~Hack~ Final Fantasy IV: Ultima Superboss & Boss Rush guide - RetroAchievements/guides GitHub Wiki

This guide was designed for the hack’s ver. 2022 Rev25c. If you’re playing a different version, some of the information presented here may not be accurate.

This is a guide detailing where all of the original superbosses are found and the strategies needed to defeat them. I wrote them according to the locations you can reach chronologically, though this doesn’t mean you can actually handle the bosses in this specific order. For instance, Magissa is manageable in the mid-game, but Tonberry can only be defeated after doing lots of grinding and exploring in the late game despite being found in the same spot as Magissa.

If you want more strategies than just mine, since I stuck with specific parties and didn’t experiment with all of the other party members, feel free to check out the ROM Hacking Wiki entry for more suggestions. There is one thing I’d like to mention before getting started.

Giant of Babil Farming: This was where I took some time to steal a ton of Sirens from a Searcher. In vanilla FF4, I tend to steal six full stacks of 99 Sirens. Here I did well over 15 stacks to improve the chances of getting enough Pink Tails so all five party members had an Adamant Armor. If you have the Locke Bandana from defeating Tunnel Armor, this item drop chance will improve. I also knocked out the other party members so Edge is the only one alive, allowing his turn to come faster. Once I was done, I just ran away and revived everyone before carrying on. There are plenty of reasons for getting so many, but the decision on what to do here is up to you. While Giant of Babil is a temporary dungeon, you can always revisit Tower of Babil’s Omega Sector to farm more Sirens if you wish to do this later.

Speaking of the Omega Sector, there are two other excellent items you can farm for either there or in the Giant – Silver Seeds and Gold Seeds, which increase HP by 50 and 100 respectively. They are Rare-level drops from Centaurs and Beamers. You may get a Soma Drop during this grind, but I only ever saw about five after a couple of hours of grinding at 10x speed. It increases MP by 10, which I always gave to Rosa until she was maxed. You can also buy Soma Drops at Kokkol’s Forge.

In New Game, I built up my desired party’s HP to around the 9500 range, and only after reaching level 99 and doing all of the suberbosses sans Ultima Buster and Neo Bahamut. This was more in preparation for the boss rushes rather than the individual bosses, although any advantage I could get against Neo Bahamut was good. Unfortunately, the last boss rush was too difficult for me, so I completed them in New Game Plus with the boosted level and HP caps.

Now on to the bosses themselves.

Magissa (Mystery Forest): She was too difficult for my party after just defeating Dark Elf, so I fought her upon returning from the Underworld with Cecil, Kain, Rosa and Rydia, and after doing some exploring. Although it’s riskier with the Magnes Cavern party, it is doable and much more rewarding. Once you’re ready, you’ll see after scanning her that she’s weak to fire, so hit her with fire-element attacks and spells. She has a habit of poisoning and putting your characters to sleep though, so have lots of Heals and Abilifys on hand. She’ll also summon a Mad Ogre, but it’s no issue with the Thunder Sword or lightning magic. Once she’s down, examine the three jars to find an Ethereal Mantle (battle consumable that nullifies damage), a Brigand Axe (which can steal items upon attacking an enemy), and an Experience Ring.

Tonberry (Mystery Forest): To reach him (the yellow robed figure in the upper left area), you need to hug the upper bushes until you can slip into a hidden maze. Work your way through to the S-shaped path and talk to him to fight him. Tonberry has a regular attack, an Absorb spell that heals him for 9999 HP that he luckily doesn’t do the whole battle, and a powerful Dagger attack that depletes half of the target’s HP. His most dangerous move is Knife, which is a guaranteed one-hit kill he does after inching his way closer to the party.

You want to employ a rush-down strategy of dealing as much damage as quickly as possible. This is where I had Edge throw the Spoon along with two Caliburns. Cecil did the scan before using items, Rosa casting Ultima, and Rydia casting Nuke, using items when an emergency came up. Having a good stack of All-Potions is helpful here if you don’t have Edward. The reward for this nightmare gauntlet is the Gladius, an Anti-Matter and a Void Stone. This is a great upgrade for whoever you choose to equip it, as it does huge damage to a large variety of enemies. I gave it to Paladin Cecil to improve his offense.

Calofisteri (Island Peak): She’s weak to holy element but also puts up a Wall, so Rydia should summon Mist, while Cecil/Edward attacks with Excalibur, Edge throws Shurikens, Kain jumps, Yang attacks, and Rosa/Porom heals. Unless Palom has Meteo, he isn’t much help here due to the Wall. Golbez comes with Meteo already, so he’s a good alternative. Calofisteri also constantly spams Curse and Poison status ailments, so either cure them or equip gear that’s resistant. She drops a Cursed Ring, and gives a Seraphic Shield, 10 Artemis Arrows and 10 Perseus Arrows. The shield can be equipped by the mages, and grants immunity to petrify/stone.

