As far as villains go in theFinal Fantasyseries,Final Fantasy 16has a pretty great one in Ultima. After taunting you and tantalizing you with mysteries throughout the entire game, the events at Drake’s Spine prove very satisfying as Ultima reveals his grand planandlets you fight him, finally.
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Of course, as a being commonly regarded as a god, Ultima is not going to be an easy fight. He has command of all the elements, powerful physical and magical attacks, and like all the most powerful enemies in this game, can teleport around the battlefield in a bid to annoy you.
How To Beat Ultima
As you’d expect, Ultima is a tough cookie. He’ll use all the same tricks as the other tough bosses you’ve faced so far - teleportation to position his attacks, overlapping ranged attacks, and very fast, long physical combos.
Description
Neutron Flare
Ultima summons multiple lasers that spread out in a fan in front of him. Soon after, he will bring those lasers behind him and then swing them in a quick arc.
While it is possible to jump over these, your jump will likely not be long enough to avoid every laser. By far, the best way to avoid the attack is to use Garuda’s Deadly Embrace constantly to keep Clive in the air.
Leaping Slash
Ultima summons a sword before making a leaping attack at you.
Since the sword is bright purple, this attack is quite easy to see coming. Be sure to time your dodge as he’s about to slash.
Slashing Combo
After summoning his sword, Ultima performs two attacks in quick succession.
As long as you recognize that this attack isn’t the Leaping Slash or the Electric Slash, you should remember that there will be two attacks to avoid.
Electric Slash
Ultima summons a sword wreathed in lightning and performs a slashing somersault backward. This will place a fair bit of distance between you and the boss.
When you see the electrical sword, be ready to avoid the following attack.
Graviga
Ultima summons a ball of energy that will burst when it gets near you. It will remain there for a while. If you get hit by this attack, you’ll be reduced to critical health.
Dodging constantly will get you away from this attack reliably, but you’ll have even better success if you use Shiva’s Cold Snap ability.
Mark of the Storm
Ultima summons a large lightning strike, indicated by a swirling mass of electricity on the ground.
As always, get out of the circle of lightning to avoid this.
Blizzard
Ultima rises up into the air and fires an ice crystal at you. It will burst into a large crystal upon impact. In later phases, this attack will be used multiple times in quick succession.
This is a relatively slow attack and easy to dodge or counter if you use Heatwave.
Event Horizon
Ultima creates a damaging center of gravity on the battlefield that will suck Clive in constantly for the duration of the attack.
You’ll need to dodge away from the center of gravity constantly (or use Cold Snap) while also being aware of any other attacks that Ultima uses.
Ricochet
Ultima fires a ball of electricity in one direction. It will slowly travel around the battlefield for an extended period of time, bouncing off the walls.
This attack isn’t too dangerous, but it’s worth keeping an eye out for the ball.
Deliverance
Ultima wields two massive, flaming swords and then flies to your location. He performs multiple attacks in succession, an overhead swing, four horizontal slashes, and then a final vertical slash from below. The attack ends with a slam to the ground with an explosion.
The timing of these attacks is not uniform, so you’ll need to react to what’s happening on the screen and dodge accordingly.
Eternal Darkness
Ultima teleports to one side of the arena and summons two lines of portals to either side of him. One by one, these portals will fire a beam of darkness ahead.
To avoid damage, you’ll need to dodgethroughone of the beams of darkness, using invincibility frames, into the center of the arena.
Darkness Beam
Ultima charges and then fires a single, large beam of darkness ahead.
While this attack will initially track your location, once he begins charging this beam up, Ultima will not move, making this attack easy to dodge.
Flaming Glide
With his flaming sword, Ultima makes a gliding dash at you that ends with a sword slash. The ground he glides over will be covered in fire for a while.
This attack is very easy to spot; just verify you avoid the fires he leaves behind.
Frostbolt
Ultima covers the battlefield in patches of ice and lightning indicators. After a few moments, icicles and lightning bolts will strike their respective areas.
There should be plenty of safe zones to escape into, but the attack is quick, so find them as soon as you can.
This fight is separated intothree distinct phases, which are signaled by short cutscene transitions. Ultima will gain horns for the second phase and wings in the third. In the second phase, Ultima will addEvent Horizonto his moveset, and in the third, he’ll start usingevery attack listed below thatin the table above.
It is particularly hard during this fight tofind your openingsto deal damage against Ultima. Thankfully, he will give you some easy ones - he will take a few moments to recover after using Neutron Flare and Deliverance, which he will use quite often throughout the fight.Use these windows to attack with any riskier abilities, such as those that require charging up, like Upheaval or Ice Age.
It is important to stressthe importance of having Garudaequipped entirely forDeadly Embrace- not only is it wonderful for getting an extended stun out of aPartial Stagger, but it’skey to avoidingNeutron Flare, one of Ultima’s most annoying attacks.
Remember thatyou can equip any ability to an Eikon, even those that are from different Eikons, as long as it’sMastered!
In the first two phases of the fight, you really only have to be on the lookout forNeutron Flare, Graviga, and Event Horizon. These, plus Ultima’sstandard two-hit physical attack, make up the most dangerous attacks in the whole fight.
The third phase, however, makes things more difficult by making Ultima far moreaggressiveand giving him attacks that are particularly difficult to avoid when they are used in quick succession. While the individual attacks are not too difficult to avoid, having to dodge them constantly will make inflicting damage on the boss quite a chore.
If you need to heal during the fight,attempt to use Potionsrather than High Potions. You’ll want tosave the latter for any potential Gravigacaststhat hit you, as they will reduce you to critical health and put you in immediate danger.
Don’t forget that you can alsouse your consumables from the menuif you don’t have them mapped to directional buttons (such as precious Elixirs!).
Overall, this battle will get easier over time as you get used to Ultima’s attack patterns. While his aggression will increase, you should have no trouble at least staying alive, and you’ll be able toadapt your own attack patterns to his windows of opportunity accordingly.
15,000
650
7,000
Spoils
The Pull of Darkness (Dancing Steel), Sharp Fang x10, Steelsilk x10, Magicked Ash x85
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