FFXIV Shadowbringers Guide: The Grand Cosmos

14 Nov 2019
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The Grand Cosmos is a Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Main Scenario Quest dungeon. It’s available at level 80 after finishing the quest A Grand Adventure. It can be completed via the duty finder and was part of the Patch 5.2 Expert Duty Roulette.

Never be afraid to take a dungeon at your own pace, but for the purposes of this guide, we’re going to be speaking terms of multiple group pulls.

Encounter 1

8 Over Armor, & 1 Agilulfo

A very straightforward pack! The Over Armors do nothing special and the Agilulfo only has two attacks:

  • Iron Justice – A large, conal AoE focused on the player with highest hate.
  • Cloudcover – A circular AoE centered on the ground below a random player.

Encounter 2

6 Over Weapon, & 2 Agilulfo

  • Smite of Rage – A linear AoE which becomes static once projected from the Over Weapon toward a random player.
  • Whirl of Rage – A circular AoE centered on the Over Weapon casting it. It will stun anyone that gets hit by it.

Seeker of Solitude

Try not to get swept away by this fight.

  • Shadowbolt – A tank buster.
  • Immortal Anathema – Arena-wide AoE.
  • Tribulation – Places 5 small circles of AoE on the ground which explode into soot puddles. Touching the soot applies a bleed and heavy debuff.
  • Dark Shock – Circular AoEs form on the ground which are centered on 2 random players. When they go off, they’ll apply a gravity debuff on top of the damage they cause.
  • Tribulation (continued) – Around the time of the Dark Shock explosion, the 5 brooms on either side of the room (2 on one side, 3 on the other) start to travel laterally across the floor, sweeping as they go. Getting caught in their path will knock you aside, give you a vulnerability debuff stack, and do some damage. Each of them is heading for the soot circle on their lane of travel, where they’ll stop for a moment to clean it up in an even bigger whirl of movement that can knock you aside. One way to deal with this is to pick a side, then locate a soot puddle on that side that’s between the paths of the brooms coming from there. You can ignore the soot circles entirely and just stand between the paths of two brooms, but if you’re having difficulty, using a soot puddle as reference will give you a better idea of if you’re actually off the brooms’ paths. It will also keep you away from the opposing side’s soot clean up movements, which overlap into into the lanes beside them and can hit you when you thought you were safe. Once the brooms pass you, move onto their paths to avoid the brooms coming from the other direction.
Tribulation broom dodging combined with Dark Well, a combination found later in the fight.
  • Dark Pulse – A stack mechanic.
  • Dark Well – Immediately follows the stack and requires all 4 players to spread out to avoid overlapping 4 traveling AoEs centered on each player.
  • Shadowbolt
  • Immortal Anathema
  • Tribulation
  • Dark Well – Happens in conjunction with dodging Tribulation brooms.
  • Dark Shock
  • Shadowbolt
  • Dark Pulse
  • Dark Well
  • Immortal Anathema
  • Tribulation
  • Dark Shock
  • Continues with mixed variations of the already seen mechanics.

Encounter 3

6 Bellporxie, 2 Cosmos Echo, & 1 Witchweed

The only mechanics of note here come from the Cosmos Echoes:

  • Self Destruct – A circular AoE, centered on the mob.

Encounter 4

2 Cosmos Snapweed, 1 Cosmos Ya-te-veo, 4 Paraporxie & 2 Bellporxie

  • Nepenthic Plunge – A wide, conal AoE from the Snapweeds, focused on the player with highest hate.
  • Acid Mist – A circular AoE centered on the Ya-te-veo which applies poison.
  • Brewing Storm – A small, conal AoE from the Paraporxie, targeting a random player.

