Final Fantasy Wiki
Advertisement

Template:Sideicon

Master Tonberry is an enemy in Final Fantasy VII in the Northern Cave. Unlike the normal Tonberry, a star floats over its head and its skin is blue instead of green.

Its 44,444 HP alludes to the pronunciation of the number four in Japanese and Chinese, which spells and sounds the same as "death" (漢字 Chinese: 死 sǐ death;四 sì four;Japanese pronunciation: し shi).

Master Tonberry has the highest HP of any normal enemy in the game.

Stats

Formations

# Formation
872 Master Tonberry
891 Master Tonberry
896 Master Tonberry

Locations

Northern Cave
Red Passage 872
Horizontal Fork 872
Vertical Fork 896
Water Crossing 891
Water Path 891
Light Cavity 896
Rocky Descent 896
Above Mako Stream 896
Mako Stream 896

Battle

Each time a Master Tonberry gets a turn, it walks two steps towards the party. It may randomly change its direction. Once a party member is within its Knife's reach, it inflicts instant death. The Death Force spell and the Safety Bit accessory can render party members immune to this attack for the duration of the battle. The Resist spell also grants temporary immunity: the knife's attack dispels Resist instead of causing instant death.

Between Master Tonberry's turns, the party (taken as a whole) may attack it once undeterred. Any additional attacks between Master Tonberry's turns is retaliated with an unstoppable counterattack called Everyone's Grudge, which deals damage equal to the number of kills the target character has amassed, multiplied by 10. This attack inflicts fixed damage and cannot be blocked, but can be avoided by inflicting Stop or Paralysis status ailments on Master Tonberry.

Master Tonberry can be morphed into a Ribbon, one of the best and rarest accessories in the game. The player cannot use Sense on it.

Strategy

One of the easiest strategies involves opening the battle by casting Death Force on each party member, and then only attacking the Master Tonberry once between its turns to avoid the Everyone's Grudge counterattack. This strategy renders Master Tonberry harmless, but is time-consuming. To speed the battle up, one can:

  • Attack Master Tonberry with Double Cut, since it counts as one attack but inflicts the damage of two.
  • Cast Bio spells (or even better, Bad Breath) at the start of the battle to inflict Poison. Once the poison has damaged Master Tonberry 32 times, it will have 28 HP left. This will enable the player to morph it into the highly valued Ribbon. However, as players cannot see Master Tonberry's HP, they have to manually count the number of times poison has damaged it.
  • Disable Master Tonberry and attack it as many times as possible while the effect lasts.

AI script

AI: Setup {

TempVar:LRPos = 1

} AI: Main {

TempVar:DontMove = 0
TempVar:HitCounter = 0
TempVar:RightTarget = 1st Opponent
TempVar:MiddleTarget = 2nd Opponent
TempVar:LeftTarget:= 3rd Opponent
If (TempVar:LRPos == 0) Then
{
If (TempVar:Distance == 0) Then
{
Nothing
} Else If (TempVar:Distance == 1 or 2) Then {
Choose Self
If (3/8 Chance) Then
{
Use <Move Left> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos + 1
}
} Else {
If ((TempVar:RightTarget doesn't have Death Status)
& (1/2 Chance)) Then
{
Choose TempVar:RightTarget
Use Knife on Target
TempVar:Distance = 0
TempVar:LRPos = 1
} Else {
Choose Self
Use <Move Left> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos + 1
}
TempVar:DontMove = 1
}
} Else If (TempVar:LRPos == 1) Then {
If (TempVar:Distance == 0) Then
{
Nothing
} Else If (TempVar:Distance == 1) Then {
Choose Self
1/4 Chance:
{
Use <Move Right> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos - 1
TempVar:DontMove = 1
}
1/4 Chance:
{
Use <Move Left> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos + 1
TempVar:DontMove = 1
}
1/2 Chance: Nothing
} Else If (TempVar:Distance == 2) Then {
Choose Self
3/8 Chance:
{
Use <Move Right> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos - 1
TempVar:DontMove = 1
}
3/8 Chance:
{
Use <Move Left> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos + 1
TempVar:DontMove = 1
}
1/4 Chance: Nothing
} Else {
If (TempVar:MiddleTarget doesn't have Death Status)
& (1/2 Chance) Then
{
Choose TempVar:MiddleTarget
Use Knife on Target
TempVar:Distance = 0
TempVar:LRPos = 1
} Else {
Choose Self
If (1/2 Chance) Then
{
Use <Move Right> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos - 1
} Else {
Use <Move Left> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos + 1
}
}
TempVar:DontMove = 1
}
} Else {
If (TempVar:Distance == 0) Then
{
Nothing
} Else If (TempVar:Distance == 1 or 2) Then {
Choose Self
If (3/8 Chance) Then
{
Use <Move Right> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos - 1
TempVar:DontMove = 1
}
} Else {
If ((TempVar:LeftTarget doesn't have Death Status)
& (1/2 Chance)) Then
{
Choose TempVar:LeftTarget
Use Knife on Target
TempVar:Distance = 0
TempVar:LRPos = 1
} Else {
Choose Self
Use <Move Right> on Target
TempVar:LRPos = TempVar:LRPos - 1
}
TempVar:DontMove = 1
}
}
If (TempVar:DontMove == 0) Then
{
Use <Move> on Target
TempVar:Distance = TempVar:Distance + 1
}

} AI: Counter - General {

TempVar:HitCounter = TempVar:HitCounter + 1
If (TempVar:HitCounter == 2) Then
{
TempVar:HitCounter = 0
Choose Tonberry's Last Attacker (General)
Use Everyone's Grudge on Target
}

}

Other appearances

Pictlogica Final Fantasy

PFF Master Tonberry

Master Tonberry from from Final Fantasy VII appears as an enemy in Pictlogica Final Fantasy.

Gallery

Related enemies

Advertisement