Final Fantasy VI Bosses

Unless both Mog's team and Locke's team have been beaten down severely, there's no good reason to use the four-generic-Moogle party against the Guard Leader. Between the other two, the choice is up to you. As you cannot get a Game Over in this part of the game - a defeated party is sent back to a certain point with all characters at 1 HP - you can always fight Guard Leader with Locke until you have stolen a Mythril Knife. If you have trouble with the actual 'killing' part of the Guard Leader battle (Power-wise, not moral-wise), Mog has extremely dangerous attacks to offer, so you can use him for that.

If you picked Mog's team, the Twilight Requiem will make short work of the fight regardless. If you picked Locke's team or the third and inferior party, you will want to kill one Silver Lobo and then focus your attack on the Guard Leader. As long as he's not alone, he won't use !Charge, an extremely strong physical attack that can kill weaker units in the Front Row. He will, on the other hand, use the Net attack to stop some of your party members. You can try to stall if Locke is hit if you want to. Expand Full Strategy

Truth be told, the Guardian is one of the few battles in which a high amount of Magic Power (25) and strong magical attacks are combined in such a fashion that things could look grim for your party due to the sheer force of Guardian's attacks. Thankfully, most of this can be circumvented one way or another.

Guardian has a puny, unimpressive AI script when he's 'normal': It features such outdated attacks as Magitek Laser, Missile, and Atomic Rays. Guardian quickly detects you are far too strong to be beaten in this manner, however, and after two turns Guardian will load one of its battle programs. It'll try this out on you for a while, before powering down to its 'normal' state for another two turns before loading another battle program. Here's the rundown on Guardian's four battle programs:

"ACTIVATING Ultros BATTLE PROGRAM"

This is what could be considered the boss' weakest program. It'll use Tentacle here (which is nowhere near as painful as it once was) in addition to Entwine (unblockable, but you can counter this with a Hastega spell), !Ink, and Stone. It'll spend four turns emulating Ultros before settling back into its normal AI script, and Entwine will always be the last move it'll use.

"ACTIVATING Dadaluma BATTLE PROGRAM"

Shockwave and Battle are nothing to be worried about, but, on the third turn, Dadaluma Guardian will throw a or Ashura (doing extreme amounts of damage and killing non-Reraise characters) and use three healing potions (either Tonics or Hi-Potions) just before using Magitek Barrier to set both Safe and Reflect. You'll want to use Dispel or Rippler as happens result. After this has happened, Guardian will go back to its normal.

"ACTIVATING Air Force BATTLE PROGRAM"

This is simply Guardian's upgraded machine phase. It'll use such predictable beauties as Magitek Laser, Diffractive Laser, and Launcher. In its fourth turn mimicking Air Force, the opponent will say:

"INITIALIZING WAVE CANNON COUNTDOWN" "COUNT: 3" "COUNT: 2" "COUNT: 1"

All in one turn and use Wave Cannon on you, which is pretty impressive noting that 25 Magic Power we've been taking hits from so far. It'll hurt a bundle if you're not protected from it. After Wave Cannon, it's back to normal for Guardian.

"ACTIVATING Ultima Buster BATTLE PROGRAM"

Far and away the most dangerous of Guardian's battle programs, Ultima Buster's battle program will have Guardian use Battle, cast Flare, and use Meteo. On the fourth turn, Ultima Buster Guardian will say "Vast energy focused", glow yellow twice and use Flare Star, which actually isn't as threatening as you might have feared.

After this sequence is complete, Guardian will revert back to normal, after which it will load the Ultros program and start the process all over again.

The trick here is to act fast. If you have prepared decently thus far, you shouldn't need to see Air Force's battle program in action whatsoever, let alone Ultima Buster's. And this is good, since facing Ultima Buster Guardian is something you want to avoid if you're going for a victorious battle. Cast Slow on Guardian and Hastega on yourself ASAP and throw up a Mighty Guard (if you have Relm but not Strago, Sketch will give it to you 3/4 of the time) or Wall. Golem and Fenrir won't be a real asset now since the only physical attacks worth fearing - Tentacle and the Thrown blades - will hit you anyway. It might be a good idea to cast Reraise on all of your characters when he's not pulling out the big guns. That said, go all out on the guy!

The fact that Guardian is a machine and therefore weak to Lightning really helps out here, as Thundaga is a spell most (if not all) of your mages should have. If you have Thunder Shields to spare, you could break them for barrier-piercing Thundaga attacks too. If you have a Stealer in your midst, Stealing is definitely a swell idea: A Ribbon isn't too shabby, and the Force Armor is one of the useful yet finite items in the game. Tempest, Valigarmanda's Tri-Disaster, Phantom Rush, Bahamut's Mega Flare, Fixed Dice, Valiant Knife, and Jump attacks are all effective. Expand Full Strategy

Hell's Rider is a durable fellow who has an extremely strong physical attack in !Silver Lance, which he also uses to counter a successful Steal attempt. Every fourth attack, he has a 1/3 chance of using Venomist, a multi-target Poison-elemental attack with low accuracy that also sets the Poison status.

