Final stage: Ultemecia's castle

Go to Walkthrough Index   Go to Disc 1   Go to Disc 2   Go to Disc 3   Go to Disc 4

Witch Adel and time compression	Final stage: Ultemecia's castle

This is it, guys. The Dragon's lair. The cave of truth. The principal's office from hell you never wanted to end up in. Okay, here's the deal: All abilities are blocked, and you have to defeat Ultimecia's bosses in order to gain them back. Most of the bosses are optional, but if you want to make a living in this castle and the final boss fight, I recommend fighting all of them. Also, you can draw some of the GFs from some of the bosses if you missed them earlier in the game. This is totally useless though unless you need the abilities, because they will be very weak. But you can still do it to look good! Anyway, here are the bosses in the order I recommend you to kill them, but of course you can do them in whichever order. Oh yeah, before you enter you might want to convert all your cards into items! Ultimecia most likely won't be up for a card game so you won't need them anymore; and especially the character-, GF- and boss cards will give you strong items. Bahamut's card with a nearly unlimited supply of Megalixirs for the win. After each fight, you'll regain one ability, so let's get to it!

Sphinxaur
Well here we go. First you will see Sphinxaur at the gate. Hit him with physical attacks, there's nothing else you can do at this point anyway. He will show his true form after a while; just keep hitting him. After the fight, unlock.. well, I like unlocking GFs for HP- protection, but you might just want to unlock Draw to throw spells back at your enemies or limit breaks so Squall can kill everything off. You can now enter the castle.

Trauma
He is in the art gallery of the castle. Namely, go up the stairs, turn right, go down the little stairs and enter the door on the right. Go right, then down the stairs and enter the upper door. Voila, you're in the art gallery! In order to fight Trauma, you will have to check out ALL pictures, be sure not to miss any of them. Then check the big painting and name it VIVIDARUM ET INTERVIGILIUM ET VIATOR, in the garden sleeps a messenger. Trauma will fight you. He is weak against air attacks, so make use of that. He's not particularly strong, which it why it makes sense to kill him off in the beginning to unlock stuff for stronger bosses later on. He also carries Leviathan if you missed him...

Tri-Point
I hate this guy a lot, but he is easy to find. he's down in the wine cellar, which you will find if you go straight from the entrance, up the stairs and through the door. Get on the chandelier, fall down on the floor below and open the hatch (which should be damaged and open now). Tri- Point will be waiting downstairs. Watch his Mega- Spark attack and junction Thunder to your elemental defense. Tri- Point is pure electricity. Did I mention he holds Siren?

Red Giant
Once you unlocked your GFs, take on this guy. He is basically just a ton of HP, so Diablos and Cactuar as well as Demi should cut his HP short, then you can kill him off with limit breaks. Also break his defense if you have meltdown. Magic is useless against him. blind him and his very hurtful sword attacks will miss. Oh yeah, where to find him! Remember the art gallery? Go there, take the northern door and go down to the basement. Take the door to the left, and you'll be locked inside. Luckily, a CORPSE (yummy -_-) will hold a key, and once you take it Red Giant will attack you. Thinks he's so cool with his giant meat chopper.

Krysta
You need both of your parties to go to Krysta. Take the one you *don't* want to fight with to the chandelier, drop downstairs and get in the green circle, which will prevent the chandelier from falling down. Now switch, take your other party, run across the chandelier and walk through the door. Say hi to Krysta and its very questionable fashion sense. He has an annoyingly high amount of HP, so use Meltdown and Doomtrain, and watch out for his counterattacks and Ultima- spells. Ice will heal him, so don't use Shiva. That's about it. Draw Carbuncle if you wish.

