Atlas, Breaker of Worlds is the first S Rank you’ll come across in Final Fantasy 16, and it’s a difficult one. This hulking mechanical being who wields an energy blade accompanied by a large shield can be accessed from the Hunt board during the Out of the Shadow story mission.Read below to find out Atlas’ exact location, what equipment, and abilities you should use, and our in-depth strategy to beat it.

Where is the Atlas, Breaker of Worlds Notorious Mark Location?¶

When you look at the bill for the first time, you’ll notice it displays ??? for the location. This is something you’ll get familiar with regarding S-Ranks due to the game not giving away their location. Normally, you would have to read the text and make an educated guess on its location. Fortunately, you’re here, and we’ve done the hard work for you.

The Breaker of Worlds, aka, Atlas can be found in the abandoned town of Cressida, Rosaria. Open the World Map, and Teleport to Eastpool (Martha’s Rest is a similar distance from it, so you can use that instead) and take the southern exit into The Broken Hilt. Take the southwest exit there, and follow the narrow path into the large area below before finally heading east/southeast into Cressida. For some reason, Clive will get off the Chocobo, and you’ll need to make your way slowly through the village to the circular area in the east. When you get there, walk to the back of the area, and you’ll be introduced to the S-Rank Hunt, Atlas, Breaker of My Controller.

Atlas, Breaker of Worlds Attacks¶

Below you’ll find all the attacks that Atlas has in its arsenal:

Recommended Abilities for Atlas¶

Here we will list our recommended ability set up to do this effectively:

The reason behind the chosen abilities above is mainly due to Atlas being a more, wait for an opening type of battle. Take Garuda for the Deadly Embrace feat, so you can pull down Atlas when it has half its Will-Gauge. Titan is brought along for its defensive capability with Titanic Block, and finally, Bahamut is taken for its Megaflare feat, and Gigaflare ability.

Gouge is a fantastic ability to use after you’ve pulled down Atlas during the halfway stagger due to its high Will-Damage. If you combine it with a Lightning Rod (place next to Atlas) then it becomes even more powerful. Then you have Gigaflare, one of the most powerful attacks in the game which is best used during the stagger phase. Rook’s Gambit and Will-o’-the-Wykes are brought along for much-needed damage negation and counter potential. Finally Flames of Rebirth is brought along to use during the Stagger phase when you’ve accumulated x1.50 damage multiplier. This can be switched out for Titan / Ramuh’s Earthen Fury / Judgment Bolt.

Recommended Items and Equipment for Atlas¶

Gear¶

For your Weapon, Belt, and Vambraces, you should have the following:

If you don’t have what’s listed above, use the highest Attack for the Weapon, and the highest Defense and Health for the Belt and Vambraces.

Accessories¶

For your Accessories, this is more subjective, so here is what we used:

Items¶

Finally, we have items. This is more of a preference thing, but we chose the following items:

Atlas can deal a lot of damage in a short amount of time, so more healing items are always a good thing. For the other slot, bring along Stoneskin Tonics to reduce damage by 30%, or Elixir’s, although the former is more beneficial.

Atlas, Breaker of Worlds Hunt Strategy¶

When you first unlock the hunt, you’ll be around level 35, and Atlas is level 45. Although this can be done as soon as you have the option to fight it, we recommend doing the next part of the story to unlock the next Eikon as it’s useful for this battle. On top of that, you should gain a few more levels, and get an upgrade to the Excalibur. This strategy will assume that you’ve taken the above advice and got the next Eikon. If not, exchange it with Phoenix for the gap closer.

At the beginning of the battle, Atlas will most likely begin the battle with its Light Wave Slam attack where it’ll unleash three light waves from its sword every time it hits the ground. Wait for the projectile to reach you, and Precision Dodge to the side of it. Do this if you can for all three waves, so you’ll get Precision Dodge x3. After the third dodge, attack it with the counter from the Precision Dodge, and get a few hits in, but don’t get greedy as Atlas is deceivingly pretty quick, and will use another attack soon after.

Because of the level difference, when Atlas hits you, it hits hard, so most of this battle will be passive rather than aggressive. For the first half of the battle until you stagger Atlas for the first time, you’ll be dealing with its melee combos, and Celestial Sphere. The problem with Celestial Sphere is, you’ll be surrounded by multiple small circles which make up a large circle, and you’ll be in the center of it. After a brief moment, beams of light will crash down onto every small circle, damaging you in the process. Repeatedly dodge out of this until you leave the circle, and get ready for another circle.

