K I N G D O M    H E A R T S    I I

                            B O S S   G U I D E



Contents:
(How to use: Highlight and copy the code for the section you would like to go
to, such as day1, or lod1. Then hit control+F to bring up find, paste the code
into the field and click on Find Next.)

Introduction:             PLEASE READ, contains general/contant info    [intr]
Note:                     PLEASE READ, Important info on all bosses     [boss]
Legal Info:               PLEASE READ, has permissions, etc.            [lgl1]
Day 1:                    Seifer, Dusk                                  [day1]
Day 3:                    Giant Nobody                                  [day3]
Day 4:                    Axel                                          [day4]
Day 6:                    Axel (again)                                  [day6]
The Land of Dragons:      Shan Yu                                       [lod1]
Beast's Castle:           Thresholder, Beast, Shadow Stalker            [bst1]
Olympus Coliseum:         Hades, Cerberus, Demyx, Pete x2, Hydra        [oly1]
Disney Castle:            Protect the Queen                             [dis1]
Timeless River:           Past Pete, Pete                               [rvr1]
Port Royal:               Barbossa                                      [prt1]
Agrabah:                  Blizzard Lord & Volcanic Lord                 [agb1]
Halloween Town:           Prison Keeper, Oogie Boogie                   [hwn1]
Pride Lands:              Hyenas, Scar                                  [prl1]
Space Paranoids:          Hostile Program                               [spc1]
Hollow Bastion:           Demyx                                         [hlw1]
The Land of Dragons:      Mysterious Man, Storm Rider                   [lod2]
Beast's Castle:           Xaldin                                        [bst2]
Port Royal:               Grim Reaper x2                                [prt2]
Olympus Coliseum:         Hades                                         [oly2]
Agrabah:                  Jafar                                         [agb2]
Halloween Town:           Test Subject                                  [hwn2]
Pride Lands:              Hyenas, Groundshaker                          [prl2]
Space Paranoids:          Sark, MCP                                     [spc2]
Radiant Garden:           Sephiroth                                     [rdn1]
The World That Never Was: Xigbar, Luxord, Saix, Xemnas x2               [wnw1]


--------------------------------

Introduction
[intr]

I wrote this guide because I saw a lack of information on bosses. What I do is
go through each boss 2-3 times and study their attacks, patterns, etc. I give
the best advice I can from multiple angles to provide you with the knowledge
to beat them.

I cannot beat the bosses for you, but I can hopefully arm you with the
knowledge to do so yourself.

If you have any alternate strategies, information I'm missing, or anything
else you feel needs to be said, please e-mail me at naihanji@yahoo.com. Use
the subject line "BOSS GUIDE" or it will likely get deleted.

THIS GUIDE IS COMPLETE, it includes all storyline bosses, i.e. all strategies
you need to complete the main game and see the ending. I have included
Sephiroth. He is an optional boss and completely unecessary for finishing the
game, but was persuaded to add him. There are so many strategies that can be
used against him, I don't feel he can be done justice in this guide. I
encourage people to e-mail me with their Sephiroth strategies. All people who
do this will be properly credited. 

All Difficulty Ratings and Cheese Factors are based on a playthrough on Proud
Mode. Battles will likely be considerabley easier on Standard or below. Also
note that I believe some bosses have some extra attacks while on Proud Mode.

Difficulty is my opinion on a 1-10 scale of how hard this boss is to beat,
taking into account not only its attacks, but patterns, damage dealt,
avoidance, etc.

Cheese Factor refers to how cheesy the boss is. Most bosses are a lil' bit
cheesy, but some are very, very cheesy. I'll make sure to note it. Typically,
the higher the Cheese Factor, the more you can expect that particular boss to
make attacks which are either impossible or near impossible to avoid, attacks
which do insane amounts of damage for what seems like no good reason, attacks
which string you into long chains of attacks that you have no chance of
getting out of, or some combination of the three. What this really means is,
higher Cheese Factor means less balanced fights for you against your enemy. If
you see a very high Cheese Factor on a boss, be prepared to get tossed around
and destroyed with nearly no control over what happens at all unless you are
well prepared for what's coming (and hopefully, this guide will help).

--------------------------------

Overall Note
[boss]

Please be aware that all bosses require that you either hit them with a
finisher, a limit, magic, or a square attack in order to actually defeat them.
Without doing so, they will remain at 1 HP until you do so.

--------------------------------

Legal Information
[lgl1]

This guide is Copyright (c) 2006 J. Wicken (naihanji@yahoo.com) - all rights
reserved.

This guide is intended to be free and cannot be sold, reprinted or reposted to
other websites in whole or in part without my express permission.

This Guide is not to be altered.

This game and all characters, scenarios and environments therein are Copyright
their respective owners.

This Guide is only to be posted on GAMEFAQS.com.


--------------------------------

Day 1
[day1]


*Seifer
Difficulty: 1/10
Cheese Factor: 0/10

Strategy:
This is your first battle of the game and it's very, very easy. Simply run
forward and start your combos (mash x). You should parry most of his attacks
(if not all of them) simply by striking. If he gets off his spinning attack,
gain some distance, and rush back in, timing your attack carefully. After
that, start your combo chain again. You should have no real trouble, he's a
giant wimp.




*Dusk
Difficulty: 2/10
Cheese Factor: 1/10

Strategy:
In the first stage of this battle, you will be unable to harm your opponent.
It's best to lock on, in order to keep it in view. Get close, use the Reaction
Command (Reversal) to slip behind it and try striking a few times. If he does
his zig-zag thing near the ground, gain a bit of distance, and then get back
in when he is out of it. After a few combos, you'll get a small scene where
you recieve a Keyblade. Now it's time to actually put the hurt on him.

For the second stage, use the same strategy as before, only now you actually
get to harm him. After 2-3 comboes, he will go down.

Main thing to watch out for, especially on proud mode, is getting hit at all,
as it can take about 1/5 of your life every time.


--------------------------------

Day 3
[day3]


*Giant Nobody
Difficulty: 3/10
Cheese Factor: 2/10

Note:
I fought him at level 5 on Proud Mode. I attained level 5 by repeatedly
killing the Dusks in the previous room (Station of Calling). By Re-entering
from Station of Serenity (the save point), they respawn. It only took me a few
minutes and I was able to pick up a few potions, so it was quite worth it.

Strategy:
Reaction commands are the key to victory in this battle. I'll explain them,
though they are rather simple and amount to "mash triangle when it pops up on
the command menu".

Firstly, he will pick you up and you'll be stuck in the air with your arms and
legs bound by energy. Get ready when he pops up and put his face near yours.
Start mashing Triangle for a 'Key Counter'. He will then grab you and toss you
high in the air. On the way down, hit triangle for 'Lunarsault'.

He will disappear from the battlefield for a few seconds.

Then the whole platform you're on will tip over and Roxas will jam his
Keyblade into the surface to hang on. When the enemy gathers a large ball of
energy and Roxas falls, use 'Break Raid'.

After this, the Nobody will be left with his head down, momenarily stunned.
Use this oppotunity and immediately close the distance and start comboing his
head. Get in as many attacks as you can.

Next he will rush forward and stand on his head, pushing his hands and legs
into the surface of the platform you stand on. His head is attackable but it
has a kind of energy attack around it. Start mashing triangle for reversal,
getting a hit in wherever you can. Also note that smaller nobodies are popping
out where his 'hands' and 'feet' are 'submerged'. Ignore them, as you should
easily evade their attacks with the reversal command provided by the boss.

He will then go back to standing, and he will fire a type of stringy energy
from his upper chest/neck area. Hitting reversal on this repeatedly will bring
you up to his head. When you're up there, let off combos.

He also has a more rare attack he doesn't seem to do unless he's low on HP.
He will be sort of laying and his head will glow realy bright. He then raises
into the air and spins himself into a circle. It looks scary but this actually
leaves him wide open for attack. He will start shooting that same stringy
energy from his head area, just hit reversal a bunch of times to rise up to
his head. Hit him with a combo once you're up there, hit 'Reversal' again and
repeat. You can actually stay up there for 2-3 combos if you do it right.
Given he only seems to do this when he's low on health (and I've killed him
before he could even get it off before), it's highly likely you can kill him
here.


--------------------------------

Day 4
[day4]


*Axel
Difficulty: 3/10
Cheese Factor: 2/10

Note:
You have a fight with a few nobodies just before this, so make sure to grab as
many green orbs during that battle as you can. Try not to use potions or
anything, as you may need them for the real fight against Axel.

Strategy:
Make sure to lock on immediately so you can keep him in view. He dances around
a lot and throws his blades at you, which hurt enough not to be taken lightly.
Try to keep your distance and time your attack runs wisely. He will also make
long distance lunges at you, so do your best to avoid them, jumping out of the
way. He has difficult to predict flame attacks as well. Your best bet is to,
as I said, keep your distance until you see a good opportunity for attack.

Occasionally, he will kneel on the ground, possibly in preparation of an
attack - when he does, run up and combo him as much as you can, it won't last
very long.

Overall it's a very short fight as long as you land a few combos.


--------------------------------

Day 6
[day6]


*Axel (again)
Difficulty: 4/10
Cheese Factor: 3/10

Note:
Again you're forced into a fight with some nobodies before you battle him, so
make sure to get hurt as little as possible and grab the green orbs for health
when you can. Also make sure to have your Champion Belt equipped, it will help
against his attacks. I was level 7 during this fight due to fighting my way to
the mansion. Make sure to have the Aerial Recovery ability equipped (as you
should for the rest of the game).

Strategy:
You get two key blades during this fight, which gives a very nice combo, but
does not guarantee your victory if you are sloppy.

Axel has a new suite of moves during this fight, and likes to teleport around
a lot. He will likely start the fight with an 'attack' which lights the floor
on fire. I'm not sure what effect this has, it may allow him to use certain
combos, but he does seem more prone to use non-teleportation attacks when the
floor is not on fire (this could just be observational error though, if anyone
knows the true purpose, e-mail me).

Make sure to lock on with R1 when he teleports. He will teleport to outside
the fire walls and then unleash an attack as he re-enters. When he does this,
you get a reaction command called Burst Edge, in which you leap back and toss
your keyblades at him, doing a bit of damage. If you're fast enough, you get
'Overtaker' right afterwards, which is a double keyblade combo. Right after
that, you get Clear Light, which will snuff out the floor fire. Doing this
will leave him stunned and wide open for some carnage, so take the opportunity
and give him a few good whacks.

When he isn't telelporting around he has an attack where he yells "Get back!",
rushing forward and twirling his disks with flames on them. It can hurt pretty
good but it is easily avoidable. If you hear it, just run away from your
current position in a direction away from his 'path of attack'.

He has another attack where he yells "You won't forget this!" He takes his
blades and whips them around on fire, best way to try and avoid this is to
keep airborne. Use Aerial recovery when his attack hits you. Then he will
cause some explosive force and rush past, leaving a wall of flame behind him.

Overall, he isn't really that difficult as long as you keep moving and take
advantage of your reaction commands. I only had to use one potion, and that
was because I kept pausing to write this guide (and hence was losing my
"rhythm").


--------------------------------

The Land of Dragons
[lod1]


*Shan Yu
Difficulty: 3/10
Cheese Factor: 4/10

Note:
The goal of this battle is to guard the palace gates while defeating Shan Yu.
Through the course of the battle, Shan Yu will drop orbs which can be picked
up to repair the gate. Make them a priority, because losing the gates is
losing the battle. After you max out the Gates gauge at the top of the screen,
it will be hard to lose that way so long as you continue to pick up orbs
during the fight. I was level 15 during this battle, as I leveled up for a
little while on the mountain path right before I was supposed to enter the
cave.

Strategy:
You now have access to the Limit command, so take advantage of your Limit with
Mulan, if nothing else, it's good for stopping the enemy in his tracks for a
few seconds. It's also good to get rid of the Heartless which crowd the
beginning of this battle and attack the gates. Clearing them out will make
things a lot easier on you.

During the battle, if you strike at the same time as Shan Yu, you will lock
swords. Mash triangle repeatedly for the 'Press' reaction command. If
successful, you push him back, then hit triangle again for 'Takedown'.
Takedown knocks him for a good loop, stunning him for a second or two. It's
not a long time, but it can allow you to get some good hits in if he's not too
far away.

He has a nice set of combos which can hurt pretty bad. Most especially, you'll
wanna watch out for his attack which spirals you up through the air, hitting
multiple times. It's best to try and keep your distance and time your strikes
well. If you do it well enough, you can lock swords and execute the
'Press' -> 'Takedown' combo a few times, which is the most effective and
safest way to win this fight.


--------------------------------

Beast's Castle
[bst1]


*Thresholder
Difficulty: 5/10
Cheese Factor: 6/10

Note:
Nothing special to know aside from th general strategy. I was level 16 when I
took this down.

Strategy:
First, be careful, you'll be attacked by Heartless statues (Gargoyles) and
Hookbats during this battle. Try to back away from the Guardian and take them
out as they come, they will cause big trouble while you are trying to defeat
the boss itself.

This thing has very long arms and will make no qualms about using them.
General attacks are wide, sweeping hits that affect large portions of the room
in front of it. What you wanna do is look for an opportunity to get close and
attack the keyhole between its two arms. After a good combo or two, you'll get
a reaction command 'Release'. Hit it immediately. This causes Sora to take his
Keyblade and attack the actual heartless that possesses the door. It will fly
out and bolt around the room in an erratic manner. Do your best to get a combo
or two off on it before it returns to the door.

After it's been released, takes some damage and returns to the door, the door
has a new attack which it is really fond of using. It will gather up a ball of
dark energy and shoot out several homing balls of darkness. The homing on them
is a bit sloppy, so while they can be a bit difficult to avoid, running to the
side and past them towards the door will let you evade them with a decent
chance of success. During this stage, the best time to attack is while it's
gathering its darkness. As it releases the energy, jump over the gathered
darkness, and if successful, you'll completely avoid the attack and be at the
keyhole again. This is the hardest part of the battle, as he will continue to
charge up attacks and hit you, so strike the keyhole as fast as possible and
then jump out. Hit and run attacks are the key.

Alternatively, if your MP can sustain it, standing back and shooting the
keyhole with magic also works, but you have to be up close to use 'Release'.
It took me a couple of MP bars to take the keyhole down with Blizzard. Whether
this is the safer way is questionable, it depends on how good you are at
dodging the dark energy homing things and whether or not you have an Ether on
you. If you aren't equipped with an Ether, you'll have to spend a while
dodging around waiting for MP charge.

Once you are able to execute 'Release' again, the second set of combos to its
dark form should be sufficient to kill it for good.




*Beast
Difficulty: 2/10
Cheese Factor: 1/10

Strategy:
This is an extremely simple battle. Keep your distance from the Beast while at
the same time staying near Cogsworth. The Beast himself hits pretty hard, but
if you do it right, he will hardly touch you. Next to Cogsworth, repeatedly
hit triangle for the Reaction command 'Wake Up'. Once he is very low on HP for
a few hits from 'Wake Up', you will get a message along the top. Run up to the
beast and use the 'Charge' Reaction command. Don't just hit triangle once, you
need to tap as fast as you can. If it's not enough, he regains a good amount
of health, if you do it enough, you win. It's very simple. This will be over
before you know it.




*Shadow Stalker

Note:
This boss has two forms, try not to use any healing items on the first form,
as you'll really need them for the second. I'll note their individual
difficulties and Cheese Factors below.

