The Forked Tower: Blood

The Forked Tower: Blood

Level

100 (Sync: 100)

Item Level

690 (Sync: 700)

Know. Level

20

Difficulty

Savage

Party size

Flexible
24-48 man • 24-48

Unsyncing

Not Allowed

Time limit

30 minutes + extensions

Phoenix Down

Not Available

Tomestones

 80  40 

Req. quest

Past and Crescent

Entrance

The Occult Crescent: South Horn (X:22.7, Y:21.5)

Location

Tower of Blood

Patch

7.25

“

An ominous tower looms on the horizon of the isle's south horn, twisted spires shimmering in the haze. What revelations await within its uppermost chambers?

— In-game description

The Forked Tower: Blood is a level 100 field operation introduced in patch 7.25 with Dawntrail. Instead of being a separate instance, it exists within The Occult Crescent: South Horn. Similar to The Baldesion Arsenal and Delubrum Reginae (Savage), Forked Tower is designed to be a high-end duty that requires group coordination and the use of specific phantom job actions to complete.

This duty is considered a Critical Encounter and will count towards achievements involving those.

Participation

The required degree of coordination and large raid size makes this raid impractical to recruit for solely through Party Finder or other in-game methods. Thus, in North American and European data centers, the most popular way of completing this content is through premade groups organized through various player-run Discord servers. Each server has its own specific rules and organizational methods.

Requirements & Entrance

Cipher reliquaries.

Players must purchase Sanguine Ciphers from the Expedition Antiquarian (X:38.1, Y:7.0) for  600 or  960. When at least 24 different players use the ciphers at a cipher reliquary (X:22.5, Y:21.4) by the Solitary Pavilion landmark during Auroral Mirages weather, an aetherial node will activate, teleporting them to within the tower after a brief period.

All players must contribute at least one cipher to be eligible to enter the duty. Players must have also have a Knowledge Level of 20 to enter.

Spawn conditions for the auroral mirages weather are as follows:

• There are at least 24 players in the South Horn instance with knowledge level 20 and have unlocked the tower by making sufficient progress in Past and Crescent.
• In a newly spawned (fresh) instance, the weather will appear after 5 minutes if the above condition is met.
  • The timer can be reduced as explained below.
• Afterwards, the weather will respawn on a hidden 60 minute timer.
  • The timer starts when there is no Forked Tower in the instance currently ongoing (indicated by the lack of the tower icon in the minimap).
  • The timer is reduced by 5 minutes for each successful completion of a Critical Encounter.
  • The timer is reduced by 1 minute for each successful completion of a FATE.

When both the player count/progression requirement is met, the timer expires, and any ongoing Critical Encounters conclude, the auroral mirages weather will appear.

The weather will last for approximately 5 minutes.

Up to 48 players may join the instance. If there are more than 48 players standing in the aetherial node, players will be randomly selected for teleportation, which will be indicated by the Right of Entry: The Forked Tower status. Players who used more ciphers will have a higher chance of being selected.

• Note: This "overbooking" is generally not an issue because nearly all runs of this raid are from pre-made alliances, who have exclusive access to the South Horn instance until the tower activates.

If the player is not selected to enter or if the tower does not activate because fewer than 24 players used ciphers, all players will be refunded their cipher(s).

Unlike standard content, players cannot be resurrected by normal means will have 3 non-replenishable stacks of the debuff Resurrection Restricted. Defeated players may only be resurrected by   Revive from Phantom Chemist or level 3 healer limit breaks. Each time they are revived, they will lose one stack. When a player has no more stacks remaining, they will receive the Resurrection Denied status, preventing resurrection by any means and must therefore leave the raid if they die again.

• There is a bug where players who are revived by a healer limit break when they have a pending resurrection from a chemist will lose 2 stacks.

Players may only swap their job or phantom job in the starting room of the raid. Once they leave the room, they will be given the Duties as Assigned status and be unable to swap their job or phantom job.

Party Functions

Most raid groups will typically form six parties of up to eight players each outside the raid. The specific role composition per party is flexible, but each party should contain at least one tank and one healer. The Party Finder recruitment for this raid is listed as the 48-player option for the Occult Crescent: South Horn.

Players are usually separated into three "letter" parties (A, B, C) and three "number" parties (1, 2, 3). Alliances D, E, F in the Party Finder UI correspond to the number groups. This separation is used for multiple points in the raid that require players to split into two groups. Players may freely leave, (re)join, disband, and reform parties while inside the raid.

Waymarks, Ready Checks, and Countdowns

Waymarks, ready checks, and countdowns are only visible in the player's individual party and are not shared by the entire raid. Each party may designate a party leader who is responsible for placing waymarks and conducting ready checks, but anyone in the party is usually free to contribute.

Waymark presets cannot be saved using the in-game preset feature. The only way of using waymark presets in this raid is via third-party plugins. A common set of waymarks should be shared for the entire raid group to ensure everyone is on the same page. Waymarks do not need to be placed precisely, with the exception of the last boss to facilitate a common strategy ("BAP Daggers") used for it. In this strategy, each party will use a different set of waymarks.

After ready checks are conducted, they are often communicated to the rest of the raid via the /yell chat to show that the party is ready.

In place of countdowns, the raid leader will usually designate boss pull times based on the Forked Tower duty timer, which is shared by all raid members. For example, a pull time of "30:00" means that the boss will be pulled at 30:00 left on the timer.

Phantom Job Requirements

Specific phantom jobs are mandatory to clear the raid. As there is no effective in-game functionality for coordinating phantom job compositions, this is often done through external spreadsheets such as this. All players should be maximum level on the phantom job they wish to use for the raid.

With the addition of new phantom jobs in patch 7.4x and patch 7.5x, it is likely that the current (patch 7.25) requirements will be relaxed in the future.

