Final Fantasy VI Bosses

Skull Drgn just isn't very assuming. It's a generally subpar dragon as-is, once you ignore the fact it has no status vulnerabilities to exploit, but, at the very end of the game, your party is a force to be reckoned with. It's kind of ridiculous and sad all at the same time.

Battle, Condemned, Elf Fire, and Specter all show up on the boss' first three turns, Condemned easily being the most popular one. Every fourth turn, Skull Drgn may use Disaster, which is clearly its most crippling attack. It will be randomly single or multi-targeted by the semi-Undead dragon, and it sets Dark, Imp, Condemned, Mute, Muddle, and, oddly enough, the Float status. One interesting little tidbit about the Specter move is that the graphic designers never expected any monster to use it, so, instead of a graphic of the caster (Skull Drgn in this case), you'll see a half-baked sprite of your leading party member instead. Every damaging attack it takes may be countered by Battle.

Throw on Ribbons where possible. You shouldn't need any special protection for Elf Fire, as it's about as powerful as Fire 2, but you can equip Flame Shields, Ice Shields, Minervas, or Rage Rings to absorb or nullify the attack. On the offensive front, just do whatever you have learned works. Since it's possible you have Ragnarok's Metamorph at your disposal, you can try that for a quick win. Fire 3 spells are extremely powerful (more so than the Pearl spell). Ragers can Rage Srbehemoth to cast Fire 3 and become immune to Condemned (the eventual death trigger will heal him), and the Imp, Mute, and Confuse statuses that Disaster may set (the remaining Dark and Float statuses that will be set are nothing to worry about for obvious reasons). Gogo should Rage like Gau. If you bought Flame Sabres for Shadow, know that they are superior to other weapons Shadow can throw. Expand Full Strategy

Girl just isn't that interesting. Pearl Wind can show up at any turn, and !Calmness may make a cameo appearance too. If you dare to kill off Sleep before Girl, Girl will respond by casting Life 2 on Sleep, reviving it. Note that Sleep won't revive back to its max HP, but to 9999 HP instead, which is good news for us.

Girl is just there to keep Sleep around, which is bad enough for you, as Sleep is a particularly nasty enemy to have around. Every odd turn, Sleep may cast either W Wind or Merton, and, on every even turn, Sleep will either use Battle or Condemned. Since this tends to be a long battle, Condemned quickly becomes a burden. Sleep really goes for the kill once it dips below 10240 HP, though. Once you've brought this disaster on yourself, Sleep will use Meteo. Always. Not only this, but it will also gain access to an omni-counter: 33% Meteo, 33% nothing, and 33% Train, a new attack. Train is unblockable and sets Dark and Mute, which is pretty bad as unless your characters are White Cape-, Ribbon-, or Rage-protected. Once Sleep is killed, it'll use at least one and possibly two !Calmness attacks to set Death on a character, which is, again, pretty bad, since characters killed this way cannot be revived right after and disappear from your team.

The first priority of this battle is Golem or Fenrir. As soon as this is in place, Girl needs to go down. It is vital you have non-elemental and targetable attacks to use for this purpose. Edgar's Drill Tool, Shadow's Ninja Stars, Falchions, Tack Stars or Imp Halberds, Fixed Dice, Flare spells, and Ragnarok or Illumina swings are all grand. Obviously, nothing is stopping you from hurting Sleep in the meantime, so GrandTrain and Ultima aren't out of the question either. Taking down Girl can be quite tedious, as she is constantly healed by both her own Pearl Wind attacks and Sleep's Merton spells. If you brought Locke or Gogo with a Steal command, you might try to Steal Girl's Ragnarok sword; if one of your characters is wielding an Enhancer, replace it.

Once Girl has been killed, you just need to rough it out with Sleep. Keep yourselves healed and always recover from Train right away. You just need to bridge the dangerous gap between Sleep having 10240 HP and Sleep having 0 HP, as in this window Sleep is simply strong enough to kill you whenever his AI script gives him the chance. The best route in the end is to go all-out on the offensive and give Sleep as little time as possible to use Meteo. When Sleep dies, it'll use either one or two !Calmness attacks. This is why we kept Golem and/or Fenrir around for all this time: Avoiding the gruesome fate of a successful !Calmness attack. Having circumvented this dirty last trick, it's time to rise even further up in the Heavens and face the Fallen One himself. Expand Full Strategy

Note that the game data says that this guy gives you a BehemothSuit 100% of the time, which is how it is supposed to be. However, they overlooked something with the data concerning the switch between the two SrBehemoth 1s, so the items from the first SrBehemoth 1 get grabbed from some random data location. In the US SNES versions, this means you either get a Jewel Ring or a Thunder Blade.

