Ice Dragon (Final Fantasy VI)

The Ice Dragon is a boss in Final Fantasy VI. It is one of the Eight Dragons and the dragon of ice. The Ice Dragon is fought on the cliffs over Narshe in the snowfields behind the Narshe Mines. As with the other dragons it is re-fought in the Dragons' Den bonus dungeon in the Advance release.

First Battle
The Ice Dragon's attacks include Northern Cross, which inflicts the Freeze status on the party but has a low Hit Rate, and Absolute Zero, which does major Ice-elemental damage to the entire party. Terra and others should use Fira, or, if they know it, Firaga (Terra learns it naturally, the spell is otherwise taught by the Phoenix and Valigarmanda Espers). Shadow should throw Flametongues. The Ice Dragon isn't terribly powerful and should fall easily.

Second Battle
In the Dragons' Den, the Ice Dragon returns as a boss, but like the other seven dragons, the battle is made more difficult with special conditions. The Ice Dragon employs the same battle tactic as the Vector Lythos in Kefka's Tower: although only one Ice Dragon is visible, there are actually four Ice Dragons with their sprites overlaid over each other. All four of them must be dispatched to win the battle. To compensate the Ice Dragons individually have much lower HP than the other revived dragons. The Ice Dragons can all use Blizzaga, Freezing Dust, Snowstorm, Avalanche, and their new special attack Freeze, which inflicts Stop. As the Ice Dragons become fewer in number, the remaining dragons will use Freeze with greater frequency.

Though the player's first instinct may be to use group-attacks to hit all four Ice Dragons at once, this is a bad idea as all four Ice Dragons will likely attack the attacking party member in response, possibly killing them. It is relatively safer to focus on one dragon at a time. Firaga spells are most useful for this. Alternatively, the player can kill all four dragons at once with a very specific set-up. To do this, a character with high magic power must be equipped with a Soul of Thamasa and know Quick Ultima. Cast Vanish on that character, cast Quick on them, then Dualcast Ultima twice. If the character's magic power is high enough this will do 9999 damage to all four Ice Dragons, and thus four casts of Ultima will kill all the dragons in one round. Even if this fails, the dragons will certainly be very weak collectively. Defeating the Ice Dragons destroys the Seal of Ice, and also gives the player Setzer's most powerful weapon, the Final Trump.

First Battle
Attack Turns: 1st Turn: Attack (33%) or Northern Cross (66%) 2nd Turn: Attack (33%) or Absolute Zero (66%) 3rd Turn: Attack (33%) or Avalanche (33%) or Absolute Zero (33%)

If killed: Avalanche (33%)

If attacked by anything: Attack (33%)

Second Battle
At beginning of battle:
 * Display message: Ice Dragon creates 3 mirror images!
 * Bring in Ice Dragon x3

Attack Turns: 1st Turn: Attack (66%) or Nothing (33%) 2nd Turn: Attack (33%) or Freeze (33%) or Nothing (33%) 3rd Turn: Attack (33%) or Blizzaga (33%) or Nothing (33%)

If 3 monsters are left:
 * 1st Turn: Attack (33%) or Snowstorm (33%) or Nothing (33%)
 * 2nd Turn: Blizzaga (33%) or Freeze (33%) or Nothing (33%)
 * 3rd Turn: Freeze (33%) or Freezing Dust (33%) or Nothing (33%)

If 2 monsters are left:
 * 1st Turn: Attack (33%) or Snowstorm (66%)
 * 2nd Turn: Freeze (33%) or Blizzaga (66%)
 * 3rd Turn: Freeze (66%) or Freezing Dust (33%)

If monster is by itself:
 * 1st Turn: Freeze (33%) or Northern Cross (66%)
 * 2nd Turn: Freeze (33%) or Absolute Zero (66%)
 * 3rd Turn: Freeze (33%) or Avalanche (66%)

If killed: Absolute Zero (33%) or Northern Cross (33%) or Avalanche (33%)

If 2 monsters are left:
 * If attacked by anything: Attack (33%) or Freeze (33%)

If attacked by anything: Attack (66%)

Related enemies

 * Magic Dragon
 * Fafnir
 * Vector Lythos