Mandatory Jobs

Phantom Job	Number Required	Responsibilities
Phantom Thief	2 (1 per side)	Trap Detection reveals hidden explosive traps that are present in areas between boss encounters. The   Lockpicker trait allows thieves to open locked doors to allow the party to progress and receive bonus loot.   Pilfer Weapon removes a buff from the Guardian Weapon enemy, preventing it from instantly killing nearby players.
Phantom Geomancer	2 (1 per side)	Suspend allows players to safely travel across dangerous floors in two sections of the raid to reach switches that allow the rest of the party to progress.   Battle Bell greatly buffs the damage of a target player. Ideally used on a DPS or the main tank who will consistently take auto-attack damage to maintain the buff.
Phantom Time Mage	2 (1 per side)	Occult Slowga slows enemy packs, giving other players more time to dodge their AoE attacks which will do lethal damage if they connect.   Occult Mage Masher mitigates the strong magical raidwide attacks from bosses and some enemies.   Occult Dispel is mandatory to remove buffs from the Summoned Arch Demon and Tower Abyss enemies to prevent raid wipes. Dispel also removes the Evasion Up buff on Tower Scarabs and the invulnerability status on the Guardian Knight.
Phantom Bard	2 (1 per side) Recommended 1 per party	Romeo's Ballad is needed to freeze the Tower Idol enemies to prevent them from executing a raid wiping attack.   Hero's Rime and   Offensive Aria can be used to maintain permanent damage buffs within the party.   Mighty March can be used as a general-purpose mitigation and healing action for strong raidwide attacks.
Phantom Berserker	1	Rage is used to safely disarm the Universal Empowerment Conduits during the final boss.

Recommended Jobs

Phantom Job	Number Recommended	Responsibilities
Phantom Knight	1 per party	Best used on tanks   Pray gives a 10% party damage mitigation lasting for 30 minutes when used near a knowledge crystal.   Phantom Guard and   Pledge are very powerful mitigation actions that are used the survive the heavy-hitting tankbusters in the raid.
Phantom Chemist	1 per party	Revive is the only means of resurrecting fallen players aside from level 3 healer limit breaks. Chemist "cheesing" allows for more attempts on bosses after a full raid wipe. All chemists are commonly marked for easy identification.
Phantom Ranger	2 (1 per side)	Occult Falcon is the most common means of disarming normal explosive traps. Should not be used to detonate unstable (super) traps in most situations.   Occult Unicorn provides party mitigation for strong raidwide attacks from bosses and enemies.
Phantom Cannoneer	2 (1 per side)	Phantom Fire can be used for a chance to instantly kill some enemies during the central passages (hallways) and binding lock sections. An instant kill action is needed to defeat the Guardian Berserker.   Dark Cannon and   Shock Cannon provide crowd-control effects in mob pulls, significantly weakening them.   Silver Cannon increases damage taken on enemies and reduces their damage dealt, and can be maintained indefinitely.
Phantom Oracle	1	Phantom Doom can be used for a delayed instant kill on some enemies during the central passages (hallways) and binding lock sections. An instant kill action is needed to defeat the Guardian Berserker.
Phantom Samurai	As many as possible	No specific responsibilities, but samurai is a very strong pure DPS job that is straightforward to use compared to other DPS-oriented jobs such as Phantom Monk.   Iainuki can be used for a chance to instantly kill some enemies during the central passages (hallways) and binding lock sections. An instant kill action is needed to defeat the Guardian Berserker.

Hidden Explosive Traps

Entrance to a trapped area.

Similar to other large-scale raids such as The Baldesion Arsenal and Delubrum Reginae, there are hidden explosive traps that may spawn in certain locations (see maps). Traps are only located in the sections of the raid between the boss encounters, specifically areas that are demarcated by thick red lines on the floor. Glyphs will emanate from one side of the line, denoting the area with traps.

Traps can be revealed with   Trap Detection from Phantom Thief. In the areas with traps, the rest of the party should remain behind the thief in their group at all times.

For safety, traps should be disarmed when possible. There are two types of traps, the second type is significantly more dangerous and will cause wipes if carelessly detonated.

Trap	Image	Effect	Disarming Method
Normal Trap		Releases a small AoE when detonated (slightly larger than the trap itself), killing anyone in range.	Disarm at a distance using   Occult Falcon from Phantom Ranger Disarm by running over with a tank using any invulnerability cooldown
Unstable (Super) Trap		Releases a massive AoE when detonated, killing anyone in range.	Do NOT disarm with ranger in most groups. Disarm by running over with a tank using any invulnerability cooldown. All raid members should be aware that this trap will be disarmed and should move far away.

It is possible to slightly outrange the radius of a super trap explosion to disarm, but is highly not recommended to disarm them using this action unless in an experienced group. Rangers should be especially careful not to disarm a super trap during the bridges encounter, as it will likely wipe the raid.

Objectives

• Clear the Paleography Room.
• Clear the central passages.
• Clear the Astronomy Room.
• Clear the pronged passages.
• Clear the Glaciology Forum.
• Clear the binding lock.
• Clear the Haematology Room.

Enemies and Bosses

A minimum of 24 players is needed to resolve certain mechanics in the raid, and boss HP will scale based on the number of players inside, starting from 24.

Being hit with any avoidable AoEs during boss encounters will inflict a stack of Thrice-come Ruin that lasts indefinitely until the end of the boss or until the player dies. If a player receives three stacks, they will be inflicted with Doom and die.

After defeating a boss, players have a random chance of receiving the Battle High status for 15 minutes, increasing their Critical Hit and Direct Hit Rate and providing healing-over-time.

Demon Tablet

Demon Tablet animated guide by Big Kobe

Players may fall off the edge of the arena to their deaths.

