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Players will come face-to-face with many Eikons during their time with Final Fantasy 16, however, the fight with Garuda is the first time that they’ll encounter a full-on Eikon. Up until this point, the closest thing that players will have gone up against is Benedikta during the second phase of her boss fight in the game’s previous chapter.
The fight against Garuda can be extremely punishing if players go into it without a plan, so it’s a good idea to take a look at what the Eikon is capable of before charging in head-first. While we can’t beat the boss for you, we can outfit you with enough knowledge to give you the upper hand in the fight. Here’s everything you need to know about how to beat Garuda in Final Fantasy 16.
More Final Fantasy 16 guides:
All Guides & Walkthroughs | Best Weapon Unlock Guide | All Consumable Upgrades | Chocobo Mount Unlock | All Curiosity Collectibles | All Notorious Marks | Beginner’s Guide | Benedikta Boss Guide |
Garuda: Phase 1
In the first phase of the Garuda fight in Final Fantasy 16, you’ll want to make sure that you’re staying underneath the Eikon as best you can since it’s much hard for it to hit you. Garuda prioritizes a lot of sweeping attacks with its limbs and, if you’re directly underneath it, it’ll have a tough time trying to reach you with the majority of its moves. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be dodging every time that it tries to hit you, since that’s a great way to mitigate any potential incoming damage, but it’s where you should prioritize being as much as you can during the fight so you can deal the most damage possible.
A lot of Garuda’s moves in this section of the fight will be very obviously telegraphed by the Eikon winding up with its arms and body and then dishing out a large, sweeping attack. The attacks can come from either side or from both at once, but because of how clearly they’re telegraphed, they shouldn’t pose too much of a threat since they’re easily avoided.
If you do get hit, you’ll likely be sent flying back to the edge of the boss arena. If that happens, avoid the next few attacks and make your way back underneath Garuda to start attacking once more. Focus on lowering Garuda’s Will Guage to stagger it and deal explosive damage and the first phase of the fight should go pretty smooth.
Garuda: Phase 2
Once you’ve lowered Garuda’s health to about half, the second phase of the fight will start and the Eikon will begin to use magic-based attacks as well as the regular, sweeping ones. When this phase starts, you won’t be able to deal any melee damage to Garuda so focus on staying out of the way of the magical AoE attacks she’ll be casting. In between bouts of dodging, you can deal a little bit of chip damage to it by using your magic attack.
As soon as Garuda stops glowing, you’ll be able to start attacking it regularly again. At this point, it’s business as usual: stay underneath the boss while attacking as much as possible and dodging its attacks. Now, however, in addition to the melee attacks, you’ll need to keep an eye out for any incoming magic AoE attacks. Luckily, the attacks are clearly telegraphed on the ground before they start to deal damage. If you find yourself in the way of one of the magic attacks, dodge and then get back under Garuda to attack.
Keep fighting like this until Garuda has only a sliver of health left and a cutscene will play where Clive continues to fight the Eikon and then awakens an Eikon inside himself as well.
Garuda: Phase 3
This phase of the fight mainly serves as an introduction to the Eikon battles that are in the rest of Final Fantasy 16. To complete this phase, all you’ll need to do is avoid Garuda’s attacks by dodging or lunging and then attacking. It’s a pretty simple concept, so just rinse and repeat until Garuda is low on health and you’ll be prompted to fight it in an extended cutscene that’s full of quick-time events. Once that’s all taken care of, the fight will be over.
