Preparation

Before going into the more challenging floors, you’ll want to have a decently-levelled aetherpool arm and armor. These cap out at 99 each, and can be raised by opening silver chests and defeating certain bosses. As your aetherpool levels rise, the chance of getting upgrades from silver chests in lower-level floors decreases, so you need to go to deeper floors to have a better chance.

Levelling Aetherpool

PotD: There’s no easily-spammable floorset that gives guaranteed upgrades, so you’ll want to go for silver chests. You can spam 51-60 in matched groups until the rate of upgrades gets bad. After that, it’s fastest to go to the highest levels you can as a group. Another option is to go up to floor 100 with matched groups. Soloing as far as you can also works, and while it will be more difficult with low aetherpool levels, it will still be good experience.

HoH: Beating floor 30 always gives +1 to both arm and armor, so it’s easiest to just spam floor 21-30 in a party or matched groups. Bonus: you’ll also be farming potsherds this way.

When playing with matched groups, it’s nice to mention that you’re going for silver chests, and also make sure not to slow down the group too much.

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Sustaining Potions in PotD and Empyrean Potions in HoH grant a potent regen effect. These are extremely helpful to soloing especially, and you will want to have a lot of them going into a difficult floorset. Get them by trading potsherds to an NPC outside the dungeon.

Farming Potsherds

PotD: In a party, bronze chest drops go to random players, so it’s best to farm potsherds solo. Since deeper floors have a better chance of potsherd drops, you’ll want to start on floor 51 and solo as far as you can without using many sustaining potions. Preferably use a job that doesn’t require many sustaining potions, such as a tank, physical ranged, or red mage.

HoH: Beating floor 30 always gives you a potsherd, so it’s easiest to just spam floor 21-30 in a party or matched groups.

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HP Potions

Potions are great to have in deep dungeons as an extra heal. The best potion to use depends on your max HP, so will mainly be based on your level, job, and food. In the early floors of PotD, the type of potion that’s dropping from the floor you’re on is likely sufficient. By the time you hit 60, you’ll want to use either Max or Super Potions, depending on your job. Note that Super Potions do not drop in PotD even though they are best for some jobs in the later floors. You will get tons of Super Potions from HoH.

Food

The main benefit you’ll get from food is the increased HP. Substats are all pretty low in deep dungeons, so the other effects from food are minor. That said, a minor advantage does still help, so it is ideal to choose the food that is best for the job you’re playing.

For maximum HP in PotD, you will need HQ i560 or higher food. In HoH, you will need HQ i580+. This is as of patch 6.08, where i580 is the highest available.

Stat Potions

Tinctures can be useful for a temporary damage boost, which is especially useful to tanks. Just note that they share a cooldown with HP potions. Use grade 4 or higher tinctures for maximum effect in PotD, and grade 6 in HoH.

Misc

• Echo Drops: Can cure silence from impeding traps
• Phoenix Down: Good to have if you’re in a party. These drop from bronze chests in the earlier floors of both PotD and HoH.

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