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Template:Sideicon Template:LRFFXIII Enemy Template:See Also Bhunivelze is the final boss of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. If played in hard mode, he is Bhunivelze+.

Stagger

Template:LRFFXIII Stagger

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

Battle

On Easy and Normal Modes, the fight consists of four phases, while the Hard Mode consists of only two, but the first phase uses many abilities from the first three phases available on Easy and Normal Modes. The player can also get to fight Bhunivelze+ in lower difficulties by completing the Ultimate Lair.

1st Phase

Bhunivelze will start casting Doom on the player (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 Debraves and Defaiths too. Keep in mind that Doom will be dispelled after this phase.

2nd Phase

Bhunivelze now 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. However, 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.

3rd 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 with great violence. He can launch Lightning if he catches her off-guard, and can often employ Divine Punishment as a finisher. Divine Punishment comes at any time and he will frequently cast it 2 or 3 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. This works similarly to Jet Bahamut's Giga/Tera/Exa Flare, as the player won't be allowed to perform any action during the cinematic. When staggered, he won't do anything in particular.

Final Phase

He will fall down, losing his scythe in the act, but 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's resilient to damage and, unlike the previous phases, has total immunity to debuffs. The player can assign Aerora to every schemata and use 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.

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 so the player should pay attention to guard properly and attack instantly after the attack in order to maintain the Stagger level constant.

Damnatio Memoriae is his strongest attack this time: first he will fire two beams at Lightning, then he bombards her with several Ruin spells, but 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. During this time, Bhunivelze does nothing and he can be attacked to keep the Stagger level running, but 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. 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.

Gallery

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Trivia

  • Some of Bhunivelze's abilities allude to previous Final Fantasy games:
    • Falling Star can be 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 resemble Forsaken.
    • Wings of Destruction can be 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.
    • 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 one third last buff to himself; and 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

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