Grandia III The Boss Guide By Lord Omega Yagami Aka Jeff Browning Email: enterthemoose@gmail.com Last updated: 5/4/2005 Table of contents 1.0 Intro and Stuff 2.0 General Tips Before You Begin 3.0 The Bosses 3.1 Kornell 3.2 Kornell, Iron Fist, and Friends 3.3 Minotaur and Friends 3.4 Excise Sigma 3.5 The Minotaur Brothers 3.6 Desert Lord 3.7 Golems 3.8 Kornell, Violetta, Iron Fist, and Demon Scythe 3.9 Excise Psi 3.10 Mother Breed 3.11 La-Ilim and the Undead Dragon 3.12 Desert Lord 3.13 Forest Protectors 3.14 Melc Crystal 3.15 Hydras 3.16 Lucky Minks 3.17 Violetta with Demon Scythe 3.18 La-Ilim and the Undead Dragon 3.19 The God Slayer 3.20 Caveman Warriors 3.21 Omega Breed 3.22 Xorn 4.0 Thanks and Stuff 1.0 Intro and Stuff Hello, and welcome to my Boss Guide for the RPG Grandia III for the PS2. As you can most likely tell from my horrible introduction and my ugly thing at the top, I haven’t written too many FAQs in my day. But please, stick with me. The purpose of my guide is to run you through and explain how to beat every boss in the world of Grandia III. I’ll also talk about a few other exceptionally hard enemies as well. There are other, much better, FAQs out there that will tell you the other mechanics of this game, so I won’t talk about them here, but I will provide some helpful hints that will make the bosses easier. This guide was written entirely by Lord Omega Yagami (Jeff Browning) and I hold all rights to it, or at least I hope. I am in no way, shape, or form associated with Square-Enix, Game Arts, Sony, or really anyone else. As of now, the only site that can host this www.gamefaqs.com and if anyone else uses this, I will personally hunt you down and make you pay. Actually, I don’t care too much, just drop me a line and give me credit and not change anything, and it will be all fine and dandy. I wrote this all in my free time and made no profit at all. Keep that in mind. Most importantly, if there is anything you think you can help me out with and/or expand on, please tell me. I’ll be glad to add you in. 2.0 General Tips Before You Begin ---There are some really nice items called Seeds. They permanently raise your stats, which is pretty good on their own, but whatever you do DON’T USE THEM RIGHT AWAY! They have a much more important use and that is they heal 100% of your HP, MP, and SP. These can come in extremely handy during a really hard battle. This is also the only way to heal your SP outside of battle. You can’t buy them, but they aren’t too incredibly rare. And considering they can save your life, you should really hang on to them. ---At the beginning of any tough fight, it is a great idea to cast Digging, which raises everyone’s defense. This will help amazingly. Another good spell is Runner, which raises speed some, but it isn’t nearly as good because it only targets one person. ---Extract skills and magic from your books and eggs. While having a good book or egg equipped is important, it isn’t nearly as important as having a powerful skill or magic ready for use. If you ever get a book or egg that holds a nice skill, waste no time in extracting it. The shop will tell you what the item holds, so you can tell ahead of time of whats good and whats not. Them once you are able to fuse eggs, abuse it like there is no tomorrow. You can get some very powerful magic early in the game, and because the egg fuser thingy tells you exactly what it will spit out, there is hardly any trial and error. Just mix eggs until you get magic like Absolute Zero, Galactic Bang, or Astraea Zap, and then extract it. And don’t forget to set it up. ---There are all kinds of great skills, but imo, the two most important are Berserker and Revenge. Berserker lets you attack several more times in a combo and Revenge will sometimes counter attack with one of your special moves which would deal 1000+ damage to almost every enemy. Berserker is a must on Yuki and Ulf (mix it with Flash or Shadow Warrior) and it will help greatly when fighting (especially with random encounters) and Revenge is sweet anytime. ---A general rule of thumb, whenever the game tells you to defend or cancel an attack, do it. Especially during bosses, it tells you this for good reason. If you think you can kill it before its attack or have someone else cancel, go for it, but don’t say the game didn’t warn you. ---You’ll get four orbs during the game. They fill up (slowly) by killing enemies. Don’t take my word for it, but if you beat every enemy in most maps, that should be enough to fill up an orb. