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The quest Buried Memories inFinal Fantasy 16is as serious as it sounds - it brings Clive and Jill back to Phoenix Gate, the fateful location that kicked off the main thrust of the game’s story 13 years prior. They come here in pursuit of answers, and they will get them.
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This is one of the longer stages that you’ll have to deal with in this game, and features not only two climactic boss fights but a whole host of new enemy types to learn how to face. Read on to follow our complete guide to Buried Memories.
Exploring The Phoenix Gate Ruins
You’ll begin this stage outside, near the ruins.Follow the path forward, taking in the sights of the ruins and the crater left by the Eikon battle all those years ago. Eventually, you’ll be witness to a cutscene in which the hooded figure shows up.
Pursue the hooded figure into the ruins, and you’ll eventually reachThe Hall of the Ancestors. This is where the stage begins in earnest, and you can start to expect to fight enemies.
Continue onward, opening the gates as you go, until you reach a massive room with a circular platform in the middle. Approach the platform, and you’ll learn two things: that the circular platforms act as elevators, and that the figures on the platform are actuallyFallen Bugs, and they are aggressive.
After beating the Fallen Bugs, you’ll be introduced to two more new enemies:Fallen Hunters and Defense Nodes.
After defeating these enemies, you’ll be able to make some progress.Exit through the lit-up doorand press on. In the next room, you’ll fight someFallen Bugs and a Defense Node- after beating them, open the nearby chest to get50 gil and five Sharp Fangs.
The next doorway leads to a fight against a tougher enemy.
How To Beat The Fallen Guardian
Fallen Guardiansare the Fallen’s version of an elite enemy. They’re equipped with large energy swords and can be quite difficult to dodge at the best of times.
Description
Thrusting Attack
The Fallen Guardian leans back, summons its sword, and thrusts directly at you.
This attack has a very long windup, so you’ll be aware of when you need to dodge out of the thrusting portion.
Slashing Attack
Identical to the previous attack, but ends in a horizontal slash instead of a thrust.
You can safely dodge through this attack for an easy Precision Counter.
Spinning Slash
The Fallen Guardian summons two swords and spins them horizontally, walking at you throughout the attack.
This attack makes the enemy a no-go zone, just stay far away from it for the duration.
Energy Shot
The Fallen Guardian shoots two large balls of energy at you in succession.
These balls are easy to dodge, just be wary of the second one after avoiding the first one.
Energy Pulse
The enemy summons a dome of energy around it and charges it with power. After a few moments, its explodes. This is followed by multiple smaller domes carrying out the same attack in a circle around the Fallen Guardian.
Get out of the first dome to avoid the first explosion, and then dash back toward the enemy during the second portion of the attack to get some easy hits in.
To beat the Fallen Guardian, you’ll simply need to take stock of its abilities and learn how to avoid them. The best times to attack the enemy are withPrecision Counters, after itmisses with its ranged attack, and during thesecond half of Energy Pulse.
After winning the fight, open the chest nearby to getThe Favor of Wind (Gouge). This will increase the damage that Garuda’s Gouge does by 15 percent when equipped, which makes it far more useful if you use it as a Stagger-inducer.
Reaching The Grand Elevator
Head through the door to the left of the chest and continue on the path ahead of you. In the next room with an encounter, you’ll meet Bombs for the very first time.
These classic Final Fantasy monsters are dangerous in this incarnation - not only do they have access toranged attacks, but they willcharge up a large-radius explosive attackwhen low on health. Thanks to their high defensiveness, it’s difficult to take them out before they start charging this up.
You’ll be able to see a Bomb’s explosive radius as it charges up its final attack, somove out of the blast zonewhen it appears.
After beating the Bombs,continue on until you reach another elevator. At the top, open the chest to get1,200 giland open the door to the right of it.
In the next room, you’ll faceanother Fallen Guardian, who will be backed up bythree Defense Nodesas soon as the fight starts. Take out these first so you don’t get sniped. Once the Fallen Guardian has taken a decent amount of damage, it will be backed up by agroup of Fallen Hunters, so be ready for the extra targets to deal with.
