If Shadowbringers’ Amaurot showed us the end of one ancient civilization, then the sixth dungeon in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker ups the ante. Welcome to The Dead Ends. The Warrior of Light enters a dead sun to confront the gravest threat in FFXIV history.
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
The first civilization is an aquatic race of people who succumbed to the corruption and decay of their natural world. For these starting pulls, you’ll run into enemies called Warped Flesh who attack with a sizable targeted AoE called Terminal Bloom. The second iteration of Warped Flesh also has a point-blank AoE called Amorphic Flail, so tanks should keep them away from the party.
First Boss: Caustic Grebuloff
Nothing is more enjoyable than a giant mutated beast that begs for death, right? At the beginning of this fight, you’ll get a description that states “a southward wind begins to blow” or “a northward wind begins to blow.” Take note of this, as it factors into the main fight mechanic. You’ll fight the boss in a circular arena.
- Miasmata: This is a party-wide AoE attack the boss uses at the beginning of the fight and intermittently after that. Heal through it.
- There’s a twist, though. It’ll also summon Necrotic Fluid orbs that will deal damage and debuff you if they hit. After the initial AoE explosion around each orb, they’ll form clouds that will move in the direction of the wind and explode occasionally. Getting hit multiple times by the same cloud will kill you. Find the safe spot on the side where the wind is coming from to avoid most of the damage. Healers, be prepared to cleanse anyone who gets hit and debuffed with Esuna.
- Cough Up: This attack creates circle AoEs under each party member, three times. Move around to avoid damage, but try not to cross paths with other party members. Towards the end of this, you’ll also be marked and debuffed with Craven Companionship. Stack up to remove the debuff — otherwise, you’ll get hit with Hysteria, which will cause you to run around randomly and likely get hit by…
- Wave of Nausea: A donut AoE covers the entire arena, with the exception of the safe space in the boss’s hitbox.
- Pox Flail: The tankbuster. Tanks, use your cooldowns.
- Blighted Water: A stack marker. Stack the party to share and minimize damage.
- Befoulment: Puts circular AoE markers on each party member. Spread out to minimize damage.
Your biggest worry here is staying out of Miasmata. Occasionally, the boss will use that attack in combination with Wave of Nausea to limit your movement, so be ready for that. Otherwise, this is a fairly simple boss.
Second Mob Pull
Entering a spatial distortion, you’re taken to the second dead civilization. This world was consumed by a war between the reigning government and an army of freedom fighters. Eventually, the former created machines to destroy the latter, only for their constructs to turn on them. As you make your way through this section, random circle AoE targets will appear on the ground. Avoid them.
Airborne Freedom Fighters will occasionally attack a random target with long line AoEs. Landed Freedom Fighters instead have targets circle AoEs.
Second Boss: Peacekeeper
The machine built to stop the freedom fighters eventually turned on its masters, and now it turns on you. You’ll fight the boss in a circular arena, but no worries of falling off. Instead, after an early mechanic, the edges of the arena will be on fire. Avoid this or you’ll get hit with a fire DoT. This is one of the more challenging encounters in terms of dancing away from damage.
- Decimation: A party-wide AoE that drops everyone to half damage and sets the edge of the arena on fire.
- Electromagnetic Repellant: A circle AoE around the boss. Move away to avoid damage.
- Order to Fire: Prior to this cast, the boss will summon small floating turrets around itself. At the end of the cast, these turrets will fire outwards with line AoEs. The space between the AoEs near the edge of the shrinking ring of fire is the safe spot. This attack is combined with…
- Infantry Deterrent: A circular AoE marker on every party member. Spread to avoid stacking damage. It incentivizes you to find a different safe spot during Order to Fire than your fellow party members.
- No Future: A series of six circular AoEs appear at the edge of the burning ring of fire. This will be followed by around six in a tighter circular formation, and then another six clustered around the boss. Then this cycle repeats in the safe spots between the first set of circular AoEs. You have to dodge one set, then the other. Oh, and the boss marks you with circle AoEs similar to Infantry Deterrent, which go off at the end of No Future. It’s a lot.
- Peacefire: The boss puts larger circle AoEs at the north and south of the ring of fire. These then rotate clockwise, forcing you to move around the boss. It will cast Electromagnetic Repellant and Order to Fire as well, to minimize your movement area.
- Eclipsing Exhaust: A push marker will appear around the boss, eventually knocking players back away from it. Get close to the boss to avoid getting pushed into the ring of fire, but watch out for additional circle AoEs on the edges. Position yourself so you get pushed into the safe spots between them.
- Elimination: A single-target tankbuster. Use your cooldowns, tanks.
No Future is the big mechanic you need to worry about because there’s so much overlapping damage that you’ll potentially die if you mess up. Peacefire is the next thing you gotta watch out for, especially towards the end when the boss layers more attacks on top of it.
Third Mob Pull
The final civilization is The Plenty, a world where the inhabitants fixed all their problems and turned to benevolent euthanasia to escape the mundanity of everyday life. Xenofauna will attack with a targeted circle AoE called Revelation. The massive Xenoflora will attack with an unnamed cone AoE as well as an action that has no cast bar.
Third Boss: Ra-la
Once again, a world is undone by a creation of its own making. This time, though, the people welcomed this death. Honestly, this fight is easier than Peacekeeper. You’ll fight the boss in a circular arena.
- Warm Glow: A party-wide AoE that you just have to heal through.
- Pity: Your standard single-target tankbuster. Tanks, use your cooldowns to minimize damage.
- Prance: The boss leaps around the arena, creating four large circular AoEs that cover the entire battlefield. These explode in the order they were created.
- Lifesbreath: The boss leaps outside of the arena and then fires a long line AoE across it. In the path of this AoE, butterflies will appear with ground icons showing the direction they’re facing. You want to stand behind a butterfly because they’ll eventually shoot lasers in the direction they’re facing. Subsequent casts of this attack will be combined with Loving Embrace.
- Benevolence: A standard stack marker. Stack to share and minimize party damage.
- Loving Embrace: Ra-la raises one wing. Whichever wing is raised, the boss will attack that entire side of the arena.
- Still Embrace: Circular AoE markers on every party member. Spread out to avoid stacking damage.
You’re almost there. You stand in the sea of stars and you’ve walked through the husks of dead worlds. One more step in your walk to save the world. But you can’t save the world if you can’t do your job. 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 Dungeon Guide: Tower of Babil
- 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 Trial Guide: The Final Day
