Ozma

Ozma is an optional superboss in Final Fantasy IX. A very unusual-looking monster, Ozma appears as a sphere patterned with bright, swirling colors (the top half representing light and good, the bottom half darkness and evil, or, supposedly, Gaia and Terra). Because Ozma is found inside a so-called "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 long since 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 Monsters Sidequest
Completing the Friendly Monsters sidequest before tackling Ozma offers some advantages to the player. Once it has been completed, Ozma will no longer be 'out of reach', despite being a flying opponent, and it therefore becomes possible to hit it with physical attacks. Additionally, Ozma will absorb Shadow-elemental attacks (and thus be healed by Doomsday) unless the sidequest is completed.

Finding Ozma
Ozma can be found hidden 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.

Battle
Ozma can quickly destroy the party with a variety of heavy attacks, including Curse, Doomsday, Comet, Holy, and Meteor. It will also frequently restore itself to full health. When defeated, Ozma will leave behind a complete Pumice, which Garnet can use to learn her final Eidolon, Ark.

Preparation
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 LV5 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 LV4 Holy is a comparatively weak attack.

The player can take advantage of 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 only damage itself when using Doomsday.

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. Consequently, this is a useful way to make Ozma waste a turn.

When considering the characters' 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, in order to block Blind. The party should obviously be equipped with Auto-Regen, whereas the usefulness of Auto-Life is debatable; it takes many ability stones and only works once, and there are party members who can cast the spell. 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.

Choice of Party
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 using 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 very large number of frogs in the marshes.
 * Amarant has Aura, which casts Auto-Life, and when he is in Trance, he can cast it on the entire party at once. He has the useful Return Magic ability, and is also a strong physical attacker.
 * Steiner is a strong physical attacker, and can deal enormous amounts of damage with Shock.
 * Freya can use the Jump command to temporarily exit the battlefield and thus entirely 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 very large number of Dragon-type enemies.
 * 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. She can use Might to buff the party's physical attackers as well. The most unique benefit of using Eiko, however, 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. Keep in mind that, even with 99 Phoenix Pinions, Phoenix only has a 38.7% chance of appearing.
 * Garnet can heal and buff the party, and can function as a damage-dealer by summoning her Eidolons.

Ozma's Attacks

 * 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 spell 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 physical damage to all party members and inflicts numerous status ailments.
 * Mini: Inflicts Mini status on one target.
 * Esuna: Used if Ozma is inflicted 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.

Strategy
Understanding Ozma's ATB mechanics can give the player a huge advantage. When Ozma's ATB bar is filling up, i.e. when it is not in the middle of casting a spell, 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. 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 a spell, 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 is dependent 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 (Steiner). However, 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 55,355 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 spells, thus only targeting certain members of the party.

It is possible to have Amarant and Vivi 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, Garnet 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 easily.

Victory
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 'Select' 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 also 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.

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).
 * If the party defeats Ozma before encountering Hades in Memoria, Hades will comment on the feat.
 * An interesting point is that Ozma's Meteor is not the same as a regular Meteor spell; it will never miss, and when Quina has Restore MP equipped, she only recovers 40MP. This demonstrates that the Meteor used by Ozma is a different spell 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. However when using magic that cause status ailments or black magic, the bottom half is shown casting the spell.

Yadis Ozma