The Echo

The Echo is a power awakened in a handful of people, usually before the coming of a Calamity. Those believed to possess the Echo have appeared all throughout history, such as the Twelve Archons or the Zodiac Braves.

Capabilities

The powers generally manifest in one or all of the following ways, as well as many others:

• The Power to Transcend Words: For those gifted with the power to transcend words, language no longer poses a barrier to intercultural communication. Voiced utterances fade and are replaced by an internal understanding of another's intentions. Conversely, words spoken by one with this power are immediately understood by all, without need of linguistic interpretation.

• The Power to Transcend Time: Those gifted with this form of the Echo can mentally travel back in time to witness occurrences experienced by another. It was originally thought that proximity with the memory holder was necessary for trancension; however, it has recently been discovered that residual mnemonic Aether in a location can also trigger these third-person flashbacks.

• The Power to Transcend Worlds: Though rare, there have also been cases reported of individuals who can pass into the aetherial plane and communicate directly with the will of the planet Herself. In extreme cases, the Echo can be empowered to grant immortality to an individual, much the same as the Ascians, and souls who have transcended their flesh can even safely traverse the interdimensional Rift between the Source and its shards.

Notable Echo-bearers

• Minfilia Warde
• Krile Baldesion
• Arenvald Lentinus

Origins and Lore

In Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, it is revealed that the Echo is an "echo" of the power that once resided in all souls prior to the Sundering of the planet Etheirys into the Source and its thirteen reflections. Among those individuals whose souls were alive to witness the events of the Final Days, a small number were so deeply affected by the event that it left a permanent scar on the aether of their souls. By witnessing imagery similar to the Final Days, most commonly starshowers, it is possible for Hydaelyn to awaken the Echo in sundered peoples reincarnated from these Ancient souls.

Game Mechanic

As a game mechanic, The Echo is a flat percentage buff: "Maximum HP, damage dealt, and potency of HP restoration actions are increased." which is provided to players after failing a duty. Some duties have Echo pre-applied as a way to reduce their difficulty. Examples of such duties include: The Coils of Bahamut, Orbonne Monastery, and Eureka.

The Echo can be disabled with the "silence echo" option in Duty Finder, and this is half of the settings referenced by the player-acronym "MINE" (the other being minimum Item Level).

Unrestricted Parties

After the stat squish with the launch of Endwalker, enabling Unrestricted Party ("unsyncing") in Duty Finder grants players an Epic Echo buff: "Maximum HP, damage dealt, and potency of HP restoration actions are increased beyond what even you thought possible." up to +300%. This allows players to unsync duties much the same as before the stat squish.

Epic Echo is applied in addition to the above normal Echo. The strength of Epic Echo depends on the level of the duty:

• Up to Lv. 50 (A Realm Reborn duties): 300%
• Lv 51 to 60 (Heavensward duties): 200%
• Lv 61 to 70 (Stormblood duties): 60%
• Lv 71 to 80 (Shadowbringers duties): 30%

The effects are additive. For example,  The Binding Coil of Bahamut - Turn 5 has a 30% Echo and a 300% Epic Echo, making a total bonus of 330% of health, healing, and damage increases.