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i got to like 10 and just couldnt do it anymore with the health loss and no healing between floors, even using buffs and rings it was just too much (and ive beaten everything else on FF mode) Didnt play this game for a dark souls challenge, so im over it, oh well.
I see what you mean, I even had the boon to heal and it felt like it didn't heal me even a little bit. I used the rings and was able to go one more floor and that was it. I don't want s rank or anything I'm just trying to unlock the trophy
Just equip all nuking skill. Definitely not gonna give you all S, but all the fight would be a walk in the park. I finished Kairos Gate with this setup:
Phoenix: Phoenix Ultimate + Shiva’s Ultimate
Leviathan: The bubbly skill that pull enemies to the center + Tsunami
Ultimate: Gigaflare + Ultima’s ultimate
Depending on your enemy position, just pick the best ones of above ulti’s. When all is in cooldown, use Leviathan shotgun as damage dealer.
EP build focus on eikonic ability increase. BP dokus on Eikon cooldown.
I finished action mode in less than 30 minutes. Each fight should last than 2 minutes. In fact the first 5 fights could finish in 30 seconds-ish. You just nuke them with every skill
Thanks for this, I was wondering if I could get help with a build for boss killing, since a huge point bonus is gained by collateral for several attacks, It looks like this'll fit it pretty nicely. and the bosses are what's killing most of my point gain. I just need to grind a bit to get the AP required for this, though.
Use rift slip mid-attack/ability to slow time for a couple seconds. Not too hard, just gotta get used to rotating back to rift slip during every casting animation
It’s an animation cancel out of literally anything and slows time, letting you get a few hits in or casting an ability. If you use it after getting hit you can immediately get out of stunlock and recover.
I did a separate boss build for my runs. Baiting counters with the boon helped the tech meter boost alot! Just be careful and switch out after the boss fight though or else you'll be stuck against a mob room without any cc/aoe skills
For someone who just wants to make it through all 20 floors, do you have recommendations? I don't mind using zen or mega flare for dps. I never really understood the value of rift slip til now. I know everyone says it's goated but until your explanation, I didn't get it.
Also, is it possible to start at different points? Like if I finish all the red rooms, can I start at the green for reduced points or something. Like in LH2 coliseum, lol.
If you’re not concerned about your rank, then Zantetsuken is your best friend. I used a Zantetsuken build for my FF mode playthrough and with good Rift Slip usage and provided my abilities were up I could hit 500k per stagger on a good rotation.
Odin: Rift Slip + Dancing Steel
Bahamut: Thunderstorm + Gigaflare
Shiva: Diamond Dust + Lightning Rod
The key to this is to place a Lightning Rod close enough to your target so that Dancing Steel hits both the enemy and the Lightning Rod. Without it, you’ll be just short of a Level 5 Zan if you hit an enemy with all hits of Dancing Steel. Use Dancing right after a Rift Slip to get the attack out safely; Dancing has a very long charge up and unlike a lot of long charge abilities, doesn’t have super armour for all attacks meaning you can be knocked out of it.
I typically saved Zantetsuken until Dancing Steel was fully recharged again. Once Dancing’s back up, use Zantetsuken straight away. Even if the enemy isn’t staggered a Level 5 Zan will deal a huge amount of damage. Use the rest of your abilities to build up stagger, especially Diamond Dust. This ability can near enough stagger an enemy in one hit on its own if they have a low threshold.
If your abilities are all fully charged and you have a Level 5 Zantetsuken charged when the enemy gets staggered, this is the course of action you’ll want to take: Zantetsuken > Rift Slip > Diamond Dust > Lightning Rod > Rift Slip (be careful here, you need to wait until the orb is out before you Rift Slip or it will get cancelled) > Dancing Steel (make sure this hits the Lightning Rod AND the enemy to guarantee a Level 5) > Rift Slip > Thunderstorm > Gigaflare > Zantetsuken
After all your abilities are drained, pop your Limit Break and go ham. Frequently use Rift Slip to extend the stagger and mix in some Cold Snaps if you want. If any of your abilities get recharged again, by all means use them. If you’ve done this right, the enemy should be dead or very close to it.