Yeti (Ice Cave): He does a vicious rushing attack that hits everyone for around 2000 HP even with Adamant Armors equipped, a Snowstorm spell that he can cast back-to-back, a weak Blizzard spell, and Ice-3 on himself to heal for about 5500 HP. Edge’s Ninja Star throw can offset this easily, so the others can attack or heal as the situation calls it. The rewards are a Dragon Claw and a Berserk Ring. The claw can replace the Masamune for Edge, or it can go on Yang.

Tunnel Armor (Northeast Baron Cave): This guy can one-hit KO your party members, as well as do an AoE rolling attack. Adamant Armors protect from the instant death, so once you have those, this boss becomes trivial. Tempting as it is to use lightning magic, don’t do it because the boss absorbs that element. The reward is Locke’s Bandana for Edge, which doubles the drop rate of items from enemies. Definitely get this for the PinkPuff grind in Lunar Subterrane.

Gamma (Eblan Cave): It can cast Wall, so single-target spells are no good. Ultima and Meteo will work, as well as summons. There’s also a Blaster attack, but Adamant Armors protect from instant death. The most worrying ability is Electro Magnet, causing the permanent Stop status, so bring some Time Eggs. He only has 44,444 HP though, so he’ll go down faster than most superbosses. The rewards are a Wing Edge and 5 Ninja Stars. As long as you did the PinkPuff grind and equip everyone with Adamant Armors, this will be easy.

Magma Golem (Magma Cavern/Ruins): He can use Lava Wave that hits everyone, a Crush attack that kills the target with maximum damage unless they can absorb darkness element, and he can resurrect the Flamedogs if they’ve been killed. Adamant Armors help with the Lava Wave, but not the Crush, so have plenty of Life items on hand. Otherwise, he’s not too scary. The rewards are the Flare Sledgehammer and Adamant Helm.

Ultima Weapon (Cave Moore): This fight was rather odd for me. I’m assuming you’d want to challenge him as soon as you reach the Moon if you want to experience its difficulty, because after I did the Adamant Armor grind, Ultima Weapon’s spells like Meteo, Ultima and Nuke were not going off. I did see a Tsunami spell, but again it did nothing. I did Meteo, Ultima and Ninja Star throwing spam with no problem, and Cecil scanned him. The rewards are the Brave Blade and the Chicken Knife.

Raiden (Lunar Subterrane): When he raises his sword, use a lightning elemental spell or item to greatly weaken him before he can use Atomic Edge. As long as you do that, this fight is simple.

Gilgamesh #3 (Lunar Subterrane): He’s pretty tough, being able to gradually attack all of your party members with Caliburn, as well as paralyzing allies with MindBlow. Use Abilifys to heal it, then have Rosa/Porom constantly heal while the others use their best attacks. Even if you don’t think you need to heal, do so anyway - Gilgamesh does not mess around.

Gilgamesh #4 (Lunar Whale): He’s accompanied by 3 Last Arms and a Gamma. If you can handle Gamma in Eblan Cave, this should be no problem. He spams Poison Gas, so don’t bother healing it and just focus on offense. He also has a Needle counterattack that does maximum damage to a single ally, so use Meteo, Nuke and Ultima instead.

The real challenge is having enough inventory space, because he gives you 21 different items as a reward. Excluding the Sort/Trash icon, you have 47 slots in total. A lot of these items are great weapons normally blocked off by other superbosses, so this fight is a simpler alternative to getting them if you’re having trouble. You can also fight Gilgamesh as many times as you want to stock up on these, especially the throwable weapons for Edge and the Glass Helms to replace Ribbons once you have Adamant Armors. These are the items he gives you:

  • Murasame
  • Hyperion
  • Fire Bute
  • Vesper
  • Godhand
  • Lustrous
  • Rising Sun
  • Thor Hammer
  • Rune Axe
  • Triton Hammer
  • Excalibur
  • Caliburn
  • Thief Gloves
  • Dragon Whip
  • Gilbert Harp
  • Apollo Harp
  • Minerva Plate
  • Dark Gear
  • Stardust Rod
  • Sage Staff
  • Glass Helm

The AI (Lunar Core): It is accompanied by 3 Defenders and 3 Attackers. The attacks used by this boss are functionally the same as those of the CPU and AI Mk.1 but have been renamed; Ion Beam = Maser, Recharge = Vitalize, Overclock = Fast, ShortCircuit = Stop, Surge = LitFlash, Firewall = Big Guard and DELETE = Globe199. Get rid of all of the Attackers (the front three orbs) and two of the Defenders (the rear orbs) to avoid AI using DELETE. They will be eventually revived, so you’ll have to take them down again one by one. Meteo is a terrible idea due to all of the orbs being killed, as well as it healing AI.

