Guide to Field Operation: Occult Crescent

Occult Crescent is new Field Operations content released in Patch 7.25 of Dawntrail. Functioning similarly to The Forbidden Land, Eureka and Save The Queen, up to 72 players will work together to explore the unmapped terrain and battle against the isle's inhabitants.

As of patch 7.25, there is currently only one field zone available: The South Horn, an island covered in ruins. In addition to this, The South Horn contains a special dungeon called The Forked Tower that has unique entry requirements and allows up to 48 players to work together to clear the content.

While the majority of this content can be completed solo, collaboration and coordination with other players is required in order to clear the optional special dungeon.

Community and collaboration are driving forces behind all field content. Players are often seen teaming up with strangers in order to spawn Critical Encounters or farm loot. The /shout chat channel sees constant usage, from the calling of carrot spawns to players asking for raises or coordinating actions within the special dungeons. Much information about this content is also unavailable or obscured in-game, but is readily available from veteran players.

If you're looking to join the Field Operations Community, multiple Discord servers exist for each region, with some being more generalistic while others are specifically focused on scheduled runs of the more challenging content, such as Forked Tower. You can find a list of many of these Discord servers below, separated by region and detailing what types of Field Operations content they cover.

• Eurekan Explorers (Worldwide Research, All)
• Lunar Forays Group, aka LFG (EU, All)
• Aether Bozja & Baldesion Arsenal, aka ABBA+ (NA, All)

The first zone, Occult Crescent: South Horn, can be unlocked by accepting the quest One Last Hurrah in Tuliyollal, which can be unlocked by first completing the Main Scenario Quest Dawntrail, and progressing the storyline to a certain point. Players must have a Disciple of War or Magic at level 100 to enter.

Exploration and Combat are the main focus of Occult Crescent, and will be how players progress. By partaking in battles, players can increase their Knowledge Level. While this is not required in order to progress the story of the content, like Eureka, this level has a direct effect on combat by modifying the amount of damage players deal and recieve. Players can also gain an advantage through the use of Phantom Jobs, a unique system that allows them to access pre-made sets of powerful abilities that can turn the tide of combat. See below for more information on this system.

Additionally, Occult Crescent has a mechanic where players will lose EXP worth around 10% of a knowledge level upon returning to the start of the instance after dying, if they are not raised. This can cause your Knowledge Level to lower. Due to this system, it is extremely common to use the /shout chat channel to ask for a raise if you are caught out in the field. Unlike Eureka, players are able to change jobs in the field, so raises are easy to give outside of combat as long as you have a job that can use one.

Occult Crescent also has a system similar to Bozja's Field Notes called the Occult Records system, an entry in the Collection menu that currently contains 30 sets of Records to collect across the content. Each of these Records covers certain lore aspects related to characters and locations in the content, and it is expected that there will be a reward for collecting all of them once the content is complete.

The story of Occult Crescent will progress through quests offered by various NPCs as you obtain specific Records. As there is no currently known Knowledge Level requirement, players can complete this storyline very quickly if they wish to.

Additionally, the South Horn has multiple aetherytes. Unlike Eureka and Bozja, which required players to level up in order to access these, players are free to explore the entire map and attune to all aetheryte shards right from the beginning.

Relics in Occult Crescent can be progressed in a variety of different ways, both inside and outside of the areas included in this guide. Each step of the relic also has different specific requirements, and some are only necessary to do once while others must be repeated for every relic the player wishes to do. The details of each part of this process are explained on the Dawntrail Phantom Relic Weapons page.

Similar to Eureka, players can level up in a variety of ways, including FATEs and Critical Encounters, farming chains of high-level standard mobs, and weekly Challenge Log entries. The Party Sync function, new to Occult Crescent, allows a party leader to lower the Knowledge Levels of the entire party to no more than two levels above the weakest member, and granting those players a bonus to EXP gained.

Something to be aware of is that all enemies have different aggro types. Similar to the overworld, the majority of enemies use the standard forward-facing vision cone, though some will be sound or proximity based.

Completing FATEs and CEs rewards players with Silver currency, while farming mob chains rewards players with Gold currency. Both of these are required in order to obtain specific rewards, including some Phantom Jobs.

Unique to this content, players can equip power-ups known as Phantom Jobs that give access to new actions. These can be equipped independently of a player's main job. Each Phantom Job has special actions that can be unlocked by levelling it up, and these jobs can be changed at any time.

Players will start with the Freelancer Phantom Job unlocked, and will obtain Bard, Knight and Monk shortly afterwards. From there on, the remaining Phantom Jobs must be unlocked manually through a variety of methods.

• Phantom Time Mage, Cannoneer and Chemist can be obtained for 1000 Silver currency each at the Expedition Antiquarian vendor in the South Horn base camp.
• Phantom Samurai, Geomancer and Thief can be obtained for 1600 Gold currency each at the Expedition Antiquarian vendor in the South Horn base camp.
• Phantom Berserker, Ranger and Oracle can be obtained as random drops from specific Critical Encounters in the South Horn. Berserker drops from The Unbridled, Ranger drops from The Black Regiment, and Oracle drops from On The Hunt
.

Upon reaching the maximum level for a specific Phantom Job, players will receive one stack of a Mastery buff that increases both damage and healing potency. This currently caps at a maximum of 12 stacks, one for each available Phantom Job outside of Freelancer.

Outside of Phantom Relic Weapons, many rewards are available in Occult Crescent, including rare rewards from Eureka and Bozja such as the Eurekan Petrel Horn and the Deinonychus Horn. Exclusive rewards currently include items such as the Tipping Tortoise minion, Ballroom Etiquette: Fashion Forward, and the Petalodus Whistle, which can be obtained through Magic Pots or Fortune Carrots. The exclusive Arcanaut gear set, based on characters from Final Fantasy V, is iLevel i745 and comes with extra effects when equipped inside Occult Crescent areas, including increases to both mainstat and 'Special Attribute'. These extra effects can be increased by augmenting the gear with materials found in coffers, bought from the Antiquarian, or located within Forked Tower.

The first area was releaseed in Patch 7.25. More Phantom Jobs will be added in Patch 7.45, and the second area will be released in 7.55. Patches .25, .35, .45 and .55 will all include Phantom Relic Weapon updates.