Part 43: Full-Fiend Satan

So, before we go and deal with everyone's favourite optional boss we have one last little thing to do. You might recall that we now have all the Karma Rings...



We should go talk to this guy about that. Mostly because it turns out we do not, in fact, have all the Karma Rings.

Oh no, no, no... Those are all ancient. Take this one.



NOW we have all the Karma Rings. To get this one, you need all the ones that are available normally; the DDS1 import data stuff doesn't count towards it.

I'm sure you'll prove to the world how great my creation is. I have no more regrets, thanks to you.

So, what does this big, final ring do?



It's just Null Attack from the first game. This is actually super good and cool, so we'll never use it of course (the only fight left where it would matter is against Satan, but...). This is the only way to get Null Attack in this case, since it's not on the Mantra Grid this time around.

Which is, well, fair enough because giving it to everyone would be boring.



So, because I decided that fighting actual enemies to grind data drops would be boring I instead abused Johnny to grind data. This meant I had to sell a lot of crap to him to keep funds going, and in doing so I ended up hitting the highest amount of points needed.

This is the only place to get a Gospel aside from Michael's drop. If you miss it there, and really want one then you're stuck getting it here. I just grabbed the Soma though, because its more useful.



Oh, and Star Sapphires are ridiculously unfair and can randomly give even higher than you would expect. I think +8 is possible too, but don't quote me on that one.

Epic Battle ~ Prelude



Okay, that's all the stuff we can do, uh, done. Let's see what Satan himself has in store for us.

I see you have chosen to retaliate, just as that man did... then prepare, Seraph, to receive God's eternal punishment of damnation!

Hunting ~ Betrayal
Yeah, I know, I'm kinda disappointed as well.

But, before we actually deal with the fight proper:

God's Breath



Every fourth turn, he does this. God's Breath is a nasty, nasty Almighty attack that does all of one thing.



It hits everyone for an undodgable, unreducable 9,999 damage. And it costs 0MP to use, so the same trick won't work twice.



In fact, take that as a given for all of his attacks. Not one of them costs anything to use.



Much like with Demi-Fiend, there is a way around this attack that we need to utilise. Unlike with Demi-Fiend, Satan does not give one fuck what skills you have equipped coming into this fight. Got Repel Element?



Well, you're a dirty cheater, because it's not available normally. It is accessible by pulling it out of the code though... albeit called, uh, "Full Speculate" for some reason. He still won't care. Instead, we have to get him to not want to use it and instead focus on doing something else.

End

Incidentally, the reason he gives no shits about your skills is what makes the Master Ring completely useless here. Don't bother with it.

Ultimate Boss: Fiend Satan



So, Satan gets the first turn and he uses all five of his press turns to pull off this move. Futility is always his opening spell and its the only time he uses it as well.



All this does is negate every single resistance you have from passive skills and rings. It's kind of nasty as a result, but that's all it needs to do. It doesn't effect Null Sleep or Null Critical (...sounds familiar), but it doesn't need to either. Those skills are completely useless here.

Incidentally, since you're stuck running with your own natural resistances, you might think that Cielo is borderline mandatory for this guy.

Ahahahaha. Nope. In the real fight, Cielo is benched. He got to fight the Demi-Fiend with Argilla. This fight goes to Gale and Heat.



Oh, yeah, speaking of Satan's skills he has nothing but magic. He doesn't even have a basic physical attack. He casts all five ST dynes completely at random.



He also throws out Vanity fairly often. That's a pretty big reason to not use Cielo, since he will sometimes even do it twice in a row just to spite you.



He also quite likes Mahamaon, which is why every guide ever recommends having someone turn human in this fight.

For the record, following said guides will make this fight take upwards of 1 hour. So, uh, don't do that either.



The one bit of advice that I will mostly agree with is keeping up Void Deaths (or Repel Deaths, because you can actually do that) when you can. Don't cast it every single turn, because he doesn't Mamudoon that often but it can fuck you if he does it at the wrong time.

I'd actually recommend Tetraja (both Void Death and Void Expel rolled into one) if it wasn't, also, unavailable in normal circumstances. It's in the games code but not usable normally.



And, of course, he can Megidolaon whenever he likes to as well. Its both the best and most annoying thing he can do, since it'll never hit a weakness and you're more likelt to dodge. But it hits harder than the Dynes and hits everyone for good measure.



He can also Debilitate on a whim. He can do this several times in a row, at that. If he does it multiple times at the wrong turn, he's just saying you lose and there's nothing you can do about it.

Incidentally, you can Debilitate him to -2 without issue. -3 just means there's a chance, a high one but not a guarantee, of him Dekundaing. He might leave it for a while, but he'll always leave it at -2.



Oh, and if he gets extra turns he uses them to cast random -kajas. Maka is the only one that matters; Taru is a freebie. He also likes Maka the last and Taru the most.

So gimmick wise, he hits really fucking hard. Like, upwards of 300 on a neutral element before buffs and debuffs are in play; easy 500+ on a weakness and you will have one. But that's a non-issue aside from the 5 actions thing.

Unlike most bosses, he will gladly let you get to +3 buffed without getting pissy.



