============================================================================== ----------- | Chaos FAQ | ----------- ================== Table of Contents ================== I) Introduction/Disclaimers [ChF-01] II) Who is Chaos? [ChF-02] III) How many Chaos are there? [ChF-03] IV) What are the Rewards? [ChF-04] V) The Stage [ChF-05] VI) Useful Abilities [ChF-06] VII) Accessories [ChF-07] VIII) His attacks [ChF-08] IX) Character Strategies [ChF-09] - Warrior of Light [Cos-I] - Firion [Cos-II] - Onion Knight [Cos-III] - Cecil [Cos-IV] - Bartz [Cos-V] - Terra [Cos-VI] - Cloud [Cos-VII] - Squall [Cos-VIII] - Zidane [Cos-IX] - Tidus [Cos-X] - Shantotto [Cos-XI] - Garland [Cha-I] - The Emperor Mateus [Cha-II] - Cloud of Darkness [Cha-III] - Golbez [Cha-IV] - ExDeath [Cha-V] - Kefka [Cha-VI] - Sephiroth [Cha-VII] - Ultimecia [Cha-VIII] - Kuja [Cha-IX] - Jecht [Cha-X] - Gabranth [Cha-XII] X) Technical Strategies [ChF-10] XI) Contributed Strategies [ChF-11] XII) The Videos [ChF-12] XIII) If All else Failed [ChF-13] XIV) Contact me [ChF-14] XV) Version History [ChF-15] XVI) Credits [ChF-16] ====================================== I) Introduction / Disclaimers [ChF-01] ====================================== Copyright (C) 2009 Jittinan W. / Mad_Cartoonist This guide is dedicated to help new Final Fantasy Dissidia players defeat Chaos, the final boss of this game. (Not how to play as him) It may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. And by the way, this is my first guide ever. Please go easy on me >_<. For new FAQ users, Ctrl+C (Copy) the section code and Ctrl+V (Paste) it in the Find Box (Ctrl+F) to skip to the section that you want right away. ========================== II) Who is Chaos? [ChF-02] ========================== Chaos is the big bully, a.k.a. final boss, of this game. This guy, according to the story, is the god of discord (Well, duh, his name said so). He is said to have equal strength as Cosmos, the goddess of harmony. Furthermore, they are supposed to eternally be in conflict. Many new players tend to give up this game because of this very boss. Yes, like most people said, his attacks are cheap, and most of the time will just kill you right away in one hit (provided you have low initial BRV). Seeing many people complaining about how cheap this boss is, I would like to dedicate this guide to help all the new players, and hope that they will regain hope of defeating this boss. ======================================= III) How many Chaos are there? [ChF-03] ======================================= Well, technically story-wise, there is only one ^_^. But you might have heard Chaos with family names like SI, IC, etc. Those are the abbreviation of the modes in which you can get to fight Chaos. Here is a list of modes in which you can get to fight Chaos: - Shade Impulse Chapter 4 = SI Chaos (also, the actual final boss of the game) - Inward Chaos Chaos = IC Chaos (Optional Challenge of the game, and the last challenge in the original Jap version.) - Duel Colisseum Chaos = DC Chaos (Which might comes w/ Lunar Whale (LW) Course or Black Jack (BJ) Course.) - Quick Battle = No special abbreviation, though I'll call Quick Battle QB. - Time Attack Chaos = TA (The most frustrating mode, IMO, because the characters in that mode does not have the button allocations you are used to.) The Chaos in which most people have trouble with is IC Chaos. Most of the players bust their way through all the other 22 characters with (or maybe without) lots of effort, only to stumble into the big guy and get pwn to the ground. I believe LW and BJ Chaoses are much more insane with their lv being as high as 130. But however, it is very possible to defeat all of them (with patience and skill). ================================== IV) What are the Rewards? [ChF-04] ================================== Defeating Chaos in the following modes grants you these rewards: - SI = Clearing the game. Unlocks Distant Glory Shantotto, Distant Glory Gabranth*, and Inward Chaos**. - IC = Genji Equipment Set tradable in Shops. (You'll have to purchase the option from PP catalogue first.) - All DC Courses = 50 medals - QB = AP, PP, Gils, and Battle Gen stuffs. - TA = I believe the game will give you a set of ingredients for creating 10 Rosetta Stones, if you cleared the mode within 15 minutes. *Distant Glory Gabranth is unlocked only w/ all Destiny Odeysseys cleared. **Inward Chaos is unlocked only with all other story modes cleared (DO, SI, all DGs) ===================== V) The Stage [ChF-05] ===================== There are only two stages in which Chaos is fightable, which is Edge of Madness and Edge of Madness Omega. - Edge of Madness (EoM) - Pretty small space, which means more likeliness of wall rushing. Since it's the final battle, there's no place to run and no place to hide. You can quickmove at his throne, which will result in you running up on it. Good for getting into the air w/o jumping (though it's not really THAT useful). *After a while, I believe the throne was there only to serve the purpose of making Air Dash useable in battle. Fans of Omni Air Dash should keep this in mind because now you have the means of zooming into Chaos to interrupt Soul of Oblivion. =D - Edge of Madness Omega - Just the same as the normal one, but with a tweak in Stage BRV (BRV Pool). The value of BRV pool randoms (at battle w/ both characters LV around 100 and above) some where from around 300 to some where near 6000. Watch carefully for the right moment to break Chaos and whoop 6000+ BRV in a break. These stages must be purchased at the PP Catalogue before it is available in Quick Battle. In each mode, you will get to fight Chaos in different version of EoM. - SI = Normal EoM - IC = Omega EoM - DC = Changes with each Chaos card (Though I believe most of it to be EoM Omega) - QB = Your Choice - TA = Omega EoM Note: Ex-Cores appears only at his throne, so if you want, you can always stay near the throne to get it easily. And unlike other stages' Ex-Core, after a while, the Ex-Core in this stage disappears really fast. In modes like IC and DC, they tend to disappear away faster too. ============================= VI) Useful abilities [ChF-06] ============================= You don't need to have these abilities equipped, but it will tremendously help you a lot in battle against Chaos. Action Abilities: ----------------- - All blocks and dodges : I doubt anyone will turn these abilities off, unless you are playing Ex-Death. Anyway, be sure to have these abilities equipped. - Speed Boost++ : For flexibility. I always have this equipped on all of my characters. * After a while, I found that this ability affects only ground running speed. Feel free to remove it for more CP if you are using air-oriented characters. - Jump Time Boost : Equip according to your own liking. It makes performing 'Rise and Fall' trick easier to execute. Personally, the characters I often used against Chaos are air-oriented, so I'll have JTB or JTB+ on my characters. But it's totally up to you if you want it or not cuz you can always dodge cancel in the air to reset the jump count. - Free Air Dash : I never really use any other air dashes other than this one. Even my Kuja has Free Air Dash on, when mages like him should have Free Air Dash Reverse. You might need it when you have to zoom in to slap Chaos. - Multi-Air Slide : The only reason you will be using this is to get Ex-Cores or to dash out of his cheap Fire Spinner. This will collide with JTB, so you will have to decide. Personally, I'd just forget JTB and equip this for my characters. - Controlled Recovery : In this battle, you need flexibility. This ability will help you move while you are knocked away. *If you are using Omni Air Dash, don't forget to equip Air Dash so you can zooming in to SMACK Chaos's face when he's charging Soul of Oblivion. Support Abilities: ------------------ - Ex-Core Lock on : If you need ex-cores, I don't see the reason not to equip this. - Evasion Time Boost : I would like to say this is the only ability you are *REQUIRED* to equip for it will help you survive against Chaos cheap spamming of Divine Punishment. This ability increases your invincibility time frame of your dodges. With this equipped, you'll less likely screw your dodge timing. Extra Abilities: ---------------- - Concentration : You might wonder why I suggest this, since you'll likely be moving through out the whole battle. However, there is this one attack where you will be forced to stand still for a while. Yes, his so-called Ex-Burst Utter Chaos and Brink of Delusion. More on this will be discussed. - Ex-Critical Boost : You'll want to get the most out of your Ex-Mode/Burst. However, if you plan to only use Ex-Bar for ex-blocking, you might want to remove it because attacks in Ex-Burst always critical anyway. - Riposte : If you are able to successfully guard him (or even ex-block), this will help make your attack sting him harder. - All other Critical Skills that suits your personal liking. (Possibly Sneak Attack or Counter Attack.) The ones I listed above are only my personal favorite. - EXP to Ex-Force / BRV : It doesn't matter how much HP you have in battle against Chaos. He can break you and screw you from full HP down to zero in one hit still. Therefore, the best you can do is to gather lots of Ex-Force to gain full Ex-Gauge as fast as possible, because it is your only means of surviving once you accidentally got screwed. Also, you who like to do HP attacks every now and then, EXP to BRV is also nice because Chaos in form three has this nasty habit of catching you off guard w/ fire spinner after you HP attack him. Abilities you NEVER need ------------------------ In fighting against Chaos, you won't be in need of these abilities, like EVER. So remove them to get more CPs for other abilities. - Auto-Ex-Defense : Chaos does not have any attacks that will turns into Ex- Burst animation. (Some people might not even equip this, but I always have it on because I don't like mashing O and it saves my O button from working too hard.) - Anti-Ex : Chaos does not have an Ex-Mode, so this ability is useless. - All of the "disables ____" - Exp to HP : As I already mentioned, HP does not matter THAT much in battle because Chaos can, and probably will, kill you even if you have full HP. Use other converters instead. ========================= VII) Accessories [ChF-07] ========================= Any equipments and accessories are fine as long as it fits your style of playing. However, if you don't have any idea of what accessories to use, you can follow this basic build of mine: -------- Build A -------- -AttractOrb x2 -GravitOrb -Muscle Belt x2 (Earring x2) -Champion Belt (Star Earring) -Close to You -Center of the World -------- Build B -------- -GravitOrb -Champion Belt (Star Earring) -Pearl Necklace -Close to You - I have these set up on characters that I'm not sure what their specialties are yet. After playing them for a while, I might change it to suit their ability more. The advantage of these sets up is that it let you absorb Ex-Forces really fast to get full ex-gauge for EX-guarding faster, and fairly give you an average kick in attack power. This set up is fairly easy to set and they are not that hard to acquire. Close to You and Center of the World, however, are a little harder to come by before Duel Coliseum is unlocked, so you may stick with any booster that you want instead. Also, the setting I gave above is NOT the best setting. In fact, it is far from being a decent one. Use it only if you have no idea of what to equip. ------------------------- Total Pwnage Accessories ------------------------- The accessories many people in DFF GameFAQ board suggested are Arcane Resin/Incense and Valor Resin/Incense. Arcane Incense provides 25% of the ex-gauge at the beginning of the battle and Arcane Resin gets the ex-gauge to full at battle start. This two, in my opinion, are okay to equip, especially if you are