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you when to not use an orb. Also, the orbs last a long time once used in battle, BUT NOT THE ENTIRE FIGHT. ---Drak’s Orb does mucho damage and it continues to bring the hurt throughout much of the fight. Great when it is the only orb you have, but Mother Breed will probably be the last you’ll use it. Yoat’s Orb is where it is at. It heals you completely (even death and status effects) and you’ll keep regenerating for awhile. If one of your guys is about to die while Yoat is activated, let him die, and Yoat will bring him back instantly to 100%. One huge word of caution with Yoat’s Orb: DON’T SUMMON HIM AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF A FIGHT. For the big bosses, he’ll run out long before the end when you need him most. Wait till you are on your very last leg and then use his orb. Seiba’s Orb grants you protection. Don’t use it. Finally, there is Unama’s Orb, which stops time. This is a must when fighting Lucky Minks and can be pretty useful during the last few bosses. ---Sometimes when you use special attacks, they will level up. So use special attacks like crazy, especially in the areas with a bunch of really weak enemies (easier to get an excellent and the SP bonus). Also, when you do level up a special, it is instant and no SP is used. ---When Dahna does her normal attack, she jumps back. If an enemy is about to attack you, just do a normal attack, and you will humorously dodge it. The same works for any special where you move. ---There is a weapon you can win at the casino called the Gambler’s Sword. The attack damage is completely random, but you can deal some really high damage sometimes. Personally, I don’t like it, but some people do, and it is your best bet at beating the Desert Lord early in the game. ---If you see a save spot, use it. They are there for a reason. Most of the time, they are half way through the level or right before a boss. And never count on it having the heal option. But if it does, take full advantage out of it. ---I beat the game without much problem by fighting every enemy and without much leveling besides that. My characters were never over leveled when fighting bosses, so my team was always at an average level when I do the guide for that boss. That’s about it. Just listen to what I said, and you should have no problem. Ok, on to the bosses. 3.0 The Bosses! Yep ============================================================ 3.1 Kornell The first “boss” of the game is really more of a fight tutorial than anything. Just listen to what the game tells you and everything will be good. He’ll eventually run away, but you’ll meet again. ============================================================ 3.2 Kornell, Iron Fist, and Friends Kornell 1400 HP, Iron Fist 700 HP, Henchmen (2) 350 HP each Oh. That was fast. Kornell is back with a few friends and a brand new weapon. This fight can actually be pretty tough, and will probably catch a bunch of people off guard. This is also the first of many fights with multiple targets, and killing the main target (in this case, Kornell) wins the fight. However, here it is best to get rid of everyone else first. Use Whirlwind, Force Slash, and other area attacks at first until his two henchmen are gone. Now it is just Kornell and his weapon and things are a lot easier. Make sure you cancel any attack they are about to use. The Iron Fist can dish out a whole bunch of damage, so focus all your attacks on it. Of course, if you can attack both of them at the same time, the battle will go much faster. Even after the fist is gone, Kornell can still be dangerous, but you are just about home free, so keep it up. ============================================================ 3.3 Minotaur and Friends Minotaur 2100 HP, Fishman Adviser 960 HP, Fishman Warrior (4) 420 HP each There are a bunch of fishes here, but a well placed Whirlwind or two should take them all out. Watch out though. The Fishmen can use Snooze, which puts everybody to sleep, and the game won’t remind you that it is coming. Once it is just the Minotaur, the fight gets pretty easy. He has a few pretty nasty attacks that can hit everyone around him, but he is fairly slow, so with constant canceling, he’ll go down in no time. ============================================================ 3.4 Excise Sigma Excise Sigma 1200 HP, Pico Alpha (4) 360 HP This isn’t too much of a boss nor is it that hard. Focus on the big guy mainly, but using Whirlwind will make