Plague Horror (Final Fantasy IV 2D)

Plague Horror, also known as Plague, is a boss in Final Fantasy IV. It starts off the fight with a party-hitting Doom spell, and subsequently casts Haste on the party members one by one; ostensibly to speed up their countdown, though due to how Haste is programmed to work, it does not affect the countdown whatsoever, and therefore this strategy backfires on itself by allowing the party more turns to attack (with exception of the Nintendo DS version, there is no Haste status to speak of; Haste affects the ATB bar, and the Doom timer is completely separate).

In the Nintendo DS version, 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.

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.

Related enemies

 * Ahriman
 * Floating Eye
 * Blood Eye

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

 * Ahriman
 * Blood Eye
 * Floating Eye
 * Sky Pupil