playing Gabranth (an Arcane Resin is A MUST), since you are a total crap outside ex-mode. That in turn, gave away your 'one more try' excuse, so I think it is a fair deal. However, Valor Incense and Valor Resin provides 100% and 200% boost in initial BRV, respectively. Since, Valor Incense is a class A accessory and Resin is S, it is possible to equip two Valor Incenses and a Valor Resin, netting you 4 times your initial BRV (400%). With this (along with some wall rushing accessories), you will bring Chaos to 1 HP IN ONE SUCCESSFUL HP ATTACK. And if that is not enough, these accessories WILL NOT BREAK until you've finish all the three forms!!! This means that you will get the 400% initial BRV boost at the beginning of ALL THREE FORMS. I'd like to warn you that these accessories WILL take away ALL the challenges this game offers. Therefore, use these accessories only if you are REALLY desperate to kill this big guy. Also, people, who desperately resort to Valor Incense/Resin to beat LV100+ Chaos, should not brag that Chaos is totally easy or a wimp. Kill him without those accessories or infinite combos bringing up your bragging rights please. ========================== VIII) His attacks [ChF-08] ========================== Here I will list all of his attacks, a brief overview of how to counter them, and the upgrades it gets in each form. ------------- | BRV attacks | ------------- His BRV attacks, to the best of my knowledge, have no official names. Therefore, I'm going to call them according to their appearance. (I know their names might not sound badass, but the point is to have people know what attack it is.) Ground Triple Combo -------------------- - Slashes around himself with his claw and tail (?). Do little damage. But stings if all three hits. - The attack covers only around him, but not from above. Attacks like WoL's Shield Strike, Zidane's Tempest, Cecil's Sacred Cross, will take care of this easily. Also if you like guarding and has Riposte equipped, you might as well block him, making him completely open for a free fully critical combo. - In his third form, this attack will be upgraded. He will also release wall of flames along with the combo. So to block this, you have to be REALLY close to him to make him stagger. Blocking in mid-range will cause you to get hit instead. Personally, I will suggest escaping into the air because it is safer. Air Triple Combo ----------------- - Like the Ground version, except it is done in the air and it hits in a vertical manner, not horizontal. - This one is a little different from the Ground Combo where it is a lot faster and normally can't be block upon reaction (even if you see it coming). Your best bet is to tap guard when you see him dashing towards you. Or in some cases, you can use any of your fast BRV attacks. That way both of you will stagger, but you won't get hit. - In his third form, this attacks gets upgrade with Golbez's Genesis Rock property, where if the target is right below his attack range, you will still get dragged up into the air combo. Don't ever let him get on top of you. Fire Wave --------- - He does a flipping somersault and release a vertical fire wave at you. You will stagger upon blocking. Moderate damage as it WILL wall rush you. - This one is pretty easy. Just dodge side ways to get away. Personally, I see this attack as a give away chance for attacking. If you see him about to use it, quickly run towards him and dodge forward. With Evasion Time Boost, you should be invincible long enough to not get damage. Also, your dodge delay should be over sooner than Chaos's delay. So quickly attack him w/ swooping attacks, like Tempest, Shield Strike, Air Fang, or maybe Slash Blow. - In his third form, he will combo this attack by unleashing three waves at you consecutively. If you got hit, there's very thin chance you can get out of it. You can try the same tip for other forms. But you have to side dodge the first two, then dodge forward on the last one. Fire Ball ---------- - Not really frightening. He unleashes a flock of fireballs that will home into you. Each fireball does only little damage. - This one is straightforward. Just dodge away. You shouldn't have any problem. If you still find your self being hit by this attack, try dodging side ways just before the balls touch you. If you are a fan of CoD's Wrath P. Beam and Firion's Shield Bash, this is your golden chance. =D - If memory serves me right, these balls stagger upon block in Jap version, but in US, you can now guard them w/ ease. (Nice ^_^) - Correction. His balls are blockable in form one and two. However, in form three, the balls gain block stagger property. Therefore, don't block them but dodge aside. Fire Spinner ------------- - IMO, this is his most frustrating and cheap BRV attack. He spins himself 360 degrees around himself horizontally, unleashing a huge area of flame circle. Each hit does somewhere from little to moderate damage, but since it hit many times; there is a high chance that you WILL break if your equipments are not so impressive. - To counter this attack, you will have to rapidly tap guard until he stops spinning. However, it is very possible that you can still screw up even if you successfully blocked the first hit. If you are not very good with guarding, I suggest you quickly tap O once you see him disappear. This way you will have a chance of hitting him right when he reappears to spin on your face. - Characters like WoL and Ex-Death will have no problems because they have attacks that have innate guard properties. If you are playing CoD or Firion, Shield Bash or [Wrath] P. Cannon away. - In his third form, this attack becomes even nastier as he will have the ability to teleport around. What he will do a lot is teleport right in front of you and spin. If you're playing characters like Zidane or Tidus, quickly throw in Hop Step, Storm Impulse, or Swift Attack, right when you see him disappear. You should be able to intercept it. For ground-oriented characters, I'm sad to say you'll probably have to stick with guarding. (Unless you have other ways of countering this attack. Feel free to post a topic in the boards or email me personally.) Burn Stomp ---------- - Chaos will stomp down onto the ground, creating huge tremor. Does moderately high damage and wall rush you. More damage if this hits you from high elevation. - Don't block this attack for it will stagger you. Some might say Chaos will stay still until you recover from stagger, but I see no reason to stagger AT ALL. The best way to stay out of this attack is to stay above him, that way he won't be able to hit you at all. For ground-oriented characters like Dark Knight Cecil and Firion, you will have several ways of countering this attack. Once you see him about to do this attack (pretty obvious because mostly he will double jump and screams something like "Perish!!!"), quickly back step (dodge backwards) and counter w/ skills like Rope Knife, Dark Cannon combo, or for Cloud players, Climhazzard>Slash Blow>Omni V5. Flame Riser ------------ - He will disappear from the screen and attack you from below three times. Each time does only a little damage but it will guard stagger you. - This attack is also, IMO, a give away attack. If you are on the ground, a carefully timed dodge should be able to get you out of it. If you are in the air, wait until he pops up the third time then swoop down with attacks like Tempest, Shield Strike, Sacred Cross, or Beat Fang him from above. For Tidus players, you might also initiate Jecht Shot on his second pop up. Your ball should hit him when he pops up the third time. If not, try catching on the timing a little more. - Available only in Second and Third Form. ------------ | HP Attacks | ------------ Tips for avoiding his HP attacks can be viewed in Selphie's Battle Tips menu as well, accessed by pressing L in Customize menu after you kill him the first time in Shade Impulse Chapter 4. (Why the game tell you how to get around them AFTER you beat him, is beyond me >_>) Condemned ---------- - Unleashes a Flame Pillar. No extra BRV damage. - This is one of the easiest attacks to dodge. Just dodge away when he sucks you in. - The only thing that will make this attack threatening is that Chaos has this nasty habit of pulling it out off-guard, for example after you dodge or about to perform an attack. If that happen, you're pretty much screwed =(. Soul of Oblivion ----------------- - Charges a huge fire beam, which takes forever to charge up. Does little BRV damage before dealing HP. - Certain user in GF board refers this attack as Soul of Failblivion (LOL) as it is one of the most easiest attack to overcome. - Though this attack is not dodgeable, it is another give away attack for you to slap Chaos in the face. Don't panic for this attack. You have more than enough time to interrupt this attack (Even Ex-Death's Sword Dance is faster than his charge time). Once you see the attack name pops up, Free Air Dash to him ASAP and use any fast BRV attack intercept him. Sometimes, he tends to use this attack when he's only around mid-range from you, so it's even easier to interrupt it. - Though with extremely long range, the beam does not have enough length to cover from the ceiling to the ground. So if you found your self in either of the position and he is in the other, don't push your luck by trying to interrupt him. Stay still (if you are in mid-air, do lots of dodge cancel to reset jump counts) and wait until the attack is over. Divine Punishment ------------------ - Yes, his ultimate super cheap shot. Unfortunately, he has this very very nasty habit of spamming it a lot. This attack is what makes Chaos seem impossible since it gives you almost no chance to escape. First, he will summons flocks of fireballs around you. After that, he stabs you from all directions with shining sword. Finally, he will reappear above you and fire another shining sword down on you, dealing moderate to TONS of BRV damage if you are hit from high elevation (which will probably breaks you on the way) before dealing HP damage. - Here is an overview of how you dodge this: 1) Once you see the attack name pops up on the screen, STOP MOVING. Even if you are in the air, just let yourself drop down. The flames around you WILL catch you if you move and if that happens, you're screwed for a free hit. 2) Tap dodge RIGHT AFTER the sound effect (SFX) of the flames is over. It is a little hard to get used to the timing, so I recommend fighting him in the Quick Battle to get used to the timing first. (For players playing Shade Impulse, sorry, but you will have to hit retry again and again until you get it because you can't unlock him for quick battle yet ^_^). This might sound tough, but after a while, you'll find your own method of timing. Also, the instance for dodge is EXTREMELY strict. But luckily, with Evasion Time Boost, you should still be invincible, and moveable, even if the swords actually hit you in the animation. Therefore, as I mentioned above, this ability is a MUST. Or else, you will have a very hard time trying to get the timing. (I'm not sure what level you actually get it because lately I go from lv 1 to 100 in one battle a lot >_>. But I'm sure it is some where from 50s to 60s. SI players might want to get themselves to that level first before challenging Chaos.) - Here's what I did to get to the rhythm of the timing when I'm on the ground. You can also try this if you want. First, I stop and wait until the attack name disappeared. After that, I do a double jump, slowly. And at the end of the double jump, the sfx should already be over. Now hit dodge to any direction but, for the love of Cosmos, neutral because he will reappear above you to fire the golden sword for HP damage. If you are dodging this mid-air, I'll recommend another dodge (after the swords stab appear) because sometimes one dodge is not enough to get out of the last sword. Now, if you've done all