The Weapon’s Refrain (Ultimate)

The Weapon’s Refrain (Ultimate)

The Weapon’s Refrain (Ultimate), also called Ultima Weapon (Ultimate), is a high-end duty added in patch 4.31: Under the Moonlight. The fight can be unlocked by speaking to the Wandering Minstrel in Kugane ( 11.6, 12.6 ) after completing Sigmascape V4.0 (Savage).

The minimum ilvl to enter this fight is i370, but can be bypassed with a full party.

A few disclaimers:

  • This fight’s design was seemingly made to be done blind. If possible, I’d recommend foregoing reading any guide and progressing through this fight blindly, coming up with your own strategies (although I know it’s difficult in the internet era). Feel free to send me a message if you find something you think might be better than explained below!
  • The arena is constantly surrounded by a wall that will kill you if you step inside it.
  • Both a caster DPS (BLM, RDM, SMN) and a melee DPS (DRG, NIN, MNK, SAM) are REQUIRED in order to finish the fight. Plan accordingly.
  • There are multple mechanics earlier in the fight that will affect how you proceed with the encounter later on (i.e. Thermal Low stacks on certain players needed for later phases, Ultimate Annihilation orbs affecting Aetheric Boom, etc). Therfore, it’s important for some strategies to plan assigned players ahead in advance, so I’d recommend reading through the whole guide before deciding on a strategy for your team.
  • The outlined strategies are not claimed to be the only way to do this fight. They are simply what seemed to work best during progression, and different strategies will work better with other groups.

Three Primals

Woken

Whenever certain mechanics are performed in specific ways (depending on the boss), the three primals will gain stacks of “Aetherically Charged,” which can be seen on their buff bar. Once they reach their fourth stack, they will gain the “Woken” status, glow with a blue aura, gain new abilities, and change how other abilities function. When a primal is defeated with the “Woken” status, they will drop behind a pillar of light on the arena. When a player steps inside this pillar, it will disappear and they will obtain the status “Beyond Limits.” This buff completely fills your Limit Break gauge when a Level 3 Limit Break is used by that person. This is required to progress past the three primals, so keep that in mind.

Phase 1: Garuda

Garuda’s Abilities

Begin by pulling Garuda to the edge of the arena. Shortly after, she will immediately begin with a Slipstream and mark a random healer for Mistral Song. Make sure to have a tank in between Garuda and the healer as shown below.

Mistral Song 1 You can also forego all healer movement and just have the tank stack in front of the party, with the marked player in the party stack, but this will result in significantly more damage on the raid. You also have the option of simply using Cover on the healer, if you have a Paladin in your party.

Garuda will follow up with a second Slipstream, followed by a Downburst, and spawn 4 Satin Plumes, tethering to random DPS; and 1 Spiny Plume, which will tether to the first person to attack it. If left alone, Satin Plumes will explode, inflicting all players with a sleep, meaning they must be killed as soon as possible. Make sure to group up and AoE them down. Have your tank pick up the Spiny Plume as soon as possible. The Spiny Plume, on the other hand, will periodically cast Cyclone on the tank, dealing significant magic damage and inflicting a stack of Thermal Low.

Before killing this Spiny Plume, it is very important that your tank takes two hits of Cyclone in order to gain two stacks of Thermal Low. While you’re fighting plumes, Garuda will use Feather Rain. Make sure you listen for her scream, which will indicate when you’ll have to move to avoid it. She’ll immediately follow up with a Mistral Shriek.

Note: Thermal Low persists through death, so don’t worry about having people with the buff dying if you can rez them in time.

Super Cyclone

Spiny Plume Dome Bubble left behind by Spiny Plume shown above.

When the Spiny Plume is defeated, it will use Gigastorm, exploding for a small AoE circle around it, and leaving behind a large green bubble. Stepping inside this bubble will give players Thermal High (heavily reducing all wind damage), dispel any Thermal Low stacks, and deal magic damage to the raid corresponding to the number of stacks in the form of Super Cyclone (1 stack will deal small magic damage, 2 stacks will deal significantly more magic damage, and 3 stacks will deal lethal magic damage that will wipe the raid). It’s important to note that whenever a player dispels 2 stacks of Thermal Low, Garuda will gain a stack of Aetherically Charged.

Garuda will then follow up with two Frictions, targetting random players, and splashing everyone hit for damage and inflicting stacks of Thermal Low.

Here’s a step-by-step guide of how I’d recommend dealing with Thermal Low Stacks:

If done correctly, you will have 5 players with 1 stack of Thermal Low, and 1 player with 2 stacks of Thermal Low.

Note: It is possible to wake up Garuda before Mesohigh tethers, during the Spiny Plume bubble, by having the third person with 2 stacks of Thermal Low walking into the bubble. However, I wouldn’t recommend this, as it both makes an already difficult healing phase even harder, and introduces extra mechanics which don’t have to be seen in order to clear the fight.

Garuda will follow up with an Eye of the Storm, and summon Chirada and Suparna (aka Sisters), untargettable adds that have similar skills to Garuda. After being summoned, they will immediately use Feather Rain (remember to listen for the scream!) and mark a DPS and healer with Mistral Song, jumping to the edges of the arena. Sisters will always jump to two of the four cardinal points of the arena. Drag Garuda to the wall as you dodge Feather Rain so you don’t have to worry about Wicked Wheel, which she will cast next. Have your party stack directly in the middle, with tanks in front of each sister (but not at the edge, as Eye of the Storm will be active) to intercept the first hit of Mistral Song. I’d recommend having one tank take the first sister going clockwise starting from northwest, and the other tank taking the first sister going counter-clockwise starting from northwest. Remember tornadoes will spawn under the first hit players, so you may have to reposition the party to avoid them.

