Nightmare Dungeons

The info in this paste is outdated thanks to a mechanic change that casualized the Nightmares to shit. I've left the mechanics here for historical reasons, but I guess if you want to see how they worked, you can always watch a YouTube video.

-- Section 7.8 -- NIGHTMARE DUNGEONS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to main guide: https://pastebin.com/LpNNnM37

INDEX -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[7.8.1] Introduction
[7.9.2] Records
    [BLK1] Ultima Record - Ultima Buster
    [COM1] Crushdown Record - Demon Wall
    [WHT1] Reraise Record - Evrae Altana
    [SUM1] Neo Bahamut Record - Neo Bahamut
    [SUP1] Quadruple Foul Record - CPU
    [CEL1] Northern Cross Record - Tonberries
    [BLK2] Meltdown Record - Kaiser Dragon
    [WHT2] Curada Record - Guardian
    [SUP2] Affliction Break Record - Necrophobe
    [CEL2] Dervish Record - Atomos
    [SUM2] Valigarmanda Record - Valigarmanda
    [COM2] Omega Drive Record - Omega Weapon

[7.8.1] Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Nightmare dungeons were one of the first steps towards major difficulty spikes in RK. They used to be open for a limited time each month, but ever since their complete release they've been permanently available.

Each one of them contains themed challenges based on the record they protect. While the 6* skills themselves aren't always guaranteed to be good, the dungeons do contain excellent rewards in the form of orbs, Hero Souls, Memory Crystal Lodes, and a 6* accessory that grants major resistance to an element or ailment. The difficulty level of the gatekeeper dungeons ranges from + to Ultimate ++ and is usually ascending by order of Nightmare dungeon release.

Once you clear all four dungeons protecting a Record, the Nightmare dungeon boss is unlocked. It's roughly equivalent in power to anywhere between D140 - D180, AND each boss has a strict gimmick. Pay attention, and your life will become a lot easier. Note that apart from Support Nightmares, Nightmare bosses are IMMUNE to break-type effects.

This content begins from the first year of Record Keeper, a time before many 3rd or even 2nd level caps were broken. To say they've fallen victim to powercreep is an understatement at the very least. If you want to take them on as early as possible or even at the same level veterans did on their release, a recommended level will be provided for each of the bosses listed below.

Again, pay close attention to their gimmicks to meet the mastery conditions. Except for Nightmare Guardian, it's a piece of shit and its gimmick is shit. Thankfully, Dr. Mog's tips now almost fully explain the mechanics of each fight. (In case you're wondering: no, we didn't have any of that, it was supposed to be a puzzle for us to figure out on our own.)

[7.8.1] BLACK MAGE NIGHTMARE #1: Ultima Buster

REWARD: Ultima Record

Deals three non-elemental magic attacks to all targets for massive damage.

It's shit. Save your Black Crystals.
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Recommended RWs: Any MAG +30% + Haste. Examples: Hyper Mighty G (Rikku), Forbidden Wisdom (Onion Knight)
Recommended level: Party average ~65
Useful skills: As much Lightning and Fire as you can carry, especially multi-hit attacks

This one is fairly simple. Ultima Buster has three phases: in the first, he won't deal much damage, given that his attacks will be low-tier magic. Simply damage him enough until the Mana Sphere appears.

Once it does, you enter Phase 2, and Ultima Buster gains Reflect, which cannot be dispelled; attempts to attack him with all-target magic like Ruinga, or physical attacks, will result in a counter Death. The Death can be ignored if you have some sort of native Runic, like off Exdeath's Grand Cross or Celes's Indomitable / Invincible Blade, but it's not like you can't just craft Ruin since it just takes irrelevant 2* orbs anyway if you're a cheapskate.

The Mana Sphere is the crux of this fight. It responds to most types of magic used to attack it:

- Water / ice: Party-wide Cure directed at you
- Fire / lightning: Attacks Ultima Buster for 10x the damage the attack dealt to the Sphere
- Non-elemental: Attacks Ultima Buster for a small amount, and greatly damages the Sphere

You'll need to hit the Sphere at least once with a non-elemental and water attack to master the fight, but aside from that, bombard the Sphere with fire and lightning to kill Ultima Buster. You will want to do this quickly: the Sphere charges Ultima Buster, indicated by glowing lights on his body: if he reaches four, he'll trigger Nightmare Ultima and obliterate your party. Hastega is necessary here, from experience.

