Plague Horror (Final Fantasy IV 3D)

Plague Horror, also known as Plague, is a boss in Final Fantasy IV. It starts off the fight with a party-hitting Doom spell.

Battle
Contrary to popular belief, when the Plague Horror casts Haste on a character, it is doing the player a favor. The only reason why it fails so often is because the characters have a high magic evasion stat and the multiplier prevents the target from benefiting. Haste and Slow have no impact on the Doom status timer, and therefore this strategy backfires on itself by allowing the party more turns to attack. The exception to this is the 3D versions, as there is no Haste status to speak of; Haste affects the ATB bar, and the Doom timer is completely separate.

In the 3D versions, Plague Horror still uses Doom on the party, but group-casts Haste on them. Afterward, he is quite different from his previous incarnations, as he will spend two turns to cast Protect and Shell on himself, then heal himself for around 2,000 HP each turn.

Strategy
In all versions, the key is to kill Plague Horror as quickly as possible. Rydia's Flare, Rosa's Holy, and physical attacks from Cecil, Edge, and Kain are the best bets. An added strategy is to cast Stop on Rosa so she does not die, and then revive the whole party with her.

One especially useful trick in the Advance version to use is for one of your party members to kill another, and then revive them again. After one of your party members has been killed and revived, Doom will no longer affect them. Plague will then use Doom again to afflict all party members; this in turn resets the countdown and buys you some time. Another useful strategy is to use Stop on two or three characters to delay their death, and after Stop has lost effect, revive fallen party members.

Another useful strategy is to have Rosa start the battle by casting Reflect on a party member (preferably herself), so that the opening Doom spell is reflected. And because there is a character without the Doom status, it will keep casting the spell, resetting the counter indefinitely.

The Holy Lance is earned after defeating the boss.

Related enemies

 * Floating Eye
 * Blood Eye
 * Ahriman

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

 * Floating Eye
 * Sky Pupil
 * Ahriman
 * Blood Eye