Strategy:

Stage 1:
Difficulty: 4/10
Cheese Factor: 3/10

This Heartless can possess basically anything in the room, so keep on your
guard and keep a close eye on what it's doing. I'll do my best to cover
everything. It's a good idea to try and keep a target lock on it at all times,
though it can prove to be problematic. This battle is all about casting it out
of various objects around the room and then putting the hurt on its true form.
Any time you cast it out of something, do your best to get off as much damage
on the floaty, chained up ball which is its true form.

Firstly, it has an attack where it possesses the far windows, then shoots
walls of fire towards the opposite end of the room. Do your best to avoid this
attack by running in between the walls of fire, you will have very little
warning though.

Another thing it likes to do is possess the chandalier, which drops down and
spins in a circle once, firing short range beams of energy. Staying out of
the center of the room is a good way to avoid this. Once it is done firing,
run up to it and destroy it's small lifebar, then use the Reaction 'Release'
to excorsize it.

It also has an attack that causes the floor to swallow you and spit you out,
it doesn't hurt very much but it is extremely difficult to predict, as you
have only a very short warning in the form of a light which shines under your
feet about a second before it happens. Jumping might have a chance to avoid it
but I have not been successful. I have never been very good at timing, so it's
possible I'm just way too slow.

It will also possess the pillars around the room, causes them to thrash about,
when you see the pillars change, get away from them. Use lock on to find the
one pillar where the enemy resides, go up to it, beat it's short life bar and
then use the Reaction command 'Release' to cast it out of the pillars.

Once you destroy its true form, the enemy switches to Form 2.


Stage 2:
Difficulty: 6/10
Cheese Factor: 5/10

This Form is very, very fast and is invisible much of the time. Be on your
guard. Utilizing your Limit with Beast while you have a target lock is
extremely helpful and will knock down a good chunk of its HP.

It has a nice set of very nasty combos. One of his attacks will spin you
around in a circle and fling you across the room. Keeping your distance is the
best way to avoid this attack.

He has another attack where he spins around in a circle wildly and then lunges
at you striking several times (it only seems to do this while it's invisible).
Running and jumping out of the way helps a lot here.

In another, he will jam his fist into the ground and he will summon other,
lesser Heartless. I generally ignored these and let my party take care of
them.

He also likes to jump onto the chandalier and swing it around wildly, this is
the easiest of his attacks to avoid by far as long as you keep your eye on
him.

While it's invisible, you can use a set of reaction commands. First, near the
center of the room, 'Step Vault' will fling you to the ceiling, then, 'Catch'
will land you on top of the chandalier, bringing it down. Them 'Pendulum Rod'
will make Sora swing the chandalier around, striking the enemy and flinging
him into one of the pillars. This will make him temporarily visible.

Once he's visible, do your best to keep your distance and only strike when
you're sure you can land a decent combo. Like said above, he is very, very
fast and hits pretty hard. If you used a lot of healing items in the first
round, it's possible you will have a hard time here.

My primary recommendation is to keep your distance and wait for MP charge and
then use Twin Howl with Beast again, making him visible as necessary. Valor
form with Goofy is possible, and has the chance to deal a lot of damage, but
if you choose to go that route be careful. If you switch Donald into the
party, Wisdom form could help a lot, as it uses long distance attacks. I
attacked him once like this myself and it helped a good deal. Remember that
entering a Drive Form heals you. Overall remember this is a defensive battle,
going on the offensive (close up that is) has, for the most part, a tendency
to get you knocked on your rear.. hard.


--------------------------------

Olympus Coliseum
[oly1]


*Hades
Difficulty: 5/10
Cheese Factor: 8/10

Note:
He gets a high cheese factor because he's completely invincible. This barely
qualifies as a boss battle, but I'm including it anyways. He has two stages,
which I have used an overall rating for.

Strategy:

Stage 1:
Try and attack him a couple times, you'll notice he is totally invincible.
Just avoid any attacks he throws and keep your distance if possible. This
lasts about 10-15 seconds so no further strategy is really needed.

Stage 2:
This is a tiered battle with several stages of Heartless as Hades hovers
nearby like a really large and powerful bug throwing attacks at you here and
there. What you really wanna do is wipe out the Heartless ahead of you as fast
as possible. You can;'t use Drive Forms here, but you can use limits. Use
Auron's limit as often as you feel appropriate, unless you feel your MP would
be better going to Cure or attack magic spells, it's up to you.

This recieved a 5 point difficulty rating because, while you are just fighting
normal Heartless, as said above Hades is just flying around like an annoying
insect throwing crap at you. It's really not that tough, just keep your eye on
him and avoid his attacks (which isn't all that difficult at this point) until
you reach the end.
The main attack he uses is a fireball, he says "Feel the heat!" right before
he does it. It is extremely easy to avoid. You should actually evade most of
his attacks simply because you are moving around so much while killing lesser
Heartless.




*Cerberus
Difficulty: 4/10
Cheese Factor: 1/10

Note:
Just you and Auron here.

Strategy:
This dog's bark is a lot worse than his bite. He has several attacks. Some of
them can be painful but for the most part, it's not too bad since they are
ridiculously easy to evade.

In the beginning of the fight he will stand still and gnash his teeth much of
the time, take this opportunity, along with Auron, to unleash as many combos
as you can. Some of his gnashing seems stronger and more aggressive, so be on
the lookout.

He has a leaping attack which is very easy to avoid, he may start out with it.
Simply run to the side and jump to avoid the shockwave. He will rear his heads
back and roar right before this, so it's very easy to predict.

He also has a spinning attack, where he spins in a quick circle. It's pretty
easy to predict as well. He will rear his heads back, roar then gnash his
teeth wildly and then execute the spin. It hurts, but not too badly. Still
best to try and avoid it.

Once you get him down to his second HP bar (or thereabouts), he will start
using an attack where each head will start spitting balls of dark energy in
succession. They pop forward ahead of him in an arc and then start homing, but
they are also very easy to avoid as their homing cababilities are quite
limited. Don't get hit by it though, as it does hurt pretty good.

There is a chance, that while comboing his heads, you will be caught between
them. This happens as he is readying for one of his attacks, and his two outer
heads clash together real fast. If you time it right, you can do this on
purpose, which is quite nice given the benefits of its execution. First use
the 'Evade' Reaction command to climb out from between his heads, then use
'Jump' to leap above him then 'Dog Paddle' to give him a good whack. This will
leave him momentarily stunned on the ground and wide open for a good whoopin',
so close in and combo like crazy.

Taking advantage of your Cure spell along with Auron's great attacks, the
Reaction to knock him out and typically easy to avoid attacks on his part,
this should be a very short battle with a minimum of damage taken.




*Demyx
Difficulty: 1/10
Cheese Factor: 0/10

Note:
The object here is not to attack Demyx himself, but his Water Forms. This is
also extremely easy.

Strategy:
This is actually an easy battle by itself, but you're battling time as well,
so work fast. You have a minute and twenty seconds (1:20) to destroy 100 of
his Water Forms. The best and only real strategy here is to just go balls to
the walls and start attacking. Quite often, you'll see a Reaction called
'Wild Dance'. This Reaction will make Sora grab one of the forms and swing it
around, destroying several other Forms. Take full advantage of this and use it
as often as possible. Overall, very simple, just swing away and 'Wild Dance'
at every chance. This battle will be over very, very fast. It's highly likely
you'll come in well under the 1:20 mark.




*Pete
Difficulty: 3/10
Cheese Factor: 1/10

Note:
Your objective is to defeat Pete while protecting Meg. She has a life bar so
try and keep the lesser Heartless accompanying him (primarily very weak ones
like Hookbats and a Soldier here and there)away from her. Using the 'Batcry'
Reaction command is advantageous, as you can hit Pete with it too. Also be
aware, you have your drive ability back in the Underworld.

Strategy:
Number one priority, as stated above is to keep the Heartless off of Meg. If
she dies, you lose.

Pete himself has very few actual attacks and they are pretty easy to evade.

He has an attack where he tosses an explosive ball like he's bowling which has
a mild homing effect. Just jump out of the way to avoid it. This attack can
also be bounced back with a well timed strike against the ball with Sora's
Keyblade.

He also has an attack where he yells "Get out of my way!" and slams his fists
down in front of him, creating a shockwave on the ground. If you hear him say
this, simply jump. The Shockwave also has a pretty short range compared to
other boss shockwave attacks.

He has one more short range attack where he swings his fists around wildly,
dealing mild-moderate damage depending on how much of it you take.

He will also turn himself temporarily invincible, but it doesn't last long.

When there are no Heartless around, just pound on Pete and avoid his attacks
as necessary. You can also use Drives or limits if you feel it necessary. He
only has one life bar and apparently very little defense, as it drops really
fast. This fight won't last long if you manage to keep the Heartless off of
Meg and smack Pete around when he's the only target.




*Pete (again)
Difficulty: 3/10
Cheese Factor: 1/10

Note:
Timed battle, you have 2 minutes to defeat Pete and he is accompanied by
several Heartless, some of which are much less of pushovers than the last
battle with him. Hercules also joins you in this battle, though not as a party
member, just a participant.

Strategy:
He has the same attacks as last time, except he's a lot more aggressive and
you have to watch out for a lot more Heartless as you battle him. He also has
more HP. Do your best to disregard the Heartless and keep moving and attacking
Pete. You're fighting the clock and Pete's cheap enough this time for you to
fail the timer if you aren't aggressive enough.

When he turns invincible (which he likes to do a lot), get close and use the
'Pinball' Reaction command. This will fling him at Hercules, who will pop him
a good one on the chin and break his barrier. After that, proceed to smack him
around.

You also have a Reaction next to Hercules called "Aura Guard, which causes him
to use his demi-god powers to create a shield in the immediate vicinity. While
a nice touch, I didn't find it all that useful. I suppose it could help if you
find yourself in a pinch.

Once again, Pete's defense seems to be really low, as he can be taken down
with only a few combos. When you have the chance, lay into him and don't stop
until you're forced to. Drives are at your disposal, so if you feel the need
to use Drive, don't hesitate. This is a pretty quick and easy battle,
regardless of the carnage that's happening around you. He should be defeated
in no time. I had him down in 45 seconds.




*Hydra
Difficulty: 3/10
Cheese Factor: 3/10

Note:
This is primarily a Reaction based fight with some comboing thrown in. Try to
keep a target lock at all times when he has his head high in the air above
you. Also remember to "GET UP ON THE HYDRA'S BACK!" You'll know what I'm
talking about soon enough.

Strategy:
One of his main attacks when the battle begins involves swinging his tail
around, which has a wide area of effect. Best way to avoid it is to try and
jump out of it's way but there is very little warning that it will be coming.

He will also swing his head around, causing dark fire to shoot up from the
ground directly below him. Just stay out from under his head, keeping an eye
on him via target lock and you can easily avoid this. As he is doing this, he
will occasionally bring his head to ground level. Take this opportunity to lay
into him with combos. I recommend air combos here, as they seem to execute a
lot quicker. Just watch out for the fire jets from the ground as you're doing
this.

When he finished the above attack, you can get close to his neck and use the
Reaction 'Vanquish' to cut his head off.

At this point, he will slump over and according to Phil, you'll want to "GET
UP ON THE HYDRA'S BACK!" Do so by going near his tail, jumping up and running
forward along him. On one of his spikes, you'll get a Reaction named
'Phil One-Two'. Hit this and Phil will toss an Urn to Sora. Another Reaction
will show up, called 'Urninator', which will make Sora slam the Urn into the
Hydra's back. Sora will then fall to the ground in front of the Hydra as three
heads have popped up from the ground.

The previous Reaction will have rendered them dazed, so head to the nearest
one and unlesh combos on it's very short life bar, ending with the 'Vanquish'
Reaction. Do this to all three heads and the Hydra will pull out of the ground
revealing that it now has about 7 heads in total.

The Hydra now has an attack that summons a ball of dark energy (outlined in
red). This will cause several fast moving homing projectiles to shoot out of
the ground. Jumping around and running past them at a perpendicular course
will help you avoid them, but as I said, they are very fast.

At this stage, the Hydra will occasional lower one or two of its heads as its
others attack. Target any head that comes down and combo away, doing your best
to avoid its other attacks.

It will also use the 'Dark Flare' attack from it's first, single head form
(where it causes dark flames to shoot up from the ground) but this time it's
a lot more difficult to predict. Running in a straightline will typically
cause them to erupt behind you as you move.

It's other attack involves its heads gnashing about and striking aggressively
at the ground (i.e. Sora and his friends). Your best bet when it does this is
to get just within range of its center head (it may work for others, but this
is what I do) and use the Reaction command that appears, 'Pegasus Run'.
Pegasus will swoop out of nowhere and Sora will jump on its back. Pegasus will
then make several flybys of the Hydras heads, where you will get a Reaction
command simply titled 'Attack'. You can use this command several times, so I
suggest mashing triangle repeatedly once Sora mounts the Pegasus. After the
attack run, Pegasus will let Sora down on the ground in front of the Hydra.

Once you've taken the Hydra's lifebar all the way down, it's heads will fall
back. At this point, run up to its neck, where all 7 heads join up and execute
the Reaction 'Vanquish' to win the battle.

Overall, a very easy battle if the right precautions are made. Most of it's
attacks are very easy to evade and there are some helpful reactions to play 
with here. This is more of a boss battle to show off reactions and in general
be more fun than challenging.

--------------------------------

Disney Castle
[dis1]


*Protect the Queen
Difficulty: 1/10
Cheese Factor: 0/10

Note:
While not technically a boss fight, I thought this was deserving of a
strategy.

Strategy:
The idea here is to protect Queen Minnie as you escort her to the front of the
Audience Chamber. After agreeing to take her, exit to the Collonade, this is
where it all begins. You will see that Queen Minnie has a "damage" bar. If
that fills up, you lose. You will wanna keep the heartless away from her as
much as possible.

Minnie will not automatically follow you. While a few feet from her, you'll
get a Reaction called 'Call Over'. This will have her run up to you, but it
doesn't seem to work from too great a distance. You'll want to stay pretty
close to her anyways. While right next to her, you get a Reaction called
'Faith', which is a moderately powerful shockwave attack with a very long
range that has an heavy knockback effect, throwing enemies far away from her.
You'll want to take full advantage of this capability.

Anyhow, in the Collonade, you will encounter lesser Heartless, such as
Shadows. Using 'Faith' will destroy almost everything in the Collonade with
just a hit or two. It makes it very easy for you to keep her safe. Just inch
your way along the hall, calling her as necessary, and if anything spawns, run
up to the Queen and hit 'Faith' once or twice. About halfway to the door, the
the flying pillar Heartless (Bolt Tower) will start to spawn. These will be
knocked far down the hall out of range and each shot from 'Faith' will take
about 1/3 of their HP.

Once you reach the door, you get a cutscene where Queen Minnie unlocks the
door. When you're ready, head inside.

In the Audience Chamber, there are a LOT of Bolt Towers, and they will do
their best to flood towards you. Just hit 'Faith' Over and over again. It's
not fast, but it's effective. As you see the opportunity, move towards the
far end of the room. I cannot stress enough how useful 'Faith' is in this
room. If you let it go too long, the Bolt Towers will swarm and have a good
chance of killing Minnie, you, or both of you. I was able to 'Call Over',
'Faith','Call Over', 'Faith',ad naseum all the way down the carpet. By the
time I was 2/3 the way there, everything was dead.

When you reach the throne, you get the 'Finish' Reaction command, which
behaves exactly like 'Faith'. Every time I do this part of the game, I get to
the throne with everything already dead and Minnie in perfect health, but I
can only assume this will destroy anything left in the room. This Reaction
will also end the sequence and start a cutscene.

Easy as pie.

