Progression Guide¶
This page maps the full Legendary progression arc from a new character to endgame Prestige. If you haven't done setup yet, start with First Steps — this guide picks up after your character is ready and you've made your first Hunting League kills.
The Short Version¶
Setup → Hunting League (Rank I–V) → Reforge System
→ Augmenting → Infamy & Endgame → Prestige (infinite)
Every system on this server feeds marks into that path. The Hunting League is the spine; everything else branches off it.
Stage 1 — Hunting League Rank I–III (Early)¶
Goal: Accumulate Hunt Marks and unlock Rank III.
The Hunting League is a ladder of NM-hunting ranks at Escha ZiTah, from Initiate up to Legend. Each rank unlocks stronger NMs, better gear vendors, and higher marks-per-kill. Your first priority is climbing ranks quickly so the marks-per-hour improves. The full rank list — each rank's NMs, marks-per-kill, and unlock cost — is in The Ranks.
What to buy early: The Bronze gear tier (Beastmens Medals) from the Gear Vendors at Henge. Bronze pieces are inexpensive and cover the gear gap until you have Silver and Gold.
Parallel tracks to start now: - Login Rewards — log in daily for +25 marks, hit 7/14/21/30-day streaks for bonuses. - Daily Board — the NPC at GM Home gives 3 daily objectives. Complete them for extra marks and a full-clear bonus.
Stage 2 — Hunting League Rank IV–V (Mid)¶
Goal: Reach Rank V (Legend) and start farming 65-mark kills.
At Rank IV you unlock King-class HNMs — Nidhogg, King Behemoth, Kirin, etc. These are significantly harder than mid-tier NMs but drop much better and pay 38 marks each. Party up if possible.
At Rank V you're at the top of the Hunting League. Rank V NMs pay 65 marks each and your gear vendor unlocks Gold-tier items (Demons Medals). More importantly, Prestige unlocks — see Stage 5.
What to buy at V: Gold gear (Demons Medals) from the vendor. This is your gear floor while you pursue Reforge and Augments.
Weekly Hunts unlock at Rank V: Each week, a fresh set of objectives rotates in (kill NMs, partied kills, speed kills, no-death streaks). Completing your weekly objectives pays a sweep bonus in marks. See Weekly Hunt Board.
Stage 3 — Reforge System (Mid to Late)¶
Goal: Earn AF, Relic, and Empyrean marks from their respective NM systems and build per-job gear sets.
The Reforge System runs on three separate mark currencies:
| Currency | Source | NM family |
|---|---|---|
| AF Marks | Gwora-Corridor | Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryu, Byakko, Kirin |
| Relic Marks | Gwora-Corridor | Bukhis, Khun, Padfoot, Glavoid, Tinnin |
| Empyrean Marks | Gwora-Corridor | Aello, Iratham, Briareus, Itzpapalotl, Hadhayosh |
Reforge NMs award 150 marks per kill (Apex tier) — substantially more than Hunting League. This is the highest-marks-per-kill content on the server.
Spend marks at the Reforge NPCs in Gwora-Corridor to get job-specific AF/Relic/Empy gear sets at IL (item level) scaling.
Hunter's Guild builds here. Killing Reforge NMs builds Hunter's Guild reputation in the matching guild (AF / Relic / Empy). Higher guild rank means more marks per kill from that guild — it's a passive multiplier that snowballs over time.
Stage 4 — Augmenting (Late)¶
Goal: Stamp custom augments onto your gear to push stats past their base caps.
The Augment Moogle at GM Home lets you trade catalyst items to apply custom stat augments to any piece of equipment. Hundreds of augment types are available across many stat families — Attack, Accuracy, Crit, TP Bonus, Cure Potency, and more. The full catalyst → augment catalog lists every one.
The Augment Sage sits next to the Moogle and adds two multiplier tracks:
- Mastery ranks: Earn a flat multiplier on every augment plus a crit-augment chance that doubles a random stat on each trade.
- NM Affinities: Kill specific Vana'diel NMs (Behemoth, Fafnir, Tiamat, etc.) and trade their drops to register a permanent per-category bonus.
Stack max mastery + affinity + a crit and a single augment can be worth several times its base value.
See Augment Sage for the full rank requirements, NM list, and multiplier math.
Stage 5 — Infamy & Endgame (Late)¶
Goal: Earn Infamy from endgame content and spend it at the Infamy Vendor.
Infamy is earned across Legendary's endgame — Abyssea NM hunts, scheduled Invasions, and the weekly Raid, among others. Spend it at the Infamy Vendor, which sells gear found nowhere else: relic-tier weapons, bard instruments, best-in-slot armor, and per-job +4 Reforge Sets.
Stage 6 — Prestige / Ascension (Endgame · Infinite)¶
Goal: Unlock Prestige at Rank V, clear the Nightmare Court, and accumulate per-job Ascension Points.
Prestige is an infinite per-job progression layer that unlocks the moment you reach Hunting League Tier V (Legend). Travel to the Ascension Altar in Provenance (!provenance) to begin.
Each ascension cycle:
- Clear the Nightmare Court — three superbosses summoned one at a time at the Altar: Diabolos (AoE sleep + drain), Medusa (petrifying gaze), then Odin (Zantetsuken — instant death on a bad roll). All three must be killed on every cycle; kills don't carry over.
- Pay the Mark cost — it rises with each ascension and then plateaus at a cap (see the Ascension Economy).
- Earn Ascension Points (AP) for your current main job.
Spend AP at the Altar on permanent per-job stat boosts: base stats, combat traits, magic support, mitigation, utility. Every stat has a level cap, and there's a wide spread of purchasable categories — see the AP Spend Table. With infinite ascensions at the capped cost each, this is the true long-term chase.
Supporting Systems (Any Stage)¶
These systems don't have a fixed "unlock" point — run them alongside whatever main content you're doing.
| System | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Login Rewards | Marks for each daily login; escalating streak milestones | Automatic |
| Daily Board | Daily kill/Infamy/wave objectives; full-clear bonus | Henge NPC |
| Weekly Hunt Board | Weekly objectives with sweep bonus | Henge NPC |
| Hunter's Guild | Kill NMs to earn rep; rep gives escalating mark multipliers | Passive |
| Game Master (Wave Mode) | Themed wave fights of rising difficulty for bonus marks | !wavemaster |
| Cross-Job Abilities | Buy abilities from other jobs for a flat gil price each | GM Home |
| Mystery Mog | Gil-sink gacha; rare prize = marks, Aman Voucher, or AP | GM Home |
| Achievements | Milestone milestones across all systems | In-game menu |
Quick Reference — Marks Economy¶
Marks flow in from every system on this page, and a couple of sinks pull them back out. Rather than restate the numbers here (where they could drift), each lives on its owning page:
- Hunting League kills scale up with rank — see The Ranks.
- Reforge Apex NM kills are the highest marks-per-kill content — see NM pools and rewards.
- Daily login + streak milestones — see Login Rewards.
- Daily Board and Weekly Hunt Board sweeps — see Daily Board and Weekly Hunt Board.
- Sinks: the Hunting League reward shop, the Augment Moogle, and each Prestige ascension (see Ascension Economy).
On top of all of it, your Hunter's Guild rank multiplies every kill's marks — at Grandmaster a Legend kill pays roughly double, and the Apex Hunter capstone pushes it higher still. The guild track is a long grind but the payoff is real.
Last updated: 2026-06-30 09:22 UTC