On this page you can find all the details needed to defeat Face, the first boss in the Level 90 Dungeon, Smileton in Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker (FFXIV). Details on the mechanics along with how to tank and heal.

Mechanics¶

Lines of Fire¶

Face will tether itself to one side of the face statues, these will then shoot out line AoEs that will grant you either the smiley face or frowny face debuffs (blue and red). What debuff you receive will correspond to the statue that hits you so pay attention. Face will then tether to the other side, be sure to look at where you’re standing and receive a debuff from the opposite face so that you trade debuffs. Failing to do so will grant you another stack, dealing heavy damage and knocking you down. Receive a third stack and you’ll be KO’ed.

Temper’s Flare¶

This is a group-wide attack that deals moderate damage to all party members. Simply heal up and use Shields to mitigate.

Upside Down¶

This will flip all the Face statues on both sides, meaning you’ll have to double check what each face is when the next Lines of Fire appears. Later, it will use Upside Down after the first side of Lines of Fire has gone off.

Heart of Fire IV¶

This is a Tankbuster that deals heavy damage only, Shield up and use defensive cooldowns to mitigate it.

Off My Lawn¶

This is a knockback from either the north or south of the arena (pay attention to the arrows). At the same time, each player will be targeted with a circle-AoE so be sure to spread out. This is later combined with Lines of Fire, so be sure to get knocked into the correct Face.

Strategy¶

Face is far easier than it may initially seem, it only has one real mechanic that you need to learn and once you do, the rest of the battle is simple. Face will begin the battle with such mechanic, Lines of Fire, where it will tether to one side of the statues on a side of the arena. Turn the camera to see the Faces and you’ll receive the corresponding debuff when the line-AoE goes off.

You’ll have either a Smiley Face (blue) or Frowny Face (red) debuff. Turn the camera to face the other side of statues now as Face will tether to them and position yourself so that you’re on the opposite face/color. You’ll need to trade debuffs between blue/red in order to avoid accumulating too many stacks. If you get hit with the same debuff, you’ll take heavy damage and be down for the count for a few seconds. Get hit by a third one, and you’ll suffer KO so it’s imperative you understand how to trade the debuffs in this battle.

Face will follow this up with Off My Lawn, this will cause a knockback in the direction of the arrows while also targeting all players with a circle-AoE, spread out so that you can avoid stacking the damage. Temper’s Flare, a group-wide AoE will soon follow and then you’ll be thrust into the more involving mechanics of Lines of Fire.

This time around, not only will you have to ensure you’re in the right position from the first set of statues (since you will still have your debuff from the first time), but you’ll also have to contend with it using Upside Down after the first side’s attack. This will flip all the statues in the arena. You’ll then have to deal with Off My Lawn at the same time, so pay attention to where you’ll end up (you’ll be pushed about one statue’s length) so that you receive the opposite debuff.

This is the toughest part of the battle and once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen everything Face can do outside of Heart of Fire IV, a simple Tankbuster that shouldn’t cause any issues. There is a lot of healing to do in the battle, so if your Healer dies midway through the battle, it may be difficult for a Tank (outside of a Warrior) to keep themselves alive to finish the battle so it’s imperative your Healer survives.

How to Tank¶

As always, ensure you always have a defensive cooldown for the Tankbuster, Heart of Fire IV, then pay attention to making sure you avoid the mechanics. There are no positioning duties in this battle, as you can’t move Face from its starting location so you’ll need to make sure you don’t stack the debuffs and you should have little problem.

How to Heal¶

There’s a large responsibility on the Healer in this battle, you’ll need to ensure that you perform the mechanics as should you die, the battle will wipe unless Face is at less than 30% HP. The vast majority of Face’s attacks will hit the entire party (outside of the Tankbuster) so be ready to group heal throughout the entire battle.