--------------------------------

Timeless River
[rvr1]


*Past Pete
Difficulty: 1/10
Cheese Factor: 0/10

Strategy:
Extremely easy battle. He has very few attacks, and spends most of the fight
running away from you. Hitting him with a good combo will knock him for a
loop, and when he lands a shockwave will shoot outwards. After that, you get a
Reaction called 'About-Face' which seems to throw him a few feet away. It was
very difficult for me to tell. Regardless, this fight will be over very fast.
Basic strategy is to combo him and keep comboing him, he will be defeated in
very short order.




*Pete
Difficulty: 5/10
Cheese Factor: 7/10

Note:
The point of this fight is actually to break the cage and free the Cornerstone
before Pete escapes (this is essentially a timed battle, the timer being a
graphic of his boat up at the top right slowly moving across a meter). Cheese
Factor and Difficulty level earned due to highly dangerous Heartless spawns
caused by a single missed button press.

Strategy:
Pete will start off by hurling objects at you from the boat. Just get in front
of one and you get the Reaction 'Juggle Parry'. This causes Sora to knock the
object into the air, then use the Reaction Overhand to return the gift to Pete
 After doing this a few times, Pete and his boat are knocked around and end up
by the shore a short distance away. Quickly run up to the boat and use the
Reaction 'Grab On' just under the hook. This will swing you over to the box
where the Cornerstone is. Start striking it with combos but watch out. After a
short time the Reaction 'Hang On' appears, quickly hit triangle and the hook
will swing back around.

If you fail, you'll wind up back on the shore. Heartless will spawn and the
hook will stop swinging while you are forced to deal with them. They are the
bomb heartless and are very dangerous to a player on Proud mode, so they can't
simply be ignored. If one of these explodes near you, it's half your health,
and they come in threes, so dispatch them as quickly as possible. They also
have a Reaction command 'Dodge Roll' which is executable just before they
blow, but it's easier for me to either destroy them or get the **** out of
the way. You'll have to wait for the boat to float along for a while until
Pete wakes up and starts throwing stuff again, at which point you need to
start the process over again.

Also notr that I believe Pete will wake up anyways after the boat has floated
a while, but you'll probably destroy the box long before this happens if you
do things right.

Anyways, once you use 'Hang On', and are swung away from it, you'll quickly be
swung back to the box. You'll want to continue comboing the box as much as
possible and hitting triangle for the Reaction any time it comes up. The box
doesn't have a whole lot of HP (a bit over one bar and low defense), so it
will go down pretty fast as long as you can keep your combos up and stay
attached to the hook.




*Pete (how much does this guy like getting beat up by Sora anyways?)
Difficulty: 6/10
Cheese Factor: 6/10

Note:
Past Pete will be fighting alongside you, but he is of limited use. This
battle is about paying close attention to what's going on and playing
defensively.

Strategy:
He has all the same attacks as he did back at Olympus, but he is a lot more
agressive and hits a lot harder, so look out. He also has about twice the HP,
totallying about 2.9 full HP bars. He is a lot, lot more dangerous, so you
need to fight defensively.

He has one new attack in his arsenal, which is to throw out a bunch of small
orbs which at first appear to be HP or Munny related, but in actuality will
explode if you touch them. They will self destruct after a short time, so
avoid them until they do.

The basic idea here is to keep your distance until you see a good opportunity
to attack then rush in and lay into him with as many combos as you can get off
Air combos work pretty good here, and I also recommend the use of limits to
wittle at his HP bar if you feel you can spare the MP away from Cure spells.

Remember that his Bowling Ball attack can be bounced back relatively easily
and while not hurting him huch, better him than you.

Using the 'About-Face' Reaction on Past Pete will typically hurl him towards
Present Pete, which can stun him for a slight moment, enough to start a combo
chain. If you get hit, it will be hard, so keep a close eye on your HP,
healing as necessary. Hit and run attacks are a must, and keep a look out for
his long range attacks (such as his explosive bowling ball).

He likes to leap around a lot, and land normall instead of causing a shockwave.
This is the perfect opportunity to get in a few well-timed air combos, as this
leaves him wide open.

Something he will do every so often (possibly dependant on how much damage he
has taken) is switch the scenery. Each area has different, unique hazards. The
Fire at the burning building can really hurt and adds another element to your
evasion of damage, so be on the lookout. He actually appears to be able to
call it at you at will. On the Construction Site level (the platform suspended
on a rope) he will cause everyone to bounce high in the air. You can actually
use this to great advantage, by getting close to him and using the Reaction
'Air Slash' while in mid-air. 'Air Slash' causes him quite a good bit of
damage.

This may turn into a difficult battle, but keep on your toes, pay close
attention to him (target lock is probably a good idea), take advantage of his
weaknesses, and you will prevail.

--------------------------------

Port Royal
[prt1]


*Barbossa
Difficulty: 4/10
Cheese Factor: 6/10

Note 1:
Jack Sparrow is forced into your party for this battle and it seems you can
lose if he is knocked out during the course of the battle, though this has
only happened to me once. Just watch his HP bar. If it gets too low, get
close to him and cast Cure.

Note 2:
There are two ways to kill him, one of which will raise YOUR Cheese Factor to
10/10 :) I'll cover them both.

Strategy:
First thing's first, like all cursed pirates, Barbossa is invincible in the
darkness, out of the moonlight. Immediately, you'll see a heartless attach
itself to a wall and cover the place in darkness. Run around the perimeter
until you find it and then kill it. It's eyes glow through the darkness from
decently far away, so it's not hard to spot. It can also move, very quickly,
so be prepared to chase it. The darkness will lift and Barbossa will be open
to attack once it's dead. Several times during the fight, the Heartless will
come back, each time, do the same, or you won't be able to lay a finger on
Barbossa.

Also, like all cursed pirates, he is extremely vulnerable to magic. Casting
Blizzard on him will freeze him in place for a moment, allowing you to get
easy combos in. This is actually the best strategy throughout the fight:
freeze him and whack him to bits. It makes things extremely simple. If you
don't keep him frozen, he has some very cheesy moves, so you've been warned.

For those caught off guard and unable to get a freeze on him, or those simply
looking for more of a challenge, I'll explain some less magically inclined
tactics below and tell you about the attacks he is able to execute towards you
and your party.

Be warned, Barbossa's main combo can deal massive amounts of damage and juggle
you for 2-3 hits. Run in and then quickly duck out of his range. Hopefully,
this will get him to execute a combo and miss. Likewise, you can wait for him
to combo one of your party members. Either way, as he is finishing the combo,
run in and start a combo chain of your own. Near the beginning of the battle,
he has terrible recovery time (it seems to improve as the battle goes on) and
you should be able to get in several combos before he hits you and throws you
back. When he does, use Aerial Recovery, move off and repeat.

Stay aware that while the darkness causing Heartless may be gone, there are
still patches of darkness in the cave which will render him invincible. The
best thing to do when he is in the dark patches is to run far away so your
party members follow you. When he exits the darkness, chasing you, quickly run
up to him and use the same method of landing combos I mentioned above.

For one attack, he will say "Blast ye to bits!" and throw bombs which are easy
to avoid.

He also has another attack, a quick dash, which hits you hard and throws you
airborne. He also has a habit of doing it several times in a row. More so as
the fight goes on.

During the fight, you may find yourself with a Reaction command while Barbossa
is about to launch a powerful rushing attack at you. Called 'Twin Counter', it
causes Jack to swing Sora around, who then strikes Barbossa, knocking him down
and leaving him open for attack for a couple of seconds tops.

Another Reaction you get is 'Land', which causes Sora to step on Barbossa's
sword, pinning it to the ground. This is followed quickly by 'Reverse Blade',
which causes Sora to bring his Keyblade up to Barbossa's chin, once again,
knocking him flat on his rear.

I highly recommend the "freeze-kill" route as it makes things much simpler,
but if you're wanting a challenge, don't use any magic other than cure and
fight him on his terms. Just remember that Barbossa can do massive damage so
play as defensively as possible if you choose to fight him this way. Taking
advantage of the reaction commands is key, and can save your hide. Overall,
while he is a bit cheesy in his ability to almost endlessly combo if you let
him, you are able to interrupt him and wail on him for a large amount of HP.
Using a Drive Form may come in quite handy here if you are careful with it. I
don't recommend using Limits or Summons, as you need your MP to heal the
ridiculous damage he will inflict upon you and Jack when you least expect it.

--------------------------------

Agrabah
[agb1]


*Blizzard Lord & Volcanic Lord
Difficulty: 3/10
Cheese Factor: 6/10

Note:
You have two targets here, a Fire based Heartless and a Water based Heartless.
This is also a Reaction based battle for the most part. Cheese Factor earned
due to attacks which are essentially unavoidable.

Strategy:
Both of these Heartless are very slow a times, take full advantage by
pummeling them with combos. When they have taken a certain amount of damage,
they pop, revealing several lesser, elemental Heartless. Destroy them quickly
and get them out of the way. When they are all destroyed, the Heartless who
spawned them will return.

As for Fire, one of his attacks is to bounce around wildly. Watch out for
environmental hazards, specifically, there will be fires lit on the ground
wherever the Fire Lord bounces and stepping on them will hurt. When it jumps
near Sora, use the Reaction 'Firagun'. This will cause Sora to swing him
around and fling him at the Water Heartless.

He also has an attack which will summon a row of fire balls and then send them
at you. They are super fast and home in on you very well, don't count on
evading these. Their damage is moderate and controllable most of the time, but
be ready with the heals.

The Water Lord has an attack which will cause ice crystals to form around you
and then ram into you. It seems basically impossible to avoid but it does
moderate, controllable damage, much like the Fire Lord's fireball attack.

It can also freeze people. I haven't been frozen myself, but I have had my
party members frozen several times. They come out of it after a few seconds.

When the Water Lord is rearing up for an attack which causes a wall of ice to
form around it for pretty decent damage, you can move in close to use the
Reaction 'Blizzagun', which will cause Sora to swing it around and smash it
into the Fire Lord.

In the end, this is actually a pretty easy fight. They have some very cheesy
moves and fly around out of range quite a bit (most especially the Water
Lord), but have low HP for bosses at this stage in the game and do fairly
weak damage for bosses at this stage in the game too. In all likelyhood, you
will make mincemeat of these two in less than a minute. Just avoid their
attacks, then combo, kill the small ones when they pop and repeat. They will
go down faster than you can say "that was a fight?"

--------------------------------

Halloween Town
[hwn1]


*Prison Keeper
Difficulty: 3/10
Cheese Factor: 3/10

Strategy:
Very easy fight. He has a lot of health. This boss moves about in an erratic
manner using various combos which do moderate damage. At the start of this
battle, it's very easy to jump up there and let loose air combo on him,
interrupting his attacks. Best tactic here is to just attack with as many
combos as you can get off and wait for Reaction commands to appear.

After he takes some damage, you will get the Reaction 'Inside Combo' which
deals a bit of damage to him and then leaves you hanging. I'm not sure exactly
what it does beyond a simple combo to be honest, if anyone knows, please
e-mail me.

After you've taken his HP down some, he will go through a slight
transformation, then start with a couple of new attacks. With one, he swings
his claws around wildly in a wide area (leaving glowing streaks), inhibiting
your ability to get close in order to land combos.

Another attack of his involves his fingertips glowing, then shooting balls
of energy that pepper the ground below him as he spins, just moving away from
him to avoid these attacks doesn't work so great, as they have a very wide
area of effect and he will slowly follow you. This attack actually lasts a
good ten seconds, and is devastating if you're in range and get hit multiple
times. He will probably execute this attack several times in a row. While he
is doing this, try to dodge the balls of energy and work your way up the
curved hill in the center. Once high enough, leap off and strike at him with a
mid-air combo to interrupt him. Once, you start, do not relent unless you're
forced to. This part of the battle is really the hardest, so as long as you
can damage him enough to get him to change forms (I believe that's what causes
the transofrmations), you're basically in the clear.

He will then transform again, this time, he will have an attack where he
gathers up fire and shoots a massive ball of it at you. These have little to
no homing capability, so run towards him and dodge the balls of fire by
running past them at perpendicular arcs. This should allow you to get close
to him rather fast, at which point you should resume the onslaught of combos.

Alternatively, if you time it right, you can actually strike these balls of
fire and send them right back at him, taking a nice lil chunk of his HP and
stunning him for a second or two, opening an opportunity for you to attack.

Watch out when you're close to him, for he can unleash a quick spinning
attack, which has a powerful knock back that will fling you a good 15 feet and
take a decent section of your HP bar.

Another transformation causes him to have a green fire around him. He is a lot
faster and his attacks get a bit more aggressive, but he is still using the
balls of flame, so smacking them back at him is a good idea, given it stuns
him for a second or two. His main tactic at this stage is to actually run away
from you and shoot these fireballs, so sending them back really is your best
bet here.

The problem with this form is that he's so fast, he can back away from your
air combos before they complete. Though it may amount more to luck than skill,
try and work him into a corner, where there's nowhere to run. With a few more
combos landed, he wil be defeated.

Though this boss is very aggressive, especially near the end, with most of his
attacks being easily evaded, the ability to use his own attacks against him
and his predisposition to leave himself wide open to attack make this a quick
and relatively easy battle. Drives will probably simplify it further, just be
careful of Anti-form if you've been activated drives a lot. Summons or Limits
could also help. It's up to you, just remember that Limits and Summons are
almost always a tradeoff for your MP bar that could be used for healing unless
you are the kind that usually packs Ether instead of Potions (though I hardly
had to heal during this battle).




*Oogie Boogie
Difficulty: 3/10
Cheese Factor: 2/10

Strategy:
You'll find yourself on the central of 3 conveyor belts. Make sure to stay
away from the back end (where the conveyor is taking you), as it is lined with
sharp spikes and will hurt you.

Oogie is on a platform ahead of you, above the conveyor, you'll need to bring
him down in order to damage him. I'll cover that in a moment, but first I need
to mention that at certain points during the battle, Oogie's platform will
move right or left to be above a different conveyor and Heartless will begin
to spawn on the conveyor you're on. To get to the other conveyor, head up to
the openings where the presents pop out. When two are blue (the one you're at
and your destination), use the Reaction 'Move Left', 'Move Right', or 'Move
Center' to reach the conveyor you need to be on to continue your assault.
Anyways, on with the battle itself.

Presents will be popping out of the aforementioned hole at the front of the
conveyor, above which Oogie sits on his parch. Run up to the presents and hit
the Reaction 'Fore!' to smack them up at Oogie. After several hits, Oogie will
fall off and land on the conveyor. When he does, move in and unleash as many
combos as you can before he returns to the perch. At this point, he will
almost always move the perch to another conveyor. As explained above, move to
follow him and repeat the process.

It should be noted that be can move during the normal operations, without
being knocked down first.

It should also be noted that while he is returning to his perch, the conveyors
will move quite rapidly and will smack you into the spikes if you're not
careful. Best thing to do is jump forward several times, staying airborne
while this is happening is your best defense here.

While you are trying to send presents up at him, he can unleash a variety of
attacks to make your life harder.

One of them is a giant gloved fist which will come down from the ceiling and
pound the conveyor, moving from front to back (from near Oogie, to behind you
near the spikes). This hits very, very hard (took almost 1/3 of my HP), but is
easily avoided. Wait for it to hit the ground and then quickly run forward and
jump over it. Takes careful timing at first, but you'll quickly get the hang
of it.

Some of the presents he sends will contain Heartless. You'll know these
instantly because you cannot preform 'Fore!' on them, so get ready to dispatch
a Heartless if you see one of these. Aside from trick boxes, you will also see
purple bags. These will always contain Heartless in my experience.

