Ozma

Ozma is an optional superboss from Final Fantasy IX. A very unusual looking monster, he appears as a sphere patterned with bright, swirling colors (the top half being the colors of Terra, the bottom half being colors of Gaia). He can be found hidden in the Chocobo's Air Garden and is the hardest battle the party will have to face, much more so than even the final bosses Kuja and Necron.

Strategy
Ozma can quickly destroy the party with a variety of heavy attacks, some of which are Curse, Doomsday, Comet, Holy, and Meteor, and will often restore himself to full health. When defeated, Ozma will leave behind a full Pumice, which Garnet can use to learn how to summon the Eidolon, Ark. It should be noted that unless the player undergoes a sidequest, Ozma is impossible to hit with physical attacks, and will absorb Shadow, and thus heal from Doomsday. If the player completes the sidequest, however, then Ozma will become vulnerable to Shadow, and close enough to hit physically.

Level-wise, the party should be at level 60 or above, it is vital that no one be at a multiple of 5, to avoid Ozma's LV5 Death. It is a good idea to have one character with a level multiple of 4. LV4 Holy is a weak attack and you should be able to easily survive it. Flare Star does damage based on level. As long as everyone is at full health they should survive it. Doomsday can be nullified using various equipment pieces. Two Pumice Pieces can absorb Shadow for two party members, while the Ninja Gear and Demon's Mail absorbs Shadow as well. When the entire party is equipped with one of these three items, they will heal from Doomsday. The party should equip Antibody to block Poison, and Auto-Life. Spellcasters should equip Concentrate, Loudmouth and Half MP, while physical attacker equip Bird Killer and Brighteyes. Other abilities to boost HP, MP and nullify status ailments help too, especially High Tide.

In battle, either Eiko or Garnet should cast Curaga on the party every turn. Eiko is better to bring along, however, as her Trance lets her cast two healing spells at once. It is also a good idea to bring both. Garnet should heal and buff, while Eiko should use Madeen and/or Holy. Madeen hits for 9999 if around level 68-99, and Holy hits for about 3400-5000. Quina can be brought along for its Angel's snack. This will easily help you recover from curse. Offensively, many party members have attacks that can do a guaranteed 9999 damage. These attacks are Thievery (Zidane), Frog Drop (Quina), Dragon Crest (Freya) and Shock(Steiner). Naturally, these spells are highly effective. Otherwise, Steiner should use Shock or Climhazzard, Vivi can use Doomsday to heal the party and do damage, Garnet should summon Odin (as the player should not have fused the Pumice Pieces into Pumice to teach her Ark yet), and Amarant should throw weapons. If there is a round in which Eiko does not need to heal, she can cast Holy.

Ozma will cast berserk twice in the battle. It uses it when it's HP drops beyond two points. Ozma has a chance to counter all actions targeting it (including steal) with Curaga. As it's health drops further this chance increases. It is a good idea to throw a tent at it on your first turn. There is a 50% chance that it will be inflicted with blind and it will waste a turn later on using Esuna. Use Quina's Mighty Guard to reduce damage and Angel Snack to heal Curse's array of status effects. Have Amarant and Vivi both equip their return magic ability. This will make many attacks be countered without every wasting your own. Equip Egoist's armlet to be immune to shadow, and Chimera Armlet to be immune to holy. Ozma will not target a character with holy if they absorb the holy element, but will use it if they are just immune to the holy element; this is a fine way to make Ozma waste a turn. If Amarant is in the party, it is possible to make the battle significantly easier if he can use the 'Curse' ability, which adds an elemental weakness against Ozma. This can allow Vivi and Garnet/Eiko to use elemental attacks to their full potential. However, even if the ability is used, Ozma will never become weak against Earth or Shadow, even though the status bar may state the ability has worked with one of those elements.

An interesting point is that Ozma's Meteor is not the same as a regular Meteor. It will never miss and when Quina has restore MP equipped she only restored 40MP. This shows that Ozma knows a different Meteor than the one Vivi can cast because his costs 42MP.

The reward for the victory, like other superbosses in the series, is minimal. The 'Strategy Guide' Key Item gives nothing but a small clue about collecting Tetra Master cards, and when 'select' is pressed over it, it states a congratulations for beating the most difficult enemy in the game.

Tetra Master

 * Card 055
 * Location: Memoria

Trivia

 * In Dissidia Final Fantasy, Zidane's Level 100 weapon is called Ozma's Splinter (オズマの欠片).
 * The term 'Ozma' may be a reference to the female matriarchs of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ universe. In Oz, prior to the Wizard arriving and ascending to power, it was said the country of Oz was run by a single queen, reincarnated through generations into a new female when the old one dies. Each of these queens were given the title of the ‘Ozma’. However, if there is any link between this Ozma (or the Wizard of Oz in general) and the superboss Ozma in Final Fantasy IX, it is currently not known.

Yadis Ozma