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Final Fantasy XVI

Best Odin Eikon Abilities in FF16

By
Jessica Dillon

"Odin" iconOdin is the last "Eikon" iconEikon that you will unlock in Final Fantasy XVI. He controls darkness and has several powerful moves to help you tear through the rest of the game. It can be hard to know whether or not to use Odin in your current rotation and which moves you should invest in. The guide below breaks down all five of Odin’s moves, their costs, and how to best use them in battle.

Odin appearing during Through The Maelstrom.

All of Odin’s Abilities In FF16

Once you complete The Last King Main Quest, you will obtain the last Eikon Odin. Upon starting the Brotherhood main quest you will be able to try out and use his abilities. Odin is arguably the strongest Eikon in the game and has several high powered moves for Clive to choose from. The chart below gives more information about each move and how much AP you need to obtain, upgrade, and master them.

Ability Description AP Cost Upgrade Cost Mastery Cost
"Arm of Darkness" iconArm of Darkness Replace Clive’s current weapon with Odin’s blade. Landing abilities with the Arm of Darkness fills the Zantetsuken gauge. Hold square DualSense-ButtonSquare to execute Zantetsuken. - - 5,000
"Heaven's Cloud" iconHeaven’s Cloud Surge forward to strike an enemy. Can be executed multiple times in succession if previous hit lands. Each hit landed fills the Zantetsuken gauge. - 575 1,000
"Gungnir" iconGungnir Summon the legendary spear Gungnir and execute an extended flourish of deadly slices and strokes. Each hit landed fills the Zantetsuken gauge. - 635 1,000
"Rift Slip" iconRift Slip Use to recover immediately from any ability or action. 100 700 1,000
"Dancing Steel" iconDancing Steel Summon a second blade and unleash a flurry of attacks. Each hit landed significantly fills the Zantetsuken gauge. 1,845 2,420 4,250

Below we rank all five of Odin’s attacks by how effective they are in battle. Keep in mind that this list may vary depending on what type of enemy or boss you’re fighting.

  1. "Dancing Steel" iconDancing Steel
  2. "Rift Slip" iconRift Slip
  3. "Arm of Darkness" iconArm of Darkness
  4. "Heaven's Cloud" iconHeaven’s Cloud
  5. "Gungnir" iconGungnir

Odin Ability Breakdown

Arm of Darkness

Arm of Darkness is Odin’s DualSense-ButtonCircle ability and is quite the change from the other Eikons. When Arm of Darkness is used, Clive summons the same sword that you saw "Barnabas Tharmr" iconBarnabas Tharmr using in the boss fight. By landing hits on foes, the gauge on the side of your screen will fill. Like "Bahamut" iconBahamut, there are up to five levels to this gauge, depending on whether you have mastered the move or not and when you’re done charging the move, you can unleash it on enemies to deal damage.

This move comes free with Odin’s set and there is no upgrade for you to purchase. If you want to master the move, it will cost you 5,000 AP. Once mastered, the fifth level of the gauge will unlock allowing you to deal even more damage while on the field.

(1 of 3) !Arm of Darkness hits enemies mutiple times.

With all the being said, this move is pretty weak, especially considering the lofty cost you need to pay to master it. It does give you another way to attack enemies and deal more damage than the standard hit, but feats like "Shiva" iconShiva’s "Cold Snap" iconCold Snap are much more effective. It also can’t be combined with some other moves due to having to charge the gauge up making it less useful in some combos. You can fill the gauge for this move with other moves, making the whole process of charging up a bit useless.

Heaven’s Cloud

Heaven’s Cloud is a move that sends Clive bursting forward to quickly strike an enemy. If the attack lands successfully, then Clive will be able to strike the enemy again, leaving room for even more damage. While using this move you will also increase the Zantetsuken bar, so it may be best if you keep it on Odin instead of trying to use it with another Eikon as the move becomes a bit less effective.

You will obtain this move with the initial Odin set, but it can be upgraded and mastered. It will cost you 575 AP to upgrade this move, increasing the amount of times that you can hit an enemy after landing a successful strike. To master the move and use it with another Eikon you will need to pay 1,000 AP.

(1 of 3) !Heaven’s Cloud after hitting an enemy.

Heaven’s Cloud is a move that is great for hitting an enemy quickly. This can especially be useful if you have an opening while fighting a boss where you need to quickly attack a few times and then move out of the way. You also may find it useful on smaller enemies if you are trying to knock them out fast before taking on something with a heftier health bar.

Gungnir

Gungnir is summoned onto the spear and Clive unleashes a flurry of stabs at nearby enemies. Like Heaven’s Cloud, this move increases the Zantetsuken bar, making it more useful on Odin’s set than when used with another Eikon. You may find that each hit is a bit weak, but if you can hit the enemy multiple times with this attack you will end up doing a decent chunk of damage.

