Dr. Lugae (Final Fantasy IV 2D)

Dr. Lugae is a storyline boss in Final Fantasy IV. It is against his fiend form of Doctor Lugae.

Strategy
Lugae counters attacks with Sleeping Gas, which Rosa should heal as soon as possible. He also uses Poison Gas to poison the entire party, as well as Flamethrower and Beam attacks which do moderate damage. He also uses Laser, which can do upwards of a thousand damage and can easily kill a party member. Lugae may also cast Heal on the party, removing Poison. Overall, besides Laser he is a very simple and weak enemy to defeat.

DS Strategy
The battle changes in the DS. It is essentially the same battle, but the strategy to win is different.

During the battle, Dr. Lugae will use Reverse Gas on the party, inflicting the Reverse status that can only be removed at the end of the fight or if Dr. Lugae uses Reverse Gas again. The Reverse status causes damage and healing to have the opposite effect on the party and Dr. Lugae, so healing him while under Reverse will damage him and using things that would usually cause damage like an attack or offensive spell will heal him or your target member. He uses it as his first action of the battle and will continue to use it along with his other attacks.

While the party members are under the Reverse status, Dr. Lugae will use restore on them to damage them doing around 800-1000 damage to the characters. When they are not under Reverse he'll use Flamethrower to do similar damage, although a character with Ice Shield or Ice Mail won't take as much damage. Also, it should be noted that Dr. Lugae counters any magic cast on him with a Sleeping Gas attack.

There are 2 ways to tackle the Dr. Lugae fight. The easy way is to use 2 Elixers on him when he uses Reversal Gas on his first move of the battle. The other is to keep an eye on the Reverse status and not attack with any characters while having Rydia heal the party with Black Magic and have Yang charge up focus up to 3 times until Reverse is removed. After Dr. Lugae removes Reverse with Reverse Gas, have Rosa heal and attack with your other characters. It would be wise to stick to using Cura or using -ara spells during this battle as Lugae could use Reverse Gas before the spell is cast and a Curaga or a Firaga/Blizzaga/Thundaga spell would be deadly on your party, especially if your characters are on low health.

Another way is to summon Whyt when Rydia is in Reverse status, which will remove it. If Rydia is brought back when the others are in Reverse, she won't be, and after that, it would be impossible to lose, as Lugae would only heal you.

After the tough battle, Dr. Lugae's Key will be obtained for use in the Tower of Babil to stop the cannons from destroying the dwarves.