The blue SrBehemoth 1, despite his appearance, is almost a pure spell caster. He'll normally attack with Ice 2, Ice 3, and Pearl spells which all hit with considerable force. If he hits the 10240 Hit Point mark, he'll get more Ice 3 spells than before and throw Meteo in the mix, which hurts a bundle (around 1000 on every character, pretty much the same force Intangir used to throw Meteo attacks on you).

If a character of yours is under the influence of Reflect, he'll target the character and use !Evil Claw to remove the Reflect status (the message "Effect of "Rflect" vanished" will appear) and then return to his normal AI script. If multiple characters are under the influence of Reflect, he'll go down from character #1 to character #4, alternating between !Evil Claw turns and normal AI script turns. Note that characters with Wall Rings still yield the "Effect of "Rflect" vanished" notion yet keep the status. If SrBehemoth 1 is turned into an Imp, it'll respond by changing its AI Script. The boss will now receive auto-criticals from being turned into an Imp and will proceed to use two Battle attacks every turn for three turns, after which it'll cast the Imp spell to try and remove the Imp status. It won't try to do this if it has the Reflect status at the moment, though.

SrBehemoth 1, if hit by the Pearl spell, will counter with Meteo. Sadly, due to a bug, this overrides the other normal counter (that of having a 33% chance at countering every other damaging attack with battle), so the next time you attack, the party will also be countered with a Meteo attack. In other words, the Pearl spell eventually sends two extra Meteo attacks down your throat, so don't do it. The Orog and White Drgn Rages cast Pearl; ignore them.

What to do? The best way to deal with the blue SrBehemoth 1 is a combination of Imp and Stop. With this done, give it everything you have. Cast Haste 2 to speed up the process. Summoning Fenrir or Golem helps protect against stray physicals from the opposing side. Fire 2 and Fire 3 really hurt him. Gau's Scrapper Rage gives Gau inherent Haste and makes him use Elf Fire; it's great for this battle. If you don't have access to either the Imp or Stop status ailments, Celes's Runic can really help if you brought her. Bum Rush, Fixed Dice, Dragon Horn Jumps - you know what works. Expand Full Strategy

This SrBehemoth 2 is a little simpler. He'll just use Battle, !Hypno Gas, the Doom spell, or Meteo. He won't use Doom until the second turn, and he won't use Meteo until the third (after which he resets back). If he successfully uses !Hypno Gas on a person, he'll immediately target that person with four consecutive Battle attacks (of which the first one is sure to land). That's about it.

The undead SrBehemoth 2's one weakness is the instant death attack. It can be killed by X-Zone, Snare, and the Air Anchor Tool, and it is hurt by Slash, Demi, etc. Since SrBehemoth 2's first turn isn't dangerous and he has no threatening counters, the Air Anchor really is a great option to use. The Dusk Requiem from Mog houses both Cave In and Snare which both truly cripple the massive menace. Since SrBehemoth 2 is Undead and lacks Instant Death protection anyway, the Life spell is a glorious option; the Life spell also works on an Undead with Instant Death protection, mind you, but here it feels less like taking advantage of the system. Expand Full Strategy

Storm Drgn is the toughest dragon out of the bunch, and the specific scourge of the average "Low-Level Game" players (those who intentionally keep their levels low for a challenge) because one of Storm Drgn's attacks is the non-elemental, unblockable Rage attack, which you can't prevent Storm Drgn from using. Luckily, you probably have at least one Minerva wearer in your party at this point, and, since you just found a Thunder Shield that can be equipped on any given party member (except for Umaro, the useless piece of muscle that he is), you should have at least two party members capable of nullifying the Wind element.

Storm Drgn can use three attacks normally: Battle, Wind Slash, and Rage. Rage and Wind Slash are about alike in power and they're both unblockable. Rage, however, is non-elemental, whereas Wind Slash is Wind-elemental. As soon as Storm Drgn dives beneath 15360 Hit Points, he'll drop Wind Slash and Rage in favor of more physicals (he'll start using !Wing Saber here as well) - Aero and Cyclonic. Aero is about 1.2 times as powerful as Wind Slash, but 2.4 times as powerful when used on a single target (which will only happen if all the other characters are Wounded or in the air due to a Jump attack). Cyclonic, as you know from Wyvern and Wirey Dragon, is a multi-target percentage-based attack that will remove 93.75% of the targets current HP. Memento Rings and Safety Bits block the effects of Cyclonic, as do Rages with the Instant-Death Protection property.

