The Aetherochemical Research Facility

The Aetherochemical Research Facility

Level

60 (Sync: 60)

Item Level

142 (Sync: 180)

Difficulty

Normal

Party size

Light Party
4 man • 1 1 2

Unsyncing

Allowed

Time limit

90 minutes

Duty Finder

Dungeons (Heavensward)

Roulette

High-level Dungeons

Tomestones

 150 

Req. quest

Heavensward

Entrance

Azys Lla (X:21.4, Y:22.5, Z:8.7)

Modes

Duty Support, Explorer

Patch

3.0

“

Your pursuit of the archbishop has brought you to the Aetherochemical Research Facility, at the heart of the floating isle of Azys Lla. However, he and his knights are not the only threat for which you must be prepared; shortly before your arrival, the VIth Imperial Legion entered the facility in search of the secret to mastering primals, and their presence will serve to complicate matters. With multiple factions and their ambitions set on a collision course, your mission promises to be fraught with danger and uncertainty both.

— In-game description

The Aetherochemical Research Facility is a level 60 dungeon introduced in patch 3.0 with Heavensward. With the addition of Duty Support in Patch 6.3, changes to progression and bosses were implemented. It, along with  Brayflox's Longstop, are the only MSQ dungeons to have 4 bosses instead of 3. This dungeon also does not drop any equipment as loot. To compensate, it rewards a large number of Allagan Tomestones of Poetics.

Duty Support

	Scion Marauder	Scion Conjurer	Scion Thaumaturge	Scion Lancer
Class	Marauder	Conjurer	Thaumaturge	Lancer
Role	Tank	Healer	DPS	DPS

Objectives

1. Clear Analysis and Proving
2. Clear Bioweapons Research
3. Defeat Harmachis
4. Defeat all opposition
5. Defeat Ascian Prime

Bosses

The Aetherochemical Research Facility Guide (Updated for 6.3)

Regula van Hydrus

• Stuns a random party member and follows up with untelegraphed AoE on them. Heal as necessary and move away from the stunned player.

• Summons turrets every phase swap, with one additional turret per swap. Turrets self-destruct if not killed in time, causing room-wide damage.
  • Magitek Turret Is target a random party member with a visible line AoE (Aetherochemical Laser) and will continuously attack them.
  • Magitek Turret IIs target random party members with circle AoEs (Aetherochemical Grenado).

• The boss will start dashing to the walls and repeatedly cast Magitek Slug, an easily dodged line AoE
• Defeat the Magitek Turrets to stop the boss from dashing, making him easier to hit.
• After the second set of adds, the boss will cast Magitek Spread, a telegraphed 270 degree conal AoE.

Harmachis

• Weighing of the Heart: Changes Forms, form will be announced but may be only a split second before the change. There is no cast or announcement prior to changing back to Sphinx.

• Sphinx form
  • Riddle of the Sphinx is an easily dodged circle AoE.
  • Will periodically attack the tank with a untelegraphed conal AoE (Chthonic Hush) that inflicts Poison cleansable with   Esuna.

• Anti-Cobra form
  • Untelegraphed tankbuster (Hood Swing)

• Anti-Naga form
  • Petrifaction is a telegraphed gaze attack that will cause 10 seconds of Petrification unless you are looking away from the boss.
  • Circle of Flames is an instant AoE that will target multiple party members, stay spread out to avoid stacking damage.

• Anti-Machina form
  • Ballistic Missile will target a party member with a missile, indicated by a circular "enumeration" marker with a number of rotating spheres over it, indicating how many people should stack to prevent damage. Otherwise, the target player will take high damage.
  • Gaseous Bomb is a stack marker targeting a random player. The entire party should stack.

Lahabrea & Igeyorhm

As of Patch 6.3, the battle will only end when both Ascians' health are reduced to 0.1% instead of 50%, and both will always be targettable.

• Shadow Flare: Unavoidable Raidwide damage cast by Lahabrea
• Fire Sphere: Lahabrea summons five untargettable Burning Stars that will explode in AoE circles after a few seconds.
  • Esoteric Fusion: Another version of this spell will result in two pairs of Burning Stars that are tethered and advance towards each other, which will explode upon contact.
• Grip of Night: A frontal cone AoE cast by Igeyorhm.
• Circle of Ice: Igeyorhm summons four Frozen Stars that detonate Donut AoE circles. Stand on the Frozen Stars to avoid damage.
  • Esoteric Fusion: Igeyorhm will tether two of her Frozen Stars together, creating a bigger donut AoE that covers the safe spots in the other Frozen Stars. Players should therefore stand under where the tethered Frozen Stars will detonate to avoid damage.
• End of Days: Similar to the Towering Oliphant's Rout attack in The Dusk Vigil, this is a line stack marker, which requires players to line up between Lahabrea and the targetted player.
• Dark Fire II: Lahabrea puts circle purple AoE markers on all players, who should spread to avoid overlapping.
• If the health difference between the bosses become too large, the higher HP boss will transfer some of its health to the lower HP boss.