the steps above correctly, quickly dash towards him and punish him during his delay. - Don't get upset if this attack screws you many times. In fact, I believe that even the most experienced players can get hit by this if this attack comes out of nowhere. (The reason would most likely be because of the fireballs making you stagger.) Practice on the timing. If you get it right, you'll get another opportunity to attack him. - On his third form, the timing of dodges changes. He will summons more fireballs, therefore, making you have to wait a little longer. For new players, this will screw their rhythm very easily. To solve this, try relying on your ears to listen to the sfx and tap dodge once it stops. - Another nice way to protect yourself against this attack (though not reliable) is to hug the ceiling. Equips as many JTB as you please or use neutral dodges to reset jump counts. Now, if he uses DP, all you have to do is keep on hugging the ceiling by jumping in place again and again. Even if the swords hit you now, Chaos won't be able to land the HP hit on you because he will reappear beside you instead. You can also easily counter him after this. - If you are still having troubles, I suggest you watch the videos in the section below. These show you an idea and timing of how to dodge this attack correctly. Check [ChF-12] Scarlet Rain ------------- - He blows up the ground around him. If you're hit, you'll be knocked up into the air. After that, several fireballs will fly towards you, followed by the final ungodly huge one, which will deal HP damage. - This attack is a tricky one to counter. You have to follow the following steps carefully. First, he will most likely teleport away from where he used to be to the center of the stage on the ground. If you saw him doing so, escape into the air AND hug the wall. You should be safe from the first explosion. After that, wait until the fireballs come homing at you. Now, before the balls hit you, rapidly tap R like there is no tomorrow. If you've done correctly so far, you will be safe from all of the BRV damages from this attack sequence, allowing you to dodge from the last ungodly huge ball. - If you did not hug the wall, there's a high chance that the fireballs will hit you from below you, screwing your guarding stance. Look out for this. - I'm not sure which form he will be using this attack. But so far, I haven't seen him using it in form one. - This attack, IMO, is actually the HARDEST attack to dodge. No, Divine Punishment is one of the easiest attacks to dodge and a lot easier than this. Besides, Chaos cheap shot DP A LOT, so you have many chances to read its timing. Demon Dance ------------ - He mumbles something (something like "Watch!! In Awe!!") before disappearing and reappearing at you from all direction five times, each time dealing HP damage. Yes, that's five HP damage in total. - Fear not for the attack is not THAT scary. Once you see the attack's name pop up, quickly concentrate and watch as he disappear. Once he reappears, quickly dodge AWAY from him. Do not dodge to the side or towards him because it will risk you being hit, making you open for the next HP sequence. Personally, I found it more flexible if you dodge, do a quick jump away from him, then dodge again when he attempts to do the next attack. - This attack will be come really scary and kill you if he uses Shinryu summon, activating 'Frozen Bravery'. After a HP hit, his BRV will not reset. So suppose he has 1000 BRV locked, he will deal 5000 HP damage if all the hits connect. However, most of the time he will lock his BRV when it is above 2000 BRV, meaning if all the hits connect, you are screwed. - If you happen to get hit, do not panic. Without Alexander Summon, he wouldn't be able to deal THAT much damage to you (should not be more than 3000 given your equipment is at its average level and you did not wall rush against the ceiling). When you get hit by one of the dances, quickly do an aerial recovery and move away from him. With Controlled Recovery, you should be invincible long enough to get out of the next hit and continue dodging. Utter Chaos and Brink of Delusion ---------------------------------- - This is probably his Ex-Burst, though it does not have any mini game or ex- burst sequences. He will expand his body to an ungodly giant form (it looks really scary the first time I saw this). After that, he will grab one of the insanely huge swords beside him and attempt to hit you three times, dealing pathetic BRV damage. Once he's done it three times, he'll jump backwards, grab three more swords, and stabs it at the side of the stage. Flame circles will appear and if you are in the circle until the end of the sequence, you will take HP damage. - This attack, once you know how to dodge them, will be annoying more than scary. First off, he will say "Shiver!!! (At the power of the gods!!)" or something like that. Once he says that, he will jump out of the stage and transform. Now quickly side dodge roll to escape the first hit (he will always start with a straight down ward swing). After that, he randomly do one of the following three attacks three times. 1) A horizontal slash. If he does so, leap into the air and stay there until the blast is over. 2) Straight Pierce. Dodge the initial thrust side ways. Then dodge left and right around to avoid being hit from the flames. 3) Ground Stab. He will stab the sword on your position, so dodge away. This attack's flames is IMO the hardest to dodge, as I myself haven't gotten away with this untouched. But fear not as it's not really all THAT damaging. I also heard that OAD will protect you from the flames, so feel free to use it. After the sequence, he will now attempt to set the stage ablaze. Now, once the camera returns to you standing on the stage, quickly hit START button to pause the game. Now look for an area where there is no flame appearing. Cancel pause and quickly get to that position. This will save you from the HP damage. For experienced players, you might not need to pause the game, but you have to be really quick to see an opening. - Also, there is this REALLY nasty glitch, where the camera became screwed and focus else where when the stage is about to be set ablazed. This means that you cannot see the stage and cannot dodge the HP hit of this attack. I don't really know what caused this and not sure what to do if this happens. But if it does, you are pretty much screwed and you can't do anything about it. =/ Strategy by InfinityZERO: For the easier one, stabbing the ground, just stay on the outside of the arena and go either in a clockwise or counter-clockwise while hugging the wall. Basically the attack sends a homing flame pillar to you. So like Cecil's Dark Flame attack, staying in the air is a bad idea. Thrust forward, is a little bit of a pain. Make sure you aren't next to a wall. Hopefully you're in the middle of the arena (just so that you can fully dodge to the left or right). Just dodge to either the right or the left, now instantly dodge the direction that you came from (so that you dodge back to the place you just started from). The thrust attack basically spreads out flame like in a fan formation that kinda of has light homing, but when you dodge back the way you came from, you're clear. ================================= IX) Character Strategies [ChF-09] ================================= Now, I will list character specific abilities to be used for countering Chaos's cheapness, along with the ideal instance to use them. This list is not yet complete or perfect for I have yet to master all the characters. Therefore this list is more of a general idea of how to use each attacks against Chaos. Also, character specific FAQs in GameFAQs also contain strategy against Chaos for each specific characters. Please check them out for I'm sure their details are more accurate and useful (since this section is only a general idea). Warrior of Light [Cos-I] ------------------------ + Shield of Light (Air and Ground) + Shield Strike > Bitter End + Rising Buckler > Bitter End + Ascension > Rune Sabre + Dayflash Shield of Light is the skill designed to help you against Chaos's cheap spamming of Fire Spinner. If you see him about to activate that attack, quickly press []. If you are fast enough, you will block all of his attack. And if you are close enough, you might even score a free HP hit on him. Be warned that you will be left vulnerable to breaking immediately after this. Also, Shield Strike is for countering attacks he does on the ground, such as Triple Ground Combo and Flame Riser. For Triple Ground Combo, do Shield Strike only after he finishes the attack or else both of you will stagger. Watch your range though because you might end up being to high up. For Flame Riser, wait until he rises the third time then Shield Strike him. If he uses Burning Stomp, quickly back step and Ascension him. I was thinking about advising Sword Thrust, but the initiation is too slow, and Chaos might dodge before you actually connect it. If you are feeling lucky, you can approach him and do Dayflash instead (IMO, it has higher BRV dmg output than Ascension, though it does not link to a HP attack). Firion [Cos-II] --------------- + Shield Bash + Master of Arms (Weapon Master) + Rope Knife > Double Trouble (Double Defeat) + Reel Axe > (no chain) + Lance Combo > Double Trouble + Fire First of all, for counter lovers, Shield Bash is a great ability to have in your arsenal. The attacks that can be Bashed are Fire Balls, Triple Ground / Air Combo, and, yes, Fire Spinner can also be Bashed. *Correction* You DON'T NEED to be at the very tip when you activate Shield Bash. Firion will immediately be invincible while he is performing counter attacks. As an interesting note, all other hits from the Fire Spinner after Shield Bash will be considered 'blocked'. Couple this knowledge with Spirit Stanchion or BRV Boost on Block accessories for a free boost in BRV. The homing Fire > Shield Bash still works well because Chaos tends to reflect the fire back at you a lot. Just hope that it doesn't get deflected to the ground first. In the Jap version, Chaos is so stupid that he cannot dodge the Weaponmastery AT ALL. So you might try spamming it. In the US version, he's a little smarter and won't get hit easily. Personally, I won't recommend you spamming it in any versions because you will be very vulnerable after the attack. And if it happens to fail, say goodbye to yourself. Now, if he uses the Fire Stomp, you will get your chance to deal a major damage with Reel Axe > Rope Knife > Double Defeat combo. (Personally, I'll just Rope Knife > Double Defeat right away because the delay in Reel Axe might screw your timing. Hence is why Reel Axe should not be linked to Double Trouble to save CP). Lance Combo is for point-blank combat, though it might not be of use most of the time, but it's better than having nothing to protect your self. Finally, Firion is a ground oriented character, so try not to stay too long in the air, unless you are doing Fire > Shield Bash trick. Onion Knight [Cos-III] ---------------------- + All of his BRV>HP attacks are useful + Firaga + Wind Shear For Fire Stomp, the same old dodge backwards and counter is still working great. Try using Blizzard > Blizzaga/Quake or the melee attack links to your liking. But in any case, use OK's speed to your advantage and go a little defensive. Dodge his attacks then do Turbo-Hit. With OK's speed, you should be able to catch him in his delay easily. Firaga also works sometimes because the range of explosion is too big for Chaos to dodge. But I wouldn't recommend this. You can use it to score a free HP hit if you like. I got a friend who told me that she beat the crap out of IC Chaos purely of only Wind Shear. This attack does not only attack the opponent for a decent dmg, but also protect yourself from Divine Punishment. Cecil [Cos-IV] -------------- + All Ground DK BRV + Paladin