Elemental Archfiends (Final Fantasy IV 2D)

The Elemental Archfiends are bosses in Final Fantasy IV fought in the Giant of Babil. Prior to the fight, the Archfiends were revived by Zemus so they could give one last group attack upon Cecil Harvey and his party.

The bosses are fought one after the other. In the SNES, PlayStation, Advance and Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection versions, the order of the fight is Scarmiglione, Rubicante, Cagnazzo, then Barbariccia; this is the same elemental order that the Four Fiends were fought in the original Final Fantasy. The Nintendo DS version rearranges the last three to put the fiends in the same order the bosses were first encountered, Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and Rubicante.

In some versions of the game, the Archfiends are susceptible to the Second Form Glitch.

Strategy
The first stage of the fight is pretty easy, since all the player has to do is Dualcast Curaja. It is best to heal debuffs with Scarmiglione comes since it is likely for him to recast any debuffs the player has restored. He is still weak to Fire, so Ifrit or Firaga from Rydia and/or Firaga from Fusoya are good. Fusoya can also heal along with Rosa. He also still has the Cursed Elegy, of course, as a counter.

When up against Rubicante, the player can use the same strategies as in the first encounter, except this time Fusoya replaces Kain - he works well as a second Black Mage (casting Blizzara and Blizzaga, for example) or as an additional White Mage if needed. If the player has completed the sidequest in the Feymarch and have access to Leviathan they can should use it here, as it is particularly devastating against Rubicante and can easily cause 9,999 HP of damage.

An alternate strategy is to cast Haste on Rydia, then use Shiva or Leviathan when Rubicante opens his cloak (More preferable with Shiva as she is faster.), then use Steal with Edge. After around four turns of this, Rubicante should fall. Since Rubicante should not be able to use Inferno when in his cloak, he will only be able to physically attack. Rosa can either revive characters killed with Rubicante's physical attack, or cast a Fire spell on Rubicante.

Against Cagnazzo, Cecil should attack, Edge should use Blitz, Fusoya and Rydia should use Thundaga and Thunder spells while Rosa uses Cure.

Barbariccia is immune to physical attacks, but magical attacks are capable of harming her. Edge and Cecil have little to contribute offensively, so Rydia and Fusoya should focus on dealing out as much damage as they can while Cecil and Rosa focus on keeping everyone's health up. Barbariccia does not counter attacks as much, but she does attack more frequently than before. Though it is not mentioned in the bestiary, Holy magic is incredibly effective against her, so Fusoya can cast Holy or Rydia can summon Dragon. If Rosa is a high enough level, she can Dualcast Holy dealing aproximately 19998 damages.

Barbariccia is also unintentionally weak against Lightning. This bug is fixed in Advance remake.

Scarmiglione
'Turn 1 - Attack

Turn 2 - Attack

Turn 3 - Attack

Turn 4 - Attack

Turn 5 - Curse = Inflicts Curse on one random party member (Offence + Defence cut in half)

Rubicante
Turn 1 - Multi-Target Fira - Light fire damage to whole party.

Turn 2 - Multi-Target Firaga - Moderate fire damage to whole party.

Turn 3 - Multi-Target Inferno - Heavy fire damage to whole party.

Cagnazzo
Turn 1 - Attack

Turn 2 - Attack

Turn 3 - Attack

Turn 4 - Attack

Turn 5 - Tsunami - Heavy Damage to whole party

SNES
Turn 1 - Attack

Turn 2 - Ray - Inflicts Gradual Petrify on one party member (May miss)

Turn 3 - Attack

Turn 4 - Ray - Inflicts Gradual Petrify on one party member (May miss)

Turn 5 - Attack

Turn 6 - Storm - Inflicts Hp Critical Status on the whole party regardless of current Hp.

PSP
Turn 1 - Stone Touch - Inflicts Gradual Petrify on one party member (May miss)

Turn 2 - Attack

Turn 3 - Attack

Turn 4 - Maelstrom - Inflicts Hp Critical Status on the whole party regardless of current Hp.