It's viable to forego heals on your set-up and use Water attacks on the sphere on the off-chance you'll need to heal.

There are no bans on summoning magic, and they don't trigger any Death counters. On top of that, the fact that they're guaranteed to multi-hit allows you to abuse the Mana Sphere's damage mechanic even harder.

Alternatively, you can destroy the Sphere early, triggering a weaker Nightmare Ultima, avoid the Nightmare Ultima with a Magic Blink, or go through it with a Last Stand-type effect like Relm's Star Prism gives. When the Sphere is destroyed or Nightmare Ultima is triggered, Ultima Buster enters Phase 3. All his attacks at this point will ignore RES, but this shouldn't be an issue if you can kill him quickly enough.

Notably, thanks to powercreep, you'll probably end up killing the Sphere before it can kill Ultima Buster. Keep this in mind if you don't want to get destroyed by Nightmare Ultima!

[7.8.2] COMBAT NIGHTMARE #1: Demon Wall

REWARD: Crushdown Record

Deal three massive physical attacks to all targets with a high chance to instantly KO.

Completely outclassed by Omega Drive, which itself is fading from relevance in JP as elemental teams enter the spotlight.
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Recommended RWs: Critical Link (Noctis), Forbidden Power (Onion Knight)
Recommended level: Party average ~65 - 80
Useful skills: Lifesiphon

If you want, you could probably just skip this Nightmare outright by RWing an Arcane Overstrike. I would recommend Noctis's Arcane, as in an era where elemental weaknesses didn't matter too much, the one that crits hardest hits hardest.

In any case, if you want to have fun with the gimmick, this one is a bit more direct than Ultima Buster.

Demon Wall's attacks can hurt, especially Eviscerator, which can force resets if you get unlucky enough. Protectga and Wall-type effects (on, say, Tyro) can be helpful. Jump attacks are banned in this battle.

Like Ultima Buster, Phase 1 consists of dealing enough damage. You will need to do about 80000 HP of damage in four turns, or Demon Wall will trigger Gravija and cost you mastery. Either way, once you deal enough damage or Gravija triggers, light will appear in the arms, they'll become targetable, and you move to Phase 2. If you can't force Phase 2 quickly enough on your own, Shout or some physical Overstrike SB will work well here as a RW.

Phase 2 is simply a matter of mastering Dynast-King's Curse's mechanic, which is simple: those marked by the cone should attack Demon Wall; those outside attack the arms. Note that those outside attacking Demon Wall will trigger Nightmare Gravity on marked targets, which is basically Gravija but worse, since it inflicts Sap. A character marked inside the cone attacking an arm triggers Counter Annul, which osmoses skill charges from you. The latter is salvageable; the former is often not. Multi-target SBs are not generally a good idea; the one in the center is free to attack Demon Wall all the time, which makes positioning in your formation crucial.

You'll need to deal at least some damage to both arms and Demon Wall for every time it uses Dynast-King's Curse to avoid Nightmare Gravity.

It's possible, preferable, and a common occurrence to kill Demon Wall in this phase. Do note that he will only use Dynast-King's Curse a limited number of times before moving to Nightmare Crushdown, which is a TPK.

Phase 3 begins when both arms have been killed. At this point, simply finish off the rest of his HP before he decides to use Nightmare Crushdown and you should be golden.

[7.8.3] WHITE MAGE NIGHTMARE #1: Evrae Altana

REWARD: Reraise Record

Grants Reraise status, which revives a KO'd character with a massive amount of HP.

Reraise used to be the absolute worst, crafted only to demonstrate your level of cuckoldry and paraded around with an 8* Y'shtola USB staff for extra points. Strangely, of the first six Nightmare records, it's aged the best. The niche it provides is small, but hey, it's a niche.
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Recommended RWs: Seal of Heaven (Minwu), Star Prism (Relm), Transcendent Dream (Vanille), Asylum (Y'shtola)
Recommended level: Party average ~65 - 80
Useful skills: Raise / Esuna / Dispel

Get Diagas and Curagas ready. You may as well keep the Diagas for Nightmare Guardian later and shatter them when you're done.

In Phase 1, set up your defenses and attack Evrae Altana with Diaras, Diagas, and whatever Cures you can throw at him. Whenever possible, try to rely on SBs for healing your party so you can use Cures to attack Altana as a last-ditch option.

