Spark of Hope empowers you with six last stands. These will provide you with the ability to survive/endure a KO from Zenos. You will need at least 3 of them to complete the fight as three will be unavoidable. The other three provide some wiggle room for learning the mechanics.
The first action he will cast is Tidal Wave. This will cause a sidweways knock back which will sweep you into the pools on the left. You can use Arms Length to avoid these. Or alternatively you can run to the far right to make sure you have enough distance between yourself and the pools.
Next Zenos will cast Akh Morn. This spell will drop 6 low damage beams on the player’s head in quick succession. They can be mitigated with barriers/defensive cooldowns.
Next Zenos will teleport to the middle and cast Come Hither followed by Star Beyond Stars. Star Beyond Stars is a fan-shaped spell + a circle AoE. The Circle AoE in the middle of the arena will resolve first, so you must move towards the outside edge of the circle to avoid this. Then the fan shape will resolve which means you must not be standing on any of the orange ‘blades’ when this resolves to avoid taking damage.
Next Zenos will exclaim “Mine for the taking” where he will immediately do a powerful frontal attack which you must dodge to the side or rear to avoid. The ground marker will not appear until he actually does the attack so you must listen out for his shout instead.
Next Zenos will summon an avatar in the middle of the arena who will begin casting Nine Nights. This will fill the room with circle AoE’s (Area of Effect) in a clockwise pattern starting with the middle first and then clockwise from there (similar to Shiva’s ice AoEs). The one in the middle will resolve first so stand on a circle on the outside edge and then move towards the middle once the first one resolves to avoid all of the AoEs.
Zenos will then proclaim “A test of your reflexes!” and drop an orange circle directly below your current position. You must quickly move out of this to avoid being hit. Much like the earlier conal attack, the only indicator you have is his shout as the ground marker will only appear when he’s actually doing the attack. He will do this attack twice in a row.
A new mechanic comes next where he will resummon his avatar who will cast Mortal Coil while Zenos casts Exoflare which is a large donut shaped AoE attack with four arrow markers appearing in the outer edges of the room. The arrows indicate the directional path of flame explosions that will steadily follow the arrows’ paths. You can stand either on the outer edge of the donut and avoid the arrows or in the inner safe circle, taking care to avoid the explosions.
After this spell resolves, Zenos may immediately do another “Mine for the taking to try and catch you off guard.
Moving through all the primal’s powers, Zenos will next cast Diamond Dust. This will turn the platform completely into Ice. The player will then only be able to turn on the spot. Any movement in any direction will mean the player will skate in a fixed line in that direction until you reach the edge of the arena. Zenos will combine Diamond Dust with Star Beyond Stars, the fan shaped attack we saw earlier, so you must turn and skate to a safe area.
If that wasn’t enough, Zenos’s Avatar will reappear near the center again and cast Dead Gaze, indicated by a glowing red eye which you should be familiar with by now. Turn your back to the avatar to avoid this attack which will happen after the second Star Beyond Stars resolves.
Zenos will now continue to rotate quickly through all of the above attacks so you must be quick to adapt to each attack as it occurs. Be especially aware of his “Mine for the taking” and “A test of your reflexes” attacks while he casts his others as you can easily get caught out.
Zenos will now transition to the next phase and begin to glow red, during which he will attack you with Swift as a Shadow followed immediately by Thorns which is an instant multi-attack dive on the player that reduces your HP to 1. You may end up using one of your 6 Flames of Life buffs to survive this.
Zenos power up! (left), Unavoidable attack at the start of the second phase. (right)
Next Zenos will cast Aetherial Ray which is a series of large green laser beams that focus on the players position, up and down and left to right. You can’t really avoid these so use defensive spells/cooldowns or Bloodbath where you can to get your HP back up. The end of this spell will be immediately followed by Silvered Edge. Silvered Edge is a tri-pattern line attack that flows from underneath Zenos and out.
Keeping you on your toes, Zenos will now continue testing your reflexes with his circle AoE attacks which will appear under your feet. He will then proceed to dive into the circle and hit you if you do not quickly dodge out of them.
Avoid standing in the orange line in front of Zenos when he casts Swift as a Shadow.
A new mechanic, Candlewick will be cast next. Two ground circle AoEs will spawn: one in the middle and a large one on the outside. The area in the centre will explode first upon Zenos performing the attack. Once this resolves, quickly dash inside the inner circle to avoid the outer area which will resolve next.
Another bout of reflex testing will follow into Akh Morn. During Akh Morn, a giant circular AoE attack Extinguishment will happen at the same time with only the center area around Zenos being safe. Immediately after, he will typically do another “Mine for the taking” and Swift as a Shadow attack as well.
After a few of the same attacks, Zenos will use a new attack called Unmoving Dvenadkatika. This is a fan AoE circle which spawns and will resolve in a clockwise pattern. You must move following the clock pattern as the segments resolve and then quickly move towards the outer edge of the center AoE circle to avoid The Edge Unbound directly after.
At this point his life total will be close to zero but he will finish off with a final combination of Swift as a Shadow, Candlewick and Akh Morn. Zenos final attack is Extinguishment if he’s not dead by this point.
He will finally expend the last of his energy and unleash a deadly attack on the player which will use one of the Sparks of Hope. A quick-time event will follow, where you must click the button really fast to fight back. This is much easier to do on a controller but you should have ample time with a mouse too. Just don’t give yourself carpal tunnel syndrome in the process!
Welcome to our Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker guide! Endwalker is the fourth expansion for Final Fantasy XIV after the last expansion Shadowbringers. This guide currently contains the following:
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