Arts and Night Fall (Dark Fall) + All Air Paladin BRVs + All HP attacks (Especially Paladin Force) Cecil is versatile both on ground and air, depending on which form he is. This mean you can choose your turf as you like. However, be warned that if you leap into the air with Paladin, it will be hard to get back to ground as a Dark Knight because you won't have that much of an opportunity to job change. Personally, I'll try to stay on the ground as long as possible (because DK Cecil, IMO, deal a lot more damage and WILL wall rush) until I'm forced to go into the air. For Dark Knight's Strategy, the old back step and counter from Fire Stomp still works. You can Shadow Lance or Valiant Blow him. If you are feeling lucky, you can combo him with Dark Cannon or even infinite him (though I myself never got DC infinite to work >_>). But even with this, you will be limited to only a few means of doing a HP damage on him because your only choice are Soul Eater and Dark Flame which might not be dependable in some situations. (He dodges a lot). As for Paladin, once you decide to become a Paladin, you will have to spend most of your time in the air because on the ground you suck. Try looking for an openning and counter with Ray Wings, Sacred Cross, or Paladin Force. I don't really use Saint Dive, because I don't like the attack >_>. Also, there are some sweet moments that will give you lots of opportunity to deal damage on him if you are Paladin. First, during the Divine Punishment delay. If you've been following my trick of dodging the attack above, you will be given a chance to counter with one of the attacks I mentioned above. Since he spams Divine Punishment A LOT, you will be getting lots of this sweet moment. Just be sure you already dodge out safely before executing any attacks. I got myself screwed sometimes for attacking too fast and got hit by the HP hit. (Sometimes it even cost the match >_>). Next, after Flame Riser. Once he finishes the third rise, Sacred Cross him or Paladin Force him. Paladin Force requires a little timing because if executed too fast, he will block the initial hit. You can Searchlight > Paladin Force him too, but that will even requires more timing. I would not recommend Raywings because sometimes you will be too far and he will recover from the delay before you attack him. Finally, after the fifth step of Demondance. Once you dodge out of all of the sequences, wait a second then Paladin Force him down to 'Floor Rush' him. Another notable thing about Cecil is, he will revert back to his Dark Knight form after each form is over. Keep this in mind in case you are a fan of his Paladin form. Bartz [Cos-V] ------------- + Ascension Lance + Solid Ascension + Climbarrel + All Air BRV attacks, including Holy>Flare + All HP attacks Since WoL's Ascension worked against Chaos after his Flame Stomp, Butz's Acension Lance also worked the same way, and so does Climbarrel. Again, if you feel lucky, go ahead and use Solid Ascension for it deals more damage and leads to Chase. For Butz, I'll stick w/ being in the air because all of his air BRV attacks are great. Storm Shot has fast startup like Zidane's Storm Impulse, so it is good for interrupting his attacks if you are really close to him. You can even interrupt attacks like Fire Spinner, Scarlet Rain, Demondance, and YES!!, Divine Punishment too!! You need to be really close to him though. The only attack that will prevent you from infinitely spamming this is his Triple Air Combo because it activates faster (or even if you are able to pull out Storm Shot, you will probably stagger). Slidehazzard is good for major damage, and Holy > Flare can be used as counter against Fire Spinner, but you need strict timing. Terra [Cos-VI] -------------- + Tornado + Flood + Blizzard Combo + Blizzara + Meteor + Holy Combo Strategy by Fireinthewronghole: The best strategy for Terra is to stay up high and spam Holy Combo > Flare > Ultima. Not only will Holy Combo cancel out Soul of Oblivion, but it will also keeps you at a good height to avoid getting sucked in by Condemned and block + dodge Scarlet Rain. If Chaos dashes towards you, block, and then counter with either Tornado or Holy Combo. If Chaos uses Divine Punishment, you can score an easy free hit with Tornado. Tornado will shield you from any damage and will also score you a hit on Chaos as long as you start it after he starts Divine Punishment. (If you start it before DP, you'll wind up getting hit with the HP attack unless you dualcast it while in EX mode. That's why you shouldn't just spam Tornado.) After Chaos gets hit with an HP attack and he's close to you, he has a tendency to use either his Air Triple Combo or Fire Spinner or Fire Stomp after getting hit with an HP attack. So after using an HP attack, block immediately and you should be able to follow up with another HP attack or Holy Combo (except if he uses Fire Stomp, in which case, you'll wind up staggering, but since you're at a good height, you'll recover by the time he hits the ground and you can follow up with Holy Combo). If he uses Flame Riser, anticipate when he'll come up for the third time and simply use a stage 1 Meltdown. That leaves Demon Dance, which can be cancelled out by Tornado but I think you should just dodge the entire thing and use either Holy Combo or Tornado afterward. Cloud [Cos-VII] --------------- + Climhazzard + Slash Blow > Omnislash Ver. 5 + Air Fang + Braver After Fire Stomp, he will be opened for Climhazzard>Slash Blow>Omni V5. Strategy by HeftyHeftyHefty: Well, I've beaten Chaos with cloud. I usually wait for chaos to attack before I would counter with some sort of attack. Pretty much just guarding when I can, then following with a combo of either Finishing Touch or Omnislash Version 5. I tried staying on the ground most of the time, Pretty much just playing more defensive. Kept a phoenix down on just in case, exp>ex force, riposte, and sneak attack all helped a great deal. Save EX for when you're stuck in a combo to easily counter it. I tried not to EX burst unless I was going to kill him. Magic pot helps when you get in a bind, just after break keep running around till you can safely use it , though I think that Iron Giant might help more if you're actually getting hit, carbuncle would also work... Squall [Cos-VIII] ----------------- + Thunder Bullet + Solid Barrel + Beat Fang + All HP attacks (You have to choose to left out one ground HP because Squall can carry only three) Though become more playable on air in US version, I would suggest you stick ground and go into the air only if you are Beat Fang-ing Chaos. As for the ground HP attack of choice, I had Blast Zone, Revolver Drive, and Fated Circle. Squall's main strategy will be to screw Chaos until you get enough BRV to kill him in one HP attack. Therefore, try not to use HP attack carelessly. As a ground character, Squall can counter Burning Stomp with Thunder Bullet > Solid Barrel for BRV damage or Blast Zone for HP. Revolver Drive is also good, but you have little place to run. Also, if he is far from you and he tries to Fire Spin, Rough Divide into his face for the LOLZ. Finally, Beat Fang him as much as you want, but be sure to do it when he is opened for it. If you spam it mindlessly, you might fall victim to Condemn. My Squall had a perma ex-build, meaning he'll be staying in Ex-Mode throughout the whole battle. Why would I want this? Squall's ex-bonus, Lionheart Trigger, helps increase hits in each of his BRV attacks. Beat Fang will become VERY deadly when combined w/ this. Also, with the bonus, Chaos will most likely be stuck w/ BREAK throughout the whole fight, meaning I won't really have to worry if his HP attacks are going to hit me or not (since they're not going to do any damage anway. =P) Zidane [Cos-IX] --------------- + Rumble Rush > No Chain + Swift Attack > Meo Twister + Tempest > Meo Twister + Storm Impulse or Vortex + All HP attacks All right, as Zidane is one of my main, I have a lot of ways to use him against Chaos. Since you start on ground, you might begin by a Rumble Rush>Tempest>Meo Twister for the lulz. Now once you get into that air, which is Zidane's turf, Chaos is going to be seriously pwned. First, your major skill of choice for dealing major BRV damage should be Storm Impulse. It has fast start up, and can interrupts lots of attacks if you are close to Chaos. This is why you have to stay in the air. In mid-close range, you have no choice but to use Storm Impulse. On the other hand, at extreme close-range, you can use Swift Attack > Meo Twister to deal HP damage. IMO, this deals little damage, so unless I have lots of BRV, I'll try to stay away from it. As for your choice of HP damage, Free Energy him in the face, or you can Grand Lethal him while he air dashes at you. There is very little window for him to escape this attack. As for an Aerial Ace (Air Master), he also packs some punch on the ground. A good trick to score a HP hit on ground is to first try to corner Chaos to a wall (any side as long as he has a wall behind him). Now, start up a Tidal Flame. Once you are able to move again, jump up and execute either Grand Lethal (for Mid-Range) or Free Energy (for Short Range). Chaos's AI will get screwed up, confused on which attack to dodge and eventually got hit by one of them. Be aware that if you wall rush him, he might get angry and break you for you are very vulnerable after a HP attack. Also, spamming Shift Break tends to work very well. I heard that there are players who win against Chaos by spamming only Shift Break. You might also try this if you want, but personally, I'll just go all out =). Tidus [Cos-X] ------------- + Stick & Move > Quick Hit (Air) + Dart & Weave > Quick Hit (Ground) + Hop Step + Jecht Shot One of the very simple rule of using Tidus: Unless you are using Hop Step, never ever start an attack before your opponent. Tidus is a dodge attacker, and he is proficient at doing counter attacks with his dodge attacks. Chaos's Fire Wave can be countered easily with Dart & Weave, set as forward + O. Tidus will leap over Chaos and grind down on Chaos like a gear. If you have Counterattack Critical Skill equipped, you are likely to score a few critical hits. His Flame Riser can be countered by initiating Jecht Shot at a safe range. Start the shot when he pops up the second time, so once he pops up again, the shot will be flying right into his face. This can also be use to punish DP and Demon Dance, but you might have to be a little fast on your fingers. Strategy by DecoyCharacter: Also, note that some moves work better on Chaos than others. For example, Chaos does not react to Tidus's Spiral Cut like ever, he will stand still and take the hit (provided he is not attacking). By the "hit" i mean the final hit that actually takes out HP(he might dodge while you bounce, but will stand still while Spiral Cut tracks him down for the final cut hit). Or consider cornering him and spam Tornado with Terra, and mention that if you use Tornado right after he starts Divine Punishment, Tornado wins and Chaos ends up damage (no damage done to you, Tornado will deflect the fire and swords) Strategy by DXfan1448: Divine Punishment is EASILY punished by Jecht Shot. You'll deal large damage due to it's ability to Wall rush. Just Dodge and shoot if you can do it right Use Stick and move on the pseudo-Hell's gate move. Hop Step if he's doing the spinning move while you're on the ground and in EX. Jecht shot him if he missed doing the spinning move and you're above or below him. But be fast or you'll get punished by the pseudo-Hell's Gate move if below him. Don't know if above, another spinning move maybe? Getting Condemned? Slice and dice can instantly break chaos while taking the damage. Just be aware how much BRV he has and the BRV pool. Well,that's just me. Shantotto [Cos-XI] ------------------ + Just equip whatever Spirit Magic you want. You're not going to throw this at Chaos mindlessly