The boss is a large enemy that bisects the room into two square halves. Players may not pass through the boss. At certain points in the battle, the boss will levitate, allowing players to pass under. The boss will auto-attack the top three enmity players.

• Demonic Dark II: Massive raid-wide magical damage, requiring heavy mitigation.
• Ray of Dangers Near or Ray of Expulsion Afar: The boss will levitate and use one of two possible attacks. In either case, three large red orbs will spawn in front of the boss that will resolve as a persistent AoE hitting one entire side of the arena (Ray of Ignorance), requiring the party to move under the boss to the other side of the arena.
  • Ray of Dangers Near: The boss will slam down, emitting a late telegraphed point-blank rectangular AoE (Landing) dealing physical damage. Move away from the boss to dodge. Phantom Samurai can ignore this attack with   Shirahadori. Anyone under the boss will die.
  • Ray of Expulsion Afar: The boss will slam down, emitting a late telegraphed bi-directional knockback (Landing). Move close to the boss (but not directly underneath it) and ride the knockback to avoid being knocked off, or use knockback immune. Anyone under the boss will die.
• The boss follows with another random Ray of Dangers Near or Ray of Explusion Afar, requiring the party to move under it again to the south side.
• Occult Chisel: Telegraphed magical AoE tankbusters on the top three enmity players. It is common for these players to stack up so that Phantom Berserkers can capitalize on   Rage. The stacking tanks and berserkers should use their regular invulnerability cooldowns if so (  Pledge will only mitigate 2 of the 3 hits).
• Demonograph of Dangers Near or Demonograph of Expulsion Afar: The boss will levitate, and six four-person stack markers (towers) will spawn, three on each half of the arena. In each half, two towers will be in melee range, while the third is at the back of the platform. Based on the cast name, the boss will either use a point-blank rectangle AoE or a knockback. After this resolves, all players should go to their assigned tower based on their party (which will commonly be indicated with a waymark) and soak them, inflicting minor magical damage (Explosion). Towers that do not have at least four players will explode for high raid-wide damage (Massive Explosion) and inflict a Thrice-come Ruin stack.
• Rotate (direction): One of the two possible attacks
  • Rotate Left: The boss rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise, hitting its relative northeast and southwest with AoEs (Rotation) that will knock anyone hit off the arena.
  • Rotate Right: The boss rotates 90 degrees clockwise, hitting its relative northwest and southeast with AoEs that will knock anyone hit off the arena.
  • To resolve, players should go to the half of the boss (facing it) that is opposite the direction of the cast name. For example, if it uses Rotate Left, players will go to the right side of the boss looking at it regardless of which side of the arena they are on.
  • The boss will use another Rotate attack and then immediately follow with a persistent Lacunate Stream AoE in front of where it is facing. Therefore, after dodging the first Rotate, all players should move behind the boss and position to dodge the second Rotate, causing them to remain behind the boss. The boss will always rotate to face the north, so all players can dodge the second Rotate by moving to the south half of the arena and behind the boss.
• Cometeor of Dangers Near or Cometeor of Expulsion Afar: The boss will levitate and random players will be assigned debuffs or stack markers.
  • Four random players will receive stack markers with a trajectory indicator. Two will be pointing north, while the other two will be pointing south. The stack AoEs will inflict magical damage (Portentous Comet) and fling players around a quarter of the arena length.
  • Eight other random players will receive a meteor overhead marker and a 12-second Crater Later debuff. When it expires, the player will place a massive circle AoE telegraph (Portentous Cometeor) at their location with a radius of around two-thirds the length of the arena.
  • In addition, either the north or south edge of the arena will contain a large meteor marker, indicating the epicenter of another Portentous Cometeor AoE.
  • To resolve, players should loosely spread before the mechanic begins to determine if they have a marker/debuff.
    • All players with meteor markers should go to the side with the fixed meteor marker.
    • The stack marker players should go to the side that allows them to point their trajectory arrow towards the boss.
    • All other players with no marker/debuff should go to the side without the fixed meteor marker.
    • The boss will slam down and do either a point-blank AoE or a knockback based on its cast. If it uses a knockback, meteor players should not use knockback immune and instead should ride the knockback to the very edge of the platform.
    • Immediately after, the meteor debuffs will resolve. All meteor players must be at the back of the arena to create as much space as possible.
    • Afterwards, the stack markers will resolve.
      • The stack marker players on the meteor side should position to be close to the boss, which will allow them and the meteor players to be flung above the boss to the safe side of the platform.
      • The stack marker players on the safe side should position at the wall to prevent them from being flung to the unsafe (meteor) side. Ranged players should stack with these players to mitigate damage, while unmarked melee players are free to remain in melee range and ignore the stacks.
    • After the stack markers resolve, the placed Portentous Cometeor AoE telegraphs will detonate.
• Rotate Left/Right x2
• Summon: The boss will levitate, spawn a point-blank rectangle AoE telegraph, and tether six fixed locations of the arena, three on each side.
  • After the boss slams back down, an add will spawn at each tethered location. On each side, the two spots closer to the boss will each spawn a Summoned Demon, while the spot further away will spawn a Summoned Arch Demon.
  • The adds are immobile but will use auto-attacks, so tanks should establish enmity on their assigned party's add (same as their tower location), while players defeat their assigned add.
  • Phantom Time Mages must use   Occult Dispel on the large Arch Demon adds to remove their Dark Defenses buff, or they will take very little damage.
  • If the adds are not defeated in time, they will enrage with repeated casts of Abyssal Transfixion, dealing massive damage to individual players and inflicting Thrice-come Ruin.
• Summon: The boss will now spawn four gargoyle statues, two per north/south side of the arena. The pattern of the statues is the same per side if looking at the boss. Each side will have one corner open that is furthest away from each statues.
  • Demonography: The boss will spawn six 4-person stack markers on one side of the arena. Three of the stack markers will be levitating on top of the three stack markers on the ground.
  • Gravity of Dangers Near or Gravity of Expulsion Afar: The boss will levitate and use either a point-blank AoE or knockback based on the cast. In addition, up arrows will appear by the demon statues, indicating they will levitate. Any players near them when they are levitated will receive a 10-second Defying Gravity buff and be levitated themselves, allowing them to soak an airborne tower.
  • To resolve, the entire raid should go to the side with the towers. Resolve the point-blank or knockback AoE first, then have half the raid (e.g. the three numbers parties) go near a statue to be levitated. Afterwards, all players should soak their assigned towers. The boss will then cast Restore Gravity, causing the statues to slam down with large, late telegraphed point-blank AoEs, so the party should go to the safe corner after soaking the towers.
• Mechanics then repeat until the boss enrages:
• Rotate Left/Right x2
• Cometeor of Dangers Near or Cometeor of Expulsion Afar
• Ray of Dangers Near or Ray of Expulsion Afar
• Occult Chisel
• Demonic Dark II
• End of History (enrage)

