The V Matrix is what all classes in game work with regarding 5th job Advancement.
Advancing
Call of the Erdas
Once you reach Level 200, the Memory Keeper will contact you to see if you're ready to attempt the 5th Job Advancement. He will allow you to access The Erda Flow, which tells you that the Black Mage is trying to harness the energy of the Erda.
Preparing for Power
Once you explain to the Memory Keeper what you encountered, he will have the Temple Keeper make sure you are worthy of accepting a higher power. You must have have a minimum of 100 Star Force, as well as a minimum of 10 Stars on your weapon. Once you have achieved this, you will pass the Temple Keeper's test, and send you back to the Memory Keeper.
Blessings of the Goddess
After returning to the Memory Keeper, he tells you that you need to receive the blessing of the goddesses of Maple World, Grandis, and Tynerum, accessible through Horizon Portals in certain maps. Each of the goddesses will give you a test to see if you're worthy of passing, and reward you with an Arcane Stone. The tests are as follows:
- The Goddess of Maple World, accessible through a Horizon Portal in Bowman Instructional School, will ask you which cause you are fighting for (that varies based on your class; e.g. Phantom is asked if he is fighting for his friends who sealed the Black Mage, or Empress Cygnus (Aria's successor).
- Goddess of Grandis, accessible through a Horizon Portal in Great Temple Interior, will ask you to defeat Magnus in Easy, Normal, OR Hard mode.
- Goddess of Tynerum, accessible through a Horizon Portal in Deserted Camp, will move the Horizon Portal to another map in the Dark World Tree (one of three maps: Upper-left Stem; Upper Stem Crossroad, or Upper-right Stem), and tell you to find it within 5 minutes.
Record of Power
Once you complete the tests of each goddess, you will have an Arcane Stone from each one. The Memory Keeper will grant you the 5th Job Advancement, all 3 of your main Skill Nodes based on your class, and 5 regular Nodestone. The Memory Keeper will tell you that you can fill up each Arcane Stone with 500,000,000 (500 million) EXP. You can only fill up one stone at a time. For each stone you fill, you will be given a Goddess EXP Potion, granting you an additional 500,000,000 EXP each as a reward for filling up each stone.
A Greater Power
Finally, the Memory Keeper will teach you about Arcane Power, which is needed to damage enemies in the area created by the Black Mage with the Erda's power, Arcane River. First, he will have you defeat 10 Happy Erdas without any Arcane Power (dealing 10% damage due to the lack of Arcane Power) to show you how tough the enemies are. He will then lend you a plain Arcane Symbol that cannot level up, but will be acceptable for the time being as you help Kao out in the first area, Vanishing Journey...
To learn more about Arcane Symbols, visit this page.
V Matrix
Every class in the game will receive the V Matrix system upon advancing to 5th Job. This system will allow you to customize your skills so that you can choose what skills to work on. You will start out with 4 slots at Level 200, and gain an additional slot every 5 levels, and each slot will be taken up by one of the following types of Nodes:
- Skill Node: Grants a special skill for all classes, your class, or certain groups of classes.
- Boost Node: Grants a node that boosts the final damage for 3 skills of a class by varying amounts based on the class and skill (meaning the skills will only belong to 1 class). These can reach up to Level 25 on a single node without Matrix Points, but can be combined with another Boost Node to reach up to Level 50.
- On top of final damage, these give additional boosts at Level 20 and Level 40. Most Boost Nodes give either Mob Count +1, +5% Critical Rate, or +10% Damage against normal monsters at Level 20, and +20% Ignored Enemy Defense at Level 40.
- Special Node: Grants a special buff after achieving certain conditions (such as attacking a certain number of times or using a Rune). Note that these nodes only last 7 days (168 hours / 1 week), so it might be recommended to disassemble the Node, as discussed later on.
