Shinryu (Final Fantasy V)

Shinryu, also known as Dragon Lord, is one of the optional superbosses in Final Fantasy V. Shinryu attacks the party when they inspect the treasure chest containing the Ragnarok.

Shinryu's attacks mostly define the battle's difficulty. It possesses strong elemental attacks, the most dangerous being the Tsunami it uses on the first turn. Unguarded, this ability will inflict over 8,000 damage, thus wiping out all but the strongest characters. Shinryu also has an arsenal of Blue Magic, as well as status inflicting attacks.

Listed below:
 * Atomic Ray - Fire-elemental damage to all targets.
 * Ice Storm - Ice-elemental damage to all targets.
 * Tidal Wave - Water-elemental damage to all targets.
 * Lightning - Lightning-elemental damage to all targets.
 * Maelstrom - Reduces all targets' HP to single digits.
 * Evil Eye - Petrifies a target.
 * Poison Breath - damage to all targets and sometimes inflicts Poison.
 * Zombie Breath - damage to all targets, and sometimes inflicts Zombie.
 * Level 2 Old - those with levels divisible by 2 are inflicted with Old.
 * Level 3 Flare - those with levels divisible by 3 get Flared.
 * Roulette - randomly kills a party member.
 * Mighty Guard - casts Protect, Shell, and Float to itself.

It can be argued whether Shinryu or Omega is the game's hardest boss, excluding the GBA-exclusive bosses. While Shinryu possesses stronger attacks and more health, its strongest attacks can be protected against, and it is weak against certain weapons due to being a Dragon-type enemy.

Strategy
A good strategy is to equip everybody with Coral Rings and Ice Shields to absorb Shinryu's Tsunami and Ice attack and to also nullify his Atomic Ray. It would also be a good idea to set up and keep re-establishing Golem. Also, before the battle, the player should be sure to have the Steal or Mug ability to get the Dragon's Whisker.

An easy way of beating Shinryu is by making a character a Time Mage with the Mix ability and to simply cast Quick, then mix an Eyedrop and a Dragon Fang to cast Dark Sigh on Shinryu, which will inflict Blind. Then mix a Turtle Shell and a Revivify to cast Bacchus' Wine to inflict Berserk. This makes Shinryu relatively easy to defeat, as all he can do is attack but have his attack absorbed by Golem. The character with the Mix command can further mix Turtle Shell and Antidote to lower Shinryu's defense, and this can be used repeatedly. Gil Toss and Meteo are good ways to deal damage.

One of the easiest ways to beat Shinryu takes lots of training beforehand. All characters must have Ninja and Dragoon mastered. This means that Freelancers will have a default Dual Wield and Jump. The player should equip everybody with Coral Rings and two Dragon Lances each and have every character equip Jump. After the Coral Rings absorb Tidal Wave the player should use Jump with everybody. With a party at around level 50, Shinryu should be defeated after three characters attack.

Trivia

 * The Thousand-year-old book in the library on the Interdimensional Rift states, "The dragon Shinryu came upon Omega's heels." In the Anthology version, the same book refers to Shinryu as "Lord Dragon," despite the enemy still being called "Shinryu" in the same version.

Related Enemies

 * Crystal Dragon
 * Neo Shinryu

Shinryu (Final Fantasy V)