Depending on whether the Seed of Destruction is held by the Dragon People or by the Keucereus Alliance (in other words, when a group of players has killed Tiat), the available quests and the rules for hunting are changing.
This concept remotely resembles Hellbound - even if one group should fail to defeat Tiat, if some other group on the server kills the Boss, the first group still can hunt in the Seed of Destruction. One could say that conquering the stronghold is like taking an NPC-held Castle or Fortress, but the benefits (like access to sub-instances) are available to the whole server.
 |
A prerequisite for entering this dungeon is that you must have done the quest "To the Seed of Destruction" and for that quest you must have learned an Aerial Transformation . Once you have done those two quests you can also travel by Clan Airship to the Seed of Destruction.
From the day when you delivered Admiral Keucereus' letter of introduction you certainly remember where Sergeant Arrenos is standing in the doorway. Configure your 4 or 5 parties and the Command Channel, then talk to Arrenos and click on "Enter into the inner part of the Seed of Destruction."
After you have been teleported into the Seed of Destruction, the first thing you will see is a narrow corridor in front of you. When buffs have all been passed around, the leader of the group may give the order to advance via the Command Channel.
An important point is that when you are advancing it must be absolutely avoided that the Tanks are storming ahead. The defending monsters with their improved AI tend to concentrate their attacks on one target, something which tanks usually don't survive. Instead of having the Tanks rushing towards the monsters it is a better method to defeat them one by one and then advance. There will be a massive number of Dragon Horse Troops - Infantrymen and Mutated Drakes - waiting for you, all of them with Fire Attribute, weak to Water.
If you are a Dreadnought or Duelist, you should have learned the lvl 58 skill Detect Dragon Weakness, which increases your P.Atk. against Dragons, and/or the lvl 78 skill Eye of Slayer, which has the same effect. Those two self-buffs will be of significant help in destroying the monsters in the Seed of Destruction.
 |
After you have killed the amassed Dragon People, you have a gateway in front of you. This gateway is held by Army Shamans and Spear Throwers with very powerful attacks. Tanks wearing Dynasty Heavy and using Deflect Arrow still suffer damages of 1500-2500; for classes that wear light armor or robes the defenders' attacks are strong enough that a Critical Hit can kill them at once. You can increase your chances of survival at the gateway when Sword Muse and Spectral Dancer are casting buffs that increase resistance to bow attacks, like for example Song of Wind Storm or Dance of Blade Storm.
First of all let the Tanks advance and engage the Spear Throwers while the rest of the group is following them closely towards the gate, thus being safe from the Dragon People's ranged attacks.
Thus having taken the gateway, you will see in front of you an Instantaneous Movement Device. Talk to it and click on "Teleport to the Interior."
 |
The Instantaneous Movement Device will teleport your whole group to a wide square that you must in a rather difficult next step cross. In this place your group will suffer heavy casualties, wounded and dead, especially because of a very powerful ranged magical attack with Fire Attribute that penetrates with ease through Fire-related defense buffs (Song of Flame Guard from a Swordsinger, Elemental Protection and Resist Flame from a Hierophant). Fire Attribute Potions and Water Attribute on your armor are also of very limited use.
Before entering the square, let the Hierophants cast their buffs, the Swordsingers sing, the Bladedancers dance, then try to advance. You should slowly move into the square, luring the defenders out one by one. When you simply storm ahead, a whole group of 45 people might be wiped out; there is really a huge number of Dragon Horse Soldiers.
To reduce casualties as much as possible, it is most important to eliminate the Shamans and Spear Throwers in the rear of the enemy lines. This, however, is rather difficult because unfortunately the Dragon Horse Troops are under the command of several able Captains. They try again and again to use their Hate Aura, and it is practically impossible to take the square with these bothersome officers around.
 |
Moreover, the Dragon Captain is different from normal Tank classes inasfar the Hate Aura he uses has a very wide range (as far as range is concerned, it is closer to a Warlord's Provoke skill than to the Hate Aura of a Tank). The greatest difficulty in eliminating the monsters is to get close to them.
