Orphan (final boss)

Orphan's second form is the final boss of Final Fantasy XIII. Orphan's true form is revealed after its shell is destroyed by the player party. Defeating Orphan completes the game.

Strategy One
If the player wishes to change their Paradigms and equipment, they can pause the game and select Retry. If the strategy listed on the previous battle article was followed, there should not be any need to change anything.

Orphan starts the battle by casting Doom on the party leader. While Doom will last three times longer than normal, the time limit imposed is strict as the player is required to remove its 3,390,000 HP to win the battle. To make it more difficult, Orphan is immune to all forms of damage unless it is staggered.

Due to the impending Doom status, the player should shift straight to Relentless Assault (Commando/Ravager/Ravager) and begin charging Orphan's chain gauge. None of Orphan's attacks hit for any major damage. However, there is one attack in particular that causes Pain and Fog. It may be too time-consuming to heal these status ailments with a Medic, so instead the player should heal one of these with the Painkiller or Mallet items respectively. Occasionally the party can to shift to Combat Clinic (Sentinel/Medic/Medic) if a party member's HP runs too low, but quickly shift back to Relentless Assault to continue charging up the chain gauge.

Once Orphan is staggered, it is vulnerable to damage. The player should shift to the Aggression paradigm (Commando/Commando/Ravager). Orphan can be launched, but can still damage party members when in the air. The player should not hesitate to use Combat Clinic if it is necessary to do so, even if Orphan is staggered. When Orphan recovers from Stagger, the player should shift back to Relentless Assault and start charging the chain gauge again. Depending on the party's strength, Orphan may be required to be staggered up to three times to deal enough damage to defeat it.

Defeating Orphan will grant a final Crystarium Expansion for all character roles and the Instrument of Change Trophy/Achievement will be obtained.

Strategy Two
Orphan can be killed in one stagger if all active party members have their Crystarium filled thoroughly to level nine using the following technique: The player should have a Commando with balanced strength/magic (recommend Lightning), a Saboteur with high strength (recommend Fang), and Synergist with high magic (recommend Hope). Bully (Commando/Saboteur/Synergist) should be the default paradigm entering battle. The player should stick with Bully and build the chain gauge a bit until at least Imperil has been cast on Orphan and all party members have Haste, Shell, and Protect. At this point, the party should power through with Relentless Assault until Orphan (who is susceptible to launch) is staggered and, eventually, dead.

Strategy Three
With a team of Sazh, Fang, and Vanille, it is possible to kill Orphan in one stagger period before completing the game once. The following paradigms are recommended (with Sazh as leader; Premeditation should be the default paradigm):
 * Relentless Assault (Rav - Com - Rav)
 * Diversity (Rav - Com - Med)
 * Solidarity (Com - Sen - Med)
 * Premeditation (Syn - Sen - Sab)
 * Tireless Charge (Com -Com - Med)
 * Aggression (Com - Com - Rav)

Sazh is best equipped with the Procyons (preferably level max or above). Fang is best equipped with anything that will give her a high strength value (~2000), and Vanille should have the Malboro Wand. Sazh and Fang should equip strength increasing accessories and Vanille magic increasing accessories. When the battle starts the player should control Sazh and cast Haste and Bravery on himself and Fang, and cast Haste and Faith on Vanille. Vanille should be able to cast Deprotect and Deshell on Orphan by this time. The party should switch to Relentless Assault and stagger Orphan as quickly as possible. If the party's health gets too low, one shouldn't be afraid to switch to Diversity to heal. When Orphan is staggered, the party should stay with Relentless Assault and bring the stagger bar to ~800% and switch to Aggression and destroy Orphan (Fang and Vanille should be hitting 99,999 with each hit and Sazh should be hitting 30-40k with each shot; the party can use use Tireless Charge if their health gets too low).

Strategy Four
The recommended party is Snow/Fang, Sazh and Vanille and with this team it is possible to dispatch Orphan in just over a minute, first time round, and gain a five star rating.

