Every adventure has obstacles to overcome, and the Final Fantasy 16 bosses are definitely going to stand between you and the end. Some may be simple fights that give you a break from standard enemies, while others are larger-than-life creatures or god-like enemies that will cause you to sweat.
Our Final Fantasy 16 review praised the bosses and various encounters throughout the Final Fantasy 16 length. Considering the series is rooted in incredible boss fights, which helps it stay as one of the best RPG game franchises, the latest entry in the series continues the trend of exciting challenges to face. It’s worth noting that we’ll include all primary and mini-boss encounters (anything that has its own health bar in the UI counts), we will only go into detail on the large bosses.
All Final Fantasy 16 bosses
Here are all of the Final Fantasy 16 bosses you’ll face, including the quest you fight them in:
- Gigas – Lost in a Fog
- Morbol – Lost in a Fog
- Knight of the Blinding Dawn – Flight of the Fledgling
- Eikon of Fire – Flight of the Fledgling
- Shiva – A Chance Encounter
- Tiamat – A Chance Encounter
- Fafnir – Fanning Embers
- Midnight Raven – Fanning Embers
- Chirada – Louder than Words
- Suparna & Chirada – Headwind
- Benedikta – Headwind
- Garuda – Awakening
- Knight of the Dying Sun – The Hunter and The Hunted
- Iron Giant – Buried Memories
- Infernal Eikon – Buried Memories
- Infernal Shadow – Buried Memories
- Imperial Cannonier – The Crystals’ Curse
- Akashic Dragon – The Crystals’ Curse
- Typhon – The Crystals’ Curse
- Typhon the Transgressor – The Crystals’ Curse
- Republic War Panther – Cid the Outlaw
- Akashic Morbol – Fire and Ice
- Flame Lizard – Fire and Ice
- Liquid Flame – Fire and Ice
- Coeurl – Capital Punishment
- Hugo – Capital Punishment
- Undertaker – Into the Darkness
- Titan – Into the Darkness
- White Dragon – Fire in the Sky
- Necrophobe – Fire in the Sky
- Bahamut – Fire in the Sky
- Sleipnir – Evenfall
- Barnabas – Through the Maelstrom
- Control Node – The Last King
- Aurum Giant – The Last King
- Barnabas – The Last King
- Ultima – Streets of Madness
- Ultima Prime – Back to Their Origin
- Ultima – Back to Their Origin
- Ultima Risen – Back to Their Origin
- Ultimalius – Back to Their Origin
Morbol
One of the first bosses that will test your mettle is Morbol, a giant plant-like creature that seems to be Valisthea’s equivalent of a Venus Fly Trap. Thankfully, it’s almost a tutorial on how to handle boss fights, so you shouldn’t have any trouble defeating it.
Eikon of Fire
Surprise, there are two Eikons of Fire, despite the lore of the world suggesting that they shouldn’t exist. As the Phoenix, this is one of your first Kaiju-like battles during Final Fantasy 16, giving you a taste of what to expect in the future.
The main thing during this on-rail experience is to keep firing fireballs at the Eikon of Fire, while also evading any attacks. Near the end, when the Eikon of Fire starts summoning Hellfire, keep firing at it until its health reaches almost zero, and not at the Hellfire.
Tiamat
Despite being a regular in the marketing, Tiamat’s time within Final Fantasy 16 is short-lived, as you’ll need to defeat him. The main idea is to evade his attacks and follow up with some Eikonic abilities to whittle his health bar down. There aren’t any major attacks of his to worry about, so feel free to flail at him.
Benedikta
One of the many Dominants you’ll encounter during the story, Benedikta uses her connection with her Eikon, Garuda, to deal attacks at you. She’s pretty fast and dangerous, so it is best to keep evading until an opening appears, while also using your Eikonic abilities during the battle to deal damage. Over the course of the battle, as you bring her health down, cutscenes will give you a much-needed break from the action. However, these do have quick-time events, so keep an eye out for those.
Garuda
Your first fight against one of the Final Fantasy 16 Eikons is no easy task but gives you a taste of what to expect when you go up against any of the other Eikons on the list. For most of the fight, Garuda is on her hands and knees dealing attacks, so your best bet is to evade left or right and attack where she isn’t facing.
Towards the end of the battle, you’ll take control of the second Eikon of Fire, Ifrit, to finish Garuda off. This mostly consists of a few attacks and a few quick-time events.
Infernal Eikon and Infernal Shadow
This boss fight consists of a few phases, where you’ll need to defeat the Infernal Eikon (Ifrit) and the Infernal Shadow, a dark version of Clive Rosfield. The Infernal Eikon is quite large compared to you, so your best bet is to stick close to his feet as much as possible while watching out for his charge attack.
Once you’ve dealt enough damage, it’s time to face the Infernal Shadow, who has all of Clive’s abilities and then some. He’s pretty fast, so make sure to keep an eye on his wind-up attacks so you can evade and get an opening.
During this encounter, you’ll learn how to Limit Break as well as come in tune with Ifrit, allowing you to use some awesome abilities thanks to Clive’s connection with Ifrit.
Typhon
Typhon, later becoming Typhon the Transgressor during the same fight, is an otherworldly creature that you encounter after destroying the first of the Mothercrystals. He has a fair amount of area attacks that can be devastating for you if you don’t avoid them, so when you see a ring below your feet, make sure to move out of the way.
You’ll also get the chance to become Ifrit during this boss fight, who contains a lot of the same moves that Clive has normally.