At the start, summon Golem or Fenrir to protect against the physical attacks Storm Drgn uses. Zoneseek's Wall really helps against Wind Slash and Rage, but you should invest in individual Shell castings if you don't have Zoneseek ready. Next, you'll want to use Rasp a few times to take care of Storm Drgn's MP; when it's gone (you can check with Scan, or keep track with a calculator), Storm Drgn won't be able to cast Aero or Cyclonic in its 'dangerous' (second) phase. If one of your party members has learned the Haste 2 spell from Palidor, make use of it, by all means.

That said and done, just start beating him! Terra's Morph can help boost the damage of her spells (and halve the damage done to her by the magical spells, even though only Rage should ever damage Terra if you've played your cards right). Since Storm Drgn is weak against the Lightning-element, Bolt 2, Tri-Dazer, and Bolt 3 all hurt very nicely. Storm Drgn is rather strong and not to be taken lightly, especially since he won't succumb to your status ailment spells, but with the proper set-up, you shouldn't have a lot of problems. Expand Full Strategy

What's the point of this battle? There are four Tentacles. It gets rather confusing because each Tentacle has its own set of status immunities and elemental properties. But there is one thing that all Tentacles have in common; the attacks they perform, of which the most noticeable is the Seize, the attack both !Seize and Entwine are centered around.

What does Seize do? Seize seizes a character and renders it completely helpless. During a period of about 30 seconds, the Tentacle that used Seize holds the character and gradually drains his or her HP. It's a weird little formula. It's non-elemental and barrier-piercing and has a 5/8 chance of dealing about 60 HP of damage at each interval (which means that damage is taken less regularly if the Tentacle is slowed and more often if Hasted).

Tentacles just use their normal attacks: Battle, !Seize to set Slow, Entwine as a multi-target means of setting Slow, Poison and Bio. If they're damaged, they have a 33% chance of countering with Battle. However, whenever a character is Slowed, a Tentacle will always use the Seize attack and will grab the character from which it drains HP. The Tentacle that has grasped a character doesn't perform attacks, and the character that is under a Seize cannot act. This lasts for about 30 seconds, at which point the Tentacle will use Discard to remove all the effects of Seize. Slow was removed when the Seize attack was used.

This is why Running Shoes are so nice: with inherent Haste, both !Seize and Entwine will never work and thus Celes and Sabin will never be Seized during the battle.

Start the battle off by summoning one or both of your physical protection Espers, Fenrir and/or Golem; both protect against Battle and, more importantly, !Seize. Employ Edgar's Bio Blaster to Poison up to three of the Tentacles. If one of your characters has Siren equipped, send her out to stop the Poison and Bio spells used by two of the Tentacles. Now that the multi-target offenses and defenses have been cast, it's time to kill off one Tentacle at a time.

Cast Doom on the bottom-left Tentacle to dispatch it instantly. Obviously, the newly acquired X-Zone also works, but Doom's Hit Rate is superior and the Doom spell is more MP-efficient.

If you summoned Siren, the most dangerous Tentacle right now is the top-left Tentacle, as that's the only Tentacle capable of casting Poison and Bio. Cast Stop if you have it, and focus Edgar's Drill and Sabin and Celes's level 2 spells on it until it dies. If you didn't summon Siren, you should cast the Mute spell on both the bottom-right and top-right Tentacles to achieve the same effect. If this isn't an option, it's best to kill the most fragile Tentacle first: the bottom-right Tentacle. Drill and Ice 2 will kill it very quickly.

From this point, the remaining Tentacles are left to your imagination. Don't bother using Antdot when a character is Poisoned; the battle won't take that long, so sticking to Cure 2 spells to keep your HP up will suffice. If Sabin knows Air Blade, use it exclusively. Have Edgar focus on his Drill attacks, and keep Celes around to whip out a level 2 spell that won't be absorbed whenever possible (the lower left Tentacle is the only one that absorbs Ice 2; once you've used Doom or X-Zone to dispatch it, this spell is your best elemental option).

The fight against the Tentacles can be a pain, but only if you don't prepare properly. You'll pull through. Expand Full Strategy

Tritoch is attacking you. That's not very nice of him. Luckily, he has very little to damage you with. Ice 3 is his only offensive spell, and as most of your party is easily covered in Flame Shields, Ice Shields, or the Minerva bustier, the spell will do nothing to them. If you lack the above equipment for all characters, it's worthy of notice that the Thunder Shields and Force Shields both halve damage done by Ice-elemental attacks (dont't forget that the Force Shield also grants the wearer inherent Shell, reducing damage done by the Ice 3 spell by another 33%).

