Final Fantasy 16: Pandemonium Hunt Location and Rewards

You’ll be able to complete the Pandemonium hunt in Final Fantasy 16 before you even see its contract on the hunt board. Shortly after you make landfall in Waloed, you can bump into this Notorious Mark by exploring Skaithfarr. Taking out this terrifying threat gets you a unique crafting material!

Where to Find Pandemonium

This hunt becomes available immediately after you begin the main quest Footfalls in Ash. Once you reach the Kingdom of Waloed, venture northwest from the Shadow Coast obelisk. As you get deeper into the Skaithfarr region, keep your eyes peeled for a fork in the road: one leads north and the other goes south.

Take the southern path until you reach a big isolated area with the metal gate of a castle at the southeastern end. When you approach this gate, the level 45 Pandemonium steps out of it to stare you down. If you need help tracking down this threat, take a look at the image above.

How to Beat Pandemonium

Even though this orc warlord looks like a big and dull brute, it’s actually an accomplished spellcaster! On top of that, it teleports about the battlefield, which can make it hard to land a hit on the huge foe.

In the latter parts of the Pandemonium hunt, the battle becomes not unlike a bullet hell game due to the sheer volume of spells being cast at you. Before we get into how to attack this Notorious Mark, we’ll go into how to avoid its flurry of ferocious assaults.

• Teleport Thump: Throughout this hunt, the Notorious Mark warps around to both avoid your attacks and strike at you unexpectedly. Anytime you see Pandemonium disappear in a portal of red and black energy, expect it to reappear next to you while in the midst of delivering a smash or sweep with its club-like staff. Thankfully, you can avoid such attacks by dodging in any direction as Pandemonium exits a warp portal.
• Swirling Orbs: Frequently, the fearsome orc warlord creates a small vortex of energy orbs around Clive that quickly swirl inward to hit him. Dodge in any direction to evade this attack.
• Melee Attacks: In addition to casting tons of spells, if you’re within melee range, Pandemonium tries to crush you with its gnarly staff. These are some of the easiest attacks to see coming as they have slow windups and relatively short range. Dodge away from the Notorious Mark to avoid taking damage.
• Sanguine Rite: Pandemonium often uses this named ability (its name text appears on-screen right before it’s used). After it’s cast, a large circle of red energy appears on the ground with an ominous orb above it. When the orb touches the ground, it explodes within the red circle and damages all within it. Get out of the red circle before the orb touches the ground to avoid taking damage.

Warning

Sometimes, Pandemonium casts three Sanguine Rites at once. As such, you’ll need to find slivers of land that are out of the collective areas of effect.

• Energy Minefield: With a wave of its staff, the odious orc creates many pockets of energy around the battlefield. Stay away from these, as, if you touch one, it’ll explode like a mine. Thankfully, they dissipate after a few seconds.
• Energy Outburst: After reaching 50% health, Pandemonium starts using an AoE attack around itself on occasion. You’ll notice this coming when the large foe hunches over, holds its arms around its stomach, and reddish-black sparks start forming about its body. When you see this, dodge away from the fiend. You’ll be out of harm’s way after three or four backward dodges.
• Rictus of Horror: This named ability (its name text appears on-screen right before it’s used) is arguably Pandemonium’s strongest attack. After a few moments of charging, your enemy launches a massive beam of red magic. When you see this ability’s name, repeatedly dodge left or right to get out of harm’s way.

Warning

When this Notorious Mark’s health approaches 50%, it’ll start teleporting while it charges Rictus of Horror. This can make it hard to tell where the attack is coming from, but the way to evade it remains the same. If you need to, spam dodges in the chosen direction until the attack is launched.

When it comes to planning an offense during the Pandemonium hunt, we recommend using Garuda’s and Shiva’s abilities over others. Wind and ice abilities are particularly effective against this Notorious Mark, which means more damage and stagger.

Garuda’s Aerial Blast and Gouge are excellent choices for depleting this massive monster’s Will Gauge. On top of that, Garuda’s Deadly Takedown is useful for stunning Pandemonium—this makes it easier to land hits and temporarily stops it from casting spells.

Shiva’s Diamond Dust and Ice Age abilities deal decent damage here. The former also takes huge chunks out of the foe’s Will Gauge, so use it strategically to interrupt Pandemonium’s more dangerous attacks.

The Pandemonium Hunt Rewards

After you slay the spellcasting orc, you’ll get some…interesting rewards.

• 15,000 Experience
• 120 Ability Points
• 20,000 Gil
• 50 Renown
• 1 Stained Loincloth

The wealth of Experience and Gil make this hunt worthwhile—but there’s more! Despite the disgusting nature of this crafting material, you’ll want Pandemonium’s Stained Loincloth. It’s used in an end-game crafting recipe that gets you some of the best armor in FF16.

Great gear like this is useful for staying alive during other S-rank hunts, like the one for the Breaker of Worlds. Although you might want to keep the loincloth in a scent-proof bag when bringing it back to the Hideaway…