Final Fantasy 16: Best Skills [Early & Endgame]

You can earn various skills early in the gameplay as you progress while choosing the best one might be a little tricky. Some will enhance the damage, and others will overpower your mobility. 

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Key Takeaways

Here is the complete breakdown of what we consider some of the best skills in Final Fantasy 16:

• Basic Abilities:
  • Swift Recovery: Immediate revival during combat.
  • Lunge Attack: Closes gaps and is effective against various enemies.
• Ifrit’s Abilities:
  • Flames of Rebirth: Builds the limit break gauge and damages enemies.
  • Scarlett Cyclone: Grasps and stuns enemies, effective early in the game.
• Garuda’s Powers:
  • Aerial Blaster Leon: Creates a tornado, dealing damage and adding stagger.
• Ramuh’s Powers:
  • Thunderstorm: High-damage lightning skill with stagger effect.
  • Judgmental Bolt: Potent, high-cost ability for substantial damage.
• Titan Skills:
  • Titanic Block: Defense block preventing damage, useful for staggering enemies.
  • Upheaval: Slams enemies for significant damage and stunning.
• Highest Damage Endgame Skills:
  • Bahamut’s Powers: Unlocked in later stages, delivers substantial damage.
  • Giga Flayer: High-damage skill effective after staggering the enemy.
  • Wings of Light: Levitation state for avoiding ground attacks and unleashing aerial attacks.
• Best End Game Stuns:
  • Diamond Dust (Shiva’s Powers): Exceptional staggering ability, effective against enemies with cold resistance.
  • Odin’s Power – Dancing Steel: Allows switching between swords and unleashing maximum damage with upgraded skills.

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Skill Circles 

The first one in the middle is the immediate circle. It will mainly focus on melee attacks and then utility skills.

However, as I progressed in the main story, I also started to unlock other skills designed for Eikons I slayed or controlled, Ifrit, Dan Garuda, etc. All of these abilities feature unique mechanisms and usage as well.

Level/Build	Best Skill
Best Basic Ability	Swift Recovery, Lunge Attack
Ifrit’s Ability	Flames of Rebirth, Scarlett Cyclone
Garuda’s Power	Aerial Blaster Leon
Ramuh’s Powers	Thunderstorm, Judgmental Bolt
Titan Skills	Titanic block, Upheaval
Highest Damage late game	Giga Flayer
Odins Power	Diamond Dust

Basic Abilities

Moving on, first, we will cover the most basic but must-have abilities.

Swift Recovery

During a fight in the game, as you get knocked out, this skill will immediately help you recover and get back in the contest. You directly press your dodge button, and it will bring Clive back to life again.

Lunge Attack

Furthermore, the next on the list is the Lunge Attack. Its usage is best recognized when you need to close gaps from whatever you have in front of you on the icon.

As you remember, that phoenix shifter Leon used to pull enemies closer is one step above it in the game. You can use this skill with other icons, even those which do not have gap closes.

Ifrit Ability

Now, regarding the actual icon powers, we have a few of them, which are also solid skills in terms of damage. This is when I think the combat mechanics start to get genuinely Final Fantasy-like. 

Flames Of Rebirth

It can be used to build up the limit break gauge, which this skill will help develop instantly, and then you can use this along with the burn phase to knock out the bosses now.

Adding to it, the range of this ability is very decent. When there are a lot of enemies close together, you can pop up these skills to damage the enemies.

Scarlett Cyclone

Its fighting mechanism is to grasp enemies into you and sucks them in. One advantage to add over it is that you get it super early. 

Moreover, it also has an inbuilt stagger that stuns the enemies. It will be beneficial when rocking the bosses and can be used alongside power skills.

Garuda’s Powers

Garuda’s powers are not up to the mark, especially when you reach the game’s middle. Some of its best abilities are:

Aerial Blaster Leon

This power set creates a tornado-like storm and sucks a group of enemies into that tornado. It proves very effective against a group of enemies when in combat. Additionally, it adds a large amount of stagger to the bosses during battle.

