Warning: spoilers ahead. If you haven’t completed Endwalker, avert your eyes.
After defeating Erichthonios and recruiting him to your cause, you’ll happen across a method to seal the creatures running rampant in Pandaemonium. The second boss, The Hippokampos, is as good a target as any to test that method out. Here’s a guide on how to beat The Hippokampos in Asphodelos: The Second Circle.
The Hippokampos will begin the fight with Murky Depths, a very damaging AoE that must be healed through. Healers, this attack will come out very often throughout the course of the fight, so have an AoE heal readily available. It will immediately follow that with Doubled Impact, a tankbuster that attacks both of your tanks.
The next attack is one of the main attacks to watch out for — Spoken Cataract. The Hippokampos’ head and body will separate and point in two different cardinal directions. You want to go to the corner that is not in either path — and you want to hug that corner too because the head beams will cover half of the entire room. So, for example, if the head is facing north and the body is facing west, you want to go southeast to avoid damage.
After two casts of Spoken Cataract, it will cast Murky Depths again before casting a new spell — Sewage Deluge. This is another massive AoE attack, but it also changes the arena. The grates on the ground are now your only safe zones for movement, as the rest of the area has been flooded with wastewater.
In this new arena, it will start off casting Tainted Flood, which will require you to space your character away from others, while remaining on the limited space walkways. Next will come Mark of Easy Prey. This is simple, just stand next to someone with a red arrow over their head. It could be many party members or just one, as long as you are standing next to someone.
Following that, it will drop a Shockwave in one of the corners. You have to align yourself in such a way that the blast will push you along the walkways, or you will die. After this, the water will recede, and the arena will return to normal. Not allowing you time to rest, the Hippokampos will immediately cast Dissociation, sending its head off to one side of the arena. Watch the edges to locate the head and move to the opposite side to avoid damage.
Next up is Coherence. This will target two players — one tank and one random non-tank. The tank will have to run their marker (a pulsing triangle) away from the rest of the group, while the non-tank target will have to stack with everyone else. Failure to move these two markers away from each other will result in death.
From here, you have seen every attack from The Hippokampos. It will alternate between wet and dry phases and combine Sewage Deluge with Spoken Cataract. Keep an eye on the boss and position appropriately and you should have no trouble finishing this creature off.