To overcome the Dragon Captains' Hate Aura and the Army Shamans' ranged magic, communication between Damage Dealers and Healers is most important. So far it seems to be the fastest method that the Healers are neutralizing the Shaman monsters with Sleep and then everybody concentrates on eliminating the Dragon Captains. The proper timing of Heals and Sleep, a quick clean-up of the monsters through the Damage Dealers as well as the ability to accurately assess the battlefield situation and never being without support is vitally important. Otherwise the battle in the square may end with an early defeat. When you have made some progress in cleaning the square of monsters, try to destroy the Obelisk in the center of the square. See the video at the beggining of the article, with the battle itself.
If you are doing the one-time quest The Enveloping Darkness from Soldier Orbyu at the base of the Keucereus Alliance, you will find Medival's Body in the center of the square, somewhat to the left of the Obelisk.
Before you enter into the next phase, now would be a good time to test the communication between party members. Each party should separately attack a door to force it open.
 |
Apart from the door through which you first entered the square, there is a total of 7 doors, of which 3 can be opened. The plain steel doors don't open, while those doors that show the appearance of clenched teeth do. Following the commands of the group leader, each party leader should lead his or her people to attack the assigned room. The most efficient way to proceed is that the command team is supporting whichever party is most lagging behind with their room. Normally the group will operate with a 2 party / 2 party / 1 party setup, but if you don't have enough firepower, you can join into two groups of 3 and 2 parties and attack first two rooms, then the remaining one.
In the rooms you will be welcomed by Dragon People Infantrymen.
The aim of the operation is the same for each party - the device on the square in the innermost part of each room must be destroyed, then you can proceed to the next stage. That being said, the whole thing is a similar experience to when you first came in. There are gateways with Iron Doors. It just takes a little longer - such an Iron Door (targeted in the screenshot below) has about 10 times the P.Def. of the gate at Aden Castle.
 |
As you penetrate further inside, there are more monsters with a higher attack power. Especially the increasingly strong and destructive power unleashed by the ranged monsters should be taken note of.
After you have passed through two Iron Doors you will find the device you must destroy at the back of a square.
The party that has first succeeded in destroying their device should support those parties that are still in the process of doing so. Thus you can ensure the smooth advance of the group.
When through this process, which is always the same, each party has broken open their door and destroyed the device in the room, the monsters on the main square will respawn. Deal with them in the same way as when you first entered the square.
After you have taken care of the monsters, the door of the passageway directly to the left of the entrance you first came in will open.
 |
Through this door you can reach the main stronghold of the Dragon Horse Army. When somebody first enters the square, this exit is not easy to recognize. We would like to suggest that you mark the first door where you came in during the raid, and the way to the last door through which you exit with 1 adena coins. Otherwise people might get lost.
Now all group members should advance together on the main stronghold of the Dragon Horse Army. Hereafter the level of the monsters increases greatly. Because of the variety of their attacks it is absolutely necessary that everybody moves strictly according to the instructions coming down via the Command Channel. Absolute order and discipline must be preserved.
 |
After you have broken through two gateways, you will come to a new cave. Then, your best chance is by advancing hugging the walls, thus avoiding unnecessary clashes with monsters. This is relatively safe.
Avoid the attacks of the Dragon Horse Soldiers in the center of the cave and continue to push ahead.
Finally you will arrive at the main stronghold of the Dragon Horse Army. As you can see, there is a great number of monsters (22 have been counted) standing on guard in front of the stronghold. They even have their own Army Healer with them.
 |
Countless monsters are waiting at the gate that forms the front entrance of the stronghold. Because you will be attacked even from the rear, by the monsters in the cave who can do great harm, one party will have to be responsible for covering your back. When you have dealt with all the monsters in this way, knock down the gate of the stronghold. From about the time when you have destroyed the gate, your Spectral Dancers should continually use the lvl 77 skill "Dance of Shadows" so that the subordinate monsters in the interior of the stronghold don't take notice of you. Beyond the gate a massive number of Dragon Horse Soldiers will be waiting for you.