Note that you'll need to be careful and have a White Mage on standby in case he decides to charge Nightmare Poison Breath, which you will immediately have to dispel with Esuna, because this fucker moves fast.

In Phase 2, he'll revive and summon four Lenses with him. He'll attack using only Photon Spray in this phase and the Poison Breath mechanic will be gone, but in its place, pay attention to Photon Spray's gimmick, which is as follows: a light will point from Evrae to a lens at any given time -- the lens it points at affects Photon Spray's effect:

1st lens: Photon Spray can inflict Poison
2nd lens: Photon Spray becomes more powerful
3rd lens: Photon Spray can inflict Petrify
4th lens: Photon Spray can inflict Silence

It takes about three Diagas to destroy a lens so that when the light points to it, Photon Spray won't have an added effect. Try to destroy the 3rd and 4th first, for obvious reasons, then the 2nd and 1st before dealing with Evrae again. It's possible to destroy the 2nd through 4th before he gets to any of them, but move fast. Minwu's and Relm's BSBs work insanely well here; do NOT use Selphie's BSB, since the attacks have an attached Instant Death effect that will cause the lenses to explode.

You can actually use Raise or Arise (but not Curaise) to destroy a lens immediately, but it'll counter with Explosion to hit you for a quarter of your HP, enough to force you to cast a healing SB.

Phase 2 ends once you kill Evrae again. He'll use Explosion like the lenses do, but for less damage. You will want to shatter all four lenses beforehand too, because if you kill Evrae before shattering them, they'll all explode at the same time too and probably kill you.

In Phase 3, Evrae will summon a Guado Guardian which will spend all of its time attempting to buff Evrae. You can ignore it, dispel its buffs, or kill it, which will spawn a new one twice. Unless you're using some AoE attack like Minwu's Spell Sap command, don't waste your time.

The Poison Breath mechanic returns, but apart from the Guado Guardian this is exactly the same as Phase 1. Use everything you have left and finish him off.

[7.8.4] SUMMONER NIGHTMARE #1: Neo Bahamut

REWARD: Neo Bahamut Record

Deal four devastating non-elemental attacks to all targets.

Basically Ultima but in Summon form. I believe this used to have a niche for assisting Alphinaud's USB1 (Teraflare) cap. This, of course, is a niche it no longer fills.
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Recommended RWs: Forbidden Wisdom (Onion Knight), Hyper Mighty G (Rikku), Aerial Blast (Alphinaud)
Recommended level: Party average ~65 - 80
Needed skills: Shiva / Ramuh / Ifrit

If you're hurting for Summon magic hones, you're actually allowed to attack Neo Bahamut with ninjutsu skills like Swift Bolt and Gust all throughout without risking a counter, but there's fuck-all for ninjas with good MAG, much less in a Nightmare, so basically only a handful of characters can pull this off well, most of whom won't be getting Nightmare synergy. In Phase 1 you're also allowed to hit Neo Bahamut with White Magic as well before he gains Reflect, but the damage output on them is usually pretty shitty. Aerial Blast is usually good for bruteforcing damage in this Nightmare. In any case, simply damage him enough and he'll enter Phase 2.

It's fairly easy to tell when he enters Phase 2, because at that point the background will change, which is Neo Bahamut's gimmick: he resists the element of the background and is weak to a corresponding element. Every two turns, the background will change, and the order is predetermined: it goes Fire -> Ice -> Thunder -> Fire; he's weak to Ice, Fire, and Water in that order as a result.

The trick, however, doesn't stop there: you'll have to do the counter-intuitive thing and hit him with the element he RESISTS. For every 1000 damage from a resisted element, Neo Bahamut will create or enlarge an energy sphere, one for every different resisted element. Attempt to enlarge two spheres at least once before moving on to Phase 3.

Phase 3 begins when Neo Bahamut goes under 50% and is marked by a Megaflare you may need to heal up from. At this point, the Energy Spheres you've created will become targetable -- when destroyed, they will attack Neo Bahamut for 9999, plus an extra 9999 for every time the sphere was enlarged. At this point, Neo Bahamut loses any resistances or weaknesses, making the Spheres the best way to damage him as opposed to simply exploiting his weaknesses in Phase 2.

Spheres aside, at this point it's a race to the finish line. Be careful you don't run out of hones or die to random Megaflares or Gigaflares.

