS, Healer, Ranged DPS. The spread players will also follow this priority from relative north clockwise. There are two patterns for the debuffs. Either both stack players and one spread player will have fire, or both spread players will have fire, making it fairly simple to know which spot to go to.

This mechanic can be a lot to take in. The following Raidplan has been provided as a visual, and is the common way to resolve this mechanic on North American Data Centers. Be sure to check if your Data Center has any specific strategies that are preferred.

This raid-wide damage cast puts an Alpha or Beta debuff on each player. There will be two of each debuff. Later, these debuffs will spawn chains between the pairs that need to be broken by running away from each other.

This cast will start spawning sets of four fire AoE puddles that will expand before exploding, similar to the previous versions of the fight. Identify which wall has no puddles and go to it. Stand in the middle of that wall, on the cardinal direction. Players will drop large AoE circles that will leave behind fire puddles that stay there until the end of the mechanic. It is important for everyone to be stacked up together at the cardinal direction against the wall for a later part of the mechanic. When the second set of puddles spawn, look for the wall that does not have a puddle from the new set, and run to it. Drop a new set of fire puddles, and continue rotating around the room in the same direction. If the movement from the first to second wall was clockwise, continue clockwise, or counter-clockwise if the first movement was counter-clockwise, doing the same puddle drops at each wall. After the fourth set of puddle drops, immediately return to the center of the room and prepare for the chains to form. Using this strategy, each person can run out to their quadrants that were assigned at the beginning of the dungeon while not paying attention to who their partner was. The tethers will all break, and each player will be targeted by a large point-blank AoE, preventing players from going to the same spot to resolve the chains. Please reference this Raidplan, sourced from North America party finder, for a visual reference of how this mechanic is solved.

This raid-wide damage cast will remove the fire puddles from the floor.

The boss will summon four clones, one on each wall of the room, then become untargetable. Each clone will tether a player, and each player will be marked with either a 13s or a 6s Prey debuff. Each clone will telegraph a line AoE to the side, telegraphing that it will cleave that direction as it dashes. The direction each clone dashes, however, is determined by the tethered player, as at the end of the Prey debuff, the tethered clone will dash in the direction the player it is tethered to is.

At the same time, two sets of four towers will spawn around the room that each player will need to soak. For the first set, the players with the short Prey timer will go to the closest tower on the same side as their add is cleaving, to avoid cleaving the room. Make sure to sidestep a little as soon as the Prey debuff resolves, or the player will get hit by their clone's cleave. The two long timer players should go toward the middle of the room, and then fill in the remaining two towers. There are a couple ways to make this simple for the filling players. They can both either preposition toward the tower they will take, or they can set some sort of priority system to decide who goes where. Next, the long timer players will go to the closest tower on the same side as their clone is cleaving, while the short timer players will fill the remaining towers. This Raidplan, sourced from North American party finder, has a visual of the mechanic, as well as provides an example of a priority system for which towers to take.

The boss will return and snap her fingers, summoning three red gems. These gems will leave two safe tiles open. At the same time, two players will be marked with a stack AoE. Partner up with your assigned pair, and flex if both stacks are in the same pair. Have the Tank and Melee DPS pair take the safe spot closest to the boss, and the Healer and Ranged DPS player take the safe spot along the wall.

This is the final mechanic of the fight. The boss will again telegraph a line AoE and four clockwise/counter-clockwise arrows showing that she will swipe the room in a half room cleave. At the same time, four pairs of red Charmed Bauble gems will spawn. One pair will detonate each time the boss swipes, leaving only one of the four middle arena tiles safe. Please note that if the boss is cleaving the opposite side that the gems spawned on, the party will only have half of the tile as safe space, as the half closest to the gems will be cleaved by the gems, so make sure the party stays close to the midline made by the swipes. This mechanic requires a lot of memory, so it may be advantageous to write down the order of safe spots, or make macros to post this in Echo or Party chat.

From here, Pari will cast a few more raid-wide damage spells before wiping the party. If you defeat her before this point, congratulations! You have cleared Another Merchant's Tale.

Players can exchange Corvosi Manuscript, earned by completing the Criterion version of the dungeon, at the vendor Trisassant, found in Old Sharlayan (X:12.0, Y:13.3), for the following items:

Item	Type	Corvosi Manuscript Cost
The Merchant's Tale Framer's Kit	Framer's Kit	8
Genie Lamp	Mount	100
What Moves the Heart Orchestrion Roll	Orchestrion Roll	8
Elevated Ester*	Glamour	20

Players can also purchase Materia XI for 2 Corvosi Manuscript and Materia XII for 4 Corvosi Manuscript at the same vendor.

* Elevated Ester can be exchanged for Exquisite versions of the Augmented Credendum tomestone weapons, which can be purchased in Radz-at-Han at the vendor Khaldeen (X:10.9, Y:10.4).