this fight even easier. All Verse creatures are weak against fire (you’ll see a bunch of them) so keep that in mind. There is another “boss” the same as this soon after, but he has less Picos with him. ============================================================ 3.5 The Minotaur Brothers Minotaur (2) 2100 HP This looks really familiar. In fact, every boss so far has been rehashed. What gives? Anyway, you now face not one but two Minotaurs. This still isn’t too hard of a fight. Concentrate on one of the two guys, but continue to cancel them both. If they are close enough to each other, rip a Whirlwind or a Bigwheel or something that will hit both. Once one goes down, the other should be very weak. Not much new here. ============================================================ 3.6 Desert Lord Desert Lord 14400 HP If you talk to the people in town, they will tell you to beware the Desert Lord. It is a very good idea to heed their warning. This optional boss walks around in the far corner of the map (you can’t miss him). Avoid him unless you are up for a huge challenge. He is very fast and can wipe out your team before you have a chance to do anything. Not only that, but he has tons of HP. Hopefully right before this, you got some really good magic from the town beforehand. Pound him with everything you have and then some. Probably your best chance of beating him this early is by using the Gambler’s Sword, which is quite risky. The chances are, unless you are really overleveled (like 30 or so), he will own you big time. Don’t feel too bad, you’ll get your revenge. ============================================================ 3.7 Golems 2400 HP each Golems, thousands of them! Ok eight, but regardless, they can be a big problem. As soon as you walk into their room, they will come out of the walls and most likely surprise you. There are four of them on the field, and each battle has you pitted against two of them, and they can be very tough if you don’t know what to do. The most important thing to know is that they are nearly invincible to physical attacks, so don’t even bother. Magic is the way to go. And while even most of your special attacks do nothing, elemental based ones such as Whirlwind and Ulf’s flame attacks can still dish out tons of damage. Once again, take the Golems out one at a time, and be prepared to heal a lot. And don’t forget the save sphere with the Heal right outside the hallway. Use it. ============================================================ 3.8 Kornell, Violetta, Iron Fist, and Demon Scythe Kornell 9600 HP, Violetta 6400 HP, Iron Fist 7200 HP, Demon Scythe 8000HP This battle can be really, really hard. You have four targets that are really tough and fast as well. And Kornell and Violetta have a team up attack, Rumble. If you see it coming, cancel it ASAP as it will hurt a lot. Drak’s orb will help so much here, as will any attack that will hit all four. However, you want to make sure the weapons are gone first, so direct the most damage towards them. This not only puts an end to a few nasty attacks (they still have plenty though) but it makes it much easier to go in for the final kill. Both warriors can resurrect one another so, unlike pretty much every other fight before this, DON’T SINGLE ONE OUT. Get them both pretty weak, then kill one and immediately kill the other. But the weapons cannot be revived, so they are your first priority. ============================================================ 3.9 Excise Psi Excise Psi 12800 HP each This guy isn’t a boss at all. He is MUCH harder. There are three of them in the Eternal Corridor, but don’t get too close because they are really fast on the field, and much, much faster in battle. It is also guaranteed it will get the first attack off (hell, it will probably get the first four or so attacks off), so be completely ready going into battle. Its Pluto Killer will kill anyone not at full HP in one hit, Demon Claw hits everyone close by for pretty big damage, and it has Fiora which will put an end to any magic or special you’ll need to use. Needless to say, this guy is a killer. The good news is, he is usually alone (the time he isn’t, be especially careful). Use your very best attacks and hope you don’t get Fiora’D. Ulf’s Flame skills are the most damaging attacks to him. And if your special attacks aren’t maxed out, they will level up real fast here. Before the cave, there is no Healing Save sphere, but there is one in the middle of the cave that you will quickly become good friends