Gau can take him out in a single hit with Mu's Snare and the Break spell from Darkwind and/or Commander. If you have nothing along those lines, Areneid's !Numb and Primordite's !Numbclaw will stop him in his actions. If you lack Gau (shame on you), Cyan's Tiger works great if used first, and any combination of your strongest attacks should suffice. He can also counter any Attack with Reverse Polarity on that character. Expand Full Strategy

Hidon attacks with Battle and Bio. That's what he does. He has a 33% shot at using Bio, and a 66% shot at Battle. If you hit him with something, he has a small chance of countering with the Poison spell. Whenever a character dies in-battle (aka the Wound status), Hidon will try to revive the fallen character as a Zombie with the Crypt Dust attack, which will fail if the fallen character is immune to the Zombie status ailment. When Hidon is alone, its first turn will be devoted to glowing with an eerie yellow light and attacking with the magnificent Lore Grand Delta, which will deal between 900 and 950 damage on your sorry posterior. That's about when you'll notice that Hidon is particularly mean when it's by itself; it'll start attacking with all kinds of crazy spells, including Venomist (the multi-target Poison-elemental attack that misses a lot yet looks funky) and Leech (the non-elemental HP draining spell). Eighty seconds after the last of the Erebus has perished, Hidon will call his minions back into existence. If you kill them all again, Hidon will cast Grand Delta again, and then revive them again.

Throw up your barriers where possible (Hastega, Mighty Guard, Golem/Fenrir, Kirin) and set Slow on Hidon. Evasion of physical attacks is doubly important, as all the Erebuses will try to set nasty status ailments on you with their Specials. Now, it's time to take care of the Erebuses. While Bahamut's Mega Flare attack is by far the best way to take care of them all at once, well-timed doses of Cyan's Eclipse attack, possibly paired with Edgar's Auto Crossbow or Flash Tools, should get the job done. The most difficult Erebuses to dispatch is the one in the lower-left corner (it is inherently Reflective, absorbs all elements, and has Instant Death protection). Shadow's stronger throwing stars work well against this one, as does Strago's Traveler attack, Setzer's Fixed Dice, and Edgar's Drill. Also, don't forget to throw around stealing attempts until you've stolen something from Hidon; the common steal is a meager Teleport Stone, but the rare steal is a Thornlet, an elusive item that, provided you choose the Ragnarok sword over the Ragnarok Esper once the time comes, can only be found here.

The Thornlet is an odd piece of Headgear. The only thing it has going for it is the fact that its Defense is superior to everything, not including the Saucer on Imps. On the downside, the Thornlet grants inherent Seizure to the wearer (thorns inflict pain) and has no Magic Defense whatsoever. The verdict, then, is that the Thornlet should be ignored. The only valid reasons for getting one are either to complete your item list as much as possible or to bet it later for a Mirage Vest.

Now, behold the power of Grand Delta! As soon as that's all over, it's time to defeat this wretched being. Valigarmanda's Tri-Disaster attack, Fira, Firaga, and Quake spells really hurt, as does Shadow's Flame Scroll. Having Shadow Throw a Flametongue, Gravity Rod, or Holy Rod hurts Hidon very badly. Equipping Mog or Edgar as a Dragon Horn Dragoon paired with a Holy Lance can also deal great amounts of damage. Mog should definitely refrain from using Dances; the Twilight Requiem sucks. Phantom Rush and Fixed Dice are reliable as always. Strago and Relm themselves really need to rely on their Magic skillset if used; if Strago's selection is extremely poor, I would suggest Aero or Traveler. Obviously, if Strago is level 43, his Stone attack surpasses all other options (except Firaga). Cyan should probably stick to his Flurry skill, unless you've put in the time to teach him Firaga. Gau has a few options, but most of them are kind of odd. Devil Fist is nice enough, as it allows Gau to absorb Poison, Bio, and Venomist. Inherent Haste and Will o' the Wisp are good enough too. If you're not too concerned about that Poison ailment, have Gau engage (don't forget to cast Float on yourselves beforehand, since Litwor Chicken uses Quake). Finally, Magic Urn turns Gau into an ever-present tank that heals your party. Nice. And Umaro? Just let him go, man. Expand Full Strategy

Wow. There is just so little I can say about Holy Dragon here. He casts up to three Holy spells every turn. When hit by a Magic spell, he has a 66% chance of countering with Dispel. And that's it. Heck, you've even seen a palette swap of the thing earlier.

Holy Dragon casts nothing but spells, and is vulnerable to Mute. That's all there is to it, just cast a Silence spell and you're done. You don't have to bother with Slow, Stop, and all that, just cast Silence and attack the thing with offensive spells. If you're getting low on MP, use Osmose. Try not to swallow anything sharp while playing, as that's the only situation I can imagine where a loss on your part is actually possible. If you brought either Locke or Shadow, equip a Thief's Knife and go for Holy Dragon's steal items, as both are nice.

If you arrived here with a solo-Mog party (with the hopes of raiding chests), the strategy is only slightly different; since you don't want to take any chances, be sure you're equipped with a Reflect Ring. If Mog doesn't know the Silence spell, equip Siren so Mog can summon her for the Hope Song attack. Now that Holy Dragon is at Mog's mercy, just attack until he's dead. Expand Full Strategy

In simpler times, white magic was all about loving thy neighbor. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, cast Protect and take it. Holy Dragon (Redux) does not concern itself with ethics, never read Aristotle, is probably not even really related to your holy man of choice anyway. Holy Dragon (Redux) is an elemental weapon, and bad news for us, it's a rocket launcher.

Holy Dragon (Redux) perhaps isn't the most difficult fight in the Dragon's Den, but it's definitely a lot harder than any sparring match we engage in with his peers. The Holy element is the only element we can't really absorb without a lot of fuss. A single character can be safeguarded with the Paladin's Shield, and there's up to two Ragers that can absorb or null the Holy element, this much is true. However, the odds you've got the Shield and two Ragers on your team aren't so large.

