Ozma (Final Fantasy IX)

Ozma is a superboss in Final Fantasy IX. An unusual-looking monster, Ozma appears as a giant sphere patterned with bright, swirling colors.

Because Ozma is found within an "eidolon cave", it can be speculated that Ozma, much like Leviathan, was an eidolon whose power the summoners couldn't harness, and it was thus locked away. Over the many years since, the legends that gave birth to Ozma would have vanished, and the people who used to tell them would be extinct, with the result that Ozma loses whatever form it may once have had and only appears to the party as a swirling mass of energy.

Friendly enemies sidequest
Completing the friendly monsters sidequest before tackling Ozma offers some advantages: Ozma will no longer be "out of reach" despite being a flying opponent, and it therefore becomes possible to hit it with physical attacks. Ozma will absorb Shadow-elemental attacks (and thus be healed by Doomsday) unless the sidequest is completed, which makes Ozma weak against the Shadow element.

Finding Ozma
Ozma hides in the Chocobo's Air Garden. To reach the Air Garden, the player must play the Chocobo Hot and Cold minigame and find enough Chocographs to have Choco learn the Sky ability.

Once in the Air Garden, the player can examine an eidolon cave on the rear island, and be given the option to fight Ozma. Mene will fly to stop the player, warning of the dangers ahead, saying that he feels a "strange presence" that is "not of this world". Should the player choose to continue, Mene will remark it is dangerous, and will prompt the player to access the menu and switch party members.

Battle
Ozma can quickly destroy the party with a variety of heavy attacks, including Curse, Doomsday, Holy, Level 5 Death and Meteor. It will frequently restore itself to full health.

Ozma will not waste a turn using an elemental attack that will be absorbed by all party members (nullifying the element still makes Ozma use it), or use status attacks if all targets are immune to it. This increases the chance that Ozma will use Meteor.

Ozma has a unique battle script; when Ozma's ATB bar is filling up—i.e. when it is not in the middle of casting an ability—any command the party targets at Ozma will cause its ATB bar to immediately fill up, and Ozma will execute its turn before the player's commands.


 * Lv5 Death: Inflicts Instant Death on all party members whose levels are a multiple of 5. Ozma will only use Lv5 Death if the party has a member susceptible to it; if no party member is of a suitable level, Ozma will not waste its turn.
 * Death: Inflicts instant death on one party member if it hits.
 * Lv4 Holy: Deals Holy damage to all party members whose levels are a multiple of 4. Ozma will only use Lv4 Holy if the party has a member susceptible to it.
 * Holy: Deals Holy damage to one target. Ozma will not use the ability if the target absorbs it.
 * Flare: Deals non-elemental damage to one target.
 * Flare Star: Deals damage based on the characters' level. Can miss.
 * Doomsday: Deals Shadow damage to all targets, including Ozma.
 * Meteor: Deals random damage to the entire party, with the possibility of dealing 9999 to all of them.
 * Curse: Deals non-elemental damage to all party members and inflicts Confuse, Poison, Slow, Mini, and Darkness.
 * Mini: Inflicts Mini status on all targets.
 * Esuna: Used if Ozma is afflicted with a status ailment.
 * MP Absorb: Used if Ozma is low on MP. Drains MP from the party.
 * Berserk: Used to counter attacks.
 * Curaga: Used as a counterattack; there is a higher chance of countering with Curaga when Ozma's health is low.

Ozma chooses its actions depending on whether its turn count is an odd or an even number. In the former case, it will use either Flare Star, Meteor, Doomsday, Flare, Holy, Death or Absorb MP. If its turn count is an even number it will employ either Curse, Mini, Level 4 Holy, Level 5 Death, Curaga or Esuna. Most of these attacks are used only if certain conditions are met. For instance, Ozma will cast Holy only if at least one character does not absorb the Holy element and is not affected by the Reflect status.

