Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide DLC Trophy Guide & Roadmap

You will unlock this trophy upon accepting The Rising Tide quest from Clive’s Study in the hideout.

You will unlock this trophy after arriving in Mysidia.

You will unlock this trophy after the battle where you first unlock Leviathan abilities.

You will unlock this trophy after defeating the Timekeeper.

You will unlock this trophy after defeating Leviathan and the cutscenes that follow.

To start with and to make the fight much easier, equip the Ring of Timely Evasion. Even with the ring you will still have to dodge some of Leviathan’s deadliest attacks yourself to a degree as the ring can’t do 100% of the work and you die very quickly on Final Fantasy mode. Fortunately you get checkpoints between each phase which will refill your heals.

Phase 1 – You will be fighting Leviathan while airborne. Use fireballs at range and let the ring do most of the dodging for you, using melee combos, brimstone and spitfire.

Phase 2 – Now you are fighting on land. Leviathan will use some new attacks here, but the ring will dodge all of them. Use melee attacks, brimstone and spitfire when he is within range, and precision dodge counters when it uses its bite attack.

Phase 3 – Leviathan will summon a large shield around himself which you have to destroy very quickly. Start off by immediately using spitfire, then close the gap using wildfire. Use brimstone and spitfire as soon as they are available again and then burst finish combos on the ground and in the air repeatedly      , dodging where appropriate. Leviathan will eventually repel you back, repeat the process until you break the shield.

Phase 4 – This is similar to phase 2, only now Leviathan will use more deadly attacks. For Maelstrom you can use wildfire to quickly dodge, though it may be a bit inconsistent. You can also try using the i-frames of brimstone to avoid the initial explosion, then the ring will dodge the projectiles that follow. After staggering him he will use Waterspout, which summons a massive water vortex that will move towards you, immediately use wildfire to the left repeatedly to avoid it, if you get caught in it you will die, regardless of how many heals you have left. After this he will use Angry Seas, sending out repeated shockwaves, these are most easily avoided by jumping and dodging in the air, the ring can dodge them as well but since there are so many you can still sometimes get hit. After this you should be able to easily finish him off.

Attack Perykos and it will eventually summon smaller enemies. Refill your water gauge and time the prompt for when the line is in the highlighted circle to gain unlimited ammo for a few seconds. While this effect is active defeat 3 of the enemies with Tidal Torrent or Tidal Stream. They should be bunched up close enough together to perform this easily. If you don’t earn it here you can so easily in the Kairos Gate.

Note: the official trophy description is mistranslated from Japanese to the English version. The original Japanese trophy description says to “DEFEAT” 3 or more enemies with Tidal Attacks, the English version is falsely translated to “STRIKE”. The enemies have to be defeated using these attacks, just hitting them doesn’t count if they don’t die.

Below is a list of recommended Eikons to use, ability setup and general strategy.

Eikon’s and Abilities:

Ultima – Ultimate Demise, Judgment Bolt
Leviathan – Diamond Dust, Tsunami
Odin – Dancing Steel, Gigaflare

Enhancements and Boons:

First of all, get the permanent free Boons: Timely Evasion, Timely Focus, and Timely Assistance. These will last your whole run and are equivalent to the ring accessories from the main game, they will make this much easier. At the end of each round you will be ranked and receive BP and EP, these are used to purchase upgrades. You should focus on putting a few upgrades into Eikonic Ability Potency first, this will increase the damage of your abilities considerably. Then put 2/3 upgrades into defense, before getting Eikonic Ability Potency to level 4, and bring defense up to at least level 3, then just focus on maxing them both out. In the later rounds these should be fully upgraded. Put a couple of upgrades in Boon Potency, then into HP. Try to upgrade Boon Potency at least once as it’s useful for the last couple of rounds, if you have any remaining BP then put these into HP. Attack Potency isn’t important as most of your damage will be from abilities and Leviathan’s Tidel Torrent.

General strategy for most rounds:

Before Starting – It’s recommended to not use any Boons until round 15. It’s better to save your BP for later in the run as this is when they are most useful, especially on round 20. On rounds 15 onwards feel free to get the Limit Break Potency Boon, this will let you survive an attack that would kill you and activate your Limit Break, also restoring your HP much faster. On Final Fantasy mode enemies will hit you VERY hard, you need to play safely and from a distance using Leviathan’s Tidal Torrent as much as possible.

Round by Round – Each round consists of 3 waves of enemies, usually weaker enemies on wave 1 and 2, then a large wave or miniboss on wave 3. Start off by running up to the enemies and open with Tsnuami, this should wipe them out most of the time. On Wave 2 use Ultimate Demise, this draws in for a massive wide-area attack which should finish them all off. If anything survived use Tidal Torrent from a distance. On Wave 3, or any wave with a miniboss use Leviathan’s Serpent’s Cry and keep your distance while firing off Tidal Torrent, this deals decent damage, high stagger damage, and is very spammable. Then use diamond dust and the rest of your abilities once staggered. Be careful in early rounds in particular as you won’t have any defense upgrades and can die in a few hits, so keep your distance while using Tidal Torrent.

Boss Rounds – On rounds 5, 10, 15 and 20 you will face an Eikon boss. By far the most dangerous of the bosses is Round 20 which is Odin. Play safer during these rounds, keeping your distance and using Diamond Dust and Tidal Torrent to quickly bring them to stagger, then unleashing the rest of your abilities on them. With Ability Upgrades they should go down relatively quickly. By round 20 you should have lots of BP, buy every positive boon for this. Odin is very dangerous and can kill you quickly, play defensively, don’t spam Tidal Torrent constantly as he can sometimes partially block it which can stun you for a brief second or he can attack you while you are firing. Some of his attacks can kill you instantly, this is why it’s important to have the Limit Break Potency boon at the very least, so you can survive and very quickly regain HP.