Final Fantasy XIII-2 End-Game Walkthrough Part 10: The Archlyte Steppe Part 5

This walkthrough will cover the optional boss battle against Long Gui. In order to encounter the beast, head to the Sanctorium area while it’s sunny.

Boss Battle: Long Gui

Before attacking the boss itself, you must first disable its legs. These count as separate enemies with separate health bars. Use the Guerilla Paradigm to inflict damage while protecting yourself and debuffing. Apply Imperil, Deshell, and Poison to the forelegs. When Long Gui prepares to use his Ultima attack, switch to the Tortoise Paradigm quickly to avoid the brunt of the damage. If you miss the timing to face down Ultima, you’ll have to waste serious time recovering from the crippling blow.

Continue using the Guerilla Paradigm to stagger Long Gui’s Left Foreleg. Use Cerberus now to cripple the leg. Occasionally as you assault the leg, Long Gui will use its Stomp attack. Again, this is a powerful attack and this is a long battle, so switching to Tortoise to prevent damage will be more beneficial than soldiering through it with a bunch of Commandos. Do the same to the Right Foreleg. Be sure to be quick about taking out the legs, though, as if you don’t Long Gui can cast Quake which, again, is highly damaging.

Long Gui will fall to the ground once you’ve defeated both of its legs, but the battle isn’t over yet. Cast debuffs on the boss to weaken it. Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, and Poison should all be on the boss before you switch to a more offensive Paradigm. Drive Long Gui’s Chain Gauge up and stagger him. Once you’ve gotten the Chain Gauge to be pretty high, around 900-950%, you can safely destroy him using Cerberus. A good strategy here is to actually have two different Cerberus Paradigms set up in your deck. That way, you can switch between them to constantly refresh your ATB Gauge. By doing this, you should be able to defeat Long Gui.

Beating this massive boss will net you 30,000 experience points and the Long Gui Fragment.