Part 33: Strategic Notes: Chimaera
Strategic Notes: ChimaeraI'll be doing one of these for every strata boss, so you can have an easier time deciding on whether to give me a break or to make me suffer. Voting rules for future stuff will be at the end of each post. Of course you don't have to read these and just vote for whoever. But you're not gonna be doing that for this one.
Chimaera
HP: 1400
STR: 22
TEC: 22
VIT: 22
AGI: 18
LUC: 20
Exp: ???
Item Drops:
-Common: Brute Tail - Unlocks Shadow Bow (Bow), Beast Tail (Whip), and Amrita III. Limited stock.
--Chimaera tail that looks like a giant serpent.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Brute Wing - Kill while poisoned. Unlocks Zamiel Bow (Bow.) Limited stock.
--Beast king's wing made for defense, not flight.
Description: A horror born of fusing other animals together. It attracts monsters and blocks traveler's way.
Weakness: Ice
Resistance: Fire
Skills:
Pile: Uses the legs. Can hit up to three party members and has a chance to inflict poison. The poison does around 80-100 damage.
Blaze: Uses the head. Hits a row of party members with a fire attack.
2-hit: Uses the arms. Hits a party member twice.
Chimaera is the first boss of the game, and can be a tough fight if you aren't prepared. In the beginning of the fight, Chimaera will just use Blaze and 2-hit. When its health drops below 50%, it'll add in Pile to the mix. If poison manages to land on any of your party members, heal up the status effect fast! 80-100 damage per turn is not something you want your party members to take. Blaze can be a row killer if you don't have the proper defenses.
Chimaera hits hard and can tank hits pretty well, so it can be a battle of attrition here. Still, if you bring enough supplies, you'll be able to take down Chimaera eventually. Assuming your party isn't horribly underleveled, Chimaera isn't too much of a problem. So what's the main problem? These things.
Slaveimp
Type: Flying
Behavior: Ambush
Aggressive: Yes
HP: 152
AT: 17
DF: 17
Skills: Flight, Heal, Aura
Description: A lizard with abnormally large wings. It can fly at low altitudes and hop over high walls.
Weakness: Ice (125%)
Resistance: N/A
I know I mocked the Slaveimps for being really weak and really easy to take out, but that's outside of the Chimaera fight. There was a good reason for them being so weak, and that's because they're Chimaera's flunkies in this battle. They'll join in by the end of turn 4 if you don't find a way to deal with them beforehand. And if they join the battle, they'll turn the tide in Chimaera's favor. Remember those two moves that I said they never seemed to use? Well this is where they use them, and you do not want to let them do that. Aura raises the attack power of all the enemies, and will make Chimaera's attacks even more powerful. If Chimaera wasn't killing your team before, it will after being buffed. Heal will restore Chimaera's or another Slaveimp's HP for around 100 HP, undoing a lot of your work against Chimaera. Flight is still a pretty weak random target move, but the thing to consider is that if Chimaera is barely killing your team when they're at full health, Flight will put them in killing range or finish off any low HP characters.
Everything has a huge Ice weakness here, so an Alchemist or a Gunner with their Ice skills leveled up to a good point can deal some good damage to Chimaera and the Slaveimps. If you have the Kurodachi unlocked for a Ronin, that can also help a lot. Landing a Hexer's Poison spell on Chimaera is also helpful, but it might only last two turns, and the chances of landing a max level Poison on Chimaera is 21%, assuming the Hexer's luck isn't lower than Chimaera's. So you're relying on RNG there. Chimaera's conditional drop is killing it while it's poisoned. It doesn't have to die from the poison damage, although you still get the drop if that happens. I do recommend trying to go for the conditional drop on your first go if you can. If all else fails, you can grind up Force Skills and unleash them on the boss. Eschaton will deal the most damage out of all of them, so there's something else to consider. Overall it's not really a tough boss if you're prepared.