Holy Dragon (Redux)'s attacks are nasty. It can use up to three Saintly Beam attacks in every odd turn, swapping to the occasional Holy spell after the general battle timer has exceeded 20 Doom intervals (which is about 13 seconds uninterrupted by slowdown you may have installed with the 'Wait' option in the menu). Every even turn will feature physical attacks; of which !Heavenly Wrath is extremely powerful. If Holy Dragon (Redux) is attacked it has a 66% chance of using Curaga on itself, regaining about 6000 HP. It may also counterattack with Heartless Angel 1/3 of the time.

On a character with average defenses (say, Thunder Shield, Circlet and Genji Armor), Saintly Beam will deal about 1000 damage, and up to three of them will kill those characters unless they're high-leveled. In addition, there's the risk of attacking Holy Dragon (Redux), getting a Heartless Angel counter and then seeing your entire party get slaughtered by Heartless Angel. Oh yeah, and there's the barrier of Curaga. We can cast Reflect on Holy Dragon (Redux) to stop it from healing itself for a while, but this also means we can't cast spells that bounce off Reflect barriers (such as -aga spells and Flare), nor can we choose to Rage Great Malboro or Baalzephon, since they use Bio and Blizzaga, respectively. Nasty, nasty.

Okay, here's what we're going to do. Max out Magic Defense on all characters. This will make all physical attacks hurt like hell, but after throwing up the Maginot Line we shouldn't really have to worry about them. Or, at least not as much as Saintly Beam and Holy spells. Tortoise Shields and Reed Cloaks have very high Magic Defense, as do Force Shields. Stick to your Minerva Bustiers, as they halve damage done by Holy-elemental attacks. If your Magic Defense exceeds 200, it's pretty doable. Make sure to equip Zona Seeker as well; you'll want Shell on all characters throughout the match. Mighty Guard works just as well. Equip Prayer Beads as well, as while we've been preparing for the magical attacks it's the stray physical ones that may hand us defeat. If you have a Paladin's Shield, know that revival takes top priority. If you can combine the Soul of Thamasa and the Paladin's Shield with anybody that knows Arise, you're in business.

Take any Holy Lances off of Edgar and Mog, and take note that the random Holy spell from the Lightbringer may heal Holy Dragon (Redux). As soon as you enter the battle, cast Hastega, summon Golem and Fenrir, use Mighty Guard or summon Zona Seeker and cast Reflect on Holy Dragon (Redux). Ragers can be awesome, but only with either Magic Urn, a great healing asset that absorbs Holy-elemental attacks, or Io, that negates the element but uses Flare Star, which is quite damaging to Holy Elemental Evil II.

Here's the kicker. Never attack Holy Dragon (Redux) when you know he's free to Curaga the damage away afterwards, as likely you'll deal less damage than 6000. The less you attack the less you run the risk of Heartless Angel/Saintly Beam, which spells your demise in most cases, so make your hits count. The biggest ally you have in this battle is the Quick spell. Since the first attack you make in your Quick-induced double turn will never provoke counters, you can entirely avoid Holy Dragon (Redux) casting Curaga and using Heartless Angel. Another great help is the Force Field attack; once Strago or Gogo has managed to nullify the Holy element, Saintly Beam will never kill a character again. Note that (obviously) Curaga still works.

That's all the advice I can give you. Holy Dragon (Redux) is a nasty critter, but if you find your flow you should be able to take him down eventually. If you really can't get past the thing, set a 255 Defense Back Row Gau up with anything that nullifies or absorbs Holy-elemental attacks (preferably Io or Baalzephon) and go watch a movie. After the movie, you should've won. Expand Full Strategy

This is better. Humbaba (1) will start the battle with a physical attack, be it either Battle or !Solar Plexus. Then, he'll start using Thundara and Thundaga spells; finally, he can use 1000 Needles, which will likely be ill received, as 1000 damage is nothing to laugh at when it's coming for you. Humbaba (1)'s name, if you're wondering, comes from the old Babylonian heroic poem 'Gilgamesh'. He was a monster there. He got killed, too.

If you have a Celes/Sabin team, have Sabin use his dual Venom Claws for great damage. Don't bother going on the offensive with Celes due to her lower damage output; have her on Runic standby. Both should start the battle by calling up Golem's Earth Wall if they have him equipped. If Sabin is weak, you should break the Runic guard to cure him. Smack Humbaba (1) with Sabin's fists until he runs off.

If you have a solo Celes party, summon Golem to start, and fill all other turns by casting Bio (or, if lacking Bio, Blizzara) as quickly as you can. Fighting this guy with Celes only is a risk as no matter what you do, 1000 Needles is very dangerous and Humbaba (1) can kill you. If you're low at HP, sneak in an X-Potion or Elixir.

Any other team needs little guidance; you've obviously been around the world, collected at least four characters, and have better equipment than neccessary. Bio spells still come in handy. What else is there to say? Setzer can't spin Joker's Death here. The best Dance is Earth Blues, while the home dance, Wind Rhapsody is nigh worthless. Spritzer absorbs Thundara and Thundaga while dealing acceptable damage, although a Magna Roader (Purple) Rage with a Reflect Ring is better. Expand Full Strategy

This isn't all that difficult, so I'll make it kinda quick. You rush out of the house to find Humbaba (2) approaching. You do battle with him. The first round, he'll throw a Battle or !Solar Plexus attack. The next round consists of Thundara or Thundaga, and the third round is Thundara, 1000 Needles, or Battle. It loops from this point. As soon as it reaches 15360 Hit Points, it'll counter the next attack you throw at him with a double Humbaba Breath attack. Humbaba Breath is a Humbaba (2)-only attack that's exactly the same as Sneeze; it only looks different. Humbaba (2) targets two random characters and blows them away. They will also be removed from your party and can be found at the Falcon later. Here, the battle ends.