Sisters Only two sisters will appear. This diagram shows all 4 possible locations for sisters to spawn. Purple indicates Eye of the Storm, which is an unsafe area.

After tornadoes resolve, drag Garuda back to the middle, as she will use another Eye of the Storm. She will then summon another set of 4 Satin Plumes, so burn them quickly as you did in the start of the fight. At the same time, the two sisters will appear in the east and the west sides of the arena and tether random players with Mesohigh, dealing heavy magic damage that must be mitigated with at least 1 Thermal Low stack. I’d recommend having your last DPS with 2 stacks and a DPS with 1 stack (preferably ranged), while the party stacks together defeating Satin plumes, and the tanks take a Downburst together. You can have the entire party stack together for Downburst if you wish. If you’ve been following the outlined strategy, and your last 2 stack Thermal Low player takes a tether, these tethers will give Garuda her final Aetherically Charged stack, making her “Woken.”

Mesohigh Yellow dots indicate the players who will be taking the tethers. Alternatively, if you want your tanks to take these tethers, you can rotate the diagram and have Garuda face east or west, with the other tank taking the other tether.

As soon as Mesohigh tethers resolve, the sisters will shriek and jump once more, using Feather Rain, followed by Garuda using another Slipstream. Garuda will then follow up with a Wicked Wheel into Wicked Tornado combo, as she is woken. Make sure to avoid the wheel first, and then move into melee range as soon as the marker disappears, as Wicked Tornado has no cast time. She will follow up with a woken Downburst, which must be taken by at least both tanks as a split tankbuster. She will then use a final Slipstream, before enraging.

At 2:55, Garuda will become untargettable, jump in the air, and use a Feather Rain followed by a lethal Aerial Blast, serving as an enrage.

If this phase was done as described, you should be defeating Garuda with 4 players having 1 stack of Thermal Low (your tanks and healers), of which 3 you will need in later phases of the Ultima Weapon. After defeating Garuda when she is Woken, a light puddle will appear where she is defeated. Make sure either a healer, caster, or melee picks up this puddle.

There is an alternative strategy, in which a tank and healer does Mesohigh tethers. This does have merit, as it makes sure all feathers are stacked together during Mesohigh, and allows the tank to keep uptime during Ultimate Annihalation in a later phase. I’m sadly not 100% informed on this strategy, so I don’t fully understand how you’d deal with later phases, but it does work. I’ll hopefully have a full write-up on this strategy later, as it’s strongly advocated by multiple players.

Rotation

  • Slipstream
  • Mistral Song
  • Satin Plume x4 + Spiny Plume Spawn
  • Slipstream
  • Downburst
  • Feather Rain
  • Mistral Shriek
  • Friction
  • Friction
  • Feather Rain
  • Aerial Blast
  • Sisters Spawn
  • Feather Rain (Sisters)
  • Eye of the Storm + Mistral Song x2
  • Wicked Wheel
  • Feather Rain
  • Satin Plume x4 Spawn
  • Eye of the Storm
  • Slipstream
  • Mesohigh x2 + Downburst
  • Feather Rain
  • Slipstream
  • Wicked Wheel + Wicked Tornado
  • Downburst
  • Slipstream
  • Feather Rain
  • Aerial Blast (Enrage)

Phase 2: Ifrit

Ifrit’s Abilities:

In order to consistently shield Vulcan Burst, make sure to pair up an AoE shielding ability (Aspected Helios/Succor) with at least 1 healing cooldown.

After Garuda is defeated, Ifrit will appear at random cardinal, and begin charging across the arena via Crimson Cyclone. At the same time, the entirety of the arena will be covered in Radiant Plumes, leaving only 1 of 2 possible safe spots at the perpendicular cardinals of the arena, as shown in the following diagram. Stack in the middle of the arena, look for the safe spot as soon as the plumes appear, and sprint to it. It is possible to time your dodge so you slide in to safe spots covered by Ifrit’s Crimson Cyclone, but it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

Ifrit Transition Updated Only one of the two marked spots in the diagram will be safe. Make sure where you’re running is safe before you sprint there, as if you double back you’ll likely die to Radiant Plumes.

Ifrit will then land and begin casting Hellfire following up immediately with a Vulcan Burst. Make sure this is shielded to avoid being knocked into the wall. Ifrit does not share an enmity table with Garuda, so your tanks need to grab enmity as soon as possible. Ifrit will then follow up with three Incinerates, which can either all be taken by a single tank with invulnerability CDs, or a tank swap in between each cleave (i.e. tank A gets hit by 1 cleave, tank B provokes and gets hit by the second, and tank A provokes back and gets hit by the third). After a short pause, Ifrit will then summon four nails.

Infernal Nails

Infernal Nails Keep in mind nails will not always be in this exact position, so you may have to rotate in order to make your position match this diagram.

While the positions of Infernal Nails is random, they will always spawn in the same formation of two close nails, and two far nails, as shown in the following diagram. When an Infernal Nail is destroyed, it will explode for raid wide damage in the form of Infernal Surge, dealing moderate magic damage and inflicting a 1s stacking Vulnerability Up, preventing players from destroying multiple at the same time. When an Eruption puddle hits a nail, the nail will grow in size, gaining a stacking Vulnerability Down (~10% damage down per stack) and Damage Up buff. When a nail with 2 of these stacking buffs explode, not only will the Infernal Surge result in doing more damage, but Ifrit will also gain a stack of Aetherically Charged. In order to give Ifrit the Woken status, all four nails must be destroyed when they have been hit with 2 Eruptions, thus having 2 stacks of Damage up and Vulnerability Down. The order that Infernal Nails are destroyed will determine the order of Ifrit’s Crimson Cyclone charges in a later phase (i.e. the first Crimson Cyclone comes from the same location as the first nail that was killed).