Once you've taken his life down some, he will also start using a lightning
attack. Several streams of lightning will emenate vertically from above the
conveyor and move backwards towards the spikes, zig zagging a bit as they go.
They are a lot more predictable than I make it sound, these are his easiest
attacks to dodge, but last several seconds. These hurt moderately. Individual
hits are very weak but once you get hit, the same bolt will generally juggle
you for 2-3 hits.

In the end, the Heartless contained in the presents are the most dangerous
thing about this battle, and everything else Oogie does is easily dodged. As
long as you keep lobbing presents, avoiding the very easily avoidable
obstacles and paying attention to where he moves, this will be another short
and easy win.

--------------------------------

Pride Lands
[prl1]


*Hyenas
Difficulty: 1/10
Cheese Factor: 0/10

Note:
The point of this battle is to protect Timon and Puumba.

Strategy:
Pumbaa has a damage meter at the top, if it fills, you lose. It fills as the
Hyenas attack him.

That said, this battle is extremely simple and easy.

The Hyenas have about 1.6 life bars but you, as Lion Sora, are extremely fast
and can deal a lot of damage very quickly. Take advantage of that. The Hyenas
will run around the room and can be hard to catch up with if you target a
specific one and follow him, but I don't recommend this. Try and stay near
Puumba and attack whichever Hyena comes nearby with a nice string of combos.

Better yet, you have a Reaction with Puumba, called 'Call Over'. This causes
Puumba to feign fear, calling out for Sora, but draws Hynenas to him. Once you
hit 'Call Over', start hitting X. It's perfectly possible to get more then one
Hyena at a time caught in your combo if you get them close enough together.

Overall, very simple and easy battle. Puumba's life bar should hardly take any
damage and don't be surprised if you win in under 20 seconds. It's hardly what
I call a boss fight, but it is presented as one, so it's here.




*Scar
Difficulty: 4/10
Cheese Factor: 3/10

Note:
Simba is forced into your party for this fight.

Strategy:
Scar is very flashy, but that's about it. Keep in mind this is an extremely
high speed battle. Difficulty may end up depending on your reaction time.

His mainly attacks to begin with consist of dashing around, and using his
claws (leaving streaks) in a small area around him. He can also cause
lightning to strike around him. These attacks hit for mild to moderate damage,
I was easily able to withstand them. It's pretty safe to attack him while he's
doing this, since he is easily interrupted.

Once you take him down a good amount of HP, he has a larger attack, where he
stands still and darkness is summoned around him in a large area. This will
hurt moderately and have a decent knock back effect. After he does this, he
will be "glowing" with darkness and become much, much quicker. He will run
around the area several times. If he hits you, it hurts bad, so your best bet
is to try and avoid him with dashing of your own (square button while running)
while he's doing this. He will return to normal after a few rounds.

He has another attack where he will light on fire and start leaping around,
just like above, do your best to avoid him while he's doing this. Jumping,
as opposed to dashing, is a better way to avoid these fire attacks.

In the end, avoid him when he turns to darkness or fire and when he reverts,
lay into him with your high speed combos, doing your best to keep him off his
feet. He has a lot of HP, but it goes real fast.

--------------------------------

Space Paranoids
[spc1]


*Hostile Program
Difficulty: 6/10
Cheese Factor: 7/10

Strategy:
First thing's first, you have a cluster guage at the top of the screen. Every
time you strike the boss, it drops these. More on this in a minute (it's
marked below with [**]).

This boss will do it's best to keep away from you, darting about qucikly and
keeping to the outer edges of the room.

It has almost five total lifebars, so if you're having a bad time, it could
turn into a long fight.

He has several attacks at his disposal, and most are easily dodgable if you
are more than a few feet away from him.

Firstly, he has a gatling gun attack whcih spreads energy bolts in a large
area in front off him. If you get too close, he can lock onto you and fire
directly at you instead of using spread fire. Each hits for pretty low damage
but if you get hit by several, it can really sting.

He has a melee attack which has an incredible knockback effect, throwing you
across the room, he uses it more frequently as the battle goes on, so be
careful when you get close to him.

He will also gather energy on his appendages and then fire balls of dark
energy. These will fly through the air in a strange manner. They will travel a
few feet, stop, pulse, then travel a few more, seemingly correcting course to
home in on Sora. You can strike these to get rid of them, but the part you
actually hit seems to be a pretty small target, so I don't advise it, you're
more likely to just get yourself hurt. Eventually they will dissipate and are
extremely easy to avoid - a good thing because they can take a decent
percentage of your HP.

[**]When he is firing these homing energy attacks is the best time to move in
on him. Run past them (they are slow, but keep an eye on them if you can) and
start comboing the boss itself. As you do, as I mentioned above, he will drop
clusters. As you collect these, you fill the Clusters Guage up at the top of
the screen. When it's full (it fills pretty fast) you get a reaction called
'Freeze'. Immediately take advantage of this. Doing so will cause Sora to rise
up and shoot the boss with his Keyblade, emptying the Clusters Gauge and
temporarily stunning the boss.

Quickly move in and unleash the Power of the Keyblade (i.e., smack the hell
out of him as much as you can before he unfreezes).

After a certain amount of damage, he will gain new attacks and actions.

First, his energy ball attack is upgraded. While he will continue to fire just
two at a time, he can sit there and fire several, I believe up to 8, so watch
out. I have also seen smaller energy lights fly upwards and arc away, but they
never came down, so either I'm missing something, or they are for show. If you
know what's up with this, please e-mail me.

He now has an action where he sort of transforms, becomes stationary and fires
a red beam into the sky for several seconds. This doesn't hurt you, but it
heals him, so move in and combo him to help dull his healing and collect some
easy clusters.

He can also transform and use a rocket to fly quickly around the perimeter of
the room. It's extremely easy to avoid - if you see him do this, move away
from the outer edges of the room. If you get hit by it, expect to see about
25-30% of your HP disappear.

After you freeze him and deal out even more damage, he will gain yet another
attack. This time he will shoot long, thing laser beams which have extreme
range. He can use them in several ways.

First he can slowly sweep them across the room, one low, one high. This part
is easy to avoid, just hop over the lower one and stay away from the higher
one.

The second is more erratic and less predictable. He will rise up and start
angling them wildly around the room. I can't give very good advice here, just
stay out of the way best you can, keep moving.

Thirdly, he will rise up in the center of the room. This is the most
dangerous form of this attack, it can be outright devastating so keep on your
toes. He will point them directly as the ground and they will spin around him.
As they spin, the beams' contact points will move from directly under the boss
to the outher edges of the room. Stay on the outside and jump when the beams
reach the other edges. After that, they will change up, one beam going
horizontal, the other vertical. The horizontal one will spin low to the
ground, so when the beam comes your way, try to jump over it.

This is the most difficult part of the fight, as the boss has essentially gone
ape**** .. with LASERS.

The best time to move in for an attack is when he is doing the first and
second versions of the above attack. For the first, you can simply op over the
lower one and move in from the side, unleashing combos. For the second, you
can get close to him by dodging back and forth while moving towards him, just
keep your eye on the lasers at all costs.

It should be noted that the Wisdom Form DriVe Mode will unleash some serious
hurt in this stage of the battle, as you can quickly strafe back and forth,
avoiding the lasers and dishing out some hardcore magic damage. I highly
recommend it.

In short, the first part of this battle is extremely easy, then when he gets
down in health and whips out the lasers, he activates cheese mode. The lasers
can be absolutely devastating, so like I said, dodge them for all you're worth
and get close to him, unleashing combos to release more Cluster orbs. I also
think it's a great idea to whip out Wisdom Form during his laser attacks. Use
'Freeze' at absolutely every single opportunity and with a bit of fancy
footwork, you can win this one.

--------------------------------

Hollow Bastion
[hlw1]


*Demyx
Difficulty: 8/10
Cheese Factor: 10/10

Note:
At the beginning of this fight, you have to take out several of his water
form, just like the fight with him in Olympus, but this time, after the water
forms are dead, you will have to fight him. Also, several times (2-3) during
the fight, you will be forced to fight more water forms. Keep in mind that
when fighting them, you are always on the clock, and during the battle you
will have a very, very short amount of time, 10 seconds. It's also a
good idea to wear items that beef up your water resistance, as this man is
made of Cheese that takes the form of a relentless torrent of water attacks.

Strategy:
As stated above, Demyx will start off with summoning his water forms. Use
'Wild Dance' Reaction as before and get ready for a REAL fight.

Lock on immediately, this guy is extremely cheesy and you wanna keep an eye on
him at all times. I suggest equipping Donald and Goofy with Potions or
Hi-Potions if you don't normally (I don't always, as they have a tendency to
use them when I don't feel it's necessary). In this case, they will save you.
Also make sure to have Donald equipped with his Donal Cure ability.

During this battle, you may find yourself with the opportunity to hit a
Reaction when you're near him, though this is sort of rare. It's called
'Show Stealer' and it will cause Sora to stand behind him, play act guitar
with his Keyblade and then knock Demyx for a good loop. This reaction has a
very, very short time frame in which to execute, and if you fail, you instead
will be the one knocked back. If you succeed, take the opportunity to run up
and smack him around until he recovers.

One of his first attacks is to shout "Water!" and several balls of water will
fall from the sky, blanketing a large area. It's very difficult to avoid, your
best bet is to run to the side. Individual balls don't hurt much, but they can
be rather painful if several hit you. If you get lucky, they will all fall
behind you as you run. If this does happen, take the opportunity to run up to
him and smack him around for a few seconds, as this does leave him open for
attack.

The above attack will often be followed up by a rapid fire shot of several of
the balls going directly for you. Be prepared for this and try to jump out of
the way, because if you get hit in the face by several of these in succession,
it is downright devastating, if not outright lethal.

The other attacks he will are as follows. First, several spouts of water will
erupt on the ground around him. Second, he will raise a bit off the ground and
rush in one direction, leaving a trail of those same water spouts behind him.
They can knock you very high in the air and hurt moderately. The main danger
is that he has a tendency to execute this attack several times in a row and
can easily juggle you to death if you aren't careful.

In the above attack, his "rush with water behind him" attack is usually aimed
right at Sora. If you are the correct distance he will land right next to you.
He will of course immediately call up the circle of spouts around him, but if
you're inside them, they are no danger. You can get about a combo off, maybe a
lil less before he uses the wall again. Hitting him will not stun him or cause
him to stop his attacks unless you manage to knock him into the air. So that's
a risky way to get a couple hits in, but if that's all you need to get a full
drive bar (more on Drives in this battle later), then go ahead, as activating
Drive heals you.

Throughout the battle, he will also be summoning Water Forms near him, but not
the timed kind, they just sort of help him out in battle. If you manage to get
close to him, you can use Wild Dance to inflict a bit of damage on him.

Getting close to him is highly probelmatic though. One of the best ways is to
use one of his Water Forms, use Wild Dance and inch close to him, hitting him.
Once you do that, land a combo or two on him. Do your best to get him in a
juggle. Regardless, after a combo or two, he will revert to his relentless,
constant attacks, so you'll wanna retreat immediately.

Another, more painful way to get close to him is to simply let yourself get
hit by the water jets, use Aerial Recovery high up and coast down to him,
trying to land an air combo on him when you get down far enough. This is very
dangerous though and I don't really recommend it unless you feel you can
survive several of those attacks.

If at ANY TIME during the battle you hear him say "Dance, Water, Dance!"
immediately shift your focus to the forms around him. You will have about 10
seconds to kill 10 of them, which is harder than it sounds. Make use of
'Wild Dance' and heavy combos as quickly as you can or you'll lose the fight
simply by running out of time. It's extremely cheesy and highly likely he will
do it 2-3 times during the course of the battle.

After you defeat these though is a great, awesome time to get some damage off,
as it leaves him winded on the ground for a moment. The second you beat the
Water Forms, start laying into him with combos.

After you've taken his life down a bit, he will start using a new attack,
where he walks forward and causes several walls of water spouts to erupt in
front of him. It may as well be a force field because it makes it nearly
impossible to get anywhere near him. Given he will be walking towards you
while doing this, move the heck away. If he backs you against a wall, move to
the side, he will turn to face you and the spouts will turn with him. This is
the easiest of his attacks to evade.

Another new attack he gets is to send a wall of water spouts at you, that seem
to have a moderate homing effect, as they will arc towards you and end in an
eruption of several spouts. Run to the side and a bit towards him to try and
evade this.

Another attack he gains is to cause smaller walls of water spouts to erupt on
both sides of him, in succession. If you can get in between these, you may get
a combo off before he knocks you for a loop, as he will use his own melee
combos while this is happening, which shouldn't be taken lightly. This attack
is actually his main weakness in th latter part of the battle (aside from
right after he is finished summoning), because if you get in there, you can do
a good amount of damage.

Like I said above, this man is super cheesy, if you aren't careful, you will
be juggled to death by his water attacks, which are one, after another, after
another. Getting close to him becomes even more difficult as the battle drags
on. When he gets lower on health, Wisdom Form helps a lot, as you can keep
your distance and fire away at him. Stay aware though, that regardless of how
much you move and strafe, he will always find a way to smack you into the air
with his water attacks. USE WISDOM FORM EVERY CHANCE YOU GET! I can't stress
that enough. While he will still knock you around a bit, it is easily the
best way to unload lots of damage on him all at once.

Overall, this is the first genuinely difficult boss battle of the game. His
super cheesy attacks combined with his short timer Water Form summons make him
a giant pain in the rear end. Especially in the second half of this fight,
play defensively, stay away from most of his attacks if you can, as they only
get more and more agressive and cheesy. Take advantage of the weaknesses I
mentioned and you can win. I don't recommend magic here. Fire is painful for
him but you have to get too close for too long, and in the end it is simply
not effective. Again I say, Wisdom Form! This Drive is extremely beneficial, I
recommend using it during the latter half of this battle when his attacks get
really beefed up.

Good luck - pay attention and stay on your toes, you'll win but be prepared to
eat a lot of Cheese.

--------------------------------

The Land of Dragons
[lod2]


*Mysterious Man
Difficulty: 2/10
Cheese Factor: 0/10

Note:
You are alone in this fight, and surrounded by countless flying Heartless.

Strategy:
The first thing you wanna do is run up close to him and get a target lock, as
the flying Heartless can prove problematic in actually attacking this guy.

He is a bit slow between his attacks, but when he does attack you, he has a
tendency to hit decently hard.

Most of his moves are basic sword combo fare that will take nice lil chunks
out of your HP bar. they don't hurt that bad, and last 2-3 hits.

He also has an attack that will cause a dark aura to surround him, usually
taking out several Heartless.

He also has a dark flaming attack, which shoots several fireballs out that
home in one you. If you see it coming you can try to jump out of their way but
they don't hurt very bad if they hit.

He also has a rushing melee attack, where he will streak forward several feet
and slice Sora. This is his most damaging attack, be careful about it. Running
or leaping to the side is probably the best way to defend against this.

After he's hurt a bit, he will also start using an attack where he sents a
wall of lightning bolts out in front of him, with a moderate range. They also
don't hurt that bad.

Unless you're very sloppy, the main source of damage against Sora in this
fight is the Heartless themselves, they will swarm and attack several at a
time. While they don't hurt that bad individually, getting hit by several at
a time can deal out some pretty good damage. Using the Reaction 'Speed Trap'
to take a few of them out when it's available is useful. If you're lucky, you
can also hit the Mysterious Man with it a couple of times.

As for defeating him, it's really not all that difficult. Wait for him to end
a combo and strike with a combo of your own while he is recivering. Like I
said, he is pretty slow on the recovery. Like you (if you didn't lock onto him
that is) he will be distracted by the Heartless and will spend some time
attacking them as well as you. This, combined with his low recovery time,
makes this a dreadfully easy fight. He has several HP bars but before you get
him down to his last one, the fight will end. In the end, a very easy fight -
have fun with him and watch out for the Heartless.




