7 Brutal Bosses With Ridiculous Weaknesses

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Final Fantasy has featured some brutal bosses over the years, but even though some might seem insurmountable, there would be those that featured unconventional weaknesses that would make the bosses trivial by comparison.
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[@RatedB1]

Tossing phoenix downs on undead bosses will never get old

[@arecord86]

The day I discovered that in my first FF it was like I was hacking and I felt uncomfortable doing it 😂

[@Harrowing999]

I love doing that to the GI Nattak in Cosmo Canyon. That boss is a bitch

[@truindividual]

X-Potions are just as potent

[@KeDe1606]

@@truindividualbut they’re also a lot rarer most of the time. Until you’re deep into the post-game, it’s just more efficient to use Phoenix Downs instead

[@onionknight44]

Literally just put Evray Atlanta down last night with 2 Phoenix downs after the first slapped my team. Revenge is sweet

[@Forever_Zero]

I like when bosses have weaknesses because that rewards experimentation and knowledge of the battle mechanics instead of just being huge damage sponges

[@Firesdale]

You can make Omega weapon of FF6 into a cakewalk, if you just reduce its MP to 0. It instantly dies, no need to deal with the HP

[@princeapoopoo5787]

The indignant "THREE DAYS? WHO WOULD PLAY THAT" response to how long it takes to defeat the Adamantoise is absolutely sending me.

[@mattg6106]

Being a Monk in Tactics was pretty much an automatic win anyhow. That job was so incredibly OP.

[@sarahfay5280]

Please don't remind me of the eight-Monk Delta Encounter. Basically a guaranteed Game Over (to be clear, I specifically built a Specific Dark Knight build to counter them in WotL)

[@kman9884]

Squire with ninja dual wield, samurai draw out ability, and teleport or move +2 made most fights trivial.

[@conorjohn490]

The big problem with Tactics is this job class pacing. Yes, there is side and after-story content, but most of the actual 'play' of Tactics was through the story. By the time a player actually unlocked some of the later jobs, that player incidentally power-leveled way too much to keep the game fun. Wotl should have either simplified the requirements of opening classes or require a player spend JP instead of just reach a Job level to unlock the more exotic jobs.

[@mattg6106]

@@conorjohn490 I know it would be a bit of a 'pie in the sky' thing to want but it would have been great for them too add a larger/replayable Deep Dungeon type end game activity for those with high level characters.

[@Orowam]

Weigraf’s ACTUAL weakness is he uses Holy Sword skills. Emphasis on Sword. If you steal his sword with thief, or break it with knight skills, he is amazingly weakened.

[@thatsadogshittheory8485]

Emphasis on holy dipshit just use a chameleon robe and u don't even have to bother

[@matthewlandoll7812]

You can't do that because he comes with the Maintenance support ability (Safeguard in WotL), which prevents equipment from being broken/stolen. You can, however, equip a Chameleon Robe, which prevents holy damage that the game thinks Holy Sword skills do. Emphasis on Holy. It thinks that the skills are holy elemental like their description says, even though they're not (they have the same element as the equipped weapon). So Weigraf will never use them against a Chameleon Robed Ramza, even though they would do full damage.

[@kman9884]

Every boss’s weakness in FFT is: leveling up.

[@KamikazeNinja75]

​@kman9884 this guy knows what's up. I used Jump the first time. Them random battles with "mindflares" and random chocobo are what real nightmares are made of😢

[@KillerCornMuffin]

HOLY SHIT why did I never think of this?!

[@tahsinreza9437]

Wiegraf is so iconic. Best way to beat him is run away and yell at him. Peak Cinema

[@truindividual]

I just buffer my stats and was a Squire/ Monk Hybrid with Dual Wield. Too easy

[@Moua]

Step 1. Be monk Step 2. Win

[@shoshbock6374]

Or break his sword and he can't do anything

[@grlff]

base job of Ramsa has ability to increase the speed, which can be exploited to have multiple turns before wiegraf. the strategy is to run from him and increase speed until you have an advantage of 5-10 turns, then after defeating his human form, your speed attribute will stay in his demon form, which can be used to have advantage in turns for Ramsa, or in my case, this additional turns can be used to increase speed of each party member and just obliterate all foes 🙃

[@sireklz1169]

​@shoshbock6374 I just steal his sword. No need to break a perfectly good sword

[@edendemarlo]

"The only true weakness of any boss is hit it till it dies" Squall leonhart- probably- perhaps after an aura stone smoothie, coupled with holy war croisants

[@CrnaStrela]

Don't forget after throwing the doomtrain brick into the target too

[@nerdicusdorkum2923]

In Bravely Second, when ya fought the revenant boss, he was a tough cookie. No surprise given how he's basically a ghost possessing a suit of armor with huge hp, and a tendency to possess others to further evade damage. However, when you fight him, you would already have unlocked the applicably named exorcist job, whose main gimmick is reverting numbers like hp to what they were a few turns ago. When the boss does the possession thing, his hp is technically zero. So when he is unpossessed, you then undo his hp straight back to zero, instantly killing him.

[@alexgibson781]

Wow, that's extra evil considering you get that job from his dad.

[@EdKolis]

I love those jobs that are like "what the heck is this for?" but then you start playing with it and you find a totally OP combo! Like the salve-maker job in Bravely Default 2, which lets you enhance and combine items! I loved reviving a party member, then restoring everyone's MP using a single ether! And yet the salve-maker also had some offensive abilities too, like making poison bombs out of potions!

[@ericb3157]

this reminds me of a very weird boss in FF6. i forget his name, but he appears at the end of the Cyan's Dream area. he has two helpers, and he will posses your characters. BUT, you can get rid of him quite easily by using the "X-Zone" spell on his helpers!