Once you just have one Defender and you attack AI, it’ll counter with Gamma Ray, which is the hard-hitting Laser attack from other robot bosses. Don’t use single target spells on AI since it uses Reflect (a.k.a. Wall) unless you have the Black Hole spell. Using the Wall on your party members to reflect said spells isn’t a good idea because you want to keep the lone Defender alive, which the spells may accidentally target. Use All-Potions to heal the party instead of Cure spells, or Edward’s Salve. Take it slow, healing up appropriately, and use single target abilities like Edge’s Throw, Golbez’s Shadow Dragon, and regular attacks. The maxed out Chicken Knife is a great weapon to attack with.

Goddess (Lunar Core): She has a lot of status-inflicting abilities, but Adamant Armors will protect you from them. She’s weak to darkness-element attacks, so Rydia’s Witch summon and Golbez’s Shadow Dragon summon are good candidates. Her Embrace attack would both heal and petrify an ally, but since they’re protected from Stone, they’ll only be healed. She casts the White spell which shouldn’t hurt too much, but heal up regardless. She also has a Vitalize + attack combo. She does have Cure4 which heals a lot more than Vitalize does, and she will use this every time she is attacked. Use the same strategy as Asura, with casting Wall on her to reflect it. Goddess will eventually say, “Impressive…” and cast Holy. She’ll also use Mighty Guard to buff her defenses.

Somehow I got lucky by slapping a Wall on Cecil, which reflected the Holy that Goddess used on him which wound up defeating her. My intention was to put Walls on everyone and heal with items to counteract the Holy casts. Well, whatever works. The reward is the Ultima Sword, which has the property of increasing attack the HP the character has (a la Final Fantasy VII’s Ultima Weapon). She also unlocks several superbosses scattered throughout the game that you may have found but could not do anything with yet. These are the locations you want to revisit, and their bosses in brackets:

  • Ice Cave (Yeti)
  • Ancient Grotto (Marilith)
  • Mt. Heavensward (Shinryu)
  • Mystery Forest (Magissa, Tonberry)
  • Damcyan Castle (Melusine)
  • Mt. Ordeals (Storm Dragon)
  • Magma Cavern/Ruins (Magma Golem)
  • Volcano (Fire Dragon)
  • Tower of Babil (Omega Weapon)
  • Crater Cave (Crystal Dragon)
  • Crystal Spire (Selene, Four Crystals)
  • Further into Lunar Core (The AI, Ultima Buster, Neo Bahamut)

Marilith (Ancient Grotto): I strongly recommend you fight Marilith as your first post-Goddess battle for a reason I’ll explain in a second. She is accompanied by two Lamia Queens and two Gorgons. They will try to inflict a variety of status effects, but the Adamant Armors will protect from them. The biggest thing to watch out for is Marilith’s Bio spell, which can do upwards of 3000 damage to everyone. The reward is the Slaying Tail for Rydia, as well as the three Black Mages learning Bio, a much more powerful version of Virus. Meteo may be powerful and can bypass Wall, but it takes a long time to cast which could screw you over in certain fights. Bio is a potent single target alternative if you want something with a quicker cast time and don’t need to worry about Wall. Rydia and Palom still have Nuke, but Golbez does not, so this is his hard-hitting single target spell.

Melusine (Damcyan Castle): To find her, go to Damcyan Castle and head to the top floor. A guard standing in front of the entrance will move out of the way. Interact with the harp, and Melusine will chew the fat for a bit before fighting you. She does a bunch of elemental spells that are rather harmless with Adamant Armors, but her Eclipse ability can wipe out the party if you use attacks other than the elemental spells she’s happy with. That means Edge’s Throw command is off the table here, making him an item user instead. Swap him out if he’s in your party, though I didn’t do so and got by just fine with Rydia and Golbez. The latter was killed quite frequently with Melusine’s physical attack, which heals her for the same amount she damages the character, so casting Protect on weaker characters like him is vital.

Melusine will cast an elemental barrier on herself, and you need to use an attack or spell of the same element. She also changes the barrier every other turn, which can throw off your rhythm and annoy you pretty quickly (at least it did to me). Which barrier she casts will be completely random, so there is no discernible pattern you can follow to deal reliable damage. Furthermore, you need to use the most powerful elemental spells like Fire/Ice/Lit3 or Fire/Ice/Lit4, with Storm covering the wind element. Anything weaker will not do any damage to her.

Basically, fight on her terms and she won’t punish you too hard. It’s long and dragged out, but you don’t have a choice in the matter. The more Black Mages you have, the better to respond to her elemental barrier shifts. If a character’s turn comes up and they don’t have anything to do, just parry or skip their turn. The rewards are the Loki Harp, an Anti-Matter and a Void Stone. It is absolutely worth it to go through this trouble for the harp, as when Edward uses the Sing command with it equipped, he casts a powerful AoE spell called Starfall Serenade.

Storm Dragon (Mt. Ordeals): To find him, go to Mt. Ordeals’ summit and cross an invisible bridge just to the upper right of the last entrance. You’ll see a purple spear on the other side. Storm Dragon uses wind-elemental attacks and spells. Be wary of when he does the Tornado + Petrify combo. While Adamant Armors protect from stone, you want to throw an Elixir on the one that got hit with Tornado. Get him down to low enough health and he’ll use Tornado on everyone as a counter. You want to go slow here, alternating between healing and getting an attack in when you’re healthy enough. The rewards are the Dragon Lance, an Anti-Matter and a Void Stone.

