FFXIV AAC Light-heavyweight M1 raid guide: All mechanics and rewards explained

The Arcadion raid series in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail kicks off with a battle against Black Cat, a fellow rookie making her Arcadion debut alongside you and your party in the AAC Light-heavyweight M1 match.

The Dawntrail expansion spiced things up in the mechanics department with its dungeons and trials, and the Arcadion is no joke either. This is a significantly more involved raid series than its predecessors, but thankfully, each of the mechanics is fairly simple once you get the hang of them. They’re a blast to play, too, and Black Cat has a few unique twists that set her apart from previous raid bosses in Final Fantasy XIV.

How to unlock AAC Light-heavyweight M1 in FFXIV

The AAC Light-heavyweight M1 raid is unlocked by beginning the Arcadion raid series questline in Solution Nine. After clearing the 7.0 MSQ, speak with the Stylish Stranger (X: 19.1, Y: 18.8) in Solution Nine to set things in motion. Then, just head to the Arcadion and speak to Metem to start The Claw in the Dark, which is the quest that unlocks AAC Light-heavyweight M1.

All Black Cat mechanics in AAC Light-heavyweight M1

Before we get to the unique mechanics for this fight, let’s discuss the general setup of the battle. The arena is a 4×4 grid of tiles that can be damaged and destroyed (similar to the Shinryu battle in The Royal Menagerie trial).

You can get revived if you fall, but pay attention to the ground and make sure you avoid cracked tiles that are close to breaking. Black Cat also has a spell called Shockwave that she will periodically cast that knocks you backward, which can be tricky to survive with the broken tiles.

Black Cat has all the usual attacks that raid bosses have like a tank buster (Biscuit Maker), a raid-wide spell (Bloody Scratch), and a stack mechanic (Clawful), so just watch for the usual symbols. She has a bunch of unique mechanics on top of these, though, so keep reading to be prepared for the raid.

One-two Paw

The first mechanic that you need to watch out for is One-two Paw. When she casts this, Black Cat will raise her claws one after the other. She performs two huge cleaves in the directions of her glowing claws, so dodge based on the order that she raises them. If you stay near her, you should only need to perform a small sidestep to dodge this attack. Occasionally, Black Cat will perform a leaping version of this attack where she will move to another section of the arena before swiping.

Black Cat Crossing

Black Cat’s next major mechanic is Black Cat Crossing, which spawns two sets of glowing lines in either a plus or an X formation one after the other. These lines are conal AOEs that will be launched in the order of their appearance, so dodge them just like One-two Paw. She’ll occasionally perform a leaping version of this attack just like she can with One-two Paw.

Mouser

Mouser is one of Black Cat’s more complicated attacks, but it’s easy enough to avoid if you follow someone who knows what they’re doing. Black Cat will telegraph a long sequence of red square AOEs and then bounce around the arena, damaging any tiles that she hits.

Tiles can only take two hits before they break, so the goal here is to pick a safe tile that Black Cat either misses entirely or only hits once. Cracked tiles are perfectly safe to stand on, but remember that a cracked tile can only take one more hit before it breaks.

Elevate and Eviscerate

Elevate and Eviscerate is the most unique mechanic that Black Cat has, and she casts it multiple times in a row so you have to know what to do since there’s a decent chance that you’ll be targeted by it.

When Black Cat casts Elevate and Eviscerate, she tethers to a random player and then knocks them into the air. The targeted player will have an arrow following them that indicates where they will land after the attack. Landing on a tile will damage it, so you should aim for pristine tiles instead of cracked ones. Landing on a cracked tile will break it and cause you to fall to your death. The arrow indicator will turn red if it’s pointing at a cracked tile, so you don’t have to pay too much attention.

Predaceous Pounce

Predaceous Pounce is similar to Mouser in that it’s another long sequence of telegraphed AOEs. During this attack, paw prints will appear on the ground. These are linear AOEs that will be followed up by large circular AOE attacks that must be dodged. After the AOEs are triggered, every player will receive a spread marker.

Copy Cat

Copy Cat is a tricky mechanic to deal with, but it really just makes the existing mechanics a bit harder. During this phase, Black Cat summons a clone of herself so she can perform two attacks simultaneously. The clone will start off by using Elevate and Eviscerate to launch players into the air while Black Cat herself casts Overshadow, which places a stack marker on another player. The second time Black Cat spawns a Copy Cat clone, it will use Predaceous Pounce.

How to beat Black Cat in AAC Light-heavyweight M1

The key to this fight to this fight is keeping a close eye on the tiles and positioning yourself in a safe space where you have plenty of escape routes in case Black Cat starts targeting the ones near you. Keep a close eye on Black Cat herself to prepare for One-two Paw and Black Cat Crossing. These are very easy to dodge as long as you pay attention and don’t let the other mechanics stress you out.

The biggest difficulty spike in AAC Light-heavyweight M1 is Mouser, which is Black Cat’s tile-destroying attack. Instead of trying to memorize the attack pattern for the entire arena, we recommend sticking to one quadrant of the battlefield and paying very close attention to just four of the squares. That way, you’ll have a much easier time remembering Black Cat’s attack order and keeping track of which tiles are going to break.

Predaceous Pounce is the other major mechanic that most players struggle with, but we have some advice for that one, too. We recommend placing yourself inside one of the AOEs near the end of the telegraph sequence. Once Black Cat actually starts jumping around the arena, you can then move to one of the AOE spots from the beginning of the sequence that Black Cat has already hit. That way, you don’t have to worry about dodging anything else.

While you can follow an experienced player for most of this fight to safely ignore most of the mechanics, there are still things that you will have to contend with no matter what like Elevate and Eviscerate. Breaking tiles just makes things harder for everyone else, so please don’t be that person. Also, your healers will thank you if you pay attention to Black Cat’s telegraphs and avoid her AOEs since the Sustained Damage debuff applied on hit is super tough to heal through.

AAC Light-heavyweight M1 will thankfully only get easier as people become more familiar with the mechanics and acquire better gear to make the fight go faster. Farming the raid over and over for weekly gear drops makes great practice, too. Once you’ve got your raid gear, though, you can get back to Dawntrail’s other optional content like waiting for the Serpentlord Seethes FATE.