Garuda
The party begins facing against Garuda.
However, the first three phases of UWU have one key mechanic that affects how the party will resolve mechanics.
Waking the Primals
The defining characteristic of the first three phases (Garuda, Ifrit, Titan) is that each of the bosses must be “woken” by the party.
By executing a mechanic in a particular (generally harder) manner, the boss will get one stack of Aetherically Charged.
When a boss gets four stacks of Aetherically Charged, they become “Woken”, which does the following:
- Certain attacks are changed or modified when the boss is woken.
- When defeated, a woken boss will leave behind a light puddle that will give a player a Beyond Limits buff when stepped on.
- When a player with Beyond Limits uses an LB3, the buff will be consumed and the LB gauge refilled to LB3.
- A caster, a healer, and a melee must have this buff to clear the transition to Ultima Weapon.
Tip: Correctly waking up the three primals and getting the Beyond Limits buff is only relevant after Titan.
If you are still progging the first three phases and miss waking a primal, don't worry about it and continue trying to progress through the encounter.
Waking Garuda
Thermal Low is a debuff that is applied on a player as a result of certain mechanics:
- Spiny Plume’s tankbuster (Cyclone)
- Garuda’s Friction
These stacks are then cleansed in two places:
- Entering a bubble left behind when the Spiny Plume is destroyed.
- Taking Mesohigh tethers from Chirada and Suparna (“the sisters”).
When a player’s Thermal Low stacks are cleansed, the party will take raid-wide damage (Super Cyclone) depending on the number of stacks cleansed:
- If one stack is cleansed, the party takes minor damage.
- If two stacks are cleansed, the party takes a lot of damage.
- If three or more stacks are cleansed, the party takes lethal damage.
Garuda gains a stack of Aetherically Charged when a player cleanses at least two stacks of Thermal Low.
The following mechanics will also change when Garuda is woken:
| Normal | Woken | |
|---|---|---|
| Wicked Wheel | Point-blank AoE. | Point-blank AoE, immediately followed by a donut AoE with no cast-time or telegraph (Wicked Tornado). |
| Downburst | Frontal cleave that's taken by the MT. | Frontal cleave that's shared by the party |
| Satin Plumes | Adds that tether and close in to random players. They must be destroyed before they cast a raid-wide Sleep. | Turns to Razor Plumes that circle around the outer edge of the arena. They will eventually home in on players and explode with a lethal AoE unless they are blown using wind attacks such as Wicked Tornado or Super Cyclone. |
Spiny Plume
| 1. Pull Garuda to the center of the arena. One healer (at random) will get a green mark above their head.
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| 2. Garuda will cast Slipstream, which is a small frontal cone AoE with no telegraph. Garuda will then use Mistral Song towards the healer with the green marker. This is a large, 150-degree cone AoE that is also a tankbuster on the closest player that was hit- this should be the ST.
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| 3. When the ST gets hit by Garuda's Mistral Song, a green tornado AoE will spawn where the ST was standing. Have the MT pull Garuda West to dodge this AoE and preposition Garuda for the next step. |  |
| 4. Several Satin Plumes will spawn and tether to party members. One Spiny Plume will spawn West, and will tether to the first player that attacks it, which should be the ST. Do not use AoE attacks until the ST has hit the Spiny Plume, causing the Spiny Plume to tether to the ST. |  |
| 5. Garuda will cast another Slipstream, which should be pointed away from the party. The Spiny Plume will periodically cast Cyclone, which is a single-target tankbuster on the player it's tethered to (which should be the ST) that also applies a stack of Thermal Low. |  |
| 7. The MT goes back in front of Garuda to bait Downburst, a frontal AoE with no telegraph, and no castbar. At this time, the party can AoE all the Satin Plumes down. Do not destroy the Spiny Plume. |  |
| 8. Garuda will jump (and shriek), placing Feather Rain puddles on five random players. The Spiny Plume will do another attack on the ST, giving them a second stack of Thermal Low. Destroy the Spiny Plume before it attacks again (giving the ST a third stack). |  |
Friction
This is the major mechanic in Garuda, and is where the party will set Garuda up to be woken later on. Note that unlike Ifrit and Titan, Garuda will not actually be awoken after this mechanic, but we will do most of the legwork here.