Leannan Sith

  • Storm of Color – A tank buster.
  • Ode to Lost Love – An arena-wide AoE.
  • Direct Seedling – A pattern of magically regrown grass will appear mixed in with the dry ground. Four Leannan Seeds will drop into the lush grass.
  • Gardener’s Hymn – You must move the Leannan Seeds spawned in the previous mechanic to the dry earth so that they won’t flower into Lover’s Ring mobs at the end of the cast bar.
    • Toxic Spout – An ability executed by the Lover’s Rings if they’re allowed to sprout and not killed quickly. It applies a slow debuff, as well as poison.
  • Storm of Color*
  • Ode to Lost Love
  • Ode to Far Winds – A checkerboard pattern of circular AoEs will appear on the floor and all 4 players will be marked with circular AoEs that will travel with them. Spread out to both avoid the static ground circles and avoid overlapping your personal circles.
  • Ode to Fallen Petals – Immediately after the previous AoEs conclude, Leannan Sith will cover the the entire arena floor with an AoE pulse, except for a circle of safety under her, so be ready to move in quickly.
  • Ode to Lost Love
  • Direct Seedling
  • Gardener’s Hymn – This will play out the same as the previous iteration (though likely with a different grass pattern), except this time you and the seeds will also be pushed in the direction of the moving ground arrows by 1 block. Make sure you place the seed 1 block ahead of where it needs to end up to be safely on dry earth.
Gardener’s Hymn with movement.
  • Ode to Far Winds
  • Ode to Fallen Petals
  • *Likely repeats from Storm of Color.

Encounter 5

1 Draco Statue, 3 Bellporxie, & 3 Paraporxie

  • Fire Breath – A conal AoE from the Draco Statue that focuses on a random player.

Encounter 6

Ser Intheran, Ser Grymme, Ser Mothbert, & Ser Javyth

These knights are both literally and figuratively shadows of their former selves, with only two of them executing any kind of attack:

  • Ronkan Freeze – Cast by Ser Mothbert, this spell shows up as a circular AoE, centered on the player with the highest hate. Any player hit by this spell will be bound for 5 seconds.
  • Overpower – A conal AoE attack by Ser Grymme, often cast in tandem with Mothbert’s Ronkan Freeze.

Encounter 7

Ser Phinibert, Ser Hamonth, & Lord Tolthewil

  • Ronkan Cure II – Cast by Ser Hamonth on his weakened friends. It’s advisable to focus on this healer mob first.
  • Peerless Valor – A tank buster style attack cast by Lord Tolthewil.
  • Supreme Majesty – A large, AoE circle centered on the player with highest hate cast by Lord Tolthewil.

Lugus

Take note of the green labeled objects around the room and try not to hit them with any AoEs. You’re going to need them.

  • Scorching Left/Right – Lugus will charge an attack to either his left or right. When it goes off, the full arena floor on that side of him will be covered in AoE damage.
  • Otherworldly Heat – All 4 players will be marked with a red symbol over their heads. When this symbol disappears, each player will drop a cross shape on the ground which will explode in a bulkier, cross-shaped AoE of fire. To avoid this, simply step away from the center of the cross toward the empty corner areas. Most importantly here, though: be careful not to hit any of the green labeled furniture with it.
  • Mortal Flame – Each player will be marked with a blue symbol which will give them a debuff called mortal flame. This debuff will bleed your health until either you die, or 16 seconds expire, at which point you will automatically fall over dead. To get rid of the debuff, touch a piece of the green labeled furniture in the room. That’s right, burn up the mage’s stuff. Only running into the furniture is needed, no clicking required.
Mortal Flame.
  • Fire’s Domain – Each player will be marked with the Ravana/Twinning 1-4 sword symbols. The first player will be attached to the boss with a tether that indicates they should distance themselves from Lugus. Player 1 should pick a corner/side and move away from the boss until the tether attached to them is no longer made of opposing arrows (not safe), but instead, purple plasma (safe). Player 2 should be moving the opposite direction, while player 3 can stick toward player 1, and 4 moves with player 2. The distance it takes to get your tether to indicate that you’re safe isn’t as much as you might think. You can stay relatively close and you definitely don’t need to be an entire room’s length away from the previous numbered player, so these positions are just a suggestion to get comfortable with the fight.
    • Fire’s Ire – At the end of each of Lugus’ 4 dashes, he’ll do a conal AoE centered on the player he just dashes two.
Fire’s Domain and Fire’s Ire dashes.
  • Scorching Left/Right
  • Culling Blade – An arena-wide, unavoidable AoE, which happens to knock down a few more burnable items.
  • Otherworldly Heat – Remember to avoid the newly spawned burnable chandeliers. Use the clear walls to your advantage if you’re a ranged class.
  • Mortal Flame
  • Scorching Left/Right
  • Fire’s Domain
    • Fire’s Ire
  • Captive Bolt* – A tank buster.
  • Otherworldly Heat
  • Culling Blade
  • Scorching Left/Right
  • Fire’s Domain
    • Fire’s Ire
  • *Likely repeats from Captive Bolt.

Congratulations, you’ve completed The Grand Cosmos!