The Machina of Destruction is a Trial in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius found in the Chamber of the Fallen. The players face Aigaion. It is considered by many as the first of the many "high tier" Trials as the Bosses' stats become significantly higher than previous Trials with several million of HP, or extremely tricky patterns or damage output, requiring top tier units, equipment and even some monetary investment to be fully prepared, and even then it offers little room for mistake.
Battle[]
The Player is to be warned Aigaion poses a significantly more challenging threat than any of the previous Trial Bosses faced so far. At a staggering 10 million of HP on his main body and 4 million on each of his arms (which can each revive a set amount of times before being permanently destroyed), the battle will likely take a while.
On a broad sense the Boss as a whole has a simple pattern of attacks, but still remains tricky. For one, Aigaion will resurrect each of its Arms a set number of times before they are truly destroyed (Left Arm can be killed 10 times and the Right Arm 3 times). Aiming at Aigaion's body first will cause the Boss to become more aggressive. As a result two methods to deal with the Boss exist. The "Brute Force" method aimed at killing Aigaion's body first (the fastest but most difficult route) and the "Slow and Steady" method (which aims to destroy both arms permanently, this can take as long as 4 hours) which makes sure the Boss is on its least aggressive phase, but it will be extensively time consuming and will likely pose a great strain in resources and MP sustenance.
All parts are immune to status ailments and Stat Breaks except SPR and have a resistance to Light and Dark by 100% with others varying (detailed below).
Aigaion[]
Aigaion's main function is to be the reviver. Whenever his arms are destroyed, he will bring them back a maximum of 9 times for the Left Arm and 9 times for the Right Arm. Killing the body first will greatly reduce the length of the battle but will make things more difficult. Damage-wise his body will use Genocide Beam for good but not deadly damage to the party and the normal attacks. If the Right Arm is killed once it will upgrade its number of attacks from 5 to 8 per turn.
After reaching its 70% threshold it will charge to use its World Destroyer ability, its strongest and its damage output will kill the party if not mitigated. DEF/SPR Buffs, Damage Mitigation or Reraise are useful options, as well as inflicting Water damage which will reduce its damage by half. However if Water damage is inflicted 3 times during the battle it will unleash a powerful counter so it must be used purely before World Destroyed is employed. World Destroyer will then be used once every 5 turns.
The Body resists Lightning and Wind by 50%.
Left Arm[]
The Left Arm's main function is to be the killer. The only attack it will use once per turn is Arm Burst, a single, extremely destructive attack aimed at the unit with the highest ATK in order to kill it. This attack is very much guaranteed to succeed as it deals damage well above the tens of thousand of damage. This is a unique attack that deals physical damage but is magical so only Magic Evasion helps in avoiding it. Therefore the player will have to likely revive that unit every turn either with Raise or preferably Reraise abilities.
If the Left Arm is attacked with Lightning in any way, it will counter with a powerful AoE Explosion that will wipe the party.
If a revived Right Arm is killed, the Left Arm will eject a unit from battle and then destroy itself (this doesn't work with the original Right Arm).
The Left Arm resists Ice and Wind by 50% with a weakness to Lightning of -50%.
Right Arm[]
The Right Arm's main function is to be the healer. It heals Aigaion for 500,000 HP every turn with Cure Beam so any damage on the body must be much greater than that in order to truly destroy the Body. It can also employ Buffs that cast Reflect on all parts, increase ATK/MAG and one that strongly enhances DEF all of which can be dispelled. The Right Arm only has its normal attack as an offensive move and will only act 2 times per turn unless Aigaion is dead which will increase it to 8. The Right Arm can also revive the Left Arm even if Aigaion is dead.
If the Right Arm is under 50% it will cast Curaja Beam as a heal to all parts. If it is under 30% and Aigaion is dead, it will cast a more powerful Cure Beam to heal for 2,000,000 although only used once.
The Right Arm resists Ice and Lightning by 50% with a weakness to Wind of -50%.
Strategy[]
Regardless of the method employed to defeat Aigaion, the player will have to deal with the constant harassment of having a unit killed every turn and since the attack will aim at the unit with the highest ATK this may imperil the player's offensive. There are however a handful of ways to handle that during the course of the battle.
First a Tank can redirect the attack to itself through Provoke or other similar abilities, this will keep the rest of the player's party safe from the attack, although most Tanks will be killed regardless of the amount of sturdiness employed. A Wilhelm unit can resist the hit but it needs absurd levels of HP (at least 15,000) along equally high level resistance equipment to take on the hit, which is found in several Trust Master Rewards, like his own, Snow's Champion Belt, etc. As such a Tank that can take the hit will require a very specific setup unlikely to be affordable by most players.