[7.8.5] SUPPORT NIGHTMARE #1: CPU

REWARD: Quadruple Foul Record

Deal four physical attacks to random enemies with a moderate chance to Blind, Silence, Sleep, and Poison them.

Until the day DeNA decides to do something cool with status ailments and enemy AI, don't craft this.
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Recommended RWs: Culinary Curiosity (Quina), Forbidden Power (Onion Knight)
Recommended level: Party average ~65 - 80
Needed skills: Power / Magic / Armor / Mental Breakdown
Useful skills: Multi Break (+ Powerchain)

In a departure from the preceding Nightmares, the CPU and its nodes are only resistant rather than immune to Break effects.

Phase 1 starts with a five-turn countdown to Nightmare Quadruple Foul. Set up your buffs and hammer on the Nodes -- once you kill both of them, Phase 2 begins as the CPU revives both, and the Quadruple Foul counter will reset to ten.

The two Nodes will, at this point, begin to deploy barriers and fields around the CPU. Barriers are removed by attacking the Attack Node with Power and Magic Breakdown, while fields are removed by attacking the Defense Node with Armor and Mental Breakdown. The physical ones will be deployed first, followed by the magical ones -- remove physical ones with Power / Armor; remove magic ones with Magic / Mental. It should go without saying that you shouldn't allow the Nodes to stack barriers or fields -- leave them long enough, and the CPU will go batshit insane and hit your party for 9999s, which will fuck your shit up. The Nodes don't take long to deploy fields / barriers in succession, but once the magical ones are removed there should be a fairly lenient window before they do anything again.

The CPU also goes batshit insane if you somehow manage to let the Quadruple Foul countdown reach 0 or if both of the Nodes die, which shouldn't be happening anyway.

If there are no barriers or fields around the CPU and the Nodes are hit with a total breakdown effect like Full Break or Multi Break, they will go haywire and turn against the CPU for two turns -- the Defense Node will start healing your party, and the Attack Node will hit the CPU for 9999 each turn. Really, the only efficient way to do this is with Multi Break -- if you want to improve your timing on this, give Tyro Powerchain and use it to get an instant Multi Break off.

Once the Nodes are haywire, wail on the CPU -- without either Node supporting it, it basically becomes helpless, since its attacks will get healed off by the Defense Node. Time a second Multi Break as the Nodes recover from haywire state and they'll immediately go berserk again before they even have a chance to deploy another barrier, which is usually enough time to bludgeon the CPU to death.

[7.8.6] CELERITY NIGHTMARE #1: Tonberries

REWARD: Northern Cross Record

Deal four physical attacks to one target with a moderate chance to Stop and interrupt its next action.

Northern Cross is a meme ability. It used to compete with the likes of Snowspell Strike and Omega Drive, but now it's not even worth your Crystals. It actually uses the exact same ones as Snowspell Strike, which has aged like fine wine. Northern Cross has aged like milk.
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Recommended RWs: Forbidden Power (Onion Knight), Culinary Curiosity (Quina), Requiem of the Goddess (Lightning)
Recommended level: Party average ~80
Needed skills: Dismissal, Tempo Flurry, Halting Rumba

You'll start out with one Tonberry, and it's vulnerable to every paralyzing ailment there is, be it Slow, Stop, Interrupt, or Paralyze. It's to your benefit to do so, seeing as the less the Tonberries inch towards you, the less damage you'll take.

Once the first Tonberry dies, three will show up, as do nine colored circles. The gimmick here is that a Tonberry standing on a colored circle is twice as likely to be affected by a status effect: red being Stop, white being Slow, and blue being Interrupt -- they become immune to Paralyze from this point onwards.

The best way to control all three Tonberries is Halting Rumba to stop all three of them while you try to kill them. Also useful, if you have it, are Soul Breaks with AoE Interrupt (Thancred's Kiss of the Jugulator SSB is a good one). Other than that, you'll need to bring Tempo Flurry and Dismissal as well to hit the target conditions -- or just RW Lightning's really old BSB1, since its commands inflict both of those effects.

If all three Tonberries move so that they're aligned in a column, they'll trigger Nightmare Chef's Knife, which will sting enough to force a restart -- kill or interrupt them one by one and this shouldn't happen.

