Penance

[Prodigy]

Spatty-poo-poo: who's that aimed at?

Clearly what we have here is a troll (Russie_2003).

I think he's purposefully trying to wind the board members up by posting things he knows not to be true.

Accelerando is correct - you cannot put any breaks on penance - it doesn't affect him at all.

Also if you have hp+30% on your armour then quite frankly you're insane. I don't believe for a second that you've beaten him using your methods. Aeons are utterly pointless against him.

The tried and tested way of beating him is the strategy that I've posted several times. It can be done slightly differently but it makes it a lot more difficult and you'll end up in a world of pain. Even following the best strategy known it still takes a very long time to kill him.

For a start you really need your stats at 255.
Not "around 200".

Hp needs to be around 30-40k - not 80k.

Auto-phoenix is a terrible waste of time. You shouldn't be dying - you simply can't afford the time penalty and subsequent pain in the arse period that follows. Time is important, especially if you don't want to run out of megalixirs/healing waters and have to start double casting cure cos that would really be messy. The more HP/longer you take = more your healing items will run out.

The overdrives are also not the way to go - only use them if you're desperate. Anima can't EVER do 2 million damage. His max is just under 1.6 million and you won't get ANYWHERE near that on Penance - simply because you can't lower his defences.

If anyone still needs help with Penance then just read back through this thread - I'm pretty sure I've given all the information needed on how to beat him. It takes a lot of time, effort and patience but it's quite satisfying if you've got nothing better to do.

[La Boomsikashod]

Haha Russie, that was pathetic. Breaking Penance's armor... lol...
Attack Reels, BlitzAce, Oblivion all do insignificant damage to penance. You'll need Quick Hits with celestial weapons since they ignore enemy defence (in Penance's case that's a whole lot defence you no longer have to deal with).
Bluntly speaking, that is one of the crappest Penance strategies I've ever seen... well at least better than Zanmato-ing I guess. Or maybe you're purposely posting up such stupid things, just to hear everyone belittle you.

Listen to Prodigy, man, at least he knows what he's talking about.


I recommend stats:
- 255 Str, Def, Agi, Acc
- Mag, MDef, Eva are not necessary (ie. they can be at 0 and it won't make the battle any harder). But you'll probably have them at high figures anyway from defeating Dark Aeons, creations etc.
- 100+ luck would be good, if you have less then you need to do Aim x5 at start of battle. Of course 255 is best if you have the patience to kill that many EEs...
- MP is also fairly insignificant cuz you'll have Three Stars.
- min 25000-30000 HP would be required, you should double it with Stamina Tonic and you'll be safer.
50000 base HP (doubled to become 99999) is best of course, as it means less healing required = more turns to attack Penance. Anymore than 50000 isn't that necessary as you can only get max of 99999 anyways.

Armor: Break HP Limit, Ribbon, Auto-Protect, Auto-Haste
Weapon: Celestial weapons, of course. I prefer Rikku, Tidus and Wakka but it's up to you.

Strats:
Cheer 5 times at start of battle when you got the opportunity, as that will reduce Obliteration and Immolation damage by about 25%, for the whole battle. That means approx 7500-8000 Obliterations and 11000-12000 Immolations.

Aim 5 times if your luck is low.

If you don't have Auto-Protect or Auto-Haste, then use items to cast those positive buffs on your chars. But you really should have them in "auto" because you'll be dispelling a lot in 2nd phase due to Immolations.

Use Three Stars to remove MP costs.
Use Stamina Tonic to double HPs if it's not already 99999.

Attack arms when they come out with quick hits, but save the last hit (ie. 6th) to just before that arm's turn. This means you should attack each arm exactly 5 times beforehand, keep a mental count of that number for each arm. (you'll get used to counting after like half an hour of fighting ). That way you deal with the least # of arms possible throughout the fight. As a rule, no arm should ever get a turn in the battle except maybe 1 or 2 attacks at the very start. If you get hit by Calamity then Dispel the break effects.

Once arms are dead or their turn isn't coming up then heal yourself or attack Penance (Quick Hits of course). Healing means Quick Pocket+Megalixir if your maxHP is low, or Mix something like Final Elixir if HPs are high (eg. >40000). Curaga takes too long recovery time and doesn't heal that much anyways. You should heal once any character's HP falls below 15000-ish. You need at least 13000 to safely survive an Immolation with 5xCheer + 255 Def + Auto-Protect. This healing ensures no character ever dies in the whole battle, this saves you from having to do your Cheers/Aims/Tonic/ThreeStars again, and saves a lot of valuable turns.

Note: You should also finish off arms (ie. do the 6th hit) if Penance's turn is coming up and there are 2 arms alive, even if the arm's turn is not coming up. This is to avoid Judgement Day. Only applies to 2nd phase.

In the 2nd phase, be sure to Dispel anyone who gets Armor Breaked by Immolation, you can do this anytime before Penance's next turn. If for some reason you didn't have Auto-Protect or Auto-Haste in your armor, then now's the time to use Light Curtain / Chocobo Feather... (White Magic takes more recovery time).

You should never need to switch any characters. Aeons are ovbiously not needed in the fight, unless you wanna Zanmato but that's an entirely different story...

Overall, Penance is quite easy once you get the routine set up. You never die... no arms attack you... it's all a matter of taking your time to gradually wear down Penance's 12mil HPs until he falls. The battle lasts from 30min to 1hr, depending on how laid back you are in entering commands etc. But the setting up process (stat maxing, Dark Aeons etc..) does take much effort and patience to do.

[Prodigy]

Yep that's a good strategy there - basically the same as the one I used except I didn't have that much HP. It's been a while since I fought him but I was pretty sure that he had a HP based attack which means if you have a lot of HP you're gonna suffer a lot of damage and hence need more time healing.

