The Omega Protocol (Final Fantasy XIV)

The Omega Protocol, commonly abbreviated by players as TOP, is an introduced in patch 6.31 "Gods Revel, Lands Tremble" of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker. To unlock the ultimate raid, players must complete the Abyssos: The Eighth Circle (Savage), and then talk with the Wandering Minstrel in Old Sharlayan.
==Story==
==Progression==
===Phase 1 - Omega===
In the first phase, Omega uses auto-attacks on a single target, and two raid-mechanic abilities, Program Loop and Pantokrator, before casting Atomic Ray as enrage.
* Program Loop: Program Loop gives every player a number of debuffs. Only the Roman numerals play any significant meaning in the mechanic, the others are resolved as the mechanic progresses. The Roman numerals indicate the order the players must soak towers that will spawn. Along with the towers, Omega brings out two tethers that must also be resolved. Players with number 1 will soak the first towers and players with number 3 take the tethers away from towers, far enough so that no other players are hit by the explosion the tethers cause. Following 1 and 3, 2 and 4 then take towers and tethers the same way. This cycle will be done four times in the following order: Towers: 1, 2, 3, 4. Tethers: 3, 4, 1, 2. Be careful to not soak a tower outside your own turn, otherwise you will fail the mechanic. Tether explosion causes a wide explosion around the tethered player that will inflict HP Penalty, reducing that player's current and max HP to 1% of normal. Any other players hit by the tether explosion will receive Doom. Failing to soak a tower causes heavy damage to all players.
* Pantokrator: Pantokrator also inflicts a number of debuffs to all players: same Roman numerals as in Program Loop, a crosshair and a missile.
** Numerals indicate the order the missile debuff has to be resolved. The Missile targets every player once, which causes damage and a knockback on other players too near the targeted player.
** Crosshair debuff indicates when that player will be hit by a beam, which is a narrow line-AoE that must be shared by 3 players.
To resolve Pantokrator, divide into light parties after receiving your debuffs. Those with number 1 will move away from their party, so that their missile does not hit them, and after the missile is resolved, they return to the party. This way there will always be 3 players stacked for the beam. 2, 3 and 4 will do the same after a beam has hit them. At the same time, each player will receive small AoEs under their feet. Place these AoEs in such a way that it does not hamper anyone. These AoEs will be dropping until all the debuffs have been resolved. During all of this, Omega shoots conal Flamethrower AoEs, which will narrow down the areas you can walk in. Omega will keep firing these Flamethrowers until it has completed a full circle. The direction is randomly to either clockwise or counter-clockwise. The missiles need to be taken away from other players according to the direction Omega is circling towards. Bait the missile towards the frontal flamethrower, while the parties move just ahead of the rear flamethrower.
After all the debuffs have been resolved, Omega finishes Pantokrator with a number of beam attacks. The party needs to spread out, so that DPS and Healers are inside Omega's hitbox while tanks stack in north outside Omega's hitbox. Tanks will either have to use their tank invulnerability to resolve their hits, or use many of their defensive cooldowns to survive. After these beam attacks are done, Omega casts Atomic Ray as enrage, unless its HP is reduced to 0 before that.
===Phase 2 - Omega-M and Omega-F ===
===Phase 3 - Omega (Final) ===
Prior to becoming targetable, a cascading AoE will pulse out from the center of the arena alongside debuffs indicating spread and stack AoEs.
===Phase 4 - Transition===
Omega will revive with a full health bar. The goal of this phase is to push Omega's health below 20% of its maximum before it enrages with "Blue Screen".
*Wave Cannon: Targets all players with a line AoE, while marking 2 players with line stacks that will resolve after. The initial line AoEs will fire again as the line stacks go off. This mechanic will repeat 2 more times without cast following its initiation.
* Wave Repeater: Cascading AoE originating from the center of the arena that occurs alongside Wave Cannon; no cast.
*Blue Screen: Will deal lethal damage to the party. If boss health is pushed below 20%, this attack will instead high raidwide damage.
===Phase 5 - Omega-M and Omega-F (Dynamis empowered)===
Omega will transition between its M and F forms being the primary target. It will use various iterations of "Run: ****mi*" to commence a series of challenging mechanics. In the course of resolving these mechanics, players will receive stacks of the enhancement "Quickening Dynamis". The goal is to push Omega below 20% before it enrages with "Blind Faith" while all 8 party members have 3 stacks of Quickening Dynamis.
===Phase 6 - Alpha Omega===
==Enemies==
*Omega
*Omega-M
*Omega-F
** Omega-M
**Omega-F
** Omega
*Omega
**Left Arm Unit
**Right Arm Unit
*Omega-M
*Omega-F
**Omega
**Omega
**Rocket Punch
**Left Arm Unit
**Right Arm Unit
** Rear Power Unit
**Omega-M
**Omega-F
*Alpha Omega
==Loot== 
*
==Achievements==
*Heart to Heartless: The Omega Protocol (Ultimate)
==Musical themes==
The majority of the music used during the fight covers previous battle, location, and event themes from the raid series: Phase 1 against Omega plays "Deltascape", the field theme for the Interdimensional Rift, phase 2 plays "Heartless", the theme from , phases 3 and 4 play the Eorzean Symphony orchestral version of "From the Heavens", phase 5 against the dynamis empowered Omega plays "eScape" and Alpha Omega is fought to the Eorzean Symphony orchestral concert version of "Torn from the Heavens".
==Behind the scenes==
On January 31, 2023, the raid team UNNAMED_ first cleared The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) in the unofficial world progression. However, it was revealed that a form of zoom hack was utilised in the clear. On the same day, a statement from the producer and director Naoki Yoshida was released on the Lodestone regarding illicit activities in the ultimate raid, including the use of third-party tools, the illicit publicizing of post-clear cutscene, and the spread of illicit videos. Investigation was conducted to confirm the use of third-party tools and identify instances of unfair play.https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/436dce7bd078c914009957f2221c13e6a5cb497dhttps://jp.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/36827acd0ecaa9e05e3be6ae4b3483301668b215 Members of team UNNAMED_ who directly committed unfair practices received an account penalty. The achievement and title obtained from clearing the ultimate raid would also be deleted from all members and the clear report was revoked.https://twitter.com/Haruka_Setsuna_/status/1620502206645669888
The next team to clear it would be achieved by the raid team Neverland, on Feburary 1, 2023.
==Citations==