In the next room, you’ll face someFallen Bugsthat will get reinforced by more bugs and some Bombs. Make sure you’re on the lookout for those explosive attacks!
Before continuing on, open the chest next to the door to get The Will of Wind (Rook’s Gambit). This increases the damage dealt by Rook’s Gambit by ten percent - if you’ve found that Rook’s Gambit is a useful evade and counter move, and you’ve been reliably using it, it may be worth boosting it with this accessory.
In the next large room, you’ll be faced with the first boss of this stage: The Iron Giant.
How To Beat The Iron Giant
This is a tough fight with a tricky damage gate to get through.
For a full guide to beating The Iron Giant, click here.
After the fight, you’ll be presented with a path forward to the next gate. Before taking this path, though, check to the left quickly for a chest that contains The Favor of Wind (Wicked Wheel). This is yet another Garuda-specific accessory that improved Wicked Wheel’s damage.
Wicked Wheel is possibly Garuda’s best move, thanks to its quick recharge time and a great balance of Stagger and Damage.
Head down to the next area, where you’ll fight a Lich for the first time.
How To Beat The Lich
Liches are difficult enemies to face - they’re fast, hit hard, and have wide-reaching attacks that are difficult to avoid. In addition to this, they love to teleport around the battlefield to surprise you.
Swing
The Lich swings its scythe at you. Often, this attack will be used directly after reappearing from a teleport, so you’ll have little time to react to what’s going on.
Once you recognize that the Lich is using this attack, you should be able to dodge it reliably.
Implosion
The Lich will fly backward and into the air, before throwing its scythe directly at you and into the ground. The scythe will then explode with a ball of energy that sucks you toward the center.
You’ll need to avoid the initial scythe throw to dodge this attack entirely, otherwise you’ll get caught in the explosion.
Thresh
After screaming, the Lich will start tracking you slowly, attacking as it moves closer to you. It will perform three horizontal slashes, three vertical stabs, and then end with a spinning attack.
Moving away from the Lich constantly is the best way to deal with this. The constant and irregular attacks make it hard to get any Precision Counters in, unless you may get a Precision Evasion off against the final part of the attack.
Slice
After teleporting away from you, the Lich swings the scythe at you, which shoots out a blade of energy as a ranged attack.
As a well-telegraphed ranged attack, this isn’t hard to dodge. It’s a great opportunity to use Heatwave as a counter if you have that equipped.
The Lich will use only the first two attacks to beginwith, and will start mixing inThreshandSliceafter being damaged enough/Staggered for the first time.
Stay on your guard, and don’t be too quick to rush in when the Lich teleports away from you, lest you dash right into aSliceand take unnecessary damage.
As with all other elite enemies, once you learn the timings for their attacks, you should be able to beat them handily.
How To Power The Elevator
After beating the Lich, press on. The next room ahead contains yet another new enemy, but this one is very easy to beat:Wraiths. These are fragile and will fall to some repeated attacks, like any mook soldier.
After killing the Wraiths,interact with the pedestalin the room, which will add some charge to the elevator in the previous room. Return to the larger room and now take the alternative path that leads to a gate.
This room has another new enemy to face, theSpecter. These are even more fragile than Wraiths, but they haveranged attacks- both missiles and area attacks that they’ll summon underneath you. When these are involved in larger fights with other enemy types, make them a priority.
Similar to the previous room,interact with the pedestalhere to add more charge to the elevator in the large room.
The Apodytery And The Infernal Eikon
Return to the large room andinspect the glowing floor- a large pedestal will rise from the ground.Interactwith it, and you’ll be taken to the Apodytery.
Walk forwards, and you’ll begin a series of cutscenes that culminate with an important boss.
For a complete guide to the fight against the Infernal Eikon, click here.
Beating the Infernal Eikon signals the end of this stage and thecompletion of Buried Memories.
NEXT:Final Fantasy 16: How To Beat Ninjas And Reapers
