Final Fantasy VI Bosses

The Red Dragon is red and lives in a volcano. It may shock you to discover he's a Fire dragon! You'll be laughing by now, I assume; not only have you already spotted his weakness to the Confuse status, but the Fire element is the one most easily protected against. The Red Jacket, Ice Shield, Minerva Bustier, and Blizzard Orb all nullify it, the Flame Shield and Berserker Ring absorb it, and, if those resources aren't enough, the Force Shield, Thunder Shield, Cat-Ear Hood, Snow Scarf, and Force Armor all halve damage done by the element. Even though the Red Dragon tries to counter this by employing Flare spells and the Lv. 4 Flare attack, he's still fairly easy.

Every 40 seconds, Red Dragon will use a particularly powerful attack; either S. Cross, Flare Star, or Lv. 4 Flare. Flare Star still deals Fire-elemental damage based on your level, S. Cross is just a strong multi-target Fire-elemental attack and Lv. 4 Flare deals non-elemental, barrier-piercing damage to every character whose level is divisible by 4.

Normally, Red Dragon switches between Fira (66%) and Fire Ball (33%). When he reaches 10240 HP (after having absorbed 19760 HP damage), he'll switch to Firaga (66%) or a Flare spell (33%). All these spells (with the exception of Fire Ball) can be Reflected, but that may not be the wisest action to take; any character under the influence of Reflect will be targeted every second turn by !Eraser (from top character to bottom character), just like the living and his !Devil Claw attack. !Eraser removes the Reflect status, though not when the status is inherent (through Reflect Rings or Rage). Like most bosses, the Red Dragon has a 33% Battle counter to every damaging attack he takes.

What to do? He has a fairly low amount of MP, and all his dangerous attacks need MP to function. In his less dangerous phase, throw up your barriers (summon Fenrir and/or Golem, Kirin's Life Guard is useful as always, Hastega, Mighty Guard, you name it). When you're done, start casting Rasp! You can check if he's out of MP with Libra if you can't keep track yourself. You should have him crippled before his first 40-second attack comes around. Now that Red Dragon is nothing but a big lizard of fire, attack him with all the standard repertoire. It doesn't really matter, as he's pretty much done by now, but the most effective attacks tend to be Ice-elemental ones: the Blizzaga spell, thrown Icebrand swords (or Water Scrolls), the usual Phantom Rush and Dragon Horn Jump attacks, whatever works. Note that Tri-Disaster is absorbed, though. You can toy around with Confuse if you want, but it's not necessary. Expand Full Strategy

What draconic misdeeds Red Dragon (Redux) performed to deserve being confined even within the walls of the Dragon's Den is a mystery, especially since the rampaging Earth Dragon Redux and the vicousvicious little Ice Dragon (Redux) were both free to wander up and down its derelict halls. At any rate, its fiery temper, moral degeneration and the ability to set things aflame with its mere gaze - all common stereotypes associated with redheads - will provide you with a formidable foe.

The thing about Red Dragon (Redux) is that it can't be killed. By giving up its lifeforce it effectively becomes immune to all damage done by you, including elemental attacks it is weak against such as Blizzaga. Attacks that normally dealt a fixed amount of damage such as Traveler or 1000 Needles will result in 0 damage. Ultima, physical attacks of any kind, magical attacks of any kind; Red Dragon (Redux) possesses the same invincibility as the WoB Guardian did, and after 12 years of trying, we have yet to find a way to damage the thing. It can't be done.

However, Red Dragon (Redux) is using it's its very lifeforce to gain this expert defense, so this isn't a fight of trading blows, it's an attempt to stay alive among the attacks of Red Dragon (Redux). Of course, the Joker's Death attack produced by the Slot command can kill this thing, but it'll be a cold day in Ethiopia when I'll tell you lot to start counting on Joker's Death.

Yeah, anyway. Red Dragon's arsenal is pretty much what you'd expect. The first turn he'll use three attacks, all of which can be either a normal physical attack, the instant-kill attack !Red Fang or a strong magical attack, either Firaga, Flare or Meltdown. The second turn features eight physical attacks. The third turn both Blaze and Flare Star. Loop from there. He'll keep this up, without counterattacks of any kind until he dies. When he dies he'll cast two final spells; an Ultima spell and a Flare spell. Red Dragon (Redux) will deal after 100 Doom timer units, which is either just before or after the third time Red Dragon (Redux) uses his eight-hit physical barrage. The Ultima spell will deal around 5000 damage to all characters, so you'll likely perish on the scene.

