Cid Raines (boss)

Cid Raines is a boss in Final Fantasy XIII, the first boss fought in the Fifth Ark. He is notably the only l'Cie fought in the game.

Battle
In the first half of the battle, Raines switches between Offensive Shift, Defensive Shift, and Recovery Shift, which are the enemy equivalent of the Commando, Sentinel, and Medic roles. During Offensive Shift, he has access to a powerful physical combination attack against one character and can cast Ruin. During Defensive Shift, he uses Guard to reduce enemy damage, and during Recovery Shift, he uses Cure and Esuna.

When approximately half of his hit points have been depleted, Raines will use Metamorphose, immediately followed by Seraphic Ray, which deals a large amount of damage and removes all buffs from the party. From this point on, Raines does not signal to the player which role he is currently assuming, but he still uses Offensive Shift, Defensive Shift, and Recovery Shift as well as two new roles analogous to Synergist and Saboteur. During Offensive Shift, he gains access to Ruinga, and his physical combination attack becomes more powerful. During Recovery Shift, he begins using Curasa instead of Cure. During his Synergist role he casts Protect, Shell, Vigilance, and Haste on himself in quick succession. During his Saboteur role he casts Poisonga, Deprotega, Deshellga, and Dazega. He will also use Seraphic Ray periodically and without warning.

With a sufficiently strategic approach to the battle, Raines is not an overly hard boss to defeat. Like many bosses, Raines will cast Doom on the party leader if the battle lasts for at least twenty minutes. However, it is not likely he will have time to do so unless the player is struggling to conclude the battle.

Strategy One
One effective group is Lightning as the leader, accompanied by Fang and Vanille. The Paradigm deck should include Relentless Assault (RAV/COM/RAV), Combat Clinic (MED/SEN/MED), Devastation (COM/COM/SAB), Delta Attack (RAV/COM/SEN), Solidarity (COM/SEN/MED) and, as the active paradigm, Dirty Fighting (COM/SEN/SAB).

As soon as the fight starts, the player should select Auto-battle. Raines will typically attack Lightning or Fang after this lands. If he attacks Fang, the player can have her receive a few more attacks while the party continues to attack Raines. If he attacks Lightning, or if Fang's hit points reach critical level, the player should either switch to Solidarity or Combat Clinic, or use several Potions. Eventually Raines will use his Defensive Shift, which is a good time to heal everyone and switch to Delta Attack or Devastation.

After taking heavy damage, Raines will use either Recovery Shift or Offensive Shift. If he enters the healing phase, the player should switch to Relentless Assault and attack him until he switches to the offensive phase. If he goes back on the offensive, the player should switch their Paradigm to Solidarity and continue attacking, because he will probably be targeting Fang most of the time. The party should continue in this manner until Raines is staggered.

When Raines is either nearing the stagger threshold, or is already staggered, Lightning should summon Odin, and remain as a Ravager, to attack Raines to. Once the Gestalt gauge is filled, the player should make sure Raines' Stagger Gauge is still high so that Odin and Lightning can devastate him in Gestalt Mode, repeatedly using Stormblade and Razor Gale before swiftly concluding with Zantetsuken, because Raines' Stagger Gauge should already be running low. Ideally, this should defeat him, or at least leave him extremely close to defeat.

If Raines barely survives Zantetsuken, and the player still has TP left, Quake can be cast as soon as the party returns to deplete his final few hit points.

Strategy Two
This strategy uses Snow, Hope, and Vanille in the party. The Paradigm deck should be respectively set to include Relentless Assault (COM/RAV/RAV), Ruthless (COM/RAV/SAB), Diversity (COM/RAV/MED), Bully (COM/SYN/SAB), Protection (SEN/SYN/MED), and Combat Clinic (SEN/MED/MED).

Before entering battle, player should buff their party with Fortisol and Aegisol, set Relentless Assault as the default paradigm, and have some Phoenix Downs in inventory. When the party's HP level is at green or only one's character's HP reaches yellow, player can change between Relentless Assault and Ruthless to raise dealt damage. When two of character have yellow HP, it is advised to switch to Diversity and heal the party.

During stagger, it is good idea to put Relentless Assault and Ruthless into action, but it should be kept in mind that Raines' stagger lowers faster then average.

When Raines will start to manipulate with state effects, shift between Ruthless and Bully to do the same. At critical levels Protection and Combat Clinic will help player quickly recover HP and eventually manipulate states.

Juggle Strategy
A good way to defeat Raines is to take advantage of the Commandos' Launch abilities. The idea behind this strategy is to quickly stagger Raines, and then pummel him with launched Commando attacks. It is good to include Sazh as a Ravager for his Synergist buffs, and only attack when the party is fully buffed.

A good team is Lightning, Snow, and Sazh. Fang can replace Lightning or Snow; the important thing is to have two Commandos with the Launch ability, while Sazh arguably provides the best Synergist buffs for the fight. The recommended Paradigms are Protection (MED/SEN/SYN) as the active Paradigm, plus Tri-Disaster (RAV/RAV/RAV), Aggression (COM/COM/RAV), Entourage (MED/SEN/RAV) and Thaumaturgy (MED/RAV/RAV).

Once all the buffs are active, the party should shift to Aggression to deal some damage. After three or four rounds the party should shift to Tri-Disaster and fill Raines's stagger bar. If one party member takes too much damage, the party can shift to Thaumaturgy or another Medic paradigm, and switch in the Synergist if any of the buffs expire. Once Raines is staggered, the party should shift to Agression to finish him off.

Raines is much easier to defeat while he is still in his first form. Ideally, therefore, the party will stagger him before he metamorphoses to his second form. Once he is staggered, the two Commandos and one Ravager combo can easily defeat Raines, even if Raines has full hit points, before he recovers. By keeping him launched, the two Commandos further prevent him from guarding or launching a counter attack.

One thing to remember is that the party cannot launch Raines while he is guarding, so the party should finish filling the Stagger Gauge immediately after he finishes defending, giving the party an opening to both stagger and launch him. Raines's guard periods cannot be avoided, but can be used to fill his Stagger Gauge without dealing extraneous damage. If the party are on the verge of staggering Raines while he is still in his guard phase, they can switch to Protection to avoid pushing the gauge past the stagger limit.

Trivia

 * Defeating Raines before he uses Metamorphose causes the subsequent cutscene to be nonsensical, as he will suddenly and inexplicably have a set of wings that appear out of nowhere.
 * Interestingly, Cid's crystal form is called "Lindzei Type" in the design sketches found in the game's Ultimania Omega. Lindzei is the god who is said to have created Cocoon and its fal'Cie.
 * Despite having an enormous clawed arm, Raines kicks more often in his combination attack. He will only slash with his claw once per combo.