What Tritoch does is all very basic. The Esper attacks normally with the above three spells, although he hardly ever uses Cold Dust just like that. Whenever Tritoch is hit by a Fire-elemental attack, it has a one-third chance of casting Rasp. Also, whenever Tritoch is hit by either SwdTech, Tools, Blitz, Lore, Sketch, or Rage, it has a one-third chance of casting Cold Dust to freeze the attacker.

The strategy the game wants you to follow is clear. Fire-elemental Magic is the key. You will mainly be casting Fire 2 here. Sabin's Fire Dance deals weaker damage to a single target and may incite a Cold Dust attack, but if Sabin lacks Fire 2, it will have to serve as a suitable backup. If you brought Gau, the Toe Cutter Rage (Shrapnel) works great because it inherently absorbs Ice 3. A Rage like Scrapper is also great, providing you can combine it with an Ice Shield or Snow Muffler on the Rager. The Io Rage is even better as it will consistently deal 9920 damage every time Gau uses Flare Star and inherently nullifies Ice-elemental attacks, but it's unlikely you have it at this point.

There's little strategy involved beyond this, as the battle is quite easy. If you somehow didn't bring any equipment with elemental properties, Zoneseek can help you out there. Cast Haste on the entire party (now with the Haste 2 spell, brought to you by Palidor) can shorten the time a character is Frozen; heck, if that's taking too long as well feel free to just cast a Fire spell on the afflicted and watch him turn back to normal. Celes' Runic can absorb the Ice 3 and Rasp spells; it won't be necessary if you prepared enough, but if you haven't it's a great idea. Expand Full Strategy

TunnelArmr is more or less a scripted battle; it forces you to use Celes as a Runic user while Locke should Attack, Attack, Attack!

TunnelArmr is boring. He uses Attack, !Drill, Fire, Bolt, and Poison to hurt you. If he hits 384 HP, he'll swap the possibility of casting Poison for the ability to fire off Tek Lasers. If he's been damaged, he'll sometimes counter with Attack.

Have Celes under continual Runic during this fight. If your enemy casts a spell, have her use it as soon as possible. If the enemy uses a physical attack, just have Celes wait; there'll be a magical attack around the corner. Locke should try to steal something as long as TunnelArmr still has anything. If you steal a second Air Lancet, and Locke still has a Genji Glove with a Guardian equipped, you can use the second Air Lancet by equipping it mid-battle. Have Locke use a Potion if either character gets low on HP; the strongest attack he'll be able to successfully use is !Drill, which hits for slightly over 100 HP worth of damage on a Genji Glove wearing, Front Row Locke. Otherwise, he should simply attack. Expand Full Strategy

Ultros 4 is a tough octopod whose Tentacle attack can be a huge pain if you're playing the game without over leveling. Everybody must be in the Back Row. If you are a moron and played with any of your characters in the Front Row, fix that. He'll start by delivering his intro speech and using an Attack. Then, if 10 seconds have passed (and they will have), he'll say "Oh, that one's a tasty morsel! I'd love to get my tentacles around her... *sluuuuuurp*!" and target Terra with a single-target Tentacle attack. If at his next turn another 10 seconds have passed, he'll say "Muscle heads? Hate 'em!" target Sabin with a single-target Tentacle attack and use a multi-target Tentacle attack on his next turn, followed by either Attack, !Ink or a single-target Tentacle in that very same turn; if not, he'll spread the happiness with a multi-target Tentacle/follow up with Attack/!Ink/ single-target Tentacle, wait a turn, and then hate on Sabin for his body. His next turn is devoted to an Attack and either an Attack, !Ink or single-target or multi-target Tentacle attack in the same turn.

Then, he'll say "Your ugly mug gives me the creeps!" and use a single-target Tentacle attack on Banon, from where he'll start at his first multi-target Tentacle-Attack/!Ink/single-target Tentacle turn again. Also, every time he is targeted by a Fire-elemental attack, which at this stage is either a Fire spell from Terra or Sabin's Fire Dance Blitz, he will say "Yeeeouch! Seafood soup is NOT on the menu!" and counter with an !Ink attack... yeah, he's a talkative guy.

Beating Ultros 4 down is relatively simple if you pay close attention to his AI script. Have at the very least Terra and Banon in the Back Row using their Defend skill to reduce the power of Tentacle when you know they'll be targeted by it. Have Banon use Pray at all times, as his Attack is nothing to consider seriously (even though he possesses a snazzy weapon that you won't get on other characters for a long, long time). For damage output, have Terra use her Fire spells, Edgar fire off arrows with the Autocrossbow, and Sabin use Aurabolt. If he knows Fire Dance at this point, it's stronger than Aurabolt, but if you're that highly leveled you probably don't need to worry much in the first place. Expand Full Strategy