Drag Ifrit in-between the closer nails as shown in the diagram. Very shortly after summoning nails, Ifrit will target a random healer with Infernal Howl. Have this healer run to the back of the room, as close to the wall opposite Ifrit as possible. Ifrit will then use Infernal Tethers, tethering the off-tank and a random DPS together, and begin casting Eruptions on the two furthest players from Ifrit. Make sure that at least two Eruptions hit every nail, in order to successfully wake Ifrit. Bait Eruptions like shown below:

Ifrit Eruptions for Nails Not 100% to scale, but make sure that your first two eruptions hit the first nail on your side, and the last two eruptions hit the second nail on your side. Also on this diagram is the recommended kill order for nails.

Kill the nails in the order shown above in order for Crimson Cyclones to dive in line, easy to dodge by moving counter-clockwise in a later phase. Make sure you remember the location of the last nail you killed, as this will be where you begin the second set of Crimson Cyclones. I’d recommend putting a waymark down to make it easy to remember.

When all nails are defeated, Ifrit will jump to the center of the arena and use another Hellfire, following up shortly by using Infernal Howl on a random healer, and immediately following up with Eruption. As this Infernal Howl is woken, the Searing Wind debuff will have a longer duration, so be wary. After Eruptions resolve, Ifrit clones will dash along the arena through the cardinals. In order to deal with this, have your current tank pull Ifrit toward the SW edge of the arena as soon as Hellfire resolves. Have two pre-assigned (preferably ranged) players stand near the back of the arena, ready to bait Eruptions along the wall toward the SW edge of the arena. The goal is for these players to end in the same place as the party, already in a safe spot to dodge eruptions. Your healer with Searing Wind should move toward the NE edge of the arena as soon as possible. This movement should look something like shown below:

Ifrit Charges 1-1 Your Eruptions should be baited at a cardinal ~135 degrees away from the stack point. Bait all 4 Eruptions along the wall before stacking. At the same time, make sure your Searing Wind Healer moves into position.

Ifrit Charges 2-1 Have your Eruption baits stack with the rest of the party, and you’re done! Ifrit doesn’t cleave here, so don’t worry about standing in front of him.

As soon as this movement is over, Ifrit will use Infernal Howl once more on the other healer. For a short while, you will have two Searing Winds in the arena, so be wary. I’d recommend having this healer move to one of the two free intercardinals. While both Searing Winds are out, Ifrit will mark a random DPS with Flaming Crush. Make sure everyone (aside from the healers) is stacked for this fireball. A targeted Deployment Tactics Adloquium or Cure III works wonders. One of your Searing Winds should wear off here.

Immediately after, Ifrit will jump, and spawn 3 other clones of himself along the arena, in a formation identical to the nails in earlier phases. One of these charges will be a Woken Ifrit, which means it will leave behind an afterburn ~3s after he charges. If the woken Ifrit charges from cardinal to cardinal, the afterburn will be on the intercardinals. If the woken Ifrit charges from intercardinal to intercardinal, the afterburn will be on the cardinals. The goal is essentially to dodge charges in a way where you end up in either a cardinal, or intercardinal point depending on where the woken Ifrit is.

Start at the position of the fourth Crimson Cyclone (except for your Searing Wind healer, who should be opposite this location. If the nails were killed in the knot order shown previously, the charges will essentially be dodged if you just run into where charges resolve, in a clockwise direction. Simply just dodge clockwise, away from the fourth dive (and into the location of the first dive), and continue dodging until you reach a cardinal/intercardinal, depending on the location of the woken Ifrit charge. Your Searing Wind healer will be doing the same dodge, albeit from the opposite location of Ifrit.

Ifrit Charges 2-1 Safe spots are interchangable. The Woken ifrit appears at a random position, so be wary of it. This diagram is based on an intercardinal woken Ifrit.

Ifrit Charges 2-2 Start dodging into the charges, moving clockwise. Stop on a cardinal or intercardinal depending on the woken Ifrit.

Ifrit Charges 2-3 Have your Eruption baits stack with the rest of the party, and you’re done! Ifrit doesn’t cleave here, so don’t worry about standing in front of him.

Ifrit Charges 2-4 Final afterburn & position if the woken Ifrit was on an intercardinal.

Ifrit Charges 2-5 Final afterburn & position if the woken Ifrit was on a cardinal.

Ifrit will then land in the middle of the arena, and shortly follow up with another 3 Incinerates. Deal with these the same way as earlier in the phase, Ifrit will then use another Eruption, targeting the furthest two people. Ifrit will then use another Flaming Crush (all 8 players can stack for this one), enraging shortly after.

At 2:45 after the phase begins, Ifrit will become untargetable and use a lethal Hellfire, serving as an enrage.

After defeating Ifrit when he is Woken, a light puddle will appear where he is defeated. Make sure either a healer, caster, or melee picks up this puddle. Make sure to wait before picking up this puddle though, as Titan will land on the ground with Geocrush very shortly after Ifrit is defeated, likely killing anyone that’s not right at the wall.

Rotation

  • Crimson Cyclone + Radiant Plumes
  • Hellfire
  • Vulcan Blast
  • Incinerate x3
  • Infernal Nail x4 Spawn
  • Inferno Howl
  • Eruption x2
  • Hellfire
  • Inferno Howl
  • Eruption x2
  • Crimson Cyclone (Cardinals)
  • Inferno Howl
  • Flaming Crush
  • Crimson Cyclone x4 (Woken)
  • Incinerate x3
  • Eruption x2
  • Flaming Crush
  • Hellfire (Enrage)

Phase 3: Titan

Titan’s Abilities:

Landslides This is a very rough diagram. Brown landslides are the first hit, while red ones are the second hit. Second Landslides are basically hitting in-between the first, and as long as you walk into where the first landslide was, you’ll avoid the second.