Fire Dragon (Volcano): Edge is going to be the MVP of this battle because while Fire Dragon’s defense is absurdly high, thrown Ninja Stars and weapons will bypass this. The boss is going to hit fast and hard, alternating between Dragon Breath for 4000 damage to everyone and saps HP, and a physical attack that deals anywhere within 150 to 1800 damage. Everyone else will be concentrating on healing with All-Potions, Edward’s Salve, and/or Cure4s. Make sure to get a scan in too, and apply buffs if you can.

If your defenses are high enough to survive the onslaught, you can opt to do spells like Nuke, Bio, Holy and such. Don’t use them too often though since he counters with Burst frequently, which is a pain on top of dealing with Dragon Breath. Slow down and regroup if needed – Fire Dragon does not heal, so there’s no hurry to take him down. The rewards are Caladbolg and Adamant Ring. Caladbolg can only be equipped by Dark Knight Cecil and Golbez, and Cecil gets a buff with it as he can unleash strong attacks with the Bane command, but drains his health more severely than before. For Golbez, it just gives him a stat boost over his default Nightbringer, but he’ll get something better after defeating Omega.

Omega (Tower of Babil – Eblan entrance): Since you need Edge to breach through the wall in Tower of Babil, he and Cecil will be mandatory party members for this fight. Before even entering the battle, cast Float on the party, as Omega has a Quake spell that will decimate you without it. It will use Black Hole to cancel Float but only after using Quake, allowing you a chance to re-apply it. Bring at least two characters who can cast Float due to Electro Magnet potentially stopping one of them. Bring Time Eggs for this fight to cure the Stop. Also, while the monster scan will only show 65,535 HP, Omega actually has over 200,000 HP.

It uses Wall, so Meteo, Ultima and summons are necessary here. Sadly, their cast times are so long that you won’t do enough damage before you get utterly walloped. Instead, concentrate on buffing magic defense with Shell and Big Guard as much as you can in preparation for a nasty attack. It also uses Erupt for AoE fire damage, Blaster for instant death unless you have Adamant Armors, Heat Ray that does little damage with said armors, Maser that does 10% of every character’s HP, and the powerful Laser attack. It can Vitalize itself for 6553 HP, but your spells and Ninja Star throws should offset this.

Eventually the screen will darken and Omega Weapon will do a countdown for three turns. If you don’t defeat it in time, it will do Atomic Ray, essentially killing the whole party. This is where all of the magic defense buffing pays off. Without the buffs, you’re looking at a guaranteed party wipe. With as many Shells applied as possible, it can do as low as 1000 damage. Even after all of that, Omega can still troll you once it is below 16384 HP by self-destructing with Fission, dealing a set amount of damage based on how much HP it has remaining. I was fortunate to have around 4100 HP left on it, but you need to pay attention during this part. Consider having Edge throw a Caliburn or two (from the Gilgamesh sparring) since it does around 12000 damage.

An alternate strategy is available after defeating Crystal Dragon, where Dark Knight Cecil can have Fast applied to him before he uses Black Hole to cancel Omega’s Wall. This resets the boss’ AI to have it re-apply Wall. You can keep it in a loop like this, although it’ll still attack at times, so healing is necessary.

The rewards are the Valhalla Sword, Omega Ring, and Rydia learning the Black Hole spell. At last, you have the ability to remove bosses’ buffs and Walls.

Shinryu (Mt. Heavensward): First of all, never use Wall on yourself. Shinryu will get mad and slaughter you. He always starts the fight with Supernova, then Vitalize himself (what’s the point if you haven’t done any damage to him yet?). He then asks “Are you wasting my time?” and use LitFlash on up to three characters. As if that’s not enough, he can use Atomic Ray to deal massive damage to the party, even after you healed up from Supernova. He also does Thunder multiple times to everyone. Don’t be surprised if this fight takes you several tries due to how brutal and unfair he can be with all of these AoE attacks going off rapid-fire.

This is where I changed my party to have Paladin Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, Porom and Edward. In hindsight, I probably should’ve used Edge instead of Rydia, but it didn’t matter. This is so I had as many characters as possible putting up Shells to mitigate the Atomic Rays and lighting spells. They still won’t do anything against Supernova’s piercing damage, so heal up frequently as well. After Shinryu does Supernova as his opening move, heal, heal, heal! Get everyone up to max HP ASAP before he starts using LitFlash and Atomic Ray, of which there is no discernible pattern of him using. Don’t even screw around with Scan and Shell yet until you’re 100% healthy! Sometimes he did Atomic Flash for a party wipe, other times he did LitFlash that is much more manageable. You’ll know when Shell stops being applied when the animation does not play anymore. You’ll eventually get enough Shells up that Atomic Ray will only be doing 1 damage.

