You seem to have bested Benedikta Harman, but it doesn’t look like you’ve seen the last of her just yet. During the Wings of Change main story quest, you will be facing her again, although she’s not her usual self. That’s because she has lost control and transforms into her Eikonic form of Garuda, who will be the main boss here. The battle takes place over two phases, with the first as Clive and the second as something else…

Awakening Main Quest Walkthrough in FF16¶

Prior to confronting Garuda, you will need to head to the Eye of the Tempest area, which is near The Dragon’s Aery obelisk in the previous area. This will start the Awakening main quest, which will have you chasing after the Dominant you’ve been after all this time. Just follow the trail and keep moving, until you eventually reach a scene that pits you in a battle against Garuda.

How to Defeat Garuda in FF16¶

Garuda definitely has a size advantage over you and after the initial Cinematic Strike during the cutscene, you will find yourself on a rather small platform, especially with the size of Garuda. Despite this, though, the battle is rather on the easier side, considering that a lot of her attacks do some bigger damage to Clive. Sticking close to her is a key to having an easier time, although dodging her attacks can be troublesome due to a lower visibility at times.

All Garuda Attacks in Final Fantasy XVI¶

Garuda’s attacks can be tough to see a little bit, due to her size, as well as some of her attacks obscuring your screen. However, below is a list of all the attacks we have seen her do during this initial battle.

Ground Pound¶

Garuda will use the claws at the end of her winged arms to pound the ground in front of her. This is simple enough to avoid by staying close to her body. There seem to be variations of similar attacks here, with Garuda doing one claw, then the other, for example.

Sweeping Claw¶

She will use one of her winged arms to drag her claw across the ground, performing a sweeping motion. She can do this with either of the two appendages, so be wary of that. Dodging towards her seems to be a surefire way to avoid any damage.

Sweeping Leg¶

You will see Garuda lift one leg up into the air, then she will bring it across the arena, doing a sweeping motion. Note that she delays the attack a little bit, so you will want to wait until you see her leg moving forward, before you initiate a dodge. Later in the battle, a shockwave beam will be produced from this attack, so be wary of that.

Aerial Blast¶

At around half health, or after the first stagger, a cutscene will occur and Garuda will perform this maneuver. She will basically create a wall of wind around her, then summon tornadoes for the duration. You can’t get close to her here, or else you’ll take damage. The best thing to do is to just circle around her, until the wind wall dissipates.

Tornado¶

This will only occur in the latter half of the battle. There’s really not much to talk about here, since you’ve seen this in the Benedikta battle. The only problem with the tornadoes in this fight is that the arena is much smaller, so there’s not a lot of room to move.

Strategy for the Garuda Boss Battle in FFXVI¶

As previously mentioned, you don’t have a lot of room to maneuver in this battle, mostly due to the size of the arena, as well as because of how big Garuda is. You will want to be a little careful in being too aggressive, and keep an eye out for Garuda’s attacks. Sticking close to Garuda’s body is probably the ideal solution, since this will make a lot of her attacks miss you. There is also the option where you can trick her by going in between her legs, forcing her to waste time in turning around.

Either after the first stagger or once her health is low enough, there will be a cutscene, where Garuda will initiate Aerial Blast. You can’t really do anything about this, due to taking damage if you hit the wind wall that was erected. So, the best thing to do is stay back and use magic, until the wind wall is removed. Also, during this maneuver, Garuda will be summoning tornadoes, both big and small. Moving in a clockwise (or counterclockwise) motion around Garuda’s body is probably the easiest thing to do to help avoid the whirlwinds, only dodging when necessary.

After Aerial Blast, the fight will be mostly the same, except she can summon more Tornadoes on their own, plus the Sweeping Leg attack will now have a shockwave beam attached to it. You will also be able to resume melee attacks, so keep at it until you get her health pretty low, which will trigger another cutscene. There will be two Cinematic Strikes during this, as well as a Cinematic Clash, which will bring the battle to an end.

How to Defeat Garuda with Ifrit in Final Fantasy 16¶

Watch the cutscenes after the previous battle, which will bring you to another fight. Only this time, you will be controlling Ifrit and basically doing a big-scale battle with Garuda. The controls basically remain the same when controlling Ifrit, with being the melee attack, the ranged one, for evasion, and to do a move similar to the Phoenix Shift. When the battle begins, Garuda will likely keep her distance, occasionally shooting a projectile your way.

You will want to avoid getting too close to her here, as if you do, she’ll begin shooting a bunch of projectiles in a shotgun-like pattern, which is nigh impossible to dodge without taking some damage. So, your best bet is to just sit back, toss out your own projectiles and dodge whenever one of hers gets too close. It should be noted that you can cancel one of hers with one of yours, if needed. Eventually, Garuda will charge in and try to melee you, which is your opportunity to do the same. A three-hit melee combo will usually trigger a short cinematic attack that results in big damage.

That’s pretty much the entire battle, but there will be scenes throughout the entire fight, where you will have Cinematic Strikes and Clashes, so keep a lookout for those. She does have the ability to summon Tornadoes, but you can either evade to the side or through them. Eventually, when you get her health to about 1/3 left, the game will basically take over at this point, with the only thing you need to do is more Cinematic Strikes/Clashes. The entire end point of the fight is basically a cutscene, so you’ll finally be finished with her.