Very shortly after Ifrit is defeated, Titan will land on the ground with a Geocrush in the middle of the arena. Make sure players are right at the wall to avoid lethal damage (and I mean right at the wall, even a step closer to the middle of the arena will result in lethal damage.) Make sure to pick up the light puddle after Geocrush resolves. Titan will then follow up with an Earthen Fury, so make sure all players are topped and shielded. Titan does not share an enmity table with Ifrit, so your tanks need to grab enmity as soon as possible. Titan will follow up with a Rock Buster into Mountain Buster combo, dealing heavy damage to his target, and follow up with a Weight of the Land. As soon as the second Weight of the Land is resolved, Titan will rotate to face a random cardinal direction, and jump toward it, dealing proximity damage in the form of Geocrush. This also makes the arena smaller by extending the death wall, so be wary. Have your party run opposite the direction Titan was facing (i.e. if Titan was facing north, move south) and prepare for Geocrush damage.

Upheaval

As soon as Titan lands, he will begin channeling Upheaval, as well as use Rock Throw, summoning 5 rocks in 1 of two configurations, shown below:

Titan Upheaval Safe Spots You’ll have some leeway (but very little), so make sure you get knocked back into the safe spot.

Upheaval Positioning Look at the feet to get a better feel for the spot. You’ll be moving either left or right of the arrow depending on the safe spot, so be wary!

When these rocks land, all players under them will be killed by Bury, dealing lethal damage. Rocks will also begin casting a small circle AoE around them, Burst, dealing lethal damage to all players being caught in the blast. In order to be knocked back into the rock safe spot from Upheaval, you’ll have to stand inside Titan’s hitbox, a step to the right or left from the arrow, roughly shown in this picture:

Shortly afterwards, a second rock will land on the previously safe spot, and Titan will mark 3 players with Granite Gaols.

Granite Gaols

Titan will then use Granite Gaol on three random players, and begin channeling two Landslides in a row. Your goal is to have all three of these players position themselves in a line, having the player furthest from titan free themselves from their Gaol via the remaining rock throw rock’s Burst. The Granite Gaols will then explode each other, similar to a daisy chain, leaving the last puddle underneath Titan, as shown below. Gaol’d players will have to dodge the first Landslide, but are safe to position themselves on the second Landslide without being hit. In order to make positioning easier, I’d recommend baiting the first Landslide through the middle of the arena.

Titan Gaols Your first Gaol should be placed right outside the remaining rock’s burst, your second rock should be placed on the left or right of the center of the arena, and your third rock should be placed roughly on the midpoint between Titan and the second rock.

One of the hardest parts of executing this fight is quickly determining which players should go where in the short timespan you get. There are many strategies your team can adopt to make this easier, though. Strategies include calling "front, middle, back" on the fly, having pre-assigned priorities, having a third party tool call out positions for you, etc. Discuss with your team which strategy you'd like to employ.

A tip if you’re using ACT though, you can guarantee the location of one of the Gaols via the use of ACT triggers, as there’s two separate entities (Titan and Garuda, for some reason) using Gaols. Titan will only use one Gaol, while Garuda uses two. I’d recommend placing the Titan Gaol closest to the burst rock, but any location can be guaranteed. It’s definitely easier to coordinate two people than three, so I highly recommend this.

<Trigger R=“Garuda:[^:]:Rock Throw:[^:]:YOUR NAME” SD=“Call” ST=“3” CR=“F” C=" General" T=“F” TN="" Ta=“F” />

<Trigger R=“Titan:[^:]:Rock Throw:[^:]:YOUR NAME” SD=“Far” ST=“3” CR=“F” C=" General" T=“F” TN="" Ta=“F” />

Simply replace YOUR NAME with your character name, and these triggers should work.

Titan will then follow up with a set of 8 Tumults, so make sure everyone is stacked together near Titan for healing. Titan will then use another Weight of the Land, so dodge accordingly. If Gaols were done correctly, Titan should gain the Woken status at this point, and begin using his first woken Landslide. Make sure to dodge out of the first hit, and then move back in before the second. Once more, Titan will face a cardinal once more, and jump toward it, dealing damage in the form of Geocrush, and making the arena smaller. Have your party run opposite where he jumped, similar to how it was done earlier.

It’s worth considering to drag Titan to the middle before he jumps, in order to more easily see what location he faces before he jumps. If you keep tanking him at the wall, it may be easy to mistake which direction he’s facing.

After landing, Titan will once again use Granite Gaol on a random healer, which must be destroyed immediately. Titan will then shortly follow up with a Landslide, into a set of 6 Tumults. Dodge and heal as necessary. After the 6th Tumult, Titan will use another Rock Buster into Mountain Buster combo, as well as summon 4 more rocks to drop in the center of the arena, working identically as before. They drop one by one in a clockwise formation, so make sure to avoid the middle. While this is going on, Titan will also use a triple Weight of the Land, followed by another woken Landslide. Keep in mind that throughout this dodge, the middle is not safe, so you’ll have to dodge along the edges.

If you want to make this dodge braindead, it’s possible to do a mariokart-esque strategy for this dodge. Have everyone stack for the first Weight of the Land, move right outside it, still stacked, to bait the second Weight of the Land, then make a mad dash around the arena, stopping right before the Landslide marker, and then moving into it. You’ll lose a lot of uptime, but Titan’s DPS check is fairly lenient so it should not matter that much.