| 8. After the Spiny Plume hits the ST for a second time (giving them a second stack of Thermal Low), destroy it. This will cause the Spiny Plume to explode in a telegraphed AoE, leaving behind a bubble. The later the Spiny Plume is destroyed, the more time the party has to execute the upcoming mechanics. However, destroying the Spiny Plume too late will give the ST a third stack of Thermal Low, which will wipe the raid. |  |
| 9. Stack near the edge of the bubble:
When the ST enters the bubble, their Thermal Low stacks will be cleansed, dealing raid-wide damage, and giving Garuda her first stack of Aetherically Charged. |  |
| 10. The ST joins D1 and D2 outside the bubble. Garuda will cast Friction on a random player. This is a small AoE that will give all players hit one stack of Thermal Low; the players inside the bubble will have their stack immediately cleansed. (Only the ST, D1, and D2 should now have 1 stack of Thermal Low.) |  |
| 11. Everybody exit the bubble and stack together outside. Garuda will cast a second Friction on a random player, giving all players a stack of Thermal Low. (All players should have one stack of Thermal Low except the ST, D1, and D2 who have two stacks each.) |  |
| 12. Have D1 enter the bubble, cleansing their Thermal Low stacks. This will give Garuda her second stack of Aetherically Charged. |  |
| 13. Heal up, then D2 enters the bubble, cleansing their Thermal Low stacks. This will give Garuda her third stack of Aetherically Charged. (At this point, the MT, H1, H2, D3, D4 should each have one stack of Thermal Low, and the ST should have two stacks.) |  |
| 14. Garuda will jump (and shriek), placing Feather Rain puddles on random players. |  |
Note that Garuda only has three of the four stacks needed to wake her.
Midruda
| 15. Garuda lands and starts casting Aerial Blast. After that, she will summon Chirada and Suparna (the "sisters"). They follow the same rules as Garuda- they will jump with a shriek, and Feather Rains will drop on five random players. |  |
| 16. Stack together south to bait Feather Rains for when Chirada and Suparna jump. Try to keep Garuda in the middle (hence the name "Midruda"). When the sisters shriek, dodge Feather Rains and move to stack South-East. |  |
| 17. Chirada and Suparna will spawn outside the arena on two of the four cardinal directions and target two random (non tanks) with Mistral Song. The two tanks need to intercept this attach just like what the ST did at the very start of the fight. Keep Garuda in the middle until her telegraphed AoE appears before going to intercept the two sisters' Mistral Songs.
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| 18.The two sisters will them jump (dodge Feather Rains), and two green tornado AoEs will spawn where the MT and ST were. Done correctly, the center of the arena will always be safe. |  |
Waking Garuda
This is the last part of Garuda’s phase, and is where the party will give Garuda the fourth stack of Aetherically Charged, waking her.
| 19. Four Satin Plumes spawn and tether themselves to random players. Destroy these. Chirada and Suparna return on the East and West of the arena and tether two random players with a green Mesohigh tether.
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| 20. The MT returns to the front to bait a Downburst (frontal cleave), while the ST and D4 have their stacks cleansed by the Mesohigh tethers.
This will cleanse the two stacks of Thermal Low on the ST, giving Garuda her fourth stack of Aetherically Charged, and waking her with a "HOWL TEMPEST! NONE SHALL ESCAPE MY WRATH!" |  |
| 21. The sisters will then jump (and shriek), so bait and dodge Feather Rains again. |  |
| 22. MT baits a Slipstream away from the party. |  |
| 23. Garuda will then cast another Wicked Wheel (point-blank AoE). However, because Garuda is now awake, there will be a second donut AoE (Wicked Tornado) immediately after Wicked Wheel that has no telegraph or cast time. Simply dodge into Wicked Wheel's AoE as soon as it resolves to avoid the Wicked Tornado. (Most groups will have killed Garuda by this point.) |  |
| 24. Garuda then does a (Woken) Downburst on the MT. Since Garuda is now awake, this Downburst is now split amonst the entire party. |  |
| 25. The MT then goes in front again to bait one more Slipstream away from the party. After this, Garuda will jump (Feather Rains), become untargetable and enrage (Aerial Blast). |  |
When a woken Garuda is defeated, a light puddle will appear under her. When a player steps into this puddle, they will receive a Beyond Limits buff.
| Beyond Limits (Garuda) | Healer |
When a player with Beyond Limits uses an LB3, the buff will be consumed and refill the LB gauge. This will be relevant in the transition to Ultima Weapon.
The MT, H1, H2, and D3 should each have one stack of Thermal Low. These will be relevant much later into the fight (from Ultimate Annihilation onwards).
| 26. Ifrit will spawn on one of the four cardinal directions, and will charge through the arena. The entire floor will also be covered in Eruptions, with one safe spot 90 degrees from where Ifrit spawns. (The timing is quite tight- Sprint is highly recommended.) |  |