Ramuh’s Powers

When you reach level 20 or above during the gameplay, you can unlock Ramuh’s powers.

Ramuh’s Power of Lightning

Ramuh’s lighting skill carries some cons like it has a short range and takes longer to be cast onto enemies during combat.

Thunderstorm

This skill set provides a more significant amount of damage and usually staggers the enemies during a fight. Also, I’d like to point out that when you unlock this skill, the enemies you will face will have a weakness towards the lightning effects so that it would be a plus point there.

Judgmental Bolt

This might be your best and primary option using this build. A big disadvantage of this ability is that it will cost a lot of ability points, which might be utilized elsewhere later.

Impartial Justice

This skill helps you shoot lightning balls at enemies. What these lightning balls do is that they attach to targets, and once they are gripped to the target enemies, they cast a chain of lightning that grips the enemies within.

Titan Skills

Once you are in the post-early stages of the game, you will unlock the Titan block. This block has some pretty sound skills within it. This meant that I had to manage even more circles.

Titanic Block

The main mechanic block for this build will be the Titanic Block. This works in such a way that it is a defense block by nature and helps you stop any incoming damage, no matter how large it is.

It can also block the mega attacks the bosses hit on your character without incurring any damage. If you use this along with the attack icons; you can stagger enemies very well.

Upheaval

You can use Upheaval in your attacks, too. You first slam the enemies to the ground, dealing them with more significant damage, and then you can press the hold button to increase the range. This ability is a perfect pick for stunning the bosses.

Highest Damage Endgame Skills

Once you reach the higher stages of the game, you will face more brutal bosses and need skills that deal more significant damage to bosses.

Bahamut’s Powers

You will unlock Bahamut’s Power in the game’s later stages. This potent skill aids in a lot of damage to enemies, thus helping in clearing stages easily.

Giga Flayer

Whenever I needed to hit pretty hard for damage, I relied on this skill. Although this skill will cost a lot of ability points, it will be worth it. 

You can use this once you stagger the enemy and break down its bar.

Wings Of Light

The class mechanic here is the Wings of Light. It operates in a levitation state where it lets you levitate, and then you can try avoiding some ground attacks by your enemies. If you stay in levitation long enough, you will unleash attacks on the enemies.

Best End Game Stuns

Some of the best ability in the game comes from Shiva’s powers.

Diamond Dust

Diamond dust in Shiva’s Powers has the best staggering ability on the enemies in the game. It can also be seen from the start of the power. The cherry on top is that there will be very few enemies that you will face in the game, which will have cold resistance.

Thus, it implies that every time the attack throws these skills at the enemies, this will always work as long as they are in AOE. Unleashing this once onto the enemy will finish and break their staggering bars.

Odin’s Power

Later, you will be unlocking Odin’s powers and dish out unique mechanics of its own.

Dancing Steel

You can build it by repeatedly attacking enemies in rapid rounds, but the former is more accessible. What is interesting is that this arm of darkness allows you to switch between different swords when you press (O).

It also starts filling the gauge once you start attacking the enemies. Once that bar is complete, you can unleash its maximum power by holding the square button and executing the Arm of Darkness.

If you have upgraded this skill to level 5, it will unleash maximum damage, which will help you win against the ending bosses in the game. 

My Recommendations For Best Skills

In my opinion, the game does a decent job of explaining how the Skill Circles. Moreover, the circles grow as you progress in the game, which makes managing them much more accessible. I have still listed, some of the best abilities especially for the end-game, so later parts of the campaign feel balanced.

Even though I do believe there are too many Circles by the end. I still tried to carry you along to the best skills of each build you will come across through different levels in the game. I think the Ifrit’s abilities were the most beneficial throughout the mid-game, but as you reach the endgame, you must rely on endgame skills to pave the way for progress.

Now that you are here, why not read:

• Final Fantasy 16 Best Gear.
• Final Fantasy 16 Cid.
• Final Fantasy 16 Benedicta.