[@Ashtarte3D]

Weigraf actually had a real bizarre weakness that isn't just metagaming the Zodiac alignments. For some reason the Lich summon hits him like a cement truck from Hell. Never understood why, but it's enough to oneshot his first phase to force the Belias half of the encounter immediately.

[@smward87]

Lich always does 50% of the targets max hp (unless the target is resistant to dark then it only does 1/4th). You need to get him to 20% health to progress to the next phase, and there's nothing in his stats or job that means he should be weak to Dark, which even if he was it still only does 50%. So...yeah. Something funky is going on if Lich insta kills him since it's (supposed to be) physically incapable of doing so mechanically.

[@Nyghtking]

@@smward87 It might be that the game considers his second phase to be part of his health bar, so while they make it look like a phase change all the game is actually doing is going "Ok we've maxed the damage they can do this phase before we give them access to the second half of the health bar." So if thats the case and Lich does half the health of the target, it would automatically deal all of his first phase in damage and force a switch.

[@brentwebster4036]

Problem is he's probably weak to dark

[@atmosdwagon4656]

@@brentwebster4036 ^This is the actual, correct answer. "Percentage HP" magic attacks (like the Gravity series of spells) are subject to two major differences in FFT that makes them hilariously overpowered compared to any other iteration of them in any other Final Fantasy game. 1) They always inflict damage based on MAX HP rather than CURRENT HP 2) They can come in elemental flavors This means an elemental weakness will double the total damage. So if the target is, say, weak to Darkness and the attack normally does 50% of Max HP... >_> yeah, if the target doesn't have 1000+ HP (to survive via damage-capping the attack) they're just deleted. Why Wiegraf is vulnerable to the Dark element in the final battle with him in itself is actually part of an even larger subject, but the short version is that the Holy Knight Job as a whole went through a lot of changes between builds of FFT, and not all of those changes were correctly accounted for before the game shipped.

[@residentgrey]

​@@atmosdwagon4656 which spells are there besides the Demi line??

[@jerongordon]

If you ever do a "weird exploits for power bossess" you MUST include ffx2 chac vs lady luck flinching. The stagger animation for chac is so long, you just have each girl attack in a certain rhythm and chac will NEVER get a turn

[@enoyna1001]

Or with Thieves constantly double hitting

[@mattsully2238]

Only way I'm aware of to get the trophy for 99 hits chain

[@enoyna1001]

@@mattsully2238 I also can't think of anything better. Don't know if Trigger Happy is possible in alternating succession.

[@mattsully2238]

@@enoyna1001 I remember trying to string 3 trigger happy over and over. The cool down is a little too long. It might be doable but it would have to be on point inputs for a long time

[@jerongordon]

@mattsully2238 that only works of each girl is hasted because trogger happy hits more and had a different timing window when hasted. I got it for the 99 chain trophy in the ps4 version but all my girls had speed bracers on.

[@HiddenChimera]

This actually clears up why I’ve always been confused about the Weigraf fight. As a kid, I never had a problem with it but everyone talks about it like it’s the hardest fight in the game. I never paid attention to the zodiac signs, so I would always use my real birthday, and I’m a Taurus. Plus, I’ve always been a big fan of monks and would usually try to master the class ASAP because they’re so effective in tactics. Turns out I just had serious dumb luck with this brutal fight lol

[@poohbear01x48]

Same - it was challenging if Weigraf got lucky, but otherwise he was a pushover. Found myself having more issues with Baron Asshat and the twin assassins (not enough to lose, but enough to go ‘well, that was close’)

[@lloydlineske2642]

That's hilarious! I can just see everyone struggling and you were like that easy fight?!? What's the problem?!

[@guyver441]

​@@lloydlineske2642literally "born to win" 😅

[@risersin7957]

???: Every creature has a weakness. But it just so happens that every creature's weakness is. . . Yojimbo: Me.

[@nolongeraperson]

Imagine being me at a young age and summoning Yojimbo vs the Sanctuary Guardian only for him to use Zantetsuken. "... 😮..." 😂

[@MissLilianae]

​@nolongeraperson I've played FFX so many times and I've seen Zantesuken precisely *once* and it was during a grind session to build up my relationship with him so I could use it on bosses XD

[@Kartissa]

@@MissLilianae It helps to have paid him 3 times what he asks for when recruiting him. (After bargaining him down twice, of course)

[@MissLilianae]

@@Kartissa Interesting. I didn't realize that had implications for his usage rates. All the guides I've read said it was just based on how much you've paid him AFTER you've recruited him.

[@normal6483]

The last form of Seymour was pretty easy if you equipped Element-eater and Element-proof armor, since you could control what spells he cast on the party. Seymour was consistently the hardest re-occurring boss throughout the game, so the fact that his final form had such a simple weakness made was a delight to experience.

[@AzureRoxe]

I didn't even had to do any of that, i just gave him Fire weakness via his mechanic and summoned Ifrit. I didn't even fully understand what had happened till years later.

[@Alex-ks3uu]

Final form of Seymour was overwhelmingly his easiest form, tbh. He's way harder to beat when you first fight him, if you don't know what's going on. And then his forms in Bevelle and on Mt. Gagazet are much harder. Tbh, I don't think his final form was intended to be hard, since you have so many hard bosses at the time.

