Wings of Change

The Obelisk outside of Caer Norvent will automatically be activated once Clive, Cid, and Torgal exit through the Glorieuse gate. After that, a Tutorial Message will pop up explaining that you now have access to the “Power of Wind” through the Eikon Garuda’s essence. Or to rephrase that, you can now swap between different Eikons and Eikon Abilities.

There are four important things to consider now that you have more options for customizing Clive’s ability sets.

1. How to Set Up Your Eikon Ability Sets
2. Learning Your Personal Ability Preferences (and rotating between “channels”)
3. Optimizing Ability Point Allocation
4. Learning to Utilize Stagger Combos

1) How to Set Up Your Eikon Sets

The game will automatically set up a second Eikon channel on whichever Eikonic Ability Set Clive has activated now. By navigating to the “Gear & Eikons” tab, you’ll see the first row of Phoenix-related abilities and a new row for Garuda’s abilities, which will include:

• Deadly Embrace
• Gouge
• Wicked Wheel

If you have been using two Eikonic Ability Sets (one for single target and one for multiple targets), you will need to activate a new row for Garuda’s abilities and add them to your second set. You can also activate other Garuda-related abilities like Rook’s Gambit or Aerial Blast, depending on how many Ability Points you have and where you want to spend them.

To learn more about the individual abilities, including their strengths, weaknesses, and how to use them effectively in battle, check out the Garuda page in the Eikon section using the link below:

Garuda
Eikon

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A complete list of the Eikonic Feats and Eikonic Abilities for Garuda, including recommendations on which abilities to use and what situations call for their usage.

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2) Learning Your Ability Preferences

So, which abilities should you use? You can practice while traveling through Glorieuse and the next areas, playing around with different abilities and combos. Deadly Embrace, Wicked Wheel, and Gouge are all, for the most part, considered useful or strong abilities, so you can’t go too wrong yet… but there are two things to keep in mind that somewhat contradict each other.

Firstly, some abilities are generally considered superior to others. You can check out the Eikonic Ability Ranking page for some recommendations from this strategy guide; however, these recommendations are HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE. The second thing to keep in mind is that an ability that one player might find bad, another player may find extremely engaging and fitting to their play style. Don’t be afraid to get creative!

Rook’s Gambit is generally considered better than Wicked Wheel and Gouge. Consider activating it now, but it’s recommended that you continue using Gouge. Better abilities will eventually replace Gouge, but for now, it’s one of the better combo-building abilities in your arsenal.

3) Optimizing Ability Points Allocation

At this point in the game, you don’t have too many Ability Points to spend just yet, so you won’t be able to activate all of the various abilities that you have access to. You may have to stick with the default abilities that have been activated already.

If you would like a recommendation on Ability Point allocation and Eikonic Ability Sets to create, check out the “Ability Recommendations” page.

Ability Recommendations
Tips and Tricks

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This section will provide some tips for setting up your single-target and multi-target Eikonic Ability Sets, including covering which Abilities are the most effective and which you should consider avoiding altogether.

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4) Learning to Utilize Stagger Combos

Waiting for abilities to come off of their cooldowns so you can use them again is annoying, but now you can swap to channeling another Eikon using , giving you access to a total of four cooldown abilities. Get used to swapping back and forth between Eikons so that you can maximize your use of abilities—these are your strongest attacks, so you should get used to using them all the time!

Additionally, when you’re fighting enemies that have a “Will Gauge” and can be staggered, make sure to save your abilities so that they are off cooldown when an enemy is staggered. You’ll want to be able to activate as many of them as you can, back-to-back, to maximize damage during this window, as the enemy will be taking increased damage (from 1.1x up to 1.5x).

For example, when an enemy is staggered, consider using Gouge, Rook’s Gambit, Heatwave, and Rising Flames in succession. They’ll all need to be off cooldown for you to do this, but you’ll decimate an enemy’s HP bar if you get this chain in successfully.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get moving forward with the game again.

The Obelisk outside of Caer Norvent will automatically be activated once Clive, Cid, and Torgal exit through the Glorieuse gate.

