How to summon Astrals in Final Fantasy XV?
Last update: 30 January 2017
As with every Final Fantasy installment, it's possible to summon powerful beings during an encounter. They will deal immense damage to all of the enemies present on the battlefield, although, in contrast to other games of the franchise, you won't have a direct control over the process of summoning - you won't be able to decide when you want to summon them, or what type of Astral will arrive on the battlefield. Additionally, summons were severely simplified - there's no (apart from the animation) difference between them, they deal the same damage and they don't apply any negative effects upon enemies.
In this chapter you will learn about the process of summoning - what requirements must be met for an Astral to come to your aid and how to summon them.
Available Astrals and their requirements
First things first, you should know when you can call them. The following table includes information about the requirements that must be met for a summon to come to your aid.
Name | Unlocked | Team requirements | Environmental requirements |
Titan | At the end of chapter 4. | The chances to summon Titan increase as more of your teammates fall in battle. | Titan will assist you in wide, open-air locations. On flat terrain, will punch the ground; in other areas, he will throw a rock at your targets. |
Ramuh | Chapter 5 | The longer the encounter lasts, the higher the chances that Ramuh will aid you. | Ramuh is available on every terrain type, both above and underground (like, for instance, when you are inside of a dungeon). |
Leviathan | At the end of chapter 9. | Can appear only when Noctis is in Danger state. The longer the character stays in that state, the higher the chances for Leviathan to appear on the battlefield. | Leviathan will only appear when there is a body of water (lake, river, ocean) nearby, or when near the coastline. |
Shiva | At the end of chapter 12. | The chances to summon Shiva are the combined "Team requirements" of the remaining Astrals. | Shiva is available on every terrain type, both above and underground. |
Bahamut | Chapter 14 - only during a boss encounter. | - | - |
Ifrit | Chapter 14 - fought as a boss, you cannot summon Ifrit. | - | - |
As you can see, there are only 4 Astrals available in the game - Bahamut appears only during the boss encounter in chapter 14, whereas Ifrit cannot be summoned.
How to summon Astrals
To summon Astrals, you have to meet two conditions - team and environmental. Once it happens (when, for instance, Noctis enters Danger state and the team is near a water reservoir - conditions for summoning Leviathan), the screen will darken, the music will change and small particles will start flying on the screen. Additionally, an option to summon (L2/LT - PS4/Xone) will appear - holding the button for several seconds will initiate an epic animation sequence, during which an Astral will appear and deal immense damage to all of the enemies on the battlefield. Afterwards, the team will reappear on the battlefield to finish off any survivors.
There's a number of things you have to consider when summoning an Astral:
- You can summon them only once during an encounter - you should think twice before doing that. Sometimes it's better to wait with the option, as more powerful enemies might appear on the battlefield.
- The game calculates the possibility to call in an Astral every 10 seconds. If both of the conditions are met, the prompt to summon an Astral will appear. If not, the game will calculate it again after 10 seconds.
- Enemies defeated by an Astral give experience points only to Noctis. If you are fight a powerful enemy and you are certain that you can defeat it on your own, it's better to avoid summoning an Astral and give the additional experience points to the whole party.
- There's no difference between Astrals, aside from the animation. All of the Astrals deal the same damage, regardless of their "element" and their attacks don't come with any additional negative effects for the enemies.