Things are really heating up in Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers! Mt. Gulg is the expansion’s fifth dungeon — not to mention a real doozy if you’re afraid of heights. Just don’t look down while you slice and dice your way through this imposing aerial citadel. You’re very near the end of the main Shadowbringers storyline, so it would be a shame to give up now! Not to mention we’re here to help. It’s time for our Mt. Gulg dungeon guide to FF14.
If you’re still having trouble reaching Mt. Gulg, don’t fret, either! We’ve got guides to Dohn Mheg and Holminster Switch — as well as their complex bosses. Then check out our guide to finishing Qitana Ravel and Malikah’s Well for good measure.
The first thing to know about Mt. Gulg is actually more about Shadowbringers itself. The new expansion introduced myriad changes to Jobs, quests, and more. One of the biggest such changes was an overall increase in damage from group content. Basically, dungeon and raid enemies do comparatively more damage than they did before Shadowbringers. The idea is to make tanks and healers more active than ever — focusing on the signature aspects of their given roles. DPS players, meanwhile, need to work quickly to reduce incoming damage from trash mobs.
Forgiven Cruelty – Mt. Gulg FF14 Dungeon Guide
Rake is your run of the mill “tankbuster.” It deals significant single-target damage to whoever Forgiven Cruelty is targeting. If you’re playing things right, that should be the tank! Make sure you shield and heal through it when possible.
Cyclone Wing just deals unavoidable damage to the entire party. It’s not tremendously painful, so just heal and shield through it as always.
Lumen Infinitum will target a random player in the party. You can tell who’s the unlucky soul by looking at Forgiven Cruelty itself. The boss will rise into the air, turn to face the player, and proceed to fire a beam of hot death from its mouth. There is no area of effect marker, so you’ll have to watch the boss itself to know where not to stand.
Forgiven Cruelty will also rise into the air when it casts Typhoon Wing. This summons three green orbs symmetrically placed around the boss. After a short delay, each orb will fire a cone of damaging energy — complete with AoE markers. However, the markers appear far too late to be useful. You need to stand away from the orbs ahead of time to dodge the attack.
Later on, Typhoon Wing will be accompanied by more green orbs around the arena. These also detonate with circular markers faster than you can avoid them. The idea is to avoid the cones from the boss while not standing too close to the orbs around the area. It’s not easy to gauge the distance, at first, so try to remember the AoE sizes on future casts.
And that’s it! Forgiven Cruelty is far from the hardest boss on Mt. Gulg. Next you’ll face the usual trash mobs, along with a couple mini-bosses called Forgiven Apathy. This wall-like entity will fire off AoE cones that are more of a nuisance than an actual danger. Just avoid them and make your way to the next boss of Mt. Gulg: Forgiven Whimsy.
Forgiven Whimsy – Mt. Gulg FF14 Dungeon Guide
Pay close attention to Forgiven Whimsy and the space you fight them in. You will immediately notice that both the floor and the boss are divided into nine square tiles. Throughout this fight, Forgiven Whimsy will telegraph its attacks by showing patterns on its body. The patterns on its tiles — indicated by glowing squares and its faces — tell you where not to stand on the platform.
You don’t have to worry about that when Whimsy casts Sacrament of Penance, though. This is just another, typical, group-wide AoE attack that cannot be avoided. Shield and heal through it as necessary, but don’t go blowing any major cooldowns. It’s not that bad!
The same goes for Catechism. It’s just an average tankbuster that deals high damage to, well, the tank. Heal and shield through it, but don’t worry too much. It’s just meant to keep you on your toes.
The move Exegesis is where things get tricky. When casting this move, Forgiven Whimsy will rearrange its face plates to reveal a new pattern of masks. The idea is to not stand on whichever floor tiles match the pattern on the boss. Thankfully, the patterns are symmetrical and pretty simple. They typically either form a cross shape or an X shape.
