How To Beat Leviathan In Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide

The Rising Tide DLC for Final Fantasy 16 introduces a new climactic boss fight against Leviathan, the Eikon of water that can be a challenge to beat. This battle is a test of endurance across five phases where the massive sea serpent grows gradually stronger. You'll have to adapt to different attacks and remember your own skills to overcome the torrent of Leviathan's overwhelming strength.

You fight Leviathan as Ifrit in an Eikon versus Eikon fight, so you don't have to worry about any of Clive's abilities for this encounter. The coolest Eikon boss fights in FF16 are even better when you have most of Ifrit's abilities. Thankfully, the point in the DLC when you battle Leviathan will also occur where you will have almost every one of the skills for the familiar flame Eikon.

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How To Defeat Leviathan (Phase 1)

Reduce The Serpent's Stamina Quickly

The first phase of the boss fight starts with Ifrit being captured in a giant water spout unable to move on solid ground while Leviathan attacks from the swirling waters. Remember to dodge attacks with R1 and continuously move around the spout to avoid the enemy Eikon whenever you can. Occasionally, Leviathan will use a physical attack close to Ifrit, but for the most part it manipulates water to strike from far away.

Scattered throughout the boss fight will be cinematic moments where you have to complete a Quick Time event to move on. These events deal damage to the boss, but are almost impossible to miss unless you deliberately choose not to press the required input.

Leviathan Phase 1 Move List Attack Description How To Counter Spinning Dive Leviathan disappears into the water spout before jumping out from one end to the other, trying to hit Ifrit along the way. Use Fireball's tracking to determine where Leviathan is, then dodge as soon as the serepent leaps from the spout. Riptide The enemy Eikon creates rings of water that slowly close in toward Ifrit and deal damage on contact. Wait until a ring gets too close, then dodge or dash out of the water's radius. Tidal Roar Leviathan charges up a beam of water and fires a jetstream of energy through the spout that damages Ifrit if you touch it. Stay close to the edges of the water spout to avoid this attack. Grand Fall Leviathan stays close to the edges of the spout while swimming in circles to create waves of water as projectiles. When the waves finish, the enemy Eikon rushes forward to attack Ifrit physically. Dodge every projectile one after the other before waiting a moment to dash to the side and avoid Leviathan's follow-up strike.

Throughout this boss fight's phases, try to use moves that deal high Stamina damage to Leviathan. The stagger damage you can apply while the enemy Eikon is stunned will quickly allow you to move on to the next phase. The hardest Ekion fights in FF16 are significantly more challenging if you forget to use Ifrit's moves, like Spitflare and Brimstone, to injure Stamina bars on bosses faster.

How To Defeat Leviathan (Phase 2)

Face The Enemy Eikon Head On

Staggering Leviathan once will trigger a cutscene leading into the second phase, where you are transported to a flat plane of water to fight the enemy Eikon. Here, Ifrit can fight on solid ground, but Leviathan flies in the air around the boss arena as a hard target to pin down. Don't forget to use ranged attacks to hit Leviathan as they're flying and wait for moments to strike while the serpent hovers low to the ground.

Keep in mind that your healing Firelight charges do not carry over between phases of the Leviathan boss fight for Ifrit. Unlike S-Rank Hunts in FF16 with Clive or other human fights, Eikon boss battles limit your healing to these Firelight charges while you play as the incredibly powerful Ifrit. This means that you have to be careful with your recovery if you want to survive through all five phases of the battle.

Leviathan Phase 2 Move List Attack Description How To Counter Riptide Leviathan summons a large ring around Ifrit that slowly closes in and deals damage on contact. Wait until the ring is close, then dodge through it. Alternatively, you could dash toward the edge of the ring and dodge before it closes. Breach Leviathan dives into the watery surface of the arena before bursting up from below Ifrit in a physical attack. An Area of Effect (AoE) ring appears where Leviathan is going to appear. Move away from that space to avoid taking damage. Waterjet The enemy Eikon dives into the water and appears at the opposite end of the arena. Leviathan shoots a beam of energy from its mouth before moving forward, swiping the beam back and forth in a horizontal pattern. Slowly move toward Leviathan, dodging the beam whenever its sweeping attack comes back toward you. Once your close to the enemy Eikon, attack it while you get behind its mouth. Salt Spray Leviathan dives into the water and reappears far away from Ifrit. The Eikon circles around the edge of the arena, forming water orb projectiles that target and chase you. Leviathan typically follows up this attack with Breach. Keep an eye on each projectile and use Ifrit's dodge or dash to disrupt their targeting or avoid them altogether.

Leviathan also deals many basic attacks during this and all other phases of the boss fight in FF16. These attacks are not named, making them surprising and difficult to avoid when you are trying to only prepare for the larger attacks in each phase. Remember to dodge and dash away from Leviathan as a safe option whenever you see it acting in a way you don't recoginze as it might perform a smaller attack.

Smaller attacks, such as bites, single blasts of water, or tail whips from Leviathan often leave a small window after they finish for you to press the attack with Ifrit as Leviathan remains closer to the watery ground of this phase's arena.

