Malboro (Final Fantasy VIII)

Malboro is a monster in Final Fantasy VIII fought on the Great Plains of Esthar before Lunar Cry, in Grandidi Forest and on the Island Closest to Heaven and the Island Closest to Hell. It is one of the game's toughest opponents, and at LV100 has more HP than any other regular enemy.

More often than not, the Malboro will begin the fight with Bad Breath, which can defeat the party if they have no effective status defenses. Other attacks include Eerie Sound Wave, which damages all party members, and Dissolving Acid, which will deplete 37.5% of a party member's current HP. Malboros are important enemies for the Malboro Tentacle items used not only to teach Quistis the Bad Breath skill, but also to acquire the Doomtrain GF and for several weapon upgrades.

Strategy
Among the best defenses against a Malboro, when a character has equipped a GF with the StatDefx4 ability, is junctioning Pain, Confuse, Berserk, and Sleep negating nearly all the Malboro's status abnormalities, leaving only Slow and Slow Petrify. One can also replace Berserk with Breaks and allow the berserked character to quickly hit away at Malboro's HP.

If the player hasn't got enough of above mentioned spells, they should at least junction Sleep, Berserk and Confuse, which still leaves a character available to cure the party; Selphie's Full-Cure Limit Break is a quick way to cure all of the party from status effects, though Siren's Treatment command, Remedies and Esuna are good as well.

Equipping a character with Initiative will give a character the chance to have a turn before the Malboro can use its Bad Breath. Having Quistis in critical status and ready with Degenerator will instantly defeat any Malboro. Malboros never appear in a group, only alone. If the party is at a low level, the player may wish to use the Tonberry GF's Level Up ability to ensure a better chance of Malboro Tentacle drops. The earliest it is possible to encounter a Malboro is in Esthar's Grandidi Forest area, which may be reached via chocobo.

Because of Malboro's high HP Demi works well against it dealing easy 9999 damage. The spell can be drawn from Malboro making draw-casting a good strategy.

Gallery
Morbol (FFVIII) Molboro (Final Fantasy VIII)