*Storm Rider (Heartless Dragon)
Difficulty: 4/10
Cheese Factor: 1/10

Note:
He has a lot of health (6 bars), this can turn into a long battle.

Strategy:
You start this battle on the dragon's back. you'll find yourself with a
Reaction called 'Hang On'. Quickly use it, as he will do an aerial loop, which
would otherwise throw you off. Once he's done, use 'Let Go' to uh, let go.

While on his back, attack his head with everything you got. Use 'Hang On'
again pretty quickly thoughm as he will do loops pretty often. As he is
damaged, he will also start causing electrical jolts to emanate from his
spikes, for mild to moderate damage. Don't worry if you fall off, because you
can get back up.

I'll quickly explain how to get back up. As he is attacking (I'll list them
below), whirlwinds will form and disappear randomly on the battlefield. Run
into the center of one and use the Reaction 'Ride the Wind' followed quickly
by 'Soar'. This will catapult you high into the air. Try to do this as he is
about to make an attack run. When he is starting his bombing run (explained
below) is a great time.

I find it very difficult to stay on his back so I tend to fight this on the
ground. If you want to fight this from his back, just keep getting back up and
avoiding his attacks as I explain them below, looking for opportunities to get
back up.

While you're on the ground, he will execute attacks against you.

One is a bombing run, where he literally carpet bombs the area as he flies
towards you. When you see him do this, run to the side past the bombs.

He will also cast a thunder spell that hits for mild to moderate damage. This
is very easy to avoid, and will usually miss as a matter of course if you keep
moving (which is pretty much a given I hope).

He will also spin around, fly up in the air then come down and start spinning
with lots of wind coming off of him. He will then fly straight at you. Use the
Reaction 'Slide' immediately. Sora will slide under the dragon as it passes.
Then, keep pressing triangle to activate 'Vertigo Toss', which will make Sora
hit the dragon with a big combo and send him reeling high into the air. When
he lands, he is dazed for a moment, so start smashing his head in with combos.
When he comes out of his daze (you should be able to get in 3-4 combos) he
will rear his head back and you will be knocked back by a violent gust of wind
for mild damage. I wouldn't worry about the gust unless your HP is in bad
shape, (which it really shouldn't be, he doesn't have many damaging attacks),
so just attack until he does this, then use Aerial Recover and contionue the
battle.

Once you have his HP down some, he will land on the nearby bridge and activate
forcefields to narrow the battlefield. As you move towards him, the
forcefields will close in. Be very careful, as now he has an attack that will
gather energy and send a huge beam of light straight out from his head/mouth
area. If you have played Final Fantasy and know of Bahamut's Megaflare attack,
you know what this is. It hits you for hefty damage. It took more than a third
of my HP bar in one shot. He will fire 2-3 times before taking off again. Best
thing to do is move in on the side of him and after his first shot, smack him
with a combo then immediately back off as he gets ready for his second shot.
Do this as many times as he fires. When he takes off, he will scorch the
ground beneath him with lightning so back off when he takes flight.

After even more damage he will use an attack where he gathers energy at
several points along his wingtips and fires small homing projectiles. They hit
for moderate damage. Best way to avoid them is to simply run forward through
their centerpoint, they wil miss by a mile and strike the ground.

As he gets critical on health, he will mostly do his carpet bombings, thunder
spells and "Megaflares". I would recommend just jumping onto his back, but it
actually becomes much more difficult to get up there and stay at this point
because he is moving around so erratically. I would just avoid his bombs and
thunders until he lands for the "Megaflare" and attack him when he's there.
Also, you could use 'Ride the Wind' -> 'Soar' in hopes of landing a combo on
his face.

Ultimately, this is a pretrty easy battle. Most of his attacks do very little
damage and are all very, very easy to avoid. Just whack away at his head when
you can, use Reactions when possible and you will win. Very simple battle.

--------------------------------

Beast's Castle
[bst2]


*Xaldin
Difficulty: 9/10
Cheese Factor: 10/10

Note 1:
Behold, the power of Cheese. I highly recommend Long Jump and Double Jump of
at least level 1 each, if not level 2. You get these from leveling up Valor
and Master Drive Forms. Valor is leveled up by number of attacks executed
while in Valor Form, Master is leveled by number of Drive Orbs picked up
while in Master Form. You will need these abilities for evasion purposes.

Note 2:
Do not use drives during this battle, because turning into Anti-form on
accident is an immediate death sentence. If you are intent on using drives,
fight in the Castle first and drive until you get Anti form, so your chances
of Driving into Anti again are slimmer the next few times you Drive. As for
which Drives, Wisdom is the only one I can recommend if you are absolutely
intent on using them, since getting close to him is a really, really bad idea.


Note 3:
I also recommend not using Summons or Limits, as you need your MP bar for
Cura. As a matter of fact, make sure Goofy and Donald (or Beast if you're
using him) are stocked with Potions or Hi-Potions. I do recommend using Donald
and Goofy. Donald can attack at range very well and has a nice Cure spell if
you get hurt badly and can't heal yourself. Goofy can use his shield toss
ability to attack at range as well (though it may miss).


Strategy:
First thing you need to do is immediately lock onto him. You need to maintain
a target lock during this battle at all times. If you lose the lock, quickly
regain it. Also, keep your distance, you do not want to be close to this man.

You need to be aware that he is extremely fast.

One attack he has is a double sweep with his lances. Once immediately in
front of him, the second (about half a second after), covering an extremely
long range and wide area in front of him. If you see the first happen, try to
jump as high as possible in an attempt at evading. Your reaction time will
have to be on the millisecond level to even dream of evading it though. Mine
isn't, so I don't know if it can actually be dodged. If someone can confirm
either way, please e-mail me.

One of his main attacks to begin with is a really fast rush forward, stabbing
forth with his lances. This is by far the easiest of his attacks to dodge,
but it's not saying much. This man is extremely fast, so there's basically no
warning. The only way to dodge it is to be running to the side and/or circling
him. This attack hurts bad and has a pretty decent knockback effect. If you
get hit, use Aerial Recovery and get away. Be warned, the beginning of this
battle is the only time he will use this attack alone. After you damage him
some, it will be used in combination, which I'll explain below.

The thing about the above attack is that if you are close enough while he's
executing it, you can use the 'Learn' Reaction to turn your attack button into
a 'Jump' button, just like the normal Dragoon Nobodies. Once you collect 2-3+
(hopefully more) make sure you have him locked on target and hit them all in
succession, ending with a combo if you can. Jump does a lot of damage to him,
so it's extremely useful and your main mode of attack during this battle. A
final note regarding this: I'm telling you to make sure to be locked on
because 'Jump' will easily miss if you're not.

He will often walk around towards you with his lances circling him. He is not
as vulnerable as he looks, as the second you get close to him, you will
immediately be met with several lances straight to the chin if you're not
extremely careful. The only reason you want to get close to him while he is
doing this is so you can coax him into an attack, dodge it and use 'Learn' to
get more 'Jump's.

He also has an attack where he combos you with his lances, doing a large
amount of damage and tossing you around. There is a point during this where
you can use Aerial Recovery and get away from him, and I suggest you do. He
will follow this up with another attack where he glows and does an even more
horrifying combo where his lances sweep around him several times, glowing.
Avoid this at all costs, it is devastating. The best way to dodge this is to
start long jump -> double jumping away from him. Don't stop until he does or
you're as good as dead. This attack lasts somewhere between 6-10 seconds,
which is an eternity during this battle. Like I said, getting caught in this
attack is practically a death warrant.

You will also see him get up on a glowing dragon type thing and fly beyond
sight, under the bridge. He will resurface not long after and his dragon will
execute a breath attack which sweeps from (while facing him) left to right.
There is no real way to avoid it. It does moderate damage if it only hits you
once but can be quite deadly if it geta you in a juggle. You need to be as far
away from him as possible while he does this, because you have less chance of
getting juggled.. usually. I suggest running either all the way to the right
or to the left and as far away as you can. I usually try and jump through it
as it hits me.

When he is done with the above attack he will immediately return to the bridge
and restart the onslaught so be prepared, 'cause he has basically no recovery
time from this.

Once he is hurt a good amount, he will have another rushing attack. This time,
instead of pointing his lances outward, they will simply be whirling about
him. It is just as painful as the other rushing attack, if not a bit more.
Worse yet, he will do this over and over and over again, ending in the
original version of the rush attack. This one will also have the 'Learn'
Reaction attached, so I suggest jumping around, dodging as best you can while
mashing triangle whenever your thumb is free to do so. Don't be fooled, this
is an extremely rantic moment, as landing once just a bit too close to him is
almost always instant pain.

Same rules as the beginning of the battle apply. Once you collect some
'Jump's, make sure you're locked onto him and execute them. Try to end in a
combo, but don't count on it.

At this stage in the battle, he will also start using his sweeping, glowy
combo a LOT more, so watch out because as I said above, it does extreme
damage. Jump and double jump away from him while he's doing this.

Ultimately, this is the hardest battle yet and he is extemely cheesy. He will
be all over you like a cheap suit, so be prepared. The basic strategy to this
fight is "Run like hell, learn jump and stab him in the head!" Good luck, you
are gonna need it!

--------------------------------

Port Royal
[prt2]


*Grim Reaper
Difficulty: 1/10
Cheese Factor: 0/10

Note:
Not a very .. smart Heartless. Of course Heartless apparently act on instinct,
but this is bad.

Strategy:
This is a giant, weak Heartless. He behaves like a cursed pirate, which really
makes him completely an easy target. Start out by casting Blizzara on him,
which will freeze him solid. Once frozen, wail on him with combos. When he
unfreezes, do it again. Of course, you don't even have to do that.

If you choose not to go that route, I'll explain his attacks and weaknesses
below.

He has only one attack to begin with. He takes his axe/pendulum thing and
swings it around, striking for mild damage and some knockback. He can do this
low to the ground or he can raise up and do it in the air too (which is
completely useless on his part). Very easy to dodge this attack, just jump out
of the way.

He has extremely slow wind up and recovery with this attack, actually, he
hardly attacks at all. You can interrupt this by hitting him with magic.

Once you damage him some, he has another attack, where he spins around and
then teleports. The hit isn't much worse than his normal slash, but it does
have some extra knock back. Just stay more than 10 feet away from him and
you'll never get hit (that's really true for the whole battle sadly).

Um, that's it.

He's a giant punching bag. Lock on and press X a lot with your eyes closed,
you'll win... Actually if you stood back, your party would kill him with no
help from you.. I know, I did it! I was trying to observe all his attacks but
my party beat him up so badly, he hardly got to do anything at all.




*Grim Reaper
Difficulty: 5/10
Cheese Factor: 6/10

Note:
It's a good idea to have the Draw ability equipped on everyone who has it
for this battle. His Cheese Factor comes from his incessant looting of the
chest and inherent invincibility when he has coins.

Strategy:
Ok here's how it works. The Heartless will steal coins from the chest.
When he does that, he is invincible. Your goal is to get the coins away from
him and put them back in the chest (ALL of them) so he can be harmed.

He will start the battle in possession of several of the coins. To get them
away from him, either hit him repeatedly with Blizzara (it won't hurt him,
but he will drop coins). Hitting him physically won't damage him or make him
drop coins but it will make him drop MP orbs. If you run low on MP (or run
out) just combo him and you'll have all the MP you want.

When he does drop coins, you'll need to run around gathering them, so having
Draw (as in my Note above) is a good idea. 

He has an action where he will go up to the chest and use a giant whirlwind to
suck tons of coins out of the chest, regardless of whether you've replaced
them all or not. When he's doing this, several balls of dark fire are circling
around him, which create a hazard in getting close to him.. but not much of
one. While's he's doing this, run up to him and use the Reaction 'Hinder'.
Sora will jump up and grab his axe, then kick him away. Follow up immmediately
with the Reaction combo 'Loot Launch' which will smack him really hard with
his own axe, knocking tons of coins from him.

Once you have a bunch of coins, head to the chest in the center of the
battleground and use the Reaction 'Replace' to put coins back in the chest.
Once all the coins are in the chest, the Curse will lift from him and you can
attack him at will, damaging his HP.

One final note, when you get hit, you will drop some of the coins that you are
holding, so replace them as often as possible. He actually gets aggressive
enough towards the end to start hitting you.

As for when he is hurtable...

He is a lot faster this time when he attacks. He will attack more often than
his previous form back on the ship, which was more of a joke than a boss. His
main slashing attack still doesn't hurt bad, but it seems to be a bit faster.
Just keep more than 10 feet away from him and he won't hit you. A great time
to attack is right after he swings. When he does, run in and smack him around.

Once he's been hurt some, he will gain an upgraded form of his whirly attack.
This time, he will whirl about and streak around, while still whirling. Also
very easy to dodge, just get out of the way. 

He will also spin his axe around and cause a whirlwind to form around him
which hits for moderate damage and can combo you. This attack will also suck
up nearby coins.

He also has an attack which fires an array of three dark fireballs which do
mild damage. He doesn't seem to have any aiming ability and will probably miss
you without you trying. If he does shoot it at you, just run out of the way,
as the area it effects is very narrow.

when he's hurt even more, he has an attack where he will disappear and 4
flaming skulls will start pounding the general area with ground based
shockwave attacks, ending in them all crashing down at once. Each hit does
moderate damage, but you can be hit by several if you aren't careful. Best
thing you can do when you see this is to start jumping. This is the only
part of the battle my HP bar moved far at all.

Towards the end of this battle, he gets very, very aggressive and will be
going back to that chest a lot, so when you get the coins away from him, get
him frozen and beat on him as much as you can, refreezing as necessary.
Alternatively, you can cast Blizzara over and over again, but if you run out
of MP and have no Ether on hand, there's nothing preventing him from stealing
more coins.

Like before, he is very, very slow (in the beginning) and vulnerable to
freezing. Once you get the coins back in the chest, freeze him and beat him to
death. He is slightly more difficult than the last encounter, but only on the
merits that you have to go through the annoying process of getting the coins
back in the box first. Easy boss, just try not to get too annoyed with all the
coin stealing.

--------------------------------

Olympus Coliseum
[oly2]


*Hades
Difficulty: 6/10
Cheese Factor: 5/10

Strategy:
Like the first fight against him he is invincible. Just attack him for a
moment, then you get a cut scene and afterwards, Hercules joins you in the
fight - that's where the real battle begins.

Hades is invincible while he is red, and vulnerable to attack when he is blue.
Throughout the battle, Hercules will be creating glowing bubbles of light on
the arena floor. Going up to one and hitting the Reaction command
'Aura Sphere' will send it reeling into Hades, turning him from red to blue
and making him attackable. If he turns red, just go for one of these and bink
it off Hades' head.

Hades has a basic melee attack, essentially a slow, one-two punch, followed by
a spin.

He will also teleport around a lot.

He has an attack where he says "Feel the heat!" and shoots a fireball at you
that hits for mild damage. It moves at a decent pace, but has no homing
capabilities. Just run to the side if you hear him say it.

He has another where he says "That's it!" He will shoot streams of fire out of
his hands at the ground and spin, creating a ring of fire immediately around
him. Half a second later, it explodes upwards in a column of fire. It can hit
you about 3 times. Each individual hit is only moderate damage, but getting
hit by all 3 will hurt a lot. If you hear him say it, back off, as it has a
very short range. This will turn him red again.

