Old enemies like the Airbuster are making a comeback, and new enemies like Roche are featured in these early chapters. The Airbuster is a particularly difficult boss that you will have to beat under a time limit. Each boss battle has a different feel and a different set of weaknesses that you can take advantage of.
Grab your Buster sword and prepare for battle. Here's how to handle the first three big boss battles.
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Roche
- Chapter 4 - Weakness: Fire
Dodge his special attacks and use Punisher mode to counter his melee attacks. You'll know he's about to unleash a melee attack when he recoils with his sword. If a skill title appears, it's about to unleash a magical attack - that's when you'll want to dodge.
Take your time, and Roche isn't too tough. If your health is low and you need to recharge your ATB but you don't want to risk attacking it, use the Punisher Mode Guard Meter. Cloud starts with Fire Materia, so use that magic to refill his lag gauge.
Crab Keeper
- Chapter 5 - Weakness: Thunder
The massive crab keeper is weak to lightning, but you don't want to focus on the body. Instead, aim for the legs. Use Thunder on the legs and use Punisher Mode to tear them apart quickly. Destroy two legs to shift the crab keeper boss faster.
Once the four legs are destroyed, the pilot will reveal himself behind an armored hatch. Use magical attacks to break through the armor and take it out, revealing the Crab Guardian's weak spot. Attacking the weak spot generator deals much, much more damage than usual.
The Crab Warden uses long range attacks, missile barrages, and unblockable charges that will pass through your characters. Keep moving and use dodge to avoid his incoming attacks - I recommend giving Heal to Barret and Cloud to keep your team's HP high.
After destroying two legs, the Crab Guardian will summon a pair of additional Auxiliary Cannons and attempt to charge the tracks. Quickly get off the tracks and stand on the solid ground in between! After a short while, the rails will explode with electricity. This is the crab keeper's deadliest attack.
The Crab Warden will also begin to spawn drones. Use Aero or Thunder to quickly destroy drones before they can cause trouble, or just use them as fodder to build your ADP meter.
Airbuster
- Chapter 7 - Weakness: Thunder
The Airbuster is an incredibly powerful robot - and again, it has a weakness for Thunder, but it's far less efficient this time around. Before you get into this fight, you can choose to remove certain upgrade units from the machine - I recommend removing all AI cores you can. You can remove 5 buffs, and AI cores make it attack much slower.
The battle begins with Cloud on one side, while your allies are on the other. Don't play here - it's a real fight, so keep your characters healthy with Cure and fill MP with ethers. Use them before you desperately need them. Barrier will also help in this fight. I also recommend equipping Auto-Cure on one of your allies.
Fight long enough and the Airbuster will descend the podium, allowing all of your characters to attack it together. It will begin to charge a massive chest beam - when it begins to glow, run away, and take cover on the sides of the catwalk.
After absorbing a certain amount of damage, the Airbuster will independently throw its fists, separating them from the core. To fail the boss much faster, aim for those fists and smash them. They're weaker and go down pretty quickly if you focus your Thunder and abilities. Beware of the finger attack - it will stun.
Save your limit breaks and summon later in the battle. Just focus on dealing as much damage as possible while the boss is staggered. Keep using Thunder and put Barrier on your weaker character / player. Staying alive is the most important thing, and it's easy to let your party slowly lose HP until they're all low. Keep using Cure or Hi-Potions to keep at least one (or two) of your characters healthy! Auto-Cure won't last very long in this fight.
At around 50% health, the Airbuster will crush the arena and begin to fly. He exchanges attacks, throwing waves of EM mines and barring the gangway with bombs. Above all, he stays away. While he is away, use Barret's Overload Blast and Thunder to weaken him. The boss will periodically float towards the catwalk, giving you an opening to rebuild your ATV and do some damage. I recommend saving your summons and limits for this stage of the fight - although staggering the Airbuster in this stage is much more difficult.
Keep reducing the Airbuster, using Hi-Potions and Ethers when you need them, and you will eventually win this uphill battle. There is a 20 minute time limit, but you won't need more than 10 minutes to win.