This is the last move that comes free with Odin’s set and it can be upgraded or mastered. If you want to increase the speed of your follow-up attack, then you can pay 635 AP. To gain the ability to use Gungnir on other Eikons you will need to pay 1,000 AP.

(1 of 3) !Gungnir unleashes a flurry of attacks.

This move is pretty straightforward; it allows you to unleash a multi-hit attack while also filling your Zantetsuken gauge. Using it in your rotation can be fine if you prefer the move over something like Heaven’s Cloud. For the most part though, you will likely end up substituting this for another Eikon ability.

Rift Slip

Rift Slip is a move all about strategy as it allows you to cancel an animation. This saves you precious seconds when an enemy is still stunned or you’re trying to land fast hits. It’s great to use in all types of attacks, and its upgrade makes it even more viable as you can immediately recover from an enemy’s attack and get back to fighting. This is easily the second-best move Odin has to offer as it can be extremely useful in changing the flow of all combos.

(1 of 3) Use !Rift Slip to cancel any ability animation.

Rift Slip isn’t free; you will need to pay 100 AP to unlock it. To upgrade this move to allow you to instantly recover from enemy attacks you simply need to pay 700 AP. To get the most out of the move and combine it with other Eikons, pay 1,000 AP to master the move.

Dancing Steel

Like most of the big moves from the other Eikons, Dancing Steel is powerful and can melt away a health bar. When used, Clive will wield Odin’s blade and begin to slash away at any enemy in front of him. This is a powerful move that will also fill your Zantetsuken bar so that you can use !Arms of Darkness soon after to keep your combo going.

To unlock this move you will need to pay the hefty price of 1,845 AP. If you want to upgrade Dancing Steel so that you can land more hits on your enemies, you will need to pay 2,420 AP. Finally, if you wish to use Dancing Steel with another Eikon, then be prepared to spend 4,250 AP. This is the most expensive set in the game, so you will likely need to do a bit of grinding to unlock it.

(1 of 3) !Dancing Steel unleashes a flurry of powerful strikes on opponents.

Dancing Steel can be used in a wide variety of combos. It’s great against smaller enemies you want to quickly get off the field or against bosses. It’s great to use with Rift Slip if you want to get right into battle after using it, or to switch to another Eikon like "Garuda" iconGaruda where you can use "Deadly Embrace" iconDeadly Embrace to pull enemies close to Clive for the attack.

All Odin Ability Accessories

When using Odin’s abilities in battle, you will want to enhance them with compatible accessories. Each Eikon has their own set of move-specific accessories you can find throughout the game. These can either power up specific moves or reduce their cooldown time. If you are looking to play in Final Fantasy Mode, then they are even more useful as you can fuse them together for double the bonus. The chart below goes over every one of Odin’s accessories, what they do, and where to get them.

Accessory Effect Location
The Breath of Darkness ("Gungnir" iconGungnir) Reduces "Gungnir" iconGungnir cooldown time by 2.0 seconds. Complete Nobody’s Tool quest.
The Breath of Darkness ("Heaven's Cloud" iconHeaven’s Cloud) Reduces "Heaven's Cloud" iconHeaven’s Cloud cooldown time by 2.5 seconds. Merchant in "Boklad" iconBoklad fo 48,000 Gil.
The Breath of Darkness ("Rift Slip" iconRift Slip) Reduces "Heaven's Cloud" iconHeaven’s Cloud cooldown time by 0.5 seconds. Merchant in "Boklad" iconBoklad, Bought from Dalimil Inn for 45,000 Gil.
The Favor of Darkness ("Heaven's Cloud" iconHeaven’s Cloud) Increases "Heaven's Cloud" iconHeaven’s Cloud damage by 15%. Bought from Merchant in "Northreach" iconNorthreach for 52,000 Gil.
The Pull of Darkness ("Dancing Steel" iconDancing Steel) Increases the rate at which "Dancing Steel" iconDancing Steel fills Zantetsuken gauge by 25%. Defeat "Ultima" iconUltima for the first time.
The "Will" iconWill of Darkness ("Dancing Steel" iconDancing Steel) Increases "Heaven's Cloud" iconHeaven’s Cloud damage by 20%. Complete "Odin" iconOdin Chronolith Trial.

Below are some more guides related to Eikons and how to get the most out of using them when in battle. Be sure to check out our other Eikon ability guides.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Square Enix
  • Platforms,
    PS5
  • Genre
    Action RPG
  • Guide Release
    21 June 2023
  • Last Updated
    2 August 2023
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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This is the tale of Clive Rosfield, a warrior granted the title “First Shield of Rosaria” and sworn to protect his younger brother Joshua, the dominant of the Phoenix. This guide for Final Fantasy XVI contains the following:

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