Final Fantasy VI Advance Enemy Additions

"If you walk without rhythm, you won't attract the worm". If only it were that simple! Abyss Worm is the nastiest creature of the Cloister of Trials, as its defenses are so omni-present. It has quite a lot of Defense and will either absorb or negate any magical damage unless it's Holy- or non-elemental. Few characters will be able to apply their full force versus this thing. It's primarily a trading between damage and healing, as there's little you can do about this thing's attacks. Expand Full Strategy

While the name 'Redux' is simply a gimmick to help distinguish between the two sets of dragons, it might as well have stood for 'reduction' in this case. Maybe Blue Dragon was flipping through his big brother's lad mags when they were dealing out the fancy upgrades, or maybe the head of the GBA remake team has a severe disliking for all things blue. We may never know the cause, but one thing is clear; Blue Dragon (Redux) is the almost comically inept one of the gang.

Blue Dragon (Redux) will attack twice every turn, either physically, with !Blue Fang (sets Stop) or with an multi-target Water-elemental attack. He'll counter any damage done to him with a 33 % shot at Attack. Whenever a character has the Protect, Shell or Haste status, Blue Dragon (Redux) will set Darkness, Poison and Slow on itself and try to swap the statuses with a Rippler attack. That's about it. All Water-elemental attacks are easily absorbed with one of the three defensive pieces of Imp equipment, so no worries there. Rippler, due to the Imp immunity bug, can be blocked with a Ribbon. Alternatively, you could just not apply the positive statuses and cast Slow and Bio on Blue Dragon (Redux) to see it throw itself around its apartment. Fenrir's Howling Moon and Golem's Earthen Wall are the part of the Maginot Line that isn't a target of Rippler so feel free to apply them.

Thundaga spells are very powerful, obviously. Any old attacks works like a charm in this fight. Gau and Gogo can Rage something like Aspiran or Trillium to absorb the Water-elemental onslaught. This is really the easiest fight in the Dragon's Den. Seriously, for fun I sometimes don't listedlisten to my own strategies and just damage and heal to the best of my poorly leveled abilities; it was easy enough in this fight every time I gave it a go. Just equip the Tortoise Shield you should have and cast Thundaga and such. Expand Full Strategy

Dark Behemoth will start the fight by using Mighty Guard to buff itself up, then start pounding you with powerful physical attacks until you kill it. This is where the trouble is; at the end, Dark Behemoth sees it fit to bid you adieu with either a Meteor spell (deals around 2200 damage to all characters) or an Ultima spell (deals more than double that). Again, like with Malboro Menace, we are lucky enough to work around this nastiness with Banish. Should you lack the Banish spell, Celes' or Gogo's Runic blade (Swordbreaker works with Runic) or any Jumping character will have you surviving the situation. Expand Full Strategy

Earth Dragon was once not so terrifying. That was before he got his two feet firmly planted on the ground. Disregarding its own menacing looks, it was a floating monster that you could gently put to sleep and wash away like so much mud on your jeans. Having been pushed around one time too many (this being one), Earth Dragon (Redux) pulled a Batman and swore to avenge his previous weakness by training his body to perfection and getting real good at science. Except for the science.

Earth Dragon (Redux), knowing full well that the element he got stuck with is the only one both vulnerable to elemental protection and generally avoided with an easily applied status - Float - has taken his own weaknesses into account. Earth Dragon (Redux) has enough physical strength to have an army of Greater Mantii soil themselves. Normally it'll just attack physically and with the occasional supremely powerful Earth-elemental attack. Quake is the nastiest; not only is it barrier-piercing and easily the most powerful one, it will also hit Earth Dragon (Redux), healing it for an average of 4400 damage. Obviously, there's an Attack omni-counter.

Whenever Earth Dragon (Redux) detects the Float status, he'll forego his normal AI script in favor of a combo attack of 50 Gs, Magnitude 8 and a Quake spell. This means that if you have even one character with unremovable Float due to Angel Wings or a Float-inducing Rage, this is all you'll see for the first part of the fight. Note that there are no physical attacks here except for the counterattack, so if you have a single permanent Floater, Gaia Gear will be more than sufficient. This is a life-saver if you find yourself, against my recommendations, without enough Angel Wings.

When Earth Dragon (Redux) hits 25600 HP, he'll get enraged. This means that your life is over. Nah, just kidding. He will drop his Earth-elemental attacks, as they obviously didn't succeed in killing you. Enraged, the Earth Dragon (Redux) unleashes a physical barrage unlike any other in the game. He'll start by four Attacks after the initial message, then start his new AI script. It's four Attacks in a row, then four physical attacks of which the last one has a 2/3 chance of being the !Savage special, and two !Savage attacks every third turn. He'll counter any damage done with either attack or !Savage. If you're not outright immune to physical attacks, this will kill you.

Here's the thing. With Angel Wings or Float-inducing Rages, you'll need to stick him in his 50 Gs loop, where you'll just have to deal with Earth-elemental attacks which are easily dealt with Gaia Gear and Angel Wings. An alternate strategy is using the Maginot Line paired with Gaia Gear to survive the first part of the fight. Now, unleash the damage until he gets mad at you for it. Now, quickly cast Vanish on the survivors of the first round of attacks. If you manage to turn even a single character Invisible, you've won the fight as it's just dealing damage from this point on.

