Throughout your playthrough of Final Fantasy 16, you will encounter the many powerful and godlike entities known as Eikons. The game will feature a total of 10 of these Eikons, but only 8 of them will become part of Clive’s arsenal of abilities.
You will unlock more Eikons as you play through the main storyline of the game, and each Eikon has their own defining traits and lore surrounding them. At the start of the game, it was believed there can only be one Eikon of each of these traits — that is until a second Eikon of Fire is revealed.
Updated by Chad Thesen on July 5, 2023: This guide previously did not have embedded links retaining to all of the Eikons. This guide has added two more embedded links, one for Bahamut and one for Shiva. Each of these links will navigate the readers to guides outlining the abilities of these two Eikons and where each of them shines. Bahamut is brilliant at dealing out damage while Shiva allows players to be more defensive while they engage in combat.
8 Phoenix
The Phoenix is one of the two Eikons of Fire featured in Final Fantasy 16. The Pheonix is the Eikon of its Dominant, Joshua Rosfield. Joshua is the younger brother of the game’s central protagonist, Clive Rosfield.
The Phoenix will grant you plenty of fire-based abilities that will help you in facing enemies weak to fire. This Eikon is very well-rounded and features abilities that can heal yourself and mitigate projectile damage. It is a great Eikon for starting on and learning about the game, but you will want to delve more into other Eikon abilities for their specializations in mobility, raw damage output, and defense for the style of gameplay that fits you. This Eikon’s abilities become available after the quest “Sunset, Sunrise.”
7 Garuda
Garuda is the Eikon of Wind. They bare many resembling features to that of a harpy, adorned with many wings around it’s body. Garuda is the Eikon of its Dominant, Benedikta Harman. Garuda will give you their own arsenal of abilities that differ from that of other Eikons.
With Geruda, your abilities will help you move around much more freely — and be able to move some enemies around too. It has no focus on healing you but can have tornados dealing steady damage while you use other active abilities, which can really help pile on the damage on screen. This Eikon’s abilities become available after the quest “Wings of Change.”
6 Ramuh
Ramuh is the Eikon of Thunder. This includes both loud booming noise and the associated lightning that comes with it. They resemble that of an elderly wizard, with long robes, a mighty staff, and an even mightier beard. Ramuah is the Eikon of its Dominant Cidolfus Telamon, an outlaw that you will meet along your travels.
Ramuh has a heavy focus on damage output, with their ultimate ability, Judgement Bolt, being one of the best single target abilities in the entire game. Its other abilities can chain damage to enemies that are near one another. This Eikon’s abilities become available after the quest “Cid the Outlaw.”
5 Bahamut
Bahamut is the Eikon of Light and has been a very long-running iconic character throughout the early days of the Final Fantasy franchise. They exhibit very draconic features, such as the scales, the head of a dragon, and large dragon-like wings. They are the Eikon of their Dominant, Dion Lesage. Dion is the crown prince of Sanbreque.
Bahamut's abilities have a big focus on dealing damage, but with it being more maintained and continuous. This includes a sustained breath attack, a charged up blast, orbs that fire at enemies for you, and summoned minions, giving it a leg up over Ramuh. This Eikon’s abilities become available after the quest “Fire in the Sky.”
4 Shiva
Shiva is another iconic Final Fantasy character that has been used as a summon in past games in the Final Fantasy series. In Final Fantasy 16, she acts the Eikon of Ice. In past games, she has resembled female humanoids made of ice, but in Final Fantasy 16, she looks a lot more human-like than she ever has before. Shiva is the Eikon of her Dominant, Jill Warrick. Jill is a friend and ally of Clive form his youth.
Shiva's abilities are on the more defensive side, with them freezing enemies and trapping them within damaging effects. This allows you to reduce how much of a threat enemies can be and gives you some more survivability from these defensive options, all while still dishing out decent damage. She also offers some field control by being able to push back enemies or bring them in closer as desired. This Eikon’s abilities become available after the quest “Through The Maelstrom.”
3 Ifrit
Ifrit is the second Eikon of fire featured in the game, and like Shiva and Bahamut, Ifrit is one of the longest-running summon type characters from the series. Ifrit has the lowest number of abilities and serves more of an enhancement to your play style, rather than being a whole new Eikon tree. What they do offer you are some of the most versatile options you will have available.
Ifrit features an ability that both deals damage and absorbs incoming damage, attacking while charging up for a large amount of damage within a smaller amount of time, and best of all, letting you let loose your Limit Break.
2 Titan
Titan is the Eikon of Earth and resembles that of a giant stone golem. Titan is the Eikon of its Dominant, Hugo Kupka. Hugo is an enemy and boss fight that the game will build up to. Titan has a big emphasis on a defensive play style, mitigating a lot of damage that comes your way and throwing in counter-attacks regularly.
It’s Eikonic Feature, Titanic Block, will also help you build up your Limit Break much faster. This makes Titan a truly amazing play style to try out — one where you can tank damage like a beast and then dish it back out in an offensive rush down on your opponents. If you struggle with playing much heavier offense styles, this one is simple to grasp and incredibly strong to use. This Eikon’s abilities become available after the quest “Bolts from the Blue.”
1 Odin
Odin is the Eikon of Darkness in Final Fantasy 16, and they are the Eikon of their Dominant, Barnabas Tharmr. The Eikonic feature of Odin will replace Clive’s weapon with Odin’s Blade. Using this weapon will build up the Zantetsuken gauge and allow for devastating strikes of damage.
Their abilities revolve around filling up this gauge, and once it is full, you simply need to hold down your attack button to unleash a visually stunning display of slashes. While Titan offers a much tankier move set, this tree will dominate in the hands of players who don't care about defense — especially effective once you've mastered perfect dodging and parrying and can avoid being hit entirely. This Eikon’s abilities become available after the quest “The Last King.”