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The final battle begins! After a stirring cut scene where your party lets Kefka know just how petty he is, you have to decide on your battle order. Every character you brought along can contribute to this fight, throwing down against Kefka over four stages of combat.
The first four characters you choose appear immediately in this battle, and are only replaced by other members if they fall in combat and are not revived upon defeating one of Kefka’s phases. Pretty simple, and unless you came here woefully prepared most of your party members won’t get a chance to throw down.
How can you prepare your characters for the final battle? Here are some tips:
- Equip your strongest attackers, the ones you want to carry through the whole shebang, with Ribbons. All of Kefa's forms attempt to inflict status ailments, and Ribbons protect against everything.
- Teach at least one character Arise, if not three or four. Arise is expensive, but it brings defeated characters back to life and ready to fight with a single casting.
- Expand your magical repertoires in general. Virtually everyone who might make a difference in this fight should at least know Curaga, as well as a few third-tier spells (Firaga, Thundaga, Blizzaga). Ultima is the best offensive spell overall, and can topple all of Kefka's forms.
- Try to have at least one character who can use special attacks that don’t rely on magic. Sabin, Edgar, Shadow, and Cyan fall under this heading, and a properly-equipped Gogo can as well.
- Give your main attackers equipment that absorbs, or at least nullifies, elemental attacks. Elements of all kinds fly about during these battles, so every little bit of defense helps.
- Don’t berserk any of your characters. You need to be able to react to a variety of situations. No Rages for Gau, no Dances for Mog, and more than likely no Umaro period.
Ready? Then let’s end this.
First Phase - Visage
HP:
- 30,000 (Visage)
- 33,000 (left arm)
- 27,000 (right arm)
Weakness:
- Fire (Visage)
- Wind (left arm)
- Water (right arm)
Immune: Earth (Visage)
Kefka’s initial form is that of a muscular demon. Visage uses the following attacks:
- Normal melee attacks (all)
- Sapping Strike, which inflicts Sap status (Visage)
- Dread Gaze, which can inflict Petrify on a single target (Visage)
- Reverse Polarity, which forces your characters to switch rows (Visage)
- Magnitude 8 / Quake, Earth spells against your whole party (Visage)
- Protect, which increases one target's defense (Visage)
- Haste, which increases one target's speed (Visage)
- Shockwave, a non-elemental attack against a single target (left arm)
The base of Kefka's flesh tower consists of three targets, all of which use strong physical attacks against single targets.This phase also enjoys Petrifying your characters, and when you defeat the largest target, the head, your whole party gets hit by Quake, which has a good chance of wiping out some of your party members just as you’re transitioning to the second phase.
Use Fire-elemental and normal attacks to take out the smaller right arm, then the left arm, and then the head. Focus on one at a time, as you get barraged with attacks while all three are alive. Protect is a good idea, given the number of physical attacks headed your way. Casting Float is useful for avoiding both Magnitude 8 and the retaliatory Quake.
You can Steal Elixirs from all three targets in the first phase of the battle.
Second Phase - Machine, Magic, Tiger, Power
HP:
- 24,000 (Machine - central target)
- 41,000 (Magic - top-left target)
- 30,000 (Tiger - bottom-right target)
- 28,000 (Power - top-right target)
Weakness:
- Lightning (Machine - central target)
- Earth (Magic - top-left target)
- Ice (Tiger - bottom-right target)
- Poison (Power - top-right target)
Kefka's phase is a jumbled mess of familiar characters. Machine, Magic, Tiger, and Power use the following attacks:
- Machine uses a variety of attacks specific to Magitek enemies, such as Magitek Laser, Atomic Rays (Fire), Absolute Zero (Ice), and Delta Attack (Petrify).
- Magic, unsurprisingly, uses a lot of spells in combat, from straight offense (Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Holy, Bio, Flare) to support (Hastega, Reraise, Reflect) to status-changing (Imp, Stop, Sleep, Silence, Dispel).
- Tiger can inflict Zombie on your party members, and uses Northern Cross to inflict Freeze, as well as Northern Cross and Flare Star for Fire damage.
- Power sticks to physical attacks, using either normal strikes or the stronger 10-Hit Combo.
All four enemies also use physical attacks.
