Open your notebook
Press Alt+N, type /bestiary, or press the Bestiary button at the bottom of the Covenant Journal. Each character keeps their own notebook; it is saved with the character and follows them through job changes.
The notebook is a record. It never changes how a monster fights, and it gives no stats.
How an entry fills in
A monster's entry opens up step by step, and the detail pane shows more as it does.
- You learn a weakness by hitting it with that weapon type or element. Weaknesses revealed by a Break shield or a Blue Mage's Azure Study are written into the notebooks of the revealer's party nearby too.
- Ordinary monsters carry no shield, so hitting their weakness has no extra effect in the fight, but it still counts for the notebook.
- Breaking a monster earns its entry a bonus star. Stars are never needed to finish a page.
- Monsters in trials, story fights, the Veiled Depths, and summoned or companion creatures never count.
| You have… | The entry shows |
|---|---|
| Seen it | Its name, level, race, element and size, and a lesson line if a Blue Mage can learn a technique from it |
| Helped defeat it | Its health, attack and defenses, and where it is found on this page's maps |
| Struck or revealed its weaknesses | Each weakness you have learned lights up; the rest stay as ?. The entry also shows its shield size and how a Break works |
| Looted it | The drops you have actually seen it give; the others stay hidden |
| Seen an MVP's signature attack | For an MVP: the attack's name and how to dodge it |
Known entries and region pages
An entry becomes Known once you have seen it, defeated it, learned every one of its weaknesses and looted it (a monster with no drops does not need looting). A quiet line tells you when entries become Known.
Each region has a page. A page is complete when every ordinary monster on it is Known, and a banner marks the moment. A finished page stays finished; if a later update adds monsters, the page lists them as new without taking anything away.
| Page | Covers |
|---|---|
| Prontera and Izlude | Prontera, Izlude and their fields and dungeons |
| Payon and Alberta | Payon, Alberta, the Sunken Ship and Turtle Island |
| Geffen and Al De Baran | Geffen, Glast Heim, Mt. Mjolnir, the Orc dungeons, Al De Baran, the Clock Tower and Lutie |
| Morroc, Comodo and Umbala | Morroc, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Ant Hell, Comodo, Umbala and Niflheim |
| Schwarzwald | Juno, Einbroch, Einbech, Lighthalzen, Hugel, the Odin Temple, Abyss Lake, Juperos, Kiel Hyre's factory and Thanatos Tower |
| Arunafeltz | Rachel, Veins, the Ice Cave and Thor Volcano |
| Across the Sea | Amatsu, Louyang, Kunlun, Ayothaya and Moscovia |
Field Notes
Finishing a region's page earns its Field Notes. From then on, when you fight a shielded monster in that region (a Rare, Mythic, boss or MVP), its first weakness is revealed for everyone as soon as the fight begins. It is a head start on the Break, not a free chip, and it does not give Boost Points.
Field Notes work on the region's own maps in the open world. They do not apply inside the Veiled Depths, primal trials or other private trial grounds, even where those look like a place you know.
Field Notes are the whole reward: there is no stat bonus or title.
The MVP chapter
MVPs have a chapter of their own. It is optional and never holds back a region's page.
Once you have been in an MVP fight when its signature attack is warned on the ground, its entry records the attack's name and the same advice on dodging it that the banner gives, so you can read up before the next hunt.
For Blue Mages
The Azure Codex stays the Blue Mage's own record of species, stat bonuses and milestones; the Bestiary does not replace it. Monsters in your Codex carry a small Codex badge in the Bestiary, a Codex filter shows them together, and the Codex tab of your spellbook has an Open in Bestiary button.
Lesson lines are shown to everyone, so any player can tell a Blue Mage friend where a technique comes from. A boss lesson's line gives its clue and what the boss lesson asks of you.
When the Bestiary arrived, every species already in a Blue Mage's Codex was written in as seen and defeated.