We'll need to focus on staying alive through the fight and somehow circumventing dying due to his final Ultima. The Maginot Line (Golem/Fenrir/Prayer Beads/possible Mighty Guard combo) is more than competent in dealing with the physical attacks and !Red Fang. Any magical attack is easily absorbed by a Fire Shield or negated with an Ice Shield or Red Jacket. Raging any Rage that absorbs Fire-elemental attacks works since damage output isn't an issue: creatures such as Lich, Bomb and Grenade will heal Red Dragon (Redux) but will have the Rager absorbing anything but Flare, which is too rare to use Reflect Rings for.

The best way to deal with the final Ultima depends on the characters present. If one or more characters know Reraise, it's clearly the safest route to victory. You can try to Jump to safety, but you'll have to make sure you know when Red Dragon (Redux) uses Ultima, something which you can't predict as accurately as you might like. Runic can just be applied after you're sure Red Dragon (Redux) just finished its first turn for the third time; if you have no characters casting spells, Runic will absorb Ultima and only a single character will die from the Flare spell. Expand Full Strategy

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

Lady is just there to keep Rest around, which is bad enough for you, as Rest is a particularly nasty enemy to have around. Every odd turn, Rest may cast either Tornado or Meltdown, and, on every even turn, Rest will either use Battle or Doom. Since this tends to be a long battle, Doom quickly becomes a burden. Rest really goes for the kill once it dips below 10240 HP, though. Once you've brought this disaster on yourself, Rest will use Meteor. Always. Not only this, but it will also gain access to an omni-counter: 33% Meteor, 33% nothing, and 33% Trine, a new attack. Trine is unblockable and sets Dark and Mute, which is pretty bad as unless your characters are White Cape-, Ribbon-, or Rage-protected. Once Rest is killed, it'll use at least one and possibly two !Repose 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, Lady 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 Fuma Shurikens, Falchions, Pinwheels or Impartisans, Fixed Dice, Flare spells, and Ragnarok or Lightbringer swings are all grand. Obviously, nothing is stopping you from hurting Rest in the meantime, so Grand Delta and Ultima aren't out of the question either. Taking down Lady can be quite tedious, as she is constantly healed by both her own White Wind attacks and Rest's Meltdown spells. If you brought Locke or Gogo with a Steal command, you might try to Steal Lady's Ragnarok sword; if one of your characters is wielding an Enhancer, replace it.

Once Lady has been killed, you just need to rough it out with Rest. Keep yourselves healed and always recover from Trine right away. You just need to bridge the dangerous gap between Rest having 10240 HP and Rest having 0 HP, as in this window Rest 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 Rest as little time as possible to use Meteor. When Rest dies, it'll use either one or two !Repose attacks. This is why we kept Golem and/or Fenrir around for all this time: Avoiding the gruesome fate of a successful !Repose 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

As soon as Rhizopas comes, you're in trouble. This little guy has access to the El Niño spell, which will deal up to 250 damage to both characters. Your best bet is to go all-out offensive. While Rhizopas has very decent magical defense, Aura Cannon still out-damages Raging Fist (and Rising Phoenix, but that should be obvious). For Bushido, Tiger doesn't work, so just go with Fang. If you're really unlucky, Rhizopas kills you, and there's nothing you can do about that short of over-leveling. The odds aren't that high, though. Expand Full Strategy

First off, a note of warning: Samurai Soul is unique in the fact that he's a monster in a box you can run from. Doing so hurts your game though; you won't be able to fight him when you return to the chest, and thus you'll miss out on the Master's Scroll.

Samurai Soul is the perfect hybrid between a Samurai and a Ninja, as will become apparent by his AI script. Normally, his attacks will consist of Battle, any of the three offensive ninja scrolls (Flame Scroll, Water Scroll, or Lightning Scroll), and Gale Cut, 1000 Needles, or Shockwave. This isn't half bad for an opponent, but nothing spectacular either. It's when the enemy is aggravated that it becomes lethal. When you've battled him for longer than 40 seconds, he'll pump himself up. The message "Samurai Soul's power up!" will appear, and he will self-apply the Image and Reflect statuses, making him immune to every blockable Fight attack for the duration of Image and most Magic spells for the duration of Reflect. He'll also try to set Haste, but with inherent Slow immunity it will fail. Sad thing.

He may counter Fight, Magic, and Lore with a Battle, but that's not the purpose of his counter script there; when hit six times by Fight, he'll use !Assassin Blade on a random party member, which is a simple one-hit Wound attack with an admittedly poor Hit Rate of 100. When hit three times by any combination of Magic spells or Lore attacks, he'll chuck a weapon (either Kunai or Ashura) at a random party member, doing about 8000 damage to him/her. He'll then spend the next turn using Setzer's GP Rain, dealing exactly 915 HP worth of damage to four party members (1220 to three if one is still down from the thrown blade).