Titan will follow up with another Rock Buster into Mountain Buster, and then follow up with another set of Weight of the Lands. He will then Tumult 8 times. At ~2:45 after the phase begins, Titan will become untargetable and use a lethal Earthen Fury, serving as an enrage.

After defeating Titan when he is Woken, a light puddle will appear where he is defeated. Make sure either a healer, caster, or melee picks up this puddle. At this point, your caster, healer, and melee should all have a Breaking Limits buff, to prepare for the next phase.

Rotation

  • Geocrush
  • Earthen Fury
  • Rock Buster
  • Mountain Buster
  • Weight of the Land
  • Geocrush
  • Upheaval + Rock Throw
  • Granite Gaol x3
  • Landslide
  • Landslide
  • Tumult x8
  • Weight of the Land
  • Landslide
  • Geocrush
  • Granite Gaol (Healer)
  • Landslide
  • Tumult x6
  • Rock Buster
  • Mountain Buster
  • Rock Throw x4 (Middle) + Weight of the Land
  • Landslide
  • Rock Buster
  • Mountain Buster
  • Weight of the Land
  • Tumult x8
  • Earthen Fury (Enrage)

The Ultima Weapon

Phase 4: Lahabrea

This phase will consist of the party having to use 4 Level 3 Limit Breaks in a row, thanks to the Beyond Limits buff that drops at the end of each primal. The phase begins with four large pillars dropping on the cardinals of the arena, dealing proximity-based magic damage in the form of Freefire. Make sure players stacked in the middle of the arena and shielded appropriately. 6 Magitek Bits will then spawn across the arena, each beginning to cast a 12s Self-Destruct. These must be destroyed instantly with a level 3 caster Limit Break. Keep in mind damage variance may result in caster LB not completely destroying some Magitek Bits, so have players hitting them all individually while your caster limit breaks.

Soon after the Magitek Bits are destroyed, Lahabrea will appear and cast Blight, dealing damage equal to all player’s maximum HP minus 1, and inflicting both an 8s doom, and a 4s Down for the Count debuff. This doom must be dispelled via a level 3 healer Limit Break. Lahabrea will then become targettable, and begin casting Dark IV, a 17s cast dealing 999,999 damage. As Lahabrea takes significantly less damage, the only viable way to kill him before Dark IV finishes casting is via a level 3 melee Limit Break. After Lahabrea is defeated, the Ultima Weapon will appear and begin casting Ultima, a raidbuster dealing massive magic-based damage that must be mitigated via shields and a level 3 Tank Limit Break. Essentially, you will have to Caster LB, then Healer LB, then Melee LB, and finally a Tank LB.

Note: Apart from the caster LB, which should be used as soon as Freefire damage appears on the screen, all other LBs can be used as soon as they become available, which means your healer, melee, and tank can spam the LB button when it is their turn and they will correctly time their Limit Breaks.

Phase 5: The Ultima Weapon

The Ultima Weapon absorbs all abilities from previous primals, as well as gains the following:

The Ultima Weapon’s Abilities:

This phase consists of alternating between Intermissions, and Active Phases, somewhat similar to Bahamut Prime in the Unending Coil of Bahamut (Ultimate).

After Ultima, the Ultima Weapon will devour all of the primals in a fairly lengthy in-fight cutscene, and proceed to use Tank Purge, followed closely by Homing Lasers, before casting Ultimate Predation.

Intermission I: Ultimate Predation

Runes Simply count 4 from the edge and you’re in a safe spot!

While this mechanic seems daunting at first, it is actually very simple. There are these little runes around the arena that completely trivialize the mechanic. Find Garuda and Ifrit, and make sure you’re positioned opposite Garuda’s quadrant (i.e. if she spawns Northwest of the center, go to either the East, Southeast, or South edge of the arena), and make sure you’re dodging Ifrit’s Crimson Cyclone. The spot you’re dodging to cannot have either Titan or Ultima near it. After the Crimson Cyclone resolves, count 4 runes from either side, and stand on that spot. This should be a safe spot from everything that goes on in the second half of this intermission. You might have to dodge a landslide during the first half, but simply dodge into the rune and you’re golden. Below is an example of a theoretical “worst-case scenario” and how to deal with it.

Predation WC 1 Begin by locating the primals. First, find the spot opposite Garuda that is safe. As Titan covers up East, and Ifrit covers Southeast, have your party run south. Be careful of the landslide, you might have to dash a little into Ultima’s quadrant.

Predation WC 2 After the first landslide/Crimson Cyclone resolves, move as fast as you can into the 4th rune away from Ultima. Stay there as everything else resolves, and you should avoid all damage.

You can actually live though Ifrit’s afterburns if you put in enough mitigation. If you decide to do this, all you’ll have to do is worry about positioning yourself opposite Garuda, avoiding Ifrit’s first dash. Simply stand in the second Crimson Cyclone, and you should survive with Deploy/Shake/etc.

Make sure stay together to bait the upcoming Feather Rain, and move toward the middle on the shriek. Ultima will teleport back to the middle of the arena, beginning the first Active Phase.

Active Phase I

Ultima will teleport to the middle of the arena, Spawning the three primals out do to a variety of abilities. In order:

While this seems like a lot, many of these mechanics are fairly simple to avoid by pulling the boss near south, baiting Titan away from the party. Below is a diagram that shows my recommended strategy. You’re essentially sitting in the south of the arena, and most mechanics should resolve themselves.

Active Phase 1-1 Ifrit will be north, so have two players bait by moving south.

Active Phase 1-2 When Radiant Plumes appear, make sure your party is tightly stacked south, right on the edge of the plume, and move into the explosion.

Active Phase 1-3 That movement done previously should have you avoid any rocks that land in the middle of the arena.

Active Pahse 1-4 If you’re south, stacking together, you should be able to bait the landslides in a way that makes them trivial to dodge. Simply move into the first landslide hit after dodging it.

