Throughout Clive’s journey inFinal Fantasy 16, you’ll encounter Dominants, people who possess the power of the Eikons, and you’ll be able to get some of that power for yourself. Between Ifrit, Shiva, Titan, and many others, you have many elements and abilities to pick from, making your adventure much easier and epic, in trueFinal Fantasyfashion.
However, you can only cycle through three Eikons at a given time, each carrying two abilities and a feat, and you can’t change the feat each Eikon gives you. You have few slots to use, making it important to get the best abilities possible.
If you master an ability, you may place it along with whatever Eikon you want. For instance, you can have Ramuh’s Judgment Bolt with Garuda’s Deadly Embrace, among many other combinations.
Updated on July 10, 2025, by Kyle Chamaillard:As Clive continues his journey, he will unlock an overwhelming amount of Eikonic powers. If you’re struggling to figure out which ones to use, we’ve updated this list to include even more essential skills that will make your quest much easier.
AP Requirements
If you want brute damage, most of Titan’s arsenal will be a perfect fit for you. Upheaval is a perfect demonstration, creating an area attack around you, which can be charged for increased damage. You can even use it midair, though you’ll fall toward the ground and hit people below you, not flying enemies.
The damage is great, being even stronger than other Eikonic powers, but it doesn’t do much more than that. Well, it’ll toss weaker enemies around too, but that’s about it — an effective crowd-control ability.
Phoenix Shift is the first Eikon power you’ll be able to use, and it’s one you should keep equipped at all times. The ability allows you to immediately close the gap between you and an opponent, and you can even strike them as you head in their direction.
Aside from closing distances, Phoenix Shift is an excellent way to start a combination of devastating attacks. Using the ability, and then following it up with another Eikon power can be a great way to stagger the opponent without having to mash too many buttons.
Timing is everything, especially while using Odin’s Dancing Steel power. It’s a risky maneuver that can pay off significantly if executed correctly. To use it, Clive will need to wind up for a few moments - leaving him vulnerable - but after enough time has passed, he will begin unleashing a flurry of strikes that quickly charge the Zantetsuken meter.
If you’re hit while charging or miss your target with the first slash, the attack will fail, and you’ll need to try again. It can be tricky, but if you successfully hit your opponent with the attack, everything else will freeze around you as you unleash the power, making you invincible for a short time.
Similar to Phoenix Shift, Deadly Embrace is all about closing the gap between Clive and his foes. Instead of having Clive rush toward an enemy, he can use Deadly Embrace to bring them toward him for a change.
This won’t work for every enemy, as Clive can only bring what are considered to be “smaller” enemies toward him with Deadly Embrace. If used on a larger foe, Clive will launch himself in the air to get an advantage over them. Using it on certain creatures will trigger a “mini-stagger” effect that allows you to follow-up with attacks before they get back up again.
Rising Flames is yourfirst Phoenix abilityused to introduce the whole concept to you. It’s a simple uppercut attack on whoever is in front of you. It can hit multiple targets if they’re close, but there are better abilities for hitting multiple enemies.
However, it’s simple, quick, and effective. It causes a huge amount of damage; if you’re hitting a weaker enemy, you’re essentially kicking them out of the fight, even if they’re at full health.
Flare Breath is a double-edged sword. It causes a lot of damage with its fire breath and lasts for a long time. It also traps weaker enemies on the flame, and you even carry them around as long as you don’t move too abruptly. You can clear whole enemy groups with this ability easily.
However, it’s not very useful against more powerful enemies, especially bosses. It’ll hurt them, sure, but the flames won’t trap them, and since this ability lasts for a long time, you’re just making yourself extremely vulnerable to the boss. You can use it when you manage to stagger them, though.
Similar to Upheaval, Pile Drive is an area attack hitting everyone around you. Its damage is similar too, and it also tosses weaker enemies around. There is more, though.
First, it’s a lot faster to execute, so you can quickly use it and proceed to your next ability or attack. It also does some serious stagger damage, being a powerful tool to weaken your foes.
Diamond Dust is a nice, big area attack that easily hits everyone around you. It’s not the one that causes the most damage among the area attacks, but the stagger damage is great, being an effective tool to diminish minion forces as well as staggering the bigger foe among them.
It also has a unique effectonly available from Shiva’s abilities: it freezes. Yes, that was expected, considering her ice powers, but freezing enemies is very effective here. It doesn’t last long, but if you have her other abilities, you can spam your freezing attacks freely, making life difficult for your enemies.
Earthen Fury is another big area attack, but this one focuses on people in front of you, hitting them in a cone area, meaning it won’t be as useful if you are surrounded. Still, it’s essentially Upheaval turned up to 11.
The damage is absurd, being capable of clearing rows of enemies with ease, and it’ll throw all basic enemies upwards, making them useless for a while. It’s a good way to end fights before they properly start.
All cards on the table, Heaven’s Cloud alone isn’t very useful. It’s a series of dash attacks teleporting to nearby enemies, but the damage is very low. What makes this ability worthy of mentioning is how it works along with its counterpart feat, Arm of Darkness.
Odin’s powerscome with a feat that, whenever you cause damage with it or with Odin’s abilities, you fill a meter to use a special attack called Zantetsuken, which causes an absurd amount of damage. Heaven’s Cloud comes into play here because, despite its low damage, it causes a lot of hits, and each hit fills the Zantetsuken meter. It’s the most efficient way to fill the meter, making this ability very powerful combined with the rest of Odin’s arsenal.
