How to Beat Demi-Fiend

Demi Fiend is a boss in Shin Megami Tensei V (SMT 5). Read on to know the best strategies to use against Demi Fiend, Demi Fiend's weaknesses, best demons to use against Demi Fiend, and the best buffs to use to counter Demi Fiend, and the most effective strategies to use to beat Demi Fiend!

How to Beat Demi Fiend

Preparation

Preparation
Get the Avian Talisman Have Enduring Soul and Abyssal Mask Obtain Mother Harlot's essence Have Repel/Drain Phys Max out your demons Bring MP recovery items and gems

Get the Avian Talisman

The Avian Talisman allows you to use the Magatsuhi Skill Accursed Poison which has a chance of inflicting a status ailment on all foes (stronger status ailments are prioritized) and debuffs all enemy stats by 1 stage for 3 turns. You can obtain the Avian Talisman by collecting 30 Miman and talking to Gustave in the Cadaver's Hollow.

This is useful since even if Demi-Fiend resists status ailments, the debuff is still a pretty valuable move to have available. Also, it has a chance to inflict Seal on Demi-Fiend which could prevent him from using Mediarahan when he reaches half health. Also, other enemy demons might get inflicted as well, so that can also help deal with them more efficiently.

Have Enduring Soul and Abyssal Mask

The passive skills Enduring Soul and Abyssal Mask will help keep your party members alive during this fight.

• Enduring Soul - Fully recovers HP after it reaches 0 one time.
• Abyssal Mask - Greatly reduces the chance of being inflicted by status ailments or affected by inst-kill moves.

Also the item Whittled Goat has the same effect as Enduring Soul, but only revives Nahobino. Enduring Soul and Whittled Goat can be stacked such that the Nahobino revives twice. By this point in the game, you should be able to buy this item from Gustave.

Obtain Mother Harlot's Essence

Mother Harlot naturally repels Physical damage, so use her essence on Nahobino to inherit Mother Harlot's affinities. This will ensure that Nahobino will be unaffected by Demi-Fiend's Javelin Rain and Deadly Fury.

Have Repel/Drain Phys

To prepare your party for this fight, you will want not only the demons in your active party, but also the demons in your stock to be able to repel or drain Physical damage. To achieve this, farm the essences of Nuwa (Transformed) and Abdiel (Transformed). This process requires you to have cleared the game at least once before to unlock these demons for fusion, and may take some time as their essence drops are pretty rare.

Note: It is worth mentioning that essences may have a higher chance of dropping on a full moon, but this has not been fully confirmed.

Max Out Your Demons

Having all of your demons at level 99 is a must for this fight, but it doesn't end there. You will also want to boost your party's stats over 99 using Incencse that can be found by investigating marked areas with a Navigator demon like Amanozako.

Bring MP Recovery Items

This is going to be a long fight, so make sure you are stocked up on MP recovery items. If you find that any of your demons are running dangerously low on MP, find a turn when it's safe to use an item and recover MP when needed.

Battle

Battle
Defeat One Demon Every 6 turns Know Demi-Fiend's Summon Cycle Burn Turn Icons With Repel/Drain Phys Demi-Fiend Will Use Mediarahan at Half Health Chaotic Will at Every 1/4th Increment of HP

Defeat One Demon Every 6 Turns

The Demi-Fiend will use Gaea Rage if you fail to take down one demon within every 6 turns, causing a game over. The Demi-Fiend's allies and their affinities are listed below:

Demon	Weakness	Null	Repel	Drain
Pixie	Dark	-	-
Girimekhala	Force, Electric, Light	-	Physical
Cerberus	Ice		Fire
Cu Chulainn	Electric	Force	-
Thor	Force	-	-	Electric
Parvati	Fire	-	-	-
Jack Frost	Fire	-	-	Ice

Note that after one of Demi-Fiend's allies is defeated, the next turn he will be forced to use a turn summoning more allies.

Know Demi-Fiend's Summon Cycle

At the start of the fight, Demi-Fiend will always summon Pixie, Girimekhala, and Cu Chulainn. When one or more of these demons is defeated, Demi-Fiend will replace the defeated demons in a set order. Knowing this order allows you to predict which demons you will need to switch out to target a specific elemental weakness.

Order	Demon
1	Cu Chulainn
2	Girimekhala
3	Pixie
4	Cerberus
5	Thor
6	Jack Frost
7	Parvati

Reduce Demi-Fiend's Turn with Repel/Drain Phys

Any time Demi-Fiend uses a physical skill aside from Gaea Rage, his turn will be shortened as long as the party member targeted Repels/Drains Physical damage.

Demi-Fiend will target party memebers that have been switched out with his physical attacks. Take advantage of this by switching out party members that both have Repel/Drain Phys to burn through Demi-Fiend's turns.

Demi-Fiend Will Use Mediarahan at Half Health

Once you have reduced Demi-Fiend's health to half (30k HP), he will cast Mediarahan, fully healing his party. Demi-Fiend can only use this once per battle though.

If you can time the Avian Magatsuhi Skill Accursed Poison, you have a chance of inflicting Demi-Fiend with Seal preventing him from casting Mediarahan. Managing to do so allows you to skip a huge chunk of the fight's length around Demi-Fiend's half health mark (30k HP).

Note: Since Mediarahan recovers each ally's full HP, we can see from the image above that Demi-Fiend's max HP is 60k.