Because it's mandatory. You need to get at least one person to +3 in all four stats by every fourth turn. This makes him Dekaja instead of God's Breath. So, you need to use Charge because stacking the normal buffs will not help.

Incidentally, this is technically the hardest on the first cycle because his opening Futility counts towards that four turn timer. In practice, this is no harder nor easier than any other time.



Also he's a barrier change boss. Like Shiva, he switches what he can be hit with based on the turn you're on. Unlike Shiva, this doesn't let you break him quite as hard.

...Mostly. You'll see.

Also also, he's resistant to Almighty so don't bother with that.



For the most part, you might be thinking then that hitting him with the most powerful spells whe he's vulnerable will be efficient. It isn't.

Titanomachia here is one of five special spells; it deals Mega tier damage against every enemy. Titanomachia is Earth elemental, despite being a phys skill in basically every other game it has been in.

It'll hit for, presuming +4 Makakaja and -2 (or -3) Rakakuja AND a Mind Charge... about 900-1000 damage. Satan has 30,000HP. Keep that number in mind.

Don't use spells. Guides recommend Titanomachia and guns. Guides are wrong.



Phys skills are, by a fucking mile and a half, THE way to go here. Under the same circumstances as maxing out your best spells, you will deal ~1160-1200 on average with a Mega phys attack. More if it crits, like this. Executioner is the best option since, yes Godslayer will crit more. It will also miss more.

Also bring Divine Light because it will embarass this guy hardcore.

He is vulnerable to Phys skills for three out of four turns per cycle. If you think of Dekaja/God's Breath as the last turn, he only repels Phys after his first turn in the cycle. This is only hard to keep track of at first.



After he gets to sub-15,000 Satan finally changes things up a bit. He drops all the dynes and replaces them with the mid-tier randoms.



I hope you're good at keeping count of his HP (use a calculator, dummy) because unless his first turn after he enters sub-15,000 is the Dekaja one you MUST have Void Charm/Ailment up.



Because of Temptation. Temptation is another of Satan's unique moves that will screw you over hardcore. He will only use it on his first turn of the cycle, so it's a good tracker for where he is.

The exception being the moment he drops below half health, as mentioned above.



What makes Temptation so nasty is that it is an Almighty elemental spell (of course). All it does is inflict Charm.

It does so with a 100% success rate. If you do not have Void Charm, or Void Ailments, you are fucked.



This is the only change for the second half, but there's another change when he hits sub-7500.



He drops the random elemental spells, and picks up the MT Dynes. This is when Satan takes off the gloves for real and will just try and kill you.

And by "try and kill you," I mean "will definitely kill you."



Because every turn now has a unique spell at its start. Temptation-Retribution-Retribution-God's Breath (Dekaja). This makes the fight super frantic, and super unfun.

Retribution is irritating in how unfair and boring it is:



It hits a single character, whoever has the lowest magic apparently, with an unblockable, undodgable spell.



Satan points his finger.

Gale has died!



Incidentally, you can use basically every Void/Drain/Repel shield spell and he will not give a shit.

Except this one.



Magic Repel is the only thing you can do in this fight to piss Satan off. If you do it, he just spams Retribution.



So, you might be thinking from all this that Satan is a long, hard fight that would take forever to do normally. Kind of. The recommended strategy drags the fight out for far too long, and is just boring to do and watch.

He's never actually hard. Just varying degrees of tedious.

My preferred method, really, is to just carve through his health with Power Charged Executioner until he hits ~10,000 (or as close to 7,500 as I can get without going under) and then making sure everyone is fully healed and Power Charged. Once I get a turn when I can hit him at this point, pop the Impel Stone immediately - just in case.



And then just let the Divine Light shine. 1-2 hits, each one dealing ~1200 amounting to 2400 if it hits twice. Closer to 5,000 if it double hits and crits. Doing the Impel Stone first gives turns to then charge and attack again if necessary (maybe not many but that does depend on number of crits etc.)



This lets you just skip the third phase wholesale and stops the fight becoming tedious and shit.

Incidentally, I would like you to remember those numbers. 5,000 damage from a double-hitting crit off a Divine Light. Satan has 30,0000HP. I wonder...



Satan gives oddly shite AP for an ultimate boss. A ton of money though. Yes, that is $1.5 million.

Oh, and as an aside, apparently he casts Diarahan or something similar if he gets a turn when he has sub 5% health left (under 1,500). Wouldn't know personally, though.

End



Seraph heard the faint words of Satan's Solar Data.



Where will you go...?



Hey, Schroedinger. What's up.

Though the God that spirit praised is different from the God of this world... The ultimate answer lies within you. Now go, Seraph...



So, that's that. That $1.5mill and the Soma? Those are the rewards for fighting Satan. No new super cool items, no secret mantras. Nothing.

I'd feel ripped off, if there was any point to getting anything new anyway. The only boss left to fight is the last one, and MAYBE Meganada if you hadn't yet.

But whatever. Want to see something cool?

How To Kill Satan in 3 Turns

And by three, I mean one. Because the first two are setup.





So, that's that then. Next time, we reload to immediately after Meganada and fight the final boss. I wonder who it could be!

Well, not really because it's obvious and also Shiva dropped an untagged spoiler.