There is a group of four Imperial soldiers just up ahead that are slowly patrolling the pathway, just up ahead from where Clive and Cid cross the first bridge. This first battle offers a good opportunity to try out your new Garuda abilities. There’s also another group of Imperial soldiers in the field to the north that includes some flying enemies. This is a good opportunity to try out Deadly Embrace for bringing them down to ground level.

There is a group of four Imperial soldiers just up ahead that are slowly patrolling the pathway, just up ahead from where Clive and Cid cross the first bridge. There’s also another group of Imperial soldiers in the field to the north that includes some flying enemies.

Search the coastline in the northeast section of Glorieuse to find a treasure coffer Red Treasure Coffer that contains a Gil Bug that you can sell for some Gil.

Search the coastline in the northeast section of Glorieuse to find a treasure coffer Red Treasure Coffer that contains some Black Blood that you can sell for some Gil.

A cutscene involving Gav starts as you cross the bridge. After a few more cutscenes, Clive will be a bit further down the map, well on his way to the Dragon’s Aery, but you can turn around to pick up another treasure coffer Yellow Treasure Coffer that contains 5 pinches of Magicked Ash. Once you’ve got it, head back down the trail towards the Dragon’s Aery again.

A cutscene involving Gav starts as you cross the bridge. After a few more cutscenes, Clive will be a bit further down the map, well on his way to the Dragon’s Aery, but you can turn around to pick up another treasure coffer Yellow Treasure Coffer that contains 10 pinches of Magicked Ash. Once you’ve got it, head back down the trail towards the Dragon’s Aery again.

These enemies have the same attacks as Chirada and Suparna, so you’re already somewhat familiar with what to look for and how to dodge their attacks. So it may be a good idea to spend some time practicing and learning your new Eikonic Ability Sets on these enemies. In addition to the practice you’ll get, you’ll also get Experience Points, Ability Points, and some Clouded Eyes (materials used for crafting).

These enemies have the same attacks as Chirada and Suparna, so you’re already somewhat familiar with what to look for and how to dodge their attacks. So it may be a good idea to spend some time practicing and learning your new Eikonic Ability Sets on these enemies. In addition to the practice you’ll get, you’ll also get Experience Points, Ability Points, and some Flawless Clouded Eyes (materials used for crafting).

Purchased Item	Materials
Bastard Sword	1,000 Gil
Dark Sash	950 Gil
Steel Crowns	950 Gil

Purchased Item	Materials
Bastard Sword +3	5,000 Gil
Dark Sash +3	4,750 Gil
Steel Crowns +3	4,750 Gil

Similar to before, none of these items are upgrades over what you’re already wearing.

Head over to The Black Hammer and have Blackthorne reinforce your gear. A quick reminder to press the button to move from the “Craft” tab to the “Reinforce” tab—don’t accidentally craft the gear listed on the first page.

Reinforced Item	Materials
Bastard Sword +1	Clouded Eye Wyrrite (x5) Magicked Ash (x5)
Bastard Sword +2	Meteorite Wyrrite (x10) Magicked Ash (x10)
Dark Sash +1	Valley Madder (x2) Magicked Ash (x5) Steelsilk (x30)
Dark Sash +2	Meteorite Valley Madder (x2)
Steel Crowns +1	Wyrrite (x9) Dragon Talon
Steel Crowns +2	Meteorite Magicked Ash (x18)

The items you can buy can also be upgraded at The Black Hammer, as shown in the table below, but even in their upgraded forms, they’re not better than what you currently have equipped from the end of normal mode.

Reinforced Item	Materials
Bastard Sword +4	Flawless Clouded Eye Wyrrite (x10) Magicked Ash (x10)
Bastard Sword Reforged	Flawless Meteorite Wyrrite (x20) Magicked Ash (x20)
Dark Sash +4	Valley Madder (x4) Magicked Ash (x10) Steelsilk (x60)
Reinforced Dark Sash	Flawless Meteorite Valley Madder (x4)
Steel Crowns +4	Wyrrite (x18) Flawless Dragon Talon
Reinforced Steel Crowns	Flawless Meteorite Magicked Ash (x36)