If you somehow managed to completely circumvent this event by doing more than 15360 damage in one turn, he'll use Humbaba Breath only once and die. This is odd, as the thing going on here plot-wise is that you can't really handle Humbaba (2). Sure, you pound on him for a while, then he disables two of your characters just like that.

On the offensive, Humbaba (2) is temporarily resistant to the Sleep status, so that doesn't work. Focus on your strongest attacks; Sabin's Phantom Rush, Mog and Edgar's Jump attacks, Setzer's GP Rain attack (his Fixed Dice are stronger if you have them), Cyan's technique, what have you. If you brought Gau to the scene, !Catscratch at decent level (30 and above) is the best bet versus Humbaba (2) for Gau. If this isn't an option for Gau, Tyrannosaur's Meteo is also decent, followed in usefulness by Marchosias's Aero and Trillium's Bio. Spritzer absorbs Thundara and Thundaga, which is a great defensive choice if you didn't bring Reflect Rings or a Runic user. Keep in the back of your head that Spritzer is undead, though. Destroyer isn't, but that really kills Gau's offense in the matter. Baalzephon absorbs the Lightning-elemental spells and has superior offense in Blizzaga, but chances are slim you chose to pick up Gogo before Terra. Your Mages and lesser-trained characters have the Bio spell to use, and if any character has learned Quake then it is pure magic here (don't forget to cast Float, obviously). Note that since this battle fades out rather than actually ends, Strago won't be able to learn any Lores (aka 1000 Needles) from this battle.

Anyway, despite your perfect set-up and the little amount of damage Humbaba (2) will be able to do against your party, you still get your face handed to you on an IKEA faux-silver platter according to the storyline. No fair. So, Terra comes to save you! Sensing that her friends are in danger or something cheesy like that, she rushes to the rescue, unleashing the Esper within herself on her way. Round two: Fight!

There you stand, with one or two less characters than what you picked beforehand but with a permanently Morphed Terra as a replacement. Basically, just continue to attack Humbaba (2) in the same fashion. If Terra knows the Bio spell, have her use it. Since Terra doesn't have a Reflect Ring and likely lacks the Minerva Bustier as well, it might be a good idea to cast Shell or Reflect on her in this battle, even though she already takes half as much damage from the attacks due to her Morphed state. The Sleep status ailment works now, so have one of your characters cast it if possible and focus on using magical attacks only. Before long, Humbaba (2) will fall. Interesting tidbit: This is actually the only battle in the entire game in which you can see the fallen Esper Terra sprite. In normal situations, Terra will automatically revert to human form when she is killed, but not so in this battle. Expand Full Strategy

Go ahead and gawk at those status vulnerabilities if you like. However, I can't say that the Ice Dragon is the weakest of the eight brethren; as you'll see in the future, Gold Dragon is about as silly, while Holy Dragon is even more pathetic. The Ice Dragon can be fairly easily screwed over though. Sadly for Ice Dragon, his element is easily absorbed, his amount of HP rather low, and his status vulnerabilities are downright horrible, but I'll try and treat Ice Dragon with the same amount of dignity I firmly believe everybody deserves. Except for Nelapa, obviously.

What does Ice Dragon do? He can use all three spells normally. If you damage him, he might counter with Battle. If he dies, he might use one final Avalanche attack before rolling over, but that's about it. Honestly, Ice Dragon might very well be the least interesting boss in the game.

How to stop him? There are tons of ways! It doesn't really matter who you bring here. All you need is the Berserk spell and the Esper that teaches it, Phantom. Set Berserk on Ice Dragon, summon Phantom, and sit back. Use Poison or Bio to set Poison on the freezing fiend, and even Haste if you like: it will only speed up the Poisoning, as you'll be immune to everything he does. If you brought Mog, make sure you don't execute a Dance; the only one that doesn't have an inherent chance to remove your Clear status is the Twilight Requiem, which is pretty much useless anyways (there's only a 3/16 chance you'll damage him once you get it working). Gau's (or Gogo's) Io-induced Flare Star attack will do 9999 damage every time it appears regardless of what level the caster is at, while Leaf Bunny or the Magna Roader (Purple) make Gau and Gogo absorb the Ice-elemental attacks without any equipment. If you brought Edgar, you can tease the Ice Dragon by trying to make Poison his weakness (if you get it, Poison will take off about 3200 damage a hit at the peak of its glory).

If you have the equipment and the status ailments to throw around, Ice Dragon is a joke. If you don't, his Absolute Zero and Avalanche attacks will hurt real bad. The Mute status effect will prevent it from being able to use Northern Cross and Absolute Zero. If, for some reason, you don't opt for Berserk/Phantom, try setting Slow, Poison, and Mute (a neat way of doing this is casting Reflect on the guy and have Strago/Gogo execute Reflect ???, but that's just novelty). Equip the easily obtained Ice Shields, Flame Shields, Snow Scarfs, and/or Minerva Bustier bustier and you won't feel a thing from Ice Dragon's attacks. Golem should be more than sufficient for Ice Dragon's physical attacks, but you can humiliate him further by summoning Fenrir in addition. Expand Full Strategy

What's cooler than bein' cool? Ice Cold, that's what. Ice Dragon (Redux) is the living, breathing proof of one of the few certainties in this life: the small ones always have to overcompensate. Once upon a time, the Ice Dragon was just a cool brother chilling in the snowfields of Narshe (puns intended). These days, he's pumped himself up to measure up to the expectations of his larger brethren in the most pathetic way possible: By means of his mirror images.

