Final Fantasy VI All Enemies and Bosses

Dullahan is a stud. Although he looks like he'd rather impale you with that lance of his any day, he's almost exclusively a spell caster with inherent Haste. Both his spells and Magic Power are relatively strong, so expect a challenge here. The boss' name comes from an ancient spirit from Irish mythology: a headless horseman who only travels to collect somebody's life. His carriage is made of bone, his horses have flaming eyes, and he will stop at nothing...

Dullahan always starts the battle off with L? Pearl. This is a strong Pearl-elemental attack, in terms of power similar to level 3 spells. Its drawback is that it will only hit targets whose level is divisible by the last digit of your GP. This is why I told you to make sure that it never hits; it will leave quite a mark if it does.

Under normal circumstances, he'll just focus on his three main spells: namely, Ice 2, Ice 3, and Pearl. When he detects any characters in your party with the Reflect status, he'll use Reflect??? on your entire party. It will display "???? on wall-protected person", setting Dark, Mute, and Slow on every character with the Reflect status. If he dives beneath 10240 HP, he'll use Cure 2 instantly. If he passes through four normal turns, he'll regain the ability to cast Reflect??? and/or Cure 2 if the situation calls for it. Finally, there is a 33% chance that it will counter your attack with Battle. Oh, my.

After damaging him eight times, he'll get four turns where he will use some of his nastier spells. Ice 2 and L? Pearl can make another appearance, but so can !Morn Star, Absolute0, and N. Cross. You can't Runic your way out of these new spells, which makes them harder to stop. N. Cross, while being vulnerable to Runic, is the most dangerous of the five.

N. Cross sets the Freeze status ailment, which you might have already encountered in the fight against Naughty, who could set it with Cold Dust. N. Cross is multi-target, but uses an 'interesting' way to determine whether it hits or not. After the game checks if N. Cross is blocked (after looking for Clear, Magic Block, the usual), it randomly misses from 0 to 4 characters. This ensures that even when all characters are normally hit by the move, you'll almost never see a party entirely frozen. That is good, as it's basically mega-Stop and there is no way to protect against it at all. Remember that the fastest way to dispel the Freeze status is to hit the party with a Fire-elemental attack; the Fire spell is obviously the best one.

There are two strategies you can employ. I'll list them both, as both should be perfectly fail-safe if you know what you're doing. Here they are:

Strategy #1: Hit Points

This is the strategy where we use violence to end Dullahan. First off, let's set up our available defenses. Zoneseek is nice should Absolute0 make an appearance, as is Golem or Fenrir for !Morn Star and Battle counters. Have Celes use Runic, continuously. If she isn't wearing Running Shoes, make sure you cast the Haste spell on her. Now, let's get to the violence! Your main damage dealers here are Sabin and Edgar. Sabin should be in the Front Row with two Fire Knuckles. If Celes isn't busy with absorbing one of Dullahan's spells, sneak a Bserk spell on Sabin for increased damage. If Edgar is equipped with the Dragon Horn, have him Jump. If not, stick to Tools; you can see what I want to do with him. Setzer should just stand by and use Potions on hurting characters. Since Celes should pretty much absorb all of Dullahan's attacks, you should be safe in that regard. In the end, you should prevail.

Strategy #2: Magic Points

Dullahan dies if you rasp away his MP. Thus, the entire offensive arsenal required for this strategy is Rasp. The advantage of the strategy is that if you have two to four Rasp casters, you'll find that the battle is over far more quickly. Its downside is that it does require two to four Rasp casters, and that, since Rasp is vulnerable to Runic, you can't protect yourself against Dullahan's attacks and will, consequently, have to regularly heal.

On a normally leveled party, I find both strategies equally satisfying; it's your pick, really. Expand Full Strategy

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 !VacuumWave, 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 Shock Wave. When it hits 10240 HP, Long Arm takes a break from the Shock Wave 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 Shock Wave attacks before going palm-up.

Face 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 R.Polarity or !Slip Hit. Every fifth turn it'll use either Safe 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 !Slip Hit or the Petrify-inducing Dread attack. In this damaged state, every fifth turn may feature Dread, Magnitude8, or R.Polarity. If Face 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 !Slip Hits and occasional physical hits from the fiend, it's time for your barriers. Cast Haste 2, Big Guard, Regen, Life 3, 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 Face before Short Arm, so focus your attacks on it. Since Face is weak to Fire-elemental attacks, an single-target Fire 3 spell leaves a huge dent, as do Thrown Flame Sabres. There's nothing particularly interesting to say about the do's and don't's of this battle: focus your powers mainly on Face, 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