Final Fantasy IX Ozma Guide
Welcome! If you're reading this, then you've no doubt run into one of the
hardest superbosses in video game history: Ozma. This whirling bouncyball packs
quite a punch for something so inane looking. Anyway, this guide will,
hopefully, aid you in your quest to defeat this spawn of Satan and gain a few
nice items as a reward.
Table of Contents
- The Prologue: Things to do before the battle.
- The
Characters: One way to set up your party to smash Ozma.
- The
Enemy: Detailed information about Ozma and his spells.
- The
Battle: What to expect when you enter this fight.
- Other Helpful /
Interesting Info: Other things that could help.
The Prologue
First of all, you may have run into some weird creatures around the world
that ask you for gems like Ore or Lapis Lazuli. In return they usually say
something weird and then the battle ends, giving you some relatively large
amount of AP. Hey, no problem there, right?
Well, there's something more
to those little guys. If you try to fight Ozma before finding all 9 of these
spirits, as they're referred to, you'll find that he's out of range of regular
attacks. Now, this sounds really
crippling, but regular attacks don't do
nearly as much damage as you need to dish out in order to win.
So why
find these spirits? Well, the AP is nice, for one thing. You'll need some
expensive skills in order to pull this off, as well as the devil's own luck. It
took me at least twenty tries to beat Ozma, and all
the while I was praying
for either a certain spell at the right time or a miss.
If you've found
Ozma, then you obviously have a gold chocobo. Did you find all of the
chocographs and some of the other hidden treasures as well? They'll really help
you out, because you can get some really nice Equipment from
them.
You'll know if you've found a spirit (or a pop quiz...damn that
Ragtimer...) if the battle theme in a random encounter is replaced by a happy
little merry-go-round tune. Here's where you can find those
elusive
spirits.
Mu
A brown squirrel you can find on the plains near
Dali. It wants an Ore.
Ghost
Running around the dark plains of
Treno, it wants Ore. You might also be able to find him right outside South
Gate.
Ladybug
Find her in the forest surrounding the Black Mage
Village. She wants 2 Ore.
Yeti
There's a forest right outside
of Madain Sari. When you find him there, he wants 2
Ore.
Nymph
There's only one forest on the landmass where the
Iifa tree is, and Nymph is there. Sometimes she can also be found on the little
green patches of land near the Iifa tree. She wants 3
Ore.
Jabberwock
Travel east from Oeilvert until you find a
small circular forest on the coast. Jabberwock is there and he wants an Emerald,
which you get from the Nymph.
Feather Circle
Run around the
chocobo tracks on the Icy Continent for a while. A long while.
You'll
eventually have to give this guy the Moonstone you got from
Jabberwock.
Garuda
Many players have taken a wrong turn in
Gizmaluke's Grotto and ended up in a forest only to be slaughtered by a Grand
Dragon. Well, that's where Garuda is. Climb out of the Grotto using the rope
near the save moogle and run around that forest. Garuda wants the Lapis Lazuli
you get from Feather Circle.
Yan
The 9th and final spirit to
find, oddly enough it looks like a little sheep. Make sure you've found the
other 8 spirits first, and then travel to Vile Island, the island in the center
of the map with the giant pyramid mountain on it. There's a forest there where I
found him, but BEWARE THE SHEEP! If you're not prepared they're going to destroy
you with Comet. This guy wants the Diamond you got from Garuda.
After
giving that little sheep guy the Diamond, you'll see a phrase along the lines of
"You can attack the Round Guy now!" Wonderful. Unfortunately, this isn't like
Xenogears where you weakened Deus by destroying his parts. Nope, Ozma's still
just as mean.
The Characters
It's time to prepare your characters for battle. Zidane was at level 67 for
this fight, probably the absolute minimum you'd want to consider. Level 99 isn't
necessary, but wouldn't hurt, obviously. Just make sure that none of your
characters have levels that are a multiple of 5. There were several key
abilities and pieces of Equipment that helped me win the fight, and all
will be listed below.
Zidane
Level: 67
HP:
5376
MP: 270
Magic Stones: 54 used out of
54
Equipment
Weapon: Ultima Weapon - Disc 4, have
Choco dive into the water in the exact location where the Shimmering Isle once
stood.
Head: Circlet - Buyable in Daguerro in Disc 4
Arm: Power Wrist - Buyable in Disc 4
Body: Ninja Gear - Steal one from
Garland, or buy them. They absorb shadow,very important.
