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What’s an MMORPG with a bit of grind? That’s what the Occult Crescent is in Final Fantasy XIV, and with the 7.55 patch we have got a whole new area to explore. This includes new lore, environments and bosses to encounter.

One of the rare Critical Engagements in the Occult Crescent: North Horn, the Crescent Arachne is a massive spider that constantly brings out adds to do her bidding. She has a couple of interesting tricks up her sleeve, as it’s not the most straightforward of encounters, but at the same time, it’s one you’ll want to do repeatedly to make sure you got everything right.

Most of Occult Crescent: North Horn Critical Engagement bosses start similar to raid bosses in that they will initiate a fight with either a raidwide or a tankbuster, and the Crescent Arachne is one of them. Right from the get-go, she will hit the entire raid party with a not-so-powerful raidwide.

Shortly after the raidwide, along with a couple of autos onto the main tank, the Crescent Arachne will summon four of the Diremites you may remember from very early on in the story. These are Arachne Daughters that will gladly do their mother’s bidding.

Crescent Arachne will tether onto one and then that daughter will tether onto another one of the adds until all four are linked together. They will all then move around to a new location, and the boss will have an AOE telegraph to the first daughter.

The Crescent Arachne will then dash to each one of the daughters as she has linked to them, leaving a rather large hit along the way. What you need to do is find the most open spot and avoid getting hit. Afterward, all the daughters will join the field and attack you. Thankfully, these adds are weak and go down very quickly. Otherwise, they will cast Venom Eruption.

Crescent Arachne will go to the middle of the arena and cast Summon once again, but this time she’ll use Conformity instead of Arachnid Web. This is a cone attack in front of her. It doesn’t matter which of her daughters that the Crescent Arachne hits with her cone, it’s the motion that indicates the mechanic.

Look at the daughters and two of them will have exclamation marks above their heads. All four of the daughters will then move around the arena on the outside. Follow the two that had the “!” above their heads and get right in-between them.

Those two daughters will then a web cone in front of them similar to how the Crescent Arachne did, except because they’re coming from the outside, they are much larger. This is why you want to get in between the two and not away, in front or in the middle of the arena for this. The adds will then enter the arena like the others, and you will need to kill them in a speedy fashion.

The next attack is the start of the cycle, or the end. It’s up for interpretation. Regardless, the boss will summon two rocky explosions from two sides of the arena and then will expand outward.

This can be dangerous as the two uplifts will overlap. Thankfully, there’s an easy solution for this. Being closer to the wall of one of the explosions, dodge into the first explosion when it goes off. After a second, the next explosion will go off near the middle of the arena. When it does, move into it and that should solve the entire mechanic. The second explosion is the second ring from the opposite side’s uplift.

This is the basic raidwide we saw at the beginning of the fight. This can hurt a lot more if you have taken vulnerability stacks.

This is where things get a little trickier. This is the same mechanic as before, but instead of only four daughters, there are six. Two more doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize that this is already a small arena, so adding essentially 50% more enemies to dash to can be a bit hectic.

Thankfully, the movement couldn’t be simpler. Try not to panic. Instead, find the first three movements. They are generally opposite of the last three, so stand on the fifth linked daughter. When Crescent Arachne moves to the fourth daughter, move into where the third or second daughter was (depending how the pattern is). This should ensure you’re not run over and take an unnecessary stack.

Finally, we have the cone attack. This is the same as before and all you need to do is go in-between the two marked daughters. If they’re at opposite ends (east and west), then the north and south spots are safe.

All of this repeats until the timer expires, Crescent Arachne meets her maker, or you do. Preferably not the last option.

• 260-420 Knowledge
• 720 Phantom EXP
• 10 Tomestones of Mnemonics
• 20 Tomestones of Mathematics

• 1 Notes on the Crescent Arachne
• 10 Phantom Dispeller a (for Phantom Weapon step)
• Occult Necklace of Blood
• Occult Necklace of Magic

Released July 2, 2024

ESRB Teen // Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence

Base Game Final Fantasy 14

Developer(s) Square Enix

Publisher(s) Square Enix

Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op

Engine Proprietary