anyway. Personally, I'd go with Fire (Ground), Water (Aerial), and Air (Aerial) + Retribution/Couple of Attacks Rule of the thumb when playing Shantotto, NEVER ATTACK BEFORE YOUR OPPONENT DO. Well, things can be changed in online battles with Bio mind games. But against Chaos, I wouldn't recommend mind games against him. Dodge his attacks well and counter with Retribution in the Air or Couple of Attacks on the ground. The faster you BREAK him the better because Shantotto lies heavily on her BRV. As for people who hate Fire Spinner like me, here's a good news. Shantotto's Retribution CAN block Fire Spinner! If you take a look at the attack's property in the customize menu, you will realize that the attack itself has innate low-guard property, which can block Fire Spinner at will. Instead of having to rely on blocking, feel free to hurl staff at Chaos. He can't harm you. Also, I'd recommend getting her an EX-Build. With it, she is more free to do HP attacks w/o having to worry about regaining her BRV back. When you get your BRV to above 6000, get back to the ground and OMFGHAX MACHINE GUN FLARE him. With her EX Mode's Manafront, you'll only need two attempts to bring him down. And you don't even have to worry about him breaking you since Manafront prevents your BRV from resetting. Another interesting side note, "Pre-HP Attack" and "Pre-BRV Attack" booster accessories are 'reset' at the beginning of Chaos's new form. I noticed this because I have Pre-HP attack on Shantotto. But then again, this might not be new to some people. XP Garland [Cha-I] --------------- + Highbringer + Lance Charge + Bardiche + All of his HP attacks Alright, here comes the 'Knock Down' master. Garland's potential shines to the fact that his attacks hit REAL hard. He will, however, have a little harder time landing a HP attack. First of all, Bardiche is necessary for the 'Rise and Fall Theory' trick (read in the 'Personal Favorite Strategy'). But since his armor is pretty heavy, I don't think extra JTBs and JBs worth that much, unless you are being really cheap and intend to spam this trick the whole match. I found that the AI in US version are pretty stupid and can't block high bringer THAT well. Use that either to initiate a chase or for a mild damage. And finally, AI are so stupid that 80% of the time they will try to block Lance Charge, making them knocked down. Chaos's AI is no exception. Now, once you had enough BRV to screw Chaos, you'll have a new trouble of landing HP hit. Tsunami is a good candidate because the stage is pretty small and Chaos is not THAT smart to be able to dodge it. Cyclone > Blaze is also great as it doesn't only provide protection, but pressures Chaos to dodge into the Cyclone as well. Garland in Ex-Mode is just unstoppable for he will continue to finish his attacks even if he got hit from a BRV attack. So if you happen to find yourself being in Ex-Mode, go ALL OUT. There's a high chance that Chaos will screw himself just trying to fight against you. (Twin Sword his face while Fire Spinner is just epic XD). Emperor [Cha-II] ---------------- + Landmine / Mine + Thunder Crest + Light Crest + Ground & Air Flare + Star Fall As a Trap Master, it will be a little challenging to place him in the front lines. However, even as a schemer, he does pack lots of punch. First of all, don't underestimate the potential of Flares, both aerial and ground versions. There is a very high chance that Chaos will be stupid enough to run into them if he is cornered against a wall. If not, these Flares will make him 'run amock' like an idiot. Along with Mines and Landmines, the god of dischord will be dying from just walking around. Now, even as mage, he is also able to fight very competitively. If you are able to some how stagger him, lay Thunder Crest and lol him first. After that, land a Landmine on him. With Riposte, you'll net close to a thousand BRV just by throwing those mines at him. No, I'm not exaggerating. My Emperor's Landmines deal 600+ BRV damage each if critical. On a side note, it is also fun to Free Air Dash and 'Mine' him in the face while he is charging Soul of Oblivion. With Counterattack equipped, it'll deal pretty decent damage if it criticals. And finally for Starfall. YES! There is a way for you to cast this powerful spell even in a small stage, for Chaos is so stupid!! To be able to do this, first, unleash ground Flare. Next, fire an aerial Flare. Now, 'go into' the aerial Flare and start casting Starfall. If you've done this correctly. Chaos will be so stupid to keep running from the 'Blue Ball of Doom' while you are lmao-ing. Furthermore, the aerial Flare will protect you from basically ALMOST every single attacks Chaos throw at you. Meaning, Fire Spinner and Fire Balls are out of the question. Fire Wheel Wave will still get you, but he shouldn't be able to get back to ground due to him being stupidly afraid of the 'BBD'. And even if he tries to Fire Stomp you, he'll be Flared from the aerial Flare. Finally, if your Starfall happens to connect, quickly dash towards him and wait for the Starfall to flash. Once the screen is covered in white, quickly cast Thunder Crest. If you've done this correctly, you will catch him inside the crest, giving you a chance to pull critical Landmines on him for you are recovering your BRV. This is works on other characters as well. It is not only creating an attack opportunity, but it is also a chance for you to protect yourself while you are vulnerable. Cloud of Darkness [Cha-III] --------------------------- + All of his/her BRV attacks (He/She doesn't have much anyway) + Anti-Air P Beam + Wrath P Beam + O Form P Beam Since CoD is a HP attacker, you will have to be extremely careful when deciding to score an attack. Why? Because, especially in form three, Chaos loves to warp to your face and fire spin you. This means that you will be in constant threat to Break. My advice first advice is to use EXP->BRV builds. That way you will gain back enough BRV to be a little safer from BREAK. However, unless you build a really extreme setup, and maybe gain lots of BRV back from attacking, you will still be in danger of getting smacked by Fire Spinner. Another advice is to automatically dodge away from him after an attack because that way at least you can ensure your safety to a certain level. If you're still getting hit, try watching the instance to use your HP attack. Use it when the stage BRV randoms to a low value. Wrath P. Beam is great for countering his attacks, but I'm not a fan of it though. (The instance is even stricter than normal guard). Just like Firion, you are invincible after the counterattack has started, so feel free to use this against Fire Spinner. AA P Beam is there just for the sake of comboing in her Ex-Mode. Finally, your main attack is going to be the good o' O-Form P Beam. This attack has huge attack scope and is really hard to dodge out of it in this stage. Use it after dodging his HP attacks to make up for the delay. In Ex-Mode, if you spam O-Form and cancel out Ex-Burst, you can practically loop him in an infinite O-Form chain because your cancel delay is shorter than Wall Rush recovery rate. Golbez [Cha-IV] --------------- + Just put in all of them. They can't live w/o one another anyway Golbez's turf, completely opposite from Zidane, is on the ground. This is where you will spend most of your time with because your air options are pretty limited and not impressive. All of Golbez's combo works great, though all the Rise Wave ones tend to not be fully executable due to lack of space. Gravity Force is great for the arena is small and Chaos can get caught in this really easily. If he happens to get caught, dodge cancel and Floating System > Cosmic Ray for a free HP hit. For the cheap Fire Spinner, you can try your luck by using Nightglow. If you are fast and near him enough, you will crush his attack and send him Ceiling Rush for lots of damage (given you have high BRV). Be warned that Nightglow WILL NOT save you if you are far from Chaos. The initial aura will protect you a little, but after a while, it will be gone and you will suffer from the flames. The only time you will be on the air is when you try to dodge Flame Riser. Wait for the opening and Gravity/Floating System him. I'll suggest Gravity System because the laser extends way to the ground, that way you won't miss him. Also, if you like Genesis Rock, you can drag him up and teach him a lesson for trying to imitate Genesis Rock's property in Triple Air Combo XD. Ex-Death [Cha-V] ---------------- + High Guard + Sword Dance / Vacuum Wave Yes, you can defeat Chaos with only these attacks. Ex-Death is a Chaos killing machine, and if you are desperate to kill IC Chaos, Ex-Death is your friend. First of all, High-Guard can block EVERY SINGLE BRV ATTACKS that Chaos throws at you. This means the cheap fire spinner will also be subdued by this attack (guard). More over, blocking them will give you chance to counter with major BRV dmg OR HP dmg. Also, High Guard allows you to counter some of Chaos's attacks when you can't normally do so with normal guard. Form Three's Triple Comboes are easily block w/ High Guard and the flames won't do any thing to you. Flame Riser and Burning Stomp will also stagger upon touching High Guard. The only time you will ever have to use Sword Dance or Vacuum Wave is when he tries to use Soul of Oblivion. Granted, you can also use any of the HP attack to counter this, but for personal preference, I like the "Feel the Void!" quote XD. More on how to use Ex-Death against Chaos will be covered in the later sections. (I know there's not much to cover, but I like to go more in depth with this.) Kefka [Cha-VI] -------------- Strategy by CeruleanGamer: Kefka's a little similar like Terra. Keep Waggle Wobbly Firaga Chaos from above. Chaos hasa hard time dodging this spell and it flinches him for a good 3 seconds. While he's taking damage from this, use Scatter Spray Blizzaga to stack even more BRV. Finish off with Trine or Havoc Wing. Sephiroth [Cha-VII] ------------------- Strategy by Iwantedzero: Play more offensively than most other characters. Because of its long range, Chaos has a hard time dodging Octoslash. If you use it while he isn't using an attack he'll generally dodge behind you and your last swing will hit him in the back. For this reason, it's better to fight Chaos on the ground as much as possible. Don't bother using Scintilla as the blocking effect doesn't work well and it's easily dodged by him anyway. Black Materia is nearly useless because there is never enough time to charge it. As well, since it is a small arena and level1 and 2 charges come down diagonally it will almost always miss if Chaos is in the air. Sephiroth's whole game should be about punishing. Punish him when he's not attacking, when he misses or when you block. Keep Heaven's Light on to easily punish him when he charges up (What was the beam move called? Soul of Oblivion or something?). In some cases, you can perform a Hell's Gate right after hitting him with Heaven's Light to combo him, however this is not recommend as he usually uses a brave attack right after being hit to brake you. Still, if he uses the same attack again you can punish him easily. This also sometimes interrupts Divine Punishment, but don't count in it. Save his EX mode for saving yourself from combos. Attacks like Demon dance, almost any of his brave combos, and Divine Punishment can be interrupted with EX mode. For Divine punishment, you'll want to use it just before getting hit with the final attack. If you go into EX mode and block the pillars of flame, he'll still hit you with the damaging part of the attack. Ultimecia [Cha-VIII] -------------------- + Apocalypse + Shockwave Pulsar Strategy by Zhang_He: When using Ultimecia try to use Apocalypse against a mid air Chaos and assail him with Shockwave Pulsars when he's below you. When he's charging up the massive fire laser (Soul of Oblivion) use either a