Abyssos: The Sixth Circle

Abyssos: The Sixth Circle, known to players as P6, is the second turn of the in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker.
==Story==
===Normal===
===Savage===
==Progression==
===Normal===
===Savage===
In Savage mode, nearly all the mechanics from Normal mode are enhanced in some way.
Hegemone starts the battle with Hemitheos's Dark IV-raidwide to heal and mitigate through. Next, she will cast Chelic Synergy-tankbuster. This must be shared by both tanks or Main Tank takes it alone with Invulnerability.
Next, Hegemone casts Aetheric Polyaminoid. She spawns two +-shaped tiles, that will sweep the rows they point towards. Before they do their sweep, Hegemone also casts two other abilities: Unholy Darkness and Exocleaver. Unholy Darkness targets both Healers with a stack-mark, and Exocleaver cleaves the arena with six cones, leaving the areas between the cones as safe. Unholy Darkness also inflicts Dark-resistance Down-debuff, and since Exocleaver is also a Darkness-ability, you must not be hit by it. To resolve these three abilities, stack up with light parties and make sure you are not standing on the lane the +-marks point towards. The sweep and Exocleaver happen first. If light parties are positioned correctly, no hits are taken. Next, Unholy Darkness blows up, followed by second Exocleaver that sweeps the areas that were previously safe. So, right after the first Exocleaver is done, move to the cone it swept first to avoid the second cleaver.
Next comes Pathogenic Cells. Each player receives dots from 1 to 8, indicating the order each party member will be hit by a sweep, that is around 1/4th of the arena's size. Getting hit by a sweep inflicts a stacking debuff and damage. Nothing happens with one stack, but two or more incapacitates the player for 10 seconds. To make sure each player is only hit once, have the party spread so that numbers 1 to 4 are located near the corners of Hegemone's hitbox in order to keep uptime, and 5 and 6 are waiting between 1 and 2 to take their places after they are swept. Same way, 7 and 8 will take places 3 and 4 as well. Use waymarks to indicate the baiting spots.
Following Pathogenic Cells, Hegemone casts Aetherial Manipulation. This itself doesn't do anything, but it plays a role on what is coming next. The whole party will receive a mark above them, from three possibilities:
# Stack mark. Only one player receives this. Three other players must stack up to that player to share the damage.
# Donut mark. Three players receive this. Causes a wide donut-shaped AoE.
# AoE mark. Four players receives this. Causes a wide AoE around that player.
To put this simply, players with donut mark stack with the stack-marked player in the middle, while the AoE-marked players move to the corners to make sure they don't hit others. But there are also two other mechanics to deal with at the same time: Choros Ixou and tethers between players. Hegemone uses Choros Ixou to sweep the arena with two cones, that shoot either front and back, or the sides. Hegemone will shoot them twice, different directions each time. The only way to tell, which direction she is going to shoot, is to look at her. If her hands point front and back, she'll fire to those directions, and to the sides if the hands point left and right. This will narrow down safe areas, so be aware, where she is going to shoot. Tethers will cause the marks to swapped between the players. For example, if a donut-marked player is tethered to a player with an AoE-mark, it means the donut-marked player will actually get the AoE-mark, and will have to act accordingly, and the AoE-marked will act according to donut-mark. Players with no tethers do as their marks indicate. When the marks explode, Hegemone shoots the first Choros Ixou at the same time, and two seconds later, shoots the second Choros Ixou to the different directions from the first, so remember to evade.
Following this, Hegemone casts Transmission on every player. Unlike in Normal mode, in which every player receives just a snake, half of the party will receive a snake, and half will receive a wing. Snake shoots a conal AoE in front of that player, while wing shoots a conal AoE behind. Getting hit by these cones inflicts a Sustained Damage debuff. After getting the snakes and wings, Hegemone also prepares for Choros Ixou. Put the whole party behind Hegemone, so that Melee DPS can still utilize their positionals in full, and form up in two rows, snakes in the front and wings in the rear. Then, look where Hegemone shoots Choros Ixou first. If she shoots to the sides first, all you need to do is to is to evade to the sides after snakes and wings are resolved. If Hegemone shoots front and back first, this gets more tricky. Quickly move to the sides and form up accordingly, then evade the second shot of Choros Ixou.
