Last Boss (Orphanus?) help, please

[imminence]

Since FF 7 in 1997 I lost some patience and stubborness.
In FF 7 I took my time to beat all these "Weapons", but these days are passed.

Today I HATE bossfights, especially when they are - to a certain degree - based on luck.

Why do I play FF 13?
Well, I like the story, I like the characters and I like the "normal" fights.

For this last boss I run out of ideas. As far as I know, he uses a percentage based attack (or spell), called "soul..." or the like, which kills me. The same effect would happen,when I go grind some more, because it always reduces me to very low if not one HP.

I know, how to deal damage, I know, how to use my tactics. But this attack seems to be unavoidable, if he is not staggered.

And here is my question:

I can stagger him quite well with Lightning's rage (full gauge special). But I cannot keep him staggered all the time.

Any idea? Is it - again - just a question of luck? Do I need a certain combo of characters?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thx in advance :)

[Novi]

If it's the attack that reduces all your hp to 1, then I never had problem with that (the one that has a random chance of death is another story), just have vanille in your party, switch to med/med/med when it happens and all your characters should be in green in one fell swoop. And you always have enough time to do it afaik.

[tiornys]

Merciless Judgment is simply something you need to recover from, as noted above. It will never kill you outright as long as you aren't Poisoned when it happens (so cure Poison on sight). The other potentially random factor in the fight is Progenitorial Wrath, which has a fairly high chance to instantly kill its target regardless of HP.

The first Progenitorial Wrath will preferentially target a Sentinel first, then a Medic, then your party leader. It happens after 5 or 6 of Orphan's attacks, so when you know it's coming you can shift to a paradigm where you have a Medic or Sentinel (NOT your leader) and guarantee that it does not cause a game over even if the instant death succeeds. Later Progenitorial Wraths target randomly even if a Sentinel is on the field. Ideally, you should kill Orphan before it has time to use Progenitorial Wrath a second time; this is very doable with a good strategy for damage output. If you do see a 2nd Progenitorial Wrath, you can 100% save yourself by Summoning.

Thus, this battle is all about strategy and execution, not luck.

Several parties can work well against Orphan; what's more important is ability access. Ideally, you want access to Curasa, Curaja, Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, Poison, Slow, Bravery, Faith, Enfire (or any other En-spell), Haste, Protect, Shell, and Veil, although you certainly don't need that entire list in order to succeed.

Note that both Merciless Judgment and Progenitorial Wrath can happen regardless of whether or not you have Orphan staggered. In fact, one Merciless Judgment is highly likely to happen during stagger since it is triggered when you drop Orphan below 40% HP.

[Guydodge]

just finished game turned it to dust with rav/rav/rav to stay alive used med/syn/med also used com/rav/sab for stagger but rav/rav/rav worked best for me

[talgaby]

Or just equip one or two ⋆level cherub crowns to gain a large immunity to that 60% death effect.

[tiornys]

Cherub Crowns are a good backup plan, as is Veil, but redirecting the first Wrath and killing before the 2nd (or 3rd with a Summon dodge) is a 100% plan that doesn't rely on any luck whatsoever.

[chrcoluk]

tjorny's interesting info, the source is the ultimania?

Generally your guide follows my basic motto, setup for high damage output and kill the enemy before he kills you.

So as you said in this fight enbuffing will be a very high priority, alongside the appropriate debuffs, and then kill him as fast as possible. An alternate to staggering is attacking him with coms when he is 80-90% towards stagger so just maintaining the highish chain multiplier.

[I Know Someone]

Keep the poison and the slow on him constantly.
Heal when you need it.
I used 3 paradigms:
sab/sab/syn - poison + slow
med/sen/med - Judgement attack
rav/com/rav - stagger

[tiornys]

Originally posted by chrcoluk:

tjorny's interesting info, the source is the ultimania?

That might be the ultimate source, but I don't think so. As far as I know, it was worked out by the challenge play community. I got the info from FFXIII speedrunners.

[xonar99]

5 - starred the entire Bart / Orphan fight on my first go. (Superstar achievement)

My party is Fang (leader), Hope and Lightning. I normally have Sprint Shoes on all three but replaced Fang's with a Cherub Crown (to counter instant Death).

Paradigms:

Com / Rav / Rav for stagger.
Com / Rav / Com for nuking once staggered.
Com / Med / Med for quick recovery and heals after Judgement / Poison / whatever hi-dmg.
Sab / Syn / Med for debuffing and buffing party while healing.

Threw a Librascope, started to debuff, then stagger, then nuke.
Everytime I saw Orphan cast Judgement I stopped what I was doing (even when he's staggered) and switched to Com / Med / Med. I got fully green HP within 2 seconds after hit by Judgement.
Back to stagger or nuke, pretty easy.