When you have destroyed the gate of the stronghold, an impressive number of Guard Captains and Great Shamans of the Dragon Horse Army will come spilling out. To prevent them from getting into contact with their subordinate brethren, disengage and retire to the lower end of the bridge, pulling them away from the gate.
After you have eliminated all Guard Captains and Great Shamans, move forward again while always maintaining Dance of Shadows. In this way you won't have to tangle with the Spear Throwers that are patrolling the inner and outer parts of the stronghold.
When you have entered the stronghold, you can see the door that leads to Tiat's throne room.
While constantly maintaining Dance of Shadows a party each should climb the sloping ramps to the left and right, destroy the devices called "Throne of Destruction" they find there (they are defended by Spear Throwers) and come down again.Check the video on the right to see how`s this done.
If through an unfortunate accident the Shadow effect should vanish, a huge number of Spear Throwers will come screaming at you. Therefore the Spectral Dancer in each party should never let his or her attention waver. When the Throne devices on both sides have been destroyed, the door to the room where Tiat sleeps will open.
 |
Now the final battle has come. There will be a cut-scene video where you can see how Tiat transforms into a male dragon.There are more than 50 soldiers standing on guard around Tiat. Pull them out with little forays from the left or right, not letting Tiat notice you (this will take a considerable time).
If you are doing the quest "Enhance your Weapon", you can level a Soul Crystal up to Stage 15 or 16 by killing Tiat. For that alone it would be worth taking on the Boss - apart from the S80 Icarus weapon or S84 Vesper weapon he is dropping with 100% probability as well as a random lvl 81 Spellbook resp. Forgotten Scroll and a Soul Crystal of Stage 14, 15 or 16.
But killing Tiat is not easy. His Dragon Rider minions specifically target the leader of the group, identifying him or her via the Command Channel. The most effective countermeasure is to Sleep those minions. When you kill them they just spawn again.
When you have brought Tiat's HP down to 50% he will shout for his soldiers to come out. In that precise moment you must use any Stun skills you have available - Stunning Shot, Hammercrush, whatever - to prevent him from doing his magic.
Otherwise he will suddenly recover all of his HP and you have to start whittling it down again.
At the base of the Keucereus Alliance there is a quest available from Soldier Orbyu where you get as a reward a so-called "Fragment of Light" which is basically something like the stun bombs used by police forces all over the world for freeing hostages. If you should have such a Fragment of Light with you, this is the time to use it, at exactly the HP 50% point. You can set off that bomb only once, so keep your nerve and wait for Tiat's shout appearing on the screen. See the video on the right, the fight with Tiat.
 |
Apart from the Dragon Rider's Totems for the quest How to Oppose Evil, the main drops in the Seed of Destruction are Orichalcum and Adamantine as well as recipes for S-Grade armor and jewelry.
Here again the steps for the conquest of the Seed of Destruction:
1. Do the one-time quests "Good Day to Fly" and "To the Seed of Destruction" to get the permission to enter the stronghold.
2. Gather a group of 36 to 45 people.
3. Fight your way through the first corridor and the associated gateway to the Instantaneous Movement Device. Teleport to the main square.
4. Eliminate the monsters on the square and destroy the Obelisk.
5. Split into 3 groups and force your way into the 3 rooms that have doors which look like clenched jaws.
6. Each group destroys the device they find in the room, than gather again on the square.
7. Eliminate the monsters that have respawned on the square and move to the main stronghold.
8. Eliminate the monsters guarding the main stronghold and break open the gate.
9. Destroy the devices to the left and right of the door to Tiat's throne room.
10. Kill Tiat.
From the moment when you have been teleported into the Seed of Destruction by Sergeant Arrenos you have 130 minutes to fulfill your mission.