Second and arguably the most important factor, a constant source of Resurrection. Abilities that can bestow Reraise are the most prefered as these will allow the Tank to act in the next turn (as they cannot act the turn they are revived). Normal Raise abilities can work, but the player will have to simply bring another unit with high ATK and make it effectively sacrificial pawn thorough the entire battle. Some units like Rem or Vanille (in the global version) can bestow Reraise which should take care of the problem although Vanille herself may not be sturdy enough to withstand the general attacks. Alternatively if the player doesn't want to waste two unit slots for keeping the murder in check, they can rely on high ATK units that can revive themselves. Elza, Maxwell and King are great choices and will help in economizing setup. King however has the issue of having low HP and Aigaion's assault continues after the killing blast, so if he cannot make it alive, it will render the efficiency attempt pointless. The player can also try to abuse Rikku's LB, however the Arms do not drop any LB crystal so charging it will need external equipment or attack the Body.
In order to acquire the skill World Destroyer from the Mission, the player cannot use any Magic. Fortunately this is not considered a priority but if the player wants to try to acquire it, units that can heal without using Magic are useful. Tilith can do so and heals all HP of all the party. Other options include Fina at its maximum with Superior Healing. She can also "counter" attacks with heals of her own, although she may not suffice by herself. Otherwise if the priority is to win, the common healers like Y'shtola or Refia (preferably with Dualcast) are useful.
Offensively-wise, the player should if possible avoid the elements Aigaion is resistant to, unless they can inflict high damage (Fryevia is ok as her Ice damage will deal neutral damage at least). As described above Lightning should be avoided and Water should be reserved to weaken World Destroyer. Aileen is an excellent damager as she comes with innate Machine Killer abilities and her attacks will at most inflict Earth Damage which is effective against Aigaion. If the player wishes to use other heavy hitters like Orlandeau, Fire is a good element to use as is commonly found in several weapons and is not resisted or countered by Aigaion (only a single weapon suffices in case of Dual-Wielding, also elements are encouraged since Elemental Chains are stronger than normal Chains). Also if one uses Ace he doubles as MP battery and high Magic damage with Imperil (only if his abilities are properly awakened).
The recent NieR: Automata units, mostly A2 and 2B possess highly damaging AoE abilities and massive innate damage increase over Machine monsters. Two of them with decent equipment should be capable of destroying Aigaion with significantly less difficulty. However since they are high ATK units, the player is advised to Reraise them or use a Tank to provoke Arm Burst.
Slow and Steady[]
If following this strategy, the player will have to prepare for an extensive round, as counting both Arms' (including resurrection) and the Body's HP, they will have to take down the grand total of 62,000,000 HP. This will likely be extremely tough on MP sustenance since Items while they can be used without penalty, are limited. As such the player need a reliable MP battery they can use for the entire fight. The recently released Lunera can perform this task while buffing the party. Ace's awakened abilities can also bestow major MP healing, while he can help inflict Imperil and high Magic damage.
Since this will require to permanently kill each part separately, the proper order is to kill the Left Arm (10 times) followed by the Right Arm (3 times) and finally the body. As such this strategy can be summed up as:
During the first phase 1x Arm Burst, 1x Genocide Beam and up to 5x Normal Attacks.
Once the Left Arm is destroyed it will be 1x Genocide Beam (2x when the Right Arm is felled twice), and up to 5x normal attacks (up to 8x when one Right Arm is destroyed and up to 7x when the second is down).
After both Arms collapse it will be 1x World Destroyed (once during 70% HP and every 5 turns after, ending its turn when used), 2x Genocide Beams and up to 6x Normal Attacks.
Brute Force[]
What makes this method tougher is that the player will have to deal with Arm Burst, World Destroyer and Right Arm's buffs. Major Reraise works but is not a must, however high damaging capabilities are a need for this method. Dispelling the buffs will be a need, so Bushido Freedom is helpful. Maxwell can also perform AoE dispel but doing so means forsaking her own Reraise.
For this method the player should kill Aigaion in this order: Body, Right Arm and Left Arm. A prefered tactic is to attack but NOT kill the Right Arm until it has low HP, then once the Body is felled, kill the Right Arm (preferably both at the same turn). If not successful the Right Arm will heal itself by 2 million, although it should still be significantly lower than its starting 4 million but it will buff itself every turn increasing its damage output and its DEF, so the player should thread carefully.
Etymology[]
Machina is the Latin word for "machine".
Trivia[]
- Aigaion was the subject of a handful of bugs that led to the fight being abnormally easy. As of present time both bugs have been fixed:
- The first of those involved the Berserk bug which made Aigaion's Body to turn Berserk and unable to revive the Arms which made the battle far less obnoxious.
- The second of them involved 2B whose damaging skill at the time of release caused to deal either very little damage or massive damage that could defeat it in one attack.