X-ATM092

Template:Sideicon Template:FFVIII Enemy X-ATM092, also known as Black Widow and X-ATM082 in the PlayStation version Final Fantasy VIII demo, is a boss in Final Fantasy VIII. It is a massive robotic spider activated by Biggs to pursue the player party as they leave the Dollet communications tower. The party must attack it until it collapses and enters self-repair mode. The party is advised to take this opportunity to flee. The initial battle is scripted and X-ATM092 cannot be permanently defeated at this point, regardless of how many self-repair sequences it triggers. From then on, the X-ATM092 will chase the party; it is possible, albeit difficult, to avoid the encounters. If it catches up with the party, they are forced to fight it again.

Upon reaching the beach, X-ATM092 is destroyed by Quistis in an FMV. However, it is possible for the player party to defeat the robot, and doing so earns 100 bonus points in the SeeD exam report upon graduation. The player's "attitude" rating on the report is also affected by certain actions during the chase: the player will incur a penalty if they do not shoo the dog in the town square out of the robot's path. Hiding in the pub as X-ATM092 passes by will deduct points, and doing this, the player will not get the FMV when they return to the beach.

X-ATM082 is what the boss is called in the Final Fantasy VIII PlayStation demo. Some of its attacks have different names, but otherwise it is identical to the final game version. The player can't hide in the pub from it in the demo and defeating it is considered impossible.

Evading X-ATM092

After escaping the initial fight with X-ATM092, it is possible to evade it. In the screen where Selphie jumped down to follow Seifer, the party must cross as fast as they can. When descending the mountain trail, the ground is shaking so the party must walk down. If they run, they are stopped by the shaking ground and X-ATM092 will catch up.

On the bridge the party must run until X-ATM092 jumps over the party; the party must then run the other way until X-ATM092 will jump over them again, then turn around and run toward the town; the X-ATM092 won't have time to jump again. In the the town area evading X-ATM092 is easy; the player just needs to keep heading toward the beach.

Stats

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Battle

X-ATM092 uses mainly physical attacks which can be halved by draw-casting Protect. Clash (called Charge in the PlayStation demo) hits all party members and Arm Crush (Claw Crush in the demo) attacks a single target. Its special attack is Ray-Bomb, which Quistis can later learn as a Blue Magic; it hits all party members at once, but is halved by Protect.

After sustaining 20% damage of its overall health, the robot will fall and begin repairing. Zell will prompt the party to flee. If the player doesn't escape, but waits for X-ATM092 to recover to full health, they will lose their chance to flee and have to keep fighting until it falls again. It is not possible to defeat X-ATM092 in the initial battle as it can self-repair an infinite amount of times at this point.

Attacking during a self-repair sequence is pointless as X-ATM092 cannot be destroyed during it, and will always be fully healed once the sequence ends. Damaging X-ATM092 over its max HP in one attack, such as a boosted summon from a high level Quezacotl with SumMag+30%, will cause X-ATM092 to skip the self-repair sequence, but still instantly heals up to full. In this case, as no self-repair sequence actually occurs, the amount of remaining self-repair sequences X-ATM092 can perform does not decrease, thus prolonging the fight.

X-ATM092 can be defeated by engaging it any time after the initial battle, but it is advisable to avoid it until reaching the town. This way the beach is nearer, as after X-ATM092 has been destroyed random encounters against G-Soldiers will initiate. While not difficult, fighting them will slow down the party's pace and there probably won't be much time left on the timer.

Although the X-ATM092 can repeatedly repair itself, it can only do so a limited number of times, and eventually will not collapse again, a sign it will no longer repair itself and can be destroyed. Due to its high HP and the time limit, destroying the X-ATM092 is difficult.

If the player beats X-ATM092, they will receive 50 AP, a random GF ability item (either Str, Vit, Spr or Mag+40%), and 100 bonus points towards the exam score.

X-ATM082 in the Final Fantasy VIII demo is considered impossible to defeat due to a weak party and stricter time limit.

