V Matrix

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 not allow you to start it unless you complete the Temple of Time quests related to Memory Lane, Road of Regrets, Road to Oblivion, and the Amnesiac Temple Keeper. Once you complete these quests, 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. He will make sure you have a minimum of 100 Star Force, as well as 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 tell you that you need to fill up each stone with 500,000,000 (500 million) EXP in order to complete the stone. You can only fill up one stone at a time. Once you have completed each stone, the Memory Keeper will grant you the 5th Job Advancement, a Skill Nodestone that gives a special skill for your class, as well as 3 Goddess EXP Potions and 5 regular Nodestones as of the Beyond update. These potions will give you 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...

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 6 levels (5 levels as of the Beyond update), and each slot will be taken up by one of the following types of Nodes:

Skill Node: Grants a special skill either based on your class, one obtainable by all classes, 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). 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 a 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):

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 do so, you must talk to a node master in certain areas of Arcane River (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.

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).