The only Paradigms needed are:


 * Espionage (Sab - Syn - Sab)
 * Relentless Assault (Com - Rav - Rav)
 * Diversity (Com - Rav - Med)
 * Aggression (Com - Com - Rav)

Provided all of the characters have maxed out stage 9 Crystarium and maxed out tier 2 weapons the final battle is easy. The party should start off with Espionage and debuff Orphan with every status condition he isn't immune to, and Buff the party with Protect, Shell, Haste, Bravery and Faith. The player should then switch to either Relentless Assault or Diversity depending on how much HP the party has and keep on chaining until Orphan is staggered. Once Orphan is staggered, the party can shift to Aggression, launch him, and start hitting.

Strategy Five
This strategy should easily finish off Orphan in 1:00 to 1:30 minutes, enough to get 5 stars and the Superstar Trophy/Achievement. Lightning should be the main party leader along with Fang and Hope and should be equipped with a maxed Tetradic Tiara giving her Protect, Shell, Veil, and Vigilance. Fang should be equipped with a Blessed Talisman to give her Faith. That should make Hope's role as Synergist easier and quicker. The party should start out with Guerrilla (RAV/SAB/SYN). Orphan uses a move that can remove Haste if the characters are too close, so by being Ravager the party can stay away and quickly fill the chain gauge. Once Hope has buffed the party with at least Haste, Faith and Bravery, and Orphan has at least three debuffs, the party should switch immediately to Relentless Assault (RAV/COM/RAV) or Tri-disaster (RAV/RAV/RAV) and stagger him. Once staggered, the party should switch to Aggression (COM/COM/RAV) and keep pummeling until Orphan is dead.

Superstar
To receive the Superstar Trophy/Achievement, one must defeat Orphan's second form with a five-star battle rating. This is most likely to be too difficult to obtain in the first attempt. It is wiser to leave this trophy/achievement until the party have mastered their three primary roles. By then the party is able to defeat Orphan with the first stagger period. Equipping the Gold Watch accessory prior to battle will increase the target time, which will make obtaining Superstar easier. In addition, Orphan loses its immunity to Instant Death when it is staggered, so the player can gamble with Vanille casting Death upon a staggered Orphan to quickly end the battle. Death's chance of hitting greatly increases when the enemy is in stagger.

Superstar in First attempt
Using this method one can defeat Orphan with a five star rating and get a Superstar trophy. For this method to work the player must have the crystarium for the primary roles of Hope, Fang and Vanille completed till stage 4 .i.e. the characters HP should be between 5000-8000. You must control Hope in the battle [controlling Hope is mandatory, reason explained below]. Choose these paradigms: When you enter the battle manually cast Haste on everyone, Faith on himself and Vanille and Bravery on Fang. Then switch to the RAV/SAB/RAV setting and charge the boss' chain gauge [Note:Fang will debuff him while you attack] when his CG is about to fill switch to RAV/COM/RAV and stagger him. Once he is staggered use Hope's Full ATB Skill, Last Resort which hits more than 5 times and does about 20K damage per hit [this is the main reason to control Hope]. Keep using Last Resort, [Note:this attack plus damage from Vanille and Fang will quickly kill Orphan within 1.00-1.30 minutes]. Remember, don't bother to cast other buffs on your character[like Protect, Shell etc...] it's just a waste of time, cast only Haste [all character], Bravery [Fang] and Faith [Vanille and Hope]. As for your health if the characters HP is between 5000-8000, you won't have to worry about it.
 * SYN/SAB/RAV [Start the battle with this paradigm]
 * RAV/SAB/RAV
 * RAV/COM/RAV
 * RAV/COM/MED [incase you lose some health]

Trivia

 * Orphan has the highest HP of any final boss in the Final Fantasy series so far, at 3,390,000 HP, beating the previous record holder, Safer∙Sephiroth, who can potentially have a maximum of 400,000 HP. However, after allowing for the difference in damage cap, Safer∙Sephiroth has a proportional maximum of 40, compared to a proportional 34 for Orphan.

Related Enemies

 * Orphan (First Form)
 * Anima
 * Dahaka
 * Barthandelus