Later on the boss will mix this attack with orbs that appear on the platform. They will detonate fewer tiles overall, but the orbs themselves will throw out overlapping “donut” shaped AoE attacks. In this case, you must find one of the clean tiles and find a safe spot on top of it — one not affected by the orbs’ rings.
Last of all, Judgment Day will create multiple rings of light topped by falling meteors. At least one player needs to stand inside each meteor ring before the projectiles hit the ground. They will take a small amount of damage, but this will prevent a much larger AoE attack from triggering.
Once you master these patterns, though, you’re done! That’s it for Forgiven Whimsy. Next you’ll move through some fairly standard trash mobs and face yet another mini-boss. This is Forgiven Revelry. They’re not too tough, but take quite a lot of damage while you’re forced to dodge line AoEs throughout the arena. Complicated things is Revelry itself. The mini-boss will occasionally raise one of its hands. After a short delay, it will slap that side of the arena and do large AoE damage to anyone still standing there. So just don’t stand on whatever side Forgiven Revelry is raising its hand and you’re golden!
Now it’s time for the final boss of Mt. Gulg in FF14: Forgiven Obscenity.
Forgiven Obscenity – Mt. Gulg FF14 Dungeon Guide
Sacrament Sforzando is another tankbuster, but slightly different than the kind you’re used to. It won’t just attack the tank! Instead it shoots a column of highly damaging energy towards the tank. It’s generally a good idea for tanks to always keep bosses facing away from the group, but that’s doubly true during this fight.
Orison Fortissimo is one last unavoidable AoE attack that will damage the entire party. Deal with it the same way you have up to this point!
Divine Diminuendo is also fairly simple and should be recognizable to any player at this point. It just starts off as a close-range, circular AoE around the boss. Simply stand outside of the AoE to avoid damage. However, the move will eventually add more rings of AoE damage around itself on subsequent casts. This leaves a thin ring of safe space immediately outside the range of the first AoE. You can still dodge the move as normal, but should stay as close to the inner circle as possible — without actually standing on it, of course.
Conviction Marcato works much like Forgiven Cruelty’s Typhoon Wing. The boss will summon four circles around itself that fire beams of damaging light. They will also fire a beam directly in front of them, limiting the amount of safe space. It should still be easy to avoid, though, since the beams are thin and hard to miss if you look where the circles are pointing. Just stay away from them and away from the front of the boss!
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Penance Pianissimo is simple, but annoying. It makes the outer edges of the combat area deal bleed damage if you stand on them. Simply move out of the large, crystalline marker to avoid taking damage over time!
Feather marionette is by far the most dangerous attack during this entire boss fight. When cast, Forgiven Obscenity will summon four invincible clones of itself for several seconds. These cast the same AoE attacks as the boss itself. Combined with the smaller safe area from Penance Pianissimo, and the boss’s supercharged attacks, these are tremendously hard to avoid.
Your number one concern should be finding the “real” Forgiven Obscenity. It’s pretty easy to make out. Just look for the body that’s glowing with a golden light. This body will still create the double ring when all five of them cast Divine Diminuendo. So find the boss, get close to them, and move into the safe area just outside of their inner AoE ring. Then do your best to avoid the criss-crossing line AoE attacks from Conviction Marcato.
Finally, Solitaire Ring creates a line of glowing orbs behind more staggered lines of discs. The pattern is random, but the idea is to stand behind whichever discs are farthest away from the orbs. The orbs will then fire energy beams through the discs in order from closest to farthest. So once an orb is spent, you can move away from whatever disc you were hiding behind and into the newly safe lane.
With that out of the way, you have now seen everything Forgiven Obscenity has to throw at you! Continue dodging these attacks and damaging it until the fight is won!
And that’s it! You’ve now seen everything in our dungeon guide to Mt. Gulg l in FF14. Thanks for taking the time to read it. Here’s hoping it will help you blow through this not-so-heavenly dungeon. You’re also very close to done with the Shadowbringers story campaign at this point. So good luck and keep at it! Finally, be sure to check out our full list of FF14: Shadowbringers coverage in our mega guide.
