Jacob Whaling is a guide writer for TheGamer. Besides oversharing about FFXIV lore, he enjoys snapping together model kits, reading comics, and Monster Hunter-ing.
After completing Where Winds Meet’s first chapter of the story and leaving Qinghe, you’ll have a whole new region to explore in Kaifeng. A new region means new quests, treasure, and of course, World Bosses, like the Twin Lions.
The Twin Lions fight in Gracetown has the Young Wanderer facing an over-enthusiastic duo in a traditional lion dance, complete with pillar balancing and fireworks. If you’re looking for help beating this boss, here’s everything we can tell you.
Twin Lions Boss Location
The Twin Lions are located in Gracetown, in the southeastern part of Kaifeng. Explore south from the North Gracetown Boundary Stone until you see the lion dance show, and you’ll be challenged to a fight.
The Twin Lions are one of the most difficult bosses in the game currently, due to a mix of high-damage attacks and unpredictable animations. The boss makes slight movements during every one of its animations, which is to be expected given its design, but this leads to a ton of mistimed parries and late dodges.
The Twin Lions will incorporate fireworks into many of their attacks. A frequent attack they’ll use involves them swiping diagonally while unleashing a burst of fireworks, dealing damage in a large area. While you can parry this attack, the extremely short wind-up makes it difficult to see coming.
Occasionally, the Twin Lions will leap backwards into the air before throwing a firework bomb at you. When you see the boss jump into the air, get ready to parry the firework bomb for some free Qi gauge damage.
They’ll also frequently stand up straight before bringing the lion’s head down on you in a fairly standard attack. This one is a bit easier to parry due to its longer wind-up. Similarly, the Twin Lions will frequently perform a quick head slam followed by a leg sweep. Even if you get hit by the head slam, spam the parry button to deflect the leg sweep.
The Twin Lions have two gold attacks. The first has them quickly dash at you, sending you flying into the air if you’re hit. This attack does a ton of damage, but is relatively easy to dodge once you get the timing down.
Their second gold attack will first create pillars around the arena, which they’ll then climb onto. Then, the boss will dive at you; the only way to avoid this attack is to dodge just before they hit you. If there’s a pillar in their diving path, the boss will then jump onto that one. Run over to the pillar and press the button prompt to kick them off, dealing high damage and making them vulnerable for a few seconds.
Sometimes, the buttom prompt doesn’t appear, at which point you’ll just need to back off and carefully avoid any follow-up attacks. This is most likely a bug.
The Twin Lions have another attack using the pillars, in which they climb up them, then dive roll in your direction. You can either avoid this like the gold version of the attack, or parry at the last second.
The Twin Lions have one red attack: a sweep followed by an uppercut. Parry the second hit of the attack to deliver a counterattack.
Very rarely, the Twin Lions will move to the center of the arena and start throwing out fireworks in every direction. The intended way to deal with this attack is to shoot a fire arrow at the boss’s head, but we’ve found you don’t have nearly enough time to get out your bow and aim your arrow before the fireworks start exploding. If this is the case for you, too, just dodge the fireworks instead.
Phase 2
Once you deplete the boss’s first health bar, the fight will enter phase two, which is pretty much more of the same, except that all of the Twin Lions’ attacks will be faster and stronger. Additionally, its animations will become even more unpredictable, with very slight differences or more movements before and during each attack.
The firework bomb attack will also launch a second bomb after the first, so be prepared to parry them both.
A new attack during this phase has the boss spin around while launching fireworks. You are able to use Meridian Touch to interrupt this attack, but just like the other firework attack, it’s difficult to hit this prompt while avoiding the fireworks, especially if you’re close to the boss when it starts using this attack.
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Overall, this boss will test your patience (especially with the cutscene before every attempt). Takes things slow and learn which attacks you can comfortably parry, and which are better dodged. If all else fails, consider lowering the difficulty or turning on Assist Deflection. We won’t judge you; this one is brutal.
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