Phase 5: Pandora

After completing phase 4 with both the Usurper of Frost and the Oracle of Darkness dying, the two will become balls of light and darkness and merge together.

If the Eternal Ice Fragment was not saved in the crystal intermission, or the Fragment of Fate was destroyed in phase 4, then the transition to the bad ending will not be a cutscene and players will retain control of their characters. The phase 5 arena will appear, and the Guardian of Eden appears at the north side of the arena. It immediately casts Paradise Lost, wiping the party.

If the Fragment of Fate did survive phase 4, then the transition is a cutscene in which Ryne and Gaia’s memories fight Mitron for control. The result is Ryne and Gaia’s merged form, Pandora,^[1] the final boss of Futures Rewritten. Players will be knocked back to south of center and given Down for the Count for the minute-long (yes, really) cutscene. The arena transitions to the phase 1 arena from E12S, with Ryne and Gaia’s memories showing in the background, and Return to Oblivion kicks in. The fades as the final fight begins.

Note that throughout this phase, Pandora attacks with light on her left side and dark on her right side. This orientation is based on her wings and never changes.

Sequence 1: Fulgent Blade

Pandora kicks things off with Fulgent Blade, a raidwide that causes six lines of light and darkness to appear on the ground. The pattern of the lines is always the same, although the positioning can vary so it might look different sometimes. The six lines are always offset 45° from one another, making a sort of 3/4 circle around the middle of the arena.

These are all exalines that detonate two at a time, moving outwards from their lines of origin. Starting from one side of the 3/4-circle, the outermost two lines on one side will detonate, then the middle two, then finally the two on the other side. Each pair will be arranged so that the lines from the light and dark sides cross.

Before each line explodes, an omen appears showing the upcoming explosion, with many arrows indicating that the line AoEs are going to move. The first two exalines go off, and then they repeat in the directions indicated, perpendicular to the original line they came from. There are no omens for the subsequent explosions.

The detonations go as follows:

Each exaline will have a total of 8 waves of explosions, although only the first few are typically relevant.

Being hit by an exaline will likely not kill a topped player, but it will inflict both 2m Damage Down and either 15 Light Resistance Down II or 15 Dark Resistance Down II , giving vulnerability to the same element of the line that hit.

This is a bit hard to visualize without an image, so I will try to come back and add one, but for now text will have to do.

tl;dr: It’s three waves of exalines at funny angles.

Akh Morn

At about the same time as the fifth set of explosions from the last wave of exalines—or the ninth set of explosions overall—Pandora will start casting Akh Morn. This time, Akh Morn is a simple LP stack, with no penalty for understacking.

The only catch is the targeting condition: One random player on her left side is targeted by a light explosion, and one random player on her right is targeted by a dark explosion. If no player is on the correct side, it targets a random player on the other side instead. Her position locks in at the start of the cast, so players need to position themselves afterwards.

Sequence 2: Paradise Regained

Just before the last (irrelevant) exalines denotate, Pandora centers, faces north, and starts casting Paradise Regained. This kicks off the most complex of phase 5’s three sequences.

When the cast completes, three 2-stack towers begin appearing, one by one, in an equilateral triangle around the center of the arena. The towers always appear S, NW, and NE, but in a random order. They will detonate in the order they appear.

As the second tower appears, Pandora begins casting Wings Dark and Light, and either her left wing will start glowing with light, or her right wing will start glowing with darkness. One player will get attached to her by a light or dark tether, matching the glowing wing.

About 2/3 of the way through the cast, the third tower appears, and Pandora’s other wing starts glowing. Her wing and tether attacks will follow the order that the wings glowed, either light then dark, or dark then light.

The mechanic goes off in three waves: the first tower, wing, and tether; then the second tower, wing, and tether; and finally the last tower.

1. The towers explode in a painful raidwide with 2m if not soaked properly. They inflict 7 Magic Vulnerability Up , which lasts the duration of the mechanic, so whoever soaks the tower cannot soak another one, nor get hit by the tether.

2. The wing attack is a massive 225°^[2] tankbuster cleave that hits the entire quarter of the arena in front of Pandora, as well as the entire side of the corresponding wing. The safe zone is therefore anywhere beside or behind her and on the right or left side, depending on the wing/element.

   But immediately before she executes the cleave, she turns to face the main tank, (that is, the player with top enmity). So the safe zone is actually relative to this player. Anyone other than the top enmity player hit by this attack will receive a 2m , so cheesing it is not an option. ^[3]

   Despite having a visual element, the cleave is physical and inflicts 4 Physical Vulnerability Up . The makes the follow-up cleave lethal, but not the other attacks in the sequence. The target lock-in is typical for a tankbuster, with the first target getting locked in early in the cast, and the second locking in roughly when the castbar completes.