Fortunately, this battle is as difficult as it’s ever going to get when you start, and only gets easier. Begin with the bottom-right target first and make your way left, destroying each enemy with a combination of powerful magic and special attacks. One, possibly two characters should be on semi-permanent healing detail, only letting up once you’re down to two targets. Leave the top-left target for last - it doesn’t do a whole lot on its own, but it counterattacks almost every one of your own attacks with random spells. Clear up status ailments as necessary.
Once again, you can Steal Elixirs from all four enemies in this phase.
Third Phase - Lady and Rest
HP:
- 9,999 (Lady - floating face)
- 40,000 (Rest - figure in blue)
Absorbs: All elements (Lady - floating face)
You've almost reached the top. Lady and Rest use the following attacks:
- Normal physical strikes
- Repose, which inflicts Instant Death (Rest) or Sleep (Lady) on a single target
- Meteor, a non-elemental spell against your whole party (Rest)
- Tornado, a Wind spell against your whole party (Rest)
- Meltdown, a Fire spell against every target on the screen (Rest)
- Doom, which inflicts a Doom countdown timer to a OHKO on a single target (Rest)
- Trine, a Lightning spell against the whole party that can inflict Darkness and Silence (Rest)
- Arise, which fully restores Rest to life (Lady)
- White Wind, which heals HP to both Rest and Lady (Lady)
The battle has two targets, both powerful. The fight begins with Meltdown, hitting everybody with Fire damage and revealing that the upper target absorbs Fire... but the bottom does not. From this point on the upper face, Lady, heals both targets, while the lower half, Rest, uses spells to damage your party. It also has a rather painful normal attack.
Target Lady (the floating face) with a string of your strongest non-elemental attacks, as she’ll absorb everything else, and try to blow through her relatively meagre HP as quickly as you can. Once she’s down Rest won’t be able to heal himself, and should crumble after a handful of attacks. The upper half can revive the lower with Arise, so destroying it first is all the more important.
If you attempt to Steal off of these two targets you can get a Ragnarok off of Lady and an Ultima Weapon off of Face. These weapons are not very useful if you're playing on the majority of Final Fantasy VI versions, as you won't get to save your game after the final battle, but any version containing the Dragons' Den dungeon will allow you to save, meaning you get to keep both swords. Grabbing them is highly recommended if you have Locke in the party.
Kefka
HP: 62,000
Immune: Poison
The man himself. Kefka uses the following attacks:
- Normal physical attacks
- Havoc Wing, a powerful physical attack against a single target
- Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, elemental spells
- Trine, a Lightning spell that inflicts Darkness and Silence on your whole party
- Heartless Angel, which reduces everyone in your party to 1 HP
- Hyperdrive, a non-elemental spell against a single target that can inflict Sap status
- Vengeance, which removes all beneficial status effects from your whole party
Kefka begins the battle, always, with Heartless Angel. This reduces your team’s HP to one. Counter quickly with a Megalixir or a quick Curaga. Kefka then starts smacking you around with an array of powerful third-tier magic attacks and the occasional Havoc Wing, an incredibly painful physical attack. Do enough damage to Kefka and he’ll pull out an all-hitting move called Forsaken that hits everybody for some decent damage, after which he’ll start countering attacks with Hyperdrive or, if his health is low, Ultima. That last one is the worst-case scenario for your party.
Your plan should be an all-out offensive, holding back one character to bring everybody back to full health with the occasional Curaga. Blow through your MP and shred Kefka as mercilessly as you can, using your strongest attacks. His only immunity is against Poison, so use your most powerful moves in every other category. Kefka’s damage output is so high that you should also consider moves that boost your own output, namely Haste and Quick. Don’t let anyone stay dead for long if Kefka takes them out! You need everyone to get through this battle, and Kefka’s way too good at putting them down. You can survive with one person out, but two... or three... by that point you’re likely a goner.
You can Steal a Megalixir off of Kefka. Given that he can reduce the whole party to one HP on a whim, grabbing and immediately using the Megalixir may prove quite useful for surviving the fight.
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If you manage to defeat Kefka, then, congratulations! You have beaten the main game of Final Fantasy VI! If you’re playing on the SNES or any of its direct ports, this means you can enjoy the ending and, unless there are places you haven’t yet explored, turn off the system. If you’re playing the GBA game or iOS ports, however, there are more places to visit. We'll move on to the version-exclusive content next.
Part 38: Exclusive Magicite (GBA and iOS only)
Part 38: Exclusive Magicite (GBA and iOS only)