Final Fantasy XVI Guide | How To Defeat The Infernal Eikon And Shadow

Here’s everything you need to know on how to beat the most fearsome duo in Final Fantasy XVI.

Game Guide by Ornstein on Jan 19, 2025

The Infernal Eikon and Shadow are fearsome enemies that will, without fail, bring your battle skills, tactics, and patience into question. This is a battle that requires plans made with fastidious care and decisions at lightning speed, with two enemies complementing each other with different powers. Below is a strategy to help you get ready and ace this intense battle.

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Prepare for the Battle

That is the key-brutal preparation for battling the Infernal Eikon and Shadow. First and foremost, make sure your character and party members are at an appropriate level for the fight. Try to equip items that increase fire and shadow damage resistance by a large margin, as those are his two primary elements. Restock up on healing items, status-curing potions, and buffing items that enhance survivability. The optimal thing will be to have skills or spells slotted that quickly reduce damage taken or affect the field, such as area-of-effect heals or crowd-control skills.

Understanding The Infernal Eikon

The Infernal Eikon is a large, fire-based foe that's known for causing insane AoE and burst damage. Pretty much all of its attacks set the field ablaze or launch explosives. Beware "Infernal Flare," which creates massive AoE damage, and "Blazing Strike," which focuses all its damage onto a single target.

Dissolve the Infernal Eikon by having your party members spaced out from each other. Make sure always to be dodging or neutralizing its attacks because just being within its AoE can drain your health in the blink of an eye. Use long-range attacks to lower its health by keeping a good distance and then just target its elemental weaknesses, like water or ice.

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Facing Shadow

The shadow, the second opponent of this fight, excels in stealth, dark magic, and crippling debuffs. Most of his hits include skills such as "Veil of Darkness," which lowers your hit rate for some time, and "Shadow Bind," which binds all your characters. Shadow can also disappear from and reappear into visibility, therefore making targeting him much more difficult.

To defeat him, include in your roster those characters who can dispel invisibility or have area-of-effect attacks, like light magic. Always be focused on his movements and prepare for where he will reappear. Make sure he falls first because otherwise, his debuffs will make the fight against the Infernal Eikon much more difficult to handle.

Managing The Dual Threat

The combination of the Infernal Eikon and Shadow makes this fight even more challenging because you do heavy and consistent damage while the other cripples your party from fighting effectively. The key to success, therefore, lies in mitigating both threats at the same time.

Focus your attention first on Shadow because if his debuffs and stealth mechanisms are left unmanaged, they can easily get out of hand. Use AoE strikes or crowd-control skills to prevent him from disturbing your group. Once Shadow is defeated, direct your attention to the Infernal Eikon and avoid the most powerful attacks.

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Positioning: Positioning is important in this fight. During the fight, the healer and the ranged troops should be outside, while the tank or melee classes must engage the enemies closely. The design makes sure that the characters affected by AoE strikes are few and, at the same time, makes your squad focus on their specific roles more effectively.

Timing and Resource Management

Infernal Eikon versus Shadow can be considered more of a marathon rather than a sprint. At the beginning of the combat, conserve your resources and refrain from using the potion and strong skills unless really necessary. Save your ultimate skill or the most powerful attack during instances when the opponent is most vulnerable, such as when Shadow is unsheathed or Infernal Eikon is doing a slow, predictable skill.

If either enemy enrages, a flashing red glow usually marks this, increasing your defenses. Angered states usually imply increased damage and quicker attack cadences. Try surviving those spikes and exploit moments where you can counterattack.

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Be patient, and just grind

Lastly, patience is your biggest treasure. The Infernal Eikon and Shadow are designed to crucify overconfidence and impatience. Put more importance on learning their attack patterns and adapting in the heat of battle. When defeated, treat every attempt as a trial to learn more about their mechanics.

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