From there, you need to attack Shinryu very slowly and methodically. I had Rydia for this purpose – after she did the scan, I had her use Bio. Edge would have been better with throws or strong items like Void Stone. Shinryu will always counter with Atomic Ray, which gets less potent the more Shells you have applied. Use Salve + X-Potion, Cure4 and All-Potions to top up quickly, and apply Shells when you have the opportunity. During this time, Shinryu will also do Whirlwind for about 2000+ damage. Paladin Cecil can come in clutch if Shinryu does a physical attack to a character with critical HP since he’ll cover them. He’ll also cast Fast on himself, so get a Slow or Silk Web in. Once his HP is low, he will do Supernova more frequently, turning the situation critical again and forcing you to AoE heal with everyone. Any attacks you sneak in have to be the strongest ones you can muster.

The reward for defeating him is the Illumina Sword, plus plenty of upgrades and new spells for some of your party members. Rosa’s Pray command is boosted, Paladin Cecil learns Mighty Guard, Rosa and Porom learn Cure5, Palom learns Quasar, and Dark Knight Cecil and Rydia learn Supernova. Cure5 is quite expensive at 82 MP, but it helps reduce turns healing so you can do other actions like Shell, Slow, items and such. You just need to keep a sharper eye on Rosa/Porom’s MP consumption. Cure5 cannot be used in the menu.

Crystal Dragon (Crater Cave): The gimmick here is to alternate between physical attacks and spells. Start by casting something on him. Crystal Dragon will say “Not bad…” and switch to physical weakness, at which point you should use the Fight command and nothing else, or he will use Crush or Eclipse. He then says “…” and swaps back to magic weakness. Scan also affects this pattern when he’s in magic weakness mode, so I made it my first spell.

His attacks include Crystalize which does half of everyone’s HP, the White spell that hits everyone for about 1500 to 2000 damage, Gravity on everyone for about 900 to 1100 damage, a single target attack for maximum damage that also heals him for that much, Vitalize to restore 6553 HP, and Black Hole to negate any buffs. That means boosting your defenses is pointless.

The physical attack that heals is the biggest problem with this fight because it’s virtually impossible to kill him when you have to deal with alternating weaknesses. When he’s doing this attack, it means you’re really close to taking him down. You absolutely want to apply Blink, Edge’s Image, and Decoy items to negate the healing physical attack if you want any chance of actually killing Crystal Dragon before he decimates you with AoE attacks. Consider bringing Edge, Rosa and Porom to this fight so you can get those Blink-type buffs applied ASAP. Likewise, bring Edward and use Salve + Decoy to apply Blink to everyone.

The rewards are the Perseus Bow and Arrows, the Lunar Helm, and the Crystal Key. Rydia, Palom and Golbez also learn Gravity, Edge learns Illusion, Paladin Cecil learns Reflect, and Dark Knight Cecil learns Black Hole. Illusion certainly would have helped for this battle, but it’ll be put to good use elsewhere.

Four Crystals (Crystal Spire): After defeating Crystal Dragon, I changed my party to be Paladin Cecil, Rosa, Porom, Edward and Edge so I had plenty of healing options and Shell casters, plus Edge’s Illusion spell. Have Edward equipped with the Loki Harp so he casts Starfall Serenade. Cecil uses Void Stones, Edge uses Scan from his Ninja magic, and the White Mages either heal or cast Ultima.

Once the Crystals’ HP gets low, things start to get scary when they use a Crush + Condemn combination, which will kill anyone who doesn’t have darkness element resistance. In my case, Cecil was protected with the Illumina Sword, Crystal Shield, Lunar Helm, Adamant Armor and Omega Ring. Fortunately the Crystals only target a single character at a time, so respond appropriately with revivals while still putting on the pressure with AoE attacks. The rewards are some Void Stone and Anti-Matter drops, the Crystal Ring, and the Hero Medal. The medal is a Key Item which allows you to use the final shop in Lunar Lair after defeating Neo Bahamut.

Selene (Crystal Spire): There are two Selenes plus three Artemises in this battle. The Selenes have maxed out attack power, so they’re guaranteed to kill someone in the front row. Have Edge cast Illusion to mitigate this - he can re-apply it repeatedly even if it hasn’t run out. Use AoE abilities like Starfall Serenade and Ultima, because you want to kill both Selenes simultaneously or else they’ll use Eclipse, which cannot be defended against whatsoever. They’re capable of inflicting status aliments like Petrify and Charm, but Adamant Armors get around this. Don’t forget to slip a scan in during all of this. If you do have only one Selene left after all of the AoE spam, switch to Holy and take her down ASAP. The rewards are a Seraphic Shield and Ribbon drop, and the Eclipse Sword for Dark Knight Cecil, Edward and Golbez.

