Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle raid guide in Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker

Four new raids were added to Final Fantasy XIV for players to enjoy ahead of the holiday season, kicking off the latest expansion’s, Endwalker, line of raids, Pandaemonium.

The four raids make up the first part of the story, Asphodelos, tasking the players to break through the first gates of Pandaemonium and keep its darkest experiments in check.

The Fourth Circle raid is the last, and also the most challenging to complete. Numerous groups fail at the first attempts, so here is a guide to make the process easier.

Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle raid guide on Endwalker

There are two main mechanics to keep track of in the Fourth Circle fight. But the most crucial one to learn is Setting the Scene and Pinax.

When casting Setting the Scene, the boss will set up the drape and reveal its appearance underneath. Then, he’ll cast Pinax to trigger its effect. Hesperos will start off the fight with just one platform. But later, four platforms will appear at the same time, bearing different effects and resolving one by one in a random order.

The first electric one to appear will unleash a wide shock, requiring players to stand far from it, or result in instant death. In the second one, with water, players should stand at the center of the platform because it’ll knock all the players back, and the spikes surrounding the platform will instantly kill anyone if you are thrown back into it.

Then, there’s the fire platform, triggering a stacking attack, and the poison one, causing a spread attack. If you learn each effect of the platform, you’ll have no trouble progressing through the fight.

The other mechanic players will encounter only in this fight are class-based attacks. Some attacks will deal additional damage to the players who are from the marked class (healer, DPS, or tank). It’s similar to Deltascape V3.0, for example, but with an opposite effect.

Here are Hesperos’s other attacks and their effects:

• Elegant Evisceration: tank-buster.
• Decollation: group-wide attack.
• Hell Skewer: a line attack that chooses a random target.
• Bloodrake: group-wide attack.
• Belone Coils: meteors that must be soaked by at least one player each. Don’t head into the area bearing your class’ mark (DPS, healer, or tank).
• Shift (Easterly, Northern, Southern, or Westernly): summons either a spear or a cape on one side.
  • If it’s a spear, head to its sides, because it’ll deal damage to everyone who are in front of it.
  • If it’s a cape, stand in front of it or use knockback.
  • The name of the attack reveals the cardinal position of the item summoned.
• Belone Bursts: summons each orb tethered to one player.
  • Each player must step in one orb to make it explode, receiving moderate damage.
  • The player must be from a different class from the marked one, or they’ll receive additional damage.

On top of up to one gear token per week, the Fourth Circle raid rewards players with one blade that can be traded for Decal Tomestones about two weeks from now. Players can also loot an exclusive minion.