Dawntrail Extreme 2 Guide

This is a guide to the trial 'Everkeep Extreme' (Zoraal Ja Extreme) in Final Fantasy XIV.
My guide doesn’t make any strat recommendations for mechanics with multiple solutions, but rather focuses on trying to explain how the mechanic actually works. In particular, projection of turmoil has lots of different ways to solve it and I’d rather the community decide which they think is the best. I will release a mini-guide on this mechanic later when PFs have settled on their preferred way of resolving it.
Tip me on Ko-Fi - ko-fi.com/hectorhectorson

[@HectorHectorson]

Between the audio glitch in the first minute and the clear preference for Bagel/Conga, I’ll be replacing this guide with an updated version when I’m able to get back to my laptop after the weekend. Let me know if there’s anything else you think I missed or should update!

[@Nimoot]

PF be PF unfortunately.

[@fleurdemur]

Looks like a small visual mistake at 12:19, where the sword's cleave only shows up in front of the boss. Thanks for the guide!

[@phiefer3]

4:00 There is a relatively easy way to resolve this actually. Simply look for a non-glowing sword on the safe side of the cleave. It'll always be safe since none of the swords overlap.

[@HectorHectorson]

That is brilliant! Going to try that out when I’m next able to play!

[@hitsukora]

Oh my god, why did I never think about this. This makes it way easier lol

[@thelurker8169]

Do you mean, on the safe half, look for a tile with a sword on the platforms that were not chosen. That square will be safe. Is that right?

[@phiefer3]

@@thelurker8169 yes, there is only one sword for each tile, so any sword that's not glowing represents a safe tile, so you just pick one that's not getting cleaved

[@potatocakeful]

Honestly I found Mr Happy's trick to be by far the easiest (though a little ping dependent). You go to the safe side of the cleave and stand at the corner of 4 squares touching. The swords always have gaps around them so as soon as the icon from the unsafe spots show you just take one step in the direction of the safe space. Its really easy once you realize it and you don't have to look at the swords at all.

[@kilikx1x]

11:00 Another detail of this mechanic is that the yellow triangle debuffs effect *both* platforms when they resolve. While this isn't super important assuming everything goes smoothly, if you get yourself into a position where you have 5 people on 1 platform (maybe someone got rezzed because they missed the launch) that 5th person needs to resolve the mechanic as if they are on the *other* platform instead of just picking a random tile in the back. I died to this a few times during prog and was very confused because for all intensive purposes I was in the correct spot but someone who got rezed on the other side just happened to keep picking the same tile as me.

[@trance1215]

the cleave graphic is a bit off at 12:19, no? shouldn't it cover all the way east?

[@Makotro0]

yeah, there should only be 6 safe squares, the swirly side is death

[@NickWithAnF]

Excited for this guide. I think there's an audio glitch at 0:57 where voice gets cut off.

[@HectorHectorson]

Well that’s annoying! I’ve just hopped in a taxi to the airport and won’t be able to get to my laptop until Sunday evening. Will leave up for now but fix and reupload then.

[@NickWithAnF]

@@HectorHectorson aye don’t stress. It’s not a super big deal. Just wanted to give a heads up.

[@mapleXIV]

For projection of turmoil the bagel strat is currently the most reliable and PF has mostly moved over to it. It does allow you to take each stack as 8 like shown, but will require each person to remember their number and not touch the line too early or too late. Likely good for organized groups to use less healer resources. PF will probably want to stay separated and collapse together to lower the risk of error. It only requires a couple mitigations from the tanks to handle the first hit, as it does reach the next person in line to make the share 3-way.

[@HectorHectorson]

I’m a big fan of Bagel strat and will likely feature it in a mini-guide.

[@iloveanimal13]

What’s the bagel strat? I’ve seen it on PF but I didn’t join it

[@mapleXIV]

@@iloveanimal13 I'm not sure if linking a video here would be rude to Hector since he plans to cover it, but you line the team up from north to south with both tanks in front but separated. They use relatively heavy mitigation + healer shields and take their stacks solo at the same time. From there, they slowly collapse along a line with the rest of the team activating their stacks one at a time. Markers are placed a few yalms apart to represent the 2 seconds needed for vulns to fall off. Once your debuff is resolved, you join the tanks and slowly collapse towards the rest of your party.

[@iloveanimal13]

@@mapleXIV Oh that's basically what Conga is. So sounds like Bagel = Congaline strat. Got it, thanks!

[@runasth]

Excellent introduction and guide as always Hector. There's one thing I'd like to add. It'll likely not matter since PF has already establish most strats, but I'd like to mention it anyway. In the dual platform phase where one group needs to knocked away, the yellow pyramid spreads also hit the other platform in a similar manner to the big swords, meaning the back of the platform that's not being hit by the giant sword will be hit by the spreads on the other platform. I haven't seen anyone going to that back of their platform so far though. I just thought it was something to point out.

[@fawkes6352]

Thank you for this guide! I really want the wings from this trial even if I haven't done any EX trials (aside from Endwalker EX1 which is really easy if you have a good dorito), and while I'll need to practice to get some hands-on experience, I think this guide will really help me get started!