After the boss is defeated, players can interact with the transporter at the north to move to the next area, containing a personal spoils coffer and a knowledge crystal for knights to refresh Pray. The raid will need to divide into two groups to proceed: usually, the letter parties will take the left passage and the number parties will go right. Each passage contains a one-way teleporter to the next section.

Central Passages

Hallways and Dead Stars animated guide by Big KobeNote: Waymark placement for Dead Stars will likely differ

Central Passages annotated map

Colloquially known as "hallways", this section of the raid requires the two groups to proceed through hallways full of hidden traps and dangerous mobs, making use of their phantom job actions. This section contains some optional personal spoils coffers with extra   Sanguinite; groups may opt to either collect these or skip them. The layout of this section is mirrored for each group but is otherwise identical.

Traps will randomly spawn in fixed locations. As a rule of thumb, Phantom Thieves should be ahead of the rest of the group and use   Trap Detection to reveal traps. Experienced groups may choose to have tanks or Phantom Rangers "blind pop" traps, i.e., disarm them before they have been revealed.

All enemies have telegraphed AoE attacks that will instantly kill anyone who is hit. Phantom Time Mages should use   Occult Slowga on all mob pulls to give others more time to dodge the AoEs. Crowd control attacks from jobs such as Phantom Cannoneers and instant kill phantom actions are also very useful. The enemies do very heavy-hitting auto-attacks, so tanks should ensure they are the first to establish enmity and should use mitigation.

There are two enemies to note:

• The Tower Manticore enemies have a simple but dangerous mechanic that requires players to pay attention to them. They will use either Left Hammer or Right Hammer, a large late telegraphed 180 degree cleave based on the cast name. If they are slowed, the telegraph will be significantly longer. After the first cleave, they will immediately follow with a very fast cast of a cleave in the opposite direction, requiring players to dodge to the first unsafe side. Tanks should point these enemies to give the party ample room to dodge, e.g., face them either directly towards or opposite the party.
• The Tower Scarab enemies will use Rhino Guard, giving them an Evasion Up buff that should be dispelled by Phantom Time Mages to make them easier to hit.

Green orbs with a point-blank AoE field will be patrolling this section as well. Anyone who steps inside the AoE will be inflicted with a 60-second-long uncleansable silence, so players with spell actions should avoid these.

Enemy	Status Vulnerabilities
Light Sprite	Stun, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Paralyze, Blind, Doom
Tower Achamoth	Slow, Blind, Doom
Tower Bandersnatch	Stun, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Paralyze, Blind, Doom
Tower Dhruva	Stun, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Paralyze, Blind, Doom
Tower Drip	Stun, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Paralyze, Blind, Doom
Tower Manticore	Slow, Blind, Doom
Tower Scarab	Slow, Blind, Doom
Tower Weapon	Stun, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Paralyze, Blind, Doom

Dead Stars: Nereid, Triton and Phobos

This fight consists of three bosses. The arena is divided into six wedges by lines extending from the center to the edge, with an inner and outer ring, a six-pointed star pattern, and blue regions outside of the star. (There is a third ring well beyond the star as well, but it becomes a death wall soon after the battle begins.)

All bosses are vulnerable to taking extra damage from   Holy Cannon. In many groups, some or all bosses will be reduced to 0.1% HP long before the encounter ends; the encounter cannot be completed until the Enrage Phase begins, at the earliest.

Opening

• For approximately three GCDs (about 8 seconds), all three bosses will be movable by the tanks; they should bring them together to allow the use of powerful cleaving abilities and debuffs, especially Silver Sickness. After this time, each enemy will jump to a fixed position on the outer ring: Phobos in the southwest, Triton in the north, and Nereid in the southeast.
• Decisive Battle: Each boss emits a very large telegraphed point-blank circular AoE; being hit by multiple is fatal. Each player is assigned a debuff that restricts them to attacking only one of the three bosses, indicated briefly by a tether connecting them to that boss ( Phobosic Gravity, Nereidic Gravity, or Tritonic Gravity). Although players are typically assigned the debuff corresponding to the boss they were hit by, uneven party sizes may cause some players to receive a different ("mismatched") debuff; these players must quickly move to their assigned boss.
  • If the main tank is assigned a mismatched debuff, they should wait to move to their assigned boss until after Slice 'n' Dice; another tank will need to serve as that boss's main tank for the remainder of the encounter.
  • At this time, the third ring of the arena becomes a death wall.

• Slice 'n' Dice: Telegraphed conal tankbusters on each boss's top enmity player.

Slime Phase

• Three-body Problem 1: Each boss jumps to the inner ring of the arena, and they appear to channel a shared attack; however, Nereid and Triton will be turned into balls of blue and red slime (with small telegraphed point-blank circular AoEs (Noisome Nuisance), which can be avoided at max melee distance) as Phobos jumps to the center of the arena. At this time, the Gravity debuffs are temporarily cleansed, allowing all players to attack Phobos.