As soon as you enter the battle with Ice Dragon (Redux), he'll create three more of himself, presumably out of ice or something. They stack behind each other on-screen, so you'll only ever see a single one. All four are identical, but the more mirror images you destroy the more aggressive the remaining combatants get. When all four targets are still alive, they will attack with physical attacks, !Freeze (which sets Stop), and a rare Blizzaga spell. Do note that these physicals are rather nasty coming from a level 97 monster and that there will be four monsters attacking you, so this ain't no cakewalk. It'll counter with a physical Attack every time you hit one, meaning that when you use a multi-target attack you'll have to endure four separate counters. When you destroy a mirror image, it will use one final multi-target Ice-elemental attack against its killer (making it a very strong single-target multi-hit attack): either Northern Cross, Absolute Zero or Avalanche.

Once one mirror image has been destroyed, the Ice Dragons will start using (Umaro's) Snowstorm and Freezing Dust. Once a second mirror image is dust, the two Ice Dragons will stop goofing around and start attacking every round (as opposed to randomly doing nothing). In addition, they'll adapt their counter to include a possible !Freeze attack. Once the three mirror images have been destroyed, Ice Dragon (Redux) will start trying to multi-target Freeze you with Northern Cross and straight-up kill you with Absolute Zero and Avalanche attacks. My, oh my.

The prescription here is easy. If you don't absorb or negate Ice-elemental attacks, you're dead in the water. Snow Scarfs, Ice Shields and Minerva Bustiers all work. Flame Shields work too, but not as well. Either way, the only source of damage you should have to worry about is physical. Obviously, with all the magical attacks flying around the Invisible status is no help, so we'll have to go with substitutes. With the mass amounts of pounding Ice Dragon (Redux) will unleash, nothing is too much. Fenrir's Howling Moon will set Image on every character; Shadow and Gogo can self-apply the status with a Shadow Scroll once Howling Moon's effects have expired. Prayer Beads make sure that even before taking Evasion into account, 50% of the incoming physical attacks will be avoided. Should neither Fenrir nor Prayer Beads be good enough, Golem can stop physical attacks, but the Earthen Wall can't last forever, so if you have acces to Mighty Guard, apply it.

So, with our defenses in place, it's time to go on the offense. Even with our carefully planned strategy, it's likely that before the end is reached you will see physical attacks rain upon your head, so Reraise is a good idea to cast in the early stages of the fight. Since every multi-target attack from the party provokes up to four counters, stick to single-target attacks and take out one target at a time. Your main annoyance will likely be the Stop and Freeze statuses. As soon as a single mirror image has been blasted to bits, Freezing Dust will start appearing which is unblockable and ignores any kind of defense you could've possibly set up. You can't prevent it, but you can fight it! Hastega serves more than the obvious cause in this fight, as it means a faster dispelling of Stop of Freeze. Of course, Freeze is more easily removed by any Fire-elemental attacks. Ice and Shields and the Minerva Bustier deal with Fire as easily is Ice, so no problem there.

Firaga is the ultimate spell to cast, as it's single-target by default. Meltdown is awesome as well once you absorb/nullify Fire-elemental attacks, as it's wicked powerful and will heal any character lucky enough to absorb the element. It's multi-target, but the healing will offset the damage. Thrown Flametongues will deal massive amounts of damage as well. Ragers will like using Devil Fist (inherent Haste and the single-target Will o' the Wisp) or Io (Flare Star, which is very powerful dealing with a level 97 enemy weak to the element), assuming the Rager in question absorbs Ice-elemental attacks. If not, Twinscythe or Leaf Bunny will be defensive choices. Expand Full Strategy

The battle against Ifrit and, if you allow it, Shiva, is not your classic battle of good vs. evil. Nay, two scared, dying members of an abused race turn like a dog in a corner on whoever comes near them. Ifrit, the fire Esper, and Shiva, the ice Esper... eternal counterparts.

Ifrit is the fire Djinni. Next to a physical attack, he performs Fire and Fira spells and a deadly Blaze attack that ignores Reflect Rings and Runic blade alike. If provoked by three Magic spells from you, he will charge up for a massive Firaga attack, which you'll want to avoid at all costs if you're not fully protected from the spell by Reflect Rings, Celes' Runic, or Gau's possible inherent Fire-elemental absorption.

Shiva, the Ice Queen, will come at you with the more basic Blizzard and Blizzara spells, on occasion switching on performing a nasty Snowstorm attack which, while not as strong, penetrates Reflect Rings and Runic. If damaged she can be quick to retort with a Blizzard spell, and when hit three times with a Magic spell herself she will cast a Reflect spell on one of your characters, which will send any Blizzard and Blizzara spell she will cast on you back at her, healing her.

The trick here is to defeat one of them. If this happens, the Espers will realize they're not fighting someone coming for their death and they will sense Ramuh's soul near you. However, you can't just focus on one just like that, as you will only fight one at a time. Every time the magical, behind-the-scenes bit 3 reaches an amount of 5, they'll switch in for the other. The quickest approach may lie in taking Ifrit down before he can call on Shiva, but that may not always be possible. Bit 3 is incremented when the Esper is damaged by any means or the Magic skill is used on them (even if it doesn't actually damage them). Their Defenses are through the roof, much like most opponents you've faced so far. You know how to deal with that, although these magical beasts also take no damage from elemental magic unless it's their own element (which they'll absorb) or their weakness.

