Part 23: Pre-Update 18: Flame Demon pre-fight overview

Flame Demon pre-fight overview


Flame Demon
HP: 8790, STR: 26, VIT: 24
Skills:

• Madness Roar: Uses the head. Attempts to inflict Panic (high chance) on the entire party.
  
• Terror's Embrace: Uses the arms. Deals moderate Bash damage to one target with splash damage. Attempts to inflict Fear (moderate chance) on hit targets.
  
• Kingly Fire: Uses the legs. Deals scaling Fire damage to the entire party--first cast is heavy, second is severe, and beyond that is severe-borderline-overkill.
  
• Inferno Strike: Uses the arms. Deals heavy Fire damage to one target. Higher-than-average chance of targeting the back row.
  
• Dispersed Cruelty: Uses the head. Attempts to place a physical/elemental attack debuff that lasts 5 turns on the entire party.

Drops:

• Normal: Red Wings. Sells for 840 en. 1 needed to make Crimson Staff (+65 ATK, +3 TEC, Normal attacks deal Bash+Fire damage).
  "Oddly small wings for such a huge monster. Slightly warm, and retain some power yet."
  
• Conditional: Glinting Claw (Kill on the first turn). 1 needed to make Crimson Eater (+209 ATK, +40 TP, +5 VIT).
  "Fragile swordlike claw of a demon in the red forest. Gain it by defeating one quickly."

Damage resistances:

• Normal: Cut, Stab, Bash
  
• Weak: Ice
  
• Resist: Volt
  
• Nullify: Fire

Disable resistances:

• Normal: Blind, Paralysis, Sleep, Curse, Leg bind
  
• Weak: Poison, Arm bind
  
• Resist: Stun, Head bind
  
• Nullify: Panic, Fear, Petrification, Instant Death

The demonic protector of the Auburn Thicket, who summons a dark inferno to ward off trespassers.


Flame Cube
HP: 580, STR: 0, VIT: 22
Skills:

• Explosion: Cannot be disabled. Deals overkill Fire damage to the entire party. Kills the user after dealing damage.

Damage resistances:

• Normal: Cut, Stab, Bash, Volt
  
• Weak: Ice
  
• Nullify: Fire

Disable resistances:

• Normal: Blind, Panic, Sleep, Petrification, Instant Death, Stun
  
• Weak: Poison, Paralysis, Curse, Fear, Head bind, Arm bind, Leg bind

A gelatinous creature summoned by demons to detonate near enemies. Dispatch these swiftly!


Battle pattern:

• Phase 1 (100% to 75% HP):
  • Turn 1: Madness Roar
    
  • Turn 2: Normal attack
    
  • Turn 3: Terror's Embrace
    
  • Flame Demon will loop this phase until she falls below 75%.
• Phase 2:
  • End of previous turn: Summons 1 Flame Cube (front row, left of Flame Demon)
    
  • Turn 1 and 2: Whatever actions were upcoming from Phase 1
    
  • End of turn 2: Flame Demon and the Flame Cube (if it's alive) will prepare Kingly Fire and Explosion
    
  • Turn 3: Kingly Fire (+ Explosion if the Flame Cube is alive)
• Phase 3 (75% to 50% HP):
  • Turn 1: Inferno Strike
    
  • Turn 2: Normal attack
    
  • Turn 3: Terror's Embrace
    
  • Flame Demon will loop this phase until she falls below 50%.
• Phase 4:
  • End of previous turn: Summons 2 Flame Cubes (front row)
    
  • Turn 1: Dispersed Cruelty
    
  • Turn 2: Whatever action was upcoming from Phase 3
    
  • End of turn 2: Flame Demon and the Flame Cubes (if they're alive) will prepare Kingly Fire and Explosion
    
  • Turn 3: Kingly Fire (+ Explosion for each alive Flame Cube)
• Phase 5 (50% to 25% HP):
  • Turn 1: Madness Roar
    
  • Turn 2: Inferno Strike
    
  • Turn 3: Normal attack
    
  • Turn 4: Terror's Embrace
    
  • Flame Demon will loop turns 2-4 until she falls below 25%.
• Phase 6:
  • End of previous turn: Summons 2 Flame Cubes (back row)
    
