Bhunivelze (boss)

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Your arrogance will kill you!

Lightning when performing Army of One against Bhunivelze

Bhunivelze is the final boss of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. When playing New Game+, if the player completes the Ultimate Lair he is upgraded to Bhunivelze+. Elementaga is a guaranteed drop on hard mode.

Winning the battle earns the A Legend from Times Past achievement.

Stagger

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Conditional Changes

• Elemental Damage Modifiers: during Spirit, 130% for weak element, -100% for strong element, 100% for the other two elements

Battle

This fight consists of four phases, but on New Game+ players can fight his enhanced Bhunivelze+ form with only two phases so long as thay complete the Ultimate Lair. Contrary to popular belief, the normal form of Bhunivelze can be fought on Hard Mode, as all one has to do is avoid unlocking the extra day and in turn the Ultimate Lair.

Bhunivelze will start casting Doom on Lightning (this is the only time he will do it). He can use his scythe as a boomerang, which will deal more hits if Lightning is too far away. If she is next to Bhunivelze, he will toss her away with his scythe. He will also periodically cast Almagest. When near loss, Bhunivelze will cast Ruinga and Giga-Graviton back-to-back and sometimes simultaneously. He often uses Debrave and Defaith. Doom will be dispelled after this phase.

In the second phase Bhunivelze adopts a bird-like form. As a starting attack, he will summon three Monads that follow Lightning. When he has the chance to, he can use Wings of Destruction to make these Monads explode. The attack itself also inflicts damage, but can be reduced by destroying the Monads first. He can shift between four spirits: Fire, Wind, Ice and Thunder. This grants him the En- status. When in one of them, he will cast the respective tier 2 (-ra) elemental spell multiple times.

When Lightning is too far away and Bhunivelze has more than half of his HP, he will randomly use Genethliac Hymn, making himself resistant to all kinds of damage, summoning random thunders across the stage and charging a massive blue orb over his head. If the player manages to stagger Bhunivelze before he drops his massive orb, he will be stunned and forced to drop an incomplete orb, resulting in an attack called Falling Star. If the player doesn't stagger him, he will drop a complete orb, resulting in Dancing Mad. After that, he can either summon new Monads or change his elemental affinities.

In the third phase Bhunivelze returns to his familiar appearance and gains more HP, as well as several new abilities that deal great damage, including Ultima, Divine Punishment, and Hypernova. He uses his scythe more often and can launch Lightning if he catches her off-guard, and employs Divine Punishment as a finisher. Divine Punishment comes at any time and he will frequently cast it two or three times in a row, though only when near death. When far from Lightning, he can either toss his scythe or cast Ultima. When Lightning is next to him, Bhunivelze will toss his scythe in a yo-yo fashion across a wide area. Hypernova is his strongest attack and can be cast when he is near loss and the player can't perform any action during the cinematic. When staggered in this phase, he won't do anything in particular.

In the final phase Bhunivelze will fall down, losing his scythe. He will eventually kneel and half of the stage folds vertically. Any attack does minimal damage during this phase until he's been staggered, which can be difficult to do since he resists damage and, unlike the previous phases, has total immunity to debuffs.

He will cast Disaster and Cataclysm randomly, the last one being the most dangerous because of the number of hits, although it works like Quake. Divine Efflux is his most used ability, used while crouching and covering his face, then shooting beams from his eyes. He can shoot one, two or three times at once.

Damnatio Memoriae is his strongest attack this time: he will fire two beams at Lightning before bombarding her with several Ruin spells. This attack is easily mitigated if one blocks the first beams, otherwise the player will be launched into the air and unable to block, and likely killed by the cumulative damage. Heartless Angel comes at any time, which will reduce Lightning's HP to 1 via two Eden minions that surround her for 10 seconds. He can also cast Elementaga, which will do high damage, and even if guarding it will deal moderate damage, so the player should perform a Perfect Guard to prevent the hit.

