Final Fantasy VI Bosses

Short Arm is incapable of doing anything magical, and it will normally just use Battle. It has a 66% chance of countering any damage it takes with Battle too. When it hits 10112 HP, Short Arm may start to use !Razor Gale, which is a tad stronger. Did you know '112' is the Dutch alarm number? Did you care? Long Arm is only slightly more inventive than its shorter twin; it switches between Battle and Shockwave. When it hits 10240 HP, Long Arm takes a break from the Shockwave attacks and uses either Battle or does nothing whatsoever. Bold strategy, Cotton. If Long Arm is the last target to be taken out in this first battle, it'll use up to three Shockwave attacks before going palm-up.

Visage is one that only a mother could love, I suppose, and since there is no mother to speak of, it only makes sense that this creature is trapped in a state of continuous furious torment. It doesn't really do a lot normally, very rarely using either Reverse Polarity or !Sapping Strike. Every fifth turn it'll use either Protect or Haste on one of its Arms. Of course, the trouble begins once you pound it enough and it hits 10240 HP. From this moment on, it'll never rest and use either !Sapping Strike or the Petrify-inducing Dread Gaze attack. In this damaged state, every fifth turn may feature Dread Gaze, Magnitude 8, or Reverse Polarity. If Visage is the last target to be killed, it'll go with a Quake spell.

The first tier of the final battle is beyond any doubt the easiest tier, and, since every succeeding tier will be more difficult to handle than the previous one, it makes sense to use the relative harmlessness of this titan to your advantage. Start the battle off by reducing the damage you're taking. Take out Long Arm easily by employing an instant death attack: either use the Air Anchor on it or cast Break spells until one hits. Now, cast Slow on Short Arm and you're good to go. Make sure that you do not summon Golem or Fenrir right now: Their effects won't carry to the next tier and you'll need them much more up there.

Now that you're just taking !Sapping Strikes and occasional physical hits from the fiend, it's time for your barriers. Cast Hastega, Mighty Guard, Regen, Reraise, you've got all the time in the world and there's nothing stopping you from applying all the positive status ailments you see fit. Know that if you brought Terra to this battlefield, you can have her Morph and let her Morph timer run out while she's Sleeping to make her Morph status permanent. If you're done, it's time to finish this titan off.

You'll want to take out Visage before Short Arm, so focus your attacks on it. Since Visage is weak to Fire-elemental attacks, an single-target Firaga spell leaves a huge dent, as do Thrown Flametongues. There's nothing particularly interesting to say about the do's and don't's of this battle: focus your powers mainly on Visage, as you want to take it out first, and simply inflict damage as efficiently as possible. You've had much more experience with your characters than I have, so go with what has proven itself in your particular situation. Expand Full Strategy

Wrexsoul is obviously the main baddie here. The Ironically-named Soul Savers are the goons. At the start of the battle, Wrexsoul will cast Fury and leave the battlefield to invade one of your characters. He won't re-appear for you to damage him until the character he invaded receives Wound, Petrify, or Zombie status. When he's out he'll just sit there for a while, attack with Battle or casting Thundaga. When either one or two Soul Saver(s) has the Reflect status, he'll cast Thundaga on it, causing the spell to bounce off and hit your party. Like any proper boss, he'll counter Fight with a 33% shot at Battle.

The Soul Savers are the bane of this battle. Essentially immortal, they'll regenerate as soon as you kill them off. Normally they'll just sit there, slinging level 3 spells at you with a hilariously minimal effect. Whenever they hit 16 MP or less, they'll use !Magic Drain to drain you of your MP (and with a 50 Battle Power, their !Magic Drain is actually quite strong). They'll cast Reflect on themselves as soon as Wrexsoul is around, allowing him to cast Thundaga on them to damage you. On all other turns that Wrexsoul is around, they'll spend their time casting Cure spells on Wrexsoul for double-digit healing (in other words, a negligible amount).

Before the rise of normal, honest tactics, the usual method of winning this battle was casting Banish. The Soul Savers restore themselves over and over again, but when you successfully suck both Soul Savers into the parallel dimension with Banish, they can't do that and you'll just win the battle. The downside here is that you won't win the Guard Bracelet from Wrexsoul, as you won't have actually defeated him.

Normally, you'll just want to completely ignore the Soul Savers. Minerva Bustier wearers take no damage from them and anybody with an elemental shield should take very little damage all-round anyway (Thunder Shields are the best, as Thundaga is cast most often). First, throw up the usual barriers: Hastega, Earth Wall, Mighty Guard, Moon Song, Life Guard, what have you. Now, just check each character For Wrexsoul by killing him/her and reviving him/her. Strago can commit easy suicide with Self-Destruct (careful: Transfusion removes him from the battle; you don't want that). Shadow can throw Fuma Shurikens or Shuriken to do unblockable and non-elemental damage, while Setzer's Fixed Dice serve the same purpose. If you don't have these characters, just go ahead with spells and Fight attacks where you can; Flare and Break are great for killing party members (provided they hit). Flare has a superior Hit Rate, but with Break you've not technically killed a party member and can therefore bring him/her back without any HP loss by means of a Gold Needle or Remedy Item or spell. If the targeted character doesn't have too much MBlock, Strago's Stone attack can probably take him/her out in one hit; remember that Stone does 7.5 times as much damage when the target shares the caster's level, which is a likely case.

Whenever Wrexsoul appears, act fast and furious! His Magic Defense is a stunning 220, which makes sure that if a magical attack isn't barrier-piercing, it'd have to be a Blizzaga spell coming from Morphed Terra to do a lot of damage. Breaking Ice Rods and/or Ice Shields counts as a barrier-piercing attack, so that's an option if your team lacks offensive power. Ideally, you'll want to stick to targetable attacks: Setzer's Fixed Dice, Shadow's Fuma Shurikens (Icebrand Swords hurt a lot), and Edgar's Drill are good ones. Barrier-piercing attacks can even be multi-targeted; Mega Flare, Grand Delta, and Gau's Tyrannosaur-induced Meteor attacks work splendidly. A Flare spell is better than the Blizzaga spell if you have the choice. The pure magicians in your party should either cast Flare or Blizzaga or simply resort to attacking. If Strago hasn't learned Grand Delta (or Quasar) yet, Traveler is his best option (dual Ice Rods are also an option here, if you don't mind unusual equipment set-ups). Celes's Runic really doesn't help that much, as the level 3 spells aren't a real threat, so just keep on attacking and healing with her. Sabin's only hope at leaving a mark is Phantom Rush, with which you can only hope to hit Wrexsoul itself. With Umaro, just rage.

In the end, the Wrexsoul battle isn't really dangerous; it's just very annoying, especially if you have your characters geared towards Magic Block and are doing quite well in this respect. Your own characters can be surprisingly hard to take down when necessary. Expand Full Strategy