Ultima Buster (Lunar Core): His attack patterns are the same as Ultima Weapon, but he hits much harder and more relentlessly. He’ll use Ultima, which may not hit everyone. He also does a large variety of attacks like Nuke, single target Meteo, Flare, Blaze, Whirlwind, AoE Bio, and Tsunami. The last one did the most damage to my party, and it was still only in the 2000s. He can also do a Vitalize + Meteo combo, but it only hits one character. I had Cecil casting Mighty Guard, Edward singing Starfall Serenade, Edge doing the monster scan before throwing Ninja Stars, and Rosa and Porom casting either Protect and Shell. Throw in some healing to be absolutely safe. The rewards are a Grand Helm, a Ribbon, a Void Stone and an Anti-Matter. Dark Knight Cecil’s Dark ability also no longer drains his health.

Neo Bahamut (Lunar Core): Bring any Globe199s you have, since Neo Bahamut is the hardest singular superboss in the whole game (it does get worse in the boss rushes). If you don’t have any, the AI superboss has them as a Rare-level drop. First of all, Neo Bahamut is invincible to damage for the first few rounds. Focus on applying defensive buffs to survive his initial Giga Flare and Tera Flare assault. Do not, under any circumstances, cast Wall. He will retaliate with Tera Flare, which can potentially kill you.

Once you’re past that, he will be vulnerable to attacks, so attack him as hard and fast as you can until Cecil says that the party needs to regroup. Heal up to max because you need to endure more Giga Flares and a Tera Flare. When his health gets low, he’ll starting countering everything with Tera Flare, so you’ll be looking at a quick party wipe if you don’t act fast. The attack also seems to get stronger the closer he is to his desperation phase, so you need to kill him ASAP before he can destroy you. You can cast Slow on him, although he can cast Fast on himself to offset this, so don’t bother. I did do an additional grind for Gold Seeds and Silver Seeds to help with my survivability, if you’re having trouble with this yourself. Other than that, throw everything you’ve got. He’s got 65,535 HP to go through as quickly as possible.

Winning rewards you with the Apocalypse Sword, one of the strongest weapons in the game, capable of healing the attacker, casting Meteo, and stealing items. Be careful when attacking undead enemies with it though, as the HP restoring effect will be reversed. Neo Bahamut will be summonable, and will likewise give you Grand Armor and Dark Matter. Meh… Adamant Armor still outclasses Grand Armor. There will be a short cutscene of a new orange crystal appearing where the party first met Fusoya in Lunar Lair. He also gives Cecil a key that grants access to the deepest part of Crystal Spire.

The orange crystal is the final shop of the game, which carries amazing items like Megalixir, Spoon, Lunar Helm, Lunar Shield, Omega Ring, Lunar Veil and Perseus Arrows. However, you need the Hero Medal from defeating the Four Crystals superboss, or else the crystal will demand proof of you being a hero. With the key, go to Crystal Spire and unlock the door behind the Four Crystals, then interact with the light to receive the Lunarian Tome. Bring this to Fusoya in the Lunar Whale and he’ll give you the Nirvana Staff, and you’ll unlock the Lunarian Knowledge achievement.

To find the Boss Rush Room, go into Crystal Spire’s second floor where Selene is fought and enter the door in the back. You will be teleported to a room with several dark-colored NPCs, a save point, a shining light that fully restores you, and a blue fire called the Eternal Flame, which is responsible for the boss rushes. The dark Namingway is a shopkeeper who actually has five separate shops that you need to cycle through to access each one (why they didn’t just do five individual shopkeepers is beyond me). He notably sells Elf Cloak, Siren, Caliburn or Ragnarok (for throwing), Soma Drop, and Time Egg.

The dark Chocobo explains the Boss Rush Room and can temporarily transport the party back to the Lunar Whale if you want to change members. The Black Mage will not be relevant until you clear every boss rush, so he’ll be covered later. Be warned that if you make progress in the boss rushes but then leave the Spire before completing all of them, you will be reset to the first wave.

Do this in New Game Plus. I’m not joking. Beating the game allows you to raise your level cap to 149 and your HP cap to 14,999. I tried to do this in my first run, but the very final boss of the seventh boss rush destroyed me due to not having enough HP to survive the Tera Flare spam. Save yourself some time and headaches by boosting your characters as high as they can go in NG+.

If you’re ready, then let’s dive into this.. They are divided into seven waves, each one getting more difficult as you clear them. This is your opportunity to scan some enemies that were otherwise impossible to scan during the main story. Once you’re fully ready, speak to the Eternal Flame.

The only bosses that don’t appear here are the two forms of Zeromus – the stringy blue form before using the Crystal on him, and the gigantic alien form that is vanilla FF4’s final boss.

