It’s time to take a walk on the aether side! Welcome to the fifth dungeon in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker. You can think of this as The Antitower: Part 2. The Aitiascope sends the Warrior of Light and their comrades once again into the aetherial sea. They’re looking for answers, but perhaps they find the past instead.
Be warned that dungeon guides contain spoilers. If you prefer to preserve the surprise of dungeons for yourself, give them a try first before referring to a guide. Then, come back here for some help if you have trouble!
First Mob Pull
It’s about to go down. Literally, the dungeon will have you trekking deeper with every leap. Your first two encounters are pretty standard tank-and-spank affairs.
The last encounter has an enemy called Sinking Rivalry, but this only adds a wide circle area-of-effect (AoE) called Egotism that you have to worry about. The last platform has what feels like a boss fight against Ilberd the Unrelenting. This is a shade of Ilberd Feare, who summoned the primal Shinryu in Heavensward. Ilberd will eventually summon four Sinking Arrogance enemies, making it seem like all is lost, but the memory of a friend will strike most of the enemies down.
First Boss: Livia the Undeterred
Another shade of your past returns. Livia the Undeterred seems to be the collected memories of Livia sas Junius, a Garlean soldier we last saw in A Realm Reborn’s Castrum Meridianum. This Livia retains the white color scheme but adds four bladed arms to the package. You’ll fight her in a circular arena.
- Frustration: This is a party-wide AoE attack that Livia uses at the beginning of the fight and intermittently after that. Heal through it.
- Aglaea Bite: This attack is the tankbuster, with Livia hitting her highest-enmity target for massive damage. Tanks, use your cooldowns for this.
- Aglaea Climb: When Livia begins to cast this, two of her four arms will glow. If you divide the arena into four quarters, these glowing arms will always appear over two opposite quarters. When the cast finishes, Livia will slam her arms down on those quarters. Stand under the non-glowing arms to avoid damage.
- Aglaea Shot: This is essentially four lengthy line AoEs stacked on top of one another. Livia will be in the center of the arena, attacking in eight directions. Stand in-between the AoE patterns to avoid damage.
- Odi Et Amo: Livia will create circle AoEs where two random party members are standing. Avoid them, then prepare for a stack marker as she hits you with Ignis Odi. There will be no castbar for the second attack.
- Disparagement: This is a wide cone AoE in the direction Livia is facing.
This is a straightforward fight. Most of the mechanics will come by themselves at the beginning of the fight. The only real change is in the latter half, where Livia may use some attacks back-to-back. So you might see an Aglaea Climb, immediately followed by an Algaea Shot. Be ready for that and you’ll be fine.
Second Mob Pull
You’ll ride the massive Aether Current down to a series of crystalline bridges. You should watch out for Sinking Dissension, which will cast the cone AoE Whisper of Our Discontent on a random target. The smaller Sinking Desire enemies will cast line AoEs as well, so tanks should face them away from the party. Nothing else meaningful to watch out for here.
Second Boss: Rhitahtyn the Unshakable
It’s odd that you keep fighting the castoffs of Gaius van Baelsar, when Gaius himself is still alive and actually a confidant of the Warrior of Light at this point. The Roegadyn soldier’s shields carry a blue glow they did not in life. You fight Rhitahtyn in a square arena. Be prepared for a fairly important mechanic combo here.
- Tartarean Impact: A party-wide AoE doing middling damage. Heal through it.
- Tartarean Spark: Rhitahtyn picks one party member and begins to cast a line AoE in their direction. Move out of the pattern to avoid the big laser.
- Vexillatio: This is part one of the main mechanic. Rhitahtyn casts an AoE that covers all but a center strip of the arena. When the cast is done, it’ll raise the sections hit by the AOE and summon four crystals, minimizing your movement area.
- Shield Skewer: This is part two. The boss channels energy from the four crystals. When the cast bar ends, he’ll charge down the entire lane, dealing massive damage. You need to pay attention to which crystal is draining the fastest. Eventually, that crystal will be destroyed and then you can hide in the spot where it was to avoid the charging attack.
- Anvil of Tartarus: This is his tankbuster. Tanks, use your cooldowns.
- Shrapnel Shell: The boss shoots two shells skyward, creating two AoE targeting circles. You want to avoid the general regions these circles occupy because the AOEs will rapidly multiply at random around their final position.
The combination of Vexillatio and Shield Skewer is the main focus of this boss. One other thing you do need to watch out for though is in-between both attacks, the boss might cast Shrapnel Shell over two of the crystals. This means you not only need to figure out which crystals are going to be destroyed, but you also need to figure out which safe spot isn’t going to get bombed. Tartarean Spark may also come immediately after standalone casts of Shrapnel Shell, so keep that in mind.
Third Mob Pull
Here, the crystals dim and shatter around you, with only the path ahead shining. The only thing you have to worry about here is an enemy called Sinking Regret, which will sometimes cast a huge cone AoE called Lost Opportunity at a random party member.
Third Boss: Amon the Undying
You may have fought him before. Hell, you’ve probably fought him multiple times if you count all of his incarnations to date. Now it’s time to make sure the undying stays dead. You’re taking on this fight in a circular arena. No worries about falling off on anything.
- Dark Forte: This is Amon’s tankbuster. Single-target, high-damage. Use your cooldowns, tanks.
- Thundaga Forte: This is a radial AoE starting from the center of the arena. The closer to the center, the more damage you take. The twist here is that the arena is divided into eight slices. A wave of electric energy will radiate from the center, but it will be faster on the even or odd slices. Wait for the electricity from the first wave to hit, and then move into those open sections to avoid damage.
- Strophe: This summons a flat disc on the arena. Eventually, the boss will cast Antistrophe, which causes the disc to tilt into an upright position. Once it’s fully upright, both faces of the disc will fire energy straight forward. If you pay attention to the tilt, you can tell where the attack will hit way ahead of time.
- Firaga Forte: This attack comes in two flavors—Right Firaga Forte or Left Firaga Forte. The attack blasts half of the arena, with the “Right” or “Left” letting you know which side gets hit.
- Entr’acte: Amon summons dark explosions on the outer edge of the arena. This is a party-wide AoE that does around half-health. Be prepared to heal.
- Eruption Forte: Amon summons to exploding circle AoEs under two party members.
- Curtain Call: Players who have tackled the Syrcus Tower raid will remember this. When Amon begins to cast this, you’ll first need to watch out for the massive circle AoEs. They’re not the real attack though. At around 50% of the cast, Shiva will appear and cast a large circle AoE near the center of the arena, hitting it with a huge block of ice. Avoid this too, but you want to move on the opposite side of the AoE from the boss when the ice appears because once he finishes casting Curtain Call, anyone not hiding behind the ice dies immediately.
Surviving Curtain Call is the big thing for this fight because it will kill any player not hiding behind the block of ice when it finishes. Strophe may also summon more than one disc, so be prepared for that. Everything hits hard, but outside of that, it’s a manageable fight.
Another dungeon down and the Scions step closer to finding out how to save the world. But you can’t save the world if you can’t do your job. If you’re curious about how to play the new Sage or Reaper in Endwalker, check out our guides for those Jobs as well as the expansion’s aether currents, dungeons, and trials.
If you’re looking for other dungeon or trial guides, you’ll find the links to those below:
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: Tower of Zot
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: Tower of Babil
- FFXIV Endwalker Trial Guide: The Dark Inside
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: Vanaspati
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: Ktisis Hyperborea
- FFXIV Endwalker Trial Guide: The Mothercrystal
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: The Dead Ends
- FFXIV Endwalker Trial Guide: The Final Day
