Morbol (also known as Malboro) is pretty much a staple of the Final Fantasy series. It is notorious for giving many players a hard time thanks to its signature Bad Breath technique. Bad Breath can instantly inflict poison on the player's character upon exposure, and other super-secret Morbol boss variants can inflict other status afflictions via Bad Breath (or even instant KOs).
As such, Morbol is considered the primary ambassador of status ailments in the series' general bestiary and an arduous challenge to overcome. Fortunately, the Morbol your protagonist Clive fights in Final Fantasy 16's Stillwind prologue area is only the poisonous variant, which is appropriate considering it's the first boss you encounter in the game.
Before You Fight Morbol
By the time you reach Morbol, you will have enough ability points to unlock at least four abilities from Clive's arsenal. The ones you should focus on getting first are Lunge, Burning Blade, and Charged Magic.
Lunge is the right ability for this fight, as it allows you to close the distance with Morbol immediately after you move away from its attacks' area of effect. This will come in handy as many of Morbol's attacks are akin to poison clouds and micro-poisonous swamps that can drain your health if you are standing too close to Morbol or within the area of its attacks.
Charged Magic also gives you a stronger Fira spell instead of the weaker Fire one, allowing you to continue dealing chunks of damage even when standing at a distance. Burning Blades' powerful slicing slash is an amazing damage dealer in the early game.
You will be accompanied by your father's loyal followers, Tyler and Wade, who will be your companion healers should you be in danger of poisoning at any moment in battle.
Morbol's Moveset
In the first half of its health, Morbol will use these moves interchangeably:
- A Tentacle Slam, where it links two of its tentacles together and then smashes them downward in one big swoop.
- A technique I call Bad Spit, wherein Morbol spits out a small, dark, swampy blot that occupies a limited area of the battlefield. This blot has poisonous properties and will drain your health whenever you step on it.
- Another technique I call Vanishing Tentacle. This one has Morbol slithering its tentacle into the ground so that it would completely disappear below the surface. Then the same tentacle will pop up in a completely different location, usually underneath where Clive is standing.
- Bad Breath. Morbol's signature and most dangerous move. Simply by being exposed to it, you become at risk of getting poisoned for a short period of time. However, it will be clear when Morbol is charging it first before casting, and the attack's name will appear on the screen, giving you enough time to anticipate it and dodge safely.
After you get Morbol down to half health, most of its attacks will evolve in some way.
- Morbol will start to use its left and right tentacles separately, and will even try to squeeze you in a kind of tentacle hug by banging them together horizontally if you stand in front of it.
- There's a Bad Breath spell that's like a micronized version of the bigger-and-badder Bad Breath technique. It won't poison you, but it can take a big bite out of your health meter. Morbol will start frolicking in a unique way when it's close to casting this smaller technique, giving you time to notice and avoid it in time.
- The Bad Spit will turn into two, three, or even four spits cast at the same time, filling about half the field with poisonous swamps that you should avoid at all costs.
- Wild Rage: A technique where Morbol goes into a frenzy and keeps ramming into you across the field. It will stand still for a while after its frenzy is over, which is the perfect opportunity for you to overwhelm it with your Eikonic techniques like Burning Blade and Rising Flame.
There are also two scripted QTE prompts when Morbol is at half and quarter health, but you don't have to worry about these if you time your button presses carefully.
Defeating Morbol
Since most of Morbol's attacks are designed to take advantage of you at close range, you must choose your attack window wisely. We recommend combining Precision Dodge with Lunge to get close once Morbol's done attacking and hit it where it counts, then retreat again to a safe distance until it finishes whatever poisonous or tentacle-y technique it has in its arsenal.
There's a Precision Dodge window for every attack, even the bad breath attacks, but remember that after you dodge, you have to wait a little while for the effects of the breath attacks to wear off.
If you can't figure out the specific dodge window for each attack, you can equip the Ring of Timely Evasion, which will show you how to dodge each attack at precise and correct times.
Morbol is also vulnerable to all Fire attacks. Each charged Fira spell deals at least 150 damage, which is a large chunk of Morbol's health, so don't forget to keep casting Fira no matter where you are on the field. Also don't get caught up in long combos, and focus on delivering a charged Burning Blade right after the lunge, then step back and use your Fira until you can close the distance gap again. Repeat the process until it's over.