Active Phase 1-5 Afterwards, have your current tank separate to take the Viscous Aetheroplasm alone, and stay separated to take Homing Missle safely, without splashing damage on the rest of the party. It’s not a bad idea to have a tank use an invulnerability here, and have them take all of the tank damage.

Note: You can also do this phase by dragging the boss slightly north, instead. Everything should play about fairly similarly, except you still need to have your Eruption baiters move south.

Alternatively, you can have the final Aetheroplasm stack with the party to split the damage, and have the OT take the homing missile alone. Just be wary that the Viscous Aetheroplasm application is a cleave, so be wary. After all of this is over, Ultima will begin casting Ultimate Annihilation.

Intermission II: Ultimate Annihilation

While labeled as an intermission, Ultimate Annihilation is different in the fact that you can still target and hit the Ultima Weapon throughout this phase. The phase goes as follows:

What’s critical of Ultimate Annihilation is the Aetheroplasm orbs that spawn throughout the phase. When a player is inside the orb’s AoE, they will take minor damage and be tethered to Ultima, increasing his Ultima Aether gauge by 1 per player. The more people that take an Aetheroplam orb, the greater the tether between two orbs will be during the Aetheric Boom phase, which means the more time you’ll have to take said orbs in the Aetheric Boom phase. Each orb that spawns corresponds to an orb in the Aetheric Boom phase, with the first orb being northwest, and continuing on clockwise. More info can be found in the Aetheric Boom portion of this guide.

The most optimal way to prepare for these orbs during Ultimate Annihilation is to have 3 players soak the first and second orb, and 1 player (preferably a tank) soak the last two (a 3-3-1-1 orb setup, if you will). This will give you enough time to be knocked back into the first set of orbs, heal up to full, and take the second set. If you’re confident in your damage and want to have some extra breathing room, consider a 6-3-1-1 strategy for some extra time in taking a final orb, but this should not be necessary. A recommended strategy can be seen below.

Annihilation 1-1 Begin by baiting the first Weight of the Land at melee range, near the southwest of Ultima’s hitbox. Move toward the southeast to dodge.

Annihilation 1-2 The second Weight of the Land should appear at the southeast of Ultima’s hitbox, and a Mesohigh tether will tether to a random person. Have a pre-assigned player (preferably a tank) move out of the stack to take the tether out, while the rest of the party dodges back to the southwest. Flaming Crush should resolve here.

Annihilation 1-3 Have all of your players in charge of taking Aetheroplasms dodge right, while the rest of the party dodges left. The number of people dodging right depends on your Aetheric Boom strategy.

Annihilation 1-4 Your orb group should take the second orb here. Everyone except for the Searing Wind healer should then move behind Ultima, while your Searing Wind healer moves toward the south, to avoid Ifrit charges and Landslides. Make sure to bait the Feather Rain before you move.

Annihilation 1-5 Have players move into the Ifrit charge, in the location of the Titan Landslide, in order to dodge the second hits. Your searing wind healer should do a similar movement. There is merit in dodging toward the northwest, regardless of Titan’s position, so if you’re having trouble with the Aetheroplasm hitting unwanted players, I’d recommend trying it out.

Annihilation 1-6 Have players move into the Ifrit charge, in the location of the Titan Landslide, in order to dodge the second hits. Your searing wind healer should do a similar movement. There is merit in dodging toward the northwest, regardless of Titan’s position, so if you’re having trouble with the Aetheroplasm hitting unwanted players, I’d recommend trying it out.

Annihilation 1-7 Your searing wind healer should take the Mesohigh tether while everyone else dodges the Eye of the Storm.

Annihilation 1-8 Have a single player take the last two Aetheroplasms while the rest of the party dodges. There is a Feather Rain here, so take note of it, and don’t accidentally dodge into the Aetheroplasm.

Note: You can instead have a ranged DPS take the first tether, in order for your tanks to keep uptime on the boss. Just make sure the ranged DPS stacks for fireball before moving out, as them being marked could make this wonky.

You’re essentially baiting the Weights of the Land near Ultima’s hitbox, in order to mantain uptime. Make sure you stay stacked, as a Flaming Crush marker will appear over a player. Have a pre-assigned player (I’d recommend a tank) move out of the stack after the second Weight of the Land to take the Mesohigh tether. Have your Searing Wind healer move south to prepare to take the second Mesohigh tether, dodge Feather Rains as they appear, dodge Ifrit charges/afterburns and Titan landslides, and the phase will finish with Ultima using a Tank Purge.

After the final Tank Purge, Ultima will teleport to the middle of the arena. Searing Wind will still be active for a while after the phase is over, so be wary.

Active Phase II

When the phase begins, Searing Wind will still be active on a healer. Position your party as shown below to more easily transition into this phase.

Active Phase 2 You may want to drag Ultima closer to north, into the Eye of the Storm, just in case Vulcan Burst isn’t shielded properly.

The key part of this active phase is shielding Vulcan Bursts that will come out periodically. Make sure your tank who’s ready to take Homing Lasers is second in threat, as it will come by shortly. Afterwards, Ultima will use an Eye of the Storm into Radiant Plume combo. Stand near the edge of the Eye of the Storm, and move into it as soon as it’s resolved, dodging the Radiant Plumes. I’d recommend taking this opportunity to drag Ultima into the Eye of the Cyclone, just in case the upcoming Vulcan Burst isn’t shielded properly. Ultima will cleave in the form of Diffractive Laser. Prepare for the upcoming Vulcan Burst by shielding now. Ultima will follow up with a Vulcan Burst into Eye of the Storm. If shields are not timed properly, your tank may have to use a knockback-cancelling ability like Tempered Will here. Ultima will then follow up with a Homing Laser, followed once more by a Vulcan Burst into Eye of the Storm. Shielding here is fairly simple, outside of the tank taking Homing Lasers, which is fairly tight.

