Omega Weapon (Final Fantasy VIII)

Omega Weapon is a superboss in Final Fantasy VIII. Generally regarded as the game's toughest boss, it is hidden within Ultimecia Castle. Omega Weapon is a re-color of the Ultima Weapon though it carries no sword.

At level 100, Omega Weapon has more than 1 million HP. It is always at level 100 in the PlayStation version, but can be on any level in the PC version. After defeating it, the player unlocks the Proof of Omega in the game's help/tutorial section. The Proof of Omega congratulates the player for defeating Final Fantasy VIII 's toughest boss and is a sign showing complete mastery of the game's battle system.

To fight Omega, the player must place the chosen battle team on the switch point near the fountain and use the other team to ring the bell outside the gallery, which activates a short timer. The player must then switch back to the other team and locate Omega Weapon inside the chapel before the timer runs out.

Preparation
The party's GFs should be divided in a way that everyone gets a status defense junction, and then junction 100 Deaths to status defense to make the party immune against Omega's LV5 Death. Cactuar and Brothers have the Defend command that should be given to two party members. Speed is important so it's a good idea to junction for high speed with spells such as Triple and Tornado. The player can move useful items such as Megalixirs and Holy Wars to the top of the inventory list, and do the same with Meltdown and Aura for Magic. It is imperative to junction the party's HP to 9,999 in order to survive Megiddo Flame. Omega Weapon absorbs all elements so the player must make sure nothing is junctioned to elemental attack. Auto-Haste can be extremely useful, and Auto-Protect is also good, if there is space left.

Battle
Omega has one weakness not shared by other series' superbosses; his attack pattern is fixed. Memorizing the attack pattern is of great advantage for the player, allowing them to always know what is coming next and act accordingly.

Omega Weapon will then repeat the sequence from Meteor. In-between these attacks Omega will still attack the party physically.
 * Lv5 Death: Instant death to characters with a level divisible by 5. Used once at the battle's start. Can be nullified by junctioning 100 Deaths to Stat-Def-Junc.
 * Meteor: Non-elemental magic damage against entire party. Poses little threat, other than that the party will not survive the next attack, the Megiddo Flame, unless healed or made invincible.
 * Megiddo Flame: Deals 9,998 HP damage to entire party.
 * Gravija: Drains 75% of the party's current HP; cannot kill.
 * Terra Break: Sixteen physical hits at random targets for at least 4000 points of damage each. Can be halved with Protect/Zombie or nullified with the Defend command.
 * Ultima: Non-elemental magic damage against entire party.
 * Light Pillar: 9,999 HP damage to one target.

Strategy
Using Holy Wars/Heroes to nullify Omega Weapon's attacks is a good idea, but before using the item, the player should cast Aura on the party to allow the use of Limit Breaks. With the entire player party at Level 100, Squall's Strength capped at 255, and the Vit 0 status inflicted upon Omega, Squall's Renzokuken swings approach the 9,999 damage cap; an 8-count Renzokuken round followed by the Lion Heart finisher will incur 26 swings, or about 259,000 damage. Irvine's Quick Shot will, under the same circumstances, inflict 1,800-4,000 points of damage per shot, which during the longest Shot rounds can allow over 50 shots to be fired. Rinoa using Meteor under the effect of her Angel Wing Limit Break with capped Magic stat at 255, will inflict about 6,600-7,500 damage per meteorite strike (there are 10 total in 1 cast of the spell); however, manipulating her spell list in this manner prevents her from junctioning 100 Death spells to her Status Defense. Zell's "Armageddon Fist" tactic can chip away at Omega handily, perhaps able to inflict more damage than even Squall. Quistis can use Shockwave Pulsar to break the damage limit and use White Wind to heal. Selphie can end the fight immediately with her spell The End.

In general, any attack that can hit multiple times can do massive accumulative damage. It is simply a matter of wearing down Omega Weapon's considerable HP. Once the Holy War's invincibility wears off, the party can use another. The player can obtain 10 Holy Wars from Gilgamesh's card, more than enough to last the entire battle with Omega Weapon. Another useful item is the Megalixir, and as many as eight of them can be mugged from Rinoa during the Adel battle. Otherwise, one can refine them from Hi-Potions -> Hi-Potion+ -> X-Potions -> Mega-Potions -> Elixirs -> Megalixirs, but this requires a lot of gil; or one can refine the Bahamut card into 100 Megalixirs.

Strategy Without Invincibility
To defeat Omega Weapon without using invincibility from Heros or Holy Wars, the player must pay close attention to Omega's attack pattern. Omega's first move will always be LV5 Death, however, with correct junctions it will miss and Omega will only waste a turn. The party should inflict Omega with Vit 0 as soon as possible, either by casting Meltdown or by summoning Doomtrain. After Omega has used Meteor the party must immediately heal to full health, as it will use Megiddo Flame. The quickest way to heal is to use a Megalixir or use Quistis's White Wind, but the Recover command and X-Potions can also be used.

After Megiddo Flame the party is left with 1HP. This is the perfect time to unleash Limit Breaks, as Omega's next move, Gravija, cannot kill. One must only hope Omega won't use a physical attack at this time. After the round of Limit Breaks, and after Omega has used Gravija, the player must quickly use the Defend command to wait for Omega's next attack, Terra Break. It's unlikely a character will survive Terra Break without using the Defend command, even under Protect that will halve the damage. As there are two Defend commands available for the party, two party members can retreat behind the Defend, while the third one continues to attack Omega with Limit Breaks. Defend makes the wearer invulnerable against Omega Weapon's physical attacks as well, and they should keep on defending even if the third party member dies before Terra Break, rather than reviving them.

Terra Break will hit and kill the third party member, but the two using Defend will survive. The party must quickly heal before Ultima and revive their fallen comrade. Light Pillar hits only one party member and the cycle will start all over again from Meteor. With this strategy, there is no need to cast Aura on the party.

A final way to survive Omega's Terra Break, is casting Zombie and Protect on each of the three party members. Zombie and Protect both halve physical damage, so Terra Break's damage will be reduced to 1/4 and is survivable. To heal with under Zombie status, the player can use a magic spell that the characters absorb instead of a curative item. For example, junctioning 100 Aeros and 100 Tornadoes to Elem-Def, and triplecasting Tornadoes can heal roughly 5000-6000 with one Tornado spell.

The player should make sure to come with extra Zombie and Protect spells because they will wear off and one person will die when Omega uses Light Pillar. Damage can be done with Limit Breaks, especially after Megiddo Flame while one character is healing.

Proof of Omega
The Proof of Omega is awarded to the party at Omega Weapon's defeat. Like the Omega Badge in Final Fantasy V, the Strategy Guide in Final Fantasy IX, and the Mark of Conquest in Final Fantasy X, it has no real purpose except to prove the player has defeated the toughest enemy in the game.

Trivia

 * The attack "Megiddo Flame" may refer to the final battle at the end of time in Abrahamic religions, Armageddon. The word itself is based off of the mountain of Megiddo in modern-day Israel, where the battle is alleged to take place.

Related Enemies
Omega Weapon (FFVIII)
 * Ultima Weapon