The Final Fantasy franchise is well known for its unique boss fights and recurring bosses that exist in almost every game of the series. Morbol is one such boss from the Final Fantasy universe and you actually fight it quite early on in Final Fantasy 16.
During the Lost in a Fog main mission, players will be chasing a Goblin Leader who ends up getting devoured by a Morbol. Unsatisfied with the food it just ate, the Morbol focuses its attention on Clive and his allies, thus starting the Final Fantasy 16 Morbol boss fight.
How to defeat Morbol in Final Fantasy 16
The Morbol, also known as Malboro, is a monster comprised of a mess of tentacles with no eyes and a gigantic mouth in the middle. This beast emerges out of the swamp and starts attacking the trio. It has a massive health bar and at this stage, you don’t necessarily have enough magic stuff to help you in the fight. You have no option but to chip away at its health bit after bit.
Unlike the unleashed version of this beast we saw in Final Fantasy X, this is a bit more well-behaved and comparatively weak version.
Morbol’s attacks
We have summed up the moves of Morbol boss in FF16 and listed them below:
Striking Arms: This move gets the Morbol to pick its main tentacles in the air and splash them down like a whip. This can cause extensive damage so be on the lookout. Players can choose to avoid this attack by evading to the side. As slow the creature may be. This move is very fast so be on your toes for this one.
Bad Breath: The Morbol spews out toxic gas and getting caught up in it can deal poison damage. The damage has been reduced but after catching a whiff, Clive can collapse to his knees for a brief moment opening him up to other attacks. Players can choose to evade this attack by staying either on the sides or on its back.
Wild Rage: This attack speeds up the creature from a slow-moving monster to a speedy pain train. In this move, the creature lunges toward Clive and his allies trying to crush them underneath its tentacles. Players can choose to evade this attack by staying on its sides or by getting out of the way.
Black Goo: This is an AoE attack. The monster will spew two balls of black goo which can cause you damage if you step on it. It will also use it as a last resort when it’s down to its last quarter of health. It will spew the black goo surrounding it so you can’t get near it. Ranged attacks will work best when this happens.
Breath Burst: Once the Morbol in FFXVI feels it is getting pressurized from all sides, it will lift its head up and slam down hard, releasing the same toxic gas as Bad Breath. This will cause Clive and the others to be knocked really far back. Players can evade this attack by backing up from the creature as it raises its head up.
Tips to defeat Morbol
The battle against Morbol in FF16 will start out as it being a slow-moving monster. Its attacks will be quite predictable and you can easily use Precision Dodge and Precision Counter to damage it as much as you can.
After the Morbol’s Will bar in FFXVI is depleted and it is Staggered for the first time, deal as much damage as you can. After it gets up, it will dive into the water and come out behind you. It will start sucking the water in and a Cinematic Counter can be done in this scenario. So the Morbol fight serves as the first introduction to Cinematic Counters in Final Fantasy XVI.
Once Clive is in the air, keep your finger on the square button. This counter will be pretty hard and it will cause another Stagger.
The attacks of this tentacle-covered monstrosity will get more and more ferocious as it nears its demise. Use Pheonix Shift to close the gap after dodging its attacks. Once close, use Rising Flames as a combination to deal the maximum damage you can.
Defeating the Morbol in FF16 will give you 50 experience and 70 Ability Points.
