Does it make sense to try and figure out Coil mechanics on our own?

So back when my FC was founded people decided they wouldn't look at guides at all, and they'd find their own way through all content.

Now we're about split between those who stuck to that, and those who decided it was stupid (or were just impatient) and looked up strats in advance. Up to now the latter group just didn't say a thing and let the others figure stuff out (not like it's that hard to understand how the HM primals work), but since our Coil debut this week there's starting to be some tension between the two.

So I wanted to ask people who've already seen most of Coil: are the mechanics on the later floors discoverable at all? I can see us pulling through Caduceus with a bit more research, but I'm worried about what comes next.

It's doable. We've done Turn 1 and Turn 2 without looking at any videos. I just hope your group of players are not the kind to be scared of wiping

Figuring out your own mechanics is a very rewarding experience if you actually have the patience to figure it out, and fully encourage that you guys keep at it a bit longer.
Turn 2 will require a lot of time to figure out exactly what is going on, but shouldn't be too difficult once you actually see what is actually happening. There are a lot of mechanics that are kind of passive that don't make them self to obvious.
Turn 3 is a free Turn.
Turn 4 should be a lot easier to figure out as its just knowing what to kill first, which can be figured out relatively quickly, lots of trial and error.
Turn 5, well most have had to figure this one out on their own anyways, but there is a ton of mechanics you have to learn which will take a lot of time to fully comprehend.

Turn 2 is going to be fun with no guide, especially depending on which direction you take.

Thanks for the responses, I'll try to encourage my people a bit!

My guild's learned everything on their own. For a # of us, the part we enjoy most is figuring out the encounters, so we do our best to not spoil mechanics via videos/guides/forums/etc. We have a couple of members that do still watch things ahead of time, but they're players we know IRL and they have no problem keeping quiet and letting the rest of us experience the fight and deduce our own methods/strategies. But you do need everyone to be on the same page for the time/wipes that doing this means.

As for the turns themselves, time wise, T1-T4 are not bad at all. If you're good, you'll figure out most of the fight mechanics in just a few attempts and then the rest is execution time. T5 is a slightly different story, as the tuning and length of the fight itself leads to a lot of time spent doing the part of the fight you already know just so you can experience a few seconds of something new.

Final note...there's not much reason to rush through Coil if you derive more joy from learning the encounters yourselves. 2.1 isn't releasing anything new you need to have Coil completed for, so my advice is to do what's fun for you for as long as possible, because once you beat those encounters, they quickly become a mere speed bump in your weekly time investment.

Addonex

Absolutely! I highly encourage you to try everything on your own. It makes it much more rewarding when you win, and having your group work together trying to make up strategies and solutions helps to strengthen your bond as a team.

Have fun!