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Attack of Gilgamesh (ギルガメッシュ降臨, Girugamesshu Kōrin?, lit. Gilgamesh's Descent), formerly called Gilgamesh's Offensive, is a trial in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius at the Chamber of the Fallen in which the players face Gilgamesh. It was considered by many to be the first of the difficult trials, as since then trial bosses have stronger damage output, multiple mechanics to consider, less vulnerabilities and more complex specifications to be able to defeat them.
While the release of stronger units has made the trial obsolete and easily cleareable, its updated version Scorn of Gilgamesh (ギルガメッシュ 真降臨, Girugamesshu Ma Kōrin?, lit. Gilgamesh's True Descent) once again upped the difficulty, being designed with 7★ units in mind and setting the trend for all trials afterwards.
Stages[]
- Gilgamesh's Offensive
- Scorn of Gilgamesh
Attack of Gilgamesh[]
Battle[]
Gilgamesh can attack up 8 times per turn. Gilgamesh is immune to most Stat Breaks and has a 50% resistance on MAG Breaks. Most of his attacks are hybrid, so breaking his MAG is helpful. Gilgamesh will on his first turn use Barrier and Wall to buff his defenses by 70%, so this buff should be dispelled. After that, Gilgamesh will use normal attacks: Tsubame Gaeshi (Single Target damage), X Slash (AoE damage) and Excalipher (deals light damage and is disabled by inflicted Light damage).
Gilgamesh has three thresholds at 80% (between the unit boxes, close to half the screen), 50% (at the end of the 1st unit's HP bar) and 30% HP (Between current/max HP divider), at which point he will use Gilgamesh Transform for a major DEF/SPR buff and then employs Bushido - Freedom, which inflicts AoE damage, Single Target Death and AoE Dispel.
Once Gilgamesh reaches the first threshold the true battle begins. Gilgamesh will gain several new elemental attacks with added gimmicks all of which can be prevented by inflicting damage from the respective element. His attacks are: Muramasa which inflicts Fire Damage, decreases ATK/DEF (50%) to one target and MP drain. Masamune deals Water damage and decreases MAG/SPR (50%) to one target. Whirlwind Blade which deals Wind damage and paralysis as well as decrease fire/water/wind/light resistance (50%) to one target. Finally he can use Zantetsuken for single target Earth HP damage (75%). Fire and Wind are rather relevant to keep on check, while Water and Earth are not as dangerous, although if possible, the player should aim to seal as many of them per turn as possible.
In the Global version of the game after reaching 50% HP, a new level of harassment is added; Electrocute which deals Lightning damage to all the party and decreases their DEF/SPR by 40% as well as Paralysis. This attack can only be prevented through Lightning Hybrid or Magic Damage, Physical attacks alone are useless. Electrocute must be prevented at all costs as the debuff can spell doom to the party in a matter of seconds. At 80% he gains Excalibur which inflicts Light Damage and Confusion to a single target.
If Gilgamesh is inflicted with Water damage 3 times during the battle (doesn't have to be in a row), he will use Break and end his turn. Break grants him major DEF/SPR buffs which should be dispelled. This tactic can be used to gain some breathing room. This will work only once during the entire battle and if triggered on a threshold, the abilities will be delayed until the next turn.
Strategy[]
The battle is all about two things, managing his thresholds and sealing Gilgamesh's moves.
To prepare for his thresholds the player should heal and break Gilgamesh's MAG and if possible use a Tank that is resistant to Death (Safety Bit and later on the Genji Shield are helpful). Healing constantly is important.
In order to seal Gilgamesh moves the player will need elemental coverage. Rain is a good option as his Lava Floor skill can inflict Earth/Fire damage at once, and if combined with other elemental weapons it can seal even more elements at once, specially if Dual-Wielding. Rain doubles as a Breaker and Buffer so he's useful.
The Rune Blade, Air Knife, Trident, are good weapons to use due to their Light, Wind and Water coverage. Rain cannot equip spears so somebody else will have to cover Water.
Since Lightning can only be prevented through Hybrid/Magic Lightning damage, the player will need to bring a Mage with Thundaga or alternatively Noctis' Thunder Flask. Sakura is a good unit as she can use Lightning magic and can buff the party's defenses. It should also be noted that if a unit deal Hybrid Damage while wielding a Lightning-elemental weapon it also counts.
In order to achieve all Missions the player will need MP batteries. Ling is a good option, and so is Bartz. Ling has the benefit of being a major utilitarian unit with breaks, revival and evasive too. Bartz can sacrifice himself to fully restore another unit, he also can deal Wind Damage and can equip Trident. Noctis' Cover is also useful as a MP healer and combined with Bartz and others can make MP fairly sustainable.
