Soul Stingers are a challenging Hunt that becomes available following the events at Drake’s Fang. There are plenty of Notorious Marks available for Clive to take on in Final Fantasy 16, and finding them is just the beginning. This page will show you where you can find the Soul Stingers, and how you can defeat them.
Where is the Soul Stingers Mark Location?¶
Location | Level | Bounty |
---|---|---|
Empty Hovel, Dhalmekia | 32 | 5,500 Gil, 10 Renown |
You won’t unlock the Soul Stingers Hunt until you’ve reached the Out of the Shadows Main Quest, just beyond the halfway point of Clive’s adventure. Once you do, make your way to the Hunt Board to discover four new Notorious Marks for you to track and find (with another from a new Side Quest). The first of this batch, the Soul Stingers, are a C Rank Hunt and the purpose of this guide.
The bill gives you a bit of information to go on, namely they can be found in the Empty Hovel of Dhalmekia. Read the bill, however, and you’ll learn they’ve made their nest near an abandoned village in the Fields of Corava.
If you’re accessing this Hunt straight after unlocking it, odds are you’ve not explored the part of Dhalmekia that you need to visit so head to the Dalimil Inn Obelisk and exit via the south and into the Terraces. From here, go southeast through The Sickle and you’ll eventually reach The Fields of Corava. Make sure you’re suitably prepared and head towards the dead-end to trigger the battle.
Soul Stingers’ Attacks¶
Below you’ll find all the attacks that the Soul Stingers have in their arsenal:
Attack | Description | Counter |
---|---|---|
Sting | A single Soul Stinger will fly close and attempt to Sting Clive. | This is nothing more than a regular melee attack, so long as you keep track of which one is coming toward you, you can easily dodge it. |
Apipuncture | The Soul Stingers signature attack, this will see their stingers glow red and shoot out towards Clive at once. | So long as you pay attention to their location, this is easy to avoid with Precision Dodge. Just beware that if they catch you, you’ll take massive damage. |
Final Sting | Once you’re down to one final Soul Stinger, it will will use Apipuncture without a warning, look for the stinger to glow red to spot it. | The only danger with this attack is not spotting it, but so long as you look for the red glow, you’ll be able to avoid it the same way as Apipuncture. |
Recommended Abilities for Soul Stingers¶
Here we will list our recommended ability set up to do this effectively:
Eikon | Ability | Damage Type |
---|---|---|
Phoenix/Ifrit | Will-o’-the-Wykes | Damage (1 Star), Will (2 Stars) |
Phoenix/Ifrit | Heatwave | Damage and Will (2 Stars) |
Garuda | Aerial Blast | Damage (2 Stars), Will (5 Stars) |
Garuda | Wicked Wheel | Damage (2 Stars), Will (3 Stars) |
Titan | Raging Fists | Damage (3 Stars), Will (3 Stars) |
Titan | Earthen Fury | Damage (4 Stars), Will (2 Stars) |
As has become a mainstay since unlocking it, Will-o’-the-Wykes not only offers protection from being hit, but it adds to the damage you do during a Stagger phase. Protection against the Apipucture attack is very helpful, especially when there is only one Soul Stinger remaining. Heatwave is useful for its Area-of-Effect capabilities, especially if you line up the Soul Stingers.
Wicked Wheel is a fantastic AoE ability, and it’s even more useful against flying enemies so this makes it especially useful here against the Soul Stingers. Likewise, Aerial Blast is another fantastic large AoE and you should use it whenever it’s available. Any kind of Eikon ultimate is useful (such as Aerial Blast mentioned a moment ago), and Earthen Fury is no different, while Raging Fists is just another way to parry here, feel free to change that with a mastered AoE from another Eikon.
Recommended Items and Equipment for the Soul Stingers¶
Gear¶
For your Weapon, Belt, and Vambraces, you should have the following:
Weapon | Belt | Vambraces |
---|---|---|
Enhancer +2 | Drakeslayer’s Belt | Drakeslayer’s Bracelet |
If you don’t have what’s listed above, use the highest Attack for Weapon, and highest Defense and Health for the Belt and Vambraces. The Drakeslayer’s recipes are a reward from completing the Blacksmith’s Blues Side Quest, but you’ll need materials from other Hunts to craft them.
Accessories¶
For your Accessories, this is more subjective, so here is what we used:
Accessory 1 | Accessory 2 | Accessory 3 |
---|---|---|
The Favor of Wind (Wicked Wheel) - Increases Wicked Wheel damage by 10% | Berserker’s Ring - Increase attack proficiency with each Precision Dodge | The Heat of Fire (Heatwave) - Increase Heatwave damage by 9% |
Items¶
Finally, we have items. This is more of a preference thing, but we chose the following items:
Shortcut 1 | Shortcut 2 | Shortcut 3 |
---|---|---|
Potion | High Potion | Elixir |
More Healing is always a good thing which is why we went with Elixir for the third slot. These are costly, so if you don’t want to waste your Gil, take either a Strength Tonic or a Stoneskin Tonic to reduce damage by 30%.
Soul Stinger Boss Strategy¶
For how far into the adventure that you are, the Soul Stinger is a surprisingly easy Mark to deal with. Not only is it a C Rank, when you’ve been obtaining more B and A Ranks (even an S Rank) so you should already expect an easier time. What is unique about the Soul Stinger Hunt is that you’ll be going up against five Soul Stingers at once, albeit with none of them having a Will gauge.
They only have a few attacks, and only one really that needs paying attention to. They have a regular Sting attack that sees one Soul Stinger break off from the group and attempt to swoop in and sting you, if it strikes you, it will deal minimal damage.
More importantly, is the Apipuncture attack that will see them line up in formation, have their stingers glow red, and then all swoop in at once. This should be easy to use a Precision Dodge against as you have more than enough time to react against it. If you are caught, however, it will deal massive damage if you suffer the brunt of the attack from all five Soul Stingers.
Once you’re down to a single Soul Stinger, it will use the Apipuncture attack but without the named warning. This means you’ll need to pay attention to the stinger and if it glows red, this means it is lining up Final Sting that will deal massive damage to Clive should you get hit.
Seeing as you can’t Stagger the Soul Stingers, it instead becomes more about dealing AoE damage to them, and as they seem to group up constantly, it’s easy enough to hit them all. Wicked Wheel and Aerial Blast are fantastic Eikonic Abilities for that very reason, as both will hit most of your targets. Likewise, any other ultimate from the other Eikons are useful, such as Flames of Rebirth or Judgment Bolt.
Once the final Soul Stinger falls, you’ll complete the Hunt and obtain 5,500 Gil and 10 Renown along with 50 Sharp Fangs, 20 Bloody Hides, and 10 Magicked Ash.
More Final Fantasy 16 Hunts¶
For information on some of the other Notorious Marks you can take on in Final Fantasy XVI, check out these pages below:
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