K. Axe or K. Sword (Using a Charged K. Sword works VERY well if you have the counter attack ability equipped). Charged K. Arrows are ok but if it's IC Chaos we're talking about his spinning fire attack takes them out very quickly if he's anywhere near them. Also be careful of his HP attack that sucks you into him (Condemn) make sure you can dodge out of whatever attack you're doing at the time so you don't get hit! If all else fails you can try to use the Great Attractor trick even Chaos doesn't attack once the sphere is formed. That's all I can think of right now. Kuja [Cha-IX] ------------- + Strike Energy / Snatch Blow + Remote Flare + All of his HP attacks (in mid-air) As a Graceful Glider (come on, SE, from 'Range Master' to this? >_>), his turf is obviously in the air although he can be competitive on ground too. As a mage, Kuja will have a hard time avoiding breaks. So the only thing you can do to make up for that is Strike Energy. This attack almost has no start up lag and will possibly interrupt any close range attacks Chaos tries to throw at you. Snatch Blow also has this capability and has longer range. It goes through many of his attacks though its start up is pretty slow, so use only when he is far away from you. Snatch Shot in US version has been nerfed and is not really useful in this battle, IMO, because you will be hugging the ceiling. Feel free to remove it for Remote Flare. You can constantly pressure the AI with Remote Flare. If he decides to use DP while you are spamming RF, then he'll be interrupted. Btw, Burst Energy is also nerfed in US version and it is now blockable (though Kuja will not stagger). Use it at your own risk. His HP attacks are best use as punishments. Seraphic Star into his Fire Spinner when you have dodge out of range (take that you SOB!). Flare Star is nice when you have him cornered or use it after you successfully stagger with guard him. Another nice strategy is to spam Ultima. AI is pretty stupid and will constantly be dodging Ultima even if it already dodge the initial hit so don't worry about being countered back. But keep in mind that this attack should NOT be your priority. Use it only if you need time to think. Since you will have a hard time landing most of his HP hit sometimes, it is best to go into chase mode against Chaos (almost all of his BRV follow up does that). A great strategy to trick Chaos's Chase AI is to use HP attack if your BRV is below base, and constantly using O attacks for a few times if your current BRV is enough to kill him and change to []. (Something like tricking the AI to believe that you will do another BRV, but do a HP instead.) Jecht [Cha-X] ------------- + Just equip anything to your personal preference (He doesn't have that much choice anyway) I'm not as manly as Jecht yet (actually, no one can be as manly as him). However, I'm able to master his combos well now (good bye forever to Command Battle). By the time you actually find yourself mastering Jecht's combos, you shouldn't have any more trouble w/ Chaos. So I am going to give little tips on when to do stuffs. Jecht Block can knock back pretty much every BRV attack Chaos throws at you. So other than blocking triple ground and aerial combo w/ normal block, you can now block Fire Stomp with the manly Jecht Block. And if you wanna try your luck, try Jecht Blocking Flame Riser. Since ExDeath's High Guard can block it, I don't really see a reason why Jecht Block can't. As for battling w/ Chaos, I'd use the ex-bar for ex-canceling. With his amount of initial BRV, no delay in performing combos, and decent equipments and builds, you should score 7000+ BRV (gained from BRV Pool) if you open the battle w/ a fully ex-cancel Jecht Blade Combo. (The combo should cover enough damage to break Chaos in time as the stage BRV reach 4999). Gabranth [Cha-XII] ------------------ + Dual Rend (Ex-Mode attack) + HP attacks to your preference Gabranth is the only character I will require you to have an accessory. That is at least having an Arcane Resin (100% ex-gauge at the beginning of battle). Gabby is a trash outside of his Ex-Mode, therefore you are going to stay in his EX-Mode, ALWAYS. With that accessory, you will always start a battle with full ex-gauge throughout the three forms and the acc will not break until the battle is over. The big disadvantage with this is you can't screw up. EVER. Gabby have to always be in Ex-Mode to be useful, meaning you cannot ex-block out of a HP attack. So summons like Magus Sister will be your best friend. Start the battle by going into Ex-Mode right away and pwn him with Dual Rend. This attack is fast and deals a considerable amount of BRV damage. He will most likely get hit by this if you use it as a counter attack. If you are able to block him on ground, Guilt him (with Riposte equipped). This attack has an insane BRV start up hit and will deal a great damage even if your equipment is poor. (From what I've heard, Guilt's initial thrust actually have the highest base attack rating of about 40. I'm not really sure how you calculate it, but just keep in mind that it can hit over 1000+ damage in a single hit). You can also spam Innocence from the ceiling, but don't ever call yourself a Gabranth pro if you do that. You are only asking to be laughed at. Finally, DON'T EVER DEAL AN EX-BURST IF IT IS NOT GOING TO KILL HIM. I can't stress this enough. Gabby is a piece of trash outside of his Ex-Mode. Try every possible way to stay in his Ex-mode until the battle is over. The accessories that will help Gabranth a lot are Gravitorb, Pearl Necklace, and Gold Hourglass. These three accessories, along w/ a few multipliers, will probably keep you in ex-mode for a long time. So unless you run away too much and there is no ex-forces to help replenish the ex-bar, you won't likely ran out of it. ================================ X) Technical Strategies [ChF-10] ================================ Here are a number of ways I used to fight against Chaos, acutally more like IC Chaos. Chaos from SI and Quick Battles are not THAT insane and just requires you to dodge his attacks correctly. IC Chaos and BJC Chaos are a different story because they have insane dmg output and WILL most of the time kill you in just one HP attack. Zidane, the Super Aerial Ace / Air Master: ------------------------------------------ This strategy uses Zidane's potential to the fullest, him being the Air Master. However, this trick does not work for US version for the Meo Twister Chain from Storm Impulse is removed. What you have to do is get to the top of the stage as soon as possible. Just Jump and JTB++ will be tremendous help in doing so. Now, once you are at the ceiling, Chaos will try to chase you. Now, once he approaches you, immediately use Storm Impulse. This attack will be faster than ALL of his BRV attacks. After that, chain this to Meo Twister. The HP chain will not miss. But even if it does, it does not matter because he will still have delay from recovering from the beams. Now, spam Storm Impulse > Meo Twister like there is no tomorrow. You will be able to intercept ALL of his attacks if you are near him. The only time he will break free from this is when he uses the Flame Riser, or you are too slow and he activates Scarlet Rain. This exploit no longer work well in US version because 1) Meo Twister chain is removed from Storm Impulse, and 2) Even though spamming Storm Impulse can still deal major BRV dmg to him, you can no longer win against Triple Air Combo. Due to the delay after Storm Impulse, if both of you initiate an attack at the same time both of you will stagger. In the original Jap version, Chaos will be suffering from the recover delay after Meo Twister, while you are open to initiate another Storm Impulse, enabling you to win over Triple Air Combo. Ex-Death, the Chaos-Killer Machine: ----------------------------------- Many of you already know that Ex-Death is the best way out against Chaos despite him being ungodly slow. The reason behind this lies with Ex-Death Counter Attacks with his various Guards. The only guard you actually need for this battle is High Guard. This Guard blocks every single BRV attack of Chaos (And does not require timing because you can hold the guard up as long as you like). It even staggers Flame Stomp and Flame Riser (sometimes this goes through High Guard, but that's just because I was unlucky). There are only two things you have to do w/ Ex-Death. Dodge his HP attacks for you can't block any of them. If he uses Soul of Oblivion, counter it with Vacuum Wave or Sword Dance. If you see him about to execute ANY BRV attack, quickly brings up High Guard and hold it like that until the attack hits the barrier and the word 'Block' appears. Now you are ready to use a counter attack against Chaos. I'd recommend Forward+O Counter to hit him hard with sword dance. (This attack even w/o any equipments still have insane damage output). Rinse and repeat until you gain enough BRV to Counter Almagest him to death. Make Chaos 'shiver!' with Ex-Death's mastery over the VOID!! Strategy by Viashino_Wizard: Exdeath's All Guard can block all Chaos' HP attacks except Soul of Oblivion. For Divine Punishment in particular, if you All Guard the swords instead of dodging them, you can immediately activate Tornado (neutral square), which will catch Chaos when he teleports in above you to throw the final sword. I've also found that Counterattack is even better than Riposte against Chaos, since most of his attacks are easier to dodge than block if you aren't Exdeath. The Rise and Fall Theory: ------------------------- Chaos can become a cry baby that does not give up when being pushed over. Because of this, you will be able to exploit his AI. First, not all characters can use this trick. You will need characters with attacks that 'Floor Rush' your opponent (meaning sending them down to the ground). The characters and attacks that can exploits this include: + Cecil's Raywings / Paladin Force + Butz's Slidehazzard / Paladin Force + Squall's Beat Fang + Garland's Bardiche + Jecht's Jecht Stream (O -> O -> Down+O) So, what does this trick actually do? If I were to explain this trick in one phrase, it would be 'Rise and Fall Loop'. First, you leap into the air and wait until Chaos air dash at you. Before he reached you quickly tap R to guard. You will make him stagger. Now use the attacks I mentioned above, he will be send back down the ground. And being real ignorant for a god of discord, he will not give up and air dash at you once again. Hence rinse and repeat until you score enough BRV to screw him in one hit. Now, to actually do this trick, you will have to be playing one of the characters I mentioned because those attacks are capable of sending Chaos back to the ground and making him repeat the air dashes. Next, you have to be with in a range of one Chaos air dash. The optimal distance would be around a jump above his throne. At this range, he will hit the ground before aerial recovering and ensuring that he will air dash at you again. After this, you will need a little skill in using guard. For players who are not good at guarding, don't worry, the timing is not that hard. I mean, there's this one time where I hit guard really too fast than I should and he still stagger when he reached me. (Basically, he just dashed into a guard and intentionally get staggered. The god of discord is not as smart as you think, huh? XD) Although the guarding step should theoretically work with all characters, they cannot loop this because they cannot 'Floor Rush' him. So if you want to score a free HP hit, this is one way to do it. Finally, this trick works well with all Chaos in form one and two. This works with form three some times, but since he gains the teleport ability, he might just reappear and Fire Spinner into your face. So please keep this in mind as you fight form three. If you want to see an example of how this trick works, check Mitsumasa's Video on