While Hercules is glowing, you can go up next to him and use the Reaction
'Aura Guard' which will create a temporary defensive shield for you to hide
inside. If you get hurt real bad somehow, have Hercules do this and hide
inside so you can have a chance to recover.

Once he's been hurt somewhat, he has a new attack. A giant ball of fire will
haver above the center of the arena floor and shoot slow moving fireballs
down to the surface, catching portions of it on fire. The balls of fire
themselves are easy to avoid, but don't touch these spots, as you can take
some moderate damage from them. Likewise, jumping and hitting the ball of fire
in the center will also hurt. This attack will last 10-15 seconds and once it
is initiated, Hades is free to attack you in other ways while it's happening.

A perfect tiem to attack him is right after you hit him with an 'Aura Sphere'
as it stuns him for a very short amount of tiem. If you can get him in the
air and juggle him, he's very easy to destroy.

In the end, keep on your toes, keep hitting him with the 'Aura Sphere's and
combing and you will take him down in no time. He is very, very aggressive
towards the end, so watch your HP, but if you can beat an organization member
like Xaldin, this is nothing to you.

--------------------------------

Agrabah
[agb2]


*Jafar
Difficulty: 5/10
Cheese Factor: 3/10

Note:
You are alone in this battle, on Carpet.

Strategy:
He will start attacking immediately. to begin with, his main attack causes him
to move his arms about with giant dark orbs on them. Broken buildings from the
city below you will start flying around, not too many, they do moderate
damage. Best way to avoid them is to fly around erratically while double
jumping.

What you wanna do is fly in towards his stomach while avoiding the buildings
and then lock on and combo his abs. His abs have a pretty short lifebar. Once
the lifebar is depleted, he will double over, stunned for a moment.

After he is doubled over his "tail" will be lifted up. If you get near the
end of his "tail" wispy thing, you get a Reaction called 'Roll Up'. Sora will
grab it and fly around him, wrapping him up in it. You will then get a
Reaction combo chance called 'Spin Burst'. When you execute 'Spin Burst', Sora
will quickly unwind Jafar, causing him to spin around wildly. This seems to
daze him even further.

Once you have him dazed, go to his head (his weak spot) and start comboing.
Magic is also effective, but I prefer physical attacks.

Once you've damaged him some, he will gain an attack where he will stun you
with electricity. It doesn't last long, but he can smack you a good one while
you are stunned. No Reaction to dispel it that I've discovered.

He will also move around a bit, teleporting from one area of the sky to
another. This isn't too problematic though, just move in and stun him as
normal, then commence attacking his head.

Hurt a bit more he will say something along the lines of "Shagalabalabala!"
(lol.. I know) and he will send out several homing fireballs. Watch out for
these, as getting hit in succession can be heavily damaging. The best way to
avoid these (it's almost foolproof) is to dip up and down in long, sweeping
arcs (as opposed to quick ups and downs, long ups and downs) while traveling
in a wide circle. They will follow you for several seconds though so be
prepared.

He will also start using an upgraded form of his original building attack..
upgraded in the fact that there is a lot more buildings, this time  coming
from behind him. It's very difficult to avoid these, If not impossible. I
suggest either raising or lowering altitude while executing evasive maneuvers
(i.e. weaving back and forth). This will only prevent a few extra ones from
hitting you though, it's a Cheese attack, expect to get hit by one or two.

Once he is on his last lifebar, he will use an even more advanced building
attack, where he teleports you to a cloudy, stormy place. Buildings will come
from all directions. You need to just try and dodge here, as Jafar will be out
of range until you teleport back to above the city. The good thing about this
attack is that the buildings are a lot slower than the ones from his second
building attack form. You can see them coming from a mile away and the same
basic tactic used to evade his fireballs works wonders here too. Just dip up
and down in long arcs while flying in a very large circle, you should get hit
very little, if not at all. After about 15 seconds, you return to the normal
fighting area.

Same basic tactic applies. Dodge his attacks while moving in on his stomach
and execute your strongest attacks against him when you are in range. Then
'Roll Up' -> 'Spin Burst' and knock the crap out of his head.

Overall, not the hardet boss fight, but you may have to heal a couple times if
you get hit with stray attacks. Just make sure to stun him at every
opportunity and subsequently attack his head, you'll win.

--------------------------------

Halloween Town
[hwn2]


*Test Subject
Difficulty: 6/10
Cheese Factor: 8/10

Strategy:
This boss is very, very aggressive. He has a nice suite of attacks, explained
below, and he will employ them all against you in quick fashion.

First , he has an attack where he stomps forward, hitting the ground and
creating shockwaves. This isn't a very long attack and has poor range, so
double jump to get away from it. It does mild to moderate damage but will
throw you a few feet into the air.

He also has a laser beam attack, which will sweep the ground towards you. If
it strikes Sora, he will be knocled airborne. The Laser will hit an additional
two times. Each hit alone isn't very strong, but combined, they do some pretty
decent damage. Not only that, he really likes to use this attack, so he can
rack up some damage on you pretty fast with it. The only warning is the laser
shooting out, hitting the ground, and then sweeping towards you. If youre more
than 10 feet away from him, you have about a second tops to run or jump to the
side.

He has a variation on this attack he will use from the beginning. While using
the "cutting laser", he will use his hand to create a vortex of wind that will
draw you towards him. Using this in conjunction with the laser, he will strike
you 4-6 times with the laser, and it can be heavily damaging. Usually, as you
try to use Aerial Recovery and jump away, you'll get smacked with it again, so
do your best to avoid it in the first place. However, during this form of the
attack, the laser will target much better as well, so it's a very difficult
attack to evade. Your best bet is just as its normal form, running out of the
way and away from him, trying to counteract the wind tunnel effect. This
attack alone earned him his Cheese Factor, as it's almost impossible to avoid,
he uses it a lot, and he will juggle you several times with it for barely
managable damage.

He also has a rushing melee attack that hurts pretty decently, but it's easily
avoided with a quick sidestep.

The best time to attack is right after his laser beam attacks, close in and
start comboing, juggle him if at all possible. Make sure to attack as often as
possible. He has several life bars but his HP withers away very quickly.

During the fight, he will split into several pieces. Be aware that while he's
like this, his head will still often be shooting laser beams. you'll have to
do some fancy footwork to just stay out of hot water during this.

Finding one piece, you will get a Reaction called 'Kickspring'. Sora will
launch the metal piece (his torso) at another part of his body, combining
them.

Once partially reassembled, he will do lots and lots of melee attacks, which
hit for moderate damage.

It is during this phase that you can really lay into him. His melee attacks
hurt a bit, but he seems to have a slow recovery time between them. The second
he finishes a melee attack, run into range and start pounding him with your
attacks of choice. Magic and Melee seem to work equally good here. Once he's
in this form, you can take him down very quickly, so don't relent once you
start attacking, just pouind on him and he should die real fast. If he splits
up again before you can finish him, use 'Kickspring' again and repeat.

--------------------------------

Pride Lands
[prl2]


*Hyenas
Difficulty: 1/10
Cheese Factor: 1/10

Strategy:
This is a high speed battle, make good use of Dash (Square) as you simply
won't be able to keep up without it.

I am not going to list their attacks because you don't really need to worry
much about them. If you get hurt, heal yourself but you are gonna be on the of
ensive here. Aside from speed, this is heavily in your favor. This battle is
more about chasing and comboing than anything else.

You have 3 Hyenas which are running around the area. The geography of the area
can make it problematic to follow them if you time your jumps incorrectly, as
there are rises and falls. You will mostly be shooting through narrow canyon
type areas.

You can also use the terrain to your advantage. They will not jump a lot, but
instead follow the terrain. In a couple areas, taking a ramp up to a higher
level is the long way, and by jumping and cutting across, you can cut them
off.

I don't recommend following any specific Hyena unless you are very determined
to do so.

If you are chasing one a while without being able to catch it, especially when
it's down to the last one, just reverse course and there's a chance you will
meet it head on, surprising it.

When you catch one, use combos in quick succession, try your best to get them
juggling and don't relent.

Very easy battle, if not a bit drawn out and slightly frustrating. Once all
three are knocked out, it's over, good luck.




*Groundshaker
Difficulty: 6/10
Cheese Factor: 6/10

Note:
Just you and Simba here.

Strategy:
The battle starts with Sora running from this gigantic Heartless. You get a
Reaction almost immediately called 'Leap'. Use it as it will help you avoid
damage. You will get it 3-4 more times, so keep mashing triangle. You'll then
get a Reaction called 'Fend', hit it quick and mash the crap out of it, as you
are fighting against the creature's leg. If you succeed, you will throw it on
it's back and knock it dazed. Run up to it's head and target it. By it's eye
socket, is where you can damage it. If you wanna use your Limit with Simba,
now is the time, as you can deal a LOT of damage to this enemy right off the
bat by doing so. I really suggest just mashing triangle during this whole
sequence.

If later in the battle you find yourself on the ground, he can execute this
sequence again, so be prepared.

Once the larger creature's life bar is depleted (I suggest doing this first),
it will stand still, allowing you to 'Leap' up with no troubel at all. But,
I'll explain all this 'Leap'ing and such.

When on the ground, you can run up to the large creature. When you are near,
you'll get a Reaction called 'Leap'. This is a different Reaction than last
time, as Sora will fling himself high into the air. Hit it a couple more times
in rapid succession and you'll find yourself on the Heartless' back.

Once up there, start immediately attacking the large face like thing that
rests near the back of it. You should be able to get a few shots in before
it starts attacking.

It has an attack where it will reel its hands back, and start hitting you with
melee attacks which are coarsing with lightning. You can see this coming from
a mile away as he charges up for it, so if you see it, get out of the way. It
individually hits for moderate damage but if you get caught in the combo, it
is heavily damaging and has a significant knockback effect. Hit Aerial
Recovery and sail back down to the creature's back to renew your assault.

It has another attack where it will separate from the large thing you're
walking on and spin around the area, gathering balls of energy in the air
around you which will immediately start shooting large bolts of lightning at
you. These do mild damage but can combo like crazy so look out. There is no
good way to avoid these, as they are instant hit. Just try to run around and
hope you don't get shocked. Watch your health. IF you can't take it, jump off
and then use 'Leap' again to get back up, this will hopefully cause him to
change attack tactics.

He has an action where he will whirl about in the air and send a huge jolt of
electricity into the giant creature's backif it's still alive, causing it to
buck you off. Once down on the ground you can either leap up again, or choose
to attack its head.

This face thing also has another attack after it's been hurt a great deal,
where it will disappear and several bolts of highly painful air will strike
down at the creature's back. These are quite visible, so trying to run in
between them is a way to dodge, or, in my case, just bailing over the side for
a moment. They just hit too hard to risk losing the battle over. This attack
will go unrelenting for several seconds at a tiem and he may choose to use it
2-3 times in a row. The horrible lightning, which is insanely difficult to
dodge, is preferable to this.

When he stops using that attack, and will likely go back to the lightning, get
back up and rush forward to the face, slashing it and start the best combo
chain you can. Likewise, if you're a magic user primarily, you can try
striking from a distance, but just beware holding still, as it's practically a
death sentence when he's low on health. If you're lucky, you can rush past any
lightning and start the combo unharmed for a couple of seconds. Just be
prepared to heal as the longer the fight goes on the more aggressive he
becomes.

I found that right when I only had to hit him 1-2 more times was when he was
the worst, attacking like he was a wannabe Organization member (we know how
Cheesy they are).

Ultimately, some parts of this battle (ground portions) are incredibly simple
while others (the battle with the face up top) are not so much. With some
fancy footwork and some heals, you'll win, because I'm probably making it
seem worse than it is. Good luck.

--------------------------------

Space Paranoids
[spc2]


*Sark
Difficulty: 2/10
Cheese Factor: 0/10

Note:
Sark is accompanied by several Heartless in this battle.

Strategy:
Right from the start you will notice he has a very quick attack which shoots a
super fast moving projectile directly at you. If it strikes, you will be hit
for moderate damage and some knockback. There is a Reaction associated with
this attack though. If you hit the Reaction 'Zone Guard', Sora will stop it.
Follow immediately with 'Disc Strike' and Sora will wind up and fling it right
back at him, hitting him for soem damage and knockback as well. This leaves
him stunned, so move in and start attacking.

He will also teleport around a lot, saying "Data Transfer!" as he does so.

Very short and easy battle. All you have to do is use the Reaction, move in
and beat the snot out of him. Magic also works pretty well (I was using
Blizzara). His HP bars go down really fast, so you have little to worry about,
have fun.




*MCP
Difficulty: 4/10
Cheese Factor: 1/10

Strategy:
Sark has been transformed, is now about 15-20 feet tall, and will be a real
annoyance, but he isn't your primary target.

To start, Sark has a couple of new attacks.

He can walk forward, stomping if you get too far away. I'm not sure if this
hurts at all. I have tried multiple times to get under his feet but it never
did anything. I swore I saw Donal get hit once, but trying so many times, I'm
going to conclude that his footprint is so low and he is so slow, you
shouldn't even worry about this. Just get more than 3 feet away if you fear
for your safety.

He will also rear back and then strike at the ground, causing lightning to
erupt in several places in the immediate area. Getting hit will deal moderate
damage and has moderate knockback effects. they are extremely easy to evade,
as you'll probably be missed anyways. Running between his legs when he is
doing this seems to be the best way to evade.

He does retain the use of his disc, and it hurts a lot more. It is essentially
an instant hit, so you can almost forget about dodging it unless you were
already in motion on a course that would avoid it. You have about half a
second of warning, when he pulls his hand back like he's gonna throw a
frisbee.

Anyways, attack both of his legs, which have very short life bars, and then
when he kneels down, attack his head, which has just ovber a full HP bar. He
will start floating, immobilized. Be aware that his legs will regen after a
few moments so deal the damage to his head as fast as possible. If they
regenerate before you can finish his head off, just attack them again, as they
are very weak. As a final note, like all bosses, you need to actually land a
finisher, limit, magic or square attack to immobilize him.

Once you have him immobilized, you need to attack your real target.

You'll notice the MCP is surrounded by a circle of gray plates. You need to
pick a plate and combo it a couple times to break it.

While you're doing this, the MCP may spin these around, which will hit you for
moderate damage. You may find after he does this that holes you have made are
gone, or that ones you made earlier have come back around.

Once you succeed in breaking a plate, face the MCP, make sure you're at the
edge and use the Reaction 'Delete'. Sora and Tron will get set up in a stance
and then you need to mash triangle as fast as you can to preform 'Charge' over
and over again. This is what will actually hurt the MCP's HP. If you get off a
full string of 'Charge's, MCP will shoot beams of light out from the grey
plates and spin them around. These beams do upper moderate range damage. Don't
count on evading this, you should worry about deleting, not whether you're
going to get hit by this attack or not.

He also has another version of this attack which he will spontaneously use
while Sark is immobilized. The plates spin a lot slower and you can see the
energy welling up on their surfaces before firing. They do the same damage as
before and are extremely easy to evade, just run along in tandem with a plate
that's not firing. If the one you are next to starts to gather energy, move to
another that isn't.

After a moment, Sark will come back to life, immediately focus your attention
to beating him back into submission and then go back to deleting the MCP.

Note that Sark will become a lot more aggressive as the MCP is damaged, but he
is still pretty managable.

Overall, while Sark has some damaging attacks, he should barely have the
chance to use them. Just immobilize him and then start deleting the MCP,
you'll win in no time.

--------------------------------

Radiant Garden
[rdn1]


*Sephiroth
Difficulty: 11/10
Cheese Factor: 10/10

Note 1:
This is not the only way to beat Sephiroth. I highly encourage people to
e-mail me their own strategies, so they can be posted. All contributers will
be properly credited.