Demi-Fiend Will Use Chaotic Will Every 1/4th Increment of HP

Demi-Fiend will use Chaotic Will in increments of 1/4th of his HP bar. Chaotic Will has a chance to insta-kill all party members and reduces the foes' press turn icons by half for the next turn. This is why it's important to make sure all party members have Abyssal Mask and Enduring Soul, to ensure that your party survives this attack.

Best Demons to Use Against Demi Fiend

Girimekhala	Rangda	Inanna
Siegfried	Amon	Beelzebub
Metatron	Zeus	Khonsu Ra
Tao	Abdiel (Transformed)	Nuwa (Transformed)
Cleopatra	Mephisto

Demons With Repel/Drain Phys

Ideally, most demons in your party should have Null/Repel Phys before this fight, and both Nuwa (Transformed and Abdiel (Transformed) naturally learn these skills.

Demons With Piercing Skills

Demons such as Amon that have access to piercing skills that ignore affinities are particularly useful if you want to ensure safe damage. Amon's unique skill Megido Flame is particularly helpful as it hits all foes, is considered Fire-type allowing it to hit an elemental weakness, and pierces through resistances.

Demons With Debuffs

Demons with Debilitate such as Beelzebub are helpful in making this fight more manageable. Also, Cleopatra's unique skill Frolic is another useful debuff alternative if you have access to her DLC quest.

Demi Fiend Stats and Weaknesses

Recommended Level

Recommended Level	Location	Drops
99	Hall of Chaos	Demi Fiend's Essence

Demi Fiend Stats

Strength	99
Vitality	99
Magic	99
Agility	99
Luck	99

Demi Fiend Weaknesses and Resistances

Elemental Weaknesses and Resistances

Physical	Fire	Ice	Electric	Force	Light	Dark
Resist	Resist	Resist	Resist	Resist	Resist	Resist

Status Ailments Resistances

Sleep	Confuse	Charm	Mirage	Seal	Poison
Resist	Resist	Resist	Resist	Resist	Resist

Demi Fiend Skill Proficiencies

Elemental

Physical	Fire	Ice	Electric	Force	Light	Dark
＋８	＋８	＋８	＋８	＋８	＋８	＋８

Other

Almighty	Status Ailment	Recovery	Support
＋８	＋８	＋４	＋４

Demi Fiend Skills

Skill	Description
Freikugel +8	Severe Strength-based Almighty attack to 1 foe. High chance of Critical.
Gaea Rage +8	Severe Physical attack to all foes. Ignores affinity resistance and pierces through.
Javelin Rain +8	Severe Physical attack to all foes. Chance of inflicting Seal.
Deadly Fury +8	Medium Physical attack to 1 foe. Always lands Critical hit.
Chaotic Will +8	Chance of instakill to all foes. Foe's Press Turn Icons will be halved next turn.
Mediarahan +4	Full HP recovery to all allies.
Omagatoki: Critical	Magatsuhi Skill: All attacks, including magical attacks, will become Critical hits for all allies for 1 turn.

Shin Megami Tensei Related Guides

Boss Battle Guides | List of Bosses

All Boss Types

Related Boss Guides
Story Bosses	Optional Bosses
DLC Bosses	Superbosses

SMTV: Vengeance Story Bosses

SMTV: Vengeance Story Boss Guides
Glasya-Labolas	Naamah
Eisheth	Yuzuru and Hayataro
Agrat	Beelzebub
The Four Qadistu	Zeus and Odin
Abdiel and Ichiro	Tiamat
Tehom

Story Bosses

Story Boss Guides
Hydra	Eligor
Nuwa	Lahmu (1st Fight)
Loup-garou	Fionn mac Cumhaill
Lahmu (2nd Fight)	Shohei Yakumo
Surt	Ishtar
Chernobog	Arioch
Abdiel	Odin
Zeus	Vasuki
Metatron	Tsukuyomi
Nuwa	Abdiel
Lucifer	Lucifer (Secret Ending)

Optional Bosses

Optional Boss Guides
Pazuzu	Anahita
King Frost	Thunderbird
Loki	Belphegor
Moloch	Amanozako
Camael	Abaddon
Arahabaki	Khonsu
Fionn mac Cumhaill (2nd Fight)	Baal
Huang Long	Asura and Mithras
Amon	Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel
Belial	Michael
Inanna	Danu
Maria	Khonsu Ra
Zeus (2nd Fight)	Marici

Optional Mini-Bosses

Optional Boss Guides
Apsaras	Leanan Sidhe
Shiki-Ouji	Xuanwu
Jatayu	Kumbhanda
Quetzalcoatl	Baihu
The Kunitsukami	Futsunushi
Adramelech	Zaou-Gongen

Punishing Foes

Punishing Foes Guides
Oyamatsumi	Horus
Girimekhala	Hecatoncheires
Chimera	Seth
Bishamonten	Jikokuten
Koumokuten	Zouchouten
Garuda

DLC Bosses

DLC Boss Guides
Artemis	Cleopatra
Mephisto	Matador
Daisoujou	Hell Biker
White Rider	Red Rider
Black Rider	Pale Rider
Mother Harlot	Trumpeter

Superboss Optional Bosses

Vengeance Optional Boss Guides
Shiva	Demi-Fiend
Masakado	Satan