[@mikedg1703]

By the time get to final form of Seymour your fine if your under level you wouldn't even get inside sin to fight him

[@j0j0dartiste21]

I did all the side quests and had Wakka's celestial weapon and one-shot him with the dodgeball

[@Loctorak]

Idk i feel like im one of the only people who never saw the threat in any of Seymour's forms. By the time i played FFX, i was already such a hardcore final fantasy fan that the second he did something like infect my whole party with zombie my final fantasy ape brain kicked in and was like "he's going to cast heal or life on you, now". All of his gimmicks were predictable in that way, if you had prior knowledge of what final fantasy mechanics tended to be common between titles. The symbiotic hand thing its just like "oh ok i cant kill it without having to kill both of them essentially" and just idk.. exploiting whatever weaknesses seemed obvious at the time and yeah literally never had an issue with a Seymour fight Edit: dont get me wrong - i struggled with plenty of bosses across all of the titles and am by no means trying to sound like a pro. I suck, its just for whatever reason i seem to suck in a way that hard counters Seymour 100% of the time

[@oldmanwinter7739]

One of my favorites: In FFV, a couple of characters spamming Romeo's Ballad against Omega can keep the boss from ever getting a turn.

[@Snook1985]

Thanks for this info. I was thinking of running through this game since I haven't played it since PS1 release.

[@LilyKazami]

So me and Krile, we just look at each other, and say, "OK."

[@jorgebermudez7861]

I did this strategy against Omega Weapon in FF5. I had two bards casting Romeo's ballad, a chemist mixing dragon fangs with potions 4 times on a mistic knight, giving them the Dragon power effect, boosting their stats by 20 levels per mix. Finally, Thunder 3 spellblade plus rapid fire and Omega Weapon was death within seconds. I never felt so much satisfaction after pulling off such a convoluted strategy to defeat a super boss. FF5 is great.

[@RealPhoenixFlight]

To add on, Shinryu can be pretty much shut down with Berserk

[@residentgrey]

​​@@jorgebermudez7861Learning from a doc about the calculations in the game, I found out that Equip Bow is better than Barefists because of a damage calc error. It was intended for half of Speed to be included in damage calc but ALL was instead plugged in, meaning you get the same output faster than with Barefists.

[@Warrior-Of-Virtue]

The fight against Rapps in FF7 can be turned into a joke if you use Barret's Mindblow Limit Break to drain its MP at the start of the fight.

[@steveozone4910]

Or magic hammer on a lot of the bosses.

[@veghesther3204]

Except Yuffie will steal nearly All your materia making Magic hammer impossible to use on Rapps but at lv 45 with like 3500 max HP you really won't need to use Mindblow on it.

[@RayzeCruxis]

Same on Dyne. Make an easy fight even easier.

[@Aristaios]

well shit that would of been useful to know years ago

[@moonwolfv671]

TS Bombs also work fantastically against Rapps if you decide to pick some up in advance.

[@Kheapathic]

My first time through Tactics, I got locked in to the Wiegraf fight without a backup save; the main problem was surviving Velius, obviously. I managed to cheese it with Ramza being a Knight, with Chemist (for Items to heal), and Speed Save Reactionary. I let Wiegraf hit me until my speed was in the 50's or so, then killed him and Velius before they could get a turn.

[@jaye4157]

AGI is a deadly stat in turn based games. How it is that people for get that I'll next know.

[@moonwolfv671]

Final Fantasy V is my fave when it comes to these tactics. Atomos is probably one of the biggest nightmares in my opinion, but if you know two particular magic skills he can be taken down in a couple of turns.

[@Dw7freak]

A shoutout to all the bosses in the series with the Undead tag that can be killed with a Phoenix Down. Examples include the Ghost Train from 6 and Soulcage from 9.

[@DJAB87]

Phantom Train from FF6 Gi Nattak from FF7 Gerogero and Abadon from FF8 Soulcage from FF9 Evrae Alterna from FF10

[@jamesromesburg3733]

No, we only suplex ghost train here sir.

[@unknownuser494]

​@@DJAB87 Zombie Trex from ff5 too.

[@DJAB87]

@@unknownuser494 Forgot about that one. Been a while since i last played ff5 lol.

[@el_baz00ka10]

Also Hidon from FF VI. Using a phoenix-down on him instakills his whole family And I think the Behemoth King can be killed this way, too. But only the second form

[@Shadohime]

I'm surprised that, when you talked about Wiegraf, you didn't mention exploiting his AI code by equipping a Chameleon Robe and Feather Boots. This removes his two most potent moves from play (Lightning Stab and Earth Slash), as the Chameleon Robe absorbs Holy Elemental damage, which the game thinks Holy Swordskills are. In reality, the element of Holy Sword is tied to the element of the weapon being used, which means if it's not elementally-aligned, then neither is Holy Sword. But the game's AI doesn't realize this, and forgoes using Holy Sword on Ramza if he's equipped with the Chameleon Robe.

[@SpaceCat1111]

Actually, I thought this was going to be the weakness he mentioned. I was especially surprised because he actually got it wrong as well.

[@johnkim7890]

Monk class is always what I do with Ramza against Wiegraf. 2 sword on a monk is deadly enough but having earth slash learned can take him down from a distance to avoid his lighting stab.

[@mattsully2238]

Top 10 ability combinations that made you super powerful. Ex:ff6 all party members wear reflect accessories and cast bolt 3 on all party members. It would bounce off all four and bolt 3 four times for the price of one cast.

[@MiiNiPaa]

Multitargeting divides damage by 2 in comparison to a single-target damage. Also reflected spell deals half damage too. So in the end reflect x4 strategy is just dealing the same damage you would deal by casting a single-target spell on enemy. Most future games nerf this tactics too. Some will let you get away with some bonus damage, like with FF9 this strategy nets you 4/3 damage (without reflectx2 eqipped); and also that reflected spells cannot be reflected in most games helps too. Another use is to break the damage limit, because you are dealing 1/4 damage 4 times and where full 20000 damage would be capped at 9999, separating it into 4 instances of 5000 damage nets you higher damage overall.

