Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
There are a lot of great boss fights in Final Fantasy 16, but the first one that poses a real challenge to players is the fight against Benedikta. While players will have taken on plenty of worthy challengers at this point in the game, Benedikta is an unrelenting foe that will test the player on everything they’ve learned so far.
Because she’s so difficult, Benedikta can act as something of a major hurdle for players that gates them from moving forward. Luckily, she’s not impossible to beat as long as you learn her patterns and get down the rhythm of combat. If you’re struggling, here’s everything you need to know about how to beat Benedikta in Final Fantasy 16.
More Final Fantasy XVI guides:
All Guides & Walkthroughs | Best Weapon Unlock Guide | All Consumable Upgrades | Chocobo Mount Unlock | All Curiosity Collectibles | All Notorious Marks | Beginner’s Guide |
Benedikta: Phase 1
When the fight first starts, you’ll be fighting Benedikta on a relatively equal playing field. Most of the attacks she uses will be similar to the attacks you have: magic projectiles, sword slashes, and Eikon abilities. At the very beginning of the fight (and any time she gets too far away from you,) she’ll shoot small bursts of magic at you. Run toward her, dodging out of the way of the magic attacks, until she gets close enough for you to land a Phoenix Shift to close the remaining distance and get a few hits in.
Once you land a few hits on Benedikta, she’ll jump away from you and try out a few of her magic-based attacks. Luckily, they’re mostly pretty easy to dodge. When she casts Aeroga, she’ll hover in the air and shoot a large wind-magic projectile ball at you. To avoid taking damage, all you need to do is get out of the way of the slow-moving projectile and then push forward to deal some damage. Watch out for the place where the projectile landed, however, as it won’t disappear on impact and you can still take AoE damage if you touch it before it disappears.
Wind Blade is one of the more difficult attacks to avoid. When cast, Benedicka will swipe her sword and shoot large, flat projectiles toward you in quick succession. They move pretty quickly so they can be difficult to dodge, so you’ll need to pay close attention to when the attack is coming. To avoid taking damage, dodge through each blade and toward Benedikta. You can also jump over the blades to avoid them, however, Benedikta will angle her sword up and the blades will meet you on the higher plane.
In this phase of the fight, the final named magic attack Benedikta will try is called Aerora. Aerora is essentially a stronger version of the basic wind magic attack that she shoots at you. It hits harder and will knock you off your feet if it connects, but the projectile is clearly telegraphed and easy to avoid with a simple dodge.
The rest of Benedikta’s moves during this phase cycle between lunging sword attacks and regular, projectile-based magic attacks. Both are pretty easy to see coming and to dodge. Dodge out of the way of each attack, close the distance, and then get a few hits in before Benedikta can back off to start getting ready for another attack.
Work on breaking her Will Guage to stagger her using combo attacks and Eikon abilities and you’ll be able to get some massive damage in to get you to the next phase of the fight.
Once you’ve taken out her full health bar, you’ll see a brief cutscene and then the second, more difficult phase of the fight will start.
Benedikta: Phase 2
After finishing the first phase of the fight, Benedikta will grow wings and add to her moveset, becoming much more aggressive. Additionally, for the first section of the second phase, Torgal will not be able to help you so you’ll be on your own to start.
Benedikta will keep a lot of the named moves that she used in the first section of the fight, so keep your eye out for Aerora, Aeroga, and Wind Blade (renamed Aerial Slash in this section,) but take note that they might be a little different and telegraphed in a different way in this section. For example, instead of casting Aerora from the ground like she did at the start of the fight, Benedikta will now hover above the ground to cast it. Additionally, now instead of firing a single projectile, Aerora fires two. Similar changes are made to the rest of her previous moves where she’ll fire more projectiles and deal more damage with them.
One of the moves she’ll commonly use is called Nosedive which sees Benedikta fly high into the air and then come crashing to the ground in a large AoE attack. Avoiding this attack is pretty simple since you’ll be able to see where she’s going to crash down by finding a small pillar of light that appears once she flies into the air. Get out of the way of the light and you should be fine to completely avoid getting hit. If you want to get some damage in, try dodging into the explosion as soon as Benedikta comes crashing to the ground. This will let you pull off a Perfect Dodge and be able to get a few free hits in before Benedikta recovers from her attack.
In addition to the full suite of magical attacks, Benedikta will now use her Eikon abilities as basic attacks instead of using her sword. Watch out anytime she lunges at you and grows giant bird talons as that means an attack is coming. She’ll cycle through multiple attacks, so keep an eye out and make sure to dodge them otherwise you might open yourself up to being hit multiple times in a row.
If you do get hit, however, there will be multiple places in Benedikta’s combos where you can dodge out of the way. She’ll frequently end her attacks by quickly flying up and then slamming down to the ground with a giant bird talon. This attack is pretty easy to dodge as long as you’re ready for it and dodge to either the left or right of the attack, so you can at least get out of the way and get a few hits in before she backs off to prepare another attack.
Benedikta will often jump away from you and then fly around the edge of the boss arena, casting wind magic at you. You’ll need to dodge the projectiles as they come and then avoid the melee attack that she’ll use once she’s done flying. Because this is one of Benedikta’s more deadly attacks, there’s nothing wrong with simply focusing on staying alive and avoiding the attacks instead of trying to all that and counterattack since there are other opportunities to get your damage in.
Benedikta will also do a variation of the attack listed above called Aero Rain where she’ll fly around the edges of the arena and shoot a barrage of projectiles at you all at once. Luckily, these are relatively easy to dodge, so just keep moving and dodging until she stops.
Once you’ve dealt enough damage to her, a quick cutscene will play where you continue to fight.
Benedikta: Phase 3
After the scene, Benedikta will add a few moves to her set. The first one is called Tornado where she’ll mark a place on the arena and summon a large tornado to wreak havoc. Run away from the spawn point for the twister and then keep dodging to stay out of its reach. After a few seconds, it’ll disappear. Watch out, though, since as soon as it’s gone Benedikta will start attacking you again.
In this section of the fight, Aerial Slash will change. Now, it starts with three vertical blades shooting forward at you and then the horizontal blades will start firing off as usual. Complicating things further, Benedikta will also shoot a wind projectile at you while you dodge the slashes. In order to stay alive here, you’ll need to keep track of multiple projectiles at once and dodge them.
Benedikta will eventually use a move called Gathering Clouds where she’ll start to put together a giant projectile made out of rocks. Get far away from her and she’ll then throw the rocks at you in a move called Rammelfall. Because it’s so big, it’s pretty easy to dodge, so as long as you weren’t caught in the cloud on the ground, you’ll be able to avoid it.
Once you get her health down a fair amount, Benedikta will grab you, starting a new cutscene. Once it’s over Torgal will be at your side once more and the final section of the fight will start.
Most of Benedikta’s moves will stay the same here but be much more aggressive and include more projectiles than before. Additionally, she’ll focus much more on performing grabs that will leave you open to devastating attacks. Make sure to dodge out of the way anytime she reels back with her bird talons wide open since she’ll be following up with a lunging grab.
Continue cutting into her and you’ll eventually beat Benedikta, one of the toughest bosses in the early hours of Final Fantasy 16. If you’re struggling with the game’s combat, it might be worth taking a look at our Final Fantasy 16 beginner’s guide to see if there are any areas where you might need some help. For everything else Final Fantasy 16, stick with Gameranx.
