The Akashic Morbol is the second boss fight against one of the Morbols, with it fought during the Fire and Ice main quest. It is one of three bosses you will face during the story quest, and you might think it’s just the same one as the Morbol boss fight in the prologue, but it will have different moves and abilities. While it will share some of the same moves, it will feel different enough and become its own boss.

How to Beat the Akashic Morbol in Final Fantasy 16¶

When you first start fighting the Akashic Morbol, you will think it’s the same fight as the one in the prologue. However, as the battle gets deeper, you will learn that this Morbol adds a few new moves into the mix, which will make it feel different. These new maneuvers can make the battle a little more interesting, as well as a bit more challenging. One thing that changes from the previous fight is that this Morbol doesn’t have any cinematic parts, so it’s just a straight battle without any QTEs.

All Akashic Morbol Attacks in Final Fantasy XVI¶

The Akashic Morbol will share some attacks with the normal Morbol, but it has some new ones to look out for in the battle.

Tentacle Slam¶

While up close, the Morbol will lift up two of its tentacles, then slam them on the ground right in front of it. This is the same attack that the normal Morbol does, and you can dodge to either side to avoid it.

Double Tentacle Sweep¶

Similar to the previous battle, the Morbol will perform a sweeping attack with one tentacle, then switch to the one on the other side, and perform the same move. The best way to avoid having to dodge twice is to go through the one side, then just keep evading to that side, until the other tentacle is finished.

Gas Cloud¶

You will sometimes see the Morbol charging something up, which means it’s about to unleash a gas cloud around its body. Just back away to avoid this attack, since it’s one of the easiest to see coming.

Worse Breath¶

A variation of the Bad Breath maneuver, Worse Breath is essentially the same thing. The only difference is that instead of going straight ahead, this one will be done in a sweeping motion. This makes it a little more difficult to avoid, especially if you happen to dodge the same way as it’s moving.

Tentacle Forest¶

One of the new moves that this Morbol will do involves it putting its tentacles into the ground, which will make a bunch of them sprout up around it. If you get close to any of them, then the tentacle will attack you. This can be a bit annoying, since dodging them can be a little awkward, but they will reel back before doing their attack.

Acid Spit¶

The Morbol can spit little black globs of goo, which persist on the ground. If you step in one of these, you will take some constant damage, plus they slow you down a little bit, too. Depending on how the battle goes, though, this is a little bit on the rarer side, so you might not even see this attack.

Acid Rain¶

At some point in the battle, probably once the boss’ health reaches 50% or so, it will burrow into the ground. Upon re-emerging, it will perform this move, where it spits the same black goo as the above move, into the air. These will fall to the ground and persist for the following move…

Wild Rage¶

The Morbol will go crazy and perform two straight charges, right at your character. This is the same as the previous Morbol, except you have the black goo on the ground to limit your movement. At the end of the second charge, it will jump high into the air, called Giant Leap, and come crashing into the ground. You should be able to easily avoid all of this, as long as you find a good space to work with on the ground.

Strategy for the Akashic Morbol Boss in FFXVI¶

The battle with the Akashic Morbol is going to play out mostly the same as the original fight, with the exception of the new moves. You’re probably going to want to stick close to the creature, as its tentacle attacks are much nicer than the Acid Spit move. Of course, you still can’t avoid the more scripted sequence, where it does Acid Rain into Wild Rage/Giant Leap, which means you will have to navigate around the poisonous puddles. After the Giant Leap, it will be temporarily immobile for a few seconds, opening up an opportunity to unleash your own barrage of attacks.

By far, the most annoying move in the Akashic Morbol’s arsenal is the Tentacle Forest one. It will put its tentacles into the ground, and a bunch of tentacles will sprout out around the boss. Whenever you get close enough to one of the tentacles, it will rear back and attack you. Note that you can actually attack these tentacles, but it’s probably simpler to just avoid them as much as possible. Lastly, you want to be mindful of the Worse Breath attack, which isn’t any different (in terms of properties), but the boss will move while doing it in this battle.

After defeating the Akashic Morbol, you will still have quite a bit left to do in the Fire and Ice main quest.