Bravely Default 2, the new Nintendo Switch game over viewing figures are risingis not easy. The boss fights in particular are guaranteed to ruin your day. If you’ve been playing the game since its launch last week, you’ve probably bumped your head against a wall more than once.
Yes in Bravely Default 2, there is a huge gap between the cannon fodder and the big thugs. You may find yourself strolling ambly, hacking goblins to pieces, only to hit the dungeon boss and find yourself being wiped out in one or two turns. Here’s how to make sure this doesn’t happen. Probably. Could be. Hopefully.
Learn to recognize when you are ready (or not).
Kotaku‘s tips for Bravely Default 2 mentions this, but it’s worth bringing up again: you can see if you’re ready to take on the boss of a dungeon by paying attention to common enemies. As you traverse each dungeon, they’ll run towards you if you’re about the same level as the standard enemies, and you might even get a run for your money. If you’ve outdone them, they’ll run away from you – meaning you’re probably tall enough to take on the boss. Sand for each dungeon until you reach that point.
Research and reload.
You get a safe place for most boss fights. (There is a particularly frustrating exception for the Halcyonia boss fight in Chapter 4.) Use it of course, then start each fight by exploring the boss, which you can do with a magnifying glass or by using a Freelancer’s Examine ability . Check their weaknesses, then stop, reload, and reassign your team’s tasks and equipment accordingly.
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If they are weak for air or earth magic, assign someone as a red mage. Fire, water or electric? Black wizard. See if they are weak with axes, or swords or spears, and equip your Vanguard (you have a Vanguard, right?) With the weapon that works best.
The really enterprising players might take it for a few rounds to get a sense of what types of elemental attacks can be absorbed as the battle info won’t tell you that. You could even wait to see what moves could trigger a counter (and what those counters could do, be it simple attacks or something more insidious like a Stop debuff). Point is, give each boss a short test ride. Then throw in the towel and reconfigure things.
Make sure you have a healer.
If you’ve played a turn-based RPG before, you already know this, but it’s paramount for that Bravely Default 2: Make sure you have a healer with you. Since a white mage can heal several party members at once, that’s a safe bet. But don’t sleep on the Red Mage, who can also cast magic attacks on rocks and in the air during those rare turns when you’re completely healthy.
If you understand, Spiritmaster is arguably the most essential class for tough boss fights. At level 6, you get the Reraise ability, which allows you to pre-emptively revive your allies. If, not if, party members are eliminated, they will immediately return with 300 HP. For bosses with moves that can take out your entire team at once, Reraise is often the thing that will save your skin.
Lean on standard.
It’s easy to fall into a rut while sharpening. While the game’s Brave / Default system offers an innovative hook on an old genre, once you’ve uncovered a dungeon’s enemies, you can comfortably fall back on traditional turn-based combat by spamming Brave for cannon fodder in one turn. to delete. No matter how muscular you are, that strategy will not work against you Bravely Default 2‘s bosses.
Unlike normal battles, you should start each fight by defaulting all of your characters and building at least one BP. During the fight, you should aim to keep your blood pressure above zero. The last thing you want is for your blood pressure to go negative so that the boss can attack you several times before you are allowed to do anything. And when you see your enemy’s BP stack up to 2 or 3 – which you can see by getting the battle info – you know there’s a wave of attacks coming in. Make sure you are standard with your entire party.
Take out the cronies first.
Yes. The oldest trick in the book applies to Bravely Default 2
Those tips should broadly help you tackle the game’s toughest fights. But there are a few that will give you a run for your money no matter how good at best practices you are. Here’s how to deal with it.
Spoilers follow for the identities of some Bravely Default 2 antagonists.
Bernard (Chapter 1)
Man, fuck Bernard. The early boss fights aren’t exactly walks in the park, but you can handle them. I believe in you. But that first fight against Bernard is where things get real.
He’s a weakness for lightning, so if you’ve brought a Black Mage to level 8, you can cast the Thundara spell. (Bonus points if you made the most of the track and unlocked Thundaga.) Make sure you have a bunch of Ethers on hand. His dodge also goes through the roof, so don’t fire four moves in a row or you might miss a few and deal a lot less damage than you expected.
You get the Thief job for beating this jerk.
Galahad (Chapter 2)
Man, fuck Galahad. Don’t stress too much about the first time you meet him. Bravely Default 2 pulls out that nasty trick where you think you’re in a long-range fight, but it was really just a narrative interlude that ends after a round or two.
However, the second time you face Galahad is a different story. He is accompanied by three demons. You will have to defeat all three to end the fight, but focus on the one with the wand first as it will cast healing spells. It may help to use a Bard to put Galahad to sleep. A monk’s pressure point move (unlocked at job level 11) is particularly helpful for this fight, as it can bypass the defensive boost Galahad gets from Defaulting.
You get the Shieldmaster job for beating this jerk.
Bishop Helio and Gladys (Chapter 3)
Man, fuck Bishop Helio and Gladys. You have to take out Helio first, and not just because he’s leading a murder cult disguised as a benevolent religion. In terms of strategy, he has less HP than Gladys. Strangely enough, he also makes a lot of movements that maintain their health. Stack your BP up to 3 for all group members, then Brave three times and release the good bishop. A monk with the Pressure Point ability or a thief with the Godspeed Strike ability (or both!) Can deal a large amount of damage in one turn.
The most important thing to pay attention to with Gladys is her countertop. During the fight, she will adopt a variety of poses, one of which (the Fluid Stance) allows her to automatically counter any physical attack. If you set up a party member to fire four moves in a row, that person is pretty much guaranteed to be a goner. It’s much safer to reduce her health with an attack or two at a time, while using your healer to keep everyone afloat.
You get the Spiritmaster and Swordmaster jobs to beat these bastards.
Adam (Chapter 4)
Man, fuck Adam and his stupid goatee. He’s not really that bad for the first part of the fight. He will very stupidly attack you with double edged moves that deal more damage to him. Just keep healing and you’ll be fine.
However, during the final phase of the fight, he begins to use an attack that can take out one of your party members at once – and sometimes for all group members at once. Make sure to bring a Spiritmaster to cast Reraise everyone. The Freelancer task also helps a lot, as you have a 50 percent chance of surviving an attack with at least 1 HP, at which point you can bring everyone else back to life. That last phase is a battle of attrition, but with a solid line of defense you take it down.
You are given the Hellblade task of defeating this jerk.
The boss fights in Bravely Default 2 are undoubtedly a glove, but they are also one of the game’s strongest selling points. They force you to use the Brave / Default battle system. They require an understanding of the game’s intricate task and equipment matching. In role-playing games, you can sit in the back seat so many times, where you just tap buttons and go through the movements. Either way, the boss is fighting Bravely Default 2 push against that. In my opinion, that is more than worth the occasional headache.
Oh, and you get to listen to the boss’s fight tune. That song rules.