with. Jump ahead to the very end of the game, you’ll come across Excise Omegas. Even though they are much tougher, they aren’t nearly as menacing. But they have something really, really annoying called Auto-Cancel, which will sometimes cancel you before you attack (but after you spend your MP/SP). If these guys don’t give you any problems, nothing else in the game should. ============================================================ 3.10 Mother Breed 16000 HP Man, after Excise Psi, this boss is a piece of cake. Almost. It starts with a few other Verse critters, and will constantly summon more (no Excises, thankfully). Use Drak’s Orb if you have it, and if you don’t, you probably get it from killing the beasts Mother Breed summons. That should take pretty good care the little guys, now aim for the momma. The new summonings shouldn’t be much of a problem, but do cancel them still. The Atons will probably be the only ones that give you any problems. If there are too many enemies, use a big area attack to get rid of them. Otherwise, use your best attacks (especially the fire ones) against her and she be pretty much helpless. ============================================================ 3.11 La-Ilim and the Undead Dragon La-Ilim 12000 HP, Undead Dragon 18000 HP Who the hell is this guy? Seriously, who is he? Anyway, he’s here for a stupid fight. The Dragon is more dangerous and is defeated easier, so go after it. Neither is really tough anyway though. After awhile, La-Ilim will try to run. Cancel him when he tries to flee, but you will have to be really tough to beat him for good. It is really probably better just to get this fight over with. ============================================================ 3.12 Desert Lord 14400 HP By now, he shouldn’t be much problem at all. He is still fast and still has some powerful magic, but you should be much, much stronger now. Best of all, he respawns whenever you leave the area. 4000 exp and some good items he might drop make him into a really good leveling spot. ============================================================ 3.13 Forest Protectors 4000 HP each This is the exact same deal as the Golems, but this time, you are locked in the room, so no save sphere this time. Also, they are a bit of the opposite from the Golems, as magic is completely ineffective, so stick with normal attacks and specials. They have a very nasty attack called Omni-Laser which hits everyone for better major damage. Cancel it at all cost or be prepared to heal. If you really want to skip them, step on the hidden switch on the floor to open up the door. ============================================================ 3.14 Melc Crystal Crystal A 32000 HP, Crystal B 28000 HP, Crystal C 28000 HP Oh boy, this guy is hard. It has three parts which all have a great variety of magic, and considering it can hit you a few times in a row, it can level your entire team just like that. And to top it all off, it has the dreaded Fiora, which will silence your specials and magic for a long time. It has two forms that it switches between during the fight. The second form is has is a giant bird. While it isn’t nearly as powerful as the first form, it is way faster. And when it does change forms (Cluster Change) is cancels everyone out. Luckily for you, you got Yoat’s Orb and its healing powers. However, don’t use it right off the bat, wait until you are really in trouble. I’m talking half your team is dead and the other half is silenced. It will restore everyone to perfect and it will continue to help your party during the fight, but this is a long battle and you can’t count on Yoat’s healing the entire time. Throw everything you got at it. Dragon Slash works wonders as do Absolute Zero and Astral Zap. You’ll make pretty good use of Alfina’s Energy Drive and Dahna’s Mana Spring to keep everyone attacking. And don’t forget to start healing like crazy once Yoat wares off, make sure you pay attention to the orb. Finally, remember that many times it is best to just defend. With the continued pressure and a little luck, the Crystals will bite the dust. If not, this is a great time to start some leveling. ============================================================ 3.15 Hydras Hydra Middle Head 9600 HP, Hydra Left and Right Heads 7200 HP each This may be the most annoying enemy in the game. He isn’t a boss, but it guards some really nice treasure. I highly recommend equipping Lizard Hunter beforehand. If the middle head dies, everyone else goes down with it. Besides