Final Fantasy VI All Enemies and Bosses

First off, a note of warning: KatanaSoul 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 Offering.

KatanaSoul 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 (Fire Skean, Water Skean, or Bolt Edge), and Gale Cut, Blowfish, or Shock Wave. 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 "KatanaSoul'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 !SlayerEdge 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 Imperial 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).

KatanaSoul's glaring weakness is the combination of vulnerability to the Confuse status and its own Special, !SlayerEdge. By setting Confuse with the Muddle spell, Strago's Sour Mouth Lore, Stray's Cat Rain, Edgar's NoiseBlaster, or whathaveyou, KatanaSoul has a 50% chance of killing himself with !SlayerEdge. Sketching nets you a 25% shot at !SlayerEdge 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; Big Guard (for Shell) or Zoneseek's Wall, Haste 2, Kirin's Life Guard, etc. Golem and Fenrir help against !SlayerEdge, 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 KatanaSoul. Terra, Celes, and Strago should really just wait out this battle. Attack with Bum Rush Blitzes, Cyan's SwdTech skills (Quadra Slice is nice), Jump attacks, the Drill Tool, etc. If you're really unlucky and brought all the wrong characters, just Fight (!SlayerEdge every sixth Fight attack isn't all that bad). When KatanaSoul 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 Pod Bracelet or Marvel Shoes). Expand Full Strategy

Kefka is vulnerable to Stop, so have Gau use the Araneid and/or Primordite Rages for best results. Always have Runic in place, as he knows some very powerful spells that can one-hit KO your characters when focused in a single-target blast, regardless of row. Have your other character(s) give it their best shot. Terra's Fire cannot be used with Runic in place so she should focus on her other powers; she can cast Magic when Celes isn't on Runic stand-by or simply wield the Rune Edge to some very nice result. Locke should Attack, Edgar should unload his Autocrossbow, Sabin relies on good old Aurabolt, Cyan can use Dispatch or his fourth Bushido, Quadra Slam, if he has access to it, and that's about it. The battle is slightly anti-climactic when you consider the implications of it, but you'll pull through. Expand Full Strategy

So how does the final boss of Final Fantasy VI do battle? He'll start the battle with that demented little speech of his. Characters that were in the air when you defeated the third tier could land from their attacks before he starts it: That's kinda humorous. His first attack is Fallen One, which will reduce all of your characters' HP to 1. After that, it's all about physicals, !Havoc Wing, level 3 spells, and that most annoying of attacks, Train. !Havoc Wing is his most popular and, in most instances, most powerful attack Kefka will perform.

As soon as Kefka hits 32640 HP, he will become quite a bit meaner. Calling a head into existence, he'll say "The end comes beyond chaos." and the screen will start to shake. The next turn, he'll execute the Goner attack. Goner is a multi-target magical non-elemental attack that, in terms of pure power, is the strongest attack in the game. It lacks the barrier-piercing ability, however, so sufficient Magic Defense should ensure that your characters all survive a single Goner slaughter. After this is completed, Kefka will use two attacks in two turns: !Havoc Wing, Train, or Revenger. Revenger is also a new attack: it's like a multi-target Dispel that only removes positive status ailments. It removes Clear, Image, Regen, Haste, Shell, Safe, Reflect, Life 3, and Float. After those two turns, Kefka will once again start to charge up for Goner.

2560 HP later (at 30080 HP), Kefka will start employing a horrible omni-counter: For every attack directed at him, he may counter with either Battle or HyperDrive. HyperDrive is an extremely strong attack that's both unblockable and barrier-piercing, so any character struck by it is likely to die unless he or she was really power-leveled. At 10240 HP, this HyperDrive counter even changes into an Ultima spell, which is obviously even worse, as it's fairly stronger than HyperDrive, though the power is cut since it targets every character. Keep in mind that Ultima may be absorbed by a Runic blade. The HyperDrive and Ultima counters are not employed when Kefka is charging for Goner. This is vital information, as, quite frankly, Kefka's counters are what make him a mean opponent. The last 'stage' of Kefka's battle tactic is when he hits 7680 HP, which is when he just charges up for Goner, uses it, cast a Meteor spell, and charges up for Goner again. Meteor is especially troublesome since it cannot be absorbed by a Runic blade. Kefka has a lot of strong spells that will fly past all your fancy elemental protection. The trick here is to keep reviving characters that die (I find this is mostly due to !Havoc Wing attacks) and try to avoid being hit by HyperDrive and Ultima as much as possible. If you can employ the Runic skill, both attacks are vulnerable to its powers, so take advantage of that. If not, I suggest you only attack when Kefka is charging for Goner.

Locke should definitely try to Steal the Megalixir Kefka possesses; it's a great way to heal up after a Fallen One attack. Mog should Jump as usual; he's a real asset in this battle since, in addition to doing a lot of damage, his 255 Defense means that he will be practically immune to !Havoc Wing. The same goes for Gau. The best Rages for him are the pure offensive ones. Stray Cat, possibly paired with a Sniper or Man Eater, will really hurt Kefka. Edgar should do nothing but Jump. If you've taken Cyan up there, try to reach Quadra Slice. Quick is a real asset to Cyan in this battle, as it is in all. For Setzer, it's Fixed Dice, which should be obvious. Shadow should first empty your stash of Imp Halberds. Other weapons that are more powerful than Tack Stars/Ninja Stars that you are unlikely to have equipped include Graedus, Stunner, Excalibur, Pearl Lance, Sky Render, Strato, Heal Rod, and Wing Edge. Strago should use GrandTrain. Sabin and Gogo should use Bum Rush. If Terra is Morphed, she should definitely stick to level 3 spells, but if she's not, Flare is the superior option. Relm should just use Flare or level 3 spells too. If Celes is around, I suggest keeping her on Runic stand-by, as it's really awesome in this battle. If Runic conflicts too much with your other characters' offensive plans, it should be avoided, obviously, so take a look at your options and decide what's best.

Kefka isn't extremely tough; he can just catch you off-guard with some of his more powerful attacks. So long as you make sure that doesn't happen, he's an entirely beatable final boss. If your characters are all decked out with Quick spells, a Gem Box here, an Offering there, and Ultima everywhere, the final battle with Kefka will feel like a walk in the park. Expand Full Strategy