  • Turn 1: Dispersed Cruelty
    
  • Turn 2: Whatever action was upcoming from Phase 5
    
  • End of turn 2: Flame Demon and the Flame Cubes (if they're alive) will prepare Kingly Fire and Explosion
    
  • Turn 3: Kingly Fire (+ Explosion for each alive Flame Cube)
• Phase 7 (25% to death):
  • Turn 1: Madness Roar
    
  • Turn 2: Inferno Strike
    
  • Turn 3: Normal attack
    
  • Turn 4: Terror's Embrace
    
  • Flame Demon will loop turns 2-4 until she dies.

(Note: If Flame Demon is stunned on the turn she's supposed to use Kingly Fire, she will keep trying to use it until it's succesful.)

Flame Demon is the first of many "all-or-nothing" bosses, as I call them, in EO2U. An all-or-nothing boss has either a set pattern, like Flame Demon here, or has something very close to it. They also may have summons, also like Flame Demon. Generally, all-or-nothing are bosses you either just completely steamroll due to being equipped to deal with their patterns with no issue, or get roadblocked by because:

• Your party lacks the ability to effectively handle one or more parts of the boss's pattern. In Flame Demon's case, this can include not having a way to completely block Panic, as Madness Roar will tag most of your party normally.
  
• Your party lacks the ability to kill summons quickly. Any boss that has summons in EO2U generally has some big move where the summons being alive basically either causes a game over or puts you really close to one. Worst case scenario, you are essentially given a time limit to kill each boss before you just lose due to your difficulty at dealing with summons.

So, here's the long and short of it: Flame Demon, like I said above, is either absurdly easy or a complete nightmare--this comes down not just to your general party composition, but what specific classes you have. If you have an overly defensive party that lacks an easy way to kill the Flame Cubes, Flame Demon will destroy you. If you have an overly offensive party that has plenty of ways to kill the Flame Cubes...Flame Demon will STILL destroy you, since you now lack methods to deal with her normal attacks and Kingly Fire itself. Bursting her down simply isn't an option without relying on really heavy cheese involving Grimoires of a higher level than you should have by this point, and a LOT of RNG. You have to build a party that can eat Flame Demon's attacks, easily deal with the Flame Cubes, and can still kill Flame Demon before you run out of TP. As for skills:

Madness Roar basically means you need either Prevent Order, or put Owl Earrings on all of your classes (or just your Medic, if that's what you're using). It's going to Panic either most or all of your party otherwise.

Terror's Embrace doesn't deal a ton of damage, especially through Front Guard. The Fear can seriously screw up your plans if your Protector or Beast gets hit with it, but otherwise just keep some Therica Bs or a row-target Refresh ready.

Kingly Fire is basically the crux of the fight. On its own, it already hurts, and is something you borderline need either Fire Wall or Fire Mists for. However, it is also what sets off Explosion, and if even one of those goes off, it's probably game over for you! Even Fire Wall won't help you, since that only procs once per character.

Inferno Strike is a free turn if you have a Protector or Fire Mists. Otherwise, it hits pretty hard, but the higher chance of hitting the back row means Flame Demon'll be eating the back row damage penalty for it.

Dispersed Cruelty really sucks if you don't have any way to purge it with a buff. It cuts your party's damage by somewhere from 30 to 50%.

Also, no, I am not going for the conditional drop. It's basically impossible without some really heavy cheese. With that in mind, let's go over party members:


Damage dealers:

Zack: Zack's an okay choice for Flame Demon. His damage isn't spectacular and his low max TP will mean he'll run out quite a bit before pretty much anyone else, but Falcon Slash really helps with dealing with Flame Cubes.

Freyja: If Sophie's in the party, Freyja has the potential to take a lot of the sting out of Flame Demon, since both of them can work together to put a bunch of binds on Flame Demon, followed up by Ecstasy, which will chop off a lot of Flame Demon's HP. On her own, Freyja can try to bind Flame Demon's legs to stop Kingly Fire, but she has no way to efficiently deal with the Flame Cubes, which can make her a serious liability if the party's lacking in all-target damage.