Once you kill the second wave, a third wave spawns, along with a new arrangement of circles which isn't as kind as the first and basically boils down to hoping Halting Rumba can stop two or three of them in one go. Repeat what you did for the second wave -- once they're all dead, the Tonberry King spawns. It's only vulnerable to Interrupt, is gimmick-less, and basically boils down to whichever one of you can kill the other first. Unlike the normal Tonberries, however, Tonberry King's Junk does not ignore DEF, which might come in handy if you don't want to be murdered by his occasional fits spamming it.

Probably a test of hones more than anything, since killing seven Tonberries comes up to about 460k HP + the Tonberry King's 160k. Hone plenty, make good use of AoE, and good luck.

[7.8.7] BLACK MAGE NIGHTMARE #2: Kaiser Dragon

REWARD: Meltdown Record

Deal four devastating fire, wind, and earth attacks to one target.

Meltdown is, alongside Curada, one of the best skills in the Nightmare Dungeons. It'll serve you well all the way into the endgame. It's quite literally Chain Stonega + Chain Firaga + Tornado rolled into one, but stronger.
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Recommended RWs: Forbidden Wisdom (Onion Knight), Hyper Mighty G (Quina), Divine Veil Grimoire (Tyro)
Recommended level: Party average ~80 - 99
Needed skills: Waterja + Thundaja

Kaiser Dragon is a lot more dangerous on paper than it looks, mainly because his attacks actually hurt, but with a MAG boost and enough spam his HP is usually reducible to shreds. Bring a healer or two and some fire-resisting accessories if you want to play safe.

As is commonplace, the first phase of the fight is plain damage. Once you get to the second part, Kaiser Dragon will start by using Meltdown, and the Crystal beside Kaiser Dragon will become active, and Dr. Mog will tell you to use it but not really explain how.

The trick here is two-fold. The first part is as follows:

- Kaiser Dragon is weak to the element he is currently using against you. He'll cycle through them every two turns or so -- while he starts with a random element, he'll cycle through all of them at least once before repeating.
- To use the Crystal, as Dr. Mog suggests, use the element Kaiser Dragon is weak against on it, and it'll grant your party resistance to that element and a weakness to an opposite one.

The main challenge of the fight is actually not beating Kaiser Dragon, but rather mastering the fight, since you'll have to bear the brunt of several elemental phases to hit both his Water and Lightning weaknesses. Use the Crystal's effect often (actually, only three times at most, for reasons explained below). A word of warning: his Earth-elemental phase uses physical attacks. Alternatively, you can reset for good RNG so that it doesn't take long for him to shift into his Water or Lightning forms.

Again, damage him enough and Kaiser Dragon will cast Meltdown again to kick off Phase 3, in which he loses weaknesses, the Crystal goes inactive, and all his attacks will start ignoring RES. Forbidden Wisdom shines here in the quick finishes department.

The second part to the trick with the Crystal happens once you finish off Kaiser Dragon: before dying, Kaiser Dragon will cast Ultima once, then Meltdown twice, which you're basically guaranteed not to survive if you have to take the full brunt of it -- however, the Crystal from Phase 2 can actually block all three attacks before shattering, but only if you've used the resistance effect three times or less -- four or more and you'll have to find a way to survive the rest of it. It's blockable with Magic Blink effects such as from Tyro's Keeper's Tome or Rosa's Benediction, and Meltdown can be blunted by fire-resisting accessories, but it's probably not the best idea unless you're really struggling with the second phase of the fight.

[7.8.8] WHITE MAGE NIGHTMARE #2: Guardian

REWARD: Curada Record

Restore an enormous amount of HP to one ally and grant a 2000 HP shield to recover any additional damage.

What makes Curada one of the more obviously viable 6* skills is the fact that it starts with four charges like all other heal skills, and HP Stock is, for lack of a better word, huge. Besides that, Curada is second to none. Ultra Cure comes close with its Esuna, but it can't hold a candle to HP Stock.

Anyway, it's literally a heal. There's not too much to say about it, but it's good.
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Recommended RWs: Forbidden Wisdom (Onion Knight), Divine Veil Grimoire (Tyro), Realignment (Aphmau), Tenets of the Fayth (Yuna)
Recommended level: Party average ~80 - 99
Useful skills: Summons, Diaga, DeDia, Holy

Apparently the devs ran out of creativity so they gave us this shit.