[@residentgrey]

Meteor. ;)

[@residentgrey]

4x Demi could be neat. I never experimented with this technique.

[@NightSprinter]

Apparently in FF1, petrification classifies under Poison-element. It explains why a Knight with am Aegis Shield can neither be turned to stone, or take massive damage from the Green Dragon's "Poison Breath" attack.

[@ottlika]

'A wild Ifrit appears!' ´Cloud uses Water-Cup' 'it's super effective!'

[@vvonser]

One of my go-to ways to defeat difficult bosses and final fantasy tactics was to exploit the speed stat. As long as I kept using yell every turn, using a potion whenever I needed to, I can essentially raise my character speed to such a ludicrous level that I could take three turns at once before the enemy even went

[@grogc6942]

For Weigraf I used Mach Speed Ramza. One of his unique squire abilities gave him a small, but stacking, speed boost and you just stay away for a bit while spamming it. By the time you actually decide to attack, you can be doing, like, 10 turns for his every one. It was just something I did when Ramza couldn't attack for the JP and over time I realized how broken it could become. Weigraf just got to be the target of that knowledge.

[@ShadowAimai]

In FFVI, there is a tricky boss named Wrex Soul. A quick way to defeat it is to use X-Zone. But you won't get his special drop.

[@Invie4196]

To this day i never knew he had a special drop for not cheeseing it

[@MrGBH]

In the 7 remake, Rufus Shinra is a powerful foe. Unkess you hit him with Braver, the basic skill, which instantly staggers him

[@jaehaalexander1172]

You can also cast stop on him. Which I didn't know until waaaaay after I beat him

[@CrnaStrela]

You have to hit him with braver when he is reloading, any other time he probably just gonna counter that and stun you instead. So when he finally done doing bang bang bang, just run to him and bash his head with braver. Well aside from that, bosses in this game seems to be vulnerable to status effects, idk if it's boss specific or type specific though, probably type specific in that human type is vulnerable to all status effects but machine type is immune to sleep and poison.

[@Jerupitus]

Crazy to randomly see my footage in this! Great video, liked and subbed

[@MagodoCaos1]

I still remember discovering Ruby Weapom weakness and the shock it was for me. After a full day fighting both Ruby and Emerald, I did managed to defeat Emerald, but Ruby was just mercyless. On my last try of the day, I'm there with 2 dead characters, and Cloud as a frog. Seeing I wasn't going to win anyway, I just used the first item I see, that happened to bee dazzers. I just couldn't believe that.

[@Krim_The_Crow]

One unusual weakness/strategy that came to mind was Gizamaluke from FF9. It's a pretty tough fight for that stage of the game, but it had a number of status weakness. The unusual strategy came from using the item Tent on the boss, which most of the time would heal it, but something like 1/4th of the time a snake would be hidden in the tent and bite Gizamaluke, and inflict statuses on it that'd make the fight significantly easier. You could do this on other enemies, but I think it stands out against Gizamaluke because as far as I'm aware you don't have access to any spells or abilities that can inflict those statuses at that point in the game.

[@Shadohime]

Actually, if you've synthed The Ogre for Zidane at Lindblum, you can use Soul Blade to blind Gizamaluke, which is a massive help in avoiding his physical counters. Also, it's possible to have a Magus Hat by this point to teach Vivi Slow, which reduces the number of turns the boss gets.

[@residentgrey]

That's the snake, right? The irony...

[@ShadowDaHam]

Soul blade!! 🎉

[@ShadowDaHam]

​@@Shadohimeanother long time fan! How many times did you buy 9?

[@Shadohime]

@@ShadowDaHamI have it on original PS1, the PS4 version, and the Steam version with the Moguri Mod installed.

[@Corydonn]

The Wiegraf info is a bit wrong because having good compatibility is both ways in Final Fantasy Tactics. Characters both have a 25% increased hit chance/damage on each other with good compatibility but in the players hands that is usually more powerful in that fight since you only have to get Wiegraf to a critical state in that fight while he has to kill the player to win. The easier way to cheese it is having a Chameleon Robe (Absorbs Holy) on Ramza so he doesn't use any of his powerful holy sword abilities that have a chance to status effect Ramza causing an instant loss. He will be stuck using punch art or regular attacks in that case.

[@SpaceCat1111]

Ah, I'm not the only one to notice that and point it out. Good eye.

[@SproingBoing]

The fight against Wiegraf is forever seared into my subconscious for just how hard it was for a first time player, especially since my actual Zodiac sign is Libra. I'd go as far to say it kickstarted my personal hobby of finding really weird or cracked ability combos that extends to the present day

[@xdfeverdream8122]

I choose the Death spell to slay the adamantoise. His HP is so high by the time it finishes him off his body stretches comically.

[@eredkaiser]

This reminds me I only ever played the day 1 unpatched version of 15, where the ring was completely useless.

[@dolebiscuit]

I think I took down Adamantoise in about 18 minutes, but that was at level 120 with the sword you get from Garuda that let's you basically infinitely combo in the air.

[@KelluehazeDSOO]

and it's 100% critical rate helps a lot

[@MrEvilbyte]

Defender X (FFX) can be made moot by having Tidus use Provoke. This will force the boss to only attack Tidus, and only with an attack that halves his current HP (it can't actually kill him, even if he's at 1 HP). As long as you don't then switch Tidus out, the other party members can take the boss down at their leisure. Katana Soul (A monster in a box from FF6) had an instant death physical special (which weren't coded to respect any instant death protection the target might have). It also has a glaring weakness to Confuse xD So spam Noiseblaster with Edger, and wait for the monster to Slayer Edge itself.

