How to beat the Timekeeper in Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide

The first real boss of Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide takes a surprising amount of time to reach. By then, I had become complacent and felt I was nigh-untouchable with my endgame build. Then, the Timekeeper appeared and thoroughly humbled me. Here’s the ice knight’s bag of tricks and how to beat it down.

How to beat the ice knight in Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide

General tips

• The Timekeeper is lightning quick, aggressive, and has a fondness for chaining attacks. While using the Serpent’s Cry ability in Leviathan’s kit, Clive can dodge twice, with the second being a flip away by pressing the R1 button. This will keep some distance between you and the Timekeeper during those onslaughts.
• Serpent’s Cry is going to also give you an aggressive ranged game. Pressing Square unleashes a longer-ranged shotgun blast of water pellets. Pressing Triangle creates a wave at a fixed distance that deals some decent damage.
• There aren’t a lot of openings to unleash stronger attacks, so you’ll really need to capitalize on the ones you see.
• Don’t sit still. A lot of the Timekeeper’s attacks are AoE and have freezing potential. Pay attention to the ground to ensure you’re not standing in something that will freeze, explode, or both.

The Timekeeper attacks

General attacks

• The Timekeeper will swing its greatsword three times with the third being a full spin attack.
• The Timekeeper will summon a large ice hammer and do a slow, three-hit combo. The third hit slams into the ground, creating an ice AoE.
  • This attack is fairly easy to dodge due to the long windup, so get behind the Timekeeper and punish it.
• Using another three-hit combo, the Timekeeper will swing with its greatsword, leap into the air before slamming a staff into the ground that creates a large AoE, and finally bring down its oversized hammer.
  • This attack is harder to punish thanks to the AoE of the second attack. However, once you see the Timekeeper go up in the air, you can position yourself behind and get some hits in after the hammer attack.
• The lower its health gets, the more the Timekeeper will start to switch up its weapons and combos. Keep an eye on the weapon in its hand to determine the attack.

Hailstorm

The Timekeeper will conjure a large staff, raising it in the air to channel ice circles on the ground. There will be a series of large circles that detonate first and a second, smaller, set that detonates afterward. The Timekeeper will then strike the ground with its staff, creating more explosive ice rings before charging with its greatsword.

The Timekeeper second phase attacks

After taking off about a third of its health bar, a cinematic will play where the Timekeeper and Clive clash swords. The Rime Knight then channels the powers of its mistress, sporting some new accessories just in time for Fashion Week.

General Attacks

• The Timekeeper is much more mobile in this phase and will leap away from Clive before launching an ice weapon at him.
  • Dual chakram will arc out before coming back at Clive.
  • The Trident Special is a lunging attack straight ahead, followed by a spinning lance, and ended with another lunging trident attack enhanced with a nasty ice blast.
• Much like the first phase, the Timekeeper will mix up the attacks in its combos, swapping ice weapons on the fly.

Flash Freeze

The Timekeeper will launch this attack with no notice, freezing Clive and the party in place before jumping away. There are a few attacks that the Timekeeper may follow up with:

• The ice-encrusted guardian will then summon its hammer and begin slowly walking toward Clive. You’ll only have a few moments between breaking free and the hammer dropping to dodge out of the way. Once the hammer hits the ground, a large ice AoE will span out before exploding.
• Dual chakram will fly out and be quickly followed by an ice lance which creates more explosive ice circles.

Glacier Strike

The Timekeeper will leap away and summon its hammer. It will then jump up and bring the hammer crashing down, creating a large AoE that freezes the ground. Jumping up again, it will cast Glacier Strike proper which is another hammer attack that shatters the ice coating the ground. This attack can easily delete half of your health if caught by it.

Frozen in Time

The Timekeeper will begin channeling its energy before coating the arena in frost and jumping into the air. This sets up its next attack.

Frozen Arsenal

The gloves are off as the Timekeeper begins using even larger versions of its already oversized armory. If it’s not bigger like the chakram, then there’s more of it, like the line of tridents that fire off beams of icy death.

Immortal Order

Clearly tired of Clive at this point, the Timekeeper will freeze him in place and summon a sphere of swords pointed at the moody hero. Only a Precision Dodge will be sufficient to escape this attack, so have your finger hovering over R1 the moment Clive enters the Thunderdome.

The Timekeeper third phase attacks

With about a fifth of its health bar remaining, the Timekeeper takes off the kid gloves and summons a giant dome of frozen energy in the center of the arena and several similar columns around it. Getting caught in either will slow Clive down to a crawl and make him extremely vulnerable.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Timekeeper is full-on flying now. It’s not even a slow hover as the knight is darting around like Superman with a purpose.

Final Oath

Every devastating weapon in the Timekeeper’s arsenal appears and floats around it like moons orbiting Saturn. Clive will now need to contend with dozens of chakrams, spinning hammer attacks, and dual-wielded swords while the Timekeeper zips around the arena.

Oathkeeper

The Timekeeper summons a sword that makes the Buster Sword seem like a toothpick in comparison before slamming it into the ground. This does freeze the knight in place for a few moments, so take the opportunity to get some hits in.

Flash Freeze

Sure, the Timekeeper used this attack during the last phase, but this time, it’s a ring of oversized icy Swords of Damascus that come crashing down and great ice AoE impacts.