Samurai Soul's glaring weakness is the combination of vulnerability to the Confuse status and its own Special, !Assassin Blade. By setting Confuse with the Confuse spell, Strago's Bad Breath Lore, Cait Sith's Cat Rain, Edgar's Noiseblaster, or whathaveyou, Samurai Soul has a 50% chance of killing himself with !Assassin Blade. Sketching nets you a 25% shot at !Assassin Blade too. Exploit this weakness for a far easier battle.

If you're looking for more of a challenge or for some other reason don't want to muddle the poor warrior into defeat, here's what you'll want to do. First, throw up your barriers. Focus on the magical side; Mighty Guard (for Shell) or Zona Seeker's Wall, Hastega, Kirin's Life Guard, etc. Golem and Fenrir help against !Assassin Blade, but you shouldn't see it directed at you anyway.

Now, let loose with your characters. There's no reason to use Fight, Magic, or Lore on Samurai Soul. Terra, Celes, and Strago should really just wait out this battle. Attack with Phantom Rush Blitzes, Cyan's SwdTech skills (Tempest is nice), Jump attacks, the Drill Tool, etc. If you're really unlucky and brought all the wrong characters, just Fight (!Assassin Blade every sixth Fight attack isn't all that bad). When Samurai Soul powers up, Dispel removes all three positive statuses immediately. If you want to be evil, you can break the no-Lore rule one time and steal all three with Rippler (provided Strago's not prancing around with something like a Guard Bracelet or Miracle Shoes). Expand Full Strategy

Skull Dragon 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, Doom, Will o' the Wisp, and Apparition all show up on the boss' first three turns, Doom easily being the most popular one. Every fourth turn, Skull Dragon 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, Doom, Mute, Muddle, and, oddly enough, the Float status. One interesting little tidbit about the Apparition move is that the graphic designers never expected any monster to use it, so, instead of a graphic of the caster (Skull Dragon 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 Will o' the Wisp, as it's about as powerful as Fira, but you can equip Flame Shields, Ice Shields, Minerva Bustiers, or Berserker 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. Firaga spells are extremely powerful (more so than the Holy spell). Ragers can Rage to cast Firaga and become immune to Doom (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 Flametongues for Shadow, know that they are superior to other weapons Shadow can throw. Expand Full Strategy

On the offense, Skull Dragon is everything you'd expect. It will try to set a multitude of statuses, the most dangerous of which is Zombie. It has a few direct-damage moves, which include spooky necromancer moves such as Bio, Will o' the Wisp and a powerful physical. For some reason it has a particular hatred for Terra, who will be targeted by a Disaster attack every fourth turn. Ain't that cute. The nastiest move is probably Lv. 5 Death, if your levels are wrong. Safety Bits and Memento Rings help out there.

It's on the defense that the dragon gets nasty. You can't kill this thing in the traditional sense of the word. Unlike Red Dragon Redux however, it lacks the common sense to auto-terminate. The only two ways to kill Skull Dragon are Joker's Death and... draining its MP. That's right, using Rasp 'til it rolls over. Did you take a look at the fact that this dragon has 14000 MP?

This is a very simple fight, but since Squenix felt particularly sadistic that day and decided to make us repeat the same thing for half an hour after figuring it out in the first place. It's like making a movie from a Saturday Night Live sketch. We got the point in the first five minutes, why oh why did Will Ferrell sign up for this?

Anyway, it's pretty important that you don't die in the eternity it takes to kill Skull Dragon (Redux), so Ribbon up. If you lack four Ribbons, Amulets are the best replacements. Earrings are great to boost the Rasp spell. That's about it. Use Hastega to use more Rasp spells. Use the Maginot Line to make sure you're not prevented from using Rasp spells. Try not to nod off when using Rasp spells. When you feel like you're getting pretty sick of all the Rasp spells, it is probably time to use about 50 more Rasp spells. Games are fun! Expand Full Strategy

Storm Dragon 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 Dragon's attacks is the non-elemental, unblockable Leaf Swirl attack, which you can't prevent Storm Dragon from using. Luckily, you probably have at least one Minerva Bustier 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 Dragon can use three attacks normally: Battle, Wind Slash, and Leaf Swirl. Leaf Swirl and Wind Slash are about alike in power and they're both unblockable. Leaf Swirl, however, is non-elemental, whereas Wind Slash is Wind-elemental. As soon as Storm Dragon dives beneath 15360 Hit Points, he'll drop Wind Slash and Leaf Swirl 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 Platinum 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 Leaf Swirls with the Instant-Death Protection property.