[@veghesther3204]

Except on the PIXEL remaster where it NEVER uses Slayer Edge AT all.

[@mrskye08]

Imagine in ff17 we get to fight an undead enemy and of course we give him phoenix down. But instead of dying it actually came back to life with triple stats and mocking the player for thinking it would kill it. That would me 👁️👄👁️ to players.

[@j0j0dartiste21]

Or instead of dying it comes back to proper life

[@TheBlackSeraph]

Wouldn't surprise me. Halfway through the game FF12's undead enemies stop being susceptible to insta-kill revives for no reason (a disproportionate amount of FF12's enemy list are undead).

[@alexandredelarge1901]

Oh my lord I KNEW I WASN'T CRAZY! I played 15 on launch and got to the adamantoise fight, tried the ring several times and it never worked. I was always confused when I saw people saying they just cheesed it with the ring, but now I finally know why!

[@TheBlackSeraph]

I've had similar issues revolving around stuff in Zodiac Age.

[@AaronL0905]

Whenever we talk about cheesing bosses in FF i always remember how easy it is to just mirror item+item lore+X-Potion combo from FFTA2

[@sswishbone]

I still love how in FFVII for Jenova Life you can equip the water ring, and Jenova death the fire armlet... absorb every attack she has until no more MP. I do that every time

[@mathelexis1139]

FFT for PSX Weigraf fight. Equip Chameleon Robe. Absorbs Holy. The coding for the sword arts shows as being Holy, but the weapon is what gave it it's elemental properties. The game didn't always read that properly though. Therefore, he'd only use normal attacks.

[@kitsune4760]

To be honest, with Wiegrad from Tactics, I just made Ramza a Monk and I just out-healed the damage he did since... well, Monk has a self-heal skill that costs nothing. Whenever he missed, I smacked him.

[@TheBT]

My Dad beat Ruby and Emerald weapon but didn't know Vincent was a character in the game :D

[@shawnsmith5668]

When I was a kid and struggled with Weigraf I switched to Archer. The charge times on even the higher charges are one turn and just kited him. I was so happy after that.

[@greyknight627]

No mention of FFX the VERY final fight against Yu Yevon, the very deity/menace who continued the birth and rebirth of Sin in Spira being the antagonist in the shadows behind all the death and destruction to the world for years. Quite simply, have a character perform a Zombie Attack and then throw a mega Phoenix down to one shot the final boss of the game.

[@madnimrod2489]

Didn't know about the Phoenix Down part. My friend always just liked casting Zombie and watching him Curaga himself to death.

[@JoshuaVerscha]

I always laugh at the dazers for Ruby Weapon.

[@matthewlandoll7812]

You are incorrect about how Zodiac compatibility affects damage in FFT. Good compatibility raises damage dealt by both sides, while poor compatibility lowers damage dealt by both sides. There is no raising the damage from one while lowering the damage from the other. You could set up good compatibility to try to end the battle with Weigraf in one or two turns, or set up poor or worst compatibility to take less damage and win the battle more slowly while having plenty of time to heal. Glad you mentioned it as a viable exploit though, because compatibility can make a huge difference on how you approach enemies or even buffing/healing your own party.

[@SnthwaveSunset]

Although not a brutal boss but in final fantasy mystic quest during the dark king fight (the final boss) you can defeat him in 4 turns by casting cure on him. Due to an error in the game you can break the damage limit causing at least 10,000+ damage to him with each cast

[@DOC_951]

I used that ring on so many enemies in ffxv… I think I remember a dungeon with 100 floors of enemies or something and you couldn’t leave to rest or whatever… and I just spammed the ring on everything

[@LadyLunarSatine]

I did that but coupled it with the item that gave you a limited window of infinite magic. XV was the first game I ever platinummed.

[@darksero4433]

I still loved the moment in a GDQ Speedrun 2014 of FFVII where they beat Ultima by throwing a potion at it and attack it once. I love when bosses have ridiculous weaknesses

[@ccmoose1]

Re: Weigraf, I dont think that's how Zodiac compatability works. You don't deal increased damage and take reduced damage. You either deal and receive extra damage or deal and receive reduced damage.

[@null.psyche]

Not even an Honorable mention to the myriad of undead bosses that fall to a single phoenix down?

[@geistgrace6452]

While not a final fantasy game per-say, Bravely Second has a fitting weakness for a boss. Revenant, son of Geist holds the guardian job. And his fight consists of possessing his teammates, or your party and fighting you within. It can be a cruel battle, but there's a easy win. After possessing an opponent, his HP is technically 0 and when he is booted from the target he possessed, his HP will revert back to what it was before possession. If you use the Exorcist job, earned earlier by beating his father, you can undo his HP back to 0 once he returns to his armor. Because of their relationship, I can't help but feel this was intentional as no other boss can have this strategy affect them

[@GunslingerBahamut]

Did you know the Phantom Train in FF6 had a secret weakness that triggered a special battle ending? Casting 3 seperate fire attribute spells or abilities on the train during the fight would send it into an 'overheated' state, prompting the conductor to end the battle by shutting the train down to prevent the engine from exploding. --- Far harder than most realize, as your only fire sources are an over-leveled Sabin's Fire Dance, or if you stole fire skein's that Shadow could throw. Meaning you needed shadow to still be around for this fight if Sabin didn't have the blitz. As I do not recall having the ability to buy the fire throwables at that point of the game. So it was something I found out by accident during a grind heavy run I did out of boredom, an got curious after my first firedance triggered unique text 'Engine is heating up' or something to that effect. And espers are not available yet.

