Getting your Oldton Movalpolos map | Clan of the Angry Monkey (FFXI)

Where is Oldton Movalpolos?

Oldton Movalpolos is a place a lot of people have never heard of. I personally find this pretty funny, because this was one of those areas many of us "old-timers" were antsy about before the CoP expansion was even available.

Movalpolos is a series of mines built by the Moblins, which are an off-shoot of the Goblin species. You can find an entrance to Oldton Movalpolos in North Gustaburg just outside Port Bastok. Inside of it, you will find mobs ranging in level from the low 20s to the low 50s. This means that, if you are 60+, you should be able to navigate most of Oldton without much fear of aggro. Oldton itself is an excellent place to farm and mine. It exits into Gusgen, providing an alternative route to get to and from the Dem Crag out of Bastok. It also is the location of several ENM fights.

Like many other places in the game, Oldton's map can be obtained by obtaining a chest key to the area and opening a chest.

Getting your key

The key is dropped from a variety of mobs in the low to mid 40s:

Ancient Bomb (40-45)

Bugbear Bondman (42-45)

Goblin Doorman (42-45)

Goblin Shovelman (42-45)

Goblin Tollman (42-45)

Moblin Ashman (42-45)

Moblin Gasman (42-45)

Moblin Pikeman (42-45)

Moblin Pickman (42-45)

Moblin Ragman (42-45)

I found that at 65 all of these mobs conned {Too Weak} to me, and that I could easily solo them. Chances are you can easily kill them as a small party of 50s (or even with NPCs). Although the bomb-type mobs drop the key, I personally wouldn't farm them for it unless I was higher than 65.

All of the chests in Oldton can be retrieved by simply navigating through the map, except for two chests at K-10. If you look at the map you see three spawn points. The bottom-left chest can be reached once you enter this room. The nothern and southern chests are on upper platforms and cannot be reached via Oldton. Instead you will need to make your way through Newton Movalpolis to reach them. The trip to these chests is complicated and best attempted by true treasure seekers/pickers (like me). Maior suggests that most people should just wait for the next chest spawn.

I found an incredibly helpful step-through to do this on Allakhazam written by Prim Sage. I will reiterate his steps here:

1. Equip yourself with a job, weapon/armor, or scroll that will allow you to escape/warp/teleport out of the mines relatively quickly.

2. Buy 1 or 2 Jars of Firesand (Alchemy) and Prism Powders if you cannot cast Invis/Tonko/Hide. Bats do not aggro here.

3. Head to K-10 and check where the Treasure Chest is. If the Chest is on the south platform, head to the Newton Movapolos zone at J-12. If it is on the north platform, head to the Newton zone at J-8.

4a. (J-12 zone) Hug the wall to your left. Use invis as necessary to avoid aggro. Eventually you should rezone into Oldton Movapolos right at the south platform. If at F-10 in Newton you run into a gate blocking your way, skip to #5 to read how to open it.

4b. (J-8 zone) Hug the wall to your right. Use invis as necessary. Eventually you should rezone into Oldton Movapolos right at the north platform. If at E-7 in Newton you run into a gate blocking your way, skip to #5 to read how to open it.

5. Rotating The Gates- Here is where some people get confused. If there is a gate blocking your way to the Oldton zone, you need to rotate the gate to allow you passage. This is accomplished by zoning into Newton Movapolos at J-8 and following the path (only 1 way to go) to F-6. Sneak is needed for a short tunnel with Dire Bats. Here you will see a Furnace Hatch on the south side of the platform. You must trade 1 Firesand to the Furnace to rotate the platforms. This can be very tricky because of the high level mobs patrolling the entire platform. Only choice is to bring a group to kill them or drop invis, trade item, and reinvis as fast as you can.

At this point the way you came from is now blocked. To get back to Oldton without an escape of some kind is incredibly dangerous and impractical. Just get a friend to come with and get you out. When you trade the Firesand both the F-10 and the E/F-7 gates will rotate 1/4 turn, allowing you passage from either J-8 or J-12 of Oldton to the treasure chest areas.

During my attempt I was blocked by the southern gate. I was lucky to have Cyclonus & Maior assist me by treading the north Newton passage with Firesand to turn the gates for me. They stated that the area around the Furnace Hatch has multiple mobs and is almost certain death. The two of them were both +70 and were just able to hold their own. If you attempt to solo this, remember to drop invis, trade your Firesand, and warp as quickly as possible.

The best of luck to all who walk the path of the thief in these dangerous grounds.

Mithra

Where is Oldton Movalpolos?

Getting your key

Getting your Chest

Obtaining K-10 Chests