During Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive’s early journeys, he and his traveling companion and loyal dog, Torgal, make a return to the ill-fated Phoenix Gate. After watching his brother Joshua, the Dominant of Phoenix, succumb to a second Dominant of fire during Clive’s younger years, he returns years later to find closure for his childhood trauma and tragedy.
Within, he stumbles upon a slew of new creatures, headed by the heavily armored Iron Giant. By now, players will be acquainted with the new combat system and have Garuda’s Eikonic abilities to help carve through the Iron Giant’s defenses. This battle takes place during the main quest ‘Buried Memories.’
How To Reach The Iron Giant
The pathway to the Iron Giant is a linear path once Clive and his team enter Phoenix Gate. Once inside, Clive faces off against a number of machine-like enemies in what appears to be a trial for anyone who is not the Dominant of Phoenix. As he continues further inward, he will face off against newly introduced wraith enemies and a larger lich. After pushing through the surprising new foes, Clive will eventually near the end of the trial and come face-to-face with the epic Iron Giant.
How To Beat The Iron Giant
Clive should be between level 21 or 22 if he battled just about every scrum he encountered and completed every optional side quest to this point. As such, the overall battle is not terribly difficult if the player has a good grasp on switching between Clive’s Eikonic abilities and utilizing the perfect dodge system to deal a little bit of extra stagger bar damage. The Iron Giant can deal some heavy damage and strike with some quick attacks, but well-timed dodges and a combination of Phoenix and Garuda abilities will stagger him quickly.
Garuda’s Wicked Wheel is extremely effective in this battle. This attack sends Garuda’s talons at an enemy and launches Clive into a skyward spinning attack. Utilizing Wicked Wheel on the Iron Giant will sling damage against the massive enemy during Clive’s entire ascension to the top of the attack, slamming a good amount of stagger bar damage and allowing Clive to either execute a drop attack or air dodging the next Iron Giant swing.
Avoiding the Iron Giant’s attacks are paramount to victory, too. Continue to knock out blocks of his stagger bar while avoiding his array of attacks. The Iron Giant will swing his sword to the left and right and also overhead. He does have a delay as he readies his gigantic sword, so Clive has enough time to identify the direction of his attack. The Iron Giant will also swing in an arc behind himself should Clive sneak around back, but the dodge is one that Clive will have used against just about every boss up to this point.
In addition to regular melee attacks, the Iron Giant will also lunge at Clive in a charge across the battle arena. Get some distance between Clive and the Iron Giant, and the attack is easily avoidable. If Clive can discern the end of the charge and dodge near it, a perfect dodge can be used to create the beginning of a solid attack chain. In addition to this charge, the Iron Giant will also unleash an attack that sends a strike of energy across the arena in a straight line that reaches into the sky. Clive will need to move to either side of this attack. The last regular attack the Iron Giant will throw at Clive is a shield slam attack, where he will ready his shield in the air before slamming it into the ground, sending a small area of effect attack where Clive was standing. Sometimes these AoE attacks are more difficult to dodge, but Clive can quickly sprint out of the damage area before using Phoenix Shift to unleash a combo.
At half stagger, Clive can use Garuda’s Deadly Embrace to slam the Iron Giant into the ground and stun him. Use this when the Iron Giant is recovering from the half stagger stun to successfully pull him down. Using it at any other time will launch Clive into the air, which is useful to remember when attempting to avoid any horizontal slashes the Iron Giant may dole out. Stagger the Iron Giant a couple more times, and he will topple without too much of an issue.
Be Wary Of Atomic Ray
The Iron Giant only uses one named attack during the battle, but it is devastating if Clive allows it to strike. The Iron Giant will attempt to charge Atomic Ray, a massive attack that can kill a weakened or low enough leveled Clive in a single charge. Fortunately, Atomic Ray needs a while to charge, and if Clive can deal enough damage to the charge bar, he will prevent the Iron Giant from unleashing the unavoidable attack.
The charge bar will take a lot of heat before finally dispersing, but using the Phoenix ability Flames of Rebirth will deal massive damage to the charge.
Should the player fail to stop Atomic Ray from charging, the battle could very well end there. The strike deals incredible damage to Clive, and if he is not fully healed, he will likely succumb from the damage.
Spoils
- 2 Fallen Iron
- 60 Wyrrite
- 2 Meteorite