[@dansmith1661]

Interesting... It may be a year or two down the line when I finally get the Pixel Remaster and clear my backlog enough.

[@Dracobyte]

Nice info!!!

[@DroWarriorOfLight]

Here's my addition, although a simple one, just because it was one of those bosses I killed cheaply without noticing or reading a guide before and I felt like a god lmao: Emperor in FF2 and his weakness towards the Blood Sword; being such a simple action instead of a convoluted strat also helps

[@craigfunk3453]

Its more how the blood sword changes the damage calculation more than anything. It makes your attacks act like those of an undead enemy in ff2. Doing 1/16 of the target's hp per hit up to the damage cap if the target had more hp than that for a full 16 hit attack

[@anthonydelfino6171]

Regarding the FF6 Magic master, if you also summoned the phantom esper after berserkimg him, all his physical attacks will miss the party. Pair that with the rasp/osmose strategy, and you have the easiest path to victory since it also disables his death ultima cast

[@jamesputterlik225]

The Adamantoise was also vulnerable to instant death. So equipping an assassin dagger could have you putting him down with a lucky hit.

[@Taigan_HSE]

Honorable mention for Evrae Altana in FFX. it’s set up as a major boss battle, even giving your party opportunities to escape, only to have it chase you down. But if you happened to notice it was an undead enemy, the solution presented itself. Just toss two phoenix downs at it for a quick ko.

[@mitchellholcomb1561]

My go-to strategy against Wiegraf is to run away, spamming yell on myself until I consistently get back to back turns, and then whittle him down using geomancy or something similar.

[@tjcihlar1]

The saw in FFL was the OG ridiculous weakness.

[@SpaceCat1111]

Turns out God is weak to chainsaws, who would have thought?

[@jackholt2364]

Interestingly on Ruby Weapon, you can use Diablos to cause paralysis. So I did every 3 turns it was with only Cloud; Diablos + KotR, KotR x2, mime then repeat until I killed it. Didn't take longer and did not really take too much damage either. Think I used one elixir.

[@DJAB87]

Diablos was in FF8. I think you mean Hades.

[@jackholt2364]

@@DJAB87 Oh yes of course!

[@arkthompson9869]

FOOLS!!! Wiegraf's true weakness was the chameleon robe. Just wear it and he won't use ANY holy sword techniques. Why, because of a bug. The chameleon robe blocks holy attacks. Even though the holy sword attacks aren't holy, the games programming thinks its holy. Wiegraf will use the way weaker shockwave attack.

[@SpaceCat1111]

Chameleon Robe always felt like an exploit. I just use the Mystic's Manafont movement ability combined with Time Mage's Mana Shield reaction ability. Ramza should already have maxed Bravery from his Steel ability being used throughout the game. Wiegraf attacks, you lose all your MP from Mana Shield. Move up to him and hit him. Your MP restores a few from Manafont. Rinse and repeat. This combo also works on any other tough opponent or attack in the game, including final and secret bosses.

[@ViewTube_Emperor_of_Mankind]

I remember being like 10 years old and using a revive spell on the skeleton boss in FF Mystic Quest.. I felt like the smartest kid alive.

[@ViewTube_Emperor_of_Mankind]

Same with the final boss. You had to cast it several times due to its3 or more forms but it made it a total cheese.

[@costby1105]

Orphan being weak to Instant death may be a reference to the Saw bug in Final Fantasy Legend/Saga.

[@shoshbock6374]

You could break wiegraf's sword he'd be pretty much usless. Idk if its the same in war of the lions but in the ps1 version he would turn into a chump.

[@gwgux]

For all these years, I've only ever fought and taken Tiamat down the conventional way. I had no ideas those other options worked. lol

[@davidnunez8881]

Wiegraf had another and more glaring weakness, his weapon could be broken. It takes away his sword abilities and if I remember correctly, he runs and throws stones at you.

[@jsull81]

I've Never beat Ruby weapon, but I actually started a playthrough not too long ago (for the first time in at least a decade, lol) and now I'm going to kick his ass! Thank you : )

[@blazor117]

For ff6 on magic tower, i always recruited the yeti and i believe you give him an amulet that makes him do a body slam as soon as his turn was up and he would do massive damage. I used him to do all the work going up the tower.

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

Phantom Train kicked my ass so many times, and I was so excited to finally beat it outright. Then a strategy guide revealed that I could've killed it in one round with a phoenix down. I almost cried.

[@MidnightChaosFlame]

I was about halfway through the adamantoise boss the normal way when prompto destroyed it with the insta-death gun he had equipped. I hadn’t even realized it was possible until that moment.

[@TheKarishi]

When you said Gogo copied your every move, I assumed the solution would be to sacrifice two of your party members with something like Blue Magic: Final Sting. One of them casts it (and dies) and another one takes the brunt of Gogo casting it...but then Gogo has cast it (and dies). If they haven't done that, then I guess that's still available for me to include as a solution to my own copycat superboss someday!

[@Milktube]

That is a cool idea. FF5 was released so long ago that the full extent of what they were going for was the "mimic what this mimic is doing" concept, but it was heightened by the timer counting down to game over (as well as the extra time you would need to travel back up to the surface even after the battle ended) - causing stress to the player to second guess themselves (in a world of no internet or guides) if sitting there doing no damage to an opponent that took a good amount of time to reach while the timer runs out is really what they should be doing or not. His dialogue isn't so obvious of the solution in the original version of FF5 so it really was a cool puzzle. Also you *CAN* defeat him normally by damaging him and bringing his HP to 0, he just hits really hard but it is possible and you will still get the crystal shard he is blocking.