Squall VS IC Chaos down in the video section below. It was not a coincidence that Chaos kept on dashing at him. I tried this out myself and it works. Concentrate!: ------------- As I mentioned above about Concentration++ ability, this ability will give you almost an extra 800 BRV for free during the activation of this attack (given it is concentration ++. The lesser version of this ability will not provide this much). And during some of the moments, you will also gain another 400 BRV for free. All together of 1200 BRV seems little, but it helps you a lot if he spams this for it will help you regain your BRV for free. Here is how it works. First, once you see "Utter Chaos" appeared on the screen, immediately stop what you are doing. This way, it will be faster for concentration to activates. Now watch the activation sequence of this attack. When you are able to move again, you would already have your 800 BRV (with concentration ++). This should be more than enough to prevent you from breaking during this attack's sequences. After he finishes attacking three times, drop to the ground and stop moving again. During the activation of Brink of Delusion, you will most likely net another 400 BRV (600 if you stop fast enough). Now dodge the flames. With little luck, you will net ANOTHER 200 BRV for free. That's a total of 1600 free BRV!! (Given you stopped moving really fast to get this ability activated). =================================== XI) Contributed Strategies [ChF-11] =================================== Here are the strategies or tips contributed by all the kind Dissidia players from the GameFAQs message board. Steiner aka Vivisteiner's Strategy ------------------------------------------- When fighting Chaos it helps a huge deal if you have great accessories, abilities, and a great summon equipped. So you must prepare carefully before entering the battle. Firstly, you must buy and equip the following accessories: Phoenix Down (Endure Killing blow with 1HP) Valor Incence (Initial Bravery+100%) Valor Resin (Initial Bravery+200%) Arcane Resin (Initial Ex Force+100%) Phoenix Down is great as it basically ups the number of HP attacks Chaos will have to land by 1. Phoenix Pinion will not do this most of the time, because Chaos usually breaks you before he kills you, preventing any brave being converted to HP. Valor Incence and Resin are the two most important accessories to equip. You fight Chaos three times and so they will come into effect three times in the battle and give you a huge boost in bravery at the beginning of the battle. Arcane Resin is optional as there are quite a few ex cores, but its still useful. When you have the ex gauge filled you can automatically defend against Chaos's HP attacks (even if you mess up the dodge) by going into ex mode just as he's using the attack. That's why ex core appearance boosters and ex core absorption boosters are useful. If you're in a perpetual state of having a filled ex gauge, Chaos will find it extremely difficult to beat you. Thats why you should never go into ex mode unless if you are suffering from an HP attack. Never. For abilities, I recommend equipping a HP for your character that is very effective against Chaos. You want to be using this move A LOT throughout the battle, since building up brave is very hard. As I'm sure Mad_Cartoonist will cover this in depth, I won't bother with going into lots of detail, but I'll end saying that I also found Exp to Ex Force to be a useful ability. For summons, the best summon has got to be Alexander (NOT auto). To get it, you must play Zidane's Destiny's Odyssey twice. On the second time through, you unlock the non-auto version of the summon. You should equip it for the battle with Chaos. In the battle itself, don't use it until you make it to Chaos's third form. At the beginning of the third battle, use it immediately. Since you have equipped Valor Incence and Valor Resin, this will effectively freeze your bravery at a value over 4,000. Now hit Chaos with 3 HP attacks and you have beaten him. Using this tactic I beat the final form of Chaos in a few seconds. On a final note, before you go into battle Chaos, there's just one small little trick you can pull off. You can use the board abilities such as Maser to damage him before you fight him, and other abilities to make sure you have a full ex gauge and full health going into the battle. Using them in advance will give you a small lift which might just help you win the battle. Good luck! ---------------------------------------- Gothvidfreak ------------------------------------------- Terra + tornado = dead chaos 90% of chaos's attacks are deflected by tornado, which then in turn gets chaos sucked into the attack. Divine Punishment is a joke 99% of the time, sometimes when he throws his spear it will still hit you for some reason. Only attack you have to watch out for really is devil's dance. Also, stay near the top of the level so that when he teleports after D.I. he gets hit by tornado. ------------------------------------------- nateriver02 ---------------------------------------- Chaos: Here's what I do, There are four things that he would possibly do at the start of the battle. First, a Flame Wave that is easy to dodge. Second, a Claw Swipe combo on the ground. You could do a backstep and guard it. Third, he will either jump once or twice then do a Dive Attack. Fourth, he would jump once or twice then spit fireballs. It's similar in all three battles except in the third battle, he would do three Flame Waves. I'm not good at fighting Chaos but I just did what I do when I fight Sephiroth. Omni. V5 dash towards him(that should put you just a bit behind and above him) then Omni. V5 again. His possible summons on the second battle are Omega and PuPu summons. On the third battle, possible summons are Ultima Weapon and Iron Giant. I don't know the summons for the first battle because he's already dead before he can use it. Here are some tips on dodging his HP attacks. Divine Punishment: Stay still and wait for all the fire pillars to stop then dodge. Demondance: Dodge after he teleports near you. Repeat until the move ends and never dodge sideways, neutral or upwards. Scarlet Rain: Stay in the air and block all of the mini-fireballs. The last big one can only be dodged. Soul of Oblivion: No need to dodge, the start-up time is very long. Hit him while he's charging his lAz0r! Utter Chaos: Just keep in the air for the slashing parts and keep dodging. and on Brink of Delusion quickly go to the part of the stage that is not glowing and you will survive. ---------------------------------------- DecoyCharacter ---------------------------------------- Small mention that before the diving attack, Chaos says "Banish"(or is it Vanish, idk), and the moment you hear it, you should dodge. I find him announcing his dive attack clear and loud to be very helpful in dodging this specific attack. Also, note that some moves work better on Chaos than others. For example, Chaos does not react to Tidus's Spiral Cut like ever, he will stand still and take the hit (provided he is not attacking). By the "hit" i mean the final hit that actually takes out HP(he might dodge while you bounce, but will stand still while Spiral Cut tracks him down for the final cut hit). Or consider cornering him and spam Tornado with Terra, and mention that if you use Tornado right after he starts Divine Punishment, Tornado wins and Chaos ends up damaged(no damage done to you, Tornado will deflect the fire and swords) ---------------------------------------- Darkmaster2001 ---------------------------------------- So, you've fought through Chaos' manikins in Inward Chaos and your figurine is standing before the big baddy himself. If you go in prepared, you're sure to come out on top. First off, stay calm. Getting upset over losing is only going to throw your timing off. Take breaks if you're having trouble. Be prepared to possibly lose a few dozen times. Secondly, get some solid gear. Go for brave boosting equipment over attack stuff, since you'll be mostly dealing in HP attacks. Equip the Valor Resin and Insence (+200% and +100% initial Brave). They will return on each form of Chaos, enabling you to get a solid first hit in. Bring a Phoenix Down and Magic Pot too. If your characters HP attacks wall rush, add some items that increase Wall Rush HP Damage. Going in with a full EX Gauge will help as well, as you can break out of some of /most of his HP attacks with it, and recover some needed health. Realize that Chaos will most likely end up breaking you, and it's difficult to break him. Try not to waste too much time attempting to build up brave, as you'll spend more time being vulnerable to his HP attacks. Focus on dealing small bursts of HP damage. Now, for the HP attacks: Divine Punishment: When this attack starts, IMMEDIATELY stop moving. Wait until the flame pillars subside, then dodge the lance attack. Get off the ground to avoid the explosion. Soul of Oblivion: This attack takes some time to charge. Close the distance and hit him with a quick attack. Condemn: As a general rule, don't be too close to Chaos because this may come out of nowhere. It'll suck you in really quick, so dodge away from Chaos to avoid. Scarlet Rain: Hope you're far away enough for this one. All the fireballs except the last can be blocked, just try to dodge the last one. Demon Dance: For the first four hits, dodge out of the way. For the last, drop down. Try to save Magic Pot for the third form, as if he breaks you and you get out of break, he likely has maxed out brave, enabling you to steal the win from him. I beat him with Bartz, so I'll add a bit for him. Flood and Soul Eater are pretty ineffective here, but Soul Eater does come out quickly. If you do find yourself on the ground, use Soul Eater over Flood. Wind Shear goes through almost all of his attacks and it can save your bottom if you time it right. Paladin Force comes out quickly and punishes him if he rushes from below. Goblin Punch [R+[] in EX Mode] is the bane of Chaos. Spam this to interrupt most, if not all of his attacks. ---------------------------------------- Lord_Huza ---------------------------------------- All you have to do to defeat him is: Connect the first Twin slash, DC then Twin slash again.... repeat until your bravery get to 9999 and do a mid air Innocence... for some reason chaos cant get out of this combo, and it works for SI, IC, and even the lvl130 blackjack chaos.... recommended accs to equip(since gabranth is pretty much weak without accs): EX force boosters EX range boosters EX gauge +100%(tops up your EX gauge at the start of every 3 battles... it breaks at the end tho) ---------------------------------------- Strategy by Blutskalp: ---------------------------------------- just finished inward chaos "chaos" off with gabranth. found a pretty way to kill him without him doing much. starting with a setup of + exsphere charge and + range absorb gear, XP -> EX and a full ex bar i ran into battle. battle starts. i block his first wave. at the second one i go into exmode... then i just press O over and over and over (set the multi hit combo ground attack of him on O) when attack ends he gets always pushed in the wall of the map. as he comes back to himself i start the attack again, somehow he wont do anything and gets chained everytime in this attack. i repeat this until my brave goes to 9999 and finish him off. in his next phase, my ex bar is right back to full and i can repeat the first "tactic" to win this match... well.. guess what i did the third match over. ---------------------------------------- Strategy by ElluraUne: ---------------------------------------- Stay in the Air (yes Stay there even if your heavy, Chaos' air game sux) Chaos would dash toward you when your in the air so guard and knock him down with: Twist Drill? (The Lance Bullet in the Air) It has High Priority and staggers opponents when they guard it, you'll