Level Cap : None!

Cup Unlocking Condition : Beat all cups.

There are quite a few difficult fights in this Cup! They are among the most difficult fights in the Colosseum, and one of them is the most undisputable overpowered creature in the game, Major Numerus . While most of the preceding fights are likely nothing compared to Shinra (“I’m just a kid,” yeah right), they can still give difficulty to those not using “cheap” tactics like Miracle Drink … which we abused multiple times.

BOSS - Seymour¶

BOSS ANALYSIS : Ah, Seymour is one you’d expect to be in the “Farplane” Cup. In any case, he’s still pretty varied - maybe even moreso than his FFX counterpart - and noticeably more difficult in some regards. He can use Strength and Magic Up skills to boost the respective stats by 1/6 each. He also has a couple of physical attacks: Attack, and Drain Attack (which is a bit weaker, but drains HP).

As for magic? He has a lot of buffing/debuffing skills on him: that includes Curaga, Protect, Shell, Dispel, Demi, Slowga, Confuse, and Break; the latter ones can be problematic for you, so somehow having the Ribbon ability - or at least Stoneproof - will be very helpful. He also has a few offense-oriented skills: Black Sky (10 physical random-target hits), Ultima , and Meteor (12 random target unblockable hits).

MAIN STRATEGY : Open the battle in one of two ways: either go for the Mighty Guard or the Miracle Drink Mix. Miracle Drink is more effective, but the supplies are rare, so it could be hard to execute. Mighty Guard will suffice, since Seymour is more of a tank than an attacker, though you will need to heal often with Curaga or Chemist-boosted Mega-Potions from an Alchemist. Which you choose in that regard is again up to you.

It’s hard to dispute the offense, though. With Defense of 221 and Magic Defense of 238, as well as Seymour’s absorption of all elements, you need to hit him physically and non-elementally, and Defense-piercing as well (since 221 is about 88% of the maximum allowed Defense, and 238 about 92%). Darkness from a Dark Knight will work amazingly well in conjunction with the Ragnarok accessory and Miracle Drink, though if you’re working without Miracle Drink and Ragnarok it may be best to keep the HP penalties off by using something else, like the Festivalist’s Fireworks. However, the big difference is that Darkness is the only Defense-piercer that also won’t be hurt by Protect or Shell, so keep that in mind.

BOSS - ???? (Tidus)¶

BOSS ANALYSIS : People who played FFX without using the Expert Sphere Grid can probably grasp the nature of Tidus’s offense: fast and physical. (The ESG provided a ton of early-on variety one could see usually only after grinding for a ton of AP in FFX.) You will see an Attack, Delay Buster (Attack with a huge Delay), Hastega, Spiral Cut (double-damage Attack), Blitz Ace (nine hits to a single character; overall 5.625x stronger than Attack), and Mega-Potions.

MAIN STRATEGY : Opening with Protect or Mighty Guard on everyone will be the best way to weaken Tidus’s offense; his Strength will become 94, effectively. Assuming your stats are actually decent for this point (Level 99), then you will find most of his damage laughable. If you have trouble from there, you can always throw up Curaga, or Chemist-boosted Mega-Potions or even Miracle Drink from an Alchemist.

Offense is relatively simple. Unlike most enemies you’d see around now in the Cups, Tidus is rather frail, boasting, only just over 150 in Defense and Magic Defense. If you want to dole out heavy damage, Defense-piercing stuff like Darkness will work well, but it’s not that hard of a battle overall.

BOSS - Auron¶

BOSS ANALYSIS : Like Tidus, Auron has a rather limited offense; even if it effective, its limitations are its own weakness. You will see an Attack, Full Break (Attack x1.25; all Stat Breaks’ effects), Shin-Zantetsu (death to all), Dragon Fang (Attack x 7/8; hits all and Delays), Shooting Star (Eject: around 1/5 successful), and Mega- and X-Potions.

MAIN STRATEGY : Even though it wasn’t a role he played well in FFX, Auron plays to the highest advantage of his ailment-induction strategy. For example, he can outright end the battle (Shin-Zantetsu) or remove characters from battle (Shooting Star) or lower many stats by 16% (Full Break). In fact, he has about a 1/6 chance to use Shooting Star at the battle’s opening. When he gets under 1/4 HP, though, you could well see Shin-Zantetsu if you are not immune to Death on any of your characters.

So, what’s the plan? Coming in with everyone having Ribbon as an ability in some way is highly recommended; you can do so via some Garment Grids’ gates, the Mascot ability, Special Dresspheres, and the Ribbon or Shmooth Shailing accessories. That’ll keep most of your girls in the battle. Next is to have one of your characters throw up Mighty Guard or a Light Curtain so everyone gets Protected from Auron’s pure-physical offense. (Shell can be inhibitory if you prefer Curaga to Chemist-boosted Mega-Potions.) And then, from there?

Your offense doesn’t need to have much specific to it, though Auron is probably the frailest of all the Farplane Cup bosses, at least in terms of Magic Defense. (You’ll do approx 33% more damage to him magically than physically.) What you want to do is up to you: you can combo Mental Break and Ultima on him, or you can go straight to a zero-Defense-assuming Defense-piercing attack like Darkness or Fireworks. Just keep your HP high and you won’t have much of a problem.

BOSS - Major Numerus¶

BOSS ANALYSIS : This … this is where it all goes down the drain, every bit of it. Major Numerus is clearly the most powerful enemy in the game; except for a sparse few enemies, his HP for example exceeds them all, and that is just single parts of him. Each part of him will not have necessarily-maxed stats, but he has an advantage Almighty Shinra and Trema do not: a four-character team. Four times the offense. Four times the danger. The danger is always greater in numbers. Each part of Numerus’s Latin-entitled offense (unum = 1, for example) has its own offense as well.

