Kefka (final boss)



Kefka is the Final Boss of Final Fantasy VI, fought for the fifth and final time at the end of the game. Having become the God of Magic itself, Kefka faces the party after declaring his desire to destroy the bonds of life and end existence itself. The final phase of the song, Dancing Mad, is played during this battle.

Battle
The battle itself comes in several stages. Kefka always opens the first round with Heartless Angel, reducing the party's HP to 1, so it is advised to heal immediately after this. He will use Firaga, Blizzaga and Thundaga mostly, but will also often use his special, a powerful physical Havoc Wing that can easily KO a character. Havoc Wing's animation is very quick, so Kefka might use this twice in a row. Kefka will also use Trine, inflicting Blind and Silence, severely limiting the party's offensive potential and forcing them to use Remedies to heal themselves.

The second stage begins once Kefka's HP has been reduced to 32640. Kefka will now begin using his ultimate attack, Forsaken (Goner). The attack begins with Kefka stating "The end draws near...", followed by a head representing Kefka's expression appearing in front of him. His turn then ends, and the background begins to shake. On his next turn, sirens go off, the background turns red and brilliant flashes of light go off. Despite the preparation time, base power and animation, Forsaken actually doesn't inflict very much damage. This might stem from the fact that Forsaken doesn't ignore split damage or magic defense. By comparison, Ultima has only 2/3s the spell power of Forsaken, which would allow it to be very powerful if it did ignore defense and/or split damage.

After Forsaken's first use, Kefka will begin using two turns for Havoc Wing, Trine or Vengeance, which eliminates any and all positive status changes from the party (meaning it will not remove Blind or Silence from Trine). When Kefka's HP hits 30080, Kefka will begin countering virtually any and all attacks with Hyperdrive, a powerful magic attack that ignores defense. The real third stage begins when Kefka's HP drops to 10240, as the counters continue, but are instead made with Kefka casting Ultima. This can be avoided by only attacking when Kefka is preparing Forsaken, as he will not counter when charging it.

The final stage begins when Kefka has only 7680 HP left; he will begin alternating between Forsaken and Meteor. He will continue to counter whenever not charging up Forsaken, although the time periods for which it is not safe to attack Kefka are now much shorter, making it easier to finish him off.

If you find yourself in dire need of exploiting an elemental weakness, you can rely on Holy or summon Alexander. Also, if you bothered to hunt down the Eight Dragons, Gau can use the Holy Dragon Rage.

A very easy way to defeat Kefka, is to have a character equipped with two Ultima Weapons (possible if a second is stolen from Lady), a Master's Scroll, and with high HP. As the Ultima Weapons ignore defense, at a high enough level the character can kill Kefka in one attack - as they will attack him eight times, each blow only needs to do a minimum of 8000 damage to defeat Kefka in one turn. Using the Bahamut Esper to boost the character's HP is a good way to get the HP needed for this type of damage output at a relatively low level. This will also work with Locke's Vailiant Knife if he has high max HP and is on low health.

Setzer's Fixed Dice also work with this strategy - with Setzer at only Level 50, a roll of triple fives or triple sixes will do 9999 damage, and triple fours will still do high damage. Thus, with enough lucky rolls, Setzer can kill Kefka in two or three attacks regardless of level or attack strength - usage of the Quick spell helps.

Appearance
Like many other enemy designs, this form of Kefka, along with the three tiers of bosses before him, bear striking similarities to gothic/Renaissance artworks, such as the works of Michelangelo, and the imagery created by works of literature such as Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy and John Milton's Paradise Lost.

Related Enemies

 * Visage
 * Long Arm
 * Short Arm
 * Tiger
 * Machine
 * Magic
 * Power
 * Lady
 * Rest