that, it doesn’t have any really dangerous attacks. So how is he annoying? Well, it casts regeneration on itself, which heals 500 or so HP every few seconds. No, I’m not exaggerating. Hit it with everything you have and never let up at all. If you miss even one turn, it can heal itself back to full health. It is very beatable, but you will probably waste all your MP doing so. You can, however, easily skip this battle. Begin the fight, run, and then walk past the Hydra during the moment you are invincible. Another easy way to actually beat it is to use Unama’s Orb which you get at the end of the dungeon. ============================================================ 3.16 Lucky Minks 18 HP Lucky Minks for sure aren’t bosses. They must be another joke enemy, right? Wrong. While they only have a measly 18 HP, they have just insane defense. You are lucky if you can do one point of damage to them in a single attack. Furthermore, they flee from battle as quick as they possibly can. The only assured way to beat them is to use Unama’s Orb (which you don’t have yet, haha) to stop time. Otherwise, use attacks that hit multiple times such as Blade Storm, Dynamite Rush, Homing Shot, Heaven’s Gate, Galactic Bang, etc. Flash and Shadow Warrior mixed with Berserk work pretty good too. Your reward for beating them is a cool 16000 exp a piece. You probably won’t be able to do much with them in Melc. The last dungeon has a few, much more accessible Minks. ============================================================ 3.17 Violetta with Demon Scythe Violetta 6400 HP, Demon Scythe 35000 HP No Kornell, no problem, right? She isn’t too hard of a boss, but she is fast and has fairly high defense. Don’t even bother with the Scythe unless it needs to be cancelled, go straight for Violetta. The only thing you need to watch out for is Burn Wall, which spins fire around her. Touching this hurts, so when the wall is up, you can’t do normal attacks. Besides that, she is pretty easy. If she does give you a lot of trouble, I suggest you level up a bit before going much further in the dungeon. ============================================================ 3.18 La-Ilim and the Undead Dragon La-Ilim 36000 HP, Undead Dragon 9000 HP, Crystal Skull 64 HP Before going into this fight, make sure you have a full orb. Once in the fight, make sure you DON’T use the orb. Once again, this fight isn’t too hard, and he isn’t gonna try to run this time. The Dragon is much stronger, but he goes down much faster, so focus on him first (Dragon Slash does a lot more damage against him for some reason). La-Ilim is a pushover without his dragon, but don’t get too cocky though, as he can revive the Dragon. You can’t damage the Crystal, but you can still cancel it, and do so if you need to. Otherwise, use your best magic on the guy. ============================================================ 3.19 The God Slayer Emelious 64000 HP, Demon Sword 48000 HP, Orb of Darkness 32000 HP, God Slayer 99999 HP Wow, Emelious is really badass. It is fun just to hear him talk. And if (when) you die, instead of the normal “the stars” talk, you hear Emelious and his evil laughing. Pretty cool. Anyway, this is a pretty hard battle. The first thing to notice is the God Slayer. Once it reaches the end of the IP gauge, it’s game over, so cancel it before it gets too close. It moves slow enough, but this battle can get pretty hectic and Emelious cancels a whole lot, so be extra careful. Emelious’s favorite attack is his Dimensions Blade, which deals about 1000 damage, and he uses it a lot. The Orb of Darkness casts a bunch of relativity weak magic that hurts everyone for a couple hundred damage. Finally, the Demon Sword has the Spirit Wail which will more than likely kill you in one hit. His regular attacks can be quite painful as well. The fastest way to win is to go straight for Emelious, but be prepared to take a lot of damage. Taking out the Sword and then the Orb is probably the safest route to take. Use Unama’s Orb to freeze time and dish out as much damage as quick as possible. Casting Runner is a pretty good idea right now. Pick your target and then fire away with your strongest spells and stuff, and don’t be afraid to throw out a few area attacks as well. Hopefully, something would either be broken are about there when the effect finishes. Keep pounding it until (preferably) the Sword is gone. Start on your next target, but be extra careful now, and be ready to do a lot of healing. Once both the Sword and the Orb are