Apart from its main attack script, Ozma is one of the few enemies to be provided with counter attacks. Ozma can cast Berserk twice during the course of the battle, namely when its HP is reduced to a value less than 40,000 / less than 30,000, but also, to counter any action executed by characters with its potent Curaga. The probability with which Ozma will actually counter with Curaga is inversely related to its HP and ranges from approximately 13% to 50%. When Freya is the only non-KOed party member, during her Jump animation, Ozma will use either Doomsday or Curaga. If Ozma's HP exceeds 27,767, it will use Doomsday, otherwise it will use Curaga.

If drained of all of its MP, Ozma is meant to use MP Absorb on party members, but due to a bug can behave strangely, like casting Esuna on party members or Curse on only one target instead of the whole party. This is because Ozma can cast some of its regular spells on the target that should have their MP absorbed.

When defeated, Ozma will leave behind a complete Pumice, which Dagger can use to learn her final eidolon, Ark. The reward for victory, as with many other superbosses in the series, is minimal. The Strategy Guide key item offers nothing but a small clue about collecting Tetra Master cards, and when is pressed to bring up the help tip, it merely congratulates the player for beating the most difficult enemy in the game. The player will receive Ozma's Tetra Master card for the victory, and if the player's card quota is full, Mene will leave the card on the ground so that the player can pick it up later.

Strategy
It is preferable for the party to have reached level 60 or above. It is useful to have one character whose level is a multiple of 5, which will entice Ozma to use Level 5 Death, an attack much less devastating than many of its other moves. It is also a good idea to have one character with a level multiple of 4, as Ozma's Level 4 Holy is a comparatively weak attack. Since there are no means to guard against the Berserk status, one will have to resort to the Auto-Reflect ability to definitely prevent that status ailment.

The player can exploit Ozma's Doomsday by nullifying or absorbing its damage using various equipment, such as Pumice Piece, Ninja Gear, Demon's Mail and Egoist's Armlet. This is especially useful after having completed the friendly monsters sidequest, in which case Ozma will heal the party and damage itself when using Doomsday (even more so if Vivi and/or Amarant has Return Magic equipped).

A Chimera Armlet can be equipped to make the wearer immune to Holy; Ozma will not target a character with Holy if they absorb the element, but will use it if they are merely immune to it. This is a useful way to make Ozma waste a turn.

When considering the party members' abilities, it is useful to equip status-protection skills, such as Antibody to block Poison, and Clear Headed to block Confuse, while characters who are predominantly physical attackers will also benefit from Bright Eyes to block Blind. Ozma's AI is smart, however, and will not attempt to inflict status ailments the whole party is immune to, which increases the chance of it using Meteor.

The party should be equipped with Auto-Regen, whereas the usefulness of Auto-Life is debatable; it takes many Magic Stones and only works once, and there are party members who can cast the status. Having physical attackers equip Auto-Reflect works as a deterrent against Ozma's counter attack, Berserk, and physical attackers can also equip Bird Killer and MP Attack to deal extra damage.

