You might think once you’ve defeated Benedikta and absorbed Garuda from her, you’d get no more trouble from Garuda. But Final Fantasy 16 doesn’t work like that. Garuda is still roaming free in the form of a huge tornado, and it won’t be long before you’ll have to defeat her too. And this is the toughest boss fight so far.
Not only is Garuda the biggest boss in FF16, but she’s also in the smallest environment. This means you don’t have much room to dodge about at a safe distance, doing chip damage with magic attacks from long range. And many of her attacks fill pretty much all of the available space. But we have figured out ways to defeat Garuda.
How to beat Garuda as Clive in Final Fantasy 16
You’ll fight Garuda in the Eye of the Tempest after she rudely interrupts your long-awaited meeting with the mysterious hooded Dominant. The most dangerous place to be during this fight is in front of Garuda. You should run and evade sideways pretty much constantly so that you stay at her sides or, even better, behind her.
I found a really effective way to get behind her is to use Phoenix Shift. It usually dropped me either behind her, or else close enough to her that I could run underneath her to get behind. It’s difficult to see what’s going on when you’re this close to Garuda, but it also makes it really difficult for her to hit you.
Related: All Final Fantasy 16 (FF16) Dominants
It’s also worth noting dodging most of Garuda’s attacks is a matter of timing, and not of actually moving Clive out of the way. For example, if you evade at the right time when she does her sweeping kick, the kick will pass right through you.
Make sure you switch to Garuda (the Eikon Abilities, not the boss) when you’ve got her yellow bar down to 50 percent and she’s vulnerable, and use Deadly Embrace to perform a Deadly Takedown, so that she’s vulnerable for longer.
At about the halfway point in the fight, Garuda will gain the Aerial Blast ability. This summons multiple deadly tornadoes and lightning strikes and surrounds Garuda in a storm that damages you if you get too close. The best thing to do is dodge the tornadoes and lightning while chipping away at her with magic attacks. Easier said than done, though. Be patient, and don’t keep Phoenix Shifting her while the storm is raging, as I did.
Once Garuda has very little health left, the fight will climax with a QTE where you have to press Square then, thirteen seconds later, press Square again then, twelve seconds after that, press Square lots of times really fast.
How to beat Garuda as Ifrit in Final Fantasy 16
But Garuda is still not defeated. Now you’ve got to defeat her as Ifrit.
This is much easier than the fight as Clive, and you can win it by repeating pretty much the same pattern over and over. From a distance, use ranged attacks and evade sideways if she launches tornadoes or swoops at you. But evade forwards when she launches regular magic projectiles (they won’t hit you if you time it right).
Once you’re close enough, use Eikonic Lunge, then immediately bash Square to unleash a melee combo with a pummel at the end. She’ll usually then dash away from you. Evade backwards and use fireballs whenever she uses Aerial Blast, but other than that, you can repeat the same pattern till the QTEs start.
Get them right and she’ll be defeated (for real), and you’ll get the Wind Shard.
