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As the ‘Headwind’ main quest reaches its conclusion, Clive finds himself head-to-head against the Dominant of Wind herself, Benedikta.Final Fantasy 16doesn’t skimp on the climactic boss battles. Benedikta has quite the bevvy of special attacks, and you’ll need to tap into most of Clive’s to survive.
Related:Final Fantasy 16: How To Beat The Morbol
And survive you will, even if you’re not the best action-RPG player around - we get it, really, we do. Bring down Benedikta in both her phases, and do so as stylishly as can be, with a little aid from our boss battle guide below.
Updated by Quinton O’Connor on May 31, 2025:Before, our coverage of the Benedikta battle included Clive’s bonus abilities from Final Fantasy 16’s demo version. We’ve, of course, rewritten our strategy to accommodate the fact that players will not have those extra Eikons!
Phase One: The Warm-Up
Benedikta really isn’t so bad in her first phase. She’ll take longer to beat than them, but you may well have found theRoyal Tognvaldrsearlier in Caer Norvent’s halls just as tough, if not a bit tougher. She uses afive-piece long-range attackthat’s slow enough to slink between them as they get to you, so give it a try.
Aerogais less deadly than veteran Final Fantasy players may fear, and it’s not too fast, either. Benedikta herself is relatively speedy, however, and herrapier, while it doesn’t hurt much, can still prove the old adage true about death by a thousand cuts if you aren’t careful.
You’ll find Benedikta is pretty stumped by stuff likeStomp and Downthrust.These two moves can keep her off her feet for decent stretches of time (which, in action game parliance, means ‘a couple of seconds’). If you time it right,a blast of Heatwave serves as a prime followup.
We didn’t find much need to remain at long-range during this part of the battle, but Charged Magic should do just fine if you’d rather keep your distance.
Phase Two: The Real Deal
Our ambitious lass is playing for keeps now. The second phase opens with acutscene featuring a quick time event, so keep your eyes on the prize to successfully trigger it. Torgal will arrive, and Benedikta, bitten, will say something rather unkind.
From hereon out, the fight is much more challenging. Immediately after the cutscene, Benedikta begins an attack that strikes down upon Clive’s location.Move out of the way of this initial assault,and you should be just fine.
Next, she’ll useAerora, two big spheres of wind. Needless to say, she targets Clive with this - but it’s done with enough leeway on Benedikta’s behalf to home in on Clive, so run.
By the way,Aeroga lives up to its name now;three big spheres with decent range and better speed than Phase One’s example.
Once Benedikta starts flying around Clive not unlike a falcon circling its prey, she intends to slash with her talons a few times, decreasing the gap between them somewhat before going for the assault.Tap the dodge button a bunch while running, and you should be able to fairly effortlessly avoidthe sharp talons, one and all.
If you do get hit by this, expect a few hundred HP to be tossed out the window.Aero Rainis frequently utilized at this point; she flies ever higher, and starts firing off arrow-like wind several times. You might get hit here even if you’re quite skilled, but thankfully, the damage output is minimal.
When Benedikta usesNosedive, this is a fantastic opportunity toprepare a powerful strikesuch asRising Flames. She’ll bequiteopen after landing, too. Get plenty of hits in, and if you’re successful, you might be able to stagger her all over again.
When the game gives us another cutscene, Benedikta will destroy a part of the tower withRammerfell;‘Cinematic Dodge it’.Benedikta now has access to a couple of late-stage attacks,Gathering CloudsandTornado. The former, you want to get out of the hurricane clouds in time, or else you could find yourself in a bind for several seconds.
As for Tornado, it’s possible to jump above Benedikta, either manually or (ideally) with an aerial ability, and smack her around while she’s casting the spell. If you can juggle swings to an effective degree, you should be able tounleash a volley of both your equipped Eikon abilitiesbefore falling to the ground below.
It’s wrap-up time. Benedikta does her whole step-on-me-queen thing, and we dutifully apologize for that line, but it’s totally a thing here. Torgal’s doubly heroic now, and perhaps the hardest part of the entire fight is not cheering loudly enough to forget theCinematic Strikeintended to finish her off. The combat will continue with Garuda, whose guide is linked below!