Zidane will always be present in this battle, but the other three party members are the player's choice.
 * Quina can cast Auto-Life and Mighty Guard, as well as use Angel's Snack to relieve the entire party of status ailments. S/he can also deal significant damage with Frog Drop if the player has caught a large number of frogs in the marshes. Because the damage from Frog Drop is fixed, Quina can do good damage even in Mini status.
 * Amarant has Aura, which casts Auto-Life, and when he is in Trance, he can bestow it on the entire party at once. He has the useful Return Magic ability, and is also a strong physical attacker. Additionally, he can throw Wing Edges for high physical damage.
 * Steiner is a strong physical attacker, and can deal enormous damage with Shock and Darkside. His Charge! ability can be useful if the party comprises of the physical attackers—Zidane, Steiner, Freya, and Amarant—allowing for multiple attacks per turn.
 * Freya can use the Jump command to temporarily exit the battlefield and thus evade Ozma's attacks while jumping; the command is even better in Trance. She can deal heavy damage with Dragon's Crest if the player has killed a large number of Dragon-type enemies. Because damage from Dragon's Crest is fixed, Freya can do good damage even in Mini status. In unique condition, if Freya uses Jump in Trance while the other three party members are KO, Ozma will have no target to attack, causing it to only use Curaga or Doomsday. If Ozma is vulnerable to the Shadow element, it may commit suicide via Doomsday. It is possible to defeat Ozma at LV1 using only Freya.
 * Vivi can cast Doomsday, which, with the right preparation, will damage Ozma and heal the party. Like Amarant, he also has Return Magic.
 * Eiko can heal the party, and can also be a potent damage-dealer with Holy and Madeen. Using Carbuncle, she can cast Haste on the whole party at once, or duplicate Mighty Guard depending on her add-on. She can use Might to buff the party's physical attackers. The most unique benefit of using Eiko is the possibility of a spontaneous revival by Phoenix if the party is annihilated; the probability of this occurring depends on the player's stock of Phoenix Pinions, but even with 99 Phoenix Pinions, Phoenix only has a 38.7% chance of appearing.
 * Dagger can heal and buff the party, and can function as a damage-dealer by summoning her eidolons. When in Trance her last eidolon is summoned automatically as a counterattack. If the party has Auto-Regen they can easily regain their health during the eidolons' summoning animations.

Understanding Ozma's ATB mechanics can give the player a huge advantage. The only way to get more than one turn in a row against Ozma is to enter all of the commands during a time when Ozma is casting an ability, and before the damage and/or healing caused by its attack appears. Even adhering to this method, Ozma still has a chance to counter attacks with Curaga or Berserk.

The strategy largely depends on who the player decides to bring along, and what skills they have learned. Ozma doesn't have a pattern to its attacks, and a great deal depends on luck.

If the player brings Amarant or Quina, they can keep casting Auto-Life on party members as necessary, which is crucial given the potential for Ozma to wipe the entire party out with attacks such as Meteor.

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/Darkside (Steiner). As many of these abilities take time to power up, one can make the best use of physical attackers by equipping them with Bird Killer and MP Attack. With these abilities equipped, physical attackers can reach up to 9999 damage per hit without having to use special attacks; however, they become useless if afflicted with Mini status. As Ozma's HP is relatively low for a superboss, a successful round of powerful attacks can shave away a considerable portion of its 55,535 total HP in a single round.

Because Ozma has a series of devastating attacks, such as Meteor and Curse, it is always to the player's advantage if Ozma can be influenced into not using its more debilitating attacks, wasting its turns by using milder alternatives. Throwing a Tent at Ozma has a 50% chance of inflicting Blind, and Ozma will then waste a turn by using Esuna. Having characters be immune to Holy makes Ozma cast it regardless, and having party members at susceptible levels for Lv5 Death and Lv4 Holy causes Ozma to cast those abilities, thus only targeting certain members of the party.

Amarant and Vivi can use their Return Magic ability to counter Ozma's Doomsday without using up a turn. If Amarant is in the party, he can also use the Curse ability to add an elemental weakness to Ozma; however, 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. Giving Ozma an additional weakness allows Vivi, Dagger and Eiko to use elemental attacks and eidolons to their full potential.

If the player has a Dark Matter, throwing it at Ozma deals 9999 damage.

Trivia

 * If the party defeats Ozma before encountering Hades in Memoria, Hades will comment on the feat. If the party defeats Ozma before appeasing the Friendly Yan, the Yan says: "Reach the round guy... ...Huh!? You already beat him?"
 * Ozma's Meteor is not the same as a regular Meteor ability; it will never miss, and when Quina has Restore MP equipped, s/he only recovers 40MP. This demonstrates that the Meteor used by Ozma is a different ability to the one Vivi can cast, because the regular version of the spell costs 42MP.
 * When Ozma uses curative magic on itself, the top half of the sphere is shown casting the spell. When using magic that causes status ailments (except for Mini) or black magic, the bottom half is shown casting the spell. Finally, when casting Doomsday, Ozma will spin around, representing both halves casting the spell.

Ozma (Final Fantasy IX) Gaïa/Final Fantasy IX