Dark Elf (Final Fantasy IV 2D)

The Dark Elf is a boss in Final Fantasy IV, fought to recover Troia's Crystal. He will defeat the party if they did not get Whisperweed from Edward so he can play his harp and weaken the Dark Elf's magic. In some versions of the game, the boss is susceptible to the Second Form Glitch.

The Boss's AI
The Dark Elf follows a simple pattern of triple-casting Fira, Thundara, and Blizzara for low damage, casting Tornado to lower one character's health into the single digits, and finally using Hex to turn one character into a pig. In the DS version the overall AI is much the same, although there is one big difference - the Dark Elf will now cast his Fira, Thundara, and Blizzara spells individually, and they are capable of causing serious damage to the party.

Strategy
The player should have Tellah heal both the characters in Critical and in Pig, while Yang should use Focus, Cid and Cecil simply attack, and Tellah should use a level three spell when he is not healing a character. If the player has enough Ruby Rings, the party should be equipped with them as the Dark Elf will cast Whisper that will turn party members into pigs and the rings will offer resistance to the spell. Soon, the Dark Elf then turns into a Dark Dragon to defeat them, and the real boss battle starts.

If the player has Tellah cast Reflect on the party, the attacks will simply bounce back onto the Dark Elf. After a few turns of this, the game moves to the cutscene, assuming the party has been defeated.

Trivia

 * If the player encounters the Dark Elf before speaking with Edward, he will hit each party member for 9,999 damage, defeating the party within a few turns.

Related Enemies

 * Dark Dragon

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

 * Dark Elf
 * Dark Dragon