gone (you can’t destroy the God Slayer. You didn’t forget about that did you?) the fight is easier, but far from easy. Emelious has mucho HP and it is still gonna take awhile. Just never let your guard down, keep applying pressure refilling MP or SP when needed, and don’t forget about the God Slayer. ============================================================ 3.20 Caveman Warriors 7180 HP each This guy isn’t a boss at all, just a regular enemy. But don’t let him catch you off guard. He looks just like the normal cavemen in the area. But this guy, besides having pretty good stats, has an attack called Earth Fissure which imo is the most dangerous attack in the game, dealing around 2500 damage to everyone in a small area. Just take extreme caution when fighting these guys. ============================================================ 3.21 Omega Breed First Battle 15000 HP, Second Battle 30000 HP Omega Breed is exactly Mother Breed, but it can spawn more powerful enemies. This probably could be a very hard fight if you made it out to be, but the chances are, you won’t do that. Just use your most powerful magic and skills and he will fall harder than Square’s stock after Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within first came out. You’ll probably beat her before she even gets a chance to attack. You fight another one at the end of the level with twice as much HP. That means it will take two turns to take her down. ============================================================ 3.22 Xorn 128000 HP Xorn is the final boss. After he is gone, there (Sadly) is no New Game+, no more playing, hell, not even much of an ending. Get ready for a long battle, not really because he is hard, but because he has way too much HP and his attack animations take forever. FIRST THING FIRST, BEFORE THE BATTLE STARTS, EQUIP ALFINA. This means go to set up, give her skills and magic, and equip her with a weapon, armor, accessories, egg, book, etc. A good strategy for Xorn (or anything final boss for a RPG really) is to use any idea you might have left. Azure Elixirs, Miracle Elixirs, Shining Nuts, Big Bombs, Seeds, etc. Feel free to use them up. This way, no single person is a healer and everyone can attack. Xorn is only one target, so use your very best spells and skills against him. Mana Spring is a must here. Xorn is the only target in this battle, but he moves pretty fast. For his basic attack, he shoots out a bunch of orbs that hit everyone for small damage. However, his IP market starts around again before the attack even gets off which sucks. He has a couple of status effects he casts on you, but those aren’t bad at all. One of his deadliest attacks, Darkness, hit everyone for just under 1000 or so. And as his HP gets lower, he uses the attack Dimension’s Gate which hits one person pretty hard. With all of those, as long as you heal right afterwards, you’ll have no problem. His worse attack is Death Knell, but even that is avoidable. It makes like a trap under a certain character and it doesn’t actually attack until long afterwards (at least ten or so turns) but it has a decent size radius and will most likely kill everyone caught in it. When this happens, simply don’t stand there. It is harder than it sounds seeing how the battlefield is all funky, but by using Defend and moving somewhere safe, you can completely avoid this. Just keep this up for a very long time and Xorn is done for. Nothing too hard. Now sit back for a minute or two (seriously, that’s about how long it is) and enjoy the ending. I like it even if it is short. Also, do yourself a favor and go out a buy Grandia 1 and 2. ============================================================ 4.0 Thanks and Stuff This Grandia III Boss FAQ was started and finished on May 4, 2006. I really have no big plans for any updates. Maybe I’ll talk more about the boss’s attacks or something. If you have a strategy you like a lot, send it to me and I’ll be happy to add it. Hopefully, this guide helped you. I would like to thank: Game Arts and everyone involved for making such a great game. Square-Enix for bringing it over. Sorry about the FF Movie comment. I saw it opening night and enjoyed it. I would also like to thank Ubi-Soft for introducing me to this series years ago. CJayC and everyone who helps run GameFAQs. All the people on the Grandia III board and those who wrote FAQs before me. Lori B. My dog Will Spell check Other People This FAQ was written by Jeff Browning. enterthemoose@gmail.com --- Live In Defeat