Bhunivelze (boss)

Bhunivelze is the final boss of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

Battle
On Easy and Normal Modes, the fight consists of four phases, while the Hard Mode consists of only two, but the first phase uses many abilities from the first three phases available on Easy and Normal Modes. The player can also get to fight Bhunivelze+ in lower difficulties by unlocking the Ultimate Lair.

1st Phase
Bhunivelze will start casting Doom on the player (this is the only time he will do it). He can use his scythe as a boomerang, which will deal more hits if Lightning is too far away. If she is next to Bhunivelze, he will toss her away with his scythe. He will also periodically cast Almagest. When near loss, Bhunivelze will cast Ruinga and Giga-Graviton back-to-back and sometimes simultaneously. He often Debraves and Defaiths too. Keep in mind that Doom will be dispelled after this phase.

2nd Phase
Bhunivelze now adopts a bird-like form. As a starting attack, he will summon three Monads that follow Lightning. When he has the chance to, he can use Wings of Destruction to make these Monads explode. The attack itself also inflicts damage, but can be reduced by destroying the Monads first. He can shift between four spirits: Fire, Wind, Ice and Thunder. This grants him the En- status. When in one of them, he will cast the respective tier 2 (-ra) elemental spell multiple times.

When Lightning is too far away and Bhunivelze has more than half of his HP, he will randomly use Genethliac Hymn, making himself resistant to all kinds of damage, summoning random thunders across the stage and charging a massive blue orb over his head. If the player manages to stagger Bhunivelze before he drops his massive orb, he will be stunned and forced to drop an incomplete orb, resulting in an attack called Falling Star. However, if the player doesn't stagger him, he will drop a complete orb, resulting in Dancing Mad. After that, he can either summon new Monads or change his elemental affinities.

3rd Phase
Bhunivelze returns to his familiar appearance and gains more HP, as well as several new abilities that deal great damage, including Ultima, Divine Punishment, and Hypernova. He uses his scythe more often and with great violence. He can launch Lightning if he catches her off-guard, and can often employ Divine Punishment as a finisher. Divine Punishment comes at any time and he will frequently cast it 2 or 3 times in a row, though only when near death. When far from Lightning, he can either toss his scythe or cast Ultima. When Lightning is next to him, Bhunivelze will toss his scythe in a yo-yo fashion across a wide area. Hypernova is his strongest attack and can be cast when he is near loss. This works similarly to Jet Bahamut's Giga/Tera/Exa Flare, as the player won't be allowed to perform any action during the cinematic. When staggered, he won't do anything in particular.

Final Phase
He will fall down, losing his scythe in the act, but will eventually kneel and half of the stage folds vertically. Any attack does minimal damage during this phase, until he's been staggered, which can be difficult to do since he's resilient to damage and, unlike the previous phases, has total immunity to debuffs. The player can assign Aerora to every schemata and use wantonly to keep the stagger gauge up. Overclock can be used to give Lightning more time, especially after Bhunivelze begins casting Heartless Angel when he naturally idles for a bit. After Bhunivelze is staggered he is easy to damage.

He will cast Disaster and Cataclysm randomly, the last one being the most dangerous because of the number of hits, although it works like Quake. Divine Efflux is his most used ability, used while crouching and covering his face, then shooting beams from his eyes. He can shoot one, two or three times at once so the player should pay attention to guard properly and attack instantly after the attack in order to maintain the Stagger level constant.

Damnatio Memoriae is his strongest attack this time: first he will fire two beams at Lightning, then he bombards her with several Ruin spells, but this attack is easily mitigated if one blocks the first beams, otherwise the player will be launched into the air and unable to block, and likely killed by the cumulative damage. Heartless Angel comes at any time, which will reduce Lightning's HP to 1 via two Eden minions that surround her for 10 seconds. During this time, Bhunivelze does nothing and he can be attacked to keep the Stagger level running, but the player should be mindful of the two minions and guard when the camera zooms in on Lightning, as Heartless Angel will then do nothing. Overclock can be a great alternative as it stops Bhunivelze from casting hazardous spells like Heartless Angel or Damnatio Memoriae. He can also cast Elementaga, which will do high damage, and even if guarding it will deal moderate damage, so the player should perform a perfect Guard to prevent the hit.