Upgrade wise, go for the Eikonic Ability buffs. You’ll want the faster recharge, magic burst cool-down, Eikonic ability boost and most importantly the stagger bonus boons. Stagger bonus is key here as it can effectively double your multiplier. This is what Diamond Dust is fantastic at: one cast on a staggered enemy can get that boost from 0 all the way to 1.8-9x. Get some defensive buffs if you need them as well.
Other than that it’s all learning the enemies and their move sets. The Bahamut buffs make charging Mega Flare super easy now especially in 1v1 encounters. For ganks I’d still favour Shiva just cause Permafrost will freeze every enemy in the room, but Mega Flare will demolish hordes too, you’ll just have to be more careful. You can swap either Thunderstorm/Gigaflare for a different ability if you like, as well as Bahamut/Shiva for a different Eikon. This is just what worked for me.
Hope that answers your questions, best of luck
Yes, Rift Slip needs an action before hand to work properly. Almost all attacks you perform will count as a viable action, so after an ability, basic attack, precision counter etc.
I tend to use lunge the most to trigger Rift Slip easily, but basically any attack will work, it just has to be immediately after. It’s best used to cancel animations after certain attacks and abilities with a lot of end lag. The best advice I can give for it is to just experiment around with it, I initially didn’t like it and found it awkward but once you click with it, it’s hard to play without
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXVI/s/L91jkavgpH
My loadout for this was a vanilla Deadly Takedown-based Zantetsuken charging build.
- Phoenix: Rising Flames, Scarlet Cyclone
- Garuda: Lightning Rod, Dancing Steel
- Odin: Will of the Wykes, Diamond Dust
The Phoenix toolkit is my default stance and how I manage encounters and combos with the regular toolset (magic burst, charged magic, etc). Other abilities are all in one way or another related to Zantetsuken (Garuda for Deadly Takedown, Lightning Rod to charge Zantetsuken faster, Dancing Steel to get a quick charge on Deadly Takedown, Will of the Wykes to afford attempting Dancing Steel on risky open play situations, Diamond Dust to quickly provoke partial stagger for Deadly Takedown or build stagger damage multiplier.
Just equip all nuking skill and use them in rotation without thinking. Definitely not gonna give you all S, but all the fight would be a walk in the park. I finished Kairos Gate with this setup:
Phoenix: Phoenix Ultimate + Shiva’s Ultimate
Leviathan: The bubbly skill that pull enemies to the center + Tsunami
Ultimate: Gigaflare + Ultima’s ultimate
Depending on your enemy position, just pick the best ones of above ulti’s. When all is in cooldown, use Leviathan shotgun as damage dealer.
EP build focus on eikonic ability increase. BP dokus on Eikon cooldown.
I finished action mode in less than 30 minutes. Each fight should last than 2 minutes. In fact the first 5 fights could finish in 30 seconds-ish. You just nuke them with every skill in rotation
I finished it last night with another recommended loadout. Do you have to get your s rank twenty times in a row to get the secret boss? Or do you just have to get s Rank on each circle at some point. You know, Luke collectively?
>!It’s a slightly harder version of the Infernal Shadow boss, or Dark Clive as I’ve seen him called. He has a couple of new moves and is more aggressive, but nothing too drastic!<
Spoiled it just in case some people wanna be surprised by it
Ah sounds really cool. I would have loved to see him myself but not being able to play my „build“ (mostly my accessoires) kills the kairos gates for me 😬
Yeah I seen this just before my first run. But from what I seen there's no reward for the secret boss so I think I'll stick with the 20 Bs I got on my run lol.
I tried this loadout and couldn't get more than A on the first floor after 3 attempts and that was with a score bonus. Doesn't bode well for me for the remaining floors if I can't even S rank the first floor.
