You heard of the Barheim Passage? Legend says you can hear the eerie cry of a woman from the depths of that accursed place.
Itinerant Hand, Nalbina Fortress
Zalera is an optional boss in Final Fantasy XII fought in the Barheim Passage alongside continuously spawning Dead Bones. Defeating him obtains him as an Esper summon. He and the Dead Bones are also fought in Zodiac versions' Trial Mode Stage 32, where he has some unique steals: Time Bolts (common), Doom Mace (uncommon), and Hunting Crossbow (rare). Both battles are fought under a time limit.
The symbol on the shamaness's forehead when Zalera uses Prime Lv. Death is the Blood-Sin from Vagrant Story, a tattoo of great power.
Bestiary entry[]
Page 1: Observations[]
- Heretic scion who wrapped the world in dark energies, seeking to take the souls of all living things unto himself. Created in opposition to Emet-Selch, Angel of Truth, and scion of light. Originally tasked with the judging of men upon their deaths, his soul was tainted by the curses of those who raged against the heavens, and seizing one of the gods' servants, a shamaness, as a hostage, he rebelled against his creators. Even now, in defeat, he clutches the shamaness to him in his right arm, and with the aid of her death-wail does he summon the soul of darkness to do his bidding.
Stats[]
AI script[]
Abilities | ||
---|---|---|
Type | Name | Condition |
Stop | Use after Enrage on opponent not asleep (5%) HP <20% (5%) | |
Sleepga | Use after Enrage (5%) HP <20% (5%) | |
Lv.2 Sleep | HP >20% after executing six commands after entering offensive mode (100%) | |
Lv.3 Disable | HP >20% after executing six commands after entering offensive mode (100%) HP <20% (5%) | |
Lv.4 Break | HP >20% after executing six commands after entering offensive mode (100%) HP <20% (5%) | |
Lv.5 Reverse | HP >20% after executing six commands after entering offensive mode (100%) HP <20% (5%) | |
Prime Lv. Death | HP >20% after executing six commands after entering offensive mode (100%) HP <20% (100%) Repeat after next 14 commands (100%) | |
Kill | Use once after Enrage (100%) Use during offensive mode (50%) HP <20% after using Prime Lv. Death (100%) | |
Enrage Bestows Attack CT0 | Use when taking damage during defensive mode (100%) Use when defensive mode ends (100%) | |
Purify | Use after Prime Lv. Death if afflicted with a status ailment (100%) | |
Zalera braces against attacks! +80 to DEF and MDEF | Start of battle (100%) HP >20% after using Prime Lv. Death (100%) | |
Ignore Evade | During offensive mode | |
Magick CT0 | Offensive mode when HP <20% | |
Properties | ||
Type | Property | |
Targeting | Attacks enemy with highest enmity. | |
Linking | ||
Attacks | ||
Pursuit |
How to find[]
To fight Zalera, the player must return to the Barheim Passage, which requires the Barheim Key obtained from the "patient in the desert" quest in the Estersand village. Once inside the party should head north, turn west in the section before the gate crystal. Heading to northwest passage, the player will reach to the long rail known as Zeviah Span. At the end at No.7 Terminus the player will fight Zalera and his Dead Bones allies.
Battle[]
Zalera must be defeated within 5 minutes or the party will be ejected to the Terminus 7 adjunct and will have to try again.
Once the battle starts, Zalera will "brace against attacks", summoning Dead Bones, whose attacks can cause Blind. As long as there are Dead Bones present, or Zalera has taken no damage (or damage equaling zero), Zalera's Defense and Magick Resist are boosted by 80 each. After defensive mode ends, Zalera gains the Ignore Evade augment, meaning the player gains no advantage from equipping a shield against his attacks.
Zalera resists all elemental attacks, including elemental weapons.
Zalera has no abilities that do damage, relying instead on the Bones and status ailments. His attack sequence is: Lv. 2 Sleep, Lv. 3 Disable, Lv. 4 Break, and Lv. 5 Reverse, affecting characters whose levels are divisible by 2, 3, 4, or 5, respectively, and then Prime Lv. Death, which affects characters whose levels are a prime number. Character levels not affected by any of these spells are 49, 77, and 91. Levels (under 100) susceptible to Prime Lv. Death are: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, and 97.
Zalera will constantly use the attack Kill to KO the target. The party should not rely on Espers as Zalera will immediately defeat them, and shortly after will aim Kill at the summoner.
Since Zalera is undead, curative spells are effective if the party can work around his Reflect status. Curative items are also effective, but Raise spells and Phoenix Downs do not work.
Strategy[]
The player can bring a set of resist accessories to counter Sleep, Blind, and especially Disable. As long as the player equips them right after getting the cast warning, the party will be able to resist the spells.
Another way to counter the status effects is to have the party at levels which are not susceptible to Zalera's level-based status attacks. The only levels that give immunity all of the level-based spells (including Prime Lv. Death) are 49, 77, and 91. If being at these levels is inconvenient (as they are much higher than when the party could potentially tackle Zalera), an alternative is to combine this with the previous tactic by having the party at a level only divisible by 2 (e.g. 38, 46) and equipping Nishijin Belts to be immune to Sleep. The player can equip a Fireflies when they want to freeze a character's level.
Casting Shell or equipping Shell Shield will halve the success rate of Kill.
Using abilities with a guaranteed amount of damage, like 1000 Needles or Gil Toss, is one way to get around Zalera's high defense. A party member with all Potion Lores learned equipped with a Pheasant Netsuke can throw X-Potions at Zalera for damage as well.
One effective method is to cast Reflect on the party, or equip Ruby Rings or Mirror Mails for Auto-Reflect, and cast Curaja, reflecting the spell to the boss for heavy damage. Because of Zalera's Kill, the Reflect strategy only effectively works with Auto-Reflect.