You’ve gone through two battles already, against 
Ultima, three if you count the cinematic version at the very beginning. Thankfully, 
Ultimalius will be the final battle of the main story, and it’s certainly not going to be a pushover, either. This page will contain tips and strategies for the Ultimalius boss fight in Final Fantasy XVI.
!Ultimalius is the true final boss of the game.
How to Beat Ultimalius in FF16¶
Ultimalius will be the last fight in this final boss sequence, and he will have three different phases. These phases are centered around the various 
Eikons in the game, with him either mimicking the attacks found with those, or creating new attacks that are themed around the Eikon. Of course, Ultima will use the same attacks that you saw in the first real fight, too, during these, so it’s not going to be just new attacks. Your potion count from the first fight will carry over to this one, so hopefully you still have plenty left over from it.
All Ultimalius Attacks in Final Fantasy XVI¶
As mentioned above, Ultimalius will have three distinct phases to the fight, all centered around the various Eikons in the game. You will find a list of the Eikons used and the phase in which they appear.
Fulmen and Fulgur¶
Ultimalius will create giant circles on the ground, which will explode with electricity after some seconds have passed. This attack covers a wide area, but it’s not particularly difficult to avoid the circles. The bigger problem stems from him continuing to attack you with his other moves, so you may end up getting hit with the lightning while dodging another attack.
(1 of 4) !Ultimalius will create large circles on the ground for Fulmen and Fulgur.
Euroclydon¶
Ultimalius will summon a large number of talons from Garuda, which will stomp the ground in front of him, while heading in your direction. After the smaller ones are finished, he will end this attack by summoning one larger claw that crashes at your position. Dodging the initial onslaught of claws can be a pain, as they track you moving and will follow. There is a bit of a delay before the big claw is used, though, so you should have time to recover and dodge that.
Divine Embrace¶
Ultimalius will shoot out a claw at very high speed to grab you, then it will pull you right next to him. The grab doesn’t do any damage, and it can be very difficult to dodge. Of course, the boss will use another attack right after he pulls you towards him, and it can be just about any attack, including the other three during this phase.
(1 of 3) Divine Embrace doesn’t do damage, but will just pull you towards !Ultimalius.
Cataclysm¶
Ultimalius will grow a giant arm, then slam it into the ground. A circle will appear underneath him, where he hit the ground, then a few seconds later, some rocks will explode from the ground. There will be two more circles like this, appearing just outside of the previous one, with the rocks being bigger with each circle. Getting hit at all will likely cause you to get flung into the air, then take damage from the subsequent circles. There’s always a second or so between the circle appearing and the rock explosion, so you should have just enough time to get a dodge out before it happens.
Exaflare¶
The second phase will have this as one of its attacks. Ultimalius will sweep a laser across the screen, two times, which leaves behind some circles on the ground. After a few seconds have passed, an explosion will occur from those circles. Neither are difficult to avoid, although other attacks might push you into the explosions that come out of the ground.
Boreal Rhapsody¶
The boss will summon giant chunks of ice that fall out of the sky and hit the ground. All their landing spots will be marked, but they fall pretty quickly after the markers appear. However, as long as you keep moving and watch out for the markers, you shouldn’t really have any problems dodging them all.
(1 of 4) The boss will fire two sweeping lasers for Exaflare.
Severance¶
Severance is pretty much the same attack as Barnabas’ Lord’s Measure attack, where a bunch of lines will appear on the screen, then a second or so later, they will explode with dark energy. It does seem to explode with energy a little quicker than in the previous fight, though, so you have less time to find a safe spot in between the lines.
Empyrosis¶
An attack that will appear in the third phase, with Ultimalius starting with an explosion of fire energy around him. After he does that, he will jump into the air and come crashing into the ground, causing a shockwave to shoot across the ground.
Ashes to Ashes¶
The boss will shoot a bunch of smaller fire projectiles in your direction, then divebomb at your position, erupting in a fire pillar. The projectiles should be easy enough to dodge, considering you’ve seen clusters like that before, and you should be able to time the evade on the divebomb right after it without much trouble.
(1 of 4) !Ashes to !Ashes begins with a volley of fire projectiles.
Flames of Creation¶
Ultimalius will teleport into the air and start creating a giant ball of fire. Once it’s completely formed, he will throw the giant fireball at you, which you may or may not need to dodge to avoid its impact with the ground. Upon hitting the ground, the fireball will explode after a few seconds, with its range depicted. After the explosion, pillars of fire will sprout out of the ground for a little while, while the boss continues his attacking.
Strategy for the Ultimalius Boss in FFXVI¶
Ultimalius, as mentioned numerous times, will be using the various Eikons’ powers to fight you in this battle.
First Phase¶
For the first phase, you will have to contend with Garuda, Titan, and Ramuh, with each of those having a single attack attributed to them, with the exception of Garuda, who will have two. Of course, the one move tied to Garuda doesn’t actually do any damage, as it just grabs you and brings you close to Ultimalius (Divine Embrace). You will also have enough time to dodge out of the way of the subsequent attack.