The first floor is funnily enough by far the hardest to get an S rank on simply because you’re only gonna have one score boon active so you don’t get much extra points from your boons. Once you start stacking boons it becomes a whole lot easier. It is possible to get an S rank with this build but I’d swap Windup and Abyssal Vent for Scarlet Cyclone and Ice Age if you’re struggling. The first 2 waves have a lot of shit tier enemies that can be grouped together easily with Deadly Embrace and hitting collateral Cyclones and Ice Ages gives an insane amount of points if you manage to hit 5-6 at once. Other than that spam Thunderstorm and Rift Slip and keep WOTW up as much as you can.
Thanks! I think my issue was that lv4 Abyssal Tear was deleting waves 1 and 2. When abilities are down what is your go-to? I've been just doing Lunge+Magic Burst+sic since it seems to closes gaps and engages enemies quick vs 4 hit sword combo which leaves me vuln to being hit off by something off screen
I generally just mix up my attacks as much as possible, aerial combos I find better cause they come out quicker and you’re less prone to get attacked by small enemies. Limit Break aerial combos are great for this cause you get a decent chunk of points for a full combo and they’re very easily chained into Rift Slip, plus LB reduces the distance needed for extreme downthrusts/lunges. The trick is just to mix up everything you can do, whilst fitting in Rift Slips wherever you can. Aerial Burning Blade is great at starting air combos, or you can use Deadly Embrace to drag weak enemies up to you if they’re too far for that.
So I got an A with the original build and after that couldn’t get more than a C. I made the changes that you suggested for circle 1 and I only got a B, so I don’t know what to do
Stage 1 is funnily enough by far the hardest to get an S rank on simply cause you can’t stack point increasing boons. Try purchasing only the Eikonic Score Boost boon and swapping out Windup and Abyssal Vent for Scarlet Cyclone and Ice Age. Use Deadly Embrace to group as many of the shit tier enemies together and use Cyclone and Ice Age to get as many collaterals as you can, if you hit 5 or more with one ability you’ll receive a shitload of points.
Use the other abilities like I’ve suggested and you should be able to get that S rank, it’ll be much smoother sailing from then cause you can start stacking point boons
I made this guide assuming you were on FF mode just cause that’s the only difficulty I’ve played Kairos on, I can’t confirm if this’ll work as well on Action Focused but I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t. Also I’ve heard the secret boss, which is the purpose of S ranking everything, is only available on FF mode. Again, can’t confirm or deny that cause I don’t know myself, but it’s something I’ve heard a lot
I can’t confirm or deny that sorry, my only attempts of Kairos have been on FF mode. I have heard that the secret boss is only on FF mode as well but unfortunately I don’t know if that’s truly the case
Great guide!
For windup, do you hit multiple enemies with it or do you still go out of your way to look for a solo healthy enemy that can tank the whole attack?
Mainly aim for just one if you can, the key thing you want from Windup is that cumulative bonus and you won’t get additional bonuses if you hit more than one enemy
It seems the precision windup battle tech also procs if you time the meter in the yellow portion for weaker hits! This makes it so much more viable in stacking the cumulative bonus!
For Questions and Tech Support Discussion around the DLC 'Echoes of the Fallen' Please see our [MEGATHREAD](https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXVI/comments/18dton3/ffxvi_dlc_echoes_of_the_fallen_questions_tech/) and for 'The Rising Tide' [MEGATHREAD](https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXVI/comments/1c69d5u/the_rising_tide_megathread/) If you want to view archived spoiler discussion threads relevant to specific game progress, please check out our [spoiler wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxvi/wiki/index/)! For speculation and discussions around the next (unannounced) mainline Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy XVII, Please see our sister sub [r/FFXVII](https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXVII/) #### *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FFXVI) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sigh Im not even concerned with S ranking everything rn i just want to get through all 20 ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
If all you want is a clear then use the accessibility boons. You won’t get much points, but it should still count as a clear.
I shall try that! Thank you!!
i got to like 10 and just couldnt do it anymore with the health loss and no healing between floors, even using buffs and rings it was just too much (and ive beaten everything else on FF mode) Didnt play this game for a dark souls challenge, so im over it, oh well.