Gargantua
Go to the chandelier, let it drop down and walk straight through the door at the top. Go straight through the next room, past the fountain into the next room, up the stairs and turn right. Walk over the bridge slowly, don't run, and pick up the key. In case it falls down, pick it up in the basement armory where you were before. Actually, you need to go there now anyway and unlock the door to the right. A Vysage will be waiting for you, so kick it out of the way and fight the real boss. He uses earth based attacks, so watch out for that (float, anyone?). Get holy on his butt. No seriously, he's weak against it. He also likes to counterattack and give status changes, but aside from that, there's not much to watch out for. Oh yeah, draw Cerberus.

Catoblepas
To find this guy, you have to have examined all paintings in the art gallery. Again, you'll need two parties. Take the one you don't want to fight with up the stairs and go left, then enter the door. Go through the top door and walk north, then stand on the green circle in the elevator and switch. With your other party, go into basement armory direction, but then take the stairs on the left and walk left past the save point to the elevator. Zoom, elevator moves, your 'useless' party can enter the room to the left room and pick up the flood gate key. Switch again and return to the basement armory, pull the lever and use your key to drain the water. You'll find the treasure vault key in the drained fountain, so go back to the hallway (the corridoor to the left from the entrance room which you should be able to enter freely now) and unlock the door to the left in the room. You will see four coffins, just randomly check them all until they open at once. Catoblepas will appear! You can draw Alexander from him. He is weak against earth and water, has a lot of HP and sometimes casts Meteor, so be prepared. Junction thunder magic to your elemental defense and keep healing your party. Summon Leviathan, Shiva and the brothers and you should be just fine.

Tiamat
Last gas stop and monster before Ultimecia! Not being quite so optional, Tiamat suspiciously looks like Bahamut. It's all in the family. You will find him on your way to Ultimecia, so yeah. Go to the room with the fountain, up the stairs to the right and cross the little bridge again. Enter the door to the left this time and climb up the tower. Wait until the pendulum is on your side and jump on it to get across the tower. Go outside and meet Tiamat. He is not particularly hard, but once his countdown stops he will use Dark Flare. Just kill him off with Squall's limit rbeak before he gets the chance to do so and this fight will have been a piece of cake. Don't use fire, wind or thunder elemental attacks or GFs.

And that's it for the optional bosses! Once you met Tiamat, swing back on the pendulum and continue upstairs. Follow the path along various bridges and ladders until you're at the save point. This will be the last save point before your final battle. The time has come. Dun dun duuun. There's another optional boss in this castle though. Can you guess who it is? Correct! Omega Weapon. So before you challenge Ulti, you might want to take him on for a big reward which you could use in the final battle. On the other hand, I found this guy to be a lot harder than Ultimecia- if you don't take the cheapass way, of course.

A few fun facts about this guy. It's the strongest monster in the game. He absorbs all elements. You can draw the strongest spells in the game from him; unfortunately he uses them as well, and happily and frequently so. He is ugly and most likely to have over a million HP at this point. To get to him, position the strongest party you have outside the organ chamber where the fountain is. Switch, take your other party to the gallery and pull the rope to ring a bell. Then switch parties as quick as you can and run to the organ where Omega Weapon will be waiting. Strategy? use everything you have. Megalixirs, limit breaks, Aura, Protect, Shell, Heros, Holy Wars, actually I have no idea. Just pray.

Ready to encounter Ultimecia now? Good. Remember, we're past the bell tower at the save point now. Junction the three people you want to fight with, sort your items. Enter the lair of the evil sorceres..

Well, at this point I can just say: give it your best shot and all you have! Ultimecia will randomly select the members which will fight first, so let the ones you don't want to fight with get killed and they will be exchanged. The worst part I found here was Griever and his shockwave attack; other than that the fight looks a lot harder than it actually is. Use up your healing spells and items, Auras, Shells, let your GFs have their final big show. I actually defeated al of this with Squall's limit break; his Lion Heart does insane damage every time and I was done after roughly 10 minutes. THAT was it already? Indeed it was! For a more detailed strategy, see the boss guide. Once you kicked the sorceress back to where she belongs, lay back and enjoy the ending sequence. You made it, congratulations. :D And you're hereby also released of my yapping and babbling. Thank you, and tune in next time!