Time to go, escargot!
Rikku
Neslug is an optional enemy in Final Fantasy X, bred in the Original section of the Monster Arena after at least one of each fiend roaming throughout Spira is captured. The design for Neslug, a hideously mutated snail, is only found here; hence making it the only true "Original" monster.
In the game's data Neslug's entry is not near the other Original Creations, but rather, near the fiends and bosses of Mushroom Rock Road and Djose. This may suggest that Neslug—presumably in a far weaker form—was originally going to be a boss, or perhaps even a random encounter, somewhere near Operation Mi'ihen.
Stats[]
Outside
Inside
Broken
Battle[]
Megaton.
Neslug will attack with Megaton, which causes Confuse. Its Slime attack will hit all party members, inflicting Armor Break (always), Mental Break (always), Poison, Curse, Silence (1 turn), Slow (1 turn), and Delay (strong). Because the Armor and Mental Breaks that come with Slime ignore immunity, they will leave aeons more susceptible to damage. Neslug will not use Megaton against Valefor, and will not use Slime if all party members are afflicted with Slow. Its basic physical attack will target the party member with the highest current MP.
After losing 2,000,001 HP, Neslug will retreat into its shell and initiate Auto Regen, regenerating massive amounts of HP, and become immune to all physical attacks. After losing 3,000,001 HP, its shell will break and it will emerge. It will also emerge from its shell if it recovers up to 75% of its maximum HP.
After Neslug's shell is broken, if it is struck by a Purifying Salt, its Defense and Magic Defense drop to 1. Neslug can still enter its hiding phase after its shell is broken, but won't gain the Auto-Regen and Null Physical statuses.
It drops weapons with Piercing (only for Auron and Kimahri) and Triple AP, and armor with HP +% abilities, HP +30% being fixed.
Neslug and Espada are the only arena creations immune to Doom. They are also the only two arena creations with a Zanmato level of 4; the others all have a Zanmato level of 5. Neslug also breaks the pattern of Original Creations having the 6% critical hit bonus on their equipment drops (this is invisible to players, however).
Strategy[]
When Neslug retreats into its shell, the player should not summon aeons, as it will make Neslug start regenerating over 100,000 HP per turn. During this time, Neslug is immune to physical attacks, making Ultima handy. Spare Change also works, but requires over 100,000 gil to inflict any notable damage. Wakka's Attack Reels Overdrive is a useful way to ensure victory.
In Final Fantasy X, "physical" and "based on the Strength stat" are not always the same thing, and Overdrives never count as physical damage. Thus, Attack Reels and Blitz Ace (among others) will work on Neslug even when in the shell, and can be used to quickly break it.
The shell phase can be bypassed altogether if Neslug's HP is reduced from over 2,000,000 to under 1,000,000 in a single attack. This can only be achieved with Attack Reels, Passado, or Oblivion.
One unusual strategy that could be used is having Slow on the entire party to prevent Neslug from using Slime. This means the player only needs to worry about regular attacks and Megaton, which only affect a single character at a time (so Auto-Phoenix is enough to deal with it) and physical attacks (making it possible to survive them using high Defense, Protect and/or Cheer).
Gallery[]