When it comes to Boost Nodes, it is recommended to obtain 3 useful skills for your class within the same node, rather than skills that you do not use. As for Skill Nodes, the skill categories are as follows (for more information on each skill, click the respective skill):
- All Classes
Rope Lift
- Decent Mystic Door
- Decent Sharp Eyes
- Decent Hyper Body
- Decent Combat Orders
- Decent Speed Infusion
- Blink
- Erda Nova
- Will of Erda
- Decent Holy Symbol
- Erda Shower
- True Arachnid Reflection (only obtainable by completing [Esfera] What Will Left, can only be enhanced with Mirror World Nodestones and Experience Nodestones)
- All Maple World Heroes (Explorers, Heroes of Maple, Resistance (excluding Demon), and Beast Tamer)
- All Cygnus Knights (including Mihile)
- Note that Empress Cygnus's Blessing is upgraded into/replaced with Transcendent Cygnus's Blessing upon completing [Moonbridge] Cygnus Awakens
- All Heroes of Maple
- All Other World Heroes (Demon Slayer, Demon Avenger, Kinesis)
- All Demons
- All Resistance (except Demon)
- All Sengoku
- All Grandis Heroes (Kaiser, Cadena, Angelic Buster, Illium, Ark, and Hoyoung)
- All Nova
- All Flora
- All Warriors
- All Explorer Warriors
- Hero
- Paladin
- Dark Knight
- Dawn Warrior
- Mihile
- Aran
- Demon Slayer
- Demon Avenger
- Blaster
- Hayato
- Kaiser
- Zero
- Adele
- All Magicians
- All Explorer Magicians
- Arch Mage (Fire, Poison)
- Arch Mage (Ice, Lightning)
- Bishop
- Blaze Wizard
- Evan
- Elemental Barrage
- Dragon Slam
- FUSION: Wyrmking's Breath
- RETURN: Ludicrous Speed
- Elemental Radiance
- Note that Dragon Slam, Wyrmking's Breath, and Ludicrous Speed level up with the same Node.
- Luminous
- Battle Mage
- Kanna
- Beast Tamer
- Kinesis
- Illium
- Note that Crystal Ignition and Reaction - Spectral Blast level up with the same Node.
- All Bowmen
- All Explorer Bowmen
- Bowmaster
- Marksman
- Pathfinder
- Nova Blast
- Raven Tempest
- Obsidian Barrier
- DELUGE: Obsidian Barrier (Deluge)
- BURST: Obsidian Barrier (Burst)
- TORRENT: Obsidian Barrier (Torrent)
- Note that Obsidian Barrier, Obsidian Barrier (Deluge), Obsidian Barrier (Burst), and Obsidian Barrier (Torrent) level up with the same Node.
- Wind Archer
- Mercedes
- Wild Hunter
- All Thieves + Xenon
- All Explorer Thieves
- Night Lord
- Shadower
- Dual Blade
- Night Walker
- Phantom
- Xenon
- Cadena
- All Pirates + Xenon
- All Explorer Pirates
- Buccaneer
- Corsair
- Cannon Master
- Zen
- Jett
- Thunder Breaker
- Shade
- Mechanic
- Angelic Buster
- Ark
- Note that Devious Nighmare and Devious Dream level up with the same Node.