The Guardian is composed of two Launchers, a Wave Cannon, and the Guardian's main body itself, which only becomes exposed if the two Launchers are destroyed. The Launchers regenerate after a certain amount of time; or along with the Wave Cannon when the Guardian reaches certain HP thresholds.

The gimmick is as follows: the Wave Cannon will begin a cycle by locking on to one of your characters. If a character being locked on to uses an ability, the cursor will lock on to that character's target, or in the case of AoE (like a summon) one of the targets. Soul Breaks will not redirect the cursor. At lower health, the Wave Cannon will generate two and then three cursors at a time.

Practically, however, you're only allowed to use White Magic or Summons to redirect the cursors, as any other type of attack on any part of the Guardian except the Wave Cannon will be met with a counter that redirects the cursor back onto you. The cue to redirect the cursor onto a target is roughly when the DIFFUSION BEAM CANNON: ONLINE message appears, since on the next turn the Wave Cannon will fire.

A note: Wave Cannon's damage is dependent on how much health it has, so if you're going to try to kill it the legitimate way, you can't allow the Wave Cannon to take damage. Anyway, this would be fine if not for the fact that the timing for redirecting the cursor is unpredictable, a fucking pain in the ass, forces you to play it incredibly safe, and finally, is even slower than brute force, so the generally accepted strategy for this Nightmare is to actually ignore the gimmick.

Destroy the Launchers and Wave Cannon with AoE and then brute-force the Guardian. Another problem is that the Guardian has fucking space-high DEF and RES (somewhere in the neighborhood of 10k, fuck if I know -- I've only heard this secondhand) which means Diagas off synergy-boosted MND usually hit in the range of ~2000; the Guardian has ~140k HP. This is why you'll need to either boost your damage as high as is humanely possible (Selphie / Yuna BSBs are really good, since it's +30% MAG/MND) or find some other way to crank out damage, like summons, ninjutsu (which ignores RES), or even Soul Breaks (Beatrix's Knight Protector has niche use here, like inflicting Imperil Holy).

Note that ninjutsu triggers the Guardian's annoying Atomic Rays counter, which is from experience survivable under Divine Veil Grimoire. Other than that, brute force turns this into a hone check of the worst kind, so remember to dispel Regen on one of the Launchers for two of the target conditions, and good luck.

[7.8.9] SUPPORT NIGHTMARE #2: Necrophobe

REWARD: Affliction Break Record

Deal two physical attacks to one target and moderately reduce the chance its debuff skills will land.

Good for multiplayer where bosses will throw out debuffs like no one's business, but outside that it's generally niche.
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Recommended RWs: Culinary Curiosity (Quina), Landlubber Lambast (Faris), Asylum (Y'shtola)
Recommended level: Party average ~80 - 99
Useful skills: Carbuncle + AoE heal Soul Breaks

Like most other Nightmare bosses, Phase 1 consists of dealing enough damage to Necrophobe until his Barriers show up. He's vulnerable to any kind of breakdown effect in this phase and mostly uses physical attacks. Try to stack as many DEF-reducing debuffs as you can in this phase.

Once the Barriers show up, Necrophobe becomes immune to breaks with DEF / RES reductions (including Full Break), and gains a ton of DEF. The key is in the four Barriers surrounding him:

- Blue barrier: Armor Breakdown
- Red barrier: Power Breakdown
- Green barrier: Mental Breakdown
- Yellow barrier: Magic Breakdown

Any EXACTLY equivalent effect will also work (for example, the Deluge and Rough Tides commands on Faris's BSB can also trigger the Barriers' effects). The Barriers have impossibly high HP and therefore don't die, so don't use Breakdowns on them unless you need to.

Anyway: at the start of this phase, a random Barrier will inflict Nightmare Doom on one of your characters with a 20-second timer. The gimmick entails using the correct Breakdown on the correct Barrier to trigger a Doom timer on one of your characters -- which in turn decreases Necrophobe's DEF/RES but increases his ATK/MAG. Likewise, toggling a barrier with an active Doom timer (you can tell which one is linked to a barrier by the color of the aura around the character) removes the Doom timer and reduces Necrophobe's ATK/MAG, but increases his DEF/RES.

This would be simple enough if not for the fact that the Barriers like to actually fucking attack as well. Apart from the odd AoE, however, most of their attacks are single-target (as are some of Necrophobe's magics) which is why Carbuncle will blunt most of the pain -- obviously, this entails that you can only heal with Soul Breaks.