Liquid Flame
A creature made of pure lava and fire, Liquid Flame is keen on protecting one of the Mothercrystals. It moves across the arena as easily as a liquid can, and can easily overwhelm you, especially in the latter half of the fight. Fortunately, you have the help of Shiva here to bring some coolness, which should make this boss fight somewhat of a breeze.
Hugo
Hugo Kupka is out for revenge, especially after you killed his beloved Benedikta. He’s a strong-hitter, usually following up strong attacks with equally vicious hits after, so make sure to evade numerous times when he starts his combos.
During the second half, you’ll drop into a new arena filled with rock, the element of Hugo’s Eikon, so he can deal some large area attacks that won’t be nice for your health bar. This is why we recommend saving your potions until later on in the fight.
Titan
One of the biggest Eikon fights you’ll have to deal with, Titan gives Clive the opportunity to truly become Ifrit. In this hour-long fight, you’ll deal with three phases. Firstly, Titan will be a standard fight, requiring you to avoid standard punches and kicks while dealing damage to his legs.
Next up, he’ll become Titan Lost, an Eikon who has drunk too much Aether and become super powerful and gigantic. You’ll need to complete a variety of quick-time events, while also avoiding his huge attacks on small platforms, however, these give you an opening to strike.
Lastly, as you and Titan fall through the large hole in the mountain, you’ll have to deal with Titan as you’re both in freefall. While this does look and seem different from most battles in the game, it mostly works the same. During this, we recommend watching out for his Earthshatter move, where he’ll hover near a side of the chasm and cause pillars of earth to fly up, but you can avoid this by sticking to the other side.
Bahamut
The Eikon that most would confuse with a Dragon, Bahamut is easily one of the most challenging fights our characters have had to face yet. Fortunately, the Phoenix is here to help you take down Bahamut.
This fight sees you take to the atmosphere, as well as learn a new ability while Clive is Ifrit. This battle is mostly a spectacle outside of the standard weaving and evading you normally do, especially during the Ifrit Risen portion of the boss.
Barnabas (First fight)
Unfortunately, when you first properly fight Barnabas, you’re doomed to fail. When his initiates a powerful move that creates a purple health bar, you’re incapable of bringing it down. When he attacks, a cutscene will play with Clive failing to defeat the King of Waloed, forcing him to retreat.
Barnabas (Second fight)
The second time you encounter Barnabas is within a large tower created within the Kingdom of Waloed. This multi-phase boss fight is one of the most challenging, simply because he can take a lot of damage before succumbing. The primary abilities to watch out for are one where he creates a line of darkness in front of him, so you’ll need to get behind him before a large attack occurs, and one where he’ll float up into the air and throw a giant spear, which you’ll need to evade.
We recommend saving your healing items until the second phase of the boss fight, which takes place on a small platform. Due to the more constricted area, Barnabas can deal a lot of damage as he remains close to you.
Ultima (First fight)
The first time you finally face Ultima is within a realm between dimensions. He can quickly change the element and layout of the domain, dealing massive amounts of damage thanks to area attacks. Due to the sheer size of these attacks, the best bet is to close in on him as fast as possible and deal damage below and around him.
Ultima Prime / Ultima / Ultima Risen / Ultimalius
In true Final Fantasy style, the final boss fight of the game is a huge and long spectacle that can take over an hour to complete, but it’s very much worth witnessing.
The first fight is with Ultima Prime, which sees Clive, Bahamut, and Joshua all taking on the Ifrit version of the villain. This battle is all quick-time events, so it shouldn’t be a problem here. Next up is Ultima, who has now combined the various versions of himself that you helped free. This battle is close to your first fight with Ultima.
Ultima Risen is up next, with the Ifrit Risen avatar coming back to take on Clive. Fortunately, thanks to the power of the Phoenix, Clive can also turn into Ifrit Risen. This battle is a standard Kaiju-like fight that requires you to use all of the abilities that you’ve gained since the start of the game. The main problem here is a powerful ability that Ultima Risen will initiate, which requires you to quickly attack and bring the purple bar down. Simply keep on the attack, stay close, and evade any attacks when they almost touch you.
Finally, Ultimalius is the last phase of this lengthy boss fight. During this phase, you’ll need to deal with various Eikonic abilities from Ultimalius that you would’ve come up against during the rest of the game. We recommend using Garuda’s Eikonic abilities to bring down his stagger bar quickly, as staggering him initiates a quick-time event cutscene with both Clive and Ultimalius using their Eikonic abilities. After using the Phoenix’s abilities, Utimalius will become staggered for the last portion of the fight, so simply spam your abilities and he will soon be finished.
Now that you’ve defeated the final boss of the game, we recommend checking out our Final Fantasy 16 ending explained guide to help you figure out what the hell just happened. Alternatively, you can prepare for a Final Fantasy 16 new game plus run, like I’m sure you’ll do.
How many Final Fantasy 16 bosses are there?
There are a total of 41 main bosses in Final Fantasy 16 if you include multiple fights with the same boss, or if you include different phases of the same boss (and with different names). However, if you include mini-bosses or side content, this number would drastically increase.
For the sake of clarity, we thought it would be best to only focus on the main bosses here, simply because these are essential for the completion of the game.
That’s all of the Final Fantasy 16 bosses you’ll be facing. All of them are found in the Final Fantasy 16 quests, so you won’t miss them, but if you need some help to defeat these creatures, you can check out our Final Fantasy 16 walkthrough which offers plenty of guides to get you started in Valisthea.