WAVE 1 REWARDS: 2 Anti-Matter and 4 Silver Seeds

  • Mist D.
  • MistRage
  • Girl (Child Rydia)
  • Captain + 3 Soldier
  • Octomamm
  • Antlion
  • ? (WaterHag monster from Edward’s scene in Kaipo)
  • Mom Bomb
  • Lamia + 2 Witch + 2 Echidna
  • 8 Bards (Edward)
  • Gilgamesh
  • Dragoon (Kain)
  • AquaWorm + Hydra + Crocodile
  • Milon + 4 Skulnant
  • Milon Z.
  • 4 D. Knight (Cecil)

WAVE 2 REWARDS: 3 Anti-Matter and 3 Gold Seeds

  • 2 Guard
  • Monk (Yang)
  • Baigan + RightArm + LeftArm
  • Cagnazzo
  • Vulture + 3 Cockatrice
  • Dark Elf -> transforms into Dark D.
  • Dark Elf (does not transform)
  • 3 Cal + 3 Brina -> Calbrina (you need to wait for the Cal and Brina to fuse into Calbrina)
  • Dr. Lugae + Barnab -> Barnab-Z (defeat Barnab first, then wait for Lugae to speak)
  • Dr. Lugae (zombie version)
  • Magma G + 3 Beamer
  • Green D. + Yellow D. + Sky D.
  • Magissa (can summon Mad Ogre)
  • Sandy + Cindy + Mindy
  • Valvalis
  • Rubicant

WAVE 3 REWARDS: Loki Harp, Gladius and Void Stone

  • 2 Ice D.
  • BogWitch + 6 TinyToad
  • 2 Mammon + 2 Malboro
  • 2 LiquidFlame
  • Asura
  • Levithan
  • DemonWall
  • 3 Golbez
  • 8 Odin
  • Eblan K. + Eblan Q.
  • Gilgamesh
  • Calofisteri
  • 4 Fiends (from Giant of Babil)
  • CPU + Attacker + Defender
  • Tunnel-A
  • Warmech + 3 Gamma

WAVE 4 REWARDS: Dragon Claw, Eclipse Sword, Caladbolg, Void Stone and Globe199

  • Spirit + Breath
  • 3 Pale Dim
  • 2 Ogopogo
  • 8 Mover
  • Raiden
  • Bahamut
  • Wyvern
  • 2 Plague
  • 2 Plague + 6 Artemis (rear assault)
  • 2 Lunasaur
  • 2 Lunarsaur + 6 Tricker (rear assault)
  • Gilgamesh (Lunar Subterrane battle)

WAVE 5 REWARDS: Slaying Tail, Flare Sledgehammer, Nirvana Staff, Globe199 and Void Stone

  • Ultima W.
  • Melusine
  • Zemus + 2 Illusion
  • 3 Tonberry
  • AI Mk. I + 2 Attacker + Defender
  • 4 FatalEye (rear assault)
  • 3 Spirit
  • M. Golem + 2 Flamedog
  • Storm D.
  • Yeti
  • 2 Marilith (note that the Mariliths can revive each other, so use hard-hitting AoE abilities)

WAVE 6 REWARDS: Ultima Sword, Illumina Sword, Dragon Lance, Valhalla Sword, Perseus Bow, 3 Void Stone and 2 Globe199

  • 3 AI + 2 Attacker + 3 Defender: The Attackers are in the center, the Defenders are in the far back. This is definitely one of the hardest fights in the boss rushes. Bring Edward and have him cast Starfall Serenade (Sing + Loki Harp), Rydia summoning Neo Bahamut, and the others constantly healing. This will never provoke Electro Magnet, saving you headaches with using Time Eggs.
  • 5 Goddess
  • 5 Selene: The lower left Selene has two layered on each other. Otherwise these, the Goddesses, and the other bosses of this wave didn’t pose much of a problem.
  • 3 Fire D.
  • Crystal D
  • 4 Ultima B

WAVE 7 REWARDS: Ultima-II Sword, Celestial Shield, Apocalypse Sword, Dark Matter, 2 Void Stone and 3 Globe199