Note 2:
Sephiroth is at the Dark Depths, beyond where the 1000 heartless battle took
place. To find him, go to the Bailey in Raidant Garden, then go down to the
Castle Gates (opposite the Restoration Site) and continue through several
'rooms' until you get to the end. 2 rooms before him, you can save at the
Crystal Fissure.

Note 3:
This is a battle depending much more upon your skill as a player as opposed to
the level of your character, even so, you'll want to be 70-80+ and have all of
the (at least) Lv.2 Growth abilities from the Drive Forms. You will also want
the Second Chance and Once More abilities equipped, to ensure you aren't
killed the first time he gets a combo off on you. You'll also was Retaliating
slash, which is like Aerial Recovery, but with a return strike. Guard and
Counterguard are effective as well for ground combat. You'll also want any
extra finishers (like Explosion on the ground) equipped. I highly suggest
packing elixirs, because you can use them in emergency to replensih your HP
or MP  (or both). You can heal, get damaged, replenish HP and MP with Elixir
for a second heal and be ready for a Curaga again in no time (though if you're
being hit that much, you can almost forget it). I suggest having trinity limit,
but I also don't suggest using it til the end. I'll explain below. I also
suggest having Reflega and Curaga on shortcuts.

Note 4:
He has 15 life bars and he is extremely fast, be prepared, you need lightning
quick reflexes and a clear head to play against him. I can list all the
strategies I want, but you can expect to die a few of times while you adjust
to his speed if you're like me and have a generally low reaction time.

Strategy:
To start off with, hit triangle immediately. He has a rushing slashing attack
which you can block with a Reaction here. He may do this several times during
battle so always be prepared to hit triangle at a moment's notice. Like all of
his attacks, it's devastating and can be outright lethal. The second he is
done with this attack, move in and combo him. Using a ground combo ending with
Explosion it's possible to juggle him for a few seconds before he recovers and
starts the ownage spree.

Be warned, he will be teleporting around a lot, usually to within range of
you. Never, ever stop moving during this battle for any reason. Try and keep a
lock-on at all times. As I said, he teleports a lot, so keeping one can be
difficult, but it's vital you keep an eye on him at all times.

He has an extended melee combo that will do extreme damage and without Second
Chance and Once More, you'll likely be dead in under three seconds. He likes
to teleport to you while doing this. Likewise, I have merely seen videos of
people using Guard and Counterguard against his melee attacks, so I know it
works, but your timing needs to be perfect. If you see the combo coming and
feel you can pull it off, then by all means use Guard. There's 2 parts to the
combo so you would have to guard twice. This would likely take a lot of
practice though. Alternatively, just jump out of the way, using Aerial Dodge.
If you time it right, you can swoop back in at the right time as he is ending
his combo and get in a combo of your own. Another (absolutely ingenious) way
I've seen of avoiding this attack and retaliating is to use High Jump + Aerial
Dodge to jump stright up into the air as he is coming in, then use Glide
ability without moving so you float. Once he is at the very end of his combo,
drop down and unleash an air combo. If you are able to time it right, it works
wonderfully.

He has a ground combo that hits you into the air. If this happens, immediately
(and I mean like lightning fast) press square for Retaliating Slash and mash X
for a combo. If you're lucky, you can get off a nice string of hits. 

Noting this now, if at any time you see him rise up and say "Descend,
Heartless Angel!" you need to get close to him and up to him as soon as
possible and hit him to interrupt (then lay into him with a combo while you
can). That attack will drain all of your MP and take you to 1 HP. He can do
this at least a couple times during the course of the battle, you have been
warned.

Once you've managed to damage him, he will start using some more attacks in
addition to his combo attacks.

He has a sort of Flare, where pillars of fire will erupt fromt he ground. They
do very heavy damage and seem to have a gravity effect (they suck you in). Use
Glide to try and get away from them.

If you see him summon several balls of energy, be prepared. When they get
close, start chain casting Reflega.

When he rises up and is covered in a purple aura while invincible, he is
entering his final stage. He becomes a lot more aggressive.

He will keep doing the above attacks, just a heck of a lot faster.

If you see him rise into the air and beyond the platform, take the the air and
get as far away as possible. He will be casting meteor shower. They will come
in at a decending angle from just beyond him. Being on the other end of the
platform and gliding back and forth is a sure fire way to avoid this attack.

The best time to attack is while he is executing "Descend, Heartless Angel!"
or right after his slashing attack which requires the Reaction command to
avoid. Also,if you manage to get Rertaliating slash off while he begins his
combo which knocks you into the air, you can use that as a great time to
damage him. If he uses his ground combo, jumping stright up and floating til
it ends and then attacking is also great. It sounds simple, but in my opinion,
it's not. The key is to be relentless, you have to take advantage of every
single one of his weaknesses at all times.

In order to finish him off, you need to deal at least 2 finishing blows
in brief succession or he will remain at 1 HP and be extremely aggressive. He
seems to have some kind of Second Chance and Once More abilities. Targetting
him and using Trinity Limit while he is on his last bar of health (or half
bar) will finish the job for you. 

He has weaknesses, exploit them at all costs. Otherwise, stay on your toes and
keep moving. You don't wanna get caught standing still. Be prepared at all
times cause he is a relentless attacker and if you aren't ready to deal with
something, he will punish you for it.

--------------------------------

The World That Never Was
[wnw1]


*Xigbar
Difficulty: 9/10
Cheese Factor: 10/10

Note:
It's a very good thing to know Quick Run, learned from Wisdom Form for this
fight at the VERY least. Quick Run howver is a poor substitute in this battle
for Lv.2 Glide, learned from leveling Final Form. It also takes place in
several areas, due to the enemy teleporting you to various locations. I'll
refer to the first place you are (the place Sora and co. walk in and are
confronted by Xigbar) as the Main battlefield/battleground. Also, as a result,
this Strategy section may seem a bit disjointed, so I highly recommend reading
the whole thing before fighting him (in case you don't do that already). Also,
do your best to maintain a target lock during this battle, though he teleports
so much, it is hard.

Strategy:
The first thing this man will do is teleport to a balcony of sorts,
overlooking the battle area. You will see through hsi eyes, as he targets Sora
with sniper fire. You need to start mashing triangle here, to trigger the
Reaction 'Warp Snipe' (the same as with the lesser Sniper Nobodies). He will
fire at you multiple times, you need to take as little damage as possible, so
as I said, move around, mash triangle and don't stop.

Afterwards, he will teleport down to the main platform and start rapid firing
sniper shots. He is very effective at hitting you, I suggest using Glide or
Quick Run to evade these shots. You will want to evade them too, since they do
pretty hefty damage if youi get caught by several. You'll be able to deflect
only a very few with 'Warp Snipe', so I suggest using Quick Run  or Glide to
get in close and combo him.

If at any time you hear him say "Alright! Reload!" move in and attack
immediately! He's vulnerable for a few seconds. This applies for the entire
battle until he is on his last HP bar.

Near the end of the battle, he teleports around so much while on the main
battlefield, that he is nearly impossible to hit and he stops reloading.

Once you get him down on life some, he will gain a new attack, which looks
like a giant energy arrow which will fly in straight lines and bounce off of
things. Glide or Quick Run are the best ways to avoid it. If you get right
near it, you get a 'Warp Snipe' Reaction for it, smacking him for some HP.
This especially applies near the end of the battle, when he will stop
reloading and teleport so much, 'Warp Snipe' with these energy arrows is just
about the only hope you have of hitting him consistently. In all likelyhood,
you'll land the killing blow with 'Warp Snipe' so keep that in mind.

As mentioned above, he can teleport you to a variety of locations during this
fight, I'll list them below.

He can teleport you to a long, narrow platform. While on it, he will stand at
the other and and rapid fire sniper shots at you. They are very diffiult to
evade and they make it hard to get near him. Worse yet, he likes to send his
shots through a dark portal which materializes somewhere behind you, where
they collide with your back! Best thing to do is try to evade him using your
Quick Run to get near him and land a hit or two on him or just try to evade
-period- until he teleports you back to the main battleground.

He can also teleport you to a small area which is a platform with an empty
center, it's square so I don't really wanna call it a ring - but I will from
this point on anyways. He will teleport around and shoot at you a LOT. Quick
Run around the ring until he teleports you back to the battlefield, as you
only stay there a very short time.

Another place he can take you is another small platform, this one with 4 holes
in it (think of the stereotypical window with 4 panes of glass). It's a bit
easier to get to him in this place. Quick Run around while he shoots, and then
when he says "Alright! Reload!" run in and smack him around while you can. Try
to get a complete combo off.

By far the worst place he teleports you is a very small square. This place
deserves a whole section of this guide of its own.

He will teleport around shooting at you for a few seconds, then he will say
"Let's see how you dance!" (though he only says this about half the time, I
fear) and fly around the platform and shoot several hundred rounds which are
extremely, extremely hard to avoid - from all directions. The second he stops
his normal shooting and says "Let's see how you dance!", heal to full health.
Getting hit by one is getting hit by all of them, as you will get juggled..
no, you will get PERFORATED. It does extreme damage and if you live, you'll
have very little health left. Make sure to have the "Once More" ability
equipped, cause it will also save your life.

There are a few ways to deal with this:

When he shouts right before he starts shooting (hopefully shouts), hit a Drive
Form and run around the perimeter of the square until he stops. Pray you don't
Drive into Anti form, because after you are teleported back, your low defense
and lack of healing and Reaction abilities will be a huge problem. If this
happens, run around and don't stop, do your best to simply evade him until it
wears off. If you wanna take this route, you should probably drive into Anti
Form or Final Form (for the first time) right before this fight to reset your
chances and come in with full gauge so you're ready.

You can also try chain casting Reflega, but if you don't tiem it perfectly,
you're gonna get shot up, and I'm not sure you can actually do this instantly
enough.

Quick Running around will help for a second, but it is nothing in comparison
to Glide Lv.2.

BEST WAY: If you have the Lv.2 glide ability (learned at Final Form level 5),
you can jump and glide around him, which is the absolute best way to avoid
this. Actually, it makes this entire battle significantly easier. Using Lv.2
Glide, you will sink low but never actually touch the ground and you will move
quite swiftly. Just Glide around the perimeter of the platform and watch him
miss you. I cannot more highly recommend taking the time to level up this
ability, if not for anything else, than this ridiculously Cheesy maneuver.

CREDIT goes to: MetalforteX77, CubanGangsta, Koluno, Stryker_E,
gabrielcalling, Mecha Soul, and Cervosi on the GAMEFAQS.com KHII Forum for the
above useful tips.

Ultimately, you need to be very careful with this guy. Attack when he reloads,
use 'Warp Snipe' at every opportunity and if you have it (and it would be a
great boon if you did) use Glide Lv.2 to evade many of his attacks, especially
during his machine gunning on the small platform. If you're careful and keep
your wits about you, you'll win. This is by far one of the Cheesiest bosses
around and if you come unprepared, you're dead. Good luck.




*Luxord
Difficulty: 6/10
Cheese Factor: 5/10

Note 1:
You are alone in this fight.

Note 2:
This is a very different fight. Along with your HP, you have a time gauge at
the top, along with Luxord. To win the battle, you need to make his time gauge
go out before yours. Time gauges are depleted by getting hit and by losing or
winning minigames (losing hits yours, winning hits his). Hitting with the
Keyblade does take time form him, but it won't be enough, keep that in mind.

Note 3:
You will have to play games against him during this fight. They are the same
games played by the normal Gambler Nobodies. For some practice (and some
really nice cash if you have jackpot abilities equipped), but Donald and Goofy
on "Sora Attack" so they don't attack unless you do and go to Yen-Sid's tower.
From his Study, go down the stairs to the moon themed room, where there will
be 4 of these Nobodies. You can play their games until you get the hang of it.

Strategy:
At the beginning of the fight, Luxord will turn you into a die (singular for
dice, the rolly, cube thing for the unaware). You have a Form Gauge that
counts from 1, so you have to go through 0 before reverting to Sora form. The
only way to move while in this Form is to jump in different directions.
Jumping into and colliding with enemies will damage them. Also, you cannot use
magic or items in this form, so no healing.

He will quickly summon several card enemies. They move at a moderate pace and
can attack by spinning around, but they aren't your main concern. Luxord will
flip a bunch of small cards in his hands, then without notice they will
surround you and hit you several times, which can do heavy damage. You can
interrupt him by colliding with him though, so I suggest you do so or you will
lose pretty early on.

He will also have a sort of melee attack where he will extend cards at you,
hitting you for moderate damage.

Keep jumping back and forth, striking him until the gauge wears off.

After you are back in normal form, he will have an action where he transforms
into a card along with several others and you have to guess which one is him.
Try to keep your eye on him and use the Reaction 'Flip' on the card or cards
you think may be him to make him reveal himself again. A good way to know
which is him is that a picture of him will be on the back of it. Picking the
wrong card will damage you or hit you for time, so be careful.

Be aware he will be teleporting around a lot during this fight, so you may
wanna try and keep a lock on him, but the cards and make that problematic.
Just hit the Reaction 'Flip' on the normal cards with blank face sides to get
rid of them.

He will have a game you can play against him, as noted above. I suggest you
get some practice beforehand (especially on the card game, as thats what he
will be mainly playing here) with the Gambler Nobodies, but I'll explain how
it works.

Firstly, when he is flipping cards in his hand. You will get a Reaction
called 'Begin Game'. Your action menu in the bottom left will change so that
3 X's and 1 O (circle) will cycle through them. They start going very fast but
after a couple times through they slow down considerable. Hit the X button
while the Circle is in the top of the 4 bars, and you win. He will take a nice
hit to his time gauge. Fail and you get turned into a Card and take a time
gauge hit.

As a Card you will have a Form Gauge like being a Die. Until it runs out, you
can only move forward very slowly and attack through a spinning, slashing
motion. You need to keep on him and interrupt his attacks, just like in Die
Form.

Winning this game will stun him and make him drop lots of health orbs.

When he's low on Time, he will summon a multitude of cards that will fall to
the ground and darken the area. He will slasj you several times with cards for
moderate damage if you aren't careful, so back off. After a few seconds he
will trap you and him inside a barrier of cards and force you to play a game.
You need to hit X while a Circle is in the top box 4 consecutive times. If you
fail, you take a time hit and get turned into a Die. If you win, he takes a
time hit like like before.

In the end, this is an easy battle if you are quick on your toes and have some
practice and good timing. This is a really hard battle if you have poor timing
 as your Time Gauge will melt away very quickly. If you have him down to a
sliver of time left, combo him or use spells to knock the rest of it off, but
the only real way to beat him is to win at least 3-4 of his games with some
hitting thrown in. Good luck.




*Saix
Difficulty: 7/10
Cheese Factor: 7/10

Note 1:
There is a Berserk Gauge up at the top left. It fills as he attacks. When it
fills, he will go insane, so watch out. I'll explain how to deal with this and
how to make it go down below.

Note 2:
If you don't have it by now, level up your Final Form and get at least
Glide Lv.2.

Strategy:
He will start the fight by rising up in front of you. This can't be
interrupted, so just start moving.

You wanna start hitting him as soon as possible though. Try to keep a lock-on
at all times during this fight, because he is very fast and moves around a
lot.

He has an attack that sends a wave of enbergy at you along the ground, that
hurts pretty decently. It's very fast, best way to dodge it is to fly (Glide
Lv.2  you really need this by this point in the game) or run to the side.
Though to be serious, you should not stop moving during this battle for any
reason.

He will have a rushing attack that can do really hefty damage and is extremely
difficult to dodge. It cannot be interrupted and he may do it while you are
comboing him at close range. If you're moving, he may miss with it. He may not
start using it until he's been damaged some.

