The Aetherochemical Research Facility

Overview

Your pursuit of the archbishop has brought you to the Aetherochemical Research Facility, at the heart of the floating isle of Azys Lla. However, he and his knights are not the only threat for which you must be prepared; shortly before your arrival, the VIth Imperial Legion entered the facility in search of the secret to mastering primals, and their presence will serve to complicate matters. With multiple factions and their ambitions set on a collision course, your mission promises to be fraught with danger and uncertainty both.

Duty Support

• Scion Marauder: Marauder (Tank)
• Scion Conjurer: Conjurer (Healer)
• Scion Thaumaturge: Thaumaturge (DPS)
• Scion Lancer: Lancer (DPS)

Enemies

• Clockwork Repurposer
• Clockwork Hunter
• Clockwork Avenger
• Enforcement Droid 210
• Scrambled Engineer
• Scrambled Paladin
• Scrambled Iron Claw
• Scrambled Iron Giant
• 6th Legion Magitek Vanguard H-1
• 6th Legion Medicus
• 6th Legion Tesserarius
• 6th Legion Optio
• Magitek Turret I
• Precultured Biomass
• Bioculture Node
• Cultured Naga
• Cultured Empuse
• Cultured Cobra
• Cultured Bowyer
• Cultured Dancer

Boss Notes

• As of Patch 6.3, the battle will only end when both Ascians' health are reduced to 0.1% instead of 50%, and both will always be targettable.
• The dungeon does not end when Lahabrea and Igeyorhm are defeated. Instead, a notably long but skippable cutscene will show the two merging into the real final boss, Ascian Prime. In addition, failing mechanics will now inflict Vulnerability Up on players.
• ARF ice first.png|Ice Collides First: Start in the middle of the room, and once the ice donut AoE goes off, run to the wall away from all the fire spheres.
• ARF fire first.png|Fire Collides First: Start near the wall away from all the fire spheres, and once they explode, run to the middle of the room. Don't start directly at the wall so you won't need to run as far.
• From there, the mechanics repeat themselves until the boss is defeated.

Boss Encounters

Regula van Hydrus

• Stuns a random party member and follows up with untelegraphed AoE on them. Heal as necessary and move away from the stunned player.
• Summons turrets every phase swap, with one additional turret per swap. Turrets self-destruct if not killed in time, causing room-wide damage.
• Magitek Turret Is target a random party member with a visible line AoE (Aetherochemical Laser) and will continuously attack them.
• Magitek Turret IIs target random party members with circle AoEs (Aetherochemical Grenado).
• The boss will start dashing to the walls and repeatedly cast Magitek Slug, an easily dodged line AoE
• Defeat the Magitek Turrets to stop the boss from dashing, making him easier to hit.
• After the second set of adds, the boss will cast Magitek Spread, a telegraphed 270 degree conal AoE.

Harmachis

• Weighing of the Heart: Changes Forms, form will be announced but may be only a split second before the change. There is no cast or announcement prior to changing back to Sphinx.
• Sphinx form
• Riddle of the Sphinx is an easily dodged circle AoE.
• Will periodically attack the tank with a untelegraphed conal AoE (Chthonic Hush) that inflicts Poison cleansable with Esuna.
• Anti-Cobra form
• Untelegraphed tankbuster (Hood Swing)
• Anti-Naga form
• Petrifaction is a telegraphed gaze attack that will cause 10 seconds of Petrification unless you are looking away from the boss.
• Circle of Flames is an instant AoE that will target multiple party members, stay spread out to avoid stacking damage.
• Anti-Machina form
• Ballistic Missile will target a party member with a missile, indicated by a circular "enumeration" marker with a number of rotating spheres over it, indicating how many people should stack to prevent damage. Otherwise, the target player will take high damage.
• Gaseous Bomb is a stack marker targeting a random player. The entire party should stack.

Lahabrea & Igeyorhm

• Shadow Flare: Unavoidable Raidwide damage cast by Lahabrea
• Fire Sphere: Lahabrea summons five untargettable Burning Stars that will explode in AoE circles after a few seconds.
• Esoteric Fusion: Another version of this spell will result in two pairs of Burning Stars that are tethered and advance towards each other, which will explode upon contact.
• Grip of Night: A frontal cone AoE cast by Igeyorhm.
• Circle of Ice: Igeyorhm summons four Frozen Stars that detonate Donut AoE circles. Stand on the Frozen Stars to avoid damage.
• Esoteric Fusion: Igeyorhm will tether two of her Frozen Stars together, creating a bigger donut AoE that covers the safe spots in the other Frozen Stars. Players should therefore stand under where the tethered Frozen Stars will detonate to avoid damage.
• End of Days: Similar to the Towering Oliphant's Rout attack in The Dusk Vigil, this is a line stack marker, which requires players to line up between Lahabrea and the targetted player.
• Dark Fire II: Lahabrea puts circle purple AoE markers on all players, who should spread to avoid overlapping.
• If the health difference between the bosses become too large, the higher HP boss will transfer some of its health to the lower HP boss.

Ascian Prime

• Shadow Flare: Unavoidable Raidwide Damage.
• Height of Chaos: Tankbuster
• Dualstar: Features combinations of the tethered Burning Stars and Frozen Stars from the previous battle. Ascian Prime will then cast Fusion Prime to make them collide. If non-tanks are hit by two AoEs at once, they will likely die. To tell the order of the collisions and their AoEs, players must eye the distance of the tethers and the colors of the orbs instead of relying on the orange AoE indicators, which only briefly appears before the AoEs resolve.
• If the Frozen Stars collide first, stand under them and quickly run away from the imminent detonation of the Burning Stars
• If the Burning Stars collide first, run away from them and then quickly run under the Frozen Stars before they detonate as well.
• Instead of waiting for the AoE animations to finish, the ground is safe to walk into once the orange AoE telegraphs disappear.
• Using Sprint is helpful.
• Universal Manipulation: Causes room-wide damage and five debuffs. As of Patch 6.3, there no portals to hide in and avoid this, and the debuffs will detonate the following mechanics:
• Bleeding: Players take damage overtime until the debuff expires.
• Ancient Circle: Upon expiring, this creates a massive donut AoE around each player. They should stack in the center to ensure the donut AoEs do not spread there.
• Dark Whispers: Upon expiring, this creates a purple AoE circle on each player, who should spread out to avoid overlapping.
• Ancient Frost: Upon expiring, the afflicted player will find themselves the victim of a stack marker.

Duty Information

• Duty Finder: Dungeons (Heavensward)
• Roulette: High-level Dungeons
• Modes: duty support, explorer
• Time Limit: 90

Achievements

• Mapping the Realm: Aetherochemical Research Facility

Music

• Main: Imagination
• Mid-Bosses: To the Fore|roll=n
• Final Boss Phase 1: Thunderer
• Final Boss Phase 2: The Maker's Ruin