You'll want to toggle on two or three Barriers at a time to deal steady damage to Necrophobe in Phase 2; focus essentially all of your mitigation on him since he has the bulk of the painful AoE attacks, plenty of which can't be reflected (Vacuum Wave is one). With proper handling of the gimmick, and if your party has good survivability, you should be able to kill him in this phase.

If you want to risk it, though: you can ignore the gimmick and wait out the ten turns on the second phase, in which case he'll recall all the Barriers and go back to his Phase 1 levels of DEF/RES. The only caveat is that he only has one attack in Phase 3: Nightmare Flare, which deals a fixed 9999 damage and can't be reflected or avoided save for Magic Blink. If you can expend a gigantic burst of damage in roughly a few seconds with a few Bursts and abhor dealing with the Barriers this might work better, but staying in Phase 2 is, for obvious reasons, usually the safer and more annoying way to go.

[7.8.10] CELERITY NIGHTMARE #2: Atomos

REWARD: Dervish Record

Deal eight physical attacks to one target and grants the user Haste; deals more damage if user has Haste.

It's non-elemental. I guess it has the niche of granting Haste. Other than that, Dervish no longer has any end-game use that I know of.
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Recommended RWs: Forbidden Power (Onion Knight)
Recommended level: Party average ~80+
Useful skills: Dismissal, Tempo Flurry, and as much Interrupt as you can carry

The only actually hard part about this Nightmare is the first phase, since Atomos attacks normally then -- and doesn't even enter Phase 2 automatically at the HP threshold, instead waiting for his turn to properly roll around again. Be careful of Slowga, since it's usually his second action.

When he enters Phase 2, three gems will appear. They have varying effects based on their color -- if Atomos swallows any of them, he takes an extra action for each gem, usually a buff like Haste or a stat boost, which is bad news. If they're destroyed some other way, they'll trigger an effect -- usually AoE elemental damage, or in the case of an Amethyst being destroyed, a party-wide Doom timer. If he successfully sucks in gems, more will appear and the process repeats.

If there are no gems on the field at a certain threshold, Atomos enters Phase 3 and the fight becomes kill him before he kills you.

None of this is an issue. Atomos is not only vulnerable to Slow, but also Interrupt -- and the only thing he does during the second phase is suck the gems in towards him to trigger their effects. Avoid AoE if possible so as not to destroy the gems, and if you can continuously interrupt Atomos, he's literally just an HP sponge of about ~350k HP, making this a boring and simple hone check.

[7.8.11] SUMMONER NIGHTMARE #2: Valigarmanda

REWARD: Valigarmanda Record

Deal three devastating fire, ice, and lightning magic attacks to all targets.

The difference between this and Neo Bahamut that makes it worth creating is the elemental exploit. Think of it as being a summoning version of Meltdown. Also, if you're familiar with Alphinaud's BSB at all, you should know that having two initial OR being a summon doesn't particularly matter when you have an ether on-call.
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Recommended RWs: Forbidden Wisdom (Onion Knight), Hyper Mighty G (Rikku), Divine Veil Grimoire (Tyro), Aerial Blast (Alphinaud)
Recommended level: Party average ~80 - 99
Needed skills: Ifrit, Shiva, Leviathan
Useful skills: Any other summons

Valigarmanda has a bad habit of doing decently high damage. A healer wouldn't go amiss.

At the beginning of the battle, an energy orb appears above Valigarmanda, along with a 5-turn countdown to Nightmare Tri-Disaster. Destroy the energy orb to enter the second phase.

Once that's done, the orb respawns with the same countdown, except now Valigarmanda will spawn two colored barriers in front of him. These barriers grant Valigarmanda (but not the orb) an elemental resistance based on their active color, and can be destroyed by an opposing element:

- Red barrier: Fire resist, destroy with ice
- Blue barrier: Ice resist, destroy with fire
- Yellow barrier: Thunder resist, destroy with water

The barriers will change color every once in a while (red -> blue -> yellow -> red); the barrier closer to you changes color faster. In general, begin casting the appropriate summon for the outer barrier two colors before; for the inner barrier, one color.