He also has a basic 1-2 melee combo, but don't get caught in it.

During the fight, he will drop weapons around the battleground. If you run
up to one and use the Reaction 'Berserk' (just like the normal Berserker
Nobodies), you will grab on and can then quickly glide along the floor. Get
near to him and hit the Reaction 'Eclipse to smack him real good with a nice
big combo. To execute the complete combo, keep hitting triangle, so that you
use 'Eclipse' a good 3 times, which will then turn into 'Magna Storm'. This
will do good damage but it will also make his berserk guage fill very quickly.

when his Berserk Gauge fills, he will go insane. He will have several area of
effect attacks. One is slamming into the ground and sending waves of energy
out from him, another is a shockwave attack. During the beginning of the fight
 he does these very fast, but near the end, he will be doing them practically
at the speed of light, one after another after another. Keep on your toes!

While he is Berserk, his gauge will slowly drain. He is very hard to hit with
normal attacks while he is Berserk, but you don't wanna do that anyways. Grab
one of his weapons and use the Reaction combo I told you about above. It may
be difficult to odge his attacks, but while holding the weapon, you are pretty
fast anyways. If you successfully get off the 'Berserk' -> 'Eclipse' ->
'Magna Storm' Reaction combo, his Berserk Gauge will completely drain. So if
he goes berserk, this should be your priority.

Once you have him back to normal, jump in and combo him or start casting
spells immediately, as he will have a very brief recovery time. Hit him as
much as possible. His attack hurt but are nothing compared to how he is during
Berserk. You want to get in as much damage as possible before he goes Berserk
again. What I personally do is get behind him and unleash a string of combos,
juggling him for several seconds. I personally use Cura/ga to heal myself and
carry Ethers. Having the Berserk Charge ability equipped will allow you to
string infinite combos while in MP charge, so that's another tactic you can
use.

Once his Berserk Gauge fills again, his Berserk will be a lot more violent. He
will fly across the floor, hitting it many times and sending out long range
shockwave attacks with huge knocback. At the end of the string of shockwaves,
he will spring into the air and bring his weapon down one more time,
unleashing another wave of damage. Surprisingly, each shockwave itself only
does mild to moderate damage, but if you're not careful, you can be juggled,
and then it's devastating.

During this, he will also use his other energy fountain wave attacks, but less
frequently.

He will also fling his weapon on the ground from time to time. You CAN try to
move in and use the 'Berserk' -> 'Eclipse' -> 'Magna Storm' combo, but not
only is it difficult to get to the weapons (since he is all over you,
following you at high speeds), but due to his speed, it has a tendency to miss
by a mile.

My personally suggestion is to just use Glide and try to keep away from him
until his Berserk gauge drains. If he hits you, you'll be knocked into the air
even higher. Just use Aerial Recovery and then Glide some more, even farther
out of his reach.

Once his Gauge drains, once again move ina nd relentlessly attack him.

He will probably go Berserk 3-4 times before you can defeat him. Just keep
dodgine while he's Berserk (or use the Reaction if you can get it off on him)
and attacking aggressively while he's not, and you will win. Stay on your
toes.




*Xemnas (Skyscraper Battle)
Difficulty: 4/10
Cheese Factor: 1/10

Note:
You are alone in this battle. Also try to keep a lock-on at all times. Air
combos work awesome in this battle. If I refer to comboing, I'm probably
referring to air combos.

Strategy:
Xemnas is fond of shrouding himself in darkness, becoming invincible and
swiftly moving about the battlefield, then reappearing at another location.
He will likely start the battle with this action.

One action he can preform is to cast a sort of spell on you. You will be
surrounded by 3 diamond shaped deviced witht he Nobody insignia within them.
They will hit you many times for very small amounts of damage. It is
essentially a drain. Casting Reflega will have no effect. To remove it, run
over to the bottom of the Memory's Skyscraper and hit the Reaction called
'Facedown'. This will free you from the bonds of the spell and Sora will begin
running up the side of the building. Halfway up or so, Xemnas will pull out
two red lightsabers (no joke) and jump dfown towards Sora. Hit the Reactin
'Clash' and then keep mashing Triangle for 'Break Through'. Sora will strike
Xemnas and send him hurting towards the ground. This will leave him stunned,
so quickly start attacking while you have the chance.

He has an action where he yells "Guard!", which will erect a force field in
front of him. Striking against it does mild damage and knocks you back. If you
use Quick Run or jumping to get around it, he is open for attack while he's
doing this. This is actually one of the absolute best times to attack, as you
can get some nice hits in.

He has a basic melee combo with his weapons. Each hit does moderate damage and
can fling you into the air. Aerial Recovery or Retaliating Slash (hit Square
after being hit in mid-air) is key here. If you use the latter, combo him
while you have the chance. Also, while these have a long reach in front of him
 he is open to attack from above, so if you leap over the attack, you can
combo him upside the head quicte nicely, with a good chance of getting him
into a juggle. He will often do this right after he uses his "Guard" action.
What I do is double jump then fly around. This will often spur him into using
this combo. When he starts it, I drop down to him and start an air combo.

He will very often teleport right after he does the above attack, so your
window to strike is slim, but you can do it.

Overall, Xemnas is very predictable, doesn't do enough damage to be a genuine
threat (I healed a couple of times to be safe, but I never feared for my
life). Just attack when he's vulnerable, use the Reactions when they come and
you will win very quickly.




*Xemnas (Final Boss)
Difficulty: 8/10
Cheese Factor: 5/10

Note:
This is a tiered battle, covering many areas and many strategies, prepare
yourself well for a very long fight (20-40 minutes). Be aware that your
Auto-Reload items will reload between sections of this fight too.

Strategy:
As the battle starts, a wave of buildings will hurtle towards you. Immediately
hit the Reaction 'Slicer' to destroy them.

Move forward through the archway into the next room.

Continue forward and Sora and company will be brought up to a higher level.
Move forward and use the Reaction 'Excablade' followed by 'Skyscraper'. You
need to use 'Skyscraper' 2-3 timesin order to clear this part.

You will then be teleported into a room on a narrow scaffolding. You will have
several gauges here. One is Left Cylinder, another is Right Cylinder and
another is Charge.

What you need to do is strike as many enemies as you can, sending them
hurtling, while the Charge Gauge filles. As you send them into the core, the
Cylinder gauges drain. When it's about full, you get a Reaction called,
'Stunt Dodge' which you should activate immediately. this will make Sora avoid
the giant wave of energy that flies out of the core as it discharges when it
reaches full charge. When you use 'Stunt Dodge' you are actually moving
between the two Cylinders. Once you are finished with the Reaction, continue
to strike enemies and send them into the core. Repeat 'Stunt Dodge' as
necessary.

If you get hit by the discharge, it does extreme damage and can easily kill
you.

After you destroy one, you will go to the other. Continue hitting enemies and
it should be destoryed in short order. Use 'Stunt Dodge' one last time to get
out of there.

You will then find yourself in a room with an object in front of you, which is
marked with the Nobody insignia in red. This is the Energy Core. Run forward
and attack it as much as possible.

Once you take it down in some health, it will raise up and erect a shield
around itself. Several Nobodies will appear, which you must vanquish in order
to resume your attack on the core.

As the fight progresses, this will happen again and the enemies will become
stronger each time. Same thing holds true, defeat them and then attack the
core.

If at any time you get an "Information" line at the top of the screen warning
you about enemies from above,immediately jump back. Gigantic spurs will shoot
down and strike the ground near the core. If you get hit, they do moderate to
heavy damage, depending on your defense. 

Immediately after jumping backwards, jump right back in and keep striking.

Afterwards you finish it off, you will have a Reaction near the core,
'Proceed'. Hit that and you will again be teleported.

Now, you will be facing Xemnas himself. He is before you on a Throne.

He has a large suite of attacks. Basically any time you see himself readying
for an attack (he wil usually say "Cursed Fools!", jump out of the way, as
most of his attacks are easily dodged.

First, he has a lance attack much like Xaldins, where lances will strike from
the air, then surround you and strike again for some nice damage. Jumping away
from them will help you out.

He can also surround you in a ring of fireballs. Again, jump out from between
them and don't run into them, or you'll get smacked around.

Like Luxord, he can summon cards that will shoot down from the sky, attack
you, and spin around before disappearing.

Like Demyx, he can summon water forms. Thank goodness they are not timed,
simply destroy them.

If you see two red balls of energy gather on either sid eof him, start Gliding
quicky, it's a rapid fire machine gun like Xigbar used. Each shot doesn't hurt
too bad, but together, they can do moderate to heavy damage.

He cal also summon two huge axes, like Saix, which will come straight out from
him and strike the ground. Very easy to didge as well by seem to have a decent
AOE, so if you see them coming, take to the air.

You want to move in and combo him as much as possible. His time between
attacks is slow compared to msot of the organization members you have faced
this far, so take those opportunities. Since most of his attack cover the area
in front of him, you can actually Glide in during his attacks to strike. Be
warned though, that if you stayt too long, you will be hit in the face with a
rapid fire energy blast, which does massive damage.

Near the end, as he's been damaged, hew will start executing several of these
attacks at once, but if you stay on your toes, they should be little trouble.

Get close and attack as much as possible while avoiding his area attacks and
trying not to get struck by his close range devastating attack. Carrying
several Hi-Potions, Mega-Potions or even Elixirs while wailing on him will
provide you with the Health you need. You don't actually need to get off that
many combos and he should be finished in short order.

Alternatively, I actually found Magic attacks, specifically Thundaga, to be
the best way to finish him off for me. I was packing Etheres and I just kept
moving and jumping, staying out of his attack range. I kept him targetted and
chain cast Thundaga. After a few hits, he was toast.

After a cutscene, the battle resumes. Now you and Riku are on a flying
machine.

Use Circle to Drain and absorb enemy fire.
Use Sqaure to fire lasers.
Use X to attack with the Keyblade.

This works a lot like a Gummi Ship mission in some senses. You will be flying
around behind this giant mechanized dragon. What you wanna do is use Drain to
deflect shots and absorb their energy, to fill the energy meter at the top of
the screen.

The enemies that look like the kind you were flinging into the two Cylinders
earlier do close range melee attacks which cannot be absorbed. Use your laser
attacks to defeat those (or the keyblade if they are that close). Use Drain
against the flying enemies which shoot projectiles at you.

Once your energy bar is full, use the Reaction 'Megalaser' to actually hit the
dragon's HP. Don't use your 'Megalaser at the wrong time, because you can miss
with it. Make sure you are decently close to the dragon and that it's pretty
close to center on the screen before firing.

At soem points, the dragon will expose a weak spot, such as a wing. A red
target reticle will appear on it. You can target this with your normal laser
attack to deal some damage to it.

After fighting it a while, you will get a cutscene.

When it ends, you'll be facing Xemnas himself, once again in his armored form,
sitting on the throne.

During this portion of the battle, you can multi-jump, meaning you can
continuously hit jump to rise very high. You can fall out of the arena..
don't, If you start to, start jumping again.

Like before, he has a devastating short range melee attack if you get close.
If you are using melee primarily during this battle, you need to make
extremely swift hit and run attacks. I personally stand back and chain cast
Thundaga to deal some massive damage.

During the battle, he will strike at you, seemingly regardless of where you
are, which hurts pretty bad and has extreme knockback, through you to the very
edge of this little pocket of the universe. As you glide back in, buildings
will come flying towards you. Simply dodge back and forth to avoid them, or
drop/rise. They aren't difficult to evade. He will also fire several lasers.
You will see them literally coming from a mile away. When he starts doing
this, initiate evasive maneuvers.. i.e. start gliding back and forth. They
should miss you if you do it right. If you get too close to the giant white
thing, it will strike you for heavy damage.

What you wanna do is find a stationary building and execute the Reaction
'Riding Shot'. Sora will Strike the building and Riku will ride on it as it
hurtls towards the giant white shield. After striking and breaking the shield,
hit the 'Meteor Rain' Reaction to make Riku slice the building up and send it
in.

If you take too long, or after the shield is broken, several ice crystal things
will appear and shoot giant, devastating lasers at you. The best way I have
found to avoid this is to keep jumping upwards and angling out of the way
while doing so.

After either of those, you can return to the platform and resume your assault
on Xemnas.

After he's damaged some, he can summon those same ice crystals while on the
platform, 4 of them specifically. They are very easy to avoid, so jump out of
the way if you see them form.

Be aware that after this, when you are back out in the void, that he can use
these lasers seemingly at any time. Stay on your toes (or your like..
flight-enabling hands or whatever).

After 3-4 times of being hit out into the void and coming back to wail on him,
you will defeat him, just be extremely careful and don't stop moving for any
reason.

After a brief cutscene, you see Xemnas' final form: Mister Zebra! (Ya, I'm not
funny).

Once again, you and Riku together.

To start, I'll say all his attacks are moderate to devastating. Don't worry
about which, just do your best to avoid them.

He swill start by attacking very swiftly. Start hitting triangle to use
'Reversal', or he will make mincemeat out of you. You can try to get a hit or
two in while this is going on, but don't count on anything. After a moment,
he will stop and you can fall back to the ground.

To start with, he has a ground based attack much like the first Giant Nobody
you fought as Roxas. He will send out waves of strange energy threads, which
you can use 'Reversal' on to dodge and get closer to him.

When he is doing this, if you are close, quickly leap up and execute an air
combo on him, for he leaves himself vulnerable from every direction but his
front.

He can also summon a giant ball of energy which will knock back anything at
close range. If you see him start to gather this, jump out and back off.

He will also teleport around a lot. Much of the time he will teleport behind
you and execute a heavily damaging lightsaber combo, which will usually knock
you into the air. If you have retaliating slash, this can be effective,
otherwise, Aerial Recovery and Glide outta there. I suggest staying airborne
during this part fo the fight unless you are swooping down to attack him when
he's exposed one of his weaknesses. Staying on the ground will just open you
up to his insane teleporting combos.

After he's been damaged some, you will see him set up several lasers, which
will then shoot off and home in on you. Evade them the same way you evaded the
ones at the "flying in the void" battle, by taking to the air and swooping
back and forth. They are very difficult to avoid so don't be surprised if
you're hit.

he will also grab Sora with an electrical attack, holding him in place and
Riku will jump in to try and free him. He fails, so you take control if Riku!

This part is very hard especially if you had Sora at Low HP. Sora's HP will
slowlyt drain. You need to get close to him, but Xemnas has a really
aggressive clone that will repeatedly smack you in the face with "Guard!".
What you need to do is relentlessly spam 'Dark Aura' (Square button) to keep
him away and move in to where Sora is as fast as possible. Once you're there,
use the Reaction 'Rescue' to free him!

Xemnas will be momentarily stunned, so swoop in and beat the crap out of him
while you can.

Xemnas will start using his "rising energy and many Reversals" attack that
he started off with a lot, so be prepared.

He will also use his ground based version of the attack a lot so use
'Reversal' to move in close and combo him until he has no HP left.

When he has but a sliver, he will raise his hands up and gather a gigantic
ball of dark energy. The darkness will cover the area and then from within
that darkness, hundreds and hundreds of lasers will fly at Sora and Riku.
Simultaneously mash X and Triangle toi make both of then 'Reflect' the lasers
away. If you don't, kiss your butt goodbye. After what seems like way too
long, it will disperse in white light.

You'll see a neat lil cutscene and then be back on the battlefield with Xemnas
hanging, stunned and unable to move. Use one fo the final blow techniques
(a combo finisher, limit, magic, or a square attack) to finish this battle for
good!

Congratulations, you have beaten Kingdom Hearts II!