Originally Posted by GameFaqs
---Sanctuary Keeper---
HP: 40,000
Sensor: High physical and magic defense.
Steal:
Lancet:
Strength: 37
Magic: 40
Immunities: Confusion, Provoke, Sleep, Silence, Eject, Doom, KO,
Zombie, and Petrification.
Scan: Its Photon Wings attack causes confusion, sleep, silence,
darkness, curse, and other status effects. Tail Sweep negates Haste and
delays targets' next turn. Uses healing magic and Reflect, among other
spells.
I highly doubt that if you come in here hoping to just attack and cure
your way through here you'll win. This boss is incredibly strong and
powerful. Perhaps first I'll tell you what you're up against.
His Pattern!
Credit goes to Tatl8 for pointing this out to me. I don't know how I
missed this! Anyway, Sanctuary Keeper follows an exact pattern. Because
of this, you ALWAYS know what he will do on his turn, and can plan
ahead because of this. He'll start off with Photon Wings, followed by
Attack, Attack, Mana Breath, White Magic, and White Magic. He will then
go through the cycle again. At the beginning, his White Magic will
ALWAYS be Curaga. Then, after he loses 20,000 HP, he will start using
Reflect on you if he has it on himself. After he's lost 30,000 HP, he
will use Regen off of Reflect before going back to Curaga. I believe he
starts using Esuna if he's under status ailments at 20,000 HP.
His Arsenal of Commands
This monster uses an attack called Photon Wings, which, as the
description above says, inflicts Curse (No Overdrives), Darkness (Miss
often), Sleep (No turns), Silence (No magic), and Confusion (Can't
control, attack allies). What it doesn't mention is that this hits
everyone. It inflicts these all at once - it's almost guaranteed you
get at least two. Even worse, should he use it on an Aeon, it will
prevent its precious Overdrives. Lastly, it does about 1,000 points of
damage to each person.
He has an attack called Tail Sweep. This hits everyone for about 500
points of damage, removes Haste, and gives him another turn. If he was
smart enough, he could use Tail Sweep until he won. Nonetheless, two
turns in a row is never good, especially with a boss.
His regular attack ranges from around 1,500 to 2,000 points to one
character. But that's not the worst of it. He has another attack called
Mana Breath, which does 2,000 to 3,500 points to each character! This
is almost always an instant kill.
Should you manage to survive this arsenal of attacks and hurt him,
he'll simply undo it. He uses Curaga to regain a full 9,999 HP, and
he's not afraid to use it. He uses Regen to regain anywhere up to 4,000
HP each turn. He uses Protect to prevent you from hurting him well. And
he uses Esuna in case you...inflict status ailments on him?
Countering his Power
Status ailments are, indeed, the way to victory here. As you may have
noticed above, he has a very limited immunity list. What, exactly, is
he vulnerable to, then?
Auron can use Power Break, which halves the damage that he inflicts. He
can also use Armor Break, which actually about TRIPLES the damage he
takes. Lastly, Auron can use Magic Break, which halves Curaga. He CAN
use Mental Break, but that will make Curaga do MORE, so you shouldn't
do that.
Wakka can use Dark Attack or Dark Buster. With Power Break, you can be
assured that his physical attacks won't be threatening. Lulu can use
Bio (which she should have by now), which inflicts Poison. It hits him
for 2,000 points each time he gets a turn.
Most importantly, however, is that Tidus CAN inflict Slow on him. Don't
worry if you can't, though, you have a very low chance of it. However,
what may be the very key to your victory is Auron's Threaten ability.
It greatly delays Sanctuary Keeper's turn, and Auron gets a turn right
before him, so you can basically use Threaten until the other
characters finish him off. Use Armor Break first, however.
Countering his Healing
On top of using Magic Break, if you chose to use Shell on Sanctuary
Keeper, Curaga will do half. With both, he only cures about 2,500 HP,
which is a GREAT advantage.
For his Regen and Protect, have Yuna use Dispel. Note that she may not
have this, because you would have had to use her often. She may or may
not have this.
She SHOULD have, however, Reflect. You can simply cast Reflect on
Sanctuary Keeper, and his Curaga will heal YOU, his Protect will
strengthen YOU, and his Regen will help YOU. If you don't have Reflect,
either prepare for a long battle or get several (3 or 4) Aeons into
Overdrive beforehand.
Lastly, when truly wounded, he will use Reflect on one of you
characters in an attempt to bounce it off you to heal himself. Use
Dispel immediately on that character, or, if you don't have it, switch
that character out. This shouldn't be a real issue, however, because
you should be able to finish him by that point. Basically, with Reflect
on him, this beast can't heal himself.
Hurting and Finishing the Beast
Well, to make this easy on you, cast Hastega at the beginning of the
battle. Unless you don't use Tidus or run a lot, you SHOULD have this.
If not, this battle is still far from impossible.
If you attack Sanctuary Keeper, you will do 1,000 to 2,000 points,
depending on whom you use. If he has Protect, it will be 500 to 1,000.
If he has Protect AND Armor Break, you will do 1,500 to 3,000. If he
has only Armor Break, you will do 3,000 to 6,000, depending on whom you
use! Basically, Auron can kill him when he has Armor Break in 7 hits,
which, with outside assistance, is hardly anything. Note that on a
critical hit, you do double that amount, so you can do up to 9,999
points on him!
Lulu's Magic only does around 500 points of damage, but Bio does 2,000
each turn! Have her come and cast that once and then leave.
Lastly, Aeons do about 1,000 on a regular hit and 9,999 on an
Overdrive. Photon Wings gets rid of their Overdrives, though, so try to
come prepared.
All in all, disable all of his strengths and then finish him off. He
shouldn't be too bad compared to the monster he could have been.