Strategy

The player can assign Aerora to every schemata, which will come to use in the final battle phase; when Bhunivelze resists damage and needs to be staggered, Lightning can use Aerora wantonly to keep the stagger gauge up. Overclock can be used to give Lightning more time, especially after Bhunivelze begins casting Heartless Angel when he naturally idles for a bit. After Bhunivelze is staggered he is easy to damage. The player should pay attention to guard properly, and in the final battle phase attack instantly after Bhunivelze uses Divine Efflux to maintain the stagger level constant.

During the time the two Eden minions surround Lightning when Bhunivelze uses Heartless Angel, Bhunivelze does nothing, and can be attacked to keep the stagger level running. The player should be mindful of the two minions and guard when the camera zooms in on Lightning, as Heartless Angel will then do nothing. Overclock can be a great alternative, as it stops Bhunivelze from casting hazardous spells like Heartless Angel or Damnatio Memoriae. The player should aim for Perfect Guard for Bhunivelze's Elementaga.

Gallery

Bhunivelze's Second Form.

Bhunivelze's Third Form.

Bhunivelze's Final Form.

Etymology and symbolism

The ability "Genethliac Hymn" suggests a connection to "Genethliac" or "Natal" astrology. Genethliac Hymn is therefore a synonym for "Nascent Requiem", Orphan's theme. Natal astrology is the art of determining a person's path in life through pinpointing the locations of heavenly bodies at the point of their birth and could refer to Lightning having been marked as the savior as well as a l'Cie and Champion of Etro.

A monad is translated from Greek meaning "unit" or "alone" from the word mono - single. It is used by Pythagoras in creation theories as meaning the totality and origin of all things. It also had a counterpart that reflected its opposite and in eastern philosophies is represented by the taijitu, or yin and yang of which black and white is a large theme throughout the game, representing Lightning and Bhunivelze.

Trivia

• Some of Bhunivelze's abilities allude to previous Final Fantasy games:
  • Falling Star is a synonym of Starfall, used by the Emperor from Final Fantasy II, and they both share similar animations (a falling meteorite).
  • Almagest originally comes from Final Fantasy V and is used by Neo-Exdeath.
  • "Dancing Mad" is Kefka Palazzo's final battle theme in Final Fantasy VI, and the visual effects seen when the massive orb hits the ground resembles Forsaken.
  • Wings of Destruction is a synonym of Havoc Wing, a lethal ability used by Kefka.
  • Heartless Angel is originally used by Kefka.
  • Hypernova can be considered a much stronger version of Safer∙Sephiroth's Supernova. Hypernova's animation resembles the animation of Supernova from the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII.
  • Giga-Graviton is Sin's ultimate attack in Final Fantasy X.
  • Divine Efflux resembles Orphan's Requiem from Final Fantasy XIII, both having the appearance of narrow beams and being fired through the eyes.
  • Genethliac Hymn strongly resembles The Emperor's Starfall, as seen in Dissidia Final Fantasy: when being cast, their respective weapons spin quickly over their heads and during this time, they are resistant to damage (The Emperor blocks all magical attacks while casting).
  • Divine Punishment originally comes from Dissidia Final Fantasy and is used by Chaos.
• Bhunivelze's final phase has a similar pose to that of Cloud of Darkness from Final Fantasy III
• The final battle itself alludes to the previous two games memorable bosses:
  • Bhunivelze's first phase alludes to Orphan (Doom at the beginning) and Barthandelus/Caius (Ruinga/Giga-Graviton).
  • His second phase, especially his Genethliac Hymn, alludes to Barthandelus's Destrudo, as it will deal less damage if certain conditions are met (staggered/high chain gauge respectively).
  • His third phase alludes to Valfodr's fight at his highest level. They will both acquire a dark aura around their bodies when they cast Holy Blade/Divine Awakening respectively, allowing them to grow stronger and massacre the player with brutal combos. They also advise the time when they use their signature moves. Before using Hypernova, Bhunivelze will add a final third buff to himself; Valfodr, before using Gagnrath, will heavily debuff the party.
  • His final phase also resembles Orphan, as he needs to be staggered to be defeated.

Related enemies

• Bhunivelze+

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