XF 2.0 Do Nginx Rewrites Require Friendly URL Option?

[Sabius]

I'm trying to do rewrites for old SMF urls on Nginx. Do I have to enable the friendly urls option in XF for these to work? If so, why? It seems to me rewrites would be prior to the scope of XF and should just work with the default config. I tried a few and they were not working, so I'm not 100% sure if it's my regex/Nginx config or if I need to enable the friendly urls option first.

 

[Sabius]

I can't figure this out. If anybody out there wants to make a few quick bucks and is good at Nginx rewrites please private message me.