• Primordial Chaos: Magical raidwide and assigns all players 1-3 stacks of Ice Ooze or Nova Ooze. Similar to the "hot and cold" mechanics of Trinity Avowed in Delubrum Reginae, being hit with mechanics of the opposite "temperature" will reduce and eventually cleanse the debuff.
• Frozen Fallout: Each ball of slime will telegraph a total of four jumps, each time landing on an intercardinal of the arena and emitting a large point-blank circular AoE from the point where it lands. Shortly after all jumps have been telegraphed, the slimes will begin jumping; being hit by both slimes at once is fatal.
  • Each hit from the blue slime (Liquified Nereid) removes one stack of Nova Ooze if a player has any, or adds one stack of Ice Ooze if a player does not. Each hit from the red slime (Liquified Triton) removes one stack of Ice Ooze if a player has any, or adds one stack of Nova Ooze if a player does not.
  • Be aware that, because the debuffs are random per player, a raid leader can only call out the safe spot for the final jump (as no player that has correctly resolved the mechanic should need to be hit by the fourth jump).
  • Each slime will only jump to each intercardinal once. The final jump always leaves an entire half of the arena safe.
• Noxious Nova: Magical raidwide; fatal for any players with any remaining stacks of Ice Ooze or Nova Ooze, piercing invulnerability skills. Nereid and Triton are returned to their original forms, becoming targetable shortly after.
  • If a player dies to Noxious Nova, they should not accept a raise until after Vengeful Fire III & Vengeful Blizzard III. If they immediately accept a raise, it's unlikely that they will be able to avoid the conal AoEs; even if they take no damage due to having Transcendent, they will still be inflicted with two Thrice-come Ruin stacks.
• Vengeful Fire III & Vengeful Blizzard III: Nereid and Triton jump to random "inner corners" of the six-pointed star pattern, always leaving one corner between them; each shoots a massive late-telegraphed conal AoE at Phobos. They can be avoided by moving to the blue region between the two bosses; while the AoEs are survivable, each inflicts a Thrice-come Ruin stack. Phobos appears temporarily dazed.
• After Phobos returns to normal, the Gravity debuffs are restored, the bosses equalize their HP, and each boss jumps to its Decisive Battle position after a few seconds.
• Delta Attack: Three-hit raidwide dealing massive damage. Players with a mismatched debuff should join the rest of their party to receive mitigation and healing for this attack, then quickly return to their assigned boss.
• Firestrike: Each boss targets a random player with their Gravity debuff with a line stack.

Snowball Phase

• Three-body Problem 2: Each boss jumps to the inner ring of the arena, and they appear to channel a shared attack; however, this time Phobos and Triton will be turned into snowballs (with small telegraphed point-blank circular AoEs (Icebound Buffoon), which can be avoided at max melee distance) as Nereid jumps to the center of the arena. At this time, the Gravity debuffs are temporarily cleansed, allowing all players to attack Nereid.
• Frozen Triton and Frozen Phobos each begin with 4 stacks of Icebound Buffoonery, which make them invulnerable until the end of the phase; until this time, all damage should be focused on Nereid.
• Snowball Flight: Each snowball telegraphs a series of three line stacks on the ground, indicating the path in which it will roll across the ground. Each party is responsible for soaking one of these line stacks.
  • In general, the letters parties are responsible for the northern snowball (Frozen Triton), and the numbers parties are responsible for the southwestern snowball (Frozen Phobos). Parties A/1 soak the first lines, B/2 the second, and C/3 the third.
  • Each stack (Snow Boulder) is a "wild charge," meaning that the tanks should stand closest to the snowball; additionally, each stack has a small knockback.
  • If at least four players are in a line stack, one of the snowball's stacks of Icebound Buffoonery is removed; this must occur with every stack for the mechanic to be successfully resolved.
• Chilling Collision: One random player is tethered to each snowball with a distance tether and a stack marker, and Nereid telegraphs a massive knockback from the center of the arena. Tethered players must be knocked back to the very edge of the arena opposite their snowball, and the rest of the raid must split up to soak the stack markers.
  • If a player is assigned a tether, they will not necessarily be tethered to the snowball that they soaked a stack from.
  • These stacks (Avalaunch) deal proximity damage, meaning that standing even slightly into the arena will likely cause the stack to be fatal; players should be as close to the edge as possible.
  • If at least four players are in a stack, one of the snowball's stacks of Icebound Buffoonery is removed. If all stacks have been successfully resolved, both snowballs will have no remaining stacks, and they can be damaged.
• Self-destruct & To the Winds: DPS check. Each snowball must be defeated, breaking Phobos and Triton out, before the casts finish and wipe the raid. The attacks are harmless if the DPS check is met.
  • If either snowball has any remaining stacks of Icebound Buffoonery, the mechanic cannot be successfully resolved and a wipe is guaranteed. A "chemist cheese" may be prepared at this point to allow another attempt.
• Vengeful Fire III & Vengeful Bio III
• After Nereid returns to normal, the Gravity debuffs are restored, the bosses equalize their HP, and each boss jumps to its Decisive Battle position after a few seconds.
• Delta Attack
• Slice 'n' Strike: Each boss targets its top enmity player with a telegraphed conal tankbuster, and a random player with their Gravity debuff with a line stack. In general, the tankbuster target moves to the left of the boss while all other players move to the right (based on looking toward the center of the arena).