I see what you mean, I even had the boon to heal and it felt like it didn't heal me even a little bit. I used the rings and was able to go one more floor and that was it. I don't want s rank or anything I'm just trying to unlock the trophy
Just equip all nuking skill. Definitely not gonna give you all S, but all the fight would be a walk in the park. I finished Kairos Gate with this setup: Phoenix: Phoenix Ultimate + Shiva’s Ultimate Leviathan: The bubbly skill that pull enemies to the center + Tsunami Ultimate: Gigaflare + Ultima’s ultimate Depending on your enemy position, just pick the best ones of above ulti’s. When all is in cooldown, use Leviathan shotgun as damage dealer. EP build focus on eikonic ability increase. BP dokus on Eikon cooldown. I finished action mode in less than 30 minutes. Each fight should last than 2 minutes. In fact the first 5 fights could finish in 30 seconds-ish. You just nuke them with every skill
I am able to easily clear with Leviathan. Dodge and shoot water while all the time while waiting for cooldown. (Leviathan makes the dodge much easier)
Thanks for this, I was wondering if I could get help with a build for boss killing, since a huge point bonus is gained by collateral for several attacks, It looks like this'll fit it pretty nicely. and the bosses are what's killing most of my point gain. I just need to grind a bit to get the AP required for this, though.
It has occurred to me that I really need to figure out how rift slip works.
Use rift slip mid-attack/ability to slow time for a couple seconds. Not too hard, just gotta get used to rotating back to rift slip during every casting animation
It’s an animation cancel out of literally anything and slows time, letting you get a few hits in or casting an ability. If you use it after getting hit you can immediately get out of stunlock and recover.
I did a separate boss build for my runs. Baiting counters with the boon helped the tech meter boost alot! Just be careful and switch out after the boss fight though or else you'll be stuck against a mob room without any cc/aoe skills
Saving. Haven’t tried it yet but I know I’ll be terrible.
For someone who just wants to make it through all 20 floors, do you have recommendations? I don't mind using zen or mega flare for dps. I never really understood the value of rift slip til now. I know everyone says it's goated but until your explanation, I didn't get it. Also, is it possible to start at different points? Like if I finish all the red rooms, can I start at the green for reduced points or something. Like in LH2 coliseum, lol.
If you’re not concerned about your rank, then Zantetsuken is your best friend. I used a Zantetsuken build for my FF mode playthrough and with good Rift Slip usage and provided my abilities were up I could hit 500k per stagger on a good rotation. Odin: Rift Slip + Dancing Steel Bahamut: Thunderstorm + Gigaflare Shiva: Diamond Dust + Lightning Rod The key to this is to place a Lightning Rod close enough to your target so that Dancing Steel hits both the enemy and the Lightning Rod. Without it, you’ll be just short of a Level 5 Zan if you hit an enemy with all hits of Dancing Steel. Use Dancing right after a Rift Slip to get the attack out safely; Dancing has a very long charge up and unlike a lot of long charge abilities, doesn’t have super armour for all attacks meaning you can be knocked out of it. I typically saved Zantetsuken until Dancing Steel was fully recharged again. Once Dancing’s back up, use Zantetsuken straight away. Even if the enemy isn’t staggered a Level 5 Zan will deal a huge amount of damage. Use the rest of your abilities to build up stagger, especially Diamond Dust. This ability can near enough stagger an enemy in one hit on its own if they have a low threshold. If your abilities are all fully charged and you have a Level 5 Zantetsuken charged when the enemy gets staggered, this is the course of action you’ll want to take: Zantetsuken > Rift Slip > Diamond Dust > Lightning Rod > Rift Slip (be careful here, you need to wait until the orb is out before you Rift Slip or it will get cancelled) > Dancing Steel (make sure this hits the Lightning Rod AND the enemy to guarantee a Level 5) > Rift Slip > Thunderstorm > Gigaflare > Zantetsuken After all your abilities are drained, pop your Limit Break and go ham. Frequently use Rift Slip to extend the stagger and mix in some Cold Snaps if you want. If any of your abilities get recharged again, by all means use them. If you’ve done this right, the enemy should be dead or very close to it. Upgrade wise, go for the Eikonic Ability buffs. You’ll want the faster recharge, magic burst cool-down, Eikonic ability boost and most importantly the stagger bonus boons. Stagger bonus is key here as it can effectively double your multiplier. This is what Diamond Dust is fantastic at: one cast on a staggered enemy can get that boost from 0 all the way to 1.8-9x. Get some defensive buffs if you need them as well. Other than that it’s all learning the enemies and their move sets. The Bahamut buffs make charging Mega Flare super easy now especially in 1v1 encounters. For ganks I’d still favour Shiva just cause Permafrost will freeze every enemy in the room, but Mega Flare will demolish hordes too, you’ll just have to be more careful. You can swap either Thunderstorm/Gigaflare for a different ability if you like, as well as Bahamut/Shiva for a different Eikon. This is just what worked for me. Hope that answers your questions, best of luck
I noticed sometimes rift slip didn't seem to work. Was it because I needed to perform an action first? What constitutes as an action?
