Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail — The Skydeep Cenote Dungeon Guide

The Skydeep Cenote is a level 95 Dungeon in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, and the third Dungeon of the expansion's storyline. After collecting all seven keystones, it's finally time to find the city of gold and complete the rite of succession.

While the city of gold could be anywhere, you have a pretty good lead; that being the ancient caves within the Skydeep Cenote in Yak T'el. Below, we'll take a look at how to beat every boss in this Dungeon, with detailed breakdowns of their attacks and mechanics.

How To Unlock The Skydeep Cenote

Quest Name: Road to the Golden City
- NPC Location: Ketenramm — Yak T'el (X:31.5, Y:32.6)

This quest is available after completing 'The Feat of the Brotherhood' and defeating Gulool Ja Ja's Glory in the solo instance Duty.

Feather Ray

The first boss of this dungeon is the Feather Ray. Its attacks and mechanics are detailed below.

Attack Name	Type	Details
Immersion	Roomwide AoE	Deals damage to all party members. Use AoE healing to recover.
Troublesome Tail	Debuff	Inflicts all party members with the Nuisance debuff, which will cause them to mirror the boss's next attack.
Worrisome Wave	Cone AoE	Turns towards a random player and fires a conal AoE at them. After a few seconds, each player will then mirror this attack, firing a conal AoE in the direction they are facing. Turn away from other party members to avoid hitting them with your AoE.
Hydro Ring	Ring AoE	Deals damage in a large ring AoE with a safe area around the boss. This attack will also cover the edge of the arena in a dangerous AoE that deals damage if you touch it.
Blowing Bubbles	AoE	Feather Ray will begin firing out bubbles in all directions. These will move slowly, but take care to dodge them.
Bubble Bomb/Rolling Current	AoE/Moving AoE	Several large bubbles will be created around the arena. Then, the boss will use Rolling Current to move them to either the left or right. There will be a gap between bubbles; find where the gap will be moved to and position yourself there to avoid this combo.
Trouble Bubbles	Special	The boss will first use Troublesome Tail to inflict everyone with Nuisance, then cast Blowing Bubbles. While bubbles are fired out of the boss, you will also begin firing them from yourself. Spread out to make it easier for all party members to dodge all the bubbles.

The Feather Ray will repeat these mechanics until it is defeated. The Bubble Bomb and Rolling Current combo has the highest chance of catching you off guard, as determining where the safe area will be can be difficult. Also, be sure to watch your positioning when inflicted with Nuisance so that you aren't accidentally hurting your party members with your AoEs.

Firearms

The second boss of the Skydeep Cenote is Firearms. Here are all of its mechanics.

Attack Name	Type	Details
Dynamic Dominance	Roomwide AoE	Deals damage to all party members and covers the edge of the arena in a dangerous AoE. Avoid moving here as you avoid the boss's other attacks.
Mirror Maneuver/Thunderlight Burst	Line AoE	The boss will create a blue mirror and a yellow orb somewhere in the arena. Then, it will jump to another side of the arena and use Thunderlight Burst, firing a line AoE at the mirror, which will then be deflected toward the yellow orb. When these two make contact, the yellow orb will explode, dealing high damage in a large area. On subsequent uses of this attack, two mirrors and three orbs will be created, causing Thunderblight to bounce twice before hitting one of the orbs. Follow the path of the line AoE carefully and move to avoid it.
Ancient Artillery/Emergent Artillery	AoE	Firearms will summon two orange glyphs on random tiles in the arena. Then, it will cast Emergent Artillery, causing these tiles to expand in cardinal directions before exploding. Follow the trajectory of the incoming AoEs and move accordingly to find a safe spot. Subsequent uses of Ancient Artillery will create three orange tiles, which will then cover even more of the arena when Emergent Artillery is used. Additionally, players will be inflicted with Thunderlight Furry immediately after Emergent Artillery resolves, marking each player with an AoE Marker. Spread out to avoid overlapping these.
Pummel	Tankbuster	Deals high damage to the Tank. Use defensive cooldowns to mitigate.

Firearms will repeat these attacks until it is defeated. The most important mechanic to watch out for during this fight is Mirror Maneuver. Following the path of the line AoE can be difficult, especially later in the fight when there are more mirrors and orbs.

Maulskull

The massive Maulskull is the final boss of the Skydeep Cenote. Here are its attacks.

Attack Name	Type	Details
Stonecarver	AoE	Maulskull will channel power into each of its fists before striking that half of the arena. Its fists will light up in the order they are going to strike in, so watch carefully to determine which half of the arena to move to first.
Skullcrush	Knockback/AoE Markers	Creates a knockback AoE in the center of the arena, pushing all players away from this point. Just before being knocked back, all players will be marked with AoE Markers. To avoid falling off, position yourself in the southwest or southeast of the knockback circle, as as you can get before you're inside the AoE. Immediately after being knocked back, spread away from other players to avoid hitting them with your AoE.
Maulwork	AoE	A series of three sets of circle AoEs followed by either a large line AoE down the center of the arena or two diagonal line AoEs on either side of the arena. Move out of the telegraphs to avoid taking damage.
Deep Thunder	Stack	Creates a Stack pillar near the north part of the arena. All players will need to group up on this pillar to spread out the damage of the incoming attack, which will hit multiple times in a row.
Ringing Blows	Knockback/AoE	Combines the effects of Skullcrush and Stonecarver. You will be knocked back from the blue AoE at the north part of the arena before Maulskull strikes each half of the arena. Remember to keep track of which fist charges up first as you are knocked back.
Wrought Fire	AoE Tankbuster	Deals high damage to the Tank in a circle around them. The Tank should move away from the rest of the party while using mitigating cooldowns.
Colossal Impact	Knockback/Stack Marker	Creates a blue stack marker in the southwestor southeast corner of the arena. Then, a random player will be marked with a Stack Marker. Group up before the knockback, then stay together until the Stack Marker resolves to spread out its damage. This attack will then be repeated, but players will be targeted with AoE Markers instead of a Stack Marker, similar to Skullcrush. Spread out after being knocked back.
Ashlayer	Roomwide AoE	Deals damage to all party members. Recover with AoE healing.

Maulskull will repeat these attacks until it is defeated. All of the knockbacks in this fight need to be positioned very carefully, as they will push you back pretty far, and falling off the edge of the arena means instant death. Other than that, the AoEs in this fight should be fairly simple to avoid.