  • Zeromus EG: I strongly suggest you use Scan and get the boss down to enough HP, then get everyone’s health maxed out before killing it so you’re better prepared for the next encounter.
  • 8 Tonberry: This is the scariest fight of them all, hands down. I used a team of Paladin Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, Edward and Porom, with everyone’s HP raised to just below 10,000. Edward did Salve + Globe199, Rosa and Porom cast Ultima, Rydia cast Meteo, and Cecil only used Megalixirs. They also have to be done as quickly as possible before the Knife ability can be used en masse for a guaranteed party wipe. I wound up having two enemies left, so I threw a Void Stone to finish them off.
  • 2 Shinryu: There will be two Supernovas at the start, but they won’t kill you. Megalixir right away and revive anyone who died during the last fight. From there, raise magic defense with Mighty Guard, Shell and Elf Cloaks before going on the offensive. I even skipped Rydia’s turn until I was ready.
  • 3 Omega: Get Float up ASAP!! Don’t worry, the Quakes will go off back-to-back before Black Hole is used. I was in a terrifying situation where Shinryu used Supernova and I didn’t heal it before killing him, meaning everyone was in critical HP coming into this fight. They gave me the chance to use a Megalixir though, so as long as Float went up, I was okay. Then apply a bunch of Shells, re-apply Float after Black Hole is used, and use a character’s best AoE ability when you have the chance. Make sure you have tons of Time Eggs to heal the Stop from Electro Magnet. If you’re lucky, Edward can do Salve + Time Egg to cleanse multiple characters. Beware of Laser though, as it’ll do over 10,000 damage to three characters. Once they go into their countdown phase, they will only do Atomic Ray, which can be mitigated with lots of Shell casts. I had to do this fight a couple of times due to party wipes, and I noticed that the Omega on the far left would do Fission to damage the party for its remaining HP. Keep an eye on that particular Omega’s HP with Scan and calculate the damage, while also having maximum HP in case you get a bad count. I never saw the other two Omegas use it, so I assume it was excluded for them due to how ridiculous the damage can get if you’re not careful.
  • 8 Crystal: Have Paladin Cecil cast Reflect ASAP! If not, your White Mages need to use Wall! Mega Flare will kill you, no questions asked. From there, just use Mighty Guard, Salve, All-Potions or Megalixirs to heal. Note that the Crystal on the far left has multiple sprites layered on top of each other, while the other three are by themselves. They will use Crush + Condemn combos, but if your characters can absorb darkness element attacks, the Crush will heal them. From there, watch as the Crystals humorously destroy themselves with reflected Mega Flares plus your best AoE attacks.
  • 2 NeoBahmt: This is the reason I decided to clear this in NG+. Getting the two bosses’ health down wasn’t hard, but surviving the constant Tera Flare spam was pretty much impossible for me in NG. Considering what you have to go through to reach this point, it was extremely frustrating for me to give up on this attempt.

Congratulations! You’ve overcome the second hardest challenge this game has to offer! …Wait, second hardest? Believe it or not, there’s something even difficult available. Remember the Black Mage in the boss rush room who wouldn’t talk to you whatsoever? After clearing all of the boss rushes, he now has some ominous words for you:

“YOU SHALL NOT WIN.”

Oh, really? Let’s see about that. You’re given the choice to continue, so make a save before saying yes. What occurs is one of three extra hard superbosses, which you need to defeat two of them for the Eight Fold and Triple Threat achievements, while one of them is actually impossible to win but will give you the Yeah, No achievement as a consolation prize. Which battle is chosen is determined when you exit the Lunar Whale, so keep going back and forth until you get all three fights. They actually cycle in a predictable pattern: Neo Bahamut -> Shinryu + Crystal Dragon -> Marilith -> Neo Bahamut -> and so on...

The battles themselves consist of the following:

  • 8 NeoBahmt: This is one of the winnable battles. Just like with any other Neo Bahamut battle, apply buffs and wait for him to do the first Tera Flare before going on the offensive. Here, eight Tera Flares back-to-back-to-back is no joke, but survivable depending on the damage rolls. After this opening salvo and reviving any fallen characters, I opted to have two characters do AoE attacks while two or three used Megalixirs. As each Neo Bahamut falls, a lot more of the pressure will be taken off, but be on your guard until maybe two or three are left. I think the real challenge is not falling asleep from boredom waiting for all of the animations and dialogue to complete (seriously, 8.bit.fan, there is such a thing as respecting the player’s time). The reward for this colossal feat is the Mystic Armor, which is leagues more powerful than Adamant Armor while still providing the same stat resistances.

  • 3 Shinryu + 5 Crystal D: This is one of the winnable battles, but definitely one of the, if not the, hardest fights in the whole game and caused me plenty of restarts. First off, get Mystic Armors for everyone. With them, you no longer need to apply Shell to defend from Atomic Ray, and the White spells from Crystal Dragon will heal everyone, giving you more turns to attack. Unfortunately, they do nothing to protect you from Crystal Dragon’s Crystalize and Gravity attacks, as well as Shinryu’s Atomic Ray plus Tidal Wave if you use summons. So many Crystalizes going off at once is a party wipe. Your top priority is to take down the Crystal Dragons first for that reason. This is where I changed my strategy from the usual defense and healing to an all-out AoE offensive. I used Dark Knight Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, Edward and Golbez. Having Edge cast Illusion is a waste of time, and Paladin Cecil has no AoE attack options. Cecil and Golbez did Dark, Rosa cast Ultima, Rydia cast Meteo, Edward used Salve + Globe199, and threw Megalixirs when Shinryu used Supernova. Don’t bother screwing around with Crystal Dragon’s barrier shift mechanic and just get rid of them ASAP. The reward for this fight is another Mystic Armor, a Celestial Shield, an Apocalypse Sword, an Ultima-II, and a Dark Matter.

  • 8 Marilith: This is the battle that’s impossible to win. Why? All of them open up with Sword Rain, which deals around 2000 damage each to all party members. Even if you get Mystic Armors for everyone, the Mariliths will cast AoE Bio, which easily does 10,000 damage each. Just be happy with your free achievement and move on.

And that’s it. You’ve done all of the super hard optional content the hack has to offer. Go beat Zeromus to a pulp and enjoy your alternate ending.