3. The tether always has the same element as the cleave, and targets the farthest or nearest player other than the main tank, depending on the element. The tether moves to whoever is farthest or nearest automatically, just acting as a visual indication of who will be hit. It cannot be passed otherwise.

   The actual attack is a small circular tankbuster that inflicts 4 . Thus, like the wing cleave, the same player cannot take it twice without facing lethal damage, nor can they take a tower on the same or next wave. It is, however, possible for a player hit by the first tether to safely soak the last tower.

Note that the attacks don’t come out at quite the same time: the tower hits first, then the wing, then the tether, in rapid succession. It is possible to move too early and get hit twice.

Sequence 3 Polarizing Strikes

The final mechanical sequence of this phase is Polarising Strikes, which Pandora begins casting after a single autoattack. This autoattack gives her a chance to reorient towards the main tank before the next castbar locks her facing for the rest of the sequence.

The cast goes off as two line AoEs, one light and one dark. The targeting is the same as with Akh Morn earlier: light targets a random player on Pandora’s left side, while dark targets a random player on her right side. If no players are on the correct side, a random player on the other side is targeted instead.

The lines are each LP stacks, with the additional twist that the player in front—that is, closest to Pandora—is affected by 16 Light Resistance Down II or 16 Dark Resistance Down II , for the same element they were hit by. Therefore, that player will receive lethal damage if hit by the same element again, for the remainder of the sequence.

After the main line AoE, the line’s effect remains on the ground. After about 2 seconds, it explodes, dealing a follow-up blow to anyone caught in it. This follow-up inflicts 2m , so get out of the way.

NOTE: The actual AoE is slightly wider than the visual effects of the line make it seem. Give the line plenty of room when dodging.

This attack repeats three more times, for a total of four. The subsequent casts are entitled Polarised Paths, but the effects are identical.^[4]

Pandora’s Box

It couldn’t be a Pandora without a Box, would it? But the contents of Pandora's Box really aren’t that interesting. It’s just a tank LB3 check, although the visuals are stunning. Pop the LB around the ‘d’ in the castbar, and with extra mits on top, and you should be all good.

Loop

From this point, the fight loops. Pandora repeats the first three mechanics, Fulgent Blade, Paradise Regained, and Polarizing Strikes. The only difference is that the mechanics come faster the second time. Notably, Pandora will not autoattack before using Polarizing Strikes, so there is only a very narrow window to change her facing after Paradise Regained.

After this, she uses Fulgent Blade for a third time, and this third instance is identical to the first two.

Enrage

Finally, frustrated with her lack of progress, Pandora begins the enrage cast, Paradise Lost. From here on, simply a DPS check to free the lesbians and earn your totems. But there is one last twist.

As the castbar reaches about halfway full, Ryne will lend her strength to the party, filling the limit gauge by about 1 1/2 bars. Assuming you haven’t used a limit break since Pandora's Box, this should completely fill the gauge. You now have a free melee LB3, but act quick, because the window of opportunity is very tight. Even a few seconds of delay and the LB will not land before the enrage cast goes off.

Enjoy the spectacular enrage sequence, with rainbows literally shooting off the lesbians as you race for the finish. If you don’t make it… sorry, that’s rough. There’s a brief easter egg cutscene, at least?

If you do make it, however, enjoy the final cutscene of the fight and your chance to curse YoshiP’s cowardice. The background post-victory will make all the gposers jealous.

And then go get one of the sickets weapons in the game, turn on that sweet “Genesis of Legends” title, and complain loudly about the lack of a framing kit.

You’ve earned it.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks on this page go to Shas'o Mahana, Tenkay, and Level Checker, plus all the usual thanks.

1. Interestingly, in Japanese she’s called Pandora Mitron (パンドラ・ミトロン), which comes off quite differently, ね? The name is a reference to the Lunatic Pandora from FF8. ↩

2. Many raidplans show it as a 240° (two-thirds of a circle) cleave, based on misreading of earlier footage. Closer examination seems to indicate that 225° is the correct size. ↩

3. I’ve heard some folks say it doesn’t inflict as well, but I’m going by the story I’ve heard with the most supporting info. If anyone has footage that definitively answers if the cleave does/doesn’t inflict , please let me know. ↩

4. Oddly, in Japanese, all four casts have the same name. I’m not sure about other languages. Don’t be confused by that, if you play in another language. All four attacks are always the same. ↩