- Frenzied Strength I
Increases damage by 20% for 10 seconds when 120 enemies are defeated / Activates once every 60 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to defeat enough enemies within 30 seconds - Lethal Strike I
Increases Critical Rate by 100% for 10 seconds on every 1000th attack / Activates once every 60 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 30 seconds - Defense Smash I
Increases DEF Ignored by 100% for 10 seconds when attacking the same monster 800 times (once per skill use) / Activates once every 60 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 30 seconds - Auto Recovery I
Fully recovers HP every 40 seconds when a skill is used. - Consecutive Strike I
Increases Critical Damage by 100% for 10 seconds when Combo Kills are multiples of 50 / Activates once every 30 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 10 seconds - Run-blessed
Grants invincibility for 10 seconds every time a rune is activated / Activates once every 10 seconds - Character Building I
Increases EXP by 50% for 20 seconds every 100th hit / Activates once every 30 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 30 seconds - Comeback I
Upon death, reduces skill cooldowns by 20% (excludes skills unaffected by cooldown reductions or resets) / Activates once per 60 sec - Boss Slayer I
Grants a 0.1% chance when attacking to increase Boss Damage by 50% for 10 seconds / Activates once every 30 seconds - Boss Slayer II
Increases Boss Damage by 50% for 10 seconds when a skill is used / Activates once every 120 seconds - Boss Slayer III
Increases Boss Damage by 50% for 10 seconds when 30 enemies are defeated / Activates once every 10 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to defeat enough enemies within 30 seconds - Lethal Strike II
Increases Critical Rate by 100% when Combo Kills are multiples of 50 / Activates once every 60 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 10 seconds - Defense Smash II
Grants DEF Ignored 100% for 10 seconds when a skill is used every 120 seconds - Rune-frenzied
Increases damage by 100% for 10 seconds every time a rune is activated / Activates once every 10 seconds - Comeback II
Upon death, reduces skill cooldowns by 30% (excludes skills unaffected by cooldown reductions or resets) / Activates once per 60 sec - Relentless Attack
Reduces remaining cooldown of all skills by 20% when Combo Kills are multiples of 50 / Activates once every 75 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 10 seconds - Auto Recovery II
Fully recovers HP every 30 seconds when a skill is used. - Withstand
Grants invincibility for 10 seconds on every 100th hit / Activates once every 30 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 30 seconds - Quick Reload
Grants DEF Ignored 100% for 10 seconds when a skill is used every 60 seconds - Just One I
Increases Critical Rate by 100% for 10 seconds when attacking the same monster 800 times (once per skill use) / Activates once every 60 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 30 seconds - Lucky Recovery I
Grants a 1% chance when attacking to recover 10% HP / Activates once every 10 seconds - Rune-EXP I
Increases EXP by 50% for 20 seconds every time a rune is activated / Activates once every 30 seconds - Grit I
Reduces remaining cooldown of all skills by 25% every 100th hit / Activates once every 30 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 30 seconds - Fatal Strike I
Increases damage by 100% for 2 seconds when attacking, every 30 seconds - Counterattack I
Increases damage by 100% for 2 seconds on every 20th hit / Activates once every 30 seconds / Count is reset when you fail to land enough attacks within 30 seconds
Enhancing Nodes
Any Skill Node or Boost Node can be enhanced up to Level 25 in a single node. To enhance a Skill Node, you must obtain an identical node to the skill you want to enhance; for example, for Howling Gale, you must have a Howling Gale node. To enhance a Boost Node, the top skill on the trio must be identical to one that you want to use to enhance the skill (for example, if you have a node with Song of Heaven, Trifling Wind III, and Storm Bringer (in order), you can use any node that has Song of Heaven as the top skill to enhance it.)
To enhance a node, you must talk to a Node Master in certain areas of Arcane River in order to open the UI (in Vanishing Journey, you must talk to Archelle; in Chu Chu Island, you must talk to Lyon after completing the questline, and in Morass, you must talk to Hirrel; Lachelein, Arcana, and Esfera currently do not have Node NPCs). You can obtain Nodestones from any monster in the Arcane River region, as well as from other players or in special events.
Disassembling and Crafting Nodes
Nodes can be crafted based on your needs (mostly for enhancing), as well as disassembled if not needed. To disassemble a node, talk to a Node Master, and you can disassemble any nodes you do not need, and you will receive Node Shards based on the type of nodes. With these shards, you can craft a node of your choose, or a Nodestone for 35 shards. The amounts are as follows:
- Boost Node: 10 Node Shards (Disassemble) / 70 Node Shards (Craft)
- Skill Node: 40 Node Shards (D) / 140 Node Shards (C)
- Special Node: 50 Node Shards (D) / 250 Node Shards (C)
The Boost Node you craft will be based on the top skill that you are trying to upgrade. Note that the Special Node will also last 7 days.
Matrix Points
For every level you gain past 200, you will obtain 1 Matrix Point, which can be used to level a node slot of your choice by up to 5 additional levels. This will also you to level each individual node up to Level 30 (giving a total of Level 60 between 2 Boost Nodes).
