Grand Dragon

The Grand Dragon is a dragon-type enemy from Final Fantasy IX. It can be found at Popos Heights on the Mist Continent (can be entered via Gizamaluke's Grotto), Cazedil Plains on the Outer Continent, Lanar Island, which is near the Qu's Marsh on the south end of the Forgotten Continent, and Sacrobless Island on the Salvage Archipelago.

Battle
Grand Dragon's high stats make it one of the most difficult regular enemies in the game. Its Thundaga spell can instantly KO the entire party if their levels are not high enough. It can also inflict Venom with its Venom Breath.

Grand Dragons are susceptible to Instant Death, the Blue Magic spell Level 3 Def-Less (which lowers their Defense), and Sleep.

Grand Dragons are weak against Ice.

Strategy
To counter Thundaga, the party can either equip Coral Rings or use the Auto-Reflect ability. When cast on the entire party and reflected, Thundaga can do around 5,000 Hit Points worth of damage. To nullify the effect of Venom Breath the party can equip the Antibody ability. Distract will help Zidane, Steiner and Freya evade Poison Claw.

Quina's Level 5 Death (learned from Whale Zombies, Stropers, and Dracozombies) is a quick way to defeat it. The Blue Magic Aqua Breath also works well, but only has 50% accuracy. Another good strategy is to equip everyone with the Insomniac ability and use Night. This will give the party enough time to get ready to attack and prepare for casualties.

Grand Dragons can be encountered as early as on Disc 1 when the party goes through Gizamaluke's Grotto which has a route that leads to the upper plateaus of the Mist Continent. The player's best chance of felling a Grand Dragon so early would be to use Quina's Limit Glove technique, learned from a Mandragora near a forest close to Chocobo Forest. This deals full 9999 damage when Quina is at 1 HP. Then, Quina can either eat it or perform Limit Glove again to finish it off.

At this time, it can give a lot of exp making it a useful grinding spot early on.

Tetra Master

 * Card 036
 * Location: Black Mage Village