As far as damage is concerned, Earth Dragon (Redux) is weak to Water- and Wind- elemental attacks. The introduction of the Flood spell makes life a lot easier for the spellcasters of your team, while Strago's Aero is stronger than his Grand Delta attack versus this foe. Any Float-inducing Rage will make a 255 Defense Gau unbeatable in this fight, but Marchosias has the best offense in Aero, which is also a tip for Gogo if he lacks Angel Wings. If you're having trouble beating the initial healing of Earth Dragon (Redux), you can cast Esuna on him so Quake will no longer heal him. In addition, it will be a painful reminder to him that once a floating sissy, always a floating sissy. Expand Full Strategy

This hulking brute will just attack physically two times every turn, and will counter any attack you use against it with !Megaton Punch, which kills anything it touches. If you cast Vanish, you can avoid its effects easily enough. Stop also works against it. If you Sketch Earth Eater, it may have a 25% chance of instantly killing it with its own attack. Expand Full Strategy

Here's the deal; these five have amazing Defense and will try to set all kinds of status ailments on your party, eventually turning you into the Berserked characters, likely Imped. They won't use Mega Berserk 'til their third turn, but you'll be effectively screwed when Imp Song makes an appearance. Protect yourself from all this by equipping Ribbons and taking advantage of their own status ailment vulnerabilities. Summon Raiden to take care of most, if not all of them immediately. The remaining will still fall to Banish spells, Edgar's Noiseblaster or a Silence spell. Flan Princess is an easy enemy as long as you don't try to get past their Defense. Expand Full Strategy

Gargantua's the biggest, baddest giant out there. With emphasis on 'bad'. Physical attacks are pretty powerful coming from this guy, but the Quake spell is laughably weak so no worries there. Trading blows with this guy is no problem whatsoever but Esuna/Phantom'll net you invulnerability easily enough. Expand Full Strategy

Gold Dragon (Redux) absorbs Magic exactly like Celes does. This means that most of your spells will be absorbed and have no effect. Though you'll probably immediately understand that means Firaga and such are out of the question, the real threat here is that you can no longer use support and healing spells either.

Just in case you never did pay much attention to Celes, notable spells that can't be used: Cure, Cura and Curaga, Drain, Osmose, Esuna, Float, Dispel, Berserk, Haste and Hastega, Libra, Raise, Arise, Reraise, -aga spells, Flare and Ultima. Also, note that the only enemy attack that's vulnerable to Runic's effects worth mentioning that you can use is Northern Cross, which Ragers can use by emulating Fiend Dragon.

Notable spells that you can use include: Quake, Meteor, Flood, Meltdown, Valor and Quick. You can also summon Espers without any troubles. FYI, If you have both Celes on Runic stand-by and you cast a spell, both will try to absorb it. If it's a multi-target spell, both will absorb half of the MP normally used to cast the spell. Gold Dragon (Redux) will, due to a cute bug, even use Celes' blade animation when that happens. When the spell is single-target, a dominant Runic user is picked at random and only that one will gain MP, but still half of the MP normally used to cast the spell. Man, fun stuff.

Gold Dragon (Redux)'s battle logic is pretty simple. Since it can't use the most prominent Lightning-elemental attacks (it would absorb them), Gold Dragon (Redux) is pretty much stuck with Plasma and Wave Cannon. It'll use physical attacks a lot, countering with them and possibly with !Mighty Claw as well, which sets Confuse. Make sure to summon Golem or otherwise null Confuse effects, since you can't restore affected characters with Esuna for obvious reasons. Once past 25600 HP, Gold Dragon (Redux) will set Protect to buff up its Defense and will start to attack more, adding Wave Cannon to the list. Very simple and not threatening at all!

So yeah, Gold Dragon (Redux) is absorbing magic, which isn't that big a deal since about the strongest spell you can use against it not called Ultima flies past Runic: Flood! Flood spells are very powerful and feed off of Gold Dragon (Redux)'s weakness to water. Very sweet. In addition, Valor-centric set-ups are powerful, since you can cast Valor no problem, then unleash Fang, Drill, physical attacks, you name it.

This is such an easy battle compared to the previous one! Spellcasters should just focus on Flood and Quake spells (Flood is stronger). Shadow and Gogo can Throw Water Scrolls or Tridents, depending on your ammunition. Other Water- elemental attacks such as Aqua Breath and Tsunami are too weak to really take into consideration, and Dancing the Water Harmony is nowhere near as powerful as Dragon Horn Jumping. Hastega is out and you can't cast Reraise, but it doesn't matter. Summon the Maginot Line which all suffer no ill effects from Gold Dragon (Redux)'s Runic status to make sure !Mighty Claw doesn't become a problem. Absorbing all Lightning-elemental attacks and having negated physical ones, there's no threat so we can just kill the thing. Expand Full Strategy