When Ultima reaches 49.9%, it will begin casting Ultimate Suppression. This can be pushed early, so be wary.

You should make it your goal to attempt to push Ultima as soon as he begins casting Homing Lasers. This will leave him animation-locked, and will allow you to push some extra damage before the burn after Ultimate Suppression.

Intermission III: Ultimate Suppression

Ultimate Suppression is arguably the greatest wall of the fight, with mechanics seemingly rapid-firing. The phase is fairly simple to digest, however, once it’s separated into its main components. The main thing to note is that each player (aside from tanks) will be marked with at least 1 mechanic, which means your goal is to find out who’s marked for what as soon as possible in order to figure out what player will be targetted by Light Pillar which will chase a party member around with a series of pillars of light dealing magic damage to all players under it when it falls.

Begin by starting loosely-spread near Garuda, in order to figure out who is the Eruption target. You should have pre-assigned positions here. Bait the second Eruption moving toward the middle, and have players marked with Mistral Song move behind the tanks. It’s possible to have a single tank take both initial hits of the Mistral Song, by popping some cooldowns if you have any to spare. The rest of the party should continue moving forward, preferably baiting the third eruption forward the sisters, as shown in the diagram below. A random player will be marked for Gaol, which means at this point you’ll know who will be targetted by the Light Pillar. The gaoled player can safely stand inside the fourth eruption and not die, as they will be fettered before the damage resolves. Dodge out of AoEs, avoid Feather Rain, and break the Granite Gaol as soon as possible. Keep in mind you’ll be dodging two Feather Rains in quick succession. Make sure players not in the party stack don’t accidentally Feather Rain the party stack.

Suppression 1 Have your party loosely spread in front of Garuda, and your tanks standing in front of Titan. (Tanks can also go on Ultima’s side if you want, but you might have issues with lasers.)

Suppression 2 3 random non-tanks will be marked with eruptions. Everyone should move toward the middle.

Suppression 3 Two people will get marked with Mistral Song as you bait the second eruption. These players should move behind the tanks near titan, so they can intercept Mistral Song. The rest of the party continues moving forward.

Suppression 4 At this point, one player will be marked with Granite Gaol. At this point, there is one player who has not been selected for any mechanics. This person will be baiting the light pillar shortly.

Suppression 5 Move out of the 4th Eruption/Tornado, avoid Garuda’s fan AoE, and get ready to Bait Feather Rain.

Suppression 6 Make sure the Light Pillar bait moves along the wall (but not too close to avoid Featherlances) toward Garuda, hitting the Granite Gaol if possible. Everyone else should be attacking the Gaol and dodging Feather Rain.

After all of this is completed, have your whole party stacked in one position, as shown below, to bait Landslide. A random player will be marked with Flaming Crush, and another player will be tethered by Mesohigh. Move together as a group to avoid Landslide (out and back in), with a pre-assigned player (preferably a tank) separating and taking the Mesohigh tether. Dodge a final feather rain and get ready for a Tank Purge, so have everyone stacked and shielded. After this phase is over, Ultima will teleport back to the middle.

Suppression 2-1 You don’t have to be stacked in this exact position. Be wary that Ultima Lasers are going out throughout all of this, so you might have to adjust your position.

Suppression 2-2 Have a pre-assigned (preferably a tank) player move out of the stack, while the rest of the party dodges back into the landslide after it goes off. The player taking the Mesohigh tether should attempt to dodge into a further Landslide.

Suppression 2-3 Heal up, dodge a Feather Rain, and prepare for Tank Purge and this phase is finished!

Aetheric Boom

Starting from here, all damage is vital to give you extra time for the enrage, so push as much damage as you can. Ultima will begin casting Ultima. This, once again, must be mitigated with heavy shielding and a Level 3 Tank Limit Break. Ultima will immediately follow up with Aetheric Boom, which will knockback all players, regardless of if they take damage from it or not. However, knockback cancelling abilities such as Surecast do work. This is where the orbs from Ultimate Annihilation come into play. The more players who take orbs, the longer the tether between the two corresponding orbs is. The first orb corresponds to the northwestern orb, the second orb corresponds to the northeastern orb, the third orb corresponds to the southeastern orb, and the fourth or orb corresponds to the southwestern orb.

Aetheric Boom You can split your groups to be 4-4, or 6-2, having the tanks take orbs by themselves with some cooldowns, and the party taking the rest. Sprint is nice here, to take the second set of orbs as soon as you’re healed.

Primals

After orbs resolve, Ultima will use an AoE Viscous Aetheroplasm, giving 3 random players the Viscous Aetheroplasm debuff. Ultima will then summon all 3 primals (Garuda, Ifrit, and Titan) in one of three orders: Garuda, Ifrit, Titan; Ifrit, Garuda, Titan; and Titan, Ifrit, Garuda. This means that you will be able to accurately predict the last two primals after identifying the first. Each primal has a set rotation, including their ultimate raidbuster, and will be immediately followed up by the next primal. During each Primal phase, one Viscous Aetheroplasm will explode, so your party must be stacked while dodging all of these mechanics. As Primals are not targetable, targeted mitigation such as Addle or Reprisal will be impossible during Primal ultimates. Make sure people are topped and shielded after every Viscous Aetheroplasm explosion, plus an extra form of mitigation (keep in mind primals are untargettable, so abilities that affect the enemy, such as addle, won’t work). Make sure your party has two set safe spots (ideally near the middle of the arena, and on an intercardinal) to stay stacked. I’d recommend using waymarks for this.