Add-on:
Rosetta Ring - Synth it in the white mage's village in disc 4 if you don't have
one
Skills Equipped
Auto Haste: Cut down on Ozma's
speed advantage
Auto Life: This one time reraise can really save
you
HP +20%: The extra HP is a must
Insomniac: Curse can
probably put you to sleep
Antibody: Curse can also poison
you
Bright Eyes: Curse also causes darkness
Auto Potion:
Every little bit of healing helps
Locomotion: Just in
case
Clear Headed: Curse can also confuse you. This is
bad.
Pertinent Abilities
Item: Seriously, just have
Zidane keep using items unless he's tranced
Thievery: If you have an
extra turn in there, and you've managed to get this skill to do any appreciable
amount of damage, feel free to use it.
Dyne: If you get him into
trance, just keep casting your best ones.
Use in Battle
Zidane,
unless he's tranced or you've managed to get Thievery to do a respectable amount
of damage, even with the Ultima Weapon, just doesn't hit hard enough to be
useful as a damager. Instead, keep his turn ready to use Remedies or other
needed items on party members. If he trances, go all out.
Eiko
Level: 59
HP: 3152
MP:
319
Magic Stones: 41 used out of
41
Equipment
Weapon: Tiger Racket
Head:
Circlet
Arm: Power Wrist
Body: Rubber
Suit
Add-on: Pumice Piece - It absorbs shadow, very
important!
Skills Equipped
Auto Haste
MP +20%: Part 1 of not having to worry about MP
Half MP: Part 2 of not
having to worry about MP
Antibody
Loudmouth: Don't want
her silenced, do ya?
Clear Headed
Pertinent
Abilities
White Magic: Curaga, Full-Life, Esuna, possibly
Mini
Summon: Phoenix
*The Double White trance is essential. I
kid you not*
Use in Battle
Have her heal as much as
possible. Don't waste MP with Holy, it's not going to get you anywhere. If
you're at max health, cast Curaga anyway. If you've got double white activated
and you're desperate, throw in an Esuna. Use Phoenix if you don't have the
double Full-life option, and with Phoenix, there's a chance that you can get a
one time auto-party-reraise like Phoenix did in FF8. There's the luck factor
again.
Special Note
Have her trance bar within one hit of being
activated. Double White is the single most useful ability to have for this
fight.
Freya
Level: 53
HP:
4689
MP: 245
Magic Stones: 46 used out of
46
Equipment
Weapon: Dragon's Hair -You can find it by
using a dead pepper on Choco at a crack in a mountainside just went of
Oeilvert.
Head: Grand Helm
Arm: Defense
Gloves
Body: Grand Armor
Add-on: Pumice Piece - absorbs
Shadow, very important
Skills Equipped
Auto Haste
HP
+10%
HP +20%
MP +10%
High Tide: Just in case you want to
use that tranced Jump
Antibody
Bright Eyes
Clear
Headed
Pertinent Abilities
Dragon's
Crest
Jump
Use in Battle
Use Dragon Crest. Keep using
it. If she trances, you might consider using Jump, but I never got the
opportunity to do that. You see, even if Freya is Mini, Dragon Crest does
the same damage. If it's not doing 9999 damage, you're in trouble.
Steiner
Level: 59
HP: 5664
MP:
219
Magic Stones: 49 used out of
49
Equipment
Weapon: Ragnarok - This sword is really
important since it teaches you Shock. I'm pretty sure it's one of the chocograph
treasures.
Head: Genji Helmet - Another chocograph
treasure
Arm: Venetia Shield
Body: Demon's Mail - No,
it's not the best, but it absorbs shadow, so it's very useful
Add-on
: Protect Ring - You can get this in a number of places, and it aids in his
magic defense.
Skills Equipped
Auto Haste
Auto Life
HP
+10%
HP +20%
Antibody
Bright Eyes
Auto Potion
Clear
Headed
Pertinent
Abilities
Shock
Item
Use in Battle
Similar to
Freya, Steiner should probably be doing Shock, unless he's Mini. In that case,
his damage stinks and you should either use an item or some other beneficial
command. However, you want to be using Shock as much as possible, since it
should also be doing 9999
damage.
The Enemy
Ozma has several spells that can wipe you out. He has some other annoying
spells that can also pretty much wipe you out. Then, to spite you, he'll cure
himself. Oh yeah, can't forget his tendency to take two or three turns at once,
and his speed is high enough that he can go pretty much after every single one
of your party's moves. Here's a list of what he's
got.
Death
Standard Instant Death spell, works most of the
time
LV5 Death
Same as Quina's, if you're level is a multiple
of 5, you're dead.