[@jvstice56]

Magic Master, Gogo, Ruby Weapon, and Weigraf; all beaten by legitimate means. Hardest was naturally Ruby due to being a superboss, and Weigraf as the #2 hardest due to the sheer level of preparation one must go through. My brother and I always had created secondary save just in case our strategy didn't work. Gogo was simple as the whole schtick of the fight was literally do nothing. Magic Master was a challenge due to his magic barrier.

[@dansmith1661]

Barret's Angermax with maxed materia and Mime.

[@Aware_Wolf_X4]

I remember using those Power Ranger style suits with the Ring to one-shot Adamantoise. Wish I would've captured a clip of it.

[@DanHemsath]

I always beat Orphan the standard way, because I didn't use Vanille as a main team member. (That went to Lightning, Hope, and Fang because of the synergy.) And I first beat Adamantoise the standard way, too, although I did use those power armors for a chunk of it. Took a little over a couple of hours. Went after it before being able to use Alterna.

[@Fives-oy8du]

Ring of the Luci helped me in the dungeon caves. Each floor would have enemies and the final floors contains some flans. Since spells were used up like items and had to be created, I either ran out or saved the useful ones. Luckily, the enemies were no immune to the Ring, even though it took some time for each battle.

[@NxnjaSenpai]

I remember my mom getting stuck on the mimic and just sitting there mid battle, completely stumped. Then she won by doing nothing. We had a good laugh at that.

[@atmosdwagon4656]

So, about that pesky Wiegraf fight: As another comment pointed out, you can exploit Wiegraf's A.I. in the first part of the battle by equipping items that render Ramza immune to the Lightning element and Instant-Death ('Dead') status. Another commenter also correctly pointed out that you can one-shot Wiegraf with the Lich summon; an attack that normally only inflicts 50% of a target's Maximum HP in damage. The reason for both of these peculiar weaknesses working have a common root: Wiegraf's Holy Knight Job. It's evident that the special jobs went through a number of changes during FFT's development since some leftover code from those earlier builds remain still within the retail PSX version of the game. The biggest and most obvious example: Holy Knight's special sword skills. They originally had the element of damage that they were keyed for (Lightning element for Lightning Stab, and Holy element for the other 4 attacks), but this was later removed to instead use the element and attack power of the first weapon equipped. (prioritizing Right Hand over Left Hand, which means you can use a non-sword weapon's element and power so long as you equip a sword in your Left Hand to activate the Holy Sword Skills. It's weird.) You can still see traces of this feature if you use the tooltip function to check the Holy Sword skills by pressing 'select' on the original PSX version of the game, as they will have an element appended to them that doesn't actually exist. This would normally be the end of the story, except for one detail: The game's A.I. still thinks those elements exist. This is why Wiegraf can be easily tricked into using his much weaker attacks over his deadly Holy Sword abilities, making the fight substantially easier. If you block the Lightning element the game assumes Lightning Stab will fail and so chooses to use Crush Punch, Earth Slash or Wave Fist. But if you also block the Holy Element the A.I. will incorrectly assume Crush Punch will also fail, so he defaults to using his remaining Punch Arts attacks, Wave Fist and Earth Slash. (and you can force him into never using Earth Slash by becoming immune/absorbing Earth Element too, though this attack is keyed properly since it's a generic Monk ability and not one of the Holy Knight's) So, what about Wiegraf's fatal allergy to the Lich summon? This one boils down to an interaction of two obscure game mechanics, one intended and the other likely another oversight. In most Final Fantasy games, there's a line of spells that inflict damage based on a percentage of the target's HP. (usually the 'Gravity' series of spells). In FFT, uniquely, these attacks always inflict damage based on the MAXIMUM HP total instead of the CURRENT HP total that they do in other Final Fantasy games. Consequently, they are some of the most unintentionally overpowered attacks in the game, especially vs Bosses. Wiegraf is vulnerable to the Darkness element. Lich is a Dark Elemental summon that inflicts 50% maximum HP in damage. This results in 100% Max HP in damage vs Wiegraf, killing his first form instantly. But why is Wiegraf vulnerable to Darkness in the first place? Isn't he possessed by a literal demon from Hell at this point? And why isn't Agrias, your own Holy Knight, also vulnerable to the Darkness element in the same way? In brief, Wiegraf's Holy Knight job is not the same one as Agria's (or Delita's for that matter). Based on leftover code, Holy Knight was most likely originally intended to have a vulnerability to the Darkness element, but that idea was scrapped when Agrias and other specialist Job NPCs were made recruitable in later builds of the game to bring them in line with the other generic PC-accessible Jobs. I will note that last paragraph is my own speculation, but given the other oversights related to the Job's features it would make the most sense. Furthermore, the final duel with Wiegraf is one of if not the most infamous, pivotal encounters in the game, so there's a high probability that it was finished early in production but neglected when other things changed down the line. I say this because of one final fun fact about FFT: Most NPCs, including many you never see directly (those only listed in the Brave Story character dossier, like Prince Orinas or the late King) actually have unique jobs and stats. Some of them even have dummied out or placeholder abilities.