Strategy

It is advised to evade X-ATM092 until nearer to the shore to maximize the Spirit score portion of the SeeD exam, as only one mandatory escape is allowed for the first encounter with X-ATM092.

After the initial battle X-ATM092 will only self-repair five times until it can be destroyed. This means the party needs to inflict 20% HP on X-ATM092 five times to trigger the self-repair sequences, then inflict 100% of its HP a final time to destroy it.

To defeat X-ATM092, it is recommended to draw Doubles from Elvoret and use them in the battle against X-ATM092 to dualcast Thunder. It is possible to obtain higher level Lightning magic by teaching Quezacotl T-Mag RF and refining items, such as Dynamo Stones obtained by playing Triple Triad and modifying Blitz cards, or Coral Fragments obtained from Creeps cards.

If the player has no higher level magic, Thunder will work. Selphie is probably the party's best magic caster, who should be given a Guardian Force with Mag-J.

X-ATM092 destroyed.

If the Quezacotl knows the Boost ability, a boosted summon can do over 1,000 damage. However, the time limit must be kept in mind; if Quezacotl hasn't learned too many SumMag+ abilities, dualcasting Thunder magic will deal more damage, and is much faster. It might work better not to summon Quezacotl at all, and only use Limit Breaks and dualcast Thunder. If the player is lucky, Selphie's Slots will turn up Thundara, Thundaga or even Holy, Meteor and Ultima, which can do massive damage. The End will not work while X-ATM092 can still repair itself; instead of killing it, The End will make X-ATM092 collapse and start repairing.

A good way to prepare for the battle is to train Quezacotl on the Balamb beach, fighting Fastitocalon-Fs for 3 AP each until it knows Boost and SumMag+30%, before leaving for Dollet. Having a compatibility of 800 or higher helps as well.

Any summon at 255% boosted value will be able to do enough damage to trigger the self-repair sequence in one hit, but this is typically only possible with a turbo controller, macro or some other aid as normal button pressing is not fast enough to boost summons that high.

Note that the mission count down timer and the self-repair sequence timers work differently to the ATB gauge. The former counts down even if you are in the menu screen, except when you have the game paused during battles. The self-repair timer will not count down when the ATB gauge is paused during certain animations (such as a draw animation, or GF summon animation). To avoid unnecessary delays, it is recommended to not queue more animations than necessary to trigger the self-repair sequence as you could be stuck waiting for a GF summon to finish when it is already knocked down, all while the mission timer is ticking.

AP trick

It is possible to earn the 50 AP from X-ATM092 more than once. To get the 50 AP, the party needs to reduce its HP to 0 which will cause it to get up without going through the full self-repair sequence, then do enough damage to trigger another self-repair sequence and run from the battle. The tricky part is the party only needs to knock off 25% of its HP to make it collapse, and if it can repair itself before the party rid of the rest, X-ATM092 will be back in full health. For the AP trick to work the party needs to quickly get rid of all 5,000 HP, which requires some preparation.

It is possible to get this bonus a dozen times or more depending on the party's strength.

Triple Triad

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Other appearances

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

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Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

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Gallery

Concept art.

Arm Crush.

Leg Strike.

Clash.

Ray Bomb.

Repair.

X-ATM092's remains.

X-ATM092 view.

Etymology

It has also been known as Black Widow. [view · edit · purge]Latrodectus is a genus of spider in the family Theridiidae, many of which are commonly known as widow spiders. Individual species vary widely in size, but in most cases the females are dark and identifiable by reddish hourglass markings on the abdomen. The spiders' venomous bite is considered particularly dangerous because of the neurotoxin latrotoxin, which causes the condition latrodectism, both named for the genus. The female black widow has unusually large venom glands and her bite is particularly harmful to humans.

Trivia

X-ATM092 having fallen over.

• Later in the game, if the player tries to return to the Dollet communications tower, a Galbadian Soldier will call two robots identical to X-ATM092. The first one (RoboVite 001) falls off the cliff, and the second (RoboSharp 002) falls from the mountain path, entering the screen in an upside-down position, blocking the path to the tower.