Ascian Prime

The dungeon does not end when Lahabrea and Igeyorhm are defeated. Instead, a notably long but skippable cutscene will show the two merging into the real final boss, Ascian Prime. In addition, failing mechanics will now inflict Vulnerability Up on players.

• Shadow Flare: Unavoidable Raidwide Damage.
• Height of Chaos: Tankbuster
• Dualstar: Features combinations of the tethered Burning Stars and Frozen Stars from the previous battle. Ascian Prime will then cast Fusion Prime to make them collide. If non-tanks are hit by two AoEs at once, they will likely die. To tell the order of the collisions and their AoEs, players must eye the distance of the tethers and the colors of the orbs instead of relying on the orange AoE indicators, which only briefly appears before the AoEs resolve.
  • If the Frozen Stars collide first, stand under them and quickly run away from the imminent detonation of the Burning Stars
  • If the Burning Stars collide first, run away from them and then quickly run under the Frozen Stars before they detonate as well.
  • Using   Sprint is recommended.

• 

  Ice Collides First: Start in the middle of the room, and once the ice donut AoE goes off, run to the wall away from all the fire spheres.

• 

  Fire Collides First: Start near the wall away from all the fire spheres, and once they explode, run to the middle of the room. Don't start directly at the wall so you won't need to run as far.

• Universal Manipulation: Causes room-wide damage and five debuffs. As of Patch 6.3, there no portals to hide in and avoid this, and the debuffs will detonate the following mechanics:
  • Bleeding: Players take damage overtime until the debuff expires.
  • Ancient Circle: Upon expiring, this creates a massive donut AoE around each player. They should stack in the center to ensure the donut AoEs do not spread there.
  • Dark Whispers: Upon expiring, this creates a purple AoE circle on each player, who should spread out to avoid overlapping.
  • Ancient Frost: Upon expiring, the afflicted player will find themselves the victim of a stack marker.
  • Burning Chains: Upon expiring, players are chained by pairs and must run away from each other to break them.
• Entropic Flame: A line stack marker.
• Arcane Revelation: A reprisal of Lahabrea's ultimate from The Ultimate Weapon. Ascian Prime becomes untargettable, summons a large Arcane Sphere, and begins siphoning power from it to fill an Ascian Prime's Power gauge. Meanwhile, untargettable Shades of Lahabrea and Igeyorhm periodically appear to unleash mechanics on the party
  • Chilling Cross and Dark Fire II: Igeyorhm's shade creates cross line AoEs from the middle of the arena while Lahabrea's shade places purple AoE circles on players.
  • Dark Blizzard II and Dark Fire II: Igeyorhm's shade creates several frozen line AoEs while Lahabrea's shade places purple AoE circles on players.
  • Shadow Flare: Both Shades cast this at the same time, dealing extra raidwide damage.
  • Annihilation: Heavy raid-wide damage based on how far the Ascian Prime's Power gauge filled. If Ascian Prime was allowed to reach 100%, his attack will wipe the party
• Ancient Eruption: Ascian Prime causes AoE circles to appear underneath each player.

From there, the mechanics repeat themselves until the boss is defeated.

Loot

Regula van Hydrus

• 15
  
  Allagan Tomestone of Poetics

Harmachis

• 30
  
  Allagan Tomestone of Poetics

Lahabrea & Igeyorhm

• 45
  
  Allagan Tomestone of Poetics

Ascian Prime

• 60
  
  Allagan Tomestone of Poetics

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Faded Copy of Imagination	Orchestrion Roll	N/A	ABasic	1

• 100
  
  Allagan Tomestone of Poetics for first time completion

Achievements

This duty is associated with the following achievements:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
Mapping the Realm: Aetherochemical Research Facility	10	Discover every location in the Aetherochemical Research Facility.	-	3.0

Images

Dungeon Images

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Other Images

• 

  Dungeon Dialogue Infographic Part 1 (credits: TrustInsighters)

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  Dungeon Dialogue Infographic Part 2

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  Dungeon Dialogue Infographic Part 3

Lore

The Study Of Eikons

The ancient Allagan civilization rose to greatness through the blessings of aetherochemistry, and in order to advance this field of science born of the union between magic and technology, they built the Aetherochemical Research Facility. Originally situated near present-day Mor Dhona, it was relocated to Azys Lla towards the end of the Third Astral Era. Information recently deciphered from tomestones revealed that the move came about with the commencement of research into eikon suppression. Following debate over ways to protect the facility’s secrets, isolation was settled upon as the best solution

As would be confirmed millennia later with Azys Lla’s discovery, the Allagans' efforts bore fruit. In addition to sectors dedicated to automachina and bioweapon research, the facility housed what was called Triad Control, which served to restrain and imprison actual eikons. Covetous of this power, the Garlean Empire dispatched the VIth Imperial Legion and its flagship, the Gratio, to the floating continent that it might avail itself of the ancients' secrets.

Regula van Hydrus

Legatus of the VIth Imperial Legion, Regula has long been a close friend of Emperor Varis, and his loyalty to his liege is absolute. In return, Varis has absolute trust in Regula, and thus did he charge him with leading the expedition to retrieve the secrets of eikon suppression on Azys Lla.

