Final Fantasy XIII-2 Walkthrough Part 21: Final Boss Battle

After downing Caius Ballad for the second time, you will transition into a three-way battle. This marks the final leg of the story in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Follow the guide for hints to get through this tough battle, and good luck!

Boss Battle: Amber Bahamut, Garnet Bahamut, and Jet Bahamut

At first in this battle you will only be fighting Amber Bahamut and Garnet Bahamut, but Jet Bahamut will join the fray once you kill the first two opponents. First things first, you should focus on taking out the first two Bahamuts. Amber Bahamut is resistant to magic, and Garnet Bahamut is resistant to physical attacks. Although they will begin casting more powerful spells as the encounter goes on, neither of these enemies poses a particularly large threat. Simply bring their Chain Gauges up to the maximum, stagger them, and finish them off. You have faced down plenty of tougher opponents before.

Jet Bahamut will spawn after you defeat the other two, and this battle is no cakewalk. Jet Bahamut will occasionally attempt to resurrect his fallen allies. This is less imposing than it sounds, though, because although Jet Bahamut is immune to all attacks while his allies are present, he also will not attack you as long as the other two Bahamuts are out on the field. Once you defeat them, however, he will always immediately cast Break Curse, which will inflict numerous status ailments upon your party. Use Remedies or heal with a Medic to get rid of them.

 When you are fighting the three Bahamuts together, do not be in a rush to finish the battle too quickly. Kill either Amber or Gernet Bahamut, and then focus on the other. As it is about to die, take a step back and examine your party’s health. Amber and Garnet Bahamut are not nearly as tough as Jet Bahamut, so you should take a moment to heal and buff yourself before delivering the finishing blow to the weaker of the dragons and delving back into battle with Jet Bahamut.

The real abilities that you should watch out for are Abyssal Yawn and Judgment Blade, which deal heavy damage. If possible, switch to Tortoise when you see these attacks coming. That will not always be possible though, so you will have to weigh your options. If your reactions are good enough, you may be able to block a significant portion of the damage that would be dealt to you. If you can’t make the precise timing, though, you will just end up wasting time.

Jet Bahamut will also cast Seed of Destruction, an ability which spawns several Ebon Seeds onto the battlefield. These are kind of like landmines, and will self-destruct after a period of time if left untended. You should immediately begin to focus on destroying them when Jet Bahamut spawns them out onto the battlefield. Then switch your focus back to Jet Bahamut.

After you have fought Jet Bahamut once, the battle will continue. At this point you may notice a countdown appear onscreen. Starting at Count: 3 and eventually lowering to Count: 1, this counter marks an impending attack by all three Bahamuts called Exaflare. If less than three Bahamuts are present at the time of the countdown, the attack will be weakened. Two Bahamuts leads to the Teraflare ability, and Gigaflare will be cast if only Jet Bahamut is present. Gigaflare is the weakest of the three attacks, so try to kill off the other Bahamuts as fast as you can if the counter appears onscreen when more than one of them is alive. If you are at or around 60% health or less, it is probably best to concentrate on healing instead of killing one of the Bahamuts. These attacks are strong and can leave you in a bind if you are not prepared to take the brunt of their damage. Luckily, they at least give you plenty of warning, so do what you need to do and then switch to the Tortoise Paradigm.

Note that whenever you need to heal, it is always preferable to use a Phoenix Down over the Rise spell. Using a Phoenix Down will temporarily grant status enhancements to the raised party member, and will negate wound damage.

Once you have lowered Jet Bahamut’s health significantly, he will begin using an attack called Dying Sun. This is one of his most powerful attacks, and just like the Exaflare, you should switch to Tortoise as soon as you see this attack coming. You will have to stay on your toes, switching from attack-based Paradigms to the Tortoise Paradigm when things get hairy, and event the Variety Paradigm when you need to heal. This battle can stretch on for a long time if you let it because Jet Bahamut tends to summon other creatures or Ebon Seeds to do the damage for him. At a certain point, when Jet Bahamut’s health is lowered, you will simply have to switch to a more offensive-focused Paradigm if you hope to get a 5-Star score in this battle. Otherwise, you can eke out a victory by slowly draining his health. This tactic can be dangerous, though, as you never know when the enemy will summon reinforcements or use a powerful attack. Try to end the fight quickly.

Upon finally defeating Jet Bahamut, your battle still is not quite over. A Cinematic Battle Action is necessary to finish the game. You must press one of two buttons to make a key decision, so keep your wits about you and your hands on the controller.

The credits will roll after the cutscene ends. Congratulations, you have just beaten the story of Final Fantasy XIII-2! There is still much to be done in the Post Game, so be sure to stick around until after the credits. Here, you will receive 30,000 experience points and the Paradox Scope Fragment, and you will unlock Valhalla as a location in the Historia Crux. At this point, you are ready to tackle the game’s numerous optional challenges, some of which are even more difficult than the final battle you just faced.