How to beat Midnight Raven in Final Fantasy 16

Midnight Raven is the boss of Final Fantasy 16’s Greenwood region. A sneaky, stealth-based soldier, it can teleport and strike with deadly precision. One of Benedikta Harman’s loyal soldiers, it’s the first real stealth-based enemy you’ve fought until now. You cannot go past without besting them, unfortunately. At least you aren’t alone - Cid and Torgal are there to help you defeat this rogue.

If you are having trouble with this enemy, we’ll review his major attacks and how to deal with them in Final Fantasy 16. Midnight Raven’s fast, but it’s nothing that Clive Roswell and his allies cannot overcome.

---

How to fight Midnight Raven in Final Fantasy 16

(Clip begins at 23:35)

After Benedikta Harman leaves, you will have to deal with her soldiers. Before you focus on Midnight Raven, defeat his flunkies first. They’re just regular soldiers and won’t take any special strategies. Then you can focus on the final encounter of The Greenwood.

This enemy is quick to backflip and frontflip - either into battle or to escape your attacks. A good example is he will kick onto your body and backflip away to safety. After that, you can typically expect a teleport strike - but you can dodge past the incoming stab.

You can expect Midnight Raven to go from a regular strike to leaping forward into the air, striking at you deftly on the way through. I hit the first Stagger around 25% and got them to about 60%. This triggered a cutscene for a Cinematic Clash. The boss will disappear and catch Clive by surprise, starting another Cinematic Clash.

The attacks you see now - Raiton (AOE Lightning strikes) and Katon (Flame Breath) will return a lot in Final Fantasy 16. Every rogue-style enemy and boss will certainly have these strikes.

He’ll also use Futon to disappear and prepare his most dangerous attack - Assassinate. In my time fighting this enemy, I couldn’t figure out how to dodge the attack, but I assume it can be done. This happened around the 50% mark in this fight.

After stagger, he went for Futon again and landed a second Asssasinate. As long as you have a few potions, if he lands these, you’ll still be safe and sound against Midnight Raven.

This boss continues to teleport and flip forward while alternating between ninja arts like Raiton as you get down to 25% HP. Once they are around 15% HP, there will be one final cutscene, where Clive learns how to deal with Midnight Raven’s shenanigans. Complete a trio of Cinematic Clashes, and then Clive lands the killing blow.

---

With this Final Fantasy 16 boss defeated, you can move forward, leading you to a fight with Benedikta Harman. Final Fantasy 16 is available now, and you can read our review here.