So, you can forget about your Magic skill. If you're sure you won't be able to pull off a Blitzkrieg against Ifrit anyway, you might want to start the battle off with a Slow spell if you have it, else it's a wasted turn as it increments bit 3. Drill/Chainsaw does great damage, especially when backed up with a Gigas Glove. Celes can cast a Blizzard spell (Runic, with frequent counter-spells, doesn't work as well as you'd think and is entirely redundant if you are fully protected by Reflect Rings). Sabin can Raging Fist Ifrit and perform Rising Phoenix when Shiva's around. Locke has no business being a thief in this battle, and might as well grab the Icebrand against Ifrit (he might pull off the random Blizzard spell) and the Flametongue against Shiva (or plain cast the Fire spell if he knows it). Cyan's Fang is the only thing he can do with some success, useless cretin that he is. Gau's irresponsible nature makes him a bit untrustworthy here. With other characters backing him up, the wisest course of action will probably be Zaghrem, as it is non-elemental, magical damage against both targets.

Along with the violence, summoning Kirin to aid you throughout the battle and casting a lot of Cure spells is a probably a great idea as you may not have Reflect Rings here. The Runic blade, more often than not, catches an enemy Blizzard while letting the Blizzara spell slip by. Expand Full Strategy

The battle against Inferno is a rather simple one, although it is frustrating that the main body and the blades don't share elemental properties. As you would expect, the main body is the one with all the fancy spells and with the most HP.

Rahu is the left blade, and it just attacks physically with Battle and !Rapier. Once you destroy it, it'll take 20 seconds to grow back. Ketu, the right blade, is a tad meaner than Rahu; next to Battle, it also uses Metal Cutter, the magical non-elemental attack that's as strong as a level 3 spell. Like Rahu, it grows back 20 seconds after you destroy it.

Inferno uses a barrage of magical and mostly elemental attacks, such as Thundara, Atomic Rays, Shockwave, and Gigavolt. When Inferno has both blades, it will use Delta Attack every 30 seconds. Delta Attack is still an unblockable attack that sets Petrify, so watch out for it. When Inferno has only one blade, it will only use Thundaga and Meteor spells (Meteor is especially nasty). The first time you destroy both blades, Inferno will use Magitek Barrier to set both Safe and Reflect on itself. Every time you damage Inferno, it may respond with an annoying !Sobat attack.

Your strategy is simple. You have no business caring about Rahu and Ketu whatsoever. Cast Slowga at the start of the battle and cast Stop spells on both blades to make sure they are out of the action for a while. Cast Hastega and summon Zona Seeker, or call out a Mighty Guard attack if Strago is around. Now, focus all your offensive prowess on the main body. Let's not bother with Meteor and Magitek Barrier.

The biggest weakness of Inferno is the Thundaga spell. It's an incredibly strong Lightning-elemental spell you can easily target to hurt Inferno exclusively (it'll heal Rahu if you multi-target it), and one or more of your characters should be able to cast it with considerable power. If Shadow and/or Gogo is around, you can have him/it chuck a few Thunder Blades at the infernal machine for large amounts of damage. Expand Full Strategy

Kaiser Dragon is the ultimate victory of Final Fantasy III (US!) junkies the world over. We knew this thing was lying dormant in the game's code for years. We figured out the highlights of this guy's speech when you could play but Tetris on handheld consoles. We invented this guy's HP loop trick, and all Square-Enix could do was copy it. But we're not smug. Well, not most of us, apparently.

There's basically two phases in this battle. First, you'll have to survive Kaiser's first four lives, during which he'll use attacks according to a particular weakness. By survive, that's all I mean: his HP will replenish with each of these four shifts, so any damage you inflict doesn't count. Second, once he's down to his last life and won't replenish his HP again - this is the part where you attack and stuff - you'll have to stay alive, deal sufficient damage and survive Kaiser Dragon's final Ultima spell.

At the start of the battle, Kaiser Dragon will use Barrier Change to assume an offensive skillset. Here's what he'll use; you can use the attacks listed to determine his weakness at the time:

When weak to Fire-elemental attacks:

Kaiser Dragon will randomly use Firaga, Meteor, Flare, Meltdown and will counter 66% of your attacks with Southern Cross on the entire party.

When weak to Ice-elemental attacks:

Kaiser Dragon will randomly use Blizzaga spells, Absolute Zero, Avalanche and Northern Cross, and will counter 66% of your attacks with Freezing Dust on a random party member.

When weak to Lightning-elemental attacks:

Kaiser Dragon will randomly use Thundaga, Plasma or Gigavolt, and will counter 66% of your attacks with Wave Cannon on the entire party.

When weak to Poison-elemental attacks:

Kaiser Dragon will use a combo of Scintillation, Venomist and a Doom attack on its first turn, use a combo of Lullaby, Crypt Dust and Disaster on the second turn and will use Cloudy Heaven on its third turn. It will counter 66% of your attacks with a Bio spell on a random party member.

When weak to Wind-elemental attacks:

Kaiser Dragon will randomly use physical attacks, Tornado spells, Aero and Cyclonic, and will counter 66% of your attacks with a Wind Slash attack.