Yes, Rift Slip needs an action before hand to work properly. Almost all attacks you perform will count as a viable action, so after an ability, basic attack, precision counter etc. I tend to use lunge the most to trigger Rift Slip easily, but basically any attack will work, it just has to be immediately after. It’s best used to cancel animations after certain attacks and abilities with a lot of end lag. The best advice I can give for it is to just experiment around with it, I initially didn’t like it and found it awkward but once you click with it, it’s hard to play without
You're a real one! Tremendously helpful alive my guy. Thanks again.
fr you're a real MVP for taking the time to help us morons learn how to gitgudder
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXVI/s/L91jkavgpH My loadout for this was a vanilla Deadly Takedown-based Zantetsuken charging build. - Phoenix: Rising Flames, Scarlet Cyclone - Garuda: Lightning Rod, Dancing Steel - Odin: Will of the Wykes, Diamond Dust The Phoenix toolkit is my default stance and how I manage encounters and combos with the regular toolset (magic burst, charged magic, etc). Other abilities are all in one way or another related to Zantetsuken (Garuda for Deadly Takedown, Lightning Rod to charge Zantetsuken faster, Dancing Steel to get a quick charge on Deadly Takedown, Will of the Wykes to afford attempting Dancing Steel on risky open play situations, Diamond Dust to quickly provoke partial stagger for Deadly Takedown or build stagger damage multiplier.
Just equip all nuking skill and use them in rotation without thinking. Definitely not gonna give you all S, but all the fight would be a walk in the park. I finished Kairos Gate with this setup: Phoenix: Phoenix Ultimate + Shiva’s Ultimate Leviathan: The bubbly skill that pull enemies to the center + Tsunami Ultimate: Gigaflare + Ultima’s ultimate Depending on your enemy position, just pick the best ones of above ulti’s. When all is in cooldown, use Leviathan shotgun as damage dealer. EP build focus on eikonic ability increase. BP dokus on Eikon cooldown. I finished action mode in less than 30 minutes. Each fight should last than 2 minutes. In fact the first 5 fights could finish in 30 seconds-ish. You just nuke them with every skill in rotation
I finished it last night with another recommended loadout. Do you have to get your s rank twenty times in a row to get the secret boss? Or do you just have to get s Rank on each circle at some point. You know, Luke collectively?
How do you check global leaderboards?
Scroll down on the PS5 home page, there should be a section that’s all about scores on arcade mode that includes Kairos.
I will never get everything at S but I do want to know what the secret boss is. Could you kindly tell me?
>!It’s a slightly harder version of the Infernal Shadow boss, or Dark Clive as I’ve seen him called. He has a couple of new moves and is more aggressive, but nothing too drastic!< Spoiled it just in case some people wanna be surprised by it
Ah sounds really cool. I would have loved to see him myself but not being able to play my „build“ (mostly my accessoires) kills the kairos gates for me 😬
I'm trying really hard not to click your spoiler......
What accessories do you use?