First Phase
The battle is now completely different. As soon as it begins, Bhunivelze will adopt his bird form, packing up to 14,000,000 HP. He is now more unpredictable and much stronger. He also uses some abilities from his first form. When using his Spirit abilities, he will now cast tier 3 (-ga) spells, including the -ra spells and the tier 4 (Chill, Surge, etc.) spells. He changes to 3 spirit abilities before casting the Genethliac Hymn. His Genethliac Hymn calls more lightning bolts that can now deal heavy damage. The Monads have to be destroyed obligatorily, because his Wings of Destruction will otherwise kill even a guarding Lightning.
 * Magical God

After casting Falling Star or Dancing mad, he will automatically change to his third form as seen on normal mode. He now uses his scythe with extreme violence and guarding is the key to lower the damage. All of his attack patterns are more aggressive and erratic than before, and his Hypernova is capable of dealing more than 30,000 damage if Lightning isn't guarding. Keep in mind that his HP is still the same. As in normal mode, he will cast three buffs, with the only difference that they will appear more quickly, and cast Hypernova after that.
 * Physical God

Second Phase
The same as his final form in normal mode, but with 17,500,000 HP. To make things worse, he will cast Doom at the very beginning. Along with all the abilities used in this form, he gets access to the ultimate spells Flare, Chill, Burst and Tornado. Damnatio Memoriae is now very strong and can only be survived with good guard abilities. He is very hard to damage, but staggering will be worth the price: it will Deprotect, Deshell and Imperil him for the rest of the battle. When near-death (though this has low probability of occurring since he is staggered for the rest of the battle) he will cast Heartless Angel with unfair continuity.

Strategy
The player should equip the Ultima Weapon and the Ultima Shield if they passed the four trials on the Equilibrium+. Besides this one, they can bring a defensive and a magical oriented Schemata of their choice, Quiet Guardian and Mist Wizard+ work fine, and although Aerora is recommended to be equipped, one can also bring Dark Muse+ for offensive purposes with Heavy Slash. Debuffs except Deprotect, Deshell and Imperil are useless as he is immune to everything else. Equipment to increase HP and damage is recommended, and the player should also bring the Beggar Beads to increase the chances of getting the Double Deity for a next playthrough. Phoenix Down and X-Potions are needed to survive too. Even with the Ultima equipment, Bhunivelze can be difficult, as his attacks are diverse and he grows in difficulty with each phase. It is recommended to have at least one A-grade stagger power ability ready to efficiently raise the stagger bar against him, especially in the fourth phase of the fight.

The first phase is easy, as Bhunivelze's arsenal is rather limited. Even though he casts Doom, the player should be able to defeat him, provided they debuff him and keep attacking. One should try to attack Bhunivelze to hack at his HP and then switch to their magical Schemata after he attacks, especially with Aerora, as it can rapidly increase his Stagger level. His attacks are rather predictable but one should always be ready to Guard, as Bhunivelze's attacks can strike multiple times when he launches his Scythe in a boomerang fashion. His strongest attack is Almagest, and if one is close to Bhunivelze he may perform a swipe, which can be disruptive, although not damaging. Once staggered, he's under Daze so the next attack will deal enormous damage. Bhunivelze can also cast debuffs and buff himself, but he uses a rather long amount of time doing so, giving a larger window to beat him.

The second phase has increased difficulty and boasts more HP, he changes shape and now uses pure magical attacks using Ra-tier Spells. The player should still debuff Bhunivelze and attack him. He first summons three Monads, all of which can be killed. They also take damage from Bhunivelze's attacks and can detonate if Bhunivelze destroys them, and for this reason, one should attempt to destroy them before he uses Wings of Destruction, a magical attack that can be mitigated by guarding. He will use a Spirit ability that will change his properties akin to used Spirit, and use spells of that element. Using Element will ensure more damage of the attribute that can heal him. Eventually, Bhunivelze will use Genethliac Hymn and be extremely resistant to any form of damage during this time. Genethliac Hymn takes time to charge and during this time the player should focus on staggering Bhunivelze as it will weaken his final attack, Falling Star, a strong magical attack which is easily resisted, while failure to do so will result in Dancing Mad, a stronger attack that bypasses resistances and can be lethal. After using either attack, Bhunivelze resumes his regular pattern.

The third phase is similar to the first one, except Bhunivelze's attacks are faster and much more aggressive. Bhunivelze always opens with Holy Blade, which gives him a permanent buff that cannot be debuffed or robbed, giving himself Vigilance and later Faith and Bravery. Deprotect and Deshell still work, and the player should attack quickly but not button mash their attacks as the combo finale can rob them of precious Guard timing that Bhunivelze can use to brutally attack the player, and it is thus advised that they be ready to guard each time they see Bhunivelze move. His attacks incorporate multiple and faster throws of his Scythe as well as Divine Punishment where he strikes down at Lightning. Eventually, he can combine both of these attacks at once, which can result in incredible cumulative damage if one does not guard. Bhunivelze can also cast Ultima which deals high damage, but Guarding will reduce most of it. When Bhunivelze reaches its 3rd buff, it is advised the player is quick in defeating Bhunivelze as he will eventually cast Hypernova, an incredibly strong attack that makes Lightning unable to use any commands during its execution and its casting is fast, giving little to no window to guard, resulting in severe damage. However, after using Hypernova, Bhunivelze loses all of his buffs and resumes his regular pattern.

