Kugane Castle is a level 70 dungeon in Final Fantasy 14: Stormblood. This is the first optional dungeon of the expansion, and will task you with rescuing captives trapped inside the castle, held there by rogue shinobi.
Now that you're done saving Gyr Abania and the Far East, its time to stop the petty thieves who've infiltrated Kugane Castle. As you fight your way through this dungeon, you'll encounter robots, ninjas, and robot ninjas. Let's take a look at each boss in Kugane Castle, their attacks and mechanics, and how to beat them.
How To Unlock Kugane Castle
Kugane Castle is unlocked through the following side quest. You will need to be level 70 and have finished the Main Scenario Quest 'Stormblood'.
- Accept the quest 'King of the Castle'
- NPC Location: East Aldenard Trading Company Associate - Kugane (X:13.9, Y:13.3)
Dungeon Walkthrough
Throughout this dungeon, there are a few different enemies that you'll need to keep your eye out for.
- Joi Kiyofusa: These large mechanical enemies will use cleaving auto-attacks. The Tank should face them away from the rest of the party to avoid unecessary damage.
- Joi Summoner: Appearing after the first boss, these enemies will attempt to summon adds to the fight. Target the summoners first to avoid more enemies being summoned.
- Harakiri Hanya: These adds appear after the second boss, and will attempt to self-destruct, dealing high damage in a large area. Focus on destroying these before other enemies to stop their explosion.
Zuiko-maru
The first boss of Kugane Castle is the Zuiko-maru. The red color scheme of this boss makes it at least three times faster than its Joi Kiyofusa counterparts from earlier in the dungeon. Zuiko-maru's attacks and mechanics are listed below.
- Clearout: Deals damage in a frontal cone to the boss. Move outside of the AoE indicator to avoid.
- Kenki Release: Deals damage to all party members. Recover with AoE heals.
- Harakiri Kosho: Throughout the fight, Zuiko-maru will summon two Harakiri Kosho adds. These will tether to random players and chase them around for a few seconds. Then, they will leap at the tethered player, stunning them in place while preparing to explode. Destroy the robots and move out of their blast radius before they explode.
- Helm Crack: Targets a random player with a stack marker. Group up on the affected player to spread out the damage of this attack.
Zuiko-maru will repeat these attacks until it is defeated. The main thing to watch out for is the summoned Harakiri Kosho adds. Destroy these as quickly as possible and move outside of their explosion AoE to avoid taking high damage.
Dojun-maru
The second boss of Kugane Castle is Dojun-maru, whose attacks and mechanics are detailed below.
- Clockwork Medium: Dojun-maru will summon clones to either the outside or inside of the arena.
- Outside: Untargetable clones will appear around the edge of the arena and attack with a line AoE that flips the floor boards of the arena. Move outside of the AoE indicators to avoid.
- Inside: Elite Onmitsu clones will be summoned to the arena that will cast line AoEs. Destroy these as quickly as possible, as they will explode after a few seconds.
- Clockwork Raiton: Targets random players with an AoE marker. Spread out to avoid overlapping these.
- Juji Shuriken: Deals damage in a thin line AoE towards a random player. Move outside the AoE indicator to avoid.
Dojun-maru will repeat these mechanics until it is defeated. As the fight progresses, more clones will be summoned from Clockwork Medium, and this attack may be used more than once at a time. Prepare to deal with line AoEs from the outside of the arena while also destroying the Elite Onmitsu that are summoned.
Yojimbo
The final boss of Kugane Castle is Yojimbo. This sword-for-hire from past Final Fantasy games makes his return with the following attacks and mechanics.
- Iai Giri: Deals damage in a point-blank AoE surrounding Yojimbo. Move outside the AoE indicator to avoid.
- Funds: Yojimbo will jump out of the arena and wait to be paid before he rejoins the fight. Piles of Gold will fall around the arena, and Yijimbo will send his pet Daigoro to pick up the money. Daigoro will jump to each Pile of Gold, dealing damage where he lands, and adding five to the Funds Duty Gauge for every Pile of Gold he successfully retrieves. Players can interact with the Piles of Gold to take the money, preventing it from being added to the Funds Gauge.
- After Daigoro has finished rounding up the coin, Yojimbo will return and cast Zanmato, dealing damage according to how high the Funds Gauge is. Pick up as much gold as you can to prevent Zanmato from dealing higher damage.
- Dragon's Lair: During subsequent uses of Funds, Yojimbo will summon Dragon's Head adds to the arena. These will rotate around the edge of the arena, periodically firing line AoEs at random players. Destroy these as you pick up the Piles of Gold. If left alive for long enough, the Dragon's Heads will use Dragonstrike, dealing damage according to how many Heads are still on the arena.
- Metta-giri: Deals damage to all party members. Use AoE healing to recover.
- Inoshikacho: Yojimbo will summon butterfly adds to the arena that will use a large circular AoE attack. The butterflies will be summoned to the middle of the arena first, followed closely by a wave of butterflies around the edge of the arena. Dodge this sequence of AoEs.
Yojimbo will repeat these attacks until he is defeated. Work with your party to quickly pick up the gold, and this fight is otherwise pretty straightforward. After forcing Yojimbo to retreat, Kugane Castle will be complete.
