The Control Node is one of three bosses you will fight during The Last King main story quest. It is basically an oversized Defense Node, which you have fought plenty of times, but considering it’s a boss, it’s not going to be a pushover. The fight isn’t all too difficult, though, but you will want to be careful, as you will face another boss right after this, with no reprieve.

How to Beat Control Node in FF16¶

The Control Node shouldn’t be all to difficult of a boss, although it seems to have a pretty hefty stagger resistance, especially compared to its health. You will likely have the boss close to dead before you even stagger it once, so don’t be alarmed should that happen. That means you should be more than free to use most of your abilities throughout the battle, without fear of them being on cooldown once the boss is staggered.

All Control Node Boss Attacks in Final Fantasy XVI¶

Control Node is a boss that won’t really have multiple phases at all, and you will see the majority of its attacks from the beginning of the battle.

Charge Attack¶

The Control Node will move slightly back, charge itself with electricity, then dash straight at you. There’s not much else to say about this move, as you’ve seen variations of it plenty of times by now.

Electric Discharge¶

You will only see this attack whenever you’re up close to the Control Node. It will begin charging up some electricity, then discharge it after a few seconds, in a dome shape around the boss. As soon as you see it charging up, back away to avoid the attack.

Laser Beam¶

There are two different variations of this attack, where the Control Node will basically fire a laser beam. When you see the little compartment stick out of the Control Node, that means it’s going to be firing a laser. One will go horizontally, while the other laser will go vertically. You can tell which one is which, depending on the starting point of the laser. If the boss shoots downwards first, then it will go vertical.

Short Circuit¶

The Control Panel will go into the middle of the arena and just start firing lasers in every direction. Only a single laser should be extending the entire length of the arena, and will track you, while the others are just shooting in a direction and move along with the boss’ movements. You could potentially just move in a single direction to avoid the tracking laser, but you may still need to dodge the other lasers, in case they approach your position.

Electric Orbs¶

Control Node will open up and shoot some electric orbs at you. They are small and you can easily just keep moving to one side to avoid them. If you need to dodge, feel free to do that, too.

Melee Attack¶

Control Node will split in two, then bring itself back together to try and hit you, which is the attack itself. This move is telegraphed well before it’s executed, so as soon as you see it separate, you can just back away a bit.

High Voltage¶

At around half health, Control Node will go to the center of the arena and it’ll begin charging up for a big attack, complete with the separate purple bar. While it’s doing this, the boss will rise into the air and crash into the ground, dispersing some electricity. It only reaches so far, though, but you will want to stay in close to try and stop the big move. Note that eventually, a countdown will appear, which means you need to hurry to deplete the purple bar. Should you fail to do so, the move will go off as planned, and you will suffer major damage (around 50% of health when full).

Strategy for the Control Node Boss in FFXVI¶

Control Node is a fairly simple boss, with not a whole lot of attacks and most of them aren’t too difficult to avoid. It was mentioned before that Control Node seems to have a fairly good resistance to stagger attacks, but it could just be that it doesn’t have much health, either. There really isn’t any attack that stands out as particularly dangerous, although the Electric Discharge will be annoying, since you will likely need to back away from the boss while it does that move. For the majority of the battle, you will just be doing the normal “dodge, then attack” routine.

At around half health or so, the Control Node will go to the middle of the arena and begin charging for its big attack. Like so many other instances of this, the boss won’t really do its regular attacks, while you press the attack to drain the purple bar. Control Panel will simply rise into the air and crash into the ground, creating a “pool” of electricity around it. That little attack won’t extend throughout the entire arena, but you will want to stay close to continue your offense. Should you fail to drain the purple bar, then you will see High Voltage, an attack that deals around 50% of your life (if it’s full).

Make sure that you pretty much use your abilities during this part, since they will likely make a bigger dent to its gauge than normal attacks. Once you foil the plans of that move, then the battle will continue to play out like it did before, as Control Node doesn’t introduce any new skills. It is very likely that by the time you stagger the boss, it will be close enough to being defeated.

Recommended Abilities for the Control Node Boss¶

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

Gigaflare is definitely a very powerful ability, especially when used in conjunction with Lightning Rod during a stagger. Whether you use it at the beginning or the end of a stagger, you’ll be dealing a lot of damage with that combo. Flames of Rebirth isn’t locked into place, but it’s good damage and it pauses the stagger bar. Rising Flames is just a great attack, as the cooldown is low and it does good stagger/damage. Gouge is there for damage to the Will gauge, but if you have Diamond Dust mastered, you can replace it. Raging Fists is one of the better counter moves in the game, as it does decent damage, as well as stagger.

Once you do defeat the Control Node, you won’t have a chance to rest, though, as the game will throw another boss right at you; the Aurum Giant.