The fourth phase can be incredibly difficult and frustrating. Bhunivelze is completely immune to all debuffs, and he also resists any sort of damage, with each attack doing 100 or even less damage, and boasts more HP. The key to success is to stagger Bhunivelze as it is the only way to truly damage him. Bhunivelze boasts a menacing arsenal of attacks, the most common of them being Divine Efflux, in which he shoots beams at Lightning and can use it two or three times in rapid succession at random times so the player needs to be careful with how long they guard as they are recommended to change to their Magical Schemata as soon as it is over to increase the efficiency of their stagger. Bhunivelze can also use Heartless Angel, which will summon two Eden minions to surround Lightning. Heartless Angel is the greatest opportunity to increase the Stagger bar as Bhunivelze does nothing else meanwhile. After around 10 seconds, the camera will zoom in on Lightning and Heartless Angel will strike, but if the player uses guards at the right time, this attack does nothing, and otherwise, her HP is reduced to 1.

One should not spam mainly physical attacks as Lightning will be airborn and Bhunivelze can use Damnatio Memorae, which will make him shoot 2 beams at Lightning which, if successful, will launch her into the air, and is then followed by an assault of Ruin spells which can likely kill Lightning. All of this can however be prevented by guarding from start to end. Bhunivelze can also use Disaster which shoots bolts at Lightning and Cataclysm which behaves like Quake, but both attacks can be blocked by guarding. He can also use Elementaga, a spell that can deal moderate damage even if guarding, but its execution is relatively slow so the player can briefly attack Bhunivelze prior to guarding.

While being ready to defend is important, the player must still be persistent on their offensive at all times, as the longer the battle goes on, the more Bhunivelze can damage Lightning by bypassing her resistances or when the player screws up, which can result in losing recovery items and EP quickly in just staying alive. Once Bhunivelze is staggered, the battle is basically over as he won't be able to do anything during this period. When staggered, he also becomes susceptible to debuffs, so the player should deprotect him and attack with everything to defeat him for good.

Stagger

 * Conditional Changes
 * Elemental Damage Modifiers: during Spirit, 130% for weak element, -100% for strong element, 100% for the other two elements

Trivia

 * Some of Bhunivelze's abilities allude to previous Final Fantasy games:
 * Falling Star can be a synonym of Starfall, used by The Emperor from Final Fantasy II, and they both share similar animations (a falling meteorite).
 * Almagest originally comes from Final Fantasy V and is used by Neo-Exdeath.
 * Dancing Mad is Kefka Palazzo's final battle theme in Final Fantasy VI and the visual effects seen when the massive orb hits the ground resemble Forsaken.
 * Wings of Destruction can be a synonym of Havoc Wing, a lethal ability used by Kefka.
 * Heartless Angel is originally used by Kefka.
 * Hypernova can be considered a much stronger version of Safer∙Sephiroth's Supernova. Hypernova's animation resembles the animation of Supernova from the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII.
 * Divine Efflux resembles Orphan's Requiem from Final Fantasy XIII, both having the appearance of narrow beams and being fired through the eyes.
 * Genethliac Hymn strongly resembles The Emperor's Starfall, as seen in Dissidia Final Fantasy: when being cast, their respective weapons spin quickly over their heads and during this time, they are resistant to damage (The Emperor blocks all magical attacks while casting).
 * Divine Punishment originally comes from Dissidia Final Fantasy and is used by Chaos.
 * Bhunivelze's final phase has a similar pose to that of Cloud of Darkness from Final Fantasy III
 * The final battle itself alludes to the previous two games memorable bosses:
 * Bhunivelze's first phase alludes to Orphan (Doom at the beginning) and Barthandelus/Caius (Ruinga/Giga-graviton).
 * His second phase, especially his Genethliac Hymn, alludes to Barthandelus's Destrudo, as it will deal less damage if certain conditions are met (staggered/high chain gauge respectively).
 * His third phase alludes to Valfodr's fight at his highest level. They will both acquire a dark aura around their bodies when they cast Holy Blade/Divine Awakening respectively, allowing them to grow stronger and massacre the player with brutal combos. They also advise the time when they use their signature moves. Before using Hypernova, Bhunivelze will add one third last buff to himself; and Valfodr, before using Gagnrath, will heavily debuff the party.
 * His final phase also resembles Orphan, as he needs to be staggered to be defeated.

Related Enemies

 * Bhunivelze+