How to Beat Elder Wyrm

This page contains information about the boss Elder Wyrm from the game Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age (FF XII, FF12). Read on to know more about this boss fight including the boss' moveset and strategies to use against it.

How to Beat Elder Wyrm

Details

The Elder Wyrm has a lot of Magicks and abilities that cause status ailments. There are also two Treants that accompanies this boss at the beginning of the fight.

Moveset

The Elder Wyrm has access to a collection of status ailment-inducing magicks. These are Slow, Break, Blind, Silence, Sleep, and Confuse.

Elder Wyrm using his special move Sporefall.

This boss also uses Rake, a move which is shared by all Wyrms in this game. Fireball, as the name suggests, is a massive Fire-element attack. The attack that your party should look out for is Sporefall, which inflicts random status ailments to all enemies—in this case, all members of your party which is participating in the battle.

Gambit

Tanker / Damage Dealer
Gambit : Target	Gambit : Command
Self : Status = Oil	Handkerchief
Ally : Any	Phoenix Down
Foe: Nearest Visible	Attack

White Mage
Gambit : Target	Gambit : Command
Self : Status = Oil	Handkerchief
Self : Status = Silence	Echo Herbs
Ally : Any	Raise
Ally : Any	Esuna
Ally : Any	Protect
Ally : MP <10%	Ether

Time Battle Mage
Gambit : Target	Gambit : Command
Self : Status = Oil	Handkerchief
Ally : Any	Phoenix Down
Ally Status : Slow	Haste
Ally MP < 10%	Ether

Black Mage
Gambit : Target	Gambit : Command
Self : Status = Oil	Handkerchief
Ally : Any	Phoenix Down
Foe: 2+ Present	Fira

Gambit Explanation

At this point in the game, your party should already have access to two license boards. If a character has obtained two licenses from the given gambit, then simply combine their gambits for a greater effect.

If all classes are taken by separate characters, deploy your Black Mage first to defeat the Treants, then swap him/her out with a missing class from the given gambits above.

Strategy

Most of the status ailments in the battlefield are curable by Time Mage or White Mage skills, so a character that has both jobs, or two characters with separate jobs, are useful.

The Time Mage can use Haste to negate Slow, while the White Mage can cast Esuna for the rest of the other status ailments. The item Handkerchief should also be set to all players to negate Oil which, if combined with Fireball, would cause a rather 'explosive' instant death.

A Black Mage which has Tier-2 Black Magick spells will also help greatly in getting rid of the two Treants at the beginning of the fight.

The player should place the tanker in an opposite direction to the rest of the party to avoid getting taken out by the various status ailments from Sporefall.

Final Fantasy XII Related Links

List of Boss Battles

Story Boss Battles
Air Cutter Remora	Firemane
Mimic Queen	Judge Ghis
Garuda	Belias
Vossler	Tiamat
Elder Wyrm	Mateus
Judge Bergan	The Mandragoras
Ahriman	Dr. Cid (1st battle)
Rafflesia	Daedalus
Tyrant	Shemhazai
Hydro	Pandaemonium
Slyt	Fenrir
Hashmal	Judge Gabranth (1st battle)
Dr. Cid (2nd battle) & Famfrit	Judge Gabranth (2nd battle)
Vayne

Side Quest Bosses
Earth Tyrant	Demon Wall
Vinuskar	Fury
Humbaba Mistant	Hell Wyrm
Urutan Eater	King Bomb
Phoenix	Omega Mk. XII

Espers
Adrammelech, the Wroth	Belias, the Gigas
Chaos, Walker of the Wheel	Cúchulainn, the Impure
Exodus, the Judge-Sal	Famfrit, the Darkening Cloud
Hashmal, Bringer of Order	Mateus, the Corrupt
Shemhazai, the Whisperer	Ultima, the High Seraph
Zalera, the Death Seraph	Zeromus, the Condemner
Zodiark, Keeper of Precepts