[@NoBSGameGuides]

As always great work. 👌

[@adamroberts174]

Thanks for the strats again! ❤

[@lonespaceman1407]

The conga strat line with marker is everywhere on Light DC and imo its the easiest and safest way to deal with this mech

[@S3XBob0mb]

People come up with these insane strats even though just stacking in 2 groups is the easiest mechanic of the entire fight. I don't get it.

[@SlasherSRL]

agreed

[@alolanpersian8121]

This. I am really disappointed Hector went with the light party method as this is so much more complicated than the conga line/bagel strategy. Hopefully he considers making a second video talking about that strat.

[@titmit6940]

​@@alolanpersian8121 unless you watched the whole video and saw that he said he would.

[@jenzki657]

thank you , i m so dumb, i understand it best with your guide. slow and with pictures :3

[@BionicDirector117]

Can you put chapters into this for quick-reference on specific mechs?

[@Maxawa.]

perfect timing i just finished msq

[@excelbig3545]

MY GOAT. Was waiting for your guide before attempting it, thanks for your hard work as always!

[@moztove4546]

3:28 A small note, but I've noticed that the marked platforms used in this mechanic are always next to one another (meaning there's never a situation where 2 opposite-side platforms get picked), so I could always watch 2 platforms and know which 2 are picked every time based on what lights up.

[@merahjam_Buu]

Thanks I just got my clear

[@Rhaya02]

just in time for prog cheers

[@NotGuy64]

Okay this seems a bit more difficult than valigarmanda

[@Lulink013]

On the contrary this one has way less stuff to memorize and all attacks always follow the same order (vali can chose ice or lightning first). No debuff timer reading also.

[@silvertayuun]

This one is significantly easier actually

[@benlarkin857]

@@silvertayuun As someone whose spatial reasoning is as good as a potato's, I respectfully disagree haha

[@Yokai_Yuri]

​@@benlarkin857 well the only thing I can see of this being easier than Valigarmanda is that most of the mechanics you can follow someone more familiarized with the fight and you will live. Kinda reminds me of Zodiark who was a cluster fuck but as long as someone knows 100% of the fight, just follow

[@PROTOgarrettv2]

I found it far more difficult than Ex 1. So much visual clutter to track.

[@blackmagecompendium]

Great work Hector, per usual. Ido tremble at the increase in pf's doing LP strat instead of Bagel's conga line but, welp, what can you do. Still, great video well done!

[@polmao]

Bagel/Conga/Braindead is everywhere. Have my alt on Primal and main on Aether and its all we do. Masterclass of handling that mech in the safest and easiest way now

[@Renkyni]

Thanks!

[@Denka_]

Fuck SE for this fight lmao it's so confusing

[@lv.99mastermind45]

I don't know if Projection of Turmoil has been patched since I've last cleared this fight, but 99% of PF cheeses this mechanic, in fact most of you here have already done it or seen a guide talk about it: The wall around the arena does not kill you. It is a DOT..........a very very very weak DOT. The party can just go to the opposite corner of the arena, get 30 seconds of uptime, and then just as the line is about to reach the corner of the arena, just walk through the wall. Low to moderate healing is needed, and the line just disappears. Tank will still need to time invuln for the busters, but otherwise, this mechanic can basically be entirely ignored. Party finder will likely continue doing this until it's patched (if ever), because honestly no one is going to ignore the path of significantly less resistance.

[@mokustabby4865]

It's patched.

[@Battler624]

since the cheese was fixed, congaline is the defacto strat in chaos. I hope you can make a video on it simply because its the most popular in pf.

[@zazza002]

Not even showing the Bagel strat, sad

[@IdyllshireGoblin]

one day to late i cleared it yesterday without guide,this video whould have saved me a lot of time xD amazing guide anyway, some mechanics we just survived with luck and now i can see what i didnt know yesterday

[@noahhkun5097]

PF has settled on braindead strat a few days ago, im pretty sure this is also bagel strat.

[@HectorHectorson]

Chaos PF definitely was still very mixed as of last night, but I agree that Bagel looks likely to be the go-to strat.

[@VoltCrasher]

There's a cut after you said "Thick Lines".

[@HeartabyssKoi]

I’m surprised you opted for light party solution for turmoil over the braindead strat

[@HectorHectorson]

Not trying to suggest light party as a solution, just showing how the mechanic works. I will make a mini-guide in a few days when PF has settled on a strat.

[@HeartabyssKoi]

@@HectorHectorson oh I figured you just putting out something that works but the reason I thought you would choose braindead is because that’s all I’ve been seeing in PF ever since the cheese got patched

[@izayoisakuya1679]

No cheese strat ?

[@HectorHectorson]

They’ve announced it as a known issue, with the suggestion that cleansing your debuff will be mandatory.

[@Haxyn]

@@HectorHectorson I think you should've included the Conga strat for Projection of Turmoil as in PF doing it that way makes is so you just use the Waymarks

[@HectorHectorson]

I didn’t want to try to suggest any one particular strat so as to leave it to PF to decide on the preferred strat. I’ve seen several good ones and will make a mini-guide on the best strat/strats in a few days.

[@DarkDyllon]

@@HectorHectorson should've covered all the current circulating strats, since now i'm left unaware what the conga lineup prio is, how to perform it (or the bagel strat?) when I was blind progging it I also went for light parties, but i'm unaware how conga would work.

[@tymbis]

my dog cleared ex1 and now he's watching this guide