Unum : Has a set pattern to some extent:

• Ladis Command (physical; ignores Defense; can exceed 9,999)
• Sparkler (physical; ignores Defense)
• Dispel
• Sparkler if all parts are Shelled, Shell if not
• White Highwind under 1/8 HP (stat-correcting White Wind); Sparkler over it
• Sparkler
• Sparklier if all enemies are Protected, Protect if not
• Loop

Duo : Somewhat-set pattern - each “or” designates a 50% chance for each:

• Bio or Black Sky
• Break or Flare
• Confuse or Ultima
• Demi or Sleep
• Berserk or Black Sky
• Blind or Flare
• Silence or Ultima
• Slowga or Demi
• Venom Command (physical to all; ignores Defense and Poisons)
• Loop

Tria : Somewhat-set pattern, like Duo:

• Holy or Firaga
• Holy or Blizzaga
• Fulmen Command (Lightning physical to all; pierces 9,999; HUUUUUUGE basal power (255, the max))
• Holy or Thundaga
• Holy or Waterga
• Absorb (Osmose & Drain)
• Loop

Quartum : Non-deviating set:

• Fireworks (physical to all; ignores Defense)
• Mortus Command (physical to all; ignores Defense; can pierce 9,999)
• Absorb (Osmose + Drain; works based on 3/16 of current HP/MP
• Meteor (12 random-target unblockable hits)
• Fireworks
• Absorb
• Ultima
• Fireworks
• Absorb
• Loop

MAIN STRATEGY : This guy can be harder to fight than Penance in FFX - he is one of the hardest bosses we have ever fought in Final Fantasy. The main reason is his sheer power and speed: unlike any truly difficult boss before, he can easily attack four times more than they can. And while there is a somewhat-set move pattern for all of the enemies, you’ll notice that it’s not completely set, nor completely preventable. Take Fulmen Command for example. It’s only blockable by stopping Lightning, something most won’t be doing at this point; at 255 power, it is the strongest attack in the game. It hurts. A lot. How to handle this?

Believe it or not, this thing can go down, and what a way to fall, for we actually recommend using the YRP, even if some monsters can have superior stats!

You’ll want this set-up: Firstly, someone able to use the skill Nonpareil from the Samurai job. This boosts your Strength and Accuracy each by two levels, or +1/6, and by ten levels, or +5/6, respectively. Equip this person with an Iron Duke and an Invincible for the massive abuse you can see coming from them. For this role, we picked Paine, whose Mascot job would be supplying a Samurai side-ability. However, we also recommend that this person be able to switch to the Dark Knight dressphere (see the paragraph two below here for why). In that case, also use a Garment Grid that bestows Break Damage Limit by crossing a gate (you won’t attack until after changing) and swap the Invincible noted above for another Iron Duke, Speed Bracer or a Ragnarok, whichever you prefer.

Second, you’ll want an Alchemist. This Alchemist’s main role is to use Miracle Drink to grant invulnerability to your party. Miracle Drink’s effect is pretty hard to determine, but assume it will last for 30 minutes. Thus, come supplied with enough materials to give you two or three uses of it. Equip this person with a Speed Bracer and an Iron Duke; the Speed Bracer helps to assure they get their turn in before Numerus can screw you with Ladis Command off the bat. We used Rikku for this role.

Third, you will want a dedicated offensive unit. This unit needs to be able to hit all enemies, and also pierce Defense, and there’s only one truly viable job class for that: the Dark Knight with their Darkness skill. (You could also use the Festivalist’s Fireworks, but Dark Knights are bulkier and stronger.) Equip them with an Iron Duke and an Invincible to pierce the damage limit. For this, we chose Yuna, for her Mascot Dressphere also allowed this as a secondary ability while she also got a number of curative skills that, on the off-chance we failed to notice Miracle Drink wearing off or Numerus blasted us before we could re-Mix, we could heal very ably.

Now, with that all down, open the battle as soon as you can, and hopefully you’ll do so with the Miracle Drink Mix, especially if you equipped a Speed Bracer (Auto-Haste). At that point, there’s not much purpose for the Alchemist other than curative purposes. You could also work out a Mega Cocktail, or at least a Mega Vitality since you likely won’t use MP, to further help yourself, and perhaps the same for Final Wall: not necessarily needed, but an “in case” thing. Otherwise, keep the Dressphere anyway (you never know when that Miracle will wear off) and simply Attack. Reinstill Miracle Drink as needed, and heal with Chemist-boosted Mega-Potions as needed.

Offense? From the very get-go, the Samurai mentioned earlier will need to use Nonpareil. They will need to do so five times total for the maximum boost, a +83.3% boost that ignores the 255 cap on Strength and Accuracy (in other words, you now have about 468 Strength if you were at 255 before). That makes certain attacks quite lethal: by certain, we’re referring to the Defense-piercing attacks mentioned earlier. After those five Nonpareil uses, swap to the Dark Knight and obliterate the enemies with Darkness. (You can stick with the Festivalist’s Fireworks if you prefer, but Dark Knights are stronger. Abuse what you can if you’re not at 255 Strength before the Nonrapeil.)

And, of course, that remaining Dark Knight uses Darkness. In our case, this Yuna Mascot also played a curative role for the party, mostly through Moogle Curaja, Moogle Regenja, and Moogle Wallja.

That’s it. Boost yourself, remove any chance for you to be hurt, and bastardize Major Numerus with highly-boosted Defense-ignorant attacks that hit everyone. Over the course of the next 10-30 minutes, you will kill him. And you should be proud for it. Because you don’t earn a Trophy for it - but five Iron Dukes might suffice, eh?