Farming Rathalos via The Great Hunt is a very effective way of collecting bounties and loot like Rathalos’ Scale, Rathalos Whistle, and a Poogie. The Rathalos Scale, for instance, is a great material to use in crafting armor or improving those that are already in your arsenal.
What Do You Need to Farm Rathalos?
To farm Rathalos for loot at The Great Hunt, you and your party members will need to be level 80 and have good DPS(item level 490+). Also, the team will not need many healers because there is a phase where only potions are effective at restoring player HP. In short, you need as many muscles as you can muster for The Great Hunt. Another reason why you need high DPS is that The Great Hunt permits a smaller team – only four members.
Phases of Battling Rathalos
The battle against FFXIV Rathalos at The Great Hunt is similar to its normal version. It has three phases, but how these phases progress sets the Extreme version apart from the normal. Let’s break down the three phases and the strategy you’ll need to defeat Rathalos throughout these.
Grounded
First, we have the Grounded phase. Like the Normal version, Rathalos stays on the ground the entire time. However, this is also the most lethal, as he immediately attacks the party with the very damaging Roar attack, which you cannot avoid. The Roar cools down for about 1 minute, and Rathalos will shift to one of five other attacks at random. You can tell what attack he will do next by looking at his animation, which will tell you what to do to avoid his next attack.
The best strategy for the Grounded phase is to utilize Ranged attacks to distract Rathalos while the tanks approach from behind and attack from there. Note how much time has passed since the last Roar – he might suddenly use it again, so everyone has to keep their HPs refilled. At around 63% mobs start showing up.
Ad
The second phase is the Ad phase, in which other monsters come in to attack Rathalos. You must eliminate the first four ads as fast as you can, and then you must fan out away from Rathalos to avoid the charge of the huge Garula that comes in afterward. Let Garula slam itself into Rathalos, who then becomes mountable by clicking the foothold. One of you must mount the dragon and activate the active time event while the remaining three slay the Garula.
The key here is timing – the Garula must be brought down before the active time event is successful. When your team member manages that, Rathalos will unleash a lethal fire attack, so quickly run to shelter behind the Garula’s corpse.
Flying
This is the final and most challenging phase of fighting Rathalos. Ranged attacks will work here while the dragon is flying in the air, but everyone should keep moving around to avoid as many of his attacks as possible.
Your goal is to fill up the Duty Gauge as quickly as possible, as it will knock Rathalos down and leave him open to attack. Focus on his body to around 40-35% of his HP. After that focus on the tail – once this comes off, Rathalos takes more damage and will die faster. If done properly you will finish him off.
Healers cannot restore HP at this point because of a debuff but can continue to heal burns. The only effective way of healing for this phase is the Mega Potion.
Once you’ve brought Rathalos down, it’s time to take your loot! Make sure to carve the scales off the dragon’s body. You might be lucky enough to find an FFXIV Rathalos Whistle! Who knows?
