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Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

How to Obtain

By
Ben Chard
,
Jarrod Garripoli
, &
Nathan Garvin

Description

To acquire the Shemhazai Esper, you’ll need to continue the story until you reach the Great Crystal. As you venture into the depths, you’ll encounter Shemhazai and you must defeat her to be able to call upon her in battle.

Stats

Lv HP Weakness Steal
45 91,136 Fire Sagittarius Gem, Hi-Ether, High Arcana

Resistances

Resistances

Strategy

Shemhazai is primarily a magick-weilding Esper, so you can dispense with Protect for this battle and instead focus on Shell, which is incredibly important for this battle. If you’re properly leveled and keep Shell and Bubble up on all your party members, you should do well in this fight. That said, Shemhazai’s elemental weaknesses are random, if you guess the correct element by chance she’ll randomly change her weakness to another element, and she’s fond of using Silencega, so you might as well bench your Black Mage and Red Battlemage in favor of a melee-focused party: Knight/Bushi, Shikari/Foebreaker and a White Mage are ideal.

Keep your White Mage at a distance to mitigate the damage Shemhazai will do with area-of-effect spells and to avoid getting your whole party hit with Silencega, and prepare the Gambit “Self: status = Silence –> Echo Herbs”… or just weak a Rose Corsage. Even with Shell on everybody, some of Shemhazai’s attacks (Flare, Scourge and Shock, in particular) can hit for devastating damage, so try to keep everybody above 2,000~ HP. Depending on what the max HP are for your weakest character, you should tool a Curaja Gambit to automate exactly that.

Shemhazai can frustrate your magicks with Silencega (left), but her Flare magick is a more immediate threat (right).

Shemhazai has over 90,000 HP, which is only half as much as, say, Tyrant, but like most bosses, expect Shemhazai to benefit from a variety of stat-boosting augments when her HP are low, including Chain Magick, allowing her to cast spells instantaneously. Don’t get cocky when you see her HP bar drop go below 25% - that’s just when she doubles down and the real fight begins.

Speaking of her spells, she can cast Flare, Scourge, Silencega, Shock and Syphon (drains target’s MP, restores own MP), while her technicks include Enrage, Mana Spring (reduces MP costs to 0) and Chain Magick. Also be wary of her normal attacks (a bolt of energy), as they deal around 500~ damage and inflict Disease, a status which must be removed immediately in this fight. Have Serums or Remedies ready to go. Last and not least… try to nab a Sagittarius Gem off of her during the fight, as it’s a common steal from Shemhazai, and you’re going to want several of these. Might as well take an easy one while you have the chance.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Square Enix
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS4, Steam, Switch, XB One
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    30 August 2017
  • Last Updated
    17 December 2022
    Version History
  • Guide Author
    Nathan Garvin, Jarrod Garripoli

Share this free guide:

Enter an era of war within the world of Ivalice. The small kingdom of Dalmasca, conquered by the Archadian Empire, is left in ruin and uncertainty. Princess Ashe, the one and only heir to the throne, devotes herself to the resistance to liberate her country. Vaan, a young man who lost his family in the war, dreams of flying freely in the skies. In a fight for freedom and fallen royalty, join these unlikely allies and their companions as they embark on a heroic adventure to free their homeland.

This guide contains the following:

  • A walkthrough that’ll guide you through the story, help you obtain all the best weapons and armor, and defeat every monster.
  • An interactive map of the Giruvegan Great Crystal; featuring all weapons, armors, save crystals, gate stones, way stones, bosses and rare enemies.
  • Tips for getting the best equipment from the Bazaar and from enemies.
  • A detailed Job Guide featuring all twelve job classes in the game, and the best ways to combine them and characters to form the ultimate party.
  • How to find and defeat all Hunt Marks and Rare Game.
  • Citations of the differences between this version of the game and the original.
  • A thorough explanation of all of the game’s mechanics.
  • All sidequests, including Trial Mode.
  • A trophy guide that will get you that shiny Platinum Trophy.

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