At the start, summon Golem or Fenrir to protect against the physical attacks Storm Dragon uses. Zona Seeker's Wall really helps against Wind Slash and Leaf Swirl, but you should invest in individual Shell castings if you don't have Zona Seeker ready. Next, you'll want to use Rasp a few times to take care of Storm Dragon's MP; when it's gone (you can check with Libra, or keep track with a calculator), Storm Dragon won't be able to cast Aero or Cyclonic in its 'dangerous' (second) phase. If one of your party members has learned the Hastega spell from Quetzalli, 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 Leaf Swirl should ever damage Terra if you've played your cards right). Since Storm Dragon is weak against the Lightning-element, Thundara, Tri-Disaster, and Thundaga all hurt very nicely. Storm Dragon 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

When we met the Storm Dragon in Mt. Zozo, it was already the nastiest of the eight. There are Redux dragons more threatening than Storm Dragon (Redux), but this one got some tricks up its proverbial sleeves, make no mistake. Storm Dragon (Redux) is one slick bastard; not so insecure it needs to be all big and stuff, and everything on that body is sharper than its evolutionary pattern should have required it to be. The provocative pterosaur will randomly use physical attacks, the powerful !Icarus Wing, the well-known Wind Slash and Leaf Swirl, the non-elemental and unblockable attack. Any damage done to him may be countered by up to two physical attacks, so you'll likely see more physical attacks coming from him than magical attacks.

Once Storm Dragon (Redux) hits 25600 HP he'll 'cloak himself in wind!' and set Image and Haste on himself. This move is so uncharacteristically idiotic for Storm Dragon (Redux)' generally intelligent repertoire I see no way but blaming it on the game designers. Haste won't work because Storm Dragon is immune to Slow; a common goof they should've known about by now. However, the attempt at setting the Image status is even more embarrassing, since the creature is specifically immune to Image itself. That's hard to miss. In addition, Image wouldn't really have done anything for Storm Dragon (Redux), seeing as how its Evasion was already perfect to begin with.

Past this point, his AI script darkens, including two attacks every turn and more powerful attacks. There's a higher frequency of !Icarus Wing, it will start to feature Aero and the Tornado spell (which will always miss on Storm Dragon (Redux), obviously). Leaf Swirl will stop appearing, so for those of you who brought a 255 Defense Gau or Mog to this fight that also nullifies or absorbs Wind-elemental attacks, you're in the clear at this point.

Thunder Shields across the board! They're really the only thing that successfully deals with Wind-elemental attacks (apart from the Paladin Shield), so I hope you have enough of 'em. Throw up the Maginot Line as well; this is vital. Remember the Maginot Line? Fenrir, Golem, Prayer Beads, Protect. Hastega is great in order to keep up with Storm Dragon (Redux)' speed, which even without his Haste status is quite impressive. Then, go on the offense.

Storm Dragon (Redux)' main trump card is its perfect Evasion and Magic Evasion rating of 80, meaning that even relatively accurate spells such as Thundaga will miss more often than not. Luckily mostly just Thundaga casters that will experience trouble, as Dragon Horn Jumpers, Master's Scroll Attackers and those using Bushido, Blitz or Throw will have little problem delivering unblockable attacks. Gau's attacks will require a Sniper Eye to make his physical hit, but you may not want to spend a Relic slot for it, focusing on his magical attack instead. Luridan's Rock Slide and Io's Flare Star are unblockable attacks while the Io Rage will even nullify Wind-elemental attacks if Gau's equipment won't let him. The Io Rage is a great choice for Gogo as well. 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 Grab, the attack both !Stun and Entwine are centered around.

What does Grab do? Grab seizes a character and renders it completely helpless. During a period of about 30 seconds, the Tentacle that used Grab 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, !Stun 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 Grab 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 Grab cannot act. This lasts for about 30 seconds, at which point the Tentacle will use Release to remove all the effects of Grab. Slow was removed when the Grab attack was used.

This is why Hermes Sandals are so nice: with inherent Haste, both !Stun 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, !Stun. Employ Edgar's Bioblaster 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 Death on the bottom-left Tentacle to dispatch it instantly. Obviously, the newly acquired Banish also works, but Death's Hit Rate is superior and the Death 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 Silence 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 Blizzara will kill it very quickly.

From this point, the remaining Tentacles are left to your imagination. Don't bother using Poisona when a character is Poisoned; the battle won't take that long, so sticking to Cura spells to keep your HP up will suffice. If Sabin knows Razor Gale, 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 Blizzara; once you've used Death or Banish 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