Flan Princess (Final Fantasy IV 2D)

The Flan Princess is an enemy from Final Fantasy IV. It has a 1/64 chance of appearing in one room of the Lunar Subterrane and Lunar Ruins. It also has a 1/64 chance of dropping the rare item, Pink Tail, which can be traded with the Blacksmith in the underground for the Adamant Armor, the best armor in the game. In the Nintendo DS version, Flan Princesses may also drop a Rainbow Pudding, which must be given to Puddingway to entice him to change his name.

Strategy
Flan Princesses can only be found in one room of the Lunar Subterrane (the room has a single chest containing a Red Fang). In the Advance port of this game a group of eight Flan Princesses (rather than the usual five in Lunar Subterrane) and can be found in the Flan room of the Lunar Ruins. Sirens can be used to trigger the Subterrane formation, but sadly not the higher count group in the Ruins. They are harder to find, but have better odds of a tail drop by sheer numbers. In most versions of the game, one should not have much trouble taking them down with high levels, good equipment, and magic/summons, however in the Nintendo DS version of the game they are much more difficult and will require a different strategy.

Before engaging them, make sure everyone has their strongest weapons, with Cecil additionally equipped with the Crystal Mail and a Headband (giving him the Counter and Draw Attacks augments may also be a good idea). Also make sure that these weapons do not have an elemental affinity, excluding Holy and Dark. As soon as the fight begins, a Flan Princess will say "Dance with us!" and cast a party-wide Berserk spell called Samba de Flan. While everyone else in the party will be affected, the Crystal Mail grants Cecil immunity to the spell's effect. Next, cast Protect on the party. Resist the urge to have Cecil attack the Princesses; he will have his hands full keeping everyone alive. Occasionally, one of the Princesses will cast a spell called Entice, which inflicts the Confusion effect; the Headband will protect Cecil from this. Keep everyone healed, and eventually the Princesses will die, leaving you with (hopefully) a Pink Tail, and maybe even a Rainbow Pudding!

An alternate strategy for the Nintendo DS version of the game is to equip Cecil with the Draw Attacks and Counter augments, place him in the back row, and place Stardust (a consumable item which casts Comet - it can be purchased at the item shop in the Dwarf village of Tomra) in his top ability slot. Each time he is attacked, he will use Stardust, doing approximately 3,500 - 4,500 damage. The battle should end in about three hits (the only downside with this strategy is the sheer amount of Stardusts necessary to continually fight in this way - 99 of them will be used up in 33 battles, and they are rather expensive at 4,800 gil a piece).

In the Flan room in the Lunar Ruins, after the first rare encounter of the 8 Flan Princesses, they start to appear after every 5 or 6 Random Encounters. After 5 to 7 of these encounters with the Flan Princesses they will stop appearing, just Quicksave then reload the game to start it again. You will have to spend time finding the rare encounter again, but they will start to appear commonly again after you do. This makes acquiring the Pink Tail much easier.

Related enemies

 * Red Mousse
 * Black Flan
 * Yellow Jelly
 * Purple Bavarois
 * White Mousse
 * Golden Flan
 * Dust Mousse

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

 * Black Flan
 * Dust Mousse
 * Flan Princess
 * Green Cell
 * Purple Bavarois
 * Red Mousse
 * White Mousse
 * Yellow Jelly