Flan Princess (Final Fantasy IV 3D)

The Flan Princess, also known as the PinkPuff or Pink Puff, is an enemy from Final Fantasy IV. It has a 1/64 chance of appearing in a room in the Lunar Subterrane and Lunar Ruins. When it drops an item, there's a 1/64 chance of it being the rare item, Pink Tail, which can be traded with the Blacksmith in the underground for the Adamant Armor, the best armor in the game. In the 3D remake version, Flan Princesses may also drop a Rainbow Pudding, which can be given to Puddingway to have him change his name.

How to find
Flan Princesses can only be found in one room of the Lunar Subterrane (the room has a single chest containing a Red Fang). In the Advance and Complete Collection ports a group of eight Flan Princesses (rather than the usual five in Lunar Subterrane) can be found in the Flan room of the Lunar Ruins. Sirens can be used to trigger the Subterrane formation, but sadly not the higher count group in the Ruins. They are harder to find, but have better odds of a tail drop by sheer numbers.

In the Flan room in the Lunar Ruins, after the first rare encounter of the eight Flan Princesses, they start to appear after every five or six random encounters. After five to seven of these encounters with the Flan Princesses, they will stop appearing. The player can quicksave, then reload the game to start it again. The player will have to spend time finding the rare encounter again, but they will start to appear commonly again after that. This makes acquiring the Pink Tail easier.

Battle
As soon as the fight begins, a Flan Princess will say "Dance with us!" and cast a party-wide Berserk spell called Samba de Flan. Occasionally, a Flan Princess will cast a spell called Entice to inflict the Confuse effect.

Strategy
In most versions of the game, one should not have much trouble taking Flan Princesses down with high levels, good equipment, and magic/summons, but in the 3D remake version they are more difficult and will require a different strategy.

Before engaging them, the player should ensure everyone has their strongest weapons, with Cecil equipped with the Crystal Mail and a Headband (giving him the Counter and Draw Attacks Augments may also be a good idea). The player should ensure these weapons do not have an elemental affinity, excluding Holy and Dark.

While everyone else in the party will be affected by the Flan Princesses' Berserk, the Crystal Mail immunizes Cecil. The party should cast Protect and resist the urge to have Cecil attack the Princesses as he will have his hands full keeping everyone alive. The Headband will protect Cecil from Confusion and with everyone healed, eventually the Princesses will die.

An alternate strategy for the 3D remake version is to equip Cecil with the Draw Attacks and Counter Augments, place him in the back row, and place Stardust (a consumable item which casts Comet—it can be purchased at the item shop in the dwarf village of Tomra) in his top ability slot. Each time he is attacked, he will use Stardust, doing approximately 3,500-4,500 damage; at higher levels Cecil will have no trouble exceeding 7,000 damage. The battle should end in two or three hits. The only downside is the amount of Stardusts necessary to continually fight in this way—a full inventory will be used up in 33 or 49 battles, and they are expensive at 4,800 gil apiece; each siren used per battle costs an additional 3,000 gil.

Yet another strategy is to, using the Crystal Mail to give Cecil immunity to Berserk and equipping him with Draw Attacks, have him cast Esuna on Rydia. Rydia should have plenty of time to summon Bahamut before either Cecil dies or the Princesses cast a second Samba de Flan if Cecil has adequate Defense and HP. If Cecil also has Counter equipped, he will have already dealt some damage to each Flan Princess, and Bahamut is likely to deal an additional 9,999 damage to each, killing them. Placing Cecil in the back row with his most defensive equipment will help him last longer, as will having him use Defend or Brace once he has cast Esuna on Rydia.

An easier way without spending money on Stardust is to give Rydia the Counter Augment and, if the party has the Stardust Rod, have her put it in the first slot and Counter at the bottom. The player should cast the Esuna spell on her and the next time she's hit she'll counter using the rod and doing nigh 7,000 damage.

For physical and auto-battle strategy, if the player has the ????'s Love and Reach Augments, and gives them to Cecil, it is possible for him to tank the entire battle. It's recommended that the party is around level 70. Cecil should be on the back row with ????'s Love, Draw Attacks, Reach and Counter Augments on battle commands, and Defend on auto-battle command. He should be equipped with the Crystal Mail, other defensive equipment, and most importantly, Blood Sword to heal him on every successful counter and for its anti-Flan perk (halves damage received and doubles damage dealt). The rest of the party should be prepared with their best physically-offensive setting (strength, attack, and accuracy). The battle will last about 2 minutes; as long as Cecil has around 2,000 HP before battle begins, it should be safe to turn auto-battle on.

Another auto-battle strategy is to; equip Edge and Kain with Adrenaline Augments. Cecil should have the Cover, Counter Augment (Kick and Reach Augment are optional), Crystal Mail and Blood Sword equipped, put in the back row with Defend in auto command (and Kick in the the top slot of command list). The party should be in critical status except for Cecil, who should take about 100-150 damage per hit covering for the party, counterattack with Kick which automatically heals Cecil himself. Edge and Kain can deal about 3000-5000 damage per attack depending on the weapons equipped.

Trivia

 * Final Jelly appears as an Egg Monster in the Japan-exclusive Hanjuku Hero: Aa, Sekaiyo Hanjukunare...!. The sprite is a modified version of the Flan type of monsters from Final Fantasy IV.

Related enemies

 * Red Mousse
 * Black Flan
 * Yellow Jelly
 * Purple Bavarois
 * White Mousse
 * Golden Flan
 * Dust Mousse

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-

 * Purple Bavarois
 * White Mousse
 * Black Flan

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

 * Black Flan
 * Dust Mousse
 * Flan Princess
 * Green Cell
 * Purple Bavarois
 * Red Mousse
 * White Mousse
 * Yellow Jelly