Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough

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