Truly, your expertise is needed to survive this MC Escher-esque dungeon. Welcome to the seventh dungeon in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker and one of the few required to unlock the Expert Duty Roulette. Smileton continues the story of the Loporrits, doing their best to make a habitable sanctuary on the moon. Unfortunately, the best-laid plans usually go awry.
Be warned that dungeon guides contain spoilers. If you prefer to preserve the surprise of dungeons for yourself, give them a try first before referring to a guide. Then, come back here for some help if you have trouble!
First Mob Pull
What a twisted web we weave. You’ll want to take the doors full of purple and black smoke in order to move forward. Most of these first encounters are fairly simple. The larger Smiley Thinker will hit with a point-blank circle AoE, so simply run out of range to avoid it. Don’t worry, though. It’s still very basic trash mob antics!
First Boss: Face
The first boss is simply called Face. The fight itself takes place in a square arena and the boss doesn’t move from its starting position. It’s more of a mechanic check than a difficult fight.
- Lines of Fire: This is the primary fight mechanic. On the east and west sides of the arena (left and right of the face), are groups of four different statues with Smiley Faces (blue) or Frowny Faces (red). When they use Lines of Fire, the boss will tether to the east or west side. Towards the end of the cast, the faces will blast line AoE lasers across the platform. The orange AoE markers should be avoided, as always, which forces you to stand in the way of either a Smiley Face or a Frowny Face. Either option will hit you with a debuff named and colored after the face that hits you. You want to alternate Smiley and Frowny debuffs for the entire fight. Getting hit twice with the same debuff will do heavy damage and put you Down for the Count. Getting hit three times is an instant kill.
- Upside Down: This boss flips the face statues on either side of the arena at random. Make note of the new positions for Smiley or Frowny faces. Remember: if you took a Smiley Face debuff, you need to get hit with a Frowny Face debuff to counteract it, and vice versa.
- Off My Lawn: The boss will knock back the entire party to the north or south of the arena. This does very little damage. It’s purely meant to push you into a different lane. It pushes you exactly one lane in whichever direction the arrows on the ground point, so line yourself up to be pushed onto the appropriate color of face lane to counteract your debuff.
- Temper, Temper: The boss will mark every party member with a circle AoE. Spread out to avoid overlapping damage.
- Temper’s Flare: A soft party-wide AoE. Heal through it.
- Heart on Fire IV: This is the single-target tankbuster. Tanks, use your cooldowns.
As noted above, Lines of Fire is the only thing you really need to worry about. You need to alternate the debuffs applied by the corresponding face or you’re going to die. Upside Down merely changes the position of the face statues, while Off My Lawn will push you one lane in either direction. Outside of that main mechanic, this is an easy fight.
Second Mob Pull
In this section, you’ll see more AoE attacks from the assorted enemies. Smiley Metalloid will hit their primary target with long line AoEs occasionally, while the Smiley Scraper and Smiley Daphnia both have point-back circle AoEs. Still pretty basic stuff.
Second Boss: Frameworker
This creepy copy of humanity stands at the ready. The fight itself takes place in a circular arena. No worries about falling off or hazard zones here.
- Circular Saw: The party-wide AoE. Heal through it, brave soldiers.
- Leap Forward: During the cast for this action, Frameworker will target a specific direction with a double arrow marker (shown in the picture above). At the end of the cast, it leaps toward that direction and strikes the area with a larger circle AoE. Position yourself in whatever direction the arrows aren’t pointing.
- Print Workers: Frameworker will target the two Smiley sentries wherever they are. (They will move around during the fight.) They’ll print two copies of Frameworker that do their own Leap Forward attacks. So you need to know their starting position and where they’re going to land. The directions are random. Don’t expect them to both leap into the same part of the map; watch the arrows instead.
- Omnidimensional Onslaught: The boss puts down four, alternating cone AoEs in the cardinal directions. These are followed by four more AoEs in the spaces between the first set. Dodge the first set by standing in the areas marked second, then move to an area where the first attack just went off.
- Steel Beam: This is the tankbuster, but to be honest, you may not even see it.
The slight difficulty in this fight comes from the combination of the Print Workers’ attacks and Frameworkers’ attacks. The Print Workers only use Leap Forward, which minimizes the available arena, while the boss can use any of its attacks in combination, like Omnidimensional Onslaught. Remembering to dance around the alternating cone AoEs from Omnidirectional Onslaught while standing in the area not affected by Leap Forward is the only really tricky part.
Third Mob Pull
You’re now in the heart of the dungeon, where the mighty machine is constructing the environment in front of your eyes. The hefty Smiley Regolith also has its own sizable circle AoE called Orogenic Storm. Just move out of the way to avoid the damage. Smiley Supporter will occasionally attack with a donut AoE called Fire Fighter, where the safe spots are directly under the enemy or far away. Finally, the Smiley Sweeper will attack with a larger 180-degree cone AoE called Sewer Water.
Third Boss: The Big Cheese
Now you face the Smilemaker itself. The Big Cheese is the massive machine that was constructing the whole of Smileton before going out of control. You’ll fight the boss in a square arena, but take note of the conveyor belts on the east and west sides (to the left and right of the boss, just like where the statues resided during the Face fight).
- Explosives Distribution: This drops two explosives — one on each conveyor belt. The belts are then marked with a number of arrows. A series of single arrows with big spaces between them means the belt will move slowly, so the explosive will stop and go off closer to the boss. Clusters of three, densely packed arrows mean the belt will move quickly. Therefore, the bomb will go off towards the backend of the arena. You want to be on the side that’s moving quickly and stay near the boss. The explosives will finally detonate in large circle AoEs.
- Piercing Missile: This is the Big Cheese’s tankbuster. Tanks, use your cooldowns and move away from the party.
- Dispense Explosives: This will drop two mines onto the arena with purple, circular proximity markers. If you enter the radius of the mine, it’ll explode and hit you with Paralysis. The follow-up attack, Explosive Power, eventually detonates the mines manually if no one trips them. This restricts your movement somewhat until the mines explode.
- Right/Left Disassembler: This is a giant line AoE that covers either the right half or left half of the arena, depending on the name of the attack being used. Facing the boss, stand on the matching side of the arena (your right for Right Disassembler and your left for Left Disassembler) when this occurs.
- Electric Arc: This is a stack marker. Stack the entire party to minimize damage.
- Leveling Missile: The boss will mark the party with circle AoEs. Spread out to prevent overlapping damage.
- Violent Discharge: This is the party-wide attack. Heal through it.
Many of these attacks will come one at a time at the beginning of the fight. After 50% health, the boss will begin casting them faster and in tandem. This fight is largely about knowing these mechanics and how to dodge both when they come out at the same time. Staying on the right and left during Right/Left Disassembler while dodging the conveyer belt bombs from Explosives Distribution is key. Stay calm and this dungeon is done.
If you’re curious about how to play the new Sage or Reaper in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, check out our guides for those Jobs as well as the expansion’s aether currents, dungeons, and trials.
If you’re looking for other dungeon or trial guides, you’ll find the links to those below:
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: Tower of Zot
- FFXIV Endwalker Trial Guide: The Dark Inside
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: Vanaspati
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: Ktisis Hyperborea
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: The Aitiascope
- FFXIV Endwalker Trial Guide: The Mothercrystal
- FFXIV Endwalker Dungeon Guide: The Dead Ends
- FFXIV Endwalker Trial Guide: The Final Day
