The Echo

The Echo is a power awakened in a handful of people, usually before the coming of a Calamity. Those believed to possess the Echo have appeared all throughout history, such as the Twelve Archons or the Zodiac Braves.

Capabilities

The powers generally manifest in one or all of the following ways, as well as many others:

• The Power to Transcend Words: For those gifted with the power to transcend words, language no longer poses a barrier to intercultural communication. Voiced utterances fade and are replaced by an internal understanding of another's intentions. Conversely, words spoken by one with this power are immediately understood by all, without need of linguistic interpretation.

• The Power to Transcend Time: Those gifted with this form of the Echo can mentally travel back in time to witness occurrences experienced by another. It was originally thought that proximity with the memory holder was necessary for trancension; however, it has recently been discovered that residual mnemonic Aether in a location can also trigger these third-person flashbacks.

• The Power to Transcend Worlds: Though rare, there have also been cases reported of individuals who can pass into the aetherial plane and communicate directly with the will of the planet Herself. In extreme cases, the Echo can be empowered to grant immortality to an individual, much the same as the Ascians, and souls who have transcended their flesh can even safely traverse the interdimensional Rift between the Source and its shards.

Notable Echo-bearers

• The Warrior of Light
• Warriors of Darkness
• The Ascians
• Minfilia Warde
• Krile Baldesion
• Arenvald Lentinus
• Ysayle Dangoulain
• Ryne
• Unukalhai
• Tenzen

Origins and Lore

In Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, it is revealed that the Echo is an "echo" of the power that once resided in all souls prior to the Sundering of the planet Etheirys into the Source and its thirteen reflections. Among those individuals whose souls were alive to witness the events of the Final Days, a small number were so deeply affected by the event that it left a permanent scar on the aether of their souls. By witnessing imagery similar to the Final Days, most commonly starshowers, it is possible for Hydaelyn to awaken the Echo in sundered peoples reincarnated from these Ancient souls.

Game Mechanic

As a game mechanic, The Echo is a flat percentage buff: "Maximum HP, damage dealt, and potency of HP restoration actions are increased." which may be provided to players after failing a duty. Some duties have Echo pre-applied as a way to reduce their difficulty. Group duties usually do not have Echo available when they are newly released, but this is added when they are no longer new. For high-end duties such as savage raids and extreme trials, the Echo can help more casual players complete the content after higher-end players have experienced it at the original difficulty on release. The Echo only affects player stats and does not impact enemy health or encounter mechanics.

• In solo quest battles, the Echo is applied when selecting the Easy or Very Easy difficulties, applying a 50% or 100% boost, respectively. These settings become available if the player has failed the duty at least once, or in New Game+.
• In older trials, a stacking Echo bonus will be given to each player if the party wipes after being in combat for at least 3 minutes. In normal- and hard-difficulty trials, the Echo will increase by 10% per stack for a maximum of 50%. In extreme trials, the Echo will increase by 5% per stack for a maximum of 25%. Some trials have a fixed +10% Echo pre-applied that will not increase upon wiping, e.g.,  Battle on the Big Bridge and  Battle in the Big Keep.
• In the Coils of Bahamut and older savage raids, a fixed Echo boost (10, 15, 20, 25, or 30%), depending on the duty, will be applied to all players at the start. The strength of the bonus will not increase after wiping. A 10% boost is also applied in  The Orbonne Monastery. The Echo is not applied in normal raids, The Binding Coil of Bahamut - Turn 3. The Second Coil of Bahamut (Savage), ultimate raids, or other alliance raids.
• In any of the four major zones comprising  The Forbidden Land, Eureka, a 150% Echo boost is applied upon entry. The Echo is not active in The Baldesion Arsenal.
• In Save the Queen duties, the Echo will apply during critical engagements (including Castrum Lacus Litore and The Dalriada) and in  Delubrum Reginae if there are only a small number of participating players. The strength of the bonus will increase with a lower number of players. The Echo is not active in  Delubrum Reginae (Savage).

The Echo can be disabled with the "silence echo" option in Duty Finder, and this is half of the settings referenced by the player-acronym "MINE" (the other being minimum Item Level).

Unrestricted Parties

After the stat squish with the launch of Endwalker, enabling Unrestricted Party ("unsyncing") in Duty Finder grants players an Epic Echo buff: "Maximum HP, damage dealt, and potency of HP restoration actions are increased beyond what even you thought possible." up to +300%. This allows players to unsync duties much the same as before the stat squish.

Epic Echo is applied in addition to the above normal Echo. The strength of Epic Echo, which can be 30%, 60%, 200%, or 300%, depends on the level of the duty and the player's current level. For example, a level 70 player by themselves in an unsynced level 60 duty will receive a 60% Epic Echo bonus. A level 71 or higher player by themselves in an unsynced level 60 duty will instead receive a 200% bonus. In a party, the strength of Epic Echo is determined by the highest level player, and the same bonus will be applied to everyone.

The exact determination is as follows:

Duty Level → Character Level ↓	1-50	51-60	61-70	71-80
1-50	30%	-	-	-
51-60	60%	30%	-	-
61-70	200%	60%	30%	-
71-100	300%	200%	60%	30%

As of Patch 7.0, it is possible to unsync Lv. 81-90 (Endwalker) duties; however, Epic Echo does not apply to these duties. It is also not possible to unsync Lv. 91-100 (Dawntrail) duties. Thus, they do not appear in the above table.

The effects are multiplicative.  The Binding Coil of Bahamut - Turn 5 has a 30% Echo and a 300% Epic Echo, making a total bonus increase of 420% of health, healing, and damage.