How to beat Ultima Weapon in FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE? It is level 70 with 3,900,000 HP and a stagger gauge of 5,000, and it is the strongest optional boss in the game. It only appears after the credits: the airship radar picks up a signal from Ardra, and from then on the fight waits at Ardra Crater, out in the open on the world map. You cannot flee it.
FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE how to beat Ultima Weapon
The fight has four modes and each mode has its own pair of weaknesses, so the whole battle is a question of reading which mode is active and swapping elements before your hits stop landing.
| Mode | Weak to | Halves |
|---|---|---|
| Modus Infernus | Wind, Water | Two other elements |
| Modus Keraunos | Ice, Earth | Two other elements |
| Modus Cocytus | Fire, Light | Two other elements |
| Modus Nemea | Lightning, Dark | Two other elements |
Each mode halves two other elements, so hitting the wrong pair costs you half your damage and half your stagger.
How the mode changes
Above 30% of its HP the switch is the action right after Ultima Beam: it acts twice a turn, the 9th action of a mode is Ultima Beam and the 10th is the switch, so Ultima Beam is your warning that the elements are about to change. Below 30% of its HP the pattern breaks down and it switches to a random mode after every two actions.
What each mode does to you
- Infernus hits hard physically. Its Strength is the problem, so Protectga if you have Rain and keep HP high — Full power! on one character is the hit that ends people.
- Keraunos acts at Speed 999, before everyone, and almost every move it has carries an ailment. Esuna whoever matters most.
- Cocytus casts Gravija, which takes 75% of everyone's current HP, so heal straight after it.
- Nemea heals itself and refills its own stagger gauge with Recuperate, so break it fast.
How the fight actually ends
The break is a sweeping stagger, because it fights alone: its turn is skipped, everyone acts again, and the damage it takes rises by half. With 3.9 million HP you need several of those. A stagger cancels Ultima Beam outright, so a well-timed break is what buys you the turn you need. Colossal Energy Draw, which raises all of its stats, comes only once, when its HP falls to 70% or when it gets up from its first stagger, whichever comes first.
The party that does it
- Sakura with Tronn: Lightning and Dark for Nemea, Light for Cocytus, plus Tronn's Blizzard and Fire. Sakura is the anchor, because she covers Nemea twice over.
- Nichol with Terra: Water for Infernus, and Terra's Blizzard for Keraunos.
- Fina with Leah: heals, Esuna for Keraunos's ailments, and Luminant Cannon on Cocytus.
- Jake with Aileen: Jake's own Wind for Infernus, Aileen's Stone Surge for the Earth side of Keraunos, and her Blizzard Surge as a third Ice source with Stagger Power +30%.
Every one of your eight heroes answers one mode or another. The stagger values to bring to each element are Nichol's Aqua Blast 105, Fina's Luminant Cannon 105, Sakura's Blighted Gloom 105, Lasswell's Absolving Hailstorm 96, Sakura's Tonitus 90, Rain's Banishing Raid 90, Jake's Gale Strike 75 and Lid's Mechabo Kick 75.
Prepare the party before you start
Bring a party that can cover all eight elements, because the mode decides which two you need and you cannot see the mode in advance. Carry an elemental Eater passive to blunt the mode's own attacks — Fire Eater on Clive, Ice Eater on Charlotte, Lightning Eater on Lightning, Water Eater on Tidus, Dark Eater on Sephiroth, 50 AP each at MR 9. On the way there, the Foe Attractor at 12,000 gil raises the rate of encounters so you can reach level 70 without over-farming, and the Adept's Armlet at 25,000 gil doubles EXP.
The reward for the fight is 300,000 EXP, 500,000 gil, a Megalixir and the Ultima Reactor, an accessory that increases stagger power and damage dealt, scaling with the HP you have left.
The arms themselves are what make the damage land, and each one needs an ancient piece and an altar trial first — that list is on the legendary arms page.
The strongest fight in the game is not this one
Ultima Weapon tops the optional boss list at level 70, but Omega sits at level 99 with nearly ten million HP and a gauge of 15,000. It is the last fight of the Colosseum's Champion League, and it works completely differently — the full plan is on the Omega page.