Endwalker / Fighting Zenos

[LuSnow]

Hello All

You know that book/film: Chronicle of a death foretold? That's me now. My summoner got rid yesterday of Endwalker msq and she is left with defeating Zenos as last task.

I will be honest: I'm terrified to even put a foot into it...

My question: My intention is to fail it directly in order to re-enter it into very easy mode, but aside from that *cough*coward*cough* trick, are there any hints, instructions or whatever that you can share to prepare/help me for it?

Thanks in advance as usual.

[LuSnow]

Sorry for double posting, but Cuties, you will not believe it... I'm watching end scene! I got rid of Zenos on first try in normal mode!

I can still not believe my own eyes...

He still had some % health and I had only one life left, so I was really fearing the worst, to have to redo that all again, but no... I managed to keep going and suddenly it was a movie looking like the end of it and yes, that was it! YEAH!

[Moomba33]

Congratulations!
Between this and how well you've been doing with your bard alt, I'd say you've really improved at the game.

[Jeeqbit]

The fight with Zenos is meant to feel hard and intense.

In order to make sure casual players can beat it, it gives you "life stacks", so you can die lots of times and it will essentially revive you instantly and say it's your inner strength pushing forward.

The main thing with it really is when he says something - anything at all, an attack will usually follow, so moving sideways or behind him should avoid whatever it is. Not too relevant now, but in case you happen to do it again ever.

[LuSnow]

Out of this experience, I can't avoid to remember Lahabrea and compare the two duties.

What we do up to arriving at Zenos is preparing us for the fight against Zenos. There is a continuous increase of difficulty up to the duty. The fight itself is of course a lot more intense, with a few new things, but we know what to do.

It's a big difference to Lahabrea. For me, there is a big gap of difficulty between what we do up to Lahabrea and Lahabrea.
Still now, I believe it would make sense - especially as it is the first chapter so everything is first time - that a few side quests are added, mandatory to complete before Lahabrea, that would prepare us for that last duty. Very personal opinion of course...

Still now, Lahabrea remains for me the worst duty I did.

[Shistar]

Congrats Lu! It's heartwarming to see you knock more and more duties out of the park. You're improving so fast!

[Jeeqbit]

It's because the Lahabrea fight was only created in the relatively recent history of the game. In the past, the Lahabrea fight was part of a dungeon and it melted in seconds. It melted because the dungeon was Praetorium, which used to have 8 people not 4, and the sheer damage output was too much.

In the lore, Lahabrea is meant to be powerful like Emet-Selch. So it didn't make any sense that we killed them in seconds as a relatively new adventurer. They remade the fight to feel like you only just managed to win with Hydaelyn's help.

However, they remade it using "modern" fight mechanics that you'd normally only see at level 80, 90 and 100, and that's why it felt like a sudden uptick in difficulty.

It's hard to say whether it was the right move given the effect on new players, but it didn't make sense in the lore to be a pushover.

[Frizze]

So a couple years ago i watched a streamer attempt your proposed strategy of immediately failing and switching to very easy mode. Enough time has passed that they could have tweaked the fight, but this is what i remember. Instead of the default 6ish lives, they started with something like 15. But what struck me was that while they were doing more damage to Zenos he also seemed to be doing more damage to them. They were hit by attacks and "died" when i clearly remembered those attacks being survivable. In the end they burned through what felt like 12 or 13 of 15 lives, and looked closer to failing then i would have thought possible.

But that is beside the point here. Congrats on finishing 6.0!

[Carin-Eri]

Sorry for double posting, but Cuties, you will not believe it... I'm watching end scene! I got rid of Zenos on first try in normal mode!

I can still not believe my own eyes...

He still had some % health and I had only one life left, so I was really fearing the worst, to have to redo that all again, but no... I managed to keep going and suddenly it was a movie looking like the end of it and yes, that was it! YEAH!

Congratulations on the clear!

That fight is my personal favourite in the entire game (to date). The build up to it (with the 4th-wall breaking dialogue), the atmosphere, the setting, the Endwalker soundtrack ('Footfalls') playing - and the fight itself.
In terms of the narrative I, personally, still feel that he was right about us when he identified our 'Adventurer' roots. and recognised that we were heroes through circumstance and a need to do the right thing, rather than it being something we sought to become. I feel the only answer that wasn't dishonest was "That, I can't deny" when he tells us he knows what we are. When he fights us here he truly doesn't hold anything back. He pours everything he is into that fight.... and so do we. Two souls burning their absolute hottest and brightest - the greatest joy Zenos has ever known and the only joy he can ever share.

I really wish we could replay solo duties. I mean, we can - but, in terms of this one you have to go through the entire second-half of Endwalker on New Game+ to do so.