Adamantoise (Final Fantasy XIII)

The Adamantoise is an enemy in Final Fantasy XIII.

The Adamantoise is a powerful enemy located on the Archylte Steppe of Gran Pulse. During the first exploration of Gran Pulse it's best to avoid them, as they will take the team out in one stomp. It is recommended to come back after completing the story to battle them, when your HP is around 15,000 and Strength over 1,500. Adamantoise is immune against "Preemptive Strike", even with Deceptisol.

Destroying the forelegs (Left Foreleg and Right Foreleg) will make the Adamantoise fall down. It is unable to attack in this state, but will recover (stand up again) after roughly 1 minute.

Spoils
Adamantoise's common drop with 25% chance is the Platinum Ingot, worth 150,000 Gil, making it useful for buying and upgrading weapons. The rare drop is the vital Trapezohedron; worth 2,000,000 Gil at R&D Depot. Trapezohedron is required to upgrade Tier 2 weapons into their ultimate forms (Tier 3). One can equip the Collector's Catalog to get more Ingots and the Connoiseur Catalog to increase the drop rate of Trapezohedrons. Against the widely spread misinterpretation, both can be equipped the same time (although it doesn't increase the drop rate of Trapezohedrons, but lets the player get more Platinum Ingots along the way).

The "Death" Trick
If Vanille has learned Death for her Saboteur role, it's possible to defeat the Adamantoise with it, but the chances of successfully casting Death are low (hovering around 1%).

One can increase the likelyhood of landing Death by: This technique is helpful for characters with stats too low to fell the Adamantoise otherwise.
 * inflicting the Adamantoise with as many debuffs as possible
 * using Malboro Wand
 * staggering the Adamantoise

The best approach is to have Vanille, Fang and Hope, with Vanille as the leader and to use the Espionage Paradigm (SAB/SAB/SYN) with Hope being the Synergist. Make sure you have at least 3 TP bars full and enter the battle. At the start of battle, instantly summon Hecatoncheir. This will disable the Adamantoises legs. Dismiss the Eidolon by entering Gestalt Mode and then pressing triangle. Hope should be adding Haste, Bravery, Faith, Veil, while Fang uses Slow, Curse, Fog (etc.). Haste and Faith are very handy, as Haste allows Vanille to cast Death more often and Faith increases the chance of Death succeeding. Keep casting Death until the Adamantoise dies. If you equip Vanille with Sprint Shoes and a Collector's Catalog as well as two Speed Sashes it will add Haste and the Synthesized Ability ATB Rate + 15%.

Strategy without using Death
Adamantortoises are best tackled without summons and Death when the characters have at least Tier 2 weapons and have mastered their assigned jobs at the Crystarium. Use Fang as the party leader and start the battle with SYN SYN SYN casting Bravera and Faithra (manually) to the team, while the others cast things like Haste and Protect. Then switch to SAB RAV RAV or RAV RAV RAV and stagger one of the legs. As soon as the leg staggers switch to COM MED MED and use Highwind on the staggered leg to kill it while the others heal. Then do the same to the other leg and Adamantoise will fall. Switch to SYN RAV RAV and re-cast Bravera and Faithra if they are running out, then stagger the fallen Adamantoise with SAB RAV RAV. You can keep with SAB RAV RAV a little longer after the enemy has been staggered to make sure it has Deprotect and to raise the stagger percentage, but after the percentage is somewhere around 800% switch to COM COM COM (etc) to deal some hardcore damage. Use Highwind as Adamantoise is trying to get up. If it doesn't die yet, go back to SYN SYN SYN to re-buff your team and start again by killing the legs.

If the stomp is doing too much damage you can switch to SEN SEN SEN as it is lifting its leg to take less damage. Also, wearing earth protect accessories such as Gaian Ring helps.

Related enemies

 * Adamantortoise