Gilgamesh possesses sturdy defenses, so using Setzer can also work in order to deal major fixed damage through Dice or Double Dice, although these are a gamble, although Killer abilities and Chains can build the damage (capping into a proper elemental chain for 4x damage, may with some luck, one-shot Gilgamesh instantly). A dual-wielding Orlandeau is also effective as it can deal tremendous damage through chains and can use Crush Weapon for a MAG Break.
An easy, although somewhat costly method to defeat Gilgamesh involves the use of evasion. All of Gilgamesh attacks, except the single target KO, and Holy attacks can be avoided so if the player brings in a unit capable of 100% evasion with Instant Death immunity, and protection against status ailments (since they still apply even if the damage does not) they should not lose. If paralysis is inflicted, the evasion is nullified.
If doing all the missions is too difficult the player can play it safest and attempt to do it in two rounds; the first one with 6-units but no item, and then the 5-unit one but now they have the benefits of items.
Scorn of Gilgamesh[]
Battle[]
The battle against Gilgamesh follow the same mechanics as his older version, except with a few additional changes, as the attacks have different effects, employs more elements than before, and the conditions for use are more complex. Every 20% of Gilgamesh's HP equates to a different phase of the battle, where the elemental attacks used and the conditions for sealing/triggering these attacks differ. Furthermore while nearly all of Gilgamesh's attacks inflict hybrid damage, some attacks are magical in type, so Physical Evasion will not prevent all the damage. Although Gilgamesh can attack in theory up to 40 times per turn, in actual practice he will not come anywhere near such value. Nonetheless the number of actions he uses will grow in each phase of the battle. Gilgamesh is immune to elemental damage, which complicates matters.
He will always open the battle with Barrier and Wall, decreasing damage to himself and boosting his stats. The stat buffs can be removed, but the damage reduction cannot and will subside in 3 turns. Every 3 turns he will remove debuffs on himself and use Genji Helm to resist ATK/MAG debuffs. He will also counter attacks depending on the attack. If hit with a physical attack he will use Tsubame Gaeshi, while magic attacks will be countered with Excalipoor. These can be covered but not provoked by Tanks.
He adds Genji Bow and Genji Blade, the former is Magic Type, the latter is Fixed Type, both of which damage all units. Genji Blade cannot be evaded or covered by Tanks. The use of both will increase in further phases.
On the first phase (100% - 80%) he will use Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, and using the respective elements on him will seal the matching elements of Muramasa, Masamune, Whirlwind Blade, Zantetsuken and Excalibur, respectively. Once movements are sealed he has a chance of a normal attack or employ Tsubame Gaeshi or X Slash (in Excalibur's case it will be Excalipoor instead). Muramasa and Masamune have powerful ATK/MAG, DEF/SPR debuffs of 75% respectively, Whirlwind Blade inflicts Paralysis and decreases resistance to all the five elements by 80%, Zantetsuken deals fixed damage equal to 90% of the target's HP, while Excalibur is a Magic Attack that inflicts confuse. Counter attacks will also seal moves.
On the second phase (79% - 60%) the mechanics are reversed, this time he will use True Muramasa/Masamune/Whirlwind Blade/Zantetsuken and Excalibur II if hit with respective elements. The True variants have more powerful effects as True Muramasa/Masamune/Whirlwind Blade inflict stronger debuffs and the attack affects all units. True Zantetsuken is an instant KO that cannot be prevented with Death Immunity, and Excalibur II damages and affects one unit with blind, paralyze, and confuse. Counter attacks will not trigger these moves.
On the third phase (59% - 40%) he will expand his repertoire to all elements which will be sealed when damage of the respective element is used. He will use his upgraded move from the last phase this time, along the Ice, Lightning, Dark attacks of Murasame, Flayer and Apocalypse all of which are Magic Type. Murasame damages and inflicts Silence on all units, Flayer which damages and dispels one unit, and Apocalypse which deals fixed 9,999 dark damage. Counters will seal these moves.
On the fourth phase (39% - 20%) the elements used on him will trigger the respective elemental attack. He will add Genji Armor every 4 turns to avoid physical damage.
On the fifth phase (19% - 0%) the elements will be sealed upon damage.
After passing a threshold, Gilgamesh will use Bushido - Freedom, which inflicts damage to all units, performs an instant KO to a certain number of units, and then dispels all units. The number of people instant KO'd by Bushido - Freedom, varies on the threshold, going from one person from up to three. Bushido - Freedom performs a check in order from the 1st slot up to the 6th. If a unit cannot be KO'd (because of Death Immunity) then it will check the next person and so forth until it KO's the number of units meant to do per turn this way. Reraise is effective since the dispel happens after the KO effect takes place. Furthermore units with death immunity will be unaffected by all the sequence, that is to say they will incur in no damage and no dispel.