When weak to Holy-elemental attacks:

The first time Kaiser Dragon gets a Holy shift, he'll cast Reflect on a single character and follow with the Reflect ??? attack. Its second turn will be used to cast Protect, Shell and (useless due to Slow immunity) Haste. When Kaiser Dragon has done these things earlier, he'll just attack with physical attacks, Holy spells and the Lv. ? Holy attack. Kaiser Dragon will counter 66% of your attacks with a Hyperdrive attack on a random party member.

When weak to Earth-elemental attacks:

Kaiser Dragon will attack ferociously with combinations of physical attacks, every third turn using !Last Breath twice, and will counter 66% of your attacks with a Quake spell.

When weak to Water-elemental attacks:

Kaiser Dragon will randomly use Aqua Breath, Tsunami, Flash Rain and El Niño in quick succession, and will counter 66% of your attacks with an Acid Rain attack on a single character.

Some elemental skillsets are more dangerous than others. The Fire-elemental one is nasty because Meteor and Flare are both non-elemental and barrier-piercing; coming from Kaiser Dragon's bloated Magic stat they'll probably kill whatever they hit, so Magic Evasion is your only salvation. Kaiser Dragon's Ice-elemental shift is nasty because Freezing Dust is such a pain; you have no business attacking at this point though, so you shouldn't worry. Quake kills you if you're not floating, doing about 6000 damage to character without elemental affinities for it. Kaiser Dragon's Poison-elemental shift is the worst; if he manages to pull off Cloudy Heaven, your battle is over since, though you need Ribbons equipped, Ribbons will make it so that you can't cure the Zombie status (in this game, immunities work both ways; if you have it despite being immune to it, it's unremovable).

Since Kaiser Dragon's attack pattern depends on its weakness in this phase, you can actually change its attack pattern with the Debilitator Tool. The game checks the elemental weaknesses in a certain order, and the first weakness it finds will be the one which defines Kaiser Dragon's attack type. Look at the elemental-based attack pattern table above; this is the order in which the game checks for elemental weakness. This means that the Fire element is the most dominant one – if Kaiser Dragon's Barrier Change has set a Fire weakness, it can't be changed no matter what weakness the Debilitator sets. On the other hand, Earth is a relatively submissive one, meaning that you have a large chance of changing it. There's hardly ever a guarantee, but the Debilitator might be able to change Kaiser Dragon's code of conduct if you smell Cloudy Heaven approaching, for instance.

Thunder Shields are a blessing. In the elemental shift phase, it'll protect you against all Lightning-elemental attacks and Aqua Breath, and will halve damage done by Fire- and Ice-elemental ones. Afterwards, Lightning Shields will help you against Meltdown spells Kaiser Dragon may cast. Ribbons are also an absolute necessity; without them, Kaiser Dragon's Poison-elemental shift will spell your doom and every Mind Blast attack it's going to regularly use will just murder you. Too bad for set-ups that require both Relic slots (such as successful Dragoons); they have to go in favor of a Ribbon.

Kaiser Dragon's first phase is relatively simple. You'll need to see Kaiser Dragon use Barrier Change five times before you can attack. Any damage you inflict in this first phase won't actually register in its fifth and meaningful life (all your damage will be reset) and it'll only get you nasty counterattacks. So far so good. If a character falls (likely due to Flare, Meteor, Doom or a particularly strong elemental attack on a character not protected from it), revive. Multi-targeted Shell is very important to absorb the multi-target attacks Kaiser Dragon possesses.

Kaiser Dragon's last and true life, after its fifth elemental shift, is simple but brutal. Every 15 ATB intervals, regardless of its normal AI script, it'll have a 2/3 chance of using Heartless Angel, possibly followed by a 1/3 Mind Blast attack. This is where your Ribbons kick in. If you've got Ribbons (or White Capes) equipped, the attack will fail. If you don't, you've lost your battle right there, as you don't have the time to heal.

Kaiser Dragon's normal AI script includes Meltdown spells, Quake spells, Hyperdrive attacks, relatively weak multi-target attacks such as Gale Cut, Flash Rain and Absolute Zero and physical attacks including !Last Breath. If you target Kaiser Dragon with anything, it may use !Last Breath or Revenge Blast as a counter-attack.

If you're wrapped in Thunder Shields, Meltdown should only bother you if the attack also heals Kaiser Dragon (if so: too bad). The nastiness stems from the incredibly fast-paced Kaiser Dragon, Hyperdrive attacks which will kill a target, Revenge Blast attacks which will kill a target and the continuous usage of Heartless Angel, which you need to cure since anytime a Flash Rain or Absolute Zero attack may come around the corner.

You will need Reraise for this fight. It's extremely difficult to track Kaiser Dragon's HP, especially since Libra will provoke counter-attacks. Always value revival over healing and healing over offense, since Kaiser's nastiest attacks are counter-attacks and the one big threat in its random AI script is only single-target. I've found that since you die so often due to Revenge Blast and Hyperdrive, applying things such as Mighty Guard and Hastega are often pointless, as you'll only see it quickly removed in most cases.

Your offense may be a problem, since Kaiser Dragon will only have a single randomly decided weakness when things get serious, and will nullify or absorb the other seven. You can use Libra to check its current weakness; there's a good chance your mages will be able to nail it even when lacking the likes of Flare and Ultima. Kaiser Dragon has above-average Defense and Magic Defense, so barrier-piercing attacks work the best. Particularly damaging combinations are Locke with the Valiant Knife/Master's Scroll and Setzer with Fixed Dice/Master's Scroll, as both will ignore defenses.

