Ready to take on the cinematic duel featured in the CG trailer? Despite not being the major antagonist he was teased as in the promos, Gulool Ja Ja is indeed an opponent in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, appearing as a solo duty boss.
The solo duty is part of the level 92 Main Scenario Quest, A Father First, which happens after wrapping up the Moblin storyline and returning to Tuliyollal. You’re summoned to duel the mighty Dawnservant while Wuk Lamat’s entourage waits for passage to the next trial location. Be warned that the boisterous old Viper is no pushover despite his age—here’s what you need to know before fighting Gulool Ja Ja in FFXIV: Dawntrail.
All mechanics in Gulool Ja Ja’s solo MSQ duty in FFXIV: Dawntrail
Gulool Ja Ja’s solo fight requires you to be level 92, and syncs your item level down to 655. While it’s not harsh on HP, you still want to go in with Augmented Credendum gear or at least the dungeon gear drops from Ihuykatumu for a healthy padding.
Here are all of Gulool Ja Ja’s phase one mechanics, in order of appearance:
- Fancy Bladework: An unavoidable arena-wide attack.
- Dual Blows: Two consecutive half-arena cleaves centered on his hitbox and oriented in the direction he’s facing. Watch the dots that appear over his swords to see which side will go off first, and dodge accordingly.
- Steeled Strike: An X-shaped AoE telegraphed with thin shining lines. The actual danger zone is much wider, so give them a wide berth.
- Coiled Strike: An arena-wide attack with two thin safe wedges on either side. Look at the blades on the floor, then stand behind the unmoving side of either blade. He does this twice to demonstrate both clockwise and counterclockwise patterns.
After showcasing all of his basic attacks, Gulool Ja Ja then casts Battle Breaker, an unavoidable stun attack that leads to a phase change cutscene.
Once you have control of your character again, you need to dodge a series of zigzagging circular AoEs along with a few extra random ones. The telegraphs are very fast, so be careful if you’re gap-closing to him during this segment.
The rest of the fight proceeds with increasingly more complex mechanics.
Burning Sun
Burning Sun is three sets of randomly placed circular AoEs, some of which persist as floor effects that inflict Burns. All three sets are telegraphed early with a delayed execution, so you have to memorize the telegraphed pattern and dodge accordingly.
Brawl Ender
Brawl Ender is a knockback in the direction of arrows placed under your feet. Aim yourself to avoid the persisting Burning Sun circles. This can be canceled with Arm’s Length or Surecast, but they won’t be off cooldown next time the mechanic pops up.
Four Doubling casts
Doubling is the cast where Gulool Ja Ja summons clones to execute extra simultaneous attacks. He uses this mechanic four times in the fight—in the first cast, he summons three clones that jump to one side of the arena and cover just over half of it with wide straight-line AoEs. Gulool Ja Ja himself casts Dual Blows at the same time, so dodge accordingly while in the safe zone.
The second Doubling cast summons only one clone. It and Gulool Ja Ja cast The Thrill, which sets down two tower markers that need to be soaked in quick succession. Press Sprint to make it to the second tower if you need to.
After casting Fancy Bladework again, the third Doubling cast requires you to dodge a Coiled Strike, then two Steeled Strikes in quick succession.
Gulool Ja Ja casts a regular Dual Blows, then proceeds with his fourth Doubling cast. This is the final and most difficult series of mechanics, with six clones to contend with throughout. In order, you need to dodge:
- A Coiled Strike from Gulool Ja Ja while three clones cover part of the arena with line AoEs like they did in the first Doubling;
- A Steeled Strike shortly after;
- Then three The Thrill tower markers with even tighter timing.
The final tower soak is another unavoidable stun. While you’re stunned, get ready to button mash for an Active Time Maneuver that is much more punishing than usual.
If you survive the final hit, congratulations—you’ve defeated the Dawnservant and hero of Tural, albeit only in a controlled spar in his twilight years.