If damaged with items in three different turns, he will use Break and end his turn doing nothing (counters will still apply). This only happens once per battle and can give the player much needed breathing room.
Strategy[]
Being the first Trial that is meant to be beaten with a 7★ party, the player should come prepared with several powerful units, preferably all of them at 120. Although the Trial is meant for players to carefully navigate through the different elements, in actual practice very few people attempt this because of the high complexity and also due to being majorly inefficient in terms of inflicting large damage at once, so people tend to prioritize some elements and ignore others.
By far and lot, however, people aim to one turn kill Gilgamesh in order to avoid all the problems. Because of Wall and Barrier, people tend to wait until the 4th turn in order to execute the OTK. The ways to do so vary from player to player but overall use a handful of extremely powerful damage dealers like 2B, Kurasame, and the recently released Cid and recently enhanced Balthier amongst others. By using these units and a combination of large offensive buffs, high elemental imperils, damage of the respective element (with elemental enchant buffs if required) and a mix of chaining/capping, it is perfectly doable to defeat Gilgamesh from as high as 90% of his HP and even higher than that.
If it is not possible to beat him in a single turn, the player can abuse the Break mechanic in order to prevent Gilgamesh from using his threshold abilities and give the player a second turn to burst, as such it is recommended to use items in two turns before going into full offensive.
Since all the elemental attacks Gilgamesh uses in the first phase (except Excalipoor/Excalibur) are physical, a Physical Tank with full evasion can trivialize this phase and allow the player to buy enough time to prepare for the OTK, and even achieve all the missions. Physical attacks should be prioritized for these missions so that the Tank will cover the units from the counters, otherwise having high Light resistance will neutralize Excalipoor. The Esper Fenrir has Ice and Dark hybrid attacks, so in conjunction with Lightning Damage items, should prove effective.
Filling all LBs will prove to be the most taxing endeavour, so chainers will prove the most effective at generating a high enough LB cryst count. 2B, Auron, Loren are ideal because they are great debuffers and have powerful chain moves, which also helps reducing Gilgamesh HP count before the OTK.
A few things should be taken with precaution. Even if one uses an Evade Tank, the secondary effects will still apply, that is to say the stat or elemental debuffs will still affect the Tank, as such it is recommended to still deal with some elements in order to prevent these debuffs from affecting the Tank (as the Magic type abilities WILL damage it), or using stat debuff resistance to keep damage to a minimum. Folka achieves this on top of being an efficient healer, and being able to restore MP as well.
Furthermore since Gilgamesh uses Genji Helm every 3 turns, it is imperative to first remove his debuff resistance before applying any debuff, or the player risks failing to debuff him and take the full strength of his attacks.
Overall by playing defensively for a handful of turns, sufficient preparation and enough firepower, the player should succeed in defeating Gilgamesh without undergoing a perilous experience.
Gallery[]
Etymology[]
Gilgamesh is the main character of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an Akkadian poem considered the first great work of literature. He is a demigod with superhuman strength who builds the walls of Uruk to defend his people and travels to meet the sage Utnapishtim, a survivor of the Great Flood.
Gilgamesh is believed to have actually existed by many scholars. It is estimated he lived sometime between 2800 and 2500 BC. The Sumerian King List claims Gilgamesh ruled the city of Uruk for 126 years.
Gilgamesh in Final Fantasy is also based on Benkei, a famous character in the Japanese mythologies and chronicles of the Genpei War. A powerful warrior monk said to have personally defeated 200 men in every battle he engaged in and said to have had the strength of demons, Benkei's introduction sees him set out to collect 1,000 weapons, and to this end he posted himself at Gōjō Bridge in Kyoto and challenged every warrior who attempted to cross. On his 1000th duel Benkei was defeated by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the only defeat he had ever known, and became his faithful retainer throughout the rest of his life.
From the story of Benkei, Gilgamesh takes his preference for the naginata (Benkei's traditional weapon as a monk), his penchant for fighting on bridges, his collecting of weapons from enemies he defeats, and his friendship with the player's characters who defeat him. Benkei's devotion to Yoshitsune is the basis for Gilgamesh's association with Genji equipment—the Minamoto Clan is also called the Genji Clan, using the alternate pronunciation for the Chinese characters for mina and moto, gen and uji, respectively. Gilgamesh's face paint is based on traditional kabuki actors, for which Benkei is a popular character to portray.
Trivia[]
- Gilgamesh is specifically based on his incarnation from Final Fantasy XIII-2.