Fireball Phase

• Three-body Problem 3: Each boss jumps to the inner ring of the arena, and they appear to channel a shared attack; however, for this final use, Phobos and Nereid will be turned into fireballs (with small telegraphed point-blank circular AoEs (Blazing Belligerent), which can be avoided at max melee distance) as Triton jumps to the center of the arena. At this time, the Gravity debuffs are cleansed (and will not return), allowing all players to attack Triton.
• At opposite sides of the arena, two sets of small "footprint" arrow markers appear on the lines dividing the arena, along the outer ring, and move clockwise or counterclockwise by one "wedge" of the arena. When these markers reach their destination, they become tankbuster towers.
  • In general, letters parties are responsible for the tower/fireball (Gaseous Phobos) that spawns in the northern half of the arena, and numbers parties are responsible for the tower/fireball (Gaseous Nereid) that spawns in the southern half of the arena.
• Elemental Impact x3: Three times in quick succession, a fireball will slam into each tower, dealing massive damage to the tank inside and firing a conal AoE (Fire Spread) at a random nearby healer and DPS. Starting from the first Elemental Impact, the fireballs become targetable.
  • In general, a tank will take the first hit of Elemental Impact with mitigation cooldowns, then the other two with their invulnerability ability (or   Pledge/an ally's   Invulnerability).
  • In North American groups, DPS are generally positioned between the wall and the tower, and healers are generally positioned on either side of the tower. Tanks that are not soaking the tower can be positioned anywhere.
  • In Japanese groups, both DPS and healers are generally positioned between the wall and the tower, with DPS to the left and healers to the right (based on looking toward the center of the arena).
• Geothermal Rupture x3 & Flame Thrower: A series of three circular AoEs are telegraphed at each player's position (Geothermal Rupture), along with a line stack (Flame Thrower) targeting a random player on each side of the arena.
  • In general, players collapse onto the DPS, move clockwise around the tower to bait Geothermal Rupture, remain loosely stacked for Flame Thrower, then return to their original positions around the tower.
  • If the player targeted by Flame Thrower dies before the attack goes off, a random player will be targeted instead; if this causes both stacks to hit the same side of the arena, a wipe is likely due to the attack inflicting Magic Vulnerability Up.
• Elemental Impact x3: As above. Assuming they have not used either ability on any other mechanics, a Phantom Knight tank can soak both towers due to having two invulnerability abilities, both from their job and from   Pledge, but other tanks should be prepared to step into the tower in case the tank dies. If one side has defeated their fireball before the other, they should refrain from getting too close to the other fireball to avoid baiting Fire Spread.
• Self-destruct & To the Winds: DPS check. Each fireball must be defeated, returning Phobos and Nereid to normal, before the casts finish and wipe the raid. The attacks are harmless if the DPS check is met.
  • To the Winds will not be cast if both fireballs are already defeated before its casting begins.
• Vengeful Blizzard III & Vengeful Bio III
• After Triton returns to normal, the bosses equalize their HP, and each boss jumps to its Decisive Battle position after a few seconds. The Gravity debuffs are not restored.

Enrage Phase

• Six-Handed Fistfight: After a long cast, the bosses jump to the center of the arena and begin clashing. They merge into a single boss (Dead Stars), combining their HP and making the entire inner ring unsafe; standing inside the ring deals damage (Bodied), knocks players out of the ring, and inflicts a Thrice-come Ruin stack. The merge is accompanied with a heavy-hitting raidwide.
  • This is the earliest point at which the encounter can be completed. If all three bosses' HP are depleted before merging, the bosses will immediately un-merge after using Six-Handed Fistfight, completing the encounter.
  • Only the debuffs inflicted on Triton are preserved when merging.
• Collateral Damage
  • Telegraphed conal AoEs telegraphed on alternating wedges of the arena (Collateral Gas Jet, Collateral Cold Jet, Collateral Heat Jet), then the other half of the wedges.
  • Small untelegraphed circular AoEs on each player (Collateral Bioball, Collateral Iceball, Collateral Fireball), randomly targeting a third of the players at a time and very briefly inflicting Magic Vulnerability Up.
  • Each party should spread within one wedge of the arena; each wedge is large enough to comfortably contain eight players without overlapping their AoEs.
• Collateral Damage
• Fusion Burst (enrage)

Pronged Passages ("Bridges")

Bridges and Marble Dragon animated guide by Big Kobe

The Binding Lock

Binding Lock and Magitaur animated guide by Big Kobe

Infamy of Blood: Magitaur

Note: Resurrection debuffs will not be removed after defeating Magitaur, so any player who dies with Resurrection Denied will not be able to open the personal spoils coffer(s) from this boss or activate the Survey Point in the final room. However, they will still be rewarded with achievement progress.

Phantom Chemist Resurrection Strategy

In the event of a full raid wipe, all players must normally leave the raid regardless of how many stacks of Resurrection Restricted they still have, because the return prompt will take them back to the South Horn base camp. To allow for more boss attempts, players have devised a chemist "cheese" strategy:

1. If a boss pull is deemed unsalvageable (e.g. there are too many deaths or if a DPS check will not be met), a designated chemist will sacrifice themselves by running into the death wall or incapacitating themselves via mechanics. It is also common to do this preemptively as "insurance" before common failure points such as the snowballs/fire tower mechanics in boss 2 or the Rune Axe/Holy Lance mechanics in boss 4.
2. Another chemist will revive the sacrifice chemist, but that player will not accept the resurrection prompt. The Raise buff will need to be refreshed periodically to prevent it from expiring. Ideally, the reviving chemist should revive the sacrifice chemist outside of aggro range of the boss.
3. Once the call to wipe has been made by the raid leader, all players will attempt to die at the south of the arena or outside of aggro range of the boss.
4. After the party wipes and the boss resets, the sacrifice chemist will accept the raise.
5. The sacrifice chemist will then revive the other players, ideally starting with chemists first so they can also help revive. All chemists will commonly be marked for visual identification.
6. Once everyone's Weakness debuff has fallen off, the party can pull the boss again.

