Zodiark, some sort of sick joke?

January 14, 2008, 7:29 PM

Okay so I go to face Zodiark expecting a hellish encounter, after what is arguably the toughest dungeon I can find on the game, get to them and...

...well okay first off he is small, bit puny, but that deceptive, so i hit him...this dude has very little health and is very easy. Wow what a let down, so just as I'm telling a friend I'm about to tan its backside....

...kaboom, all my party drops dead...okay I figure, nasty attack, swap some people in, revive my main crew, my backup team all die as they clearly aren't very well lvl'd, and I continue to beat on him...

...okay still immune to like everything, I guess I'll wait it out...

...kaboom, game over.

I'm missing something here surely. I mean I know having 3 awful backups in penelo fran and basch doesn't help when I need to revive Vaan Ashe and Balthier, but surely he can be beaten even with a bad reserve.

Any help would be appreciated?

January 14, 2008, 7:33 PM

I think Zodiark has an attack that kills everyone in one hit...

And I'll move this to the help booth

Remember that all help threads belong there.

January 14, 2008, 10:39 PM

Eh, I don't think it's a good idea to try and defeat him with your bad reserves. Once your main party dies, bring in your reserves and quickly heal the main party, then switch back to the main party - you'll have to do it quite a few times. If your back-up party dies, I suggest leveling them up a few more levels just so they can withstand a few seconds worth of battle with Zodiark.

Anyway, be sure to also cast Dispel on him when he uses Reflect, Protect, Shell, and Haste. Also, be sure to equit Dark Masks, as it will help you out a lot.

January 15, 2008, 8:45 AM

I haven't defeated it, but I get close. I make sure my characters have black masks equipped so they absorb dark attacks (Darkja). I just start a chain of quickenings, switching in a new character after each round to start the chain again. He always seems to have a small amount of HP left when I die though. But my characters aren't all that hight level. I think they're level 60...

January 22, 2008, 6:05 PM

I can be of some help, I got the little bastard ^^
Alright he is tough but no worries, help is on the way ^^
First, you should make both your parties able to fight as if they were the main party. Wearing Black Masks will sometimes absorb the nasty Darkja he uses oh so often, as a matter of fact, he starts off with darkja.
He is Inmune to all stats except for Dain and Bio, try those when everything else fails. He is weak to Holy, but watch out, he has an ability called "Shift" which changes the element he is weak to, so you are better off using non elemental attacks such as Scathe and Flare.
Keep him dispelled throughout the entire battle! This is crusial for he will cast Reflect...you don't want that to happen when you try to Scathe him. Also, he can cast Scathe, so keep your party members appart from each other.
As his health decreases, his attacks will be more powerful and he will use Darkja more often so keep the black masks in place. (The healing and damage effect caused by darkja is at random)
Any questions? Plz feel free to sk me...for I think I left something out, I just can't put my finger on it.

January 30, 2008, 7:22 AM

Yeah, you kinda did...
He gains a Paling (immune to damage) at one point, His attack can disease you (god damn him, that got me) although its a pitifully small chance, He has Lv. 2 Sleep, Lv. 3 Disable and Lv. 4 Break (so dont be at a level like 60... not good, be at something safe like, oh say, 77, 83, 87, 91, 97) and if someone doesnt absorb Darkness, prepare to eat Banish Ray...
Basically a confined Darkja on one person...
Personally though, I don't use Zodiark often, of all the Espers, I use Ultima... get her you're set

February 2, 2008, 9:33 PM

Actually, once you are around lv 40, Espers are useless. Be around Lv 60 and you should be fine. Casting Shell on your party halves the chance of getting 1HKO'ed by Darkja.

Equipping Black Masks absorbs the Damage dealt frm Darkja.

February 6, 2008, 7:36 AM

Become useless... thats a novel approach
I don't think they become useless, just less useful...
And the 50% chance of death from Darkja is useless if he has faith as it pops it back up to its normal chance of inflicting OHKO death...
And don't try to dispel him, else he uses some of his more annoying stuff earlier...

February 6, 2008, 5:02 PM

What use do they have then? It costs ALL your mp to summon some of the more powerful ones. You lose your other 2 party members for a weaker Esper. You have no control over it whatsoever.
I find that staying with my party members more convenient because whenever I summon an Esper in a hard boss battle, it dies within 10 seconds.

February 10, 2008, 9:56 PM

i know espers are no good except mabey for tanks such as cuchulaain.

If you're good with quickening then use that. I recommend you being at lvl 80 at least and have a gambit that enables you to have protect and shell constantly equiped from casting. Make sure you lvl up those weak characters