[@danielmunroe1423]

Where is my ff13 trilogy on ps5????? 😢😢😢

[@ShadowDaHam]

One of the few bud. 😅💪

[@ElFelocitaptor]

Neigh

[@pigtaku4276]

I wish

[@haterade5137]

In the trash

[@KindHornet]

I remember fighting the Adamantoise for the first time. I had just got home from school and booted up 15 to mess around doing the post game stuff. I had got the game for Christmas the year it released so this was like in January or something. I spent almost two hours fighting it the way it was originally intended and felt so accomplished after it all

[@aryana1879]

i remember the soul of sin (or whatever it was) after jekkt in final fantasy 10 after every damage taken it heals itself with 9999 hp EXCEPT if you use zombie first turn, than it kills itself with 9999 damage everytime you attack it

[@thezerowulf2046]

I always played thief in tactics because you could steal so much and even steal abilities, so i never even realized Wiegraf was a challenge

[@ericb3157]

one of the comment reminded me of a old Flash game called "Sonny". there's an optional Superboss called "doctor" something. he has 100,000 HP, AND know a spell that can RESTORE 100,000 HP, which he will ALWAYS use on the next turn if his health falls below 90,000 HP! the ONLY was to beat him is to use a specific spell that "switches healing and magic effects", at JUST the right time, so that he will "un-heal" himself to death!

[@Sherudons]

Dragon's dogma had the Ur-dragon fight, a multi encounter community fight to fully kill, I can't remember how long that actually took but I think it's a monthly combined damage fight to kill it, but once you managed it the boss would spawn basically dead in a grace period that you could farm for the best rewards.

[@Didymus20X6]

6:50 - "HI, MY NAME IS BRAK! AND I'M DRIVING DOWN HIGHWAY 40 IN MY BIG OL' PICKUP TRUCK!"

[@srhg6300]

playing "final fantasy 3" as a kid, i never thought of the reraise angle against magic master, but i was committed enough to rasp away all 50,000 mp. good times...

[@azrigal87]

With the adamantoise just have 255 spirit. No more random, you’re welcome.

[@east6272]

Omg i remember that fft fight. I heard Taurus was never a normal thing unless you pick it and just so happens my birthday in 05/07 lol. I didnt know i had a advantage

[@onionknight44]

Anybody else on FFX zombie attack Yu Yevon for shits and or giggles and have to take a minute to laugh because it actually worked?

[@bireland2012]

You can also do it to Braska’s Final Aeon.

[@Vayne_Solidor]

​@@bireland2012No you can't, it's not undead.

[@bireland2012]

@@Vayne_Solidor it can be turned undead though like Yu Yevon.

[@TheWorstPartyMember]

I had a friend spoil me that zombie worked on him so that's how I beat him when I finally played...I always assumed that was the devs' intended strategy...

[@mrmosty5167]

Never knew that about Ruby. I remember back in the day becoming OBSESSED with trying to beat him. I eventually did but since he was one of the first superbosses I ever fought in a game he became like my ultimate nemesis. Even today that look on his face just fills me with such rage, especially since I already did the whole Gold Chocobo thing and mastered KOTR only to find out you win another Gold Chocobo...

[@BobtheExile]

I have defeated Ruby Weapon and Tiamat legitimately. I wish I'd known about these when I did that. Ruby Weapon took weeks I'll never get back and potentially cost me my job at the time. Emerald Weapon was even worse. That being said, those two were the only superbosses I've fought that I had issues with. I beat Ozma on my first try within about 5 minutes, I defeated Omega Weapon in about an hour and a half, and I had more trouble with the demon train than I did anything else in 6

[@Kaisarfire]

Final Fantasy 6 had the most powerful spell combo of all... Making the enemy invisible, then casting death on them for 100% success rate.

[@Desocupad0]

Wait a second virgo-taurua make both characters hit, heal and do more damage to eqch other. The real "trick" is weaing rubber boots to render lightning stab useless.

[@poirier009]

Never realized my Capricorn tendency made Wiegraf's fight easier. I only ever got through it by setting Ramza as a Monk with a ninja's Dual Wield and charging forward to attack and counting on First Strike to work (there's always some save/load fun).

[@bassemandere]

Just to add an boss: Final Fantasy 9 Soulcage his weakness is 1 Elixir, it was an insta win, learned that by mistake in targeting lol

[@francovenica1531]

in FF Mystic Quest for the SNES, the final boss of the game is vulnerable to Cure, it just destroys it in a comical fashion

[@Aristaios]

well shit didnt know that

[@lolly9804]

My partner at the time left for work at 7am just as I was starting the fight with Yiazmat. They got home again at 8pm wondering why I restarted the fight, until I said it's the same boss fight from the morning.

[@Darkoriax17]

Now I know it was never a boss in Godzilla games (that I know of) but the fact Destoroyah’s most powerful attack, its chest beam, is also it’s biggest weakness. (In Godzilla vs Destoroyah, Godzilla defeats Destoroyah by punching its chest cavity while it’s charging, causing Destoroyah to implode.)

[@NovaSaber]

It's a glitch, but surely the fact that the Dark King in Mystic Quest takes 5-digit damage from Cure deserves honorable mention?

[@bakura131313]

One of my favorites is the Defender X from FFX. Hits like a truck, soaks up damage, is immune to all status effects, can one-shot party members every 4th turn, and has a move called Blast Punch that will reduce a character's current hp by half. And, if you attack it too many times in sequence, it will debuff your entire party. At the point you encounter it, it's a rough fight. Or just use "Provoke", making him only use Blast Punch on the character that provoked. No other moves, no debuffs, just reducing the targets hp by half each turn. Just heal when you get low and he literally can't kill you

[@ethanlieske9678]

Ruby was, W-summon Knights of the round and Hades+added effect. From there you just mime it with some basic timing and you could wipe him barely taking a hit. I discovered this pre internet guides and felt like I was a genius.