Ascian Prime

Calling upon the power of the Echo to break down the barriers of their souls, the Ascians Lahabrea and Igeyorhm merged into a single entity. As one, they proved far more formidable than the sum of their individual forms, and were capable of wielding the mightiest magicks with fearsome ease. Thus freed from their mortal restraints, they assumed a ghastly appearance befitting the servants of Darkness.

More

Even after five thousand years, many parts of the facility were miraculously found to be fully functional. The Sons of Saint Coinach posit that the Allagans likely employed temporal magicks, which they studied in the twilight of the Third Astral Era, to place certain contraptions into stasis.

Dialogue

Duty Support Dialogue

Scion Marauder: This place just keeps getting weirder... 
Scion Thaumaturge: Aye, it's downright uncanny here.

Scion Conjurer: Sentinels!?

Regula van Hydrus: No sooner do I clear away the rabble... 
Scion Marauder: If it isn't an imperial legatus! 
Regula van Hydrus: Let's get this over with, shall we? 
Regula van Hydrus: Turrets, deploy! 
Regula van Hydrus: Your reputation is well deserved.
Very well, let us try something different. 
Regula van Hydrus: The day is yours...but we will meet again. 
Scion Conjurer: At least he knows when to quit.

Scion Conjurer: What do you suppose are in those tanks? 
Scion Thaumaturge: Monstrosities─definitely monstrosities. 
Bioculture Node: Intruders detected. Releasing bioweapons. 
Bioculture Node: Releasing additional bioweapons.
All personnel, please proceed calmly to the nearest exit.

Scion Marauder: Here we go again. 
Scion Thaumaturge: Watch each other's backs! 
Bioculture Node: Intruders detected. Releasing bioweapons. 
Bioculture Node: Releasing additional bioweapons.
All personnel, please proceed calmly to the nearest exit.

Scion Thaumaturge: What a strange-looking...I'm going to go with “thing.” 
Harmachis: Activating Harmachis.
Commencing bioweapon assessment. 
Harmachis: Engaging anti-cobra mode. 
Harmachis: Anti-cobra testing complete. 
Harmachis: Engaging anti-naga mode. 
Harmachis: Anti-naga testing complete. 
Harmachis: Engaging anti-machina mode. 
Harmachis: Anti-machina testing complete. 
Harmachis: Assessment complete. Result: Outstanding.
Subject approved for mass production. 
Scion Thaumaturge: Clever how it transforms. 
Scion Conjurer: Certainly an efficient way to test creations...

Scion Marauder: Looks like we're heading down.

Scion Thaumaturge: I swear, every time you ride a lift... 
Scion Marauder: I know, right!?

Scion Conjurer: What could that illuminated place be?

Scion Conjurer: Looks like this is as deep as it goes. 
Scion Marauder: The archbishop must be close.

Dungeon Cutscene

Lahabrea: The champion of Hydaelyn. 
Igeyorhm: Tell me: why do you despise the primals so? 
Igeyorhm: They are the embodiment of mortal will─of mortal desire. 
Igeyorhm: Plainly, you desire a foe to despise. And 'tis well that you do, for it is from the vortex of ceaseless conflict that Lord Zodiark shall be reborn. 
Lahabrea: Through the Joining, the world shall become whole again. 
Lahabrea: Then all shall be as once it was─as it should ever have remained. 
Igeyorhm: For the glory of Lord Zodiark. 
Lahabrea: Your meddling ends here and now, Warrior of Light!

Duty Support Dialogue

Scion Marauder: It's over, Ascians! 
Scion Conjurer: We'll teach you to underestimate us! 
Igeyorhm: Come! We settle this once and for all! 
Lahabrea: Our might knows no bounds! 
Lahabrea: Fires of creation─arise! 
Lahabrea: My magicks flow as one! 
Igeyorhm: Mortal scum! I will entomb you in ice! 
Igeyorhm: Let us see you withstand two magicks at once!

Dungeon Cutscene 2

Lahabrea: Such strength! It defies all reason... 
Igeyorhm: No! I will not be bested by the likes of them! 
Igeyorhm: Lahabrea! It is time! 
Lahabrea: Very well. Let us show these mortals the true power of the Echo... 
Lahabrea: The power to break down the barriers of existence! 
Igeyorhm: I am become you... 
Lahabrea: ...And we are become one. 
Ascian Prime: Come, mortals! Render up your souls, that Lord Zodiark might be reborn!

Duty Dialogue

Ascian Prime: Ahhh, the power of Darkness surges... Tranquil as ice, vicious as fire! 
Ascian Prime: Feel the might of our magicks combined! 
Ascian Prime: Not even the laws of creation can withstand the tides of chaos! 
Ascian Prime: Stubborn mortals... Very well, we will show you our true strength! 
Ascian Prime: Know eternal despair! Fire and ice consume you! 
Ascian Prime: Even without the blessing of Light... How is this possible!?

Dungeon Cutscene

Ascian Prime: Aaargh!!! 
Ascian Prime: What walls are these? Arrrgh! Damn you, Hydaelyn! 

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