In the end, the fight versus Kaiser Dragon is a bit of a luck fight. Either way, you'll need to be tightly prepared with Ribbons, Thunder Shields, and all of the correct spells. But beyond that, if Kaiser Dragon decided to use Cloudy Heaven, or if Meteor connects on the entire party, or if you get the wrong counter at the wrong time, you're screwed. So even though specific potential scenarios might be nigh impossible, it's an entirely doable battle on the whole. Expand Full Strategy

Kefka is vulnerable to Stop, so have Gau use the Alacran and/or Acrophies Rages for best results. Always have Runic in place, as he knows some very powerful spells that can one-hit KO your characters when focused in a single-target blast, regardless of row. Have your other character(s) give it their best shot. Terra's Fire cannot be used with Runic in place so she should focus on her other powers; she can cast Magic when Celes isn't on Runic stand-by or simply wield the Rune Blade to some very nice result. Locke should Attack, Edgar should unload his Auto Crossbow, Sabin relies on good old Aura Cannon, Cyan can use Fang or his fourth Bushido, Flurry, if he has access to it, and that's about it. The battle is slightly anti-climactic when you consider the implications of it, but you'll pull through. Expand Full Strategy

So how does the final boss of Final Fantasy VI do battle? He'll start the battle with that demented little speech of his. Characters that were in the air when you defeated the third tier could land from their attacks before he starts it: That's kinda humorous. His first attack is Heartless Angel, which will reduce all of your characters' HP to 1. After that, it's all about physicals, !Havoc Wing, level 3 spells, and that most annoying of attacks, Trine. !Havoc Wing is his most popular and, in most instances, most powerful attack Kefka will perform.

As soon as Kefka hits 32640 HP, he will become quite a bit meaner. Calling a head into existence, he'll say "The end draws near..." and the screen will start to shake. The next turn, he'll execute the Forsaken attack. Forsaken is a multi-target magical non-elemental attack that, in terms of pure power, is the strongest attack in the game. It lacks the barrier-piercing ability, however, so sufficient Magic Defense should ensure that your characters all survive a single Forsaken slaughter. After this is completed, Kefka will use two attacks in two turns: !Havoc Wing, Trine, or Revenger. Revenger is also a new attack: it's like a multi-target Dispel that only removes positive status ailments. It removes Clear, Image, Regen, Haste, Shell, Safe, Reflect, Life 3, and Float. After those two turns, Kefka will once again start to charge up for Forsaken.

2560 HP later (at 30080 HP), Kefka will start employing a horrible omni-counter: For every attack directed at him, he may counter with either Battle or Hyperdrive. Hyperdrive is an extremely strong attack that's both unblockable and barrier-piercing, so any character struck by it is likely to die unless he or she was really power-leveled. At 10240 HP, this Hyperdrive counter even changes into an Ultima spell, which is obviously even worse, as it's fairly stronger than Hyperdrive, though the power is cut since it targets every character. Keep in mind that Ultima may be absorbed by a Runic blade. The Hyperdrive and Ultima counters are not employed when Kefka is charging for Forsaken. This is vital information, as, quite frankly, Kefka's counters are what make him a mean opponent. The last 'stage' of Kefka's battle tactic is when he hits 7680 HP, which is when he just charges up for Forsaken, uses it, cast a Meteor spell, and charges up for Forsaken again. Meteor is especially troublesome since it cannot be absorbed by a Runic blade. Kefka has a lot of strong spells that will fly past all your fancy elemental protection. The trick here is to keep reviving characters that die (I find this is mostly due to !Havoc Wing attacks) and try to avoid being hit by Hyperdrive and Ultima as much as possible. If you can employ the Runic skill, both attacks are vulnerable to its powers, so take advantage of that. If not, I suggest you only attack when Kefka is charging for Forsaken.

Locke should definitely try to Steal the Megalixir Kefka possesses; it's a great way to heal up after a Heartless Angel attack. Mog should Jump as usual; he's a real asset in this battle since, in addition to doing a lot of damage, his 255 Defense means that he will be practically immune to !Havoc Wing. The same goes for Gau. The best Rages for him are the pure offensive ones. Stray Cat, possibly paired with a Sniper or Man-Eater, will really hurt Kefka. Edgar should do nothing but Jump. If you've taken Cyan up there, try to reach Tempest. Quick is a real asset to Cyan in this battle, as it is in all. For Setzer, it's Fixed Dice, which should be obvious. Shadow should first empty your stash of Impartisans. Other weapons that are more powerful than Pinwheels/Fuma Shurikens that you are unlikely to have equipped include Gladius, Kagenui, Excalibur, Holy Lance, Mutsunokami, Murakumo, Healing Rod, and Wing Edge. Strago should use Grand Delta. Sabin and Gogo should use Phantom Rush. If Terra is Morphed, she should definitely stick to level 3 spells, but if she's not, Flare is the superior option. Relm should just use Flare or level 3 spells too. If Celes is around, I suggest keeping her on Runic stand-by, as it's really awesome in this battle. If Runic conflicts too much with your other characters' offensive plans, it should be avoided, obviously, so take a look at your options and decide what's best.

Kefka isn't extremely tough; he can just catch you off-guard with some of his more powerful attacks. So long as you make sure that doesn't happen, he's an entirely beatable final boss. If your characters are all decked out with Quick spells, a Soul of Thamasa here, a Master's Scroll there, and Ultima everywhere, the final battle with Kefka will feel like a walk in the park. Expand Full Strategy