Didn't know about cheer making any difference so that's new. Everything else has been mentioned but your strategy is well written and informative - good work.

You're right of course - he's not that difficult but it does take a lot of time to prepare and a lot of time to fight. There is no other boss in any Final Fantasy that takes anywhere near as much preperation/fighting time. That's why I'd say he's the hardest super boss ever (in FFs)

[La Boomsikashod]

Yup one of the arms does Tera Graviton which is HP based. But you shouldn't need to face more than one of those, as you prevent arms from getting any turns after their first one.
Penance's 2 primary attacks aren't gravity based I don't think.

I agree he should be classified the "hardest FF boss", simply based on the amount of work required to even have a chance against him.

[Acelerando]

Strange I do not see this "master" anymore ?

I see my stats are even better and I still did not defeated him, and you guys did. Maybe I should have more patience. Only one question left. Where do I get lots of healing water?.. Stealing from Adamantoise works far to slow. Is there any creature in the game I can bribe for this ?

[Russie_2003]

I am here, i just cant be bothered to answer back to all ur immaturity.

i know my method is right, cos i actully did b4 writing it on here, and i beat him like he was Omega Weapon.

im unsubcribing cos ur all getting on my nerves now.

[The One Winged Angel]

Originally posted by Russie_2003
im unsubcribing cos ur all getting on my nerves now.

Shame that, ah well

Yah tetra graviton is what got me when i was using stamina tonics/tablets since i was only on like half health after using them, cheer is a good idea though

[JJC8623]

What is Penance called in the American Verision?
Is it even in the American Version?

[The One Winged Angel]

No, he's not

[stiltskinstrips]

Just try to go all over the cave before meeting him up lastly at the area near the exit. Look for an area in the map which is a dead end and is shaped like a small square. I'm sure that’s where you’re missing a fight with Yojimbo!

[stiltskinstrips]

Anyone know where I can get a lot of megalixirs? Can I bribe a monster in the monster arena for this?

[aeris2001]

i,m not gonna get involved in this silly fight. i,ll just post my way.

stats 45,000 k or so each hp
luck only 120 or so
max everything else

celestial weapons

break hp
ribbion
auto haste
auto phoenix

i kill the arms seperately using quick hit, i seperate them so he never has a chance 2 cast judgement day. mighty guard or protects when needed. i also use quick pockets and megaexlirs

in second form imolation breaks u so its impossible NOT 2 be dying when he hits a breaked character. (though i just heard dispel gets rid of break status, never tried that since i assumed remedy was esuna and dispel 2gether and it didnt work) auto phoenix sorts that and of course recasting protects and megaelixirs.

its surprisingly quite easy when u use the right straedgy. of course, he is still BY FAR THE HARDEST BOSS IN ANY FF GAME. not even the magus sisters,the second hardest boss ever, comes close.

[stiltskinstrips]

whew! i finally defeated Penance! Here's what i did...

I've got Rikku, Wakka, and Tidus, all of them got their celestial weapons, and armors with Break Hp limit, Ribbon, Auto-Protect, and Auto-Haste.

Stats are all 255 except Magic (as i didn't use much of it), and Luck which was around 170. HP's are all around 35,000 (mind you, i didn't use stamina tonic, it's more of a disadvantage to me). And I had to make sure I have plenty healing waters in my inventory.

At the start of the fight, i casted triple star on my party, i also casted auto-life to everybody (just in case, although no one died throughout the fight). The first form of penance is quite easy, so i just kept on using quick hit. When HP runs low, i use healing water, when it runs really low, that's where Rikku comes in useful. I use Final Elixir which replenishes all HP. If you've notice, it takes 6 hits of 99,999 to kill an arm (every arm i know has 500,000 HP), so it would take 12 hits to kill both hands. Try to doublecast a magic, cast it on each arm (so that's one turn) and kill them with quick hits, so you save one precious turn. Just keep on quick hitting and his first form will be down in no time. On it's second form, that's when things gets tough. You now have to pay attention on the action bar (i mean the bar on the upper right of your screen when you fight) Make sure that not both arms are present when the body takes its turn, as it might use Judgement day. At the start of the second form, kill one arm, and hit the other arm 5 times (don't kill it just yet). Then start pummeling the body! As soon as the first arm you kill regenerates or just before you know it will regenerate, that's the time you should kill the other. (With this process, you will also avoid an arm using Tera-Graviton which deals a nasty amount of damage). DO NOT kill both arms at the same time, as they will regenerate at the same time! YOu'll have a hard time killing them when that happens. Just do this process repeatedly. But beware, 'coz just before the body takes it's turn, sometimes it would cheat and regenerate it's arm and use Judgement day (but that would be no problem if you casted auto-life with the whole party). Sometimes an arm will be able to cast Mighty Guard, make sure that you kill it before it's next turn as it usually do Tera-Graviton, if not Slowga. Just keep on using healing water or Rikku's Final Elixir whenever HP runs low.

[fallenangel_masamune]

Some nice ideas but......

All you people arguing about how much HP you need try this.

Celestial Weapons.
Armor: Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect, Auto-Potion, Defense+20.
No Hi/Potions. 99 X potions.
Max Stats.(Luck over 125).

in battle quick-hit left arm till it dies, then right one.
until left arm regenerates use cheer until you've used it five times. Use Three Stars once.
From now on only quick hit Penance if both arms are dead.
It takes a while but you can do it without being KO,d once.

Remember Overdrives and Aeons are not your friends.
Quick hit is always there for you.

No flames please but write back if it works for you.

[jochirin]

um some one said something about dubelcasting curaga.. you cannot double cast white magic... and some one said evasion does not need to be maxed out.. i might be wrong but dosent evasion affect your speed so if its not maxed out you will not have as many turns... am i right