Final Fantasy 16 (XVI) Fanning Embers Walkthrough

Fanning Embers is the 9th main story quest in Final Fantasy 16 (XVI). This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the Fanning Embers main scenario chapter.

Starting Location: The Greatwood
Requirement: Complete Hide, Hideaway
Reward: None
Quest Info: Word of a Dominant of Fire spotted in a nearby village convinces Clive to set aside any misgivings he might have surrounding Cid and his motives and join the man – though only for as long as his desire for revenge demands it.

Objectives:

Escape the Greatwood alive
Slay Fafnir
Find the road north
Defeat the intelligencers
Cross into Orabelle Downs

Escape the Greatwood alive

From the start of the quest, you’ll be in The Greatwood, the first one of the dungeons you can replay later in Stage Replay. Starting from now you’ll have access to Torgal, who you control using the dpad, switch back and forth between him and your consumables by hitting . You can also walk up to Torgal and hold to pet him. Repeat 5 times to earn the trophy You Can pet the Dog.

When you’re ready to progress, start making your way down the path after Cid until you reach your first combat encounter against a group of Worgen. These are a variant of wolf enemy, and you’ll come across a number similar to these throughout the game. They’re typically pretty weak and only use single lunge attacks, so take them out as you like.

When they’re dealt with, head after Cid to a large log and progress past it.

After the scene drop down to the next area, where you’ll have your first encounter with Vampire Thorns. These are living plants that you will also encounter a number of times throughout the game. They have melee attacks, but will also shoot ranged attacks at your if they’re far away, so watch out when you’re fighting them.

Once they’re all dealt with, follow Cid again near a log that you can interact with to push to the next area.

Keep following the linear path ahead, and you’ll have your first encounter with a Dragon Aevis. These small dragon enemies are another that you’ll encounter a number of times throughout the game, though with different names. They’re stronger than the other enemies as they can be staggered, but don’t have any specific named attacks like other minibosses. They largely attack with spins and lunches with pretty obvious windups, though also can a couple of ranged fire attacks that can be spotted when they pull their head back. These don’t have a lot of range and only go in one direction, so they are typically easily avoided.

Once it’s dealt with, continue along the path again. There are some consumables you can pick up along the path, but you may run into what looks like a dead end. You’ll then be prompted on the path-finding mechanic, where you can hold to point toward the progress location if you ever get lost.

After squeezing through the crack you’ll have another combat encounter with both Worgen and Vampire Thorns. Deal with the couple waves of each, then follow the path again until you drop into a large open area.

Slay Fafnir

Your first boss of this chapter is Fafnir, a very large lizard you fight on its own in this area. Most of its attacks are very slow, with long windups so be aware of when you are dodging, and that you’ll need to wait quite a while into the attack windup to get precision dodges.

Typically when it is doing normal attacks it will raise up in the direction it is going to move, so when it raises its head and/or front legs it is attacking forward, but if it’s raising its legs on one side it’s going to roll to that side.

The last main common normal attack is where it will jump into the air and curl into a ball, then drop directly onto the ground below it, so you can avoid this by just dodging in any direction away from it.

After the first stagger phase, it will start doing its main named attack, Spin Cycle. It will curl into a ball and then start rolling along the walls of the arena for a bit, before rolling directly through the middle to try and hit you. You can typically avoid this easily by just continually strafing to the side opposite the direction its rolling on the wall, then when it rolls through the middle just do an extra dodge to the same side to get out of its way.

After that, it will go back to the normal attacks, and possibly use Spin Cycle again depending on how long you take for the fight. Keep putting damage into it until you defeat it and are rewarded with some extra materials.

Find the road north

Once it’s defeated, remember that you can upgrade your abilities (mastering all the base abilities first is recommended) and then progress out of the gap in the arena to continue. In the next area you’ll have your first encounter with a flying enemy, in this case called Hornets. These are very weak generally but can be annoying if you don’t deal with them as they attack from the air. You can quick reach flying enemies by using Phoenix Shift with , allowing you to knock them out of the air.

Keep progressing through the area ahead. There are a number more enemies around and some basic materials and consumables you can pick up with a bit of exploration, but to exit the area keep following the river on the ground, which leads to the area exit.

When you reach it you’ll have to fight another group of Worgen and a Dragon before you can leave. In situations like this you can typically focus on the weak enemies first, then the larger enemy.

Once they’re all dealt with you can also open a chest to the left that contains 1 x Meteorite before going through the gap.

Defeat the intelligencers

Continue along the path, and you’ll now have the end boss for this quest, against Midnight Raven and a couple of Waloed soldiers. This is the first boss fight that counts towards the trophy You’re Not the Boss of Me for defeating a boss without taking damage. Don’t worry too much if you don’t do this here, as there are many bosses throughout the game you might earn it from, but can also replay the Greatwood in Stage Replay after beating the game and it’s quite easy.

This boss’ normal attacks can look a bit flashy but are pretty easy to dodge. Most of them are based around warping and lunges, where they disappear and reappear in a different spot, typically behind you, then do a relatively slow lunge toward you. As long as you’re locked on you’ll still track them through the warp, so just be aware of this when they disappear you’ll quickly have to dodge when they reappear. They’ll typically do a couple of swings after the first lunge, so watch out to not attack immediately if you’ve not yet seen the combo string after.

After the first stagger, they’ll trigger a Cinematic Clash sequence. These QTEs require you to mash when you see an orange aura around the screen. This sequence requires you to do this twice in a row before returning to normal combat.

After this they’ll start doing all of their named attacks, which they have three total, though they’re all relatively easy to avoid. The first is named Raiton, and they will stamp on the ground before a series of lightning bolts appear near you. You can avoid these by just running to the side away from the obvious light points.

The second is called Katon, which they will sometimes do immediately after Raiton depending on how close to them you are. This one they will shoot fire directly toward you in a straight line, which can also be avoided just by moving to the side. When they do this attack you can start attacking them if you are close enough, as they won’t turn once they start the attack.

The final one is a two-part move. The first part is called Futon, where they will disappear for an extended period of time, then reappear to attack you (like the normal warps but longer). This can also be avoided by just continually moving to one side until they reappear. Once they do reappear, they will do a move called Assassinate, where they lunge toward you extremely quickly after a short charge. You need to watch for this and dodge once you see them flash at the start of the lunge. If you don’t they’ll do a heavily damaging attack and can’t be avoided once it starts.

Now after being aware of all these attacks, they won’t do anything new for the rest of the fight. When they are at about 10% health, they’ll initiate another set of Cinematic Clashes which you need to win to end the fight, and you are awarded Once they are defeated you are rewarded with the accessory Badge of Might (Increases Attack by 7).