Ultima is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy 16. He is unarguably the strongest of all other bosses you have faced until now, having a combined power of all the abilities and attack prowess possessed by every character in the game. After all, he’s a god, the creator of all that walks and breaths in Valisthea.
You will meet Ultima while pursuing the final main story quest, Of Gods and Men. Since this is the last enemy you will encounter in the FF16, you can expect it to be a long and frustrating combat encounter, something you have never seen before in the game.
This guide will let you understand the attack patterns and abilities of all phases of the Ultima boss fight in Final Fantasy 16 to help you win this final story battle.
How to defeat Ultima in Final Fantasy 16
At first, there is a preliminary phase, Ultima Prime, in which Ultima fights as an Eikon against you, Prince Dion, and Joshua. We shall discuss this one before moving on to the actual 1:1 fight stages against Ultima in Final Fantasy 16
Ultima Prime
The Ultima Prime fight in FF16 is all about timing your moves as guided by the prompts on your game screen as it includes a number of Quick-Time Events.
Initially, Ultima will adopt the form of Ifrit Risen and fight against three Eikons, Ifrit, Phoenix, and Bahamut. The first cinematic strike will see you getting thrown into the arena by Phoenix. Ultima gifts you a salty punch while fighting mid-air, slashing you away. You then control Phoenix and perform a QTE against the boss, followed by a third QTE with Bahamut.
With that said, it is sure that none of these QTEs and powerful strikes will reduce even a small amount of Ultima’s health. Instead, the trio of Eikons will feel overwhelmed by the great power of their single opponent.
There will be a short tussle in the same manner again until Ultima Prime decides to spice things up. He throws Ifrit down with a potent strike, knocking him down. Phoenix will immediately come to the rescue followed by Bahamut striking the boss with his energy beams.
Keep repeating this cooperative battle and responding to the prompts on the screen on time and you will play along with how the game is supposed to be.
This spectacular fight scene takes another turn with a combined attack of Ifrit’s Hellfire, Phoenix’s Revelation, and Bahamut’s Megaflare. This attack triggers a Tridisaster mega attack, which seems to have thwarted Ultima Prime at last.
But that’s not the actual case, the boss survives and shows even more aggressive behavior than before. He slams Ifrit down with a powerful punch and follows it up with a dark energy bomb attack.
Phoenix tries to stop the attack from getting to his injured brother (Ifrit/ Clive) but Bahamut volunteers to do the task for Phoenix. Even after trying his best, Prince Dion finally gets exhausted and falls to the ground.
The fight ends with a long cutscene, showing Ultima telling Clive the true motives behind destroying all Mothercrystals. Then, he extracts his Ultimate power from inside Joshua, putting him to imminent death. Before departing, Joshua gives away the power of Phoenix to his elder brother.
The 1:1 fight with Ultima in FF16 takes place in three phases. Each phase introduces you to different Ultima forms added with new skills and abilities.
- Ultima
- Ultima Risen
- Ultimalius
Below is the breakdown of all the 1:1 phases and the tips to remain alive in these.
Phase 1 – Ultima
After the cutscene ends, Ultima Prime in Final Fantasy 16 now becomes Ultima, his actual base form. You will not have your two companions to assist you in this fight, so be mindful of your actions from now on.
One of the starting attacks from Ultima’s side will be Energy Rain. He summons bolts of light from his upper back position and throws them at your location. As soon as you see them coming, perform your Precision Dodge to deflect the attack.
The next attack is Divestrike, in which Ultima disappears for a moment and comes back from avove with a sudden dive attack. The good thing is that you can predict it beforehand and evade it, as there will be an electric circle indicating the strike position.
The Charge Attack of the Boss sees him flying a little bit and coming at you at high speed. Make sure to keep a distance when you see him charging up and you will easily dodge this one.
The named attack, Flare sees Ultima creating two giant orbs around him and throwing them at once toward your location. This gives you a very short time to respond, so you have to perform the Precision Block at the right time.
Ultima can also summon a number of Meteors from the air and strikes them onto the ground. The ground of impact becomes a damage zone and deals explosive damage if you get caught in this area.
Finally, after losing a significant amount of his health, Ultima pushes you away and tends to adopt his new form in a cutscene. This indicated a new fight phase.
Phase 2 – Ultima Risen
When the cutscene in FF16 ends, you will see Ultima in Phoenix form, while you will become Ifrit Risen as well to match the power difference.
This fight is quite similar to the Ultima Prime phase and happens mid-air, but this time you have more control over the character and can decide your own moves instead of QTEs.
The first attack you have to take care of is his Claw Strikes. In this attack, he performs a combo of three closed-up slashes. If you utilize Precision Dodge well in time, this strike can be neutralized easily.
The Smite attack sees the boss coming suddenly closer to you and throwing a sped-up energy beam directly at you. This attack will be done twice, but next time the enemy comes from behind your previous location.
You will get a very short time to run away from this one, so try to dodge the attack from two sides after getting to know its pattern.
The Rapture is yet another move Ultima Risen has in his arsenal. In this move, the boss produces a huge orb of energy that immediately grows to infinite limits. You will certainly find yourself in a no-run position. The only thing you can do is use Wildfire to make some distance from Ultima Risen to take reduced damage.
When the red health bar of Ultima Risen is depleted successfully, he shouts with anger and agony upon knowing that he also can be defeated. With this starts a long cutscene, where Ultima adopts his true and final form, Ultimalius.
Phase 3 – Ultimalius
At this stage of the fight, Ultimalius can use all abilities of the Eikons one after the other. This also limits the types of attacks he can utilize now, as each Eikon possesses a set amount of specific skills and attack powers.
The fight against Ultimalius in this form occurs in three separate phases. In each phase, Ultimalius will only utilize the powers of selected Eikons.
These three phases are listed below.
- Garuda/Ramuh/Titan
- Bahamut/Odin/Shiva
- Phoenix
As this is an extremely lengthy fight, we have detailed separately how you can defeat Ultimalius in Final Fantasy 16. This will be followed by a QTE, in which you just have to act according to the prompt given to you. After further depleting the health bar of Ultima in FF16, play the last cinematic fight to end the existence of so-called immortal god.