Following this, Hegemone casts Synergy, a second tankbuster. This will target two players highest on aggro list, and it is an AoE tankbuster, so tanks need to keep a safe distance from each other. It also inflicts bleed. Synergy also forces a tankswap, because Main Tank receives a Magic Vulnerability Down-debuff as well, while Off-Tank does not. In this case, the next hit Main Tank takes will kill him, unless Off-Tank swaps. Following Synergy, Hegemone casts Hemitheos's Dark IV-raidwide. From this point onwards, when Hegemone casts tankbusters, it is randomly either Chelic Synergy or Synergy. Deal with them accordingly.
Hegemone uses Aetheric Polyaminoid again, spawning +- or x-shaped marks on four tiles. x-shaped tiles act like +-shaped, but they shoot diagonally. Two of these titles are tethered, which means they will swap after a time and right after that they shoot. After these tiles appear, Hegemone casts Dark Ashes. This ability targets each player with a small AoE, that explodes few seconds after the cast ends on the spot the players were standing at the moment the cast ends. Bait these at the very center of the arena, and move away to a safe spot before they explode. You'll need to identify the safe spot according to the +-and x-tiles.
Next, Hegemone casts Aetherial Manipulation again, but this will be different from the previous one. Four players, 2 from Support (Tanks/Healers) and 2 DPS will receive a mark, a stack mark and an AoE mark, and these players are also tethered. This means the players with a stack marks have to move to a safe corner and the remaining players will need to stack up with the Aoe marked players, 3 players on both marks. It's recommended to have Tanks and Healers stack up together, and the DPS with other stack. Hegemone will also cast Exocleaver, so avoid the cleaves at the same time.
Hegemone then casts another tankbuster and raidwide, followed by Aetheric Polyaminoid with Unholy Darkness. The way the +- and x-shaped tiles are formed makes two of the four middle tiles safe. Stack up in your light parties to resolve this. This mechanic is then followed by Dark Deliverance with Choros Ixou. Have every player first spread out in their own tiles, since Dark Deliverance targets every player with an AoE. Then, look at how Hegemone shoots the Choros Ixou first to avoid a hit, and then evade the second Choros Ixou.
Next, Hegemone casts perhaps the most complex mechanic of this fight: Cachexia. Cachexia inflicts every player with two debuffs:
* A red debuff with a snake head with a 40-second timer. Getting hit by Hegemone's snake with this debuff will cause extremely heavy damage which likely causes a KO. Stay on Hegemone's wing side to avoid this. Half of the party will receive this.
* A green debuff with a wing with a 40-second timer. Functions the same as the above debuff, but opposite. Stay on Hegemone's snake side to avoid this. The other half of the party will receive this.
* A purple debuff with 8, 12, 16 and 20 second timers. When time runs out, and AoE will be cast around a player. Each player will receive this debuff, two for each timer.
There are a lot of thing to resolve here. First, check whether you'll get snake or wing debuff. This will decide on which side you should be. If Hegemone is facing north (as she usually is), snake is on the east side, and wing on the west side. Players with a snake debuff go the west side, and players with wing debuff go to the east side. Also, check your purple debuff and especially its timer and spread out. Normally, those with 8-second timer position themselves to Hegemone's northern side, 12-second timers directly west or east, and 16-second timers to the southern side. Any place works as long as the players don't overlap each other. 20-second timers will go inside Hegemone's hitbox on their sides, because in about 15 seconds after debuffs are received Hegemone hits two players closest to her with her snake and her wing. This hit will also turn the snake- and wind-debuffs opposite: player with a snake will receive a wing and vice versa. Immediately after 20-seconds are hit by wing and snake, players who had the 8-second debuffs go inside the hitbox and 20-seconds go outside the hitbox to resolve their AoEs. 8-second ones will also be hit with a snake and wing. 12-seconds and 16-seconds will also go inside the hitbox in the same manner. Once every player has resolved their purple debuffs and got hit by either snake or wing, Hegemone finishes the mechanic with Ptera Ixou, where Hegemone's snake and wing will sweep their respective sides, dealing heavy damage to those, who are on the same side as their snake or wing debuff indicate. Since every player now has the opposite debuff than what they had at the beginning, everyone needs to change their side. If you are on the correct side, Ptera Ixou hardly does anything.
==Musical themes==
The raid theme of the Sixth Circle is "Scream", performed by AKINO.