An alternative chemist "cheese" strategy requires a chemist to resurrect outside the arena and not participate in the fight:

1. The chemist pulls the boss alone and dies near the entrance
2. A second chemist waits outside the arena
3. The remainder of the alliance enters the arena and begins their countdown
4. With 5s to pull, the second chemist resurrects the dead chemist outside the arena
5. With 5s left on the raise timer, the dead chemist accepts the raise.

This results in the chemist resurrecting outside the arena, which has already completed its 'automatic pull in' at 45s after pull.

Both strategies are normally not feasible outside of boss encounters: e.g., a full raid wipe during the bridges encounter will end the run in the vast majority of cases.

Loot

• 800 Enlightenment Silver Pieces
• 1920 Phantom EXP
•  80 Allagan Tomestones of Heliometry
•  40 Allagan Tomestones of Mathematics

This duty uses personal loot, so players will need to interact with and loot treasure coffers themselves. A full clear with all chests yields 30   Sanguinite.

Defeating Magitaur will respawn 2 bronze and 1 silver overworld treasure coffers in the South Horn map, assuming the number of coffers available is not already capped. There is a 10% chance that a second silver coffer will respawn.

Demon Tablet

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Notes on the Demon Tablet	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	1

Personal Spoils (Secret Nooks)

There are four chests (two per side) in the hallways after the first boss. Each side has one room behind a locked door that can be opened from the other side by a Phantom Thief after maneuvering through a trick room, and two secret rooms in the north. The post-trick room chest yields 2 Sanguinite. A chest will appear in one of the two secret rooms in the north per side, yielding 3 Sanguinite.

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	2

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	3

It is not possible to obtain all four chests in a single run: players may only obtain the two chests on their side.

Dead Stars

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Notes on the Dead Stars	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	2

Marble Dragon

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Notes on the Marble Dragon	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	2

Personal Spoils (Top Secret Nook 1)

There are two chests in a secret room after the lockwards in the Towertop Passage, to the right.

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	2

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	2

Personal Spoils (Top Secret Nook 2)

A secret room in the Towertop Passage, to the left. The coffer is directly in the path.

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	1

Personal Spoils (Top Secret Nook 3)

A secret room connected to Top Secret Nook 2. The coffer is just outside the entrance to the observatory room that marks the location of the Sanguine Recluse once the lockward puzzle is solved. This coffer will only spawn if the puzzle is solved.

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	5

Magitaur

At least one personal spoils coffers will appear after defeating the final boss.

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Notes on Magitaur	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Magitaur Card	Triple Triad Card	N/A		1
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	5

A second coffer will appear if the Sanguine Recluse was defeated by players outside, after the raid lights up the observatory.

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Sanguinite	Other	N/A	ABasic	5

Achievements

This duty is associated with the following achievements:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
A Fork to Be Reckoned With I	10	Complete the Forked Tower: Blood for the first time.	Demon Haul Horn	7.25
A Fork to Be Reckoned With II	10	Complete the Forked Tower: Blood 10 times.	-	7.25
A Fork to Be Reckoned With III	10	Complete the Forked Tower: Blood 50 times.	-	7.25
A Fork to Be Reckoned With IV	20	Complete the Forked Tower: Blood 100 times.	Infamy of Blood	7.25

Lore

“

Indecipherable tomes are strewn across the floor and piled haphazardly among the fallen shelves. Closer inspection reveals countless magical glyphs, likely representing a wealth of arcane knowledge.

— Collapsed Bookshelves

“

The polished surface glimmers with myriad symbols, none of which obviously resemble Eorzean script. Although unfamiliar, the patterns you discern imply the glyphs form a written system of some kind. Was this encoding designed to conceal knowledge considered a threat to civilization?

— Occult Epitaph

“

As you peruse the tablet's inscription, a wave of nausea compels you to avert your gaze. No doubt the document is imbued with some magical contrivance, shielding it from eyes deemed unworthy of the knowledge within.

— Ancient Tablet

“

At the pinnacle of the Tower of Blood sits an ancient study filled with tomes, tablets, and manuscripts from the Fifth Astral Era. Unfortunately, the entire collection is written in a script bearing no obvious resemblance to any extant language, rendering the documents indecipherable. Perhaps the owner concocted the script as a means of concealing the knowledge contained therein─but what could necessitate such elaborate encoding?

— Occult Record: The Secluded Stacks

Dialogue

Dead Stars: Oink, oink! Prepare to die at the hands of we tricksy three!
Dead Stars: Oink, oink! Everyone gets a piece of the action!
Dead Stars: Oink, oink, oink! Tricksy trio unite!
Phobos: Just kidding, it's Phobos's time to shine! Oink!
Liquified Triton: Glub...glub...
Liquified Nereid: Blub...glub...
Phobos: Oink, oink, oink! You're in for some toxic trouble now!
System: Phobos's toxins seep into your body!
Phobos: Brace yourselves for a putrid poison blast!
Liquified Triton: Glub...blub...
Liquified Nereid: Glub!?
Phobos: You poisoned princes suited your slimy transformation!
Triton: Oink, oink...
Nereid: O-Oink...
Triton: Now I'm livid!
Nereid: Unforgivable...
Phobos: Gyaaagh!
Phobos: F-Forgive me friends! I promise I'll behave myself now...
Dead Stars: The tricksy trio units anew, and this time we're serious! Oink!
Nereid: Oinking fools! It's Nereid's turn to take center stage!
Frozen Triton: F-Freezing!
Frozen Phobos: I can't feel my toes!
Nereid: You're nothing more than a pair of frosty unfortunates!
Nereid: Sssnooowed uuunder!
Frozen Triton: S-So cold...
Frozen Phobos: F-Frozen solid...
Triton: Oink, oink...
Phobos: Oooink...
Nereid: With friends like you, there's snow end to the fun!
Triton: Now I'm livid!
Phobos: Payback time...
Nereid: Gyaaagh!
Nereid: I-I'm sorry! I'll play nice... I swear!
Dead Stars: Oink, oink! Behold the true power of our tenacious triumvirate!
Triton: Or rather, behold the true power of Triton—star of the show!
Gaseous Phobos: This is an outrage!
Gaseous Nereid: Hot, hot, hot!
Triton: Oink, oink! I'm a flaming menace, through and through!
Phobos: Oooink...
Nereid: O-oink...
Triton: Get ready for Triton's flammable extravaganza!
Gaseous Phobos: I can't take much more!
Gaseous Nereid: Overcooked...
Triton: A scorching festival of flame! You two made for excellent kindling!
Nereid: Unforgivable...
Phobos: Payback time...
Triton: Gyaaagh!
Triton: My flame grows dim! I give in!
Phobos: My poisons have all dried up!
Nereid: Oinksome wretches! I can't stand the sight of you!
Dead Stars: Oink, oink, oink!
Dead Stars: Oooiiink!
Dead Stars: It's oink-oink-over! We're outta here!

