How to Beat Benedikta Boss in Final Fantasy 16

Figuring out how to beat Benedikta is one of the first true challenges you’ll face in Final Fantasy 16 (FF16), as hers is a two-phase boss fight with few commonalities between phases, two full health bars to deplete, and multiple sub-phases in her empowered form. She’s also fast and hits harder than someone of her slight frame should be able to at first glance, but that’s the benefit of being the Dominant of Garuda. We’ll go over each of her attacks and combat strategies against her, so you can defeat Benedikta with relative ease.

How to Beat Benedikta in Final Fantasy 16 (FF16): Combat Strategies

You’ll only have access to Phoenix Eikonic abilities for the Benedikta boss fight, and both are close-range, meaning you’ll need to use them wisely as she moves around a lot. Be sure you’ve unlocked all of Clive’s basic combat abilities, as if you go into the fight with just his default kit (like I did), expect a much tougher battle overall.

For her first phase, stick as close to her as you can, making liberal use of Phoenix Shift to close the distance, doing damage during her idle moments, and getting in as many Precision Dodge hits as you can. First phase Benedikta’s attacks aren’t nearly as fast or frequent as her second phase’s, so use this time to learn and practice the dodge and parry timing of her spells and basic attacks.

Second-phase Benedikta is about alternating between defense and offense. About half of her attacks will always be out of your close range, meaning all you can do is dodge and wait for cooldowns to recharge unless you want to shoot some Fire at her. You can also use her ranged attacks to build up Precision Dodge stacks. Be ready for some Cinematic Dodges, too, as during her subphase transition, she’ll literally throw the building at you.

All First-Phase Benedikta Attacks

Benedikta’s first phase doesn’t have nearly as many attacks as her second, and she stays grounded for most of them. Note that while I’ve named all of her attacks, some have in-game names as well. I’ll italicize the ones with official names for ease of reading:

• Aerora: Benedikta shoots a single charged shot of wind energy at you. The windup is relatively slow, and the projectile doesn’t move too quickly, either. Dodge this attack for an easy Precision Counter.
• Aeroga: Benedikta charges a large orb of wind energy above her head, then slams it into the ground, doing initial damage from the impact, creating a small shockwave afterward, then generating a small tornado where the orb landed. You can tank the first hit with Rising Flames, but I recommend avoiding the attack altogether.
• Diving Lunge: Benedikta jumps into the air and draws back her sword, then lunges at you, covering almost half the arena in distance. The lunge is fast, but if you see it coming and catch the timing right, you can parry it or dodge, as the attack doesn’t have a ton of tracking.
• Five-shot Burst: Benedikta quickly waves her hand and sends out five smaller Aero energy balls in an arc. The only recourse here is dodging, as you probably won’t have enough time to run out of its way. Thankfully, the dodge window is fairly generous.

All Second-Phase Benedikta Attacks

The second phase of the Benedikta boss fight in Final Fantasy 16 begins with a Cinematic Evasion, which I highly suggest you succeed unless you want to watch your health bar disappear. She also has far more attacks, named and unnamed, and you’ll need to be ready for all of them:

• Aero Rain: After perching on one of the ruined parapets for a moment, Benedikta will start flying around the castle, firing six slow-moving orbs of wind energy at you nine times. The orbs travel in an arc and have heavy tracking, so while you can certainly outrun them, dodging is preferable.
• Claw Corkscrew: Benedikta rears back, summons three large claws, and lunges toward you, spinning in the air like a drill. The attack hits multiple times and combos if she lands any hit in the chain. It comes out fast, so you’ll need to be quick to parry or dodge it.
• Diving Claw Slam: Benedikta summons a huge claw, then, after about a second of wind-up, slams it into the ground in front of her. She’ll need to recover for a moment after landing, so if you manage to dodge the attack, you can get some free damage in.
• Flying Claw Combo: While she flies around the arena, Benedikta may twirl in the air, then dive at you before swiping with her claws. The attack has three hits total, but using a precision counter on the first will let you avoid the other two.
• Flyby Energy: While airborne, Benedikta will shoot several wind energy orbs at you. These function the same as they did in the first phase.
• Nosedive: Like a Dragoon’s Jump, Benedikta goes high into the air, and you’ll see a sparkling blue beam appear where she’s about to land. You can wait until the last second to Precision Dodge, but I’d recommend getting away from the impact point for safety’s sake, as the AoE she creates is significant.

After removing a quarter of her health, Benedikta will enter the next part of her second phase. She’ll fly up into the air and smash two large chunks of castle together in an attack called Rammelfall, which will trigger a Cinematic Evasion, followed by a Cinematic Strike. Once all the set pieces are done with, Benedikta gains even more attacks:

• Aerial Slash: Benedikta summons three vertical white wind blades in front of her, then sends them out three times. She’ll then send out three horizontal blades, which you’ll also need to avoid. If you time everything correctly, you can build up six stacks of Precision Dodge. The blades don’t have tracking, so you can try to outrun them.
• Gathering Clouds into Rammelfall: Benedikta’s nova, she fills the whole arena with wind that closes in on her position, then builds a boulder out of rubble to throw at you. The rubble ball is relatively easy to dodge (just run directly to one side and dodge right before impact), but you’ll take massive damage if it hits you.
• Tornado: As its name suggests, Benedikta summons a tornado at your location, and once it’s active, it will follow you for about five seconds. It’s slow so it’s easy to simply strafe away, but you do not want to be caught in it.

When Benedikta reaches 25% health, the second and final subphase of this FF16 boss battle begins. As before, there’s a Cinematic Strike that leaves her staggered to start, but you’ll have to whittle her down the hard way after that. And yes, there are more attacks to worry about:

• Big Claw Combo: This multi-stage attack sees Benedikta summon two large talons that first try to grab you, then slams them down in front of her, then starts a Kenshiro-style flurry of claw slams, ending with a single claw. You can avoid all of them with well-timed dodges, but the flurry will take the most precision. After the combo finishes, Benedikta will need to recover for a while, so get the damage while you can.
• Claw Grab into Twister: Benedikta sends out a glowing claw that grabs if it hits you, and then she tosses you into the air for the Twister attack, which hits multiple times but doesn’t deal much damage. If you get grabbed, you will take the Twister, so try to avoid it if you can.
• Tornado: Rather than summoning one large tornado, Benedikta now calls down eight of them all over the arena twice. They don’t last very long, but you will need to watch your step.

If you can deal with all of those attacks and deal about 60,000 damage across both of Benedikta’s phases, you’ll eventually take her down. And for your trouble, you’ll earn the ability to use Garuda Eikonic abilities. Trust me, you’ll need them. That concludes how to beat the Benedikta boss fight in Final Fantasy 16. If you’re wondering how much game is left, check out how many chapters are in Final Fantasy 16.