Long Gui (Final Fantasy XIII)

Long Gui is one of two superbosses in Final Fantasy XIII. Long Gui will replace all of the Adamantortoise and 1/2 of the Adamantoise population on Gran Pulse after completing missions 56-62 in the Cie'th Stone circle. Long Gui look just like Adamantoises but in a slightly bluish/tealish skin color, and their tusks have changed from white to dark, rusty brown. It has 16,200,000 HP, more than the other superboss, Vercingetorix. Its two forelegs are additional targets, each boasting 1,080,000 HP of their own. Unlike Adamantoise, Long Gui is immune to Vanille's Death skill. However, the Death spell can deal near 999,999 damage when it is in stagger, provided the player switch to a COM/COM/COM paradigm before Death hits.

It would be good for the group to have maxed out Crystarium and equipment (or at least the main trees of each character and tier 2 or 3 equipment). Note that the Long Gui will cast Doom upon the leader should the battle last longer than 20 minutes. Defeating Long Gui earns the player the Adamant Will Achievement/Trophy.

Strategy
A good party is Fang, Sazh, and Vanille, though the battle can be won with any party. The party leader should either be Sazh or Vanille. The party should stagger Long Gui as quickly as possible to 999.9%. If using Vanille, the player should use SAB/COM/COM and cast Death, but switch to COM/COM/COM before it hits. The Long Gui is immune to the death effect, but with an appropriately equipped team, Vanille will be doing 500,000+ damage per Death. If controlling Sazh, the player should spam Blitz when the Long Gui is staggered; Sazh will deal 599,994 damage (99,999 x 6) per Blitz. Sazh and Vanille both deal more damage per second than Fang, but Fang has high strength and will help kill the Long Gui faster than any character other than Sazh or Vanille. You can double the damage from Death, Blitz, and Fang's attacks, by inflicting the Long Gui with Imperil and the party with Enfire.

Alternative Strategy
Recommended party is Fang, Hope, and Vanille with the following Paradigms: SEN/SEN/SEN, SAB/SYN/SAB, RAV/RAV/RAV, MED/MED/MED, COM/SYN/MED, and COM/COM/COM. All characters should be equipped with the Genji Gloves, Imperial Armlet, and Moonbow Anklet. The party must start the battle with the defensive paradigm in order to reduce damage from the initial Quake/Ultima, then immediately switch to SAB/SYN/SAB to begin debuffing each foreleg while Hope casts enhancement buffs, making sure to have at least Haste, Protect, and Shell on each party member in addition to casting Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, and Poison on each foreleg. The party should use RAV/RAV/RAV to push each foreleg up to 999% stagger, or less than half health (whatever comes first), and then use Highwind while in COM/SYN/MED to finish off each foreleg.

Once both forelegs are down, the party should switch to MED/MED/MED to top all party members, then switch to SAB/SYN/SAB to inflict all possible debuffs. The party can deal double damage if the Saboteurs cast Imperil on Long Gui and the Synergist casts Enfire to the team. The party should use RAV/RAV/RAV to push the stagger gauge up to maximum, then switch to COM/COM/COM to deal massive amounts of damage. Each stagger phase should remove slightly more than half of the Long Gui's maximum health. The party should always switch to SEN/SEN/SEN if the Long Gui uses any special attacks. Ultima and Quake will instantly kill the party without the protection bonus from the Sentinel.

Alternative Strategy 2
It should also be noted that Long Gui is susceptible to Slow; Slow is useful as the attacks do seem to get more frequent later in the fight. It is worth casting Slow early to Long Gui itself, rather than the legs. With a tier 3 weapon you should only need to get the legs to about 500% before Highwind finishes it off (they should be about 50% health by this time); there is no point getting the stagger too high as it is just wasting time.

Recommended paradigms are Tortoise (SEN/SEN/SEN), Salvation (MED/MED/MED), Safe Subversion (SAB/SAB/MED), Attrition (MED/SYN/SYN), Convalescence (MED/SYN/SYN), Tri-Disaster (RAV/RAV/RAV), and Cerberus (COM/COM/COM). Recommended party is Fang, Lightning, and Sazh, although Snow can be used to replace Fang. When using Cerberus all characters should have the Enfire buff and the Long Gui the Imperil status to deal double damage. Sazh is actually a good healer as he mostly casts Curasa, giving the party a couple of extra goes before going to Salvation or Tortoise to get their debuffs landed. Most of the fight involves every other change either being Salvation or Tortoise (before the Quake or Ultima hits).

It is recommended to use the chain bonus guns for Sazh and the stagger lock weapons for Fang and Lightning to get the most time to heal while the chain gauge runs down before Tri-Disaster/Cerberus (for Fang's Highwind, to finish the legs off). You could possibly change Tri-Disaster to Relentless Assault so you do not have to change Paradigms for Highwind.