How To Defeat Leviathan (Phase 3)

Break The Bubble Before It Bursts

Taking out enough of Leviathan's health during phase 2 will cause the Eikon to produce a huge bubble of water around itself, shielding it from Ifrit's strikes. While in the safety of this orb, Leviathan attempts to cast Tsunami, a devastating attack that will defeat you instantly if you let it happen. You have to destroy the bubble barrier around Leviathan before it casts Tsunami to survive this section of the fight.

The Eikonic abilities of Leviathan will not let you simply get in close without a fight, however. Leviathan still summons water orbs that target Ifrit, pushing you away whenever they land and dealing an uncomfortable amount of damage. Leviathan will also create massive spouts of water erupting from the ground, which will push Ifrit far away from the barrier unless you manage to dodge every water jet created by the enemy Eikon.

As you can see in the above video by YouTube creator Direct Gaming, the best way to take out the barrier is to use Ifrit's strongest attacks in quick succession. The massive DPS caused by Spitflare and other powerful moves in FF16 will drain the bubble's health fast. Try to get close to the barrier as often as you can to guarantee your moves land on your target, while also getting Ifrit in range for melee strikes.

How To Defeat Leviathan (Phase 4)

Adapt To New Attacks

Breaking the bubble barrier will cause Leviathan to be staggered, allowing you to deal a ton of damage to the stunned Eikon. When it recovers, you will being the fourth phase of the boss fight in FF16, which resembles the second phase in many ways. This time, Leviathan has even stronger moves for you to deal with, so be prepared to adjust your strategy to deal with powerful new moves.

Leviathan Phase 4 Move List Attack Description How To Counter Riptide Leviathan once again summons a ring of water, but this time creates multiple dangerous circles that can all damage Ifrit. Dodge and dash through each ring exactly how you did before in phase 2. Salt Spray This move functions in the same way as it did in Phase 2, with no adjustments. Leviathan still follows up this attack with Breach. Avoid every projectile tracking Ifrit, and watch the ground for the AoE radius of Breach before dodging the physical attack. Waterjet In addition to the beam of water Leviathan creates sweeping across the arena, several water spouts erupt from the ground at the same time. Find a place in between the water geysers where you can dodge the beam and approach Leviathan without accidentally dashing into one of the spouts. Maelstorm Leviathan conjures a massive whirlpool covering a large section of the arena, which slowly pulls Ifrit toward the center. After this move finishes, it creates multiple water projectiles similar to Salt Spray. Dash or move against the current dragging you to the whirlpool's center. Then, dodge the projectiles tracking Ifrit once the core of the whirlpool explodes.

While many of the moves in Phase 4 look the same as they did in Phase 2, you need to anticipate additional properties on these attacks if you want to avoid taking damage from them.

Leviathan tends to do more physical attacks in this phase as it becomes more and more desperate to take down Ifrit. Take advantage of this and get closer to Leviathan as it strikes to get within range of Ifrit's strongest moves. As always, try to stagger the enemy Eikon fast in FF16 to eventually force its final gambit in the last phase of the boss fight.

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How To Defeat Leviathan (Phase 5)

Avoid Waterspout At All Costs

Leviathan's final phase will test your endurance to its limit as the enemy Eikon uses its strongest moves seen throughout the fight. Losing here will cause you to restart at phase 4, so make sure to carefully analyze Leviathan's last tricks to endure. Some of Leviathan's attacks may as well be as large as the map size of The Rising Tide DLC, making them harder to avoid than any other move if you aren't prepared.

Leviathan Phase 5 Move List Attack Description How To Counter Waterspout Leviathan summons a huge tornado of water that encompasses almost the entire boss arena. Similar to Maelstrom, Ifrit is slowly pulled into this space, but dies in one-hit should they be dragged successfully into the center of this move. Use Ifrit's Wildfire attack to move around the perimeter of the attack until it finishes. Dodge, dash, or do whatever movement abilities you can to avoid getting dragged into Waterspout's center. Angry Seas Leviathan launches a series of attacks comprised of previous moves from other phases. Riptide, Maelstrom, Salt Spray, Waterjet, and all other attacks could be used in rapid succession without delay between them. Recognize which attacks are coming and use strategies from earlier phases to approach each move. For example, remember to dodge through Riptide rings or dash away from Salt Spray projectiles.

Both Angry Seas and Waterspout can be difficult to avoid, especially if you have less Firelight healing from the grueling length of the Leviathan boss fight. Do not waste Ifrit's strongest moves if you can help it since they may be the difference between victory or failure against the sea serpent. Continue to aim for staggering Leviathan to unleash greater damage while the enemy Eikon is stunned in FF16.

Eventually, bringing Leviathan's health down to a certain level will trigger a final Tsunami attack from the creature similar to phase 3. Thankfully, you do not need to break a bubble barrier this time, as Ifrit does the heavy lifting for you in a cinematic cutscene where you finally take down the Eikon of water. Managing to beat Leviathan in Final Fantasy 16 will complete The Rising Tide DLC once and for all.

Source: Direct Gaming/YouTube