With the second circle, Atlas will perform a follow-up attack from its many attacks it has while you’re in the second circle. This is normally its lunge combo, but it can use other attacks such as the Shield Uppercut. What you want to do is leave the second circle immediately by dodging out to the right of the circle, and be ready for the incoming attack. Another tricky attack to deal with is its Shield Uppercut attack as this will not only deal damage on the initial hit, but it will unleash a line of blue flames. When you dodge this, dodge to the side to avoid the flames.

Once you stagger Atlas for the first time, its attacks become more frequent, and it’ll add the Golden Section, and Saber Dance attacks to the mix. This is when the battle gets really difficult. These attacks cover the whole arena and deal major damage if you get hit by it. What’s worse is it can use these while you’re dealing with the Celestial Sphere attack. Both of these attacks elongate the sword into a thick beam of light before Atlas sweeps across the arena in a singular attack. Golden Sphere is from left to right while Saber Dance is right to left for the most part, but they can be come the opposite direction.

The best way to deal with these is to dodge at the last second to the direction the attack is coming from, so left for Golden Section, and right, for Saber Dance. The positioning also plays a big part when you’re having to avoid Celestial Sphere and one of Golden Section/Saber Dance. Leave the Celestial Sphere circle in the direction the attack is coming from as you don’t want to dodge back into Celestial Sphere. That’s pretty much it in regard to Atlas’ attacks, although be ready for the odd Voltaic Charge, and Electric Stamp attacks as it’ll use the former more often if you’re at range, or the latter if you’re in melee range.

In terms of dealing damage to Atlas, be patient, and favor defense over offense. This is why Bahamut is good for this battle. Because you’ll be spending a lot of time at range, or dodging, you can use Bahamut’s Feat to charge up Megaflare which will charge up quicker with each successful dodge. Try to get this to Level 3 (4 with mastery), and allow the beams them to pummel Atlas while you do your other attacks.

Another good tactic is to place a Lightning Rod at Atlas’ feet whenever it’s safe to do so, and combine it with Gouge, and Will-o’-the-Wykes to deal moderate Will-Damage. Talking of Will-o’-the-Wykes, keep this up at all times, especially whenever you go in for a combo or two as it will negate up to four attacks (upgraded). This helps tremendously when dealing with the power of Atlas.

When you take Atlas’ Will-Gauge to half, immediately switch to Garuda, and use Deadly Embrace () to pull it to the ground. Quickly do a Gouge > Lightning Rod combo to deplete the gauge a bit more. You can use the same method when you send Atlas into full stagger as this will build up the damage multiplier quickly, especially when combined with your Limit Break then you can finish off the combo with one of the Eikon’s Ultimate.

Summary¶

• Play passive, and use all your damage negation abilities to lower or avoid some of Atlas’ attacks.
• While playing passive, use Bahamut’s Megaflare feat while dodging to unleash level 3/4 Megaflares. !Dodging increases the charge.
• Keep Will-o’-the-Wykes up at all times.
• Keep Stoneskin Tonics up at all times during the second phase. It doesn’t take much from Atlas to Game Over you.
• Keep your health above halfway, especially if you’re fighting Atlas earlier.
• When you do attack, perform short combos, preferably from Precision Dodges as the Berserker Ring will modify your attacks.
• Celestial Sphere sucks, and you’ll lose most of your health to it/the follow-up attacks. Get out of the circles immediately, so you don’t have to deal with them, and the follow-up attacks at the same time.
• The lower Atlas’ health gets, the quicker it becomes.
• Don’t forget Torgal exists, he’s a good boy, and he can add to the depletion of the Will-Gauge, especially if you get a Precision Sic/Ravage.

Once you’ve defeated Atlas, you’ll receive 15,000 XP, 120 AP, 27,000 Gil, and 50 Renown. On top of that, you’ll receive the Fallen Iron, and Orichalcum materials with the latter being needed for a Weapon.

More Final Fantasy 16 Hunts¶

For information on some of the other Notorious Marks you can take on in Final Fantasy 16, check out these pages below:

• C Rank Hunts
• B Rank Hunts
• A Rank Hunts
• S Rank Hunts