If you successfully destroy both barriers (and not kill the Tri-Disaster orb at the same time), two Glutturns will spawn, one of which has to be yellow to meet the Mastery conditions. Kill the Glutturns to generate an ether, which you'll most likely need, since Valigarmanda actually has a decent amount of HP and summon charges are low. If you generate two Glutturns at the same time with the same color, the ether restores two ability charges. Be careful not to kill the Tri-Disaster orb before the Glutturns, or they'll flee and waste your hard work.

Destroying the Tri-Disaster orb respawns a new one, and resets both the countdown and the elemental barriers. Destroying said orb four times pushes the fight into Phase 3 -- marked by the Tri-Disaster orb spawning with a 3-turn countdown and no elemental barriers, which, in other words, is the usual "kill him before he kills you" deal.

As a note: Soul Breaks don't trigger Valigarmanda's Tri-Disaster counters, and there's no penalty for attacking the Tri-Disaster orb with non-summoning magic (for example, BSB commands), so feel free to use whatever you have if you're struggling to preserve hones. For obvious reasons, having Alphinaud's Burst goes a long way here, since its commands count as summoning damage. Similar to Neo Bahamut, it also makes for a great RW to bypass the gimmick and brute-force your way through.

[7.8.12] COMBAT NIGHTMARE #2: Omega Weapon

REWARD: Omega Drive

Deal four physical attacks to one target; damage increases with user's Attack.

Full Charge without the delay, a bonus for stacking ATK buffs -- Omega Drive used to be the pinnacle of attacks, and was the favorite of many a Cloud USB1 gorilla until the advent of the Magicite era and the increased emphasis on elemental attacks it brought. It carries a vague niche against those pesky omni-resisting bosses you'll encounter every so often. Or perhaps you happen to have Noctis USB2.

In any case, call me when DeNA decides non-elemental attacks can shine again and Omega Drive might be good once more.
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Recommended RWs: History's Truth (Ramza), Forbidden Power (Onion Knight)
Recommended level: Party average ~80 - 99
Useful skills: Lifesiphon, multi-hit attacks in general

Any form of RES boosting (Stoneskin II, Shellga, etc.) is useless, don't bother. Your native RES will be all you have -- gear for it and let your RWs do the damage boosting. Magic Blink, however, can be a lifesaver (e.g., Tyro's Keeper's Tome, Firion's Weaponsmaster, Rosa's Benediction).

Like Evrae Altana, Omega Weapon's three phases are cleanly marked by the number of times you have to kill it, and the first is the usual damage-dealing stuff. Every time Omega Weapon dies, it will cast Vengeance, which removes ALL buffs, including stat buffs like Shout's ATK boost (but not Burst Modes) -- meaning you may want to hold off on your RW casts until the end of the first phase.

Two Mana Spheres of opposite colors will appear when Omega Weapon revives the first time. The gimmick here is similar to Demon Wall's in that it's position-based:

- Your top two characters can attack the top sphere and Omega Weapon.
- Your bottom two characters can attack the bottom sphere and Omega Weapon.
- The character in the middle can only attack Omega Weapon.

Violating these rules will cause red spheres to self-destruct and deal overflowing (i.e., over 9999) damage to your characters; green spheres will heal Omega Weapon. Killing green spheres will heal your party; red spheres will damage Omega Weapon. The effect varies depending on how many characters and attacks it took to destroy an orb -- for best results, kill spheres in either two hits with two characters or one hit with one character.

Be careful of the following rules:

- Spheres must be destroyed within four turns of spawning or Omega Weapon will wipe the party with Nightmare Omega Drive.
- Omega Weapon must be killed in ten turns or he will cast Nightmare Omega Drive.
- If ten Mana Spheres are destroyed, Omega Weapon will cast Nightmare Omega Drive.
- Destroying a Sphere will always spawn one of the opposite color.

With these in mind: focus primarily on Omega Weapon, and destroy Spheres as needed for healing or timers; throw your least powerful attacker or healer in the middle. Try to stagger your next RW cast as you land the last hit in this phase to waste as little time as possible with Vengeance removing Haste.

This will be important -- the third phase is a DPS check. His first two attacks are single-target; his third is AoE and will likely kill two of your characters, and the fourth is practically guaranteed to kill you if you don't have a Blink; save your Soul Breaks for this phase, pray to Jewgle, and unload. Good luck, anon.

Once you finish all the Nightmare dungeons, a short cinematic should play. With it, you'll gain access to Magicites!