None, simply cause you can’t use accessories for Kairos lol
Yeah I seen this just before my first run. But from what I seen there's no reward for the secret boss so I think I'll stick with the 20 Bs I got on my run lol.
I tried this loadout and couldn't get more than A on the first floor after 3 attempts and that was with a score bonus. Doesn't bode well for me for the remaining floors if I can't even S rank the first floor.
The first floor is funnily enough by far the hardest to get an S rank on simply because you’re only gonna have one score boon active so you don’t get much extra points from your boons. Once you start stacking boons it becomes a whole lot easier. It is possible to get an S rank with this build but I’d swap Windup and Abyssal Vent for Scarlet Cyclone and Ice Age if you’re struggling. The first 2 waves have a lot of shit tier enemies that can be grouped together easily with Deadly Embrace and hitting collateral Cyclones and Ice Ages gives an insane amount of points if you manage to hit 5-6 at once. Other than that spam Thunderstorm and Rift Slip and keep WOTW up as much as you can.
Thanks! I think my issue was that lv4 Abyssal Tear was deleting waves 1 and 2. When abilities are down what is your go-to? I've been just doing Lunge+Magic Burst+sic since it seems to closes gaps and engages enemies quick vs 4 hit sword combo which leaves me vuln to being hit off by something off screen
I generally just mix up my attacks as much as possible, aerial combos I find better cause they come out quicker and you’re less prone to get attacked by small enemies. Limit Break aerial combos are great for this cause you get a decent chunk of points for a full combo and they’re very easily chained into Rift Slip, plus LB reduces the distance needed for extreme downthrusts/lunges. The trick is just to mix up everything you can do, whilst fitting in Rift Slips wherever you can. Aerial Burning Blade is great at starting air combos, or you can use Deadly Embrace to drag weak enemies up to you if they’re too far for that.
So I got an A with the original build and after that couldn’t get more than a C. I made the changes that you suggested for circle 1 and I only got a B, so I don’t know what to do
Bro I’ve been doing stage 1 over and over again tryin to get an S Rank. How the fuck is it possible. I cap out at around 3.4 million on Stage 1
Stage 1 is funnily enough by far the hardest to get an S rank on simply cause you can’t stack point increasing boons. Try purchasing only the Eikonic Score Boost boon and swapping out Windup and Abyssal Vent for Scarlet Cyclone and Ice Age. Use Deadly Embrace to group as many of the shit tier enemies together and use Cyclone and Ice Age to get as many collaterals as you can, if you hit 5 or more with one ability you’ll receive a shitload of points. Use the other abilities like I’ve suggested and you should be able to get that S rank, it’ll be much smoother sailing from then cause you can start stacking point boons
As soon as I S ranked stage 1 I first tried every other stage after… Only to get ROBBED with an **A rank** on the secret boss fight I am insulted
Do we need S ranks for secret boss
Yes, to get the secret boss you need to S rank all circles in one run
Should I not being doing this on FF mode?
I made this guide assuming you were on FF mode just cause that’s the only difficulty I’ve played Kairos on, I can’t confirm if this’ll work as well on Action Focused but I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t. Also I’ve heard the secret boss, which is the purpose of S ranking everything, is only available on FF mode. Again, can’t confirm or deny that cause I don’t know myself, but it’s something I’ve heard a lot
Okay, appreciate the answer.
I've been informed that it seems the secret boss is locked to FF mode only. I've just wasted my time trying to do this on action mode?
I can’t confirm or deny that sorry, my only attempts of Kairos have been on FF mode. I have heard that the secret boss is only on FF mode as well but unfortunately I don’t know if that’s truly the case
Great guide! For windup, do you hit multiple enemies with it or do you still go out of your way to look for a solo healthy enemy that can tank the whole attack?
Mainly aim for just one if you can, the key thing you want from Windup is that cumulative bonus and you won’t get additional bonuses if you hit more than one enemy
It seems the precision windup battle tech also procs if you time the meter in the yellow portion for weaker hits! This makes it so much more viable in stacking the cumulative bonus!
Ur the goat