As he makes his way through the Greatwood, with Cid and Torgal at his side, Clive will come across quite a few ofFinal Fantasy 16’s beastly enemies for the first time. In addition to vicious wolves and carnivorous plants, there’s a great big lizard just waiting to take a bite out of any unsuspecting passers-by.

RELATED:Final Fantasy 16: Beginner Tips

Fafnir is the first spiny lizard you’ll encounter in the game, but not the only one. Down below, you’ll find a guide to beating this overgrown reptile for the first time and then further notes on what to expect in fights against Fafnir’s late-game cousins.

How To Beat Fafnir

As you might expect from a beast of its size, Fafnir is a bulky boss with large attacks, so you’ll need to stay on top of your dodging. The table below details all of Fafnir’s attacks - those in italics are named attacks that appear on-screen, so you can look out for them specifically.

Description

Headbutt

Fafnir will rise up onto its hind legs before diving forward into a headbutt.

This attack has a long windup so you’ll know when it’s coming, but time your dodge for the headbutt part. Too early, and you risk getting caught in the large hitbox.

Slam

Fafnir will rise up onto its hind legs before slamming its foreleg down in front of it.

Similar to the previous attack, you’ll be able to see when this is coming.

Curled Slam

Fafnir leaps into the air, curls up into a ball, and slams down on top of you.

This is also easy to spot as long as you’re locked on - dodge as late as you’re able to to get a Precision Dodge.

Tail Swipe

Fafnir will whip its tail around.

Fafnir uses this attack when you’re behind it, so simply be wary of it if you take it on from behind.

Spin Cycle

Fafnir curls into a ball and starts spinning in place like Sonic. It will then dash at you, using the curved walls of the arena to keep its attack going. After two dash attacks, Fafnir leaps into the air again for a body slam attack.

While the dash attacks are easy to see coming and therefore dodged, the final body slam attack has deceptive range and speed, so be on the lookout for that above all else.

Since you’ll likely beattacking Fafnir’s headthanks to how the lock-on system works in Final Fantasy 16, you’ll want to be mostly on the lookout for theHeadbutt and Slam attacks. Don’t get too greedy - wait for these attacks to come out, and then punish the long cooldown windows with attacks of your own.

Spin Cycle is largely easy to avoid, but we cannot reiterate enough that you should be wary of thebody slamat the end of the attack.

Fafnir will fly to your position and only then begin a downward drop, so wait for the second part of the animation to dodge.

Overall, this fight isn’t too tough. We would recommend equippingScarlet Cyclone and Rising Flames, as Fafnir has no ranged magic attacks to counter with Heatwave. If you want to be as efficient as possible, save Rising Flames for the end of Stagger portions when possible, and use Scarlet Cyclone to deplete the boss’s Stagger gauge.

28

70

1,000

Gnarled Scale x2, Wyrrite x40

How To Beat The Flame Lizard

You’ll face this beastie during the quest Fire and Ice, which takes place in Drake’s Breath, the Iron Kingdom’s Mothercrystal. Within the volcano, you’ll encounter this fire-attuned version of Fafnir.

As you’d expect from a later boss, the Fire Lizard has some extra tricks to contend with.

Hip Check

Agni will rise up onto one side and then roll over in your direction.

This has a very large hitbox, so try to dodge into this, not away from it.

Firewater

This is a ranged attack where the enemy spits out a laser of fire. It has slow tracking.

Try dodging through this attack to get an easy Precision Dodge and counter.

Incense

The Flame Lizard wreathes itself in flames, making its attacks more damaging.

After a short period of time, this attack will run out.

Just like Fafnir, the Flame Lizard will curl into a ball and bounce at you - this version of the attack, however, bounces multiple times before stopping.

Overdrive

This is the Flame Lizard’s ultimate attack and has multiple parts. It will first spit a line of Firewater directly at you in a line, and then spit a horizontal Firewater toward you from the side. It will then rush at you for a melee attack before performing a body slam that has a large radius.

The key to dealing with this attack is to wait it out, dodging each individual part. Don’t try to counter in the middle of the attack, and retaliate only once the Flame Lizard has finished the body slam finisher.

To compensate for thelack of Spin Cycle, this lizard has more tricky attacks as you can see from the table above, including some ranged options. Overall, though, this fight isn’t that much more difficult. You’ll just need tobe wary ofOverdrive, which comes out once you’ve damaged the Flame Lizard enough to Stagger it once.

This lizard’s version of Curled Slam is also problematic if you’re not expecting it to bounce - just be wary that it’s an extended version of Fafnir’s attack and always be on the lookout for the bodyslam finisher.

220

150

2,500

Gnarled Scale x1, Sharp Fang x18

How To Beat Agni

Agni is alevel 40 A-Rank markand has extra moves befitting its pedigree. You can find it in the first large area up from theEdge of Infinity Obeliskat the beginning of the Waloed area, once it’s made available at the Hunt Board.

Collider

This is Agni’s version of Spin Cycle. It’s basically identical, but the consecutive dashes come out far quicker, thanks to the lack of curved walls in the arena.

As always, the main threat is the body slam at the end.

In addition to the new attacks above, Agni also has upgrades to two of Fafnir’s attacks:

When you fight Agni, you’ll have far more tools in your kit than with the previous fights. Of particular note isBahamut’s Impulse, which is so fast-traveling that it will keep up with Agni throughout its leaping and Collider attacks, providing really great Stagger damage as it does so.

Conversely, it’s better toavoid Odin’s skillsetas Agni is a very mobile and aggressive foe, which means your attacks will be interrupted easily.

8,000

100

15,500

35