All three of the other attacks have their own nuances that make them a little annoying. Fulmen and Fulgur isn’t so bad by itself, as it’s not difficult to stay out of the circles it creates, but the face the boss will continue attacking you, means you might actually evade right into one of those circles. Cataclysm is bad, since if you get caught at all from the first hit, then you are going to take more, unavoidable damage. If you’re up close, then try to time your dodge for the initial fist slam, then just back away until you’re out of range.
(1 of 2) In between each phase, you will have some Cinematic Clashes.
In between each phase, you will have some Cinematic Clashes. (left), You will see Clive deliver some special hits against the boss. (right)
Euroclydon is definitely the most dangerous attack for the first phase. The initial set of claws have fairly good tracking, and it can be a little challenging to get a dodge away from them. After the smaller claws are finished, there will be a small window, then a single bigger claw will come to smash you.
Second Phase¶
At some point, either after the first stagger or at a specific health threshold, there will be a cutscene and three Cinematic Clashes during it. Upon getting past those, the second phase will begin, where Ultimalius will be using Bahamut, Shiva, and Odin as the Eikons. Honestly, the second phase is much easier than the first, in terms of the new attacks you’ll face. Severance is literally the same attack as Barnabas’ Lord’s Measure, although the explosion of energy might come about a little quicker. That means you’ll have less time to find the clear space in between the lines to not get hit.
Exaflare is just two beams that get swept across the arena, which are easy to dodge, but you need to be careful about the remnants left on the ground. As the boss will normally attack after the beams are fired, the remnants might get in your way when they explode and you’re dodging other attacks. Boreal Rhapsody will just be the boss dropping ice chunks on you, but the move lasts longer than the others, so there might be a little bit of overlap. All of the spots where they drop will be marked, though, so they are fairly easy to avoid, if you keep moving.
Third Phase¶
The third phase will begin once you bring Ultimalius’ health to about 50% or so, with there being another three Cinematic Clashes. He will begin using all of the attacks from the first fight, although they will pretty much be enhanced in some manner. For example, the Magic Rifts (the tears on the ground that explode with magic) will come in sets of three, instead of just a single one. This is important to remember, since you’ll need to adjust your evasive actions accordingly. The only attacks that seem to remain the same are the named ones, like Holy, Flare and Meteor. Of course, he will also have some new moves, too, which will debut in this phase.
(1 of 3) The third phase will have !Ultimalius use attacks from the first fight.
Empyrosis will be an explosion of fire energy around the boss, after which, he will jump into the air and come crashing down, causing a shockwave to spread across the arena. So, it’s better to move away from him during the initial bit, then get ready to jump over the shockwave, upon him hitting the ground. Ashes to Ashes will have the boss fire a cluster of projectiles at you, which you’ve seen before, like in the second fight, then he will divebomb the ground afterwards, creating a pillar of fire.
The final new attack will be Flames of Creation, where Ultimalius creates a giant fireball that he will shoot at you. 
Dodge out of the way to avoid it, then once it hits the ground, it will explode after a few seconds. Note that the range of the explosion will be depicted, so you want to back away from the fireball before it goes boom. After it does, though, pillars of fire will erupt from the ground throughout the arena, with the boss resuming his other attacks. There will be markers on the ground, where the fire will erupt, though, so you just need to avoid those spots.
(1 of 3) !Ultimalius channels his inner Goku, creating a giant fireball for Flames of Creation.
The fight will carry on to the end at this point and upon getting his health to just a bit remaining, there will be another cutscene with one more Cinematic Clash. The battle will continue onto its final bit here, with Ultimalius’ attacks being very weak at this point. Just keep up attacking when you can and deplete the rest of his health, after which, there will be one final Cinematic Clash to bring the battle to an end.
Recommended Abilities for the Ultimalius Boss in FF16¶
As the final boss in the game, you will have access to your full arsenal of abilities. The following list is what we did this battle with, but it’s not the definitive build, so you can use what you want. Remember that mastered abilities can be put on any Eikon of your choosing, so it allows some flexibility in your builds.
| Eikon | Ability |
|---|---|
| Odin |  Rising Flames |
| Odin |  Dancing Steel |
| Titan |  Raging Fists |
| Titan |  Lightning Rod |
| Bahamut |  Diamond Dust /  Rook’s Gambit |
| Bahamut |  Gigaflare |
While Zantetsuken is a strong ability, it might be a little challenging to pull off in this battle, due to the number of attacks you’ll face, as well as the difficulty with which you might have with Dancing Steel fully connecting. So, you could potentially substitute Odin with another Eikon. However, it will be listed here for its damage potential. Likewise, the rest of the above skills are also there because of their utility, either for stagger (Diamond Dust, Raging Fists, and/or Rook’s Gambit) or damage (Lightning Rod and Gigaflare).
(1 of 2) The boss’ attacks will become pretty weak after the third phase is over.
The boss’ attacks will become pretty weak after the third phase is over. (left), He might even fail to execute some of the moves he tries to do. (right)
When you’ve mashed the final Cinematic Clash, you will be finished with the boss fight and can sit back to watch the ending. Note that after the credits roll, there will be one more scene, so make sure you stick around for it. At the very end, you will have the option to create a Clear Game save, with the game putting you back right before the final story mission, should you load it. On the title screen, you also have the option to start a New Game+, which carries over just about everything related to your inventory and abilities. You also have the option to choose Final Fantasy Mode, which ups the level cap to 100 and changes some other things throughout the game.
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