System: Occult cylinders active. Initiate the authentication process.
System: Authentication complete in 30 seconds...
System: Authentication complete in 20 seconds...
System: Authentication complete in 10 seconds...
System: Authentication complete in 5...
System: Authentication complete in 4...
System: Authentication complete in 3...
System: Authentication complete in 2...
System: Authentication complete in 1...
System: Authentication complete. Begin the unlock process.
System: The occult cylinders have been reordered.
System: The lock is unbound... The path ahead is clear.

Magitaur: All who threaten the tower's sanctity will be purged!
Magitaur: I call forth the might of the sanguine!
Magitaur: Unfettered power!
Magitaur: Vile infractors, prepare to meet your end!
Magitaur: Power courses through my veins!
Magitaur: The tower must be protected!
Magitaur: I shall not fall!
Magitaur: I commit my strength, my blood...my life!

Music

Section	Theme
Main	Exdeath's Castle (Dawntrail)
Boss 1-3	FINAL FANTASY V: Battle 1 (Dawntrail)
Final Boss	Omega Squared

Images

Screenshots

• 
• 
• 
• 
  Map Room
• 
• 
  Final Room

Maps

• 
  Central Passages
• 
  Binding Lock
• 
  Central Passages (annotated)
• 
  Bridges (annotated)
• 
  Binding Lock (annotated)

Trivia

• The dungeon is inspired by the Fork Tower dungeon from FFV.
• The world first clear was from "Aether Group 2" on May 30, 2025 at 4:22 PM PST, after a progression time of 3 days and 14 hours (including initial quest progression and leveling to prepare for the raid).

History

• When originally released in patch 7.25, this raid was heavily criticized by the playerbase for being difficult to form groups and enter. Notable issues raised were:
  • The inability of a 48-player alliance to reliably queue into the same South Horn instance. Players instead needed to queue as 6 separate parties, often ending up in different instances. Thus, parties would need to leave the instance and re-queue several times until all parties were in the same instance, a process that could take more than an hour. This became known as "island gacha" within the Japanese playerbase and "instance prog" within the Western playerbase.
  • The long wait time until the auroral mirages weather appeared in a fresh instance.
  • The short time availability of the weather (5 minutes), sometimes causing players in critical encounters to miss the window entirely.
  • The possibility of random players to "snipe", i.e. take the spots of players in premade groups by offering more ciphers. This often resulted in frustration from premade groups especially if a member with a critical phantom job was unable to enter. In addition, the difficulty of the raid made it possible for individual players to wipe the entire run at several points, increasing the risk from random players joining.
  • The lack of a story-difficulty mode compared to Bozja's in-instance raids. The hard mode version is the only difficulty, limiting its accessibility to more casual players or those who did not wish to organize using Discord servers to clear content.
  • The apparent disconnect between the minimum number of players needed to spawn the tower (16) and the minimum number of players needed to resolve several mechanics (24).
• Square Enix addressed some of the more common criticisms in Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXVII on June 20, 2025, which revealed that there had only been ~400 clears in the time that the raid was first released 23 days previously.
  • The lack of a story mode, one of the main criticisms, was cited as due to having insufficient development resources in the allotted timeline.
• On July 1, 2025, Naoki Yoshida made a follow-up Lodestone post to clarify some of the changes that would be made, including:

1. The ability to enter the Occult Crescent instance with a preformed alliance of up to 48 players
2. Allowing auroral mirages to generate sooner after the Occult Crescent instance has loaded
3. Improvements to the cipher offering UI
4. Delaying auroral mirage generation until an active critical encounter has ended
5. Enabling exclusive access to the Occult Crescent instance for a set time when joining with a preformed alliance of at least 24 players

• While these changes were originally scheduled for patch 7.3 in early August, the first two changes were instead implemented in an emergency hotfix on Thursday, July 3.
• The remaining changes, along with other adjustments such as requiring all participating players to submit at least one cipher and increasing the minimum number of participants from 16 to 24, were implemented in patch 7.3.

External Links

• Guides by Fae Fiyaa (Google Docs format)
  • Boss 1: Demon Tablet
  • Hallways
  • Boss 2: Dead Stars
  • Bridges
  • Boss 3: Marble Dragon
  • Lockwards
  • Boss 4: Magitaur
    • "BAP" Daggers Guide
• ABBA+ Strategies
  • Boss 1: Demon Tablet
  • Boss 2: Dead Stars
  • Boss 3: Marble Dragon
  • Boss 4: Magitaur
• Magitaur Simulator
• Advanced Phantom Job guides for optimization purposes
  • Geomancer
  • Berserker
  • Thief
  • Oracle
  • Monk