Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough

Yeeesh. First turn, he casts a level two spell. Then, he casts a level 3 spell. Then, he casts two level 3 spells. After that, it'll follow up with another double cast of two level 3 spells. On the fifth turn, it'll use a single level 3 spell, and, on his last turn before looping, Magic Master can make use of Death, Bio, or Silence. All of this is coupled with a spectacular 50 Magic Power, which means that if you don't absorb the attack or have the Reflect status, you'll likely die a painful death. If Magic Master has the Reflect status, he will bounce a level 3 spell off of himself every turn; Magic Master will never self-apply the status though, and there's no reason for you to cast it.

You may have noticed that every spell Magic Master uses is reflectable; yes, that they are. However, the thing about Magic Master is that not only is he the ultimate mage, he's also fiercely loyal to Kefka. Given this, it's only logical that Magic Master would be able to cast the strongest spell in the game: Ultima, and he won't let you go before casting it. As soon as you kill the Magic Master, he will cast Ultima. It will deal between 5400 to 6100 damage to all of your characters; unless you've overleveled (level 53 with Muscle Belt, 58 with Red Cap, 67 without any HP boosting equipment), that gonna kill you dead.

Let's go through a few potential situations now:

If you've followed the walkthrough, or know Reraise at the very least, keep yourself draped in Reflect Rings at all times, as this will essentially make you invincible. Do not attack Magic Master; as soon as you do this, he will use Barrier Change and he start countering all your attacks with Barrier Change, making him that much harder to take down. He will also counter to his own spells reflected back at him. If you just keep still, he won't start using Barrier Change, not even under the torment of his own attacks. Cast Reraise on all your characters, and just wait this one out. Eventually, when Magic Master has killed himself, he'll cast Ultima: everybody dies and is subsequently revived. You're free to go.

Without Reraise, this one's a tricky pony. You can cast Rasp over and over and over again until his 50000 MP are all gone; he won't be able to cast Ultima as a result. You'll have to keep him alive this way. This is easily done by casting the Berserk spell on Magic Master while casting Vanish or summoning Phantom to protect yourself. Now, Rasp away. It'll take a very long while. You can check his MP periodically with the Libra spell. When he has less than 80 MP, you can kill him. There you go.

Alternately, you could just damage the boss a lot and summon Quetzalli; the trick here is to kill Magic Master with one or more characters in the air. Ultima won't hit them, so you win. If you want to do this, carefully keep track of his HP with Libra; for optimal damage output, you'll want to equip barrier-piercing weapons where possible (Ultima Weapon on Terra/Celes/Edgar/Locke, on Locke, Fixed Dice or Dice on Setzer) to try and circumvent Magic Master's crazy 250 Defense.

If you don't have Rasp... and you don't have Quetzalli either... eh... yeah. Last chance, honest. Equip a character (Terra, Celes, Edgar) with a Reflect Ring, Genji Glove, Rune Blade/ Ragnarok/Lightbringer, and the Soul Sabre. The MP-critical weapon in the Right Hand, the MP draining weapon in the Left Hand. Now, cast Berserk on Magic Master, vanish your party, and then cast Berserk and Haste on your magical weapon character. Every turn, he or she will attack and deal twelve to nineteen MP damage. If you're setting this up so you can go do something else in the meantime (I trust you have taken a liking to your sanity?), Berserk a Healing Rod character to make sure Magic Master doesn't die from the physical blows. Go take in a museum or something. Honestly, this is going to take ages. Expand Full Strategy