Caius Ballad (Final Fantasy XIII-2 boss)

Caius Ballad is a recurring boss in Final Fantasy XIII-2. He is fought a total of five times in the main storyline.

After the player has completed the main storyline and repeats the first three battle against Caius with the Paradox Scope fragment skill active, his stats are significantly increased (see 1a, 2a and 3a in the infobox), and defeating him will result in a Paradox Ending.

Oerba -200 AF- (1)
Caius starts the battle with Heart of Chaos, which bestows Reraise on himself. However despite this status, which usually automatically revives defeated units, the battle will end by reducing Caius's HP to zero once.

Caius tends to focus all his attacks on a single party member, so the player should start the battle by utilising a Synergist that can cast Vigilance. Using a Saboteur to inflict status effects, especially Poison and either Deprotect and Deshell upon Caius is also highly recommended.

Caius tends to use Body and Soul often, which bestows many positive status effects upon himself, the most notable being Regen. Thus it is very important to defeat Caius before the first Stagger period is over otherwise he will regenerate nearly all of his HP. Due to this, the player should use Relentless Assault to raise Caius's chain gauge close to the stagger point, then switch to a healing paradigm like Combat Clinic to restore lost HP, then switch back to Relentless Assault to stagger Caius. Finally, about halfway through the stagger period, shift to Cerberus (three Commandos) to end the battle before Caius recovers from stagger. The player should use Potions and Phoenix Downs if any more healing is required during the stagger period.

Paradox Scope active (2a)
This battle is significantly harder with the Paradox Scope active as the player has only two party members and if Serah is knocked out the battle will end. Caius's HP and stagger point are not overly high, but he is fast and capable of restoring his HP, emptying his chain gauge and of attacking fast in succession, as well as launching his targets in the air rendering them incapacitated. After his HP is depleted to zero Caius will revive himself and the player must repeat the process.

Pairing Serah with a Sentinel ally is a good idea, especially one that cannot be launched even when not guarding, such as the types of monsters with a shell. The Sentinel ally should know Provoke to draw Caius's attacks to it, as well as either Steelguard or Mediguard for defense (Steelguard may be better, because it reduces damage more). Useful paradigms include:


 * SEN/SEN
 * MED/SEN
 * SAB/SEN
 * RAV/RAV
 * RAV/SEN

While the Sentinel ally draws Caius's attention, Serah should attempt to apply either Deprotect or Deshell depending on her proficiency, along with Imperil, and possibly Poison. If Caius has both Deshell/Deprotect and Imperil the Ravager job makes his HP drop like a stone, as his physical/magical resistance becomes normal and he becomes weak to elements, taking double damage from Ravager skills. If the player can apply Faith/Bravery with a Feral Link skill, the effect is even greater. What makes this difficult is that Caius is able to restore his status with Absolution, and also keeps buffing himself.

Saboteur is able to inflict Wound damage, which is especially useful against Caius as he revives himself after being defeated the first time, but is unable to restore any Wound damage, meaning he will be revived at whatever his maximum HP was at the time he runs out of HP the first time. He is also not immune to Dispel, which also deals damage in this game. Although Saboteur skills don't deal much damage when compared to Commando or Ravager, they slow his chain gauge while still building chain, and the Wound damage builds up over time and caps his max HP.

When Caius prepares Inferno the player can quickly shift to SEN/SEN to minimize damage, and when the Sentinel is on low HP the player can shift to MED/SEN to heal the Sentinel. Using Wound Potions may be necessary if the battle draws for long.

Valhalla -Year Unknown- (5)
Useful paradigms include:


 * COM/COM/COM
 * RAV/RAV/RAV
 * SEN/SEN/SEN
 * MED/MED/SEN
 * SYN/SAB/SEN

Caius will immediately start the battle by casting Ultima on the party. You can switch to the Tortoise paradigm to reduce damage, but the spell isn't overly powerful. Immediately switch to a paradigm with a synergist and cast Protect, Shell, Vigilance, and Veil on the party. Immediately afterwards, switch to Tri-Disaster and raise Caius' chain guage, which is relatively low. When he is staggered, switch to Cerberus and attack. After Caius performs four or so cycles of attacks, switch to Tortoise to absorb the damage of Caius' Inferno attack, which can devestate your party, and then heal if it's needed. Caius will not do anything for a while, so take this opportunity to deal as much damage as possible before he empties his chain gauge. After this, he will likely cast Body and Soul or Absolution, and start his cycle over again by casting Ultima. Your attacks before he empties his chain gauge will likely reduce his health by at least half. Repeat this strategy to defeat him. Should Caius cast Eye of Bahamut on any of your party members, IMMEDIATELY remove any and all status ailments on your character before he casts Inferno, as it can easily KO anyone if they have Deshell or Imperil. When his HP is depleted once, he will revive himself to max HP, minus any Wound damage. Simply continue with the strategy above to defeat him again.