Alternative Strategy 3: The Death Trick
Long Gui can be killed quickly (in about two minutes) with Vanille's Full ATB Skill, Death, if you use the right strategy; summoning Hecatoncheir is required, but the strategy requires no shrouds, hitting about 999,999 points of damage per Death. However, it is extremely important that the characters are fully developed in the Crystarium, in all roles. A recommended party is Vanille as the leader, with Lightning and Fang. Vanille should have a good Magic Stat (~2500+ is recommended), should be equipping a third-tier Debuffing Rod (the third tier weapon Nirvana from the 1st tier weapon Belladonna Wand/2nd tier weapon Malboro Wand) and should be wielding the Genji Glove and the Sprint Shoes, as Haste is highly recommended, as the party will not start buffing. The other characters should have good stats too, although it is not actually required, as Vanille's Death will be doing the majority of the damage. A Wierding Glyph is also recommended, if her Magic stat is not already over ~2500.

The starting paradigm should be Infiltration (SAB/SAB/SAB). The other paradigms should be Cerberus (COM/COM/COM), Devastation (SAB/COM/COM), Tri-Disaster (RAV/RAV/RAV), and Superiority with Fang as the Saboteur (SYN/SYN/SAB). It is recommended that the Paradigms Cerberus and Devastation are right next to each other, to easily switch to Cerberus before Death hits for a clean 999,999 damage per hit. Also note that the sixth Paradigm not listed is not used in this strategy.

The party should have at least 3 TP at the start of battle. When the battle takes off, you must quickly go to the "Summon" option, but not actually summon until you see Fang and Lightning receiving the starting damage from Ultima. This way, Vanille will not have to be revived, which would dismiss her summon. When Hecatoncheir appears and Long Gui's legs are disabled, Vanille should start off with Poison, which may take up to one or two full sets to hit (6 - 12 Poisons). Next, Vanille must debuff Long Gui with Imperil, and with single spells of Deprotect and Deshell. Then, switch to the Superiority Paradigm, and cast Faithra and Bravera on Vanille. Hecatoncheir should still have some time left, so you may wish to switch to Tri-Disaster, building up the chain gauge, waiting for your summon's life bar and Gestalt Gauge to empty.

When Hecatoncheir leaves, party should switch to the Superiority again. At this time, Vanille's Haste should have worn off (if you equipped the Sprint Shoes). Vanille should be casting Bravera/Faithra on Lightning and Fang, Lightning should be casting Haste and Enfire to everybody, and Fang should finish debuffing Long Gui with Curse and Slow (and to keep Long Gui's stagger gauge in place). You should switch to Tri-Disaster only if the Long Gui's stagger bar is not 60 - 70% full at this point. You must not make Long Gui go into stagger. Stagger Gauge should be built up to a reasonable, but high amount, and then switch to the Devastation paradigm (SAB/COM/COM), and have Vanille use Death, and make sure to switch to Cerberus before it hits. This is to get in some extra damage, and to make sure the stagger bar does not fill too fast. You can try this about one or two times, and then finally switch back into Tri-Disaster, and get Long Gui into stagger, and raise the stagger percentage up to about 920 - 999%.

Once that is done, you should switch back to Devastation, repeatedly spam Death and switch to the Cerberus Paradigm before Death's animation accumulates, and over again, while Fang and Lightning will continually add on to the damage.

Low Level Strategy
You can always summon an Eidolon to bring the beast down, you must just remember Gestalt Mode will clear the chain gauge. Dismantling a fully upgraded Doctor's Code gives an Elixir, a rare item that fully replenishes TP. When the party summon they automatically destroy Long Gui's legs leaving it open for attack. Even without a full Crystarium, the party should be able to bring its health down to under 50% before it stands up. When it does, the party can use an Elixir and summon again. All the party have to do is have the leader survive the opening attack with SEN/SEN/SEN as when s/he summons the other party members are revived and everyone is restored to full health. You can also use a vial of Fortisol and Aegisol before going into battle.

Trivia

 * It is very likely that name Long Gui comes from Chinese. Using the Pinyin transcription, among few other possible meanings, Long corresponds to "dragon" （龙） and Gui to "turtle" （龟） (tortoise) thus giving a "Dragon turtle" （龙龟）. Furthermore Shao （少） (from Shaolong Gui) can mean "young" which makes sense as Shaolong Guis are smaller and weaker versions of Long Guis.
 * Long Gui has the second highest HP in all of the Final Fantasy series, behind the superboss Yiazmat. However, when taking into account the difference between the damage cap, the 16,200,000 HP equals 1,620,000 in earlier games, which is surpassed by several marks from Final Fantasy XII and Original creations in the monster arena from Final Fantasy X.

Related Enemies

 * Left Foreleg
 * Right Foreleg
 * Adamanchelid
 * Adamantoise
 * Adamantortoise
 * Shaolong Gui