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: As of patch 7.31, silver chest and boss aetherpool rewards have been drastically increased, such that you’ll almost always be capped for your current level or floor. If you spend aetherpool on grips for the weapons, a run or two of 51-60 should be enough to bring you back to 99/99.

HoH/EO: 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.

PT: As with HoH/EO, beating floor 30 (and every subsequent floorset) rewards an aetherpool increase, but later floors give greater bonuses (+2/+2 at 40, +4/+4 at 60), so 31+ or 51+ are a better choice if your current arm and armor are high enough. That said, aetherpool rewards are tuned so you can expect to naturally get close to 99/99 from a 1-100 run, so like PotD, this is mostly an issue only if you spend aetherpool on weapon grips.

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.

Back to top

Sustaining Potions (PotD), Empyrean Potions (HoH), Orthos Potions (EO), and Pilgrim’s Potions (PT) 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: You typically won’t need to farm potsherds for PotD because Sustaining Potions frequently drop from defeating normal enemies, and potsherds also drop fairly regularly from bronze chests. If you do need to farm, keep in mind that when in a party, bronze chest drops go to random players, so it’s best to farm potsherds solo. You can either spam 51-60 from the entrance NPC, or set up a 51+ file with full Affluence/Alteration/Fortune pomanders, then repeatedly run to 60 and leave the duty without killing the boss - anything you get from bronze chests stays in your inventory.

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

PT: You can spam floor 21-30 like HoH/EO, but floor 31-40 or 51-60 are usually a better choice because bronze chests drop multiple items and you’ll have a decent chance of picking up extra potsherds even in a party.

Back to top

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 drops from bronze chests on your current floor is likely sufficient. By the time you hit level 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.

Type (HQ)	Heals	Max	Best until Max HP
Potion	40%	200	500
Hi-Potion	40%	440	1,257
Mega-Potion	35%	840	2,800
X-Potion	30%	1,300	4,333
Max-Potion	30%	2,400	9,600
Super-Potion	25%	3,600	14,400
Hyper-Potion	25%	11,000	44,000
Ultra-Potion	25%	39,500	n/a

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, physical jobs (tank/melee/range) will need HQ i580 or higher food, while magic jobs (caster/healer) can make do with HQ i525 due to their lower VIT stat. In HoH, all jobs will need HQ i640+. For EO and PT, take the highest level food available (i770 as of patch 7.4).

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. Any grade Infusion or Tincture will give the maximum effect in PotD; use grade 3+ Tinctures in HoH, Gemdraughts (any grade) in EO, and the highest grade Gemdraught in PT (grade 4 as of patch 7.4).

Misc

• Echo Drops: Can cure silence from impeding traps
  • Shares a cooldown timer with regen potions
• Phoenix Down: Good to have if you’re in a party. These drop from bronze chests in all Deep Dungeons, and can also be bought from item vendors (or the marketboard).

Back to top