Sky Guide by Ctownwoody/Layout & Areas

Sky is a fairly simple lay-out. There are only three areas. However, two of the areas makes extensive use of teleporters, two make extensive use of switched gates, two have different parts that don't connect, and one has trigger teleporters. (Yes, that's 7 but each zone has at least two of these attributes.)
=Ru'Aun Gardens, aka "The Garden"=
This is the outside zone, the zone into which you first enter/teleport/etc. I will use it as the home point for most routes, NMs, etc. Unless you spam magic, and you shouldn't, this zone is also pretty safe to idle around in. 
==Layout==
The overall Layout is "Radial" in design, there is, essentially, one ring around the entire zone, with separate, smaller sub-rings and branches along the way. The ring is made out of several islands forming a ring shape, that are connected via a Teleportation System.
The two most common ways to refer to the zone are either as if the zone were a "Compass" (NW, ENE, etc) or as a clock (9 o'clock, 3:15, etc). 
The Garden connects to both other zones via "Inner" and "Outer" entrances. You enter Ve'Lugannon Palace, aka The Palace, via the "Outer" entrances and The Shrine of Ru'Avitau, aka "The Shrine" via the "Inner Entrances". Shrine entrances are at South, NE, NW, SE, and SW. Palace entrances are typically at the intermediary directions (ENE, SSW, etc).
==Locations==
#God Isles. At each of the four corners of the zone, there is a small island where you can pop one of the Sky Gods. All but the NW (Byakko, aka Kitty), can be accessed from the outside. These are useful reference points. 
::NE: Genbu
::NW: Byakko
::SW: Suzaku
::SE: Seiryu
#The Entrance. The Entrance is where people taking the long route, through Ro'Maeve, enter the zone and then teleport into the main area. It's at (H-11) It's a great reference spot because it is also where Escape takes you and it as close to central as the zone gets. 
#The Gauntlet. Just north from The Entrance is a long double row of Groundskeepers standing still on blue light panels. They are sight aggro and magic aggro but the center strip is safe from sight. These guys are great XP for BSTs at 75 or a good duo, but more importantly, they are the Placeholders for Despot, one of the 8 NMs that you need for pop-items for Gods.
#The Portico. Just north of The Gauntlet, at (H-9), is a long and covered area that's the entrance to The Shrine of Ru'Avitau used for a couple of Zilart Missions and is the primary exit from The Shrine of Ru'Avitau whenever you mess up on teleporters or complete a run through the zone. It is also an area large enough for two sepearate groups of people to cast magic as a group and fight Groundskeepers to pop Despot. Any other area is not safe to reliably cast magic unless you are kite-fighting Despot (more on that later).
==Teleportation System==
The teleporters operate on several different pads, but each island has several different teleporters and 2 Pincerstones. 
The Pincerstones control the Blue Teleport pads which teleport you between the main islands and are the most commonly used. After switching one, if you look closely, you can see a blue swirl of something head towards a teleport pad that's only somewhat nearby, which will stay active for a decent amount of time. 
Red Teleport pads go to and from the Ark Angel Islands, which contain Field Manuals and entrance to La'Loff Amphitheater, and are rarely used. The two on the main island (southern one) connect to the entrance island. 
There are also 4 sets of Yellow Teleport pads that connect the main islands to the "Gods' Islands". When a God is popped and active, these shut down so that outside groups can't enter and you can't escape.
=Ve'Lugannon Palace, aka "The Palace"=
The Palace is the underground dungeon area for Sky and is almost never used except for NM hunters. The enemies are nasty, tough, and don't drop anything valuable. The Magic Aggro, the lack of safe spots aside from the entrances, and the long respawn times (16 minutes) mean that there's nothing great to do there.
==Layout==
The Layout is in 4 different sections that don't connect with each other. Each section technically can connect the islands as well, but it's full of sound- and magic-aggroing mobs that almost all jobs should try to solo. The Northern section and Southern section have Cermet Gates that open and close via Pincerstones located in the zone. In some instances, you can get shut out of areas via Pincerstones that you can't get to. 
Added to this joy, is the fact that there are upper and lower floors. The upper floor is the main floor; the lower floors are small areas that are dead-ends. Some of these have ???s for a NM, some of these have Placeholders for another NM, and in one of them is the Treasure Coffer for the area and it's map (which covers The Palace and The Shrine).
==Locations==
#Zippy's Route. On the Northern section, on the upper level, a Timed NM will pop and "patrol" the route. The NM drops (100%) half of the Genbu pop-set, so it is a frequent target. Because of the long pop range and movement, plus the sight-, sound-, and magic-aggro along the route, this is one of the biggest uses of Widescan in Sky. Rangers can cover almost all the area from an entrance; Beastmasters have to go a ways in or just scan every few minutes. The camp for the NM is usually on the stairs at the entrance.
#Steam Cleaner. At East, West, ENE and WNW from Ru'Aun Gardens, you can enter, sneak up and head underground. In the small underground area, there are two Spheroids that can summon either Caretaker Dolls, or, every few hours, one can summon a NM, Steam Cleaner. Typcially, you pull the Spheroids up to the stairs, one at a time.
#BB's Area. The third NM in the area, Brigandish Blade, is popped using a Curtana that's found in the lower sections in the Southern section at a ??? every 2-3 hours, and his camp is at center of the southern section at (H-12). As you need a THF or /THF, you will typically have at least a small group and will most likely need to clear out space to pop and to kill, as the area has sound- and magic-aggroing mobs.
=The Shrine of Ru'Avitau, aka "The Shrine"=
The Shrine is a dungeon with multiple levels, connected via teleporters and having multiple Pincerstones opening/closing Cermet Gates. There are three simple principles to the navigation of the zone. 
The first principle is "entrance-specific", where you have to enter from certain entrances in order to reach certain areas. Given that The Garden is a large outside area, this takes a lot of importance because of the large amount of running needed/required between entrances. Routes are defined by the entrances you use; the zone lacks any common areas where you want to visit. When your route through the zone fails, you get dumped at one of two areas near the front entrance where your options are how to run outside.
The second principle of the area is that "magic = death" except in certain camps, because everything in the zone aggros magic, a few others aggro sound and one other aggros sight (short-range, though). 
Complicating factors is the third principle: "Wrong way = start-over". If you use the wrong entrance or take the wrong teleporter or get stuck behind the wrong Cermet Gate, you most likely have to start the entire process over from square one, which involves running around outside in The Garden to the right entrance, going back through the zone and then making the right choice. With each trip taking 10-15-20-25 minutes, that's a long time if you mess up the first time, someone else messes up the second time, etc.
==Locations==
These will be handled via Routes. All Routes and NMs in this zone have camps associated with them based on what you are doing along the route.