Stardust: Stardust is the best damage dealer for Flame Demon. Compressed Cocytus Formulas deal a lot of damage to Flame Demon herself, and uncompressed Cocytus Formulas (or Eschaton) make short work of Flame Cubes. Her high TEC plus the back row damage penalty also means she'll laugh off Inferno Strike if it targets her.

Asriel: Asriel's about on par with Zack in terms of usefulness in the Flame Demon fight. He can do a respectable amount of damage, and Flame Grater helps a little with the Cubes (the game will count Flame Grater as a Cut attack when calculating damage against Flame Demon and the Cubes), but his low LUC means he's very susceptible to being hit with the Fear from Inferno Strike. This is also one of the few boss fights where Issen is useful, since the Flame Cubes don't resist Instant Death.

Jackie: Jackie's honestly a bad choice for Flame Demon. The line-piercing capability of Charged Ice won't matter until the third summon phase, and Supreme Bolt can't buy a free turn when Flame Demon's supposed to use Kingly Fire.

Colette: Ailing Slash can hit Flame Demon pretty hard, but like always, Colette really needs either Nadia or Sophie to make it work. She also lacks all-target damage, meaning her best option for dealing with Flame Cubes is just targeting them one at a time.

Tyler: Spear Assist is as useful here as it was in the Chimaera fight, and Tyler now has a decently-leveled Delayed Charge to take advantage of as well. His Flame Cube-clearing capabilities aren't amazing, but he can help chip at them.

Ranger: There is not a single boss fight in the game where Ranger isn't a great choice. He can deal really heavy damage to Flame Demon, and Akashic Nova makes very short work of either the second or third Flame Cube summonings.


>>> Defense (this is really important) <<<

Phoebe: Flame Demon's completely predictable pattern means Phoebe really shines here. Front Guard will really help with Flame Demon's attacks and Terror's Embrace, and Fire Wall makes Inferno Strike a non-issue. She can also turn Kingly Fire into a free turn if we have a party that can easily kill the Cubes. The bold part's the really important part, since Fire Wall won't stop Explosion if the Cubes are still alive. Perfect Defense will give me one free phase to completely ignore the Cubes, and ONLY one.

Ursa: Ursa's a less safe option than Phoebe is, since Phoebe can just make the entire party functionally invulnerbale while Ursa still has to be healed, and she runs a high risk of getting Feared since she'll be tanking the splash damage from Terror's Embrace, too. True Endurance does the same thing that Perfect Defense does for Explosion, though--I can use it to give myself a phase where I can ignore the Cubes.


Support

Nadia: Nadia has two big things going for her in the Flame Demon fight. Firstly, Flame Demon doesn't resist both Blind and Paralysis, meaning she can get a lot of mileage out of both Blind and Paralysis arrow. Secondly, Summer Rain is one of the best ways to deal with the Flame Cubes, and it'll do a nice amount of damage to Flame Demon in the process as well.

Realga: Realga's main use is that I can put an Owl Earring on her and just have her cast Refresh on the Madness Roar turn, meaning I can save an equipment slot on everyone besides her. Outside of that, she still combos really well with Ursa, but her usefulness drops off while Phoebe's in the party--at that point, consumables will usually be enough.

Milly: Milly is the best option for just making the fight be over as soon as possible--not "one turn victory" quickness, but still very fast.

Sophie: Flame Demon is neutral to quite a few status ailments, and as noted above, Freyja + Sophie has the potential to be incredibly deadly.

Rheine: Bosses with all-party high-chance status ailments are severely less threatening when I have Prevent Order + Victory Vow. Aside from that, Rheine can help contribute some damage using Link Order and Link Order II if Stardust or Jackie are in the party.


Let's try something different with the votes, shall we? Four votes per person--however, each person must vote for one character from each category, along with one extra character from whatever category. (Any votes for my choice mean that I am subject to these rules when choosing, as well.) Flame Demon is a boss where your party composition is extremely important (well, moreso than usual), and I'm trying to reduce the likelihood I get something like "4 supports and Ranger." Even Ranger wouldn't help if I got stuck with something like that.