Hugo Kupka is the Dominant of Eikon Titan in Final Fantasy 16, and the final boss Clive encounters during the 28th main mission, Capital Punishment. The fight with Hugo Kupka takes place shortly after the Coeurl fight in the Kingdom of Rosaria, inside the Duchy’s throne room dedicated to the ruler of Rosaria, aka Clive’s father.
The clash between Clive and Hugo is extremely personal due to the events of the past. Clive ended up defeating and killing Benedikta, Hugo’s love interest, and in retaliation, Hugo destroyed the Hideaway and killed a vast majority of bearers hiding there. 5 years have passed since and now Clive has finally come face to face with his nightmare in the form of Hugo Kupka.
How to defeat Hugo Kupka in Final Fantasy 16
Hugo is one of the strongest enemies in Final Fantasy 16 thanks to his complete control over the earth-based Eikon, Titan. The fight starts with Hugo Kupka going berserk and half priming into Titan. This allows Hugo to cover its body with boulders which reduce the damage of incoming attacks and buff his offensive power.
Phase 1
Hugo starts the battle by creating boulders around its arms and dashing forward into Clive. This attack is really fast and needs precise dodging to avoid being hit. This attack is followed by a multitude of melee attacks including uppercuts, slam, lunge and slash attacks.
Hugo Kupka uses these attacks randomly in FF16 and without a cooldown interval. The window to dodge these attacks is very small and only precision Dodge can save the day for Clive.
Use the opportunity if available to land a few hits in between the barrage of attacks from Hugo. The first named attack, which can’t be parried, Sledgehammer appears shortly. Hugo slams both his arms on the ground and creates shockwaves. Use Precision dodge to avoid this attack or it deals a lot of HP damage if connects.
Hugo keeps using the same attacks with random rotations. Make sure to dodge all attacks and half-stagger him with an offensive of your own. Deadly Embrace from Garuda’s abilities can be used to stagger Hugo for a few additional seconds. This is the best chance to use Gouge ability to destroy Hugo’s stagger bar.
As soon as Hugo is staggered, use Limit Break and attack him everything in your arsenal. Abilities and physical attacks do a ton more damage when used during Limit Break period.
Hugo recovers from the stagger with a cutscene and destroys the floor. Be on your guard and use Cinematic Evasion by pressing the R1 button when prompted.
Phase 2
Hugo starts the next phase with Geocrush attack. He dives into the ground and emerges from a specific location marked on the floor as a glowing circle.
Leave this area immediately or the consequences will be dire. Hugo needs a couple of minutes to recover from this attack. Make sure to attack him but don’t get overzealous.
The next named attack in Hugo’s arsenal is called Weight of the Land. This attack creates a lot of glowing circular spots on the floor with explode with stone pillars bursting out of them. This attack can be avoided by moving between the marked spots.
Weight of the Land is immediately followed by another named attack, Landslide. Hugo smashes his arm in the ground and dashes forward creating explosions in his wake. Sidestep to avoid this attack.
Hugo continues to attack Clive with basic melee attacks before using Stripmine. This named attack creates an explosive area in front of Hugo. This attack takes a bit of time to execute. Make sure to move to the back of Hugo to avoid this devastating attack and land a few hits while Hugo is charging Stripmine.
Perhaps the most powerful attack so far in Hugo’s arsenal is called Tumult. Hugo jumps into the air and slams into the ground multiple times to create massive AOE explosions. This attack also pulls Clive towards Hugo making it difficult to avoid with so much going on at one time.
Use the same strategy mentioned above after Hugo is staggered for the second time. This is the best opportunity for the players to destroy Kupka’s health bar.
Phase 3
Hugo recovers from the second stagger by using the Torment attack in FF16. This is an extremely long attack that involves Hugo creating two huge arms with the help of boulders on the ground. Hugo starts this attack by jumping towards Clive and smashing both of its elongated arms on the ground.
This is followed by three additional attacks where Hugo smashes the floor to summon pillars which also create small explosions in the vicinity.
Hugo then moves away and tries to hit Clive by using his arms as rocket launchers. This is a multi-hit attack and needs to be dodged accordingly. It is followed by Hugo swinging his arms violently to hit Clive. This whole attack finishes with Hugo floating in the air and exploding soon after.
It doesn’t end here as the next attack called Earthen Fury immediately follows Torment. Hugo once again creates a circular spot on the floor (with a much larger radius this time around) and summons pillars followed by massive explosion.
It is impossible to get away from this attack by using dodge button. We recommend using Phoenix Shift to create as much distance from Hugo as possible. Make sure to heal constantly as both Torment and earthen Fury can kill Clive instantly.
Hugo takes a lot of time to recover from both attacks in FF16 and is practically out of ideas to take down Clive. Go on offensive and once again follow our strategy to stagger Hugo possibly for the last time. Hugo resists going down with another named attack, Force of the Land.
This attack summons a lot of pillars from the ground which can be avoided by jumping into the air. One final named attack in Hugo’s arsenal is known as Earthen Fist. Hugo summons two giant boulder arms and use them to smash Clive. This attack is slow and can be avoided easily.
Hugo randomly uses Upheaval technique but it is of little consequence right now. Trigger Limit Break and destroy Hugo’s HP once he is staggered for the third time. This marks the end of one the most brutal fights in Final Fantasy XVI.
FF16 Huga Kupka rewards
This fight rewards Clive with 1320 exp, 270 ability points, 4000 gil, Steel silk, Meteorite and Earth Shard (unique crafting material required to make Grindstone sword).
Clive also ends up absorbing the power and skills of Titan Eikon in Final Fantasy 16 from Hugo Kupka in the aftermath of this battle.