Primal Safe Spots Putting markers similar to these will help immensely when coordinating to stack together.

Garuda will begin by using a Wicked Wheel, followed by a Wicked Tornado. The Viscous Aetheroplasm will explode as the Wicked Tornado goes off. Garuda will then follow up with an Aerial Blast, followed by a Feather Rain. It’s fairly safe to LB as soon as you dodge into the Wicked Wheel, you’ll have about 2-3s of leeway to dodge Feather Rain.

Ifrit will begin by using a single set of 2 eruptions, followed by a set of Crimson Cyclones going across the Cardinals. I’d recommend stacking together at either a cardinal or near the middle, and moving to the intercardinal as soon as possible. The Viscous Aetheroplasm will explode after Crimson Cyclones resolve, and will quickly follow up with a Hellfire, so make sure everyone is topped right after Viscous Aetheroplasm explodes. It’s fairly safe to LB during Ifrit, just hit the button as soon as you dodge Crimson Cyclone.

Titan will begin by using a triple Weight of the Land, followed up by his Earthen Fury. The Viscous Aetheroplasm will explode after the second Weight of the Land resolves, so it is imperative that your party is dodging the same direction throughout all 3 Weight of the Lands. You can simply employ dodging right-left-right from a set position and you should be fine. I would not recommend LBing during Titan.

After all 3 primals are done, Ultima will teleport to the north of the arena and begin charging up his remaining Ultima Aether. As soon as Ultima reaches 100 Ultima Aether, it will begin its fairly elaborate enrage. Ultima will gain a damage up and slowly begin to stun players one-by-one, pulling them into the middle of the arena, and raising them into the air before killing them with Citadel Siege, dealing 999,999 damage. He will continue pulling everyone to the middle, starting with players who did the least total damage to Ultima, and ending with the player who did the most damage (usually ends up pulling healers, tanks, and then finally DPS). There’s a somewhat long animation even after all players are defeated, so make sure to refresh dots for those final seconds of damage.

Rotation

  • Ultima
  • Tank Purge
  • Homing Lasers + Viscous Aetheroplasm
  • Ultimate Predation
  • Eruption x2
  • Infernal Fetters
  • Radiant Plume
  • Rock Throw x6 (Middle)
  • Landslide (Ultima) + Landslide (Titan)
  • Tumult x7 + Viscous Aetheroplasm
  • Wicked Wheel x2 (Sisters)
  • Mistral Shriek + Feather Rain
  • Homing Lasers
  • Feather Rain
  • Ultimate Annihilation
  • Eye of the Storm
  • Homing Lasers
  • Eye of the Storm
  • Radiant Plumes
  • Diffractive Laser
  • Vulcan Burst + Eye of the Storm
  • Homing Lasers
  • Vulcan Burst + Eye of the Storm
  • Diffractive Laser
  • Ultimate Suppression (Can be pushed early if Ultima is brought under 50%)
  • Ultima
  • Aetheric Boom + Aetheroplasm Orbs (x4)
  • Viscous Aetheroplasm (AoE)

Ultima will summon the following three primals in one of three orders, but their rotations are static.

Summon Garuda

  • Wicked Wheel
  • Wicked Tornado + Viscous Aetheroplasm explosion
  • Aerial Blast
  • Feather Rain

Summon Ifrit

  • Eruptions x2 + Crimson Cyclone (Cardinals)
  • Viscous Aetheroplasm explosion
  • Hellfire

Summon Titan

  • Weight of the Land
  • Weight of the Land
  • Viscous Aetheroplasm explosion
  • Weight of the Land
  • Earthen Fury

Ultima will begin to charge Ultima Aether until he reaches 100.

  • Citadel Siege x7
  • Sabik (Enrage)

If you’ve defeated the Ultima Weapon, congratulations! You’ll be rewarded with an Ultima Totem, which can be exchanged in Rhalgr’s Reach for an i375 Ultima weapon of your choice.

If you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns, please open an issue at the ultimates.guide GitHub repository.

Special thanks to Team ♿, and all others involved in collecting information/proofreading for making this guide possible.

Changelog

v1.0 – 6/17/2018

  • Official Release woo

v1.0.1 – 6/18/2018

  • Clarified predation diagrams
  • Added duration for woken Searing Wind
  • Fixed grammar
  • Fixed typos

v1.0.2 – 6/18/2018

  • oh my god the predation diagram was wrong i’m so sorry it’s fixed now
  • band aid trigger fix

v1.1 – 6/18/2018

  • Fixed some grammar
  • Added a note on ranged taking tether during Suppression
  • Fixed Titan Gaol triggers
  • Added Change Log into the actual page instead of just a comment

v1.1.1 – 6/24/2018

  • Added a note involving an alternative strategy for Thermal Low. Will write-up on this strategy when possible.

v1.1.2 – 6/27/2018

  • Fixed all instances of spelling “Supression” into “Suppression”

v1.2 – 7/15/2018

  • Added new information regarding last phase primals.
  • Fixed bad wording.

v1.3 – 7/30/2018

  • Clarified Ultimate Predation strategy.
  • Added diagrams to explain Ultimate Predation more accurately.
  • Indicated primal ultimates should have shielding and mitigation in the last phase of Ultima.

v1.3.1 – 8/21/2018

  • Clarified Landslide being baited on a party member during Ultimate Supression.
  • Added damage estimation for Homing Lasers.

v1.3.2 – 2/19/2019

  • Fixed typo relating to strategy in Ifrit nails.

v1.3.3 – 2/19/2019

  • Clarified how Titan’s awoken landslides work.

v2.0.0 - 11/11/2020

  • Copy content to ultimates.guide
  • Some editing and style tweaks and cleanups