MP Absorb
If Ozma somehow gets low on MP,
he'll use this on someone and replenish his supply.
Star
Flare
Old school (FF6, if I remember correctly) attack-all spell, does
roughly 2500 damage to all. Tends to miss people sometimes,
though.
Curaga
Oh, he'll cast this on himself plenty of times.
He heals for about 7000 a shot.
Mini
This one is just plain
annoying. All your characters are, most of the time, afflicted with the Mini
status. Sometimes it'll miss one person.
Doomsday
Remember
Merton from FF6? Well, this is similar, except sometimes it heals Ozma,
sometimes it hurts it. With your party's Equipment setup, it always heals
you. Pray for this spell a lot.
Curse
Pray that you never see
this spell. It causes every status ailment in the book unless you've guarded
against it, and that includes Blind, Mini, Confuse, Poison, all your favorites.
On top of that, it can do enough damage to wipe your party out in one shot. The
damage seems to be somewhat random, though.
Flare
Just like
Vivi's although it hurts more. Much more.
Holy
Just like Eiko's. Doesn't hurt much more. I considered it a breather when he cast
it on me, cause he has so many better spells.
Meteor
If he
casts this, you're toast. Well, mostly. I can't figure out why it'll do 9999 to
a character one time, then 800 the next, and then miss the next
time.
The Battle
This battle is not fun. It is also largely based on luck and what Ozma
decides to cast, just like Chaos in FF1. Keep Zidane ready to use Remedies if
you can. Freya and Steiner should immediately start using their abilities
that cause 9999 damage. Eiko should be knocked into trance on her first
hit, so save her turn until she does so and then use your Double White command
to ensure that everyone stays at full health. If party members fall during the
battle then a double Full-life can save you. Use Elixirs when needed. Hey, this
is the hardest battle in the game, so go all out.
You've basically got to
do as much damage as fast as possible while staying on your feet. Ozma has
somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 to 60,000 HP, which doesn't seem like a
lot compared to Emerald, Ruby, Ultima, or Omega WEAPON. However, there's no
Omnislash or Lionheart to save the day here. Luck is the biggest factor, and I
can't stress this enough. Imagine being down to critical with your entire party
and then seeing him heal you back to full with Doomsday! It's that kind of luck
that you need to win, even at ridiculously high levels.
You will win the
battle eventually. It might take a lot of tries, but you'll get it. As rewards,
you get 1 Pumice (teaches Dagger her last summon) and 1 Dark Matter, as well as
over 18,000 EXP and GP and 100 AP. Mene is quite impressed by your feat and
gives you the Ozma card, the Strategy Guide key item which tells you how to get
an "S" class treasure hunter rating, and finally he restores your HP/MP back to
full and removes all stati from your characters.
There you go! Good luck,
you're REALLY going to need it!
Other Helpful / Interesting Info
- If you have any extra Dark Matter lying around, don't hesitate to use them.
They should cause 9999 damage instantly to anything, including Ozma, and that
just might make the difference in the battle. Then again, you'll have to find
a spare turn to use one.
- Quina, though many people dislike him/her,
actually has a few useful skills if you're set on using him/her in this fight.
Mighty Guard can make a significant difference in the damage you take, just like
in previous FF games. Blade proved to me that this strategy does in fact work,
so, Quina fans, don't lose heart! Another great skill of Quina's is Angel Snack,
which uses 4 Remedies to clear your party of harmful status effects. Pretty
handy for dealing with Curse, isn't it? And if you're bored enough to get Frog
Drop up to a fair amount of damage, then I guess you could use that too. As for
Magic Hammer, I've seen it written that you can get rid of Ozma's MP and
then be done with him. Well, after 11 Magic Hammers, which ranged from knocking
off 3 to 7000 MP a shot (and I wish I was kidding about the 3...), Ozma
proceeded to use MP Absorb on Quina, taking all of his/her MP for himself. Then
Ozma cast Meteor and that was the end of that. Bottom line on Magic Hammer: If
you can get rid of all Ozma's MP, congratulations. If you get screwed by Magic
Hammer's randomize function, well, sucks to be you.
- If you manage to
beat Ozma before finding Hades in the final dungeon, Hades will actually
acknowledge this impressive feat! In one of the most amusing video game quotes
I've seen to date, Hades says: "What? You defeated Ozma? ...I've come too far to
retreat now!"
Written by Mark Matarazzo - MarkMat581@aol.com
Coverted to HTML
by Rey - rey2k5@gmail.com |
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