also be able to sneak in the extra hit from the move and knock him down. Bardiche to knock him down (just keep on doing this if your not sure of Twist Drill hitting) Chain Bump when he sits on the ground or is charging soul of oblivion, bonk him with your sword and go for chase(make sure you're good at it) If you get on the ground where Chaos is best use Falcord's combo, or you could just use High Highbringer (Yeah I got that from Falcord, Thanks dude) and knock him back down with Bardiche. As For HP attacks: Blaze-Use this when he doesn't want to dash to you Tornado-A mini shield Earthquake-Nail Chaos with this when you guard a ground attack of his Tsunami-DO NOT USE THIS I REPEAT DO NOT USE THIS, If you miss you'll have a LOT of ending lag so if you want to get Garland's a** handed to him by Chaos, by all means use it. HP attack in Chase - I'm sorry but this is the best way I could think of. Chaos' chase game is uh... kinda weak, just learn to chase after chain bump nail him with a few Brv and finish off with an HP Garland's EX prevents him from staggering when he attacks... SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO this saves you from... Soul of Oblivion-When you get hit by this just Chain Bump Chaos to cancel it. Demondance-Smack Chaos back down when he tries to uppercut you with Bardiche, I'm not sure if he would run into Tornado though, or just chain bump him to cancel. ---------------------------------------- Strategy by Beans4Brains: ---------------------------------------- Chaos ground dodges are very laggy. Battle Start throw at a tracking (Ground) Flare and then jump slightly in the air to throw out the aerial Flare. Then camp underneath the aerial flare and perform starfall and wait for Chaos to jump into the aerial flare or get hit with the tracking flare. Starfall is just a decoy. When releasing the aerial flare try and release it at the center of the stage and at a height of Chaos' head. If it is too high or low release another one. Keep the flares "fresh" especially if they end up being not center or too far away from chaos. Divine Punishment: Same way to avoid as any other character. Cannot punish with HP attack unless tracking flare is already out and tracks in time. Otherwise hit with Light Crest or mines if close enough. Condemn: Dodge back and Thunder Crest. Soul of Oblivion: Your only hope of hitting with HP attack is if tracking Flare is already out and fresh. Otherwise go with Light Crest. Demondance: Dodge as you would with every character. Tracking Flare will most likely hit after final hit of demondance if it is out. Scarlet Rain: Haven't come across this much with the Emperor but there isn't much room, if any, to punish him unless your quick enough to let of a thunder crest while he is recovering. ---------------------------------------- Strategy by Tracy Smith: ---------------------------------------- I found that random Thunder Crests are great when Chaos does his "pop-from- the-ground-like-a-groundhog" (Flame Riser) move. I wish I had a replay of that. ---------------------------------------- Strategies by Mitsumasa: ---------------------------------------- My strategy for beating Chaos with Jecht in 1 sentence. Block (or Jecht Block) everything you can and punish Chaos. Get BRV >6000 and do a HP attack with Wall Rush. This takes his HP down to one, where you can just use another HP combo to finish him off. Incidentally, this is the same tactic I use for Cloud, except with Cloud it's more: "Spam Omnislash every chance you get and make sure you have Berserker Ring equipped!" ---------------------------------------- Strategy by Mozman12: ---------------------------------------- In his first form its possible to hit chaos with an infinite combo. Basically if you block his "Ground Triple Combo" as you put it, you can hit him with Blizzard (Ground) and score a Wallrush. If you then Immeadiately follow up with another Blizzard (Ground) it is 99% guaranteed to hit him. Rinse and repeat until he breaks, or for as long as you want. The only way he can get out of it to my knowledge is by getting a VERY lucky dodge off (hardly ever happens) or by doing his "Fire Spinner" attack. If he does "Fire Spinner" it WILL miss you, and the timing is perfect to hit him with another Blizzard (Ground) and get him back up on the wall. Do not hesitate or that will break the combo. Just spam Blizzard. All of his other attacks, including Divine Punishment (if you're fast enough) will be countered, scoring some nice BRV damage. WILL NOT WORK ON SECOND OR THIRD FORM. Second form he'll pretty quickly do his "Flame Riser" attack and hit you. Third form... well... everything he does hits you. Very nice for passing first form quickly though. Block, Spam Blizzard, Break him, HP attack, Win. ---------------------------------------- Strategy by [J] adik: ---------------------------------------- I beat him using Onion Knight with smart spamming of Multi-Hit > Swordshower and Turbo-hit > Guiding Swipe. But the main purpose of this email is to inform you that I used Wind Shear to block Divine Punishment. I didn't know that I had to stop moving so the flames wont hit so I used this instead :D It acts like a mini version of Terra's Tornado and works best if you're pretty high up so the actual HP hit from Wind Shear connects when Chaos tries to throw the final sword. It can also cancel out Comdened and beats the Fire Spin assuming you got it out first XD. ---------------------------------------- ======================== XII) The Videos [ChF-12] ======================== Here are some videos that will help you in kicking Chaos, done by really good Dissidia players. Pinkanemone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQBBden_dz0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57xzwrkHd84 Mitsumasa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf4F-un7BRw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65QeHxq3oNY Referred to by Fireinthewronghole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NRD8pmwGrk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJzSo6l1chc Referred to by Artic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsx6KIgzG0E ================================= XIII) If all else failed [ChF-13] ================================= If you are still having trouble with Chaos, despite all the guides above, keep in mind these following tips: + Be aggressive: If you are not very good at dodging attacks, you have to be aggressive most of the time. This is to prevent him from scoring an attack. Being defensive can get yourself screwed sometimes. + Watch for the moment to use a HP attack: In Edge of Madness Omega, Chaos becomes sneaky like a sly and take a HP attack, just to Fire Spin your face when your BRV is at zero. This will be especially true when the Stage BRV randoms at a value of around 4000 or above. If you know he's gonna break you, try attacking him when the stage BRV is low. + Practice!: Chaos, as a final boss, is not meant to be easily beaten. Practice harder. For Shade Impulse Players, go level up more if you need. + Don't get upset with BREAK: I've come to the point where being in break status no longer matters to me. IC Chaos's attacks are insane and WILL probably break you in any occasion (*angrily glares at Fire Spinner*). Don't get upset if you're hit with a BRV attack. Stay on offensive and he will have a hard time dealing with you. + Dodge the HP attacks: HP attacks are what kill you. Learn to dodge them, especially Divine Punishment. You can even punish Chaos for trying to Divine Punish you. Keep this in mind. + Chase Mode: You can enter chase mode with Chaos. Yes, it is a double-edge shot, but it is also a nice way to ensure hits on him. Besides, even god of discord's AI is not smart enough to win all the chase battle. Take advantage of this. As for tips of chase battle, his HP attack is where he will have a huge fireball charged up around his abdomen (similar to CoD, IMO). His BRV in chase should not be too hard to dodge, as it is not THAT fast. + Know your turf: Air oriented characters aren't meant to spent much time on the ground, and this is true for Ground oriented characters vice versa. Being in the wrong ground will prevent you from using your characters' power to his/her fullest potential. For example, bringing Firion way up into the top of the stage is not a smart thing to do because his air options are not impressive. Take your time to understand your character and play well on their turf. + Better Equipments?: For Shade Impulse, it helps if you have higher equipments and levels. For IC Chaos and BJ/LW Chaos, I don't think equipments matter all that much now that his attacks will still break you. Regardless, get whatever is best for your character and practice more on dodging those insane attacks. Who needs an armor when you can dodge every single thing he threw at you right? =D + For story mode Chaos(s), you can try starting up that chapter with as many offensive skills on your story board skill list as possible. This way, you will be able to lower Chaos's form one HP. Though it does not make a big change, doing this help you kill form one faster, preventing you from making stupid mistakes and saving your summons or ex-gauges for form two and three. + Take a rest: If you kept on losing for hours and hours, turn your PSP to the sleep mode and take a rest. Go to shower, read a book, work, or anything that can help keep your mind of Chaos for a while. Getting upset over a video game is not healthy. Keep your mind cool and try again. "You shall not fight a battle with only vengence." Ð Cliche anime/game quote ====================== XIV) Contacts [ChF-14] ====================== If you want to talk to me, or ask me any question personally, here is my email: the_holy_mirror@hotmail.com I do MSN chatting, so you can add me to your contact list if you want ^_^. Btw, I live in Thailand, so our time period might not meet at all if you are from US (unless you stay really late at night). Also, please refrain from sending trashes and flame emails. I already have enough people flaming me for no apparent and insane reasons at my school ^_^. By the way, sometimes I find it awkward to open up a mail and see the strategy bam into my face right away w/o any introduction. Don't worry, I don't bite and I like to chat. Just a 'Hi, I want to contribute something to your FAQ' is enough for an intro. ^_^'' ============================ XV) Version History [ChF-15] ============================ -> 0.9 Most of the guide is done. Left with only the character specific part. -> 1.0 FAQ complete. -> 1.3 Few corrections on grammar and sentence structures. Update on Garland and Emperor specific strategy section by adding my own. -> 1.4 More corrections on grammar errors. Update on Jecht's Strategy Section to a non-command battle strategy. Also, included Jecht Stream as a part of Rise and Fall Trick. Added Infos, regarding Time Attack Chaos. -> 1.4.1 Added my own Shantotto Strategy. Minor changes in wordings. -> 1.9 Added a few more character strategies, along with renaming the section headings and correcting some grammar errors from the last update. Added section code for easy search as well. ============= XVI) Credits ============= I would like to thank these people: - Square-Enix, for creating this awesome game - GameFAQs, for being there for us when we are in need of help in clearing a game and for the format of copyright information - These users for their contributions: Pikanemone Mistumasa Fireinthewronghole Vivisteiner Gothvidfreak nateriver02 DecoyCharacter Darkmaster2001 Lord_Huza Blutskalp ElluraUne Beans4Brains Tracy Smith NeoNujevad HeftyHeftyHefty Dxfan1448 CeruleanGamer Iwantedzero Zhang_He InfinityZERO Artic Mozman12 [J] adik Viashino_wizard And all the GF board users that encourage and support me to write this FAQ. W/o you guys, I probably wouldn't be confident enough to start one by myself and actually finish it ^_^.