Hollow Bastion – Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Final Mix
Once you land at Hollow Bastion you’ll trigger a couple of scenes. As soon as you regain control of Sora, drop off the platform you started at onto the ‘water level’ below. Here behind some rocks you’ll find a chest containing a Life-G. Jump back up to where you started and use your Blizzard magic on the two nearby floating Water Bubbles to turn them into platforms made of Ice. Jump up the platform to reach a chest containing Dalmatians 91, 92, and 93.
From here use your Glide ability to reach the ice platform that is going up and down. Jump up to the next platform and from here use your Blizzard magic again to freeze the next Water Bubble. Use this new platform to reach another chest, this time containing a Blizzara Ring. Wait for the Water Bubble to unfreeze, and jump inside it. It will take you to an area below the water, down here you’ll find another chest, this time containing a Meteor-G. Return back up the platforms and continue ascending the area. In the distance you’ll see a large open platform with an Archway on it. Head there to trigger another scene.
After that complete betrayal is over, you’ll be left with only Beast in your party. Take a minute to make sure he is equipped and adjust his behavior if you need to. For the next section of this, it will only be Sora and Beast. Sora will no longer be able to use the Keyblade and will instead take up a wooden sword. This means your physical damage is greatly reduced. Your magic attacks will still be quite potent and Beast has massively powerful physical attacks to make up for your loss of damage. Remember that if you lock on to an enemy and press “Triangle” in the Playstation version, that it will make your party members attack whoever you are locked on to. This is extremely important in directing Beast for this next section.
Castle Gates
With Beast now ready to go, move onto the platform that is near the Archway to ride it up to another chest, containing a Megalixir. Climb the nearby stairs to head up to the Castle Gates area.
Here you will begin to encounter two new Heartless.
New Heartless: Darkball
| New Heartless | Darkball |
| HP: | 60 |
| EXP: | 32 |
| Drops: | Lucid Crystal (1%) Hi-Potion (1%) |
New Heartless: Defender
| New Heartless | Defender |
| HP: | 240 |
| EXP: | 120 |
| Drops: | Elixir (2%) Bright Crystal (2%) Defender (0.2%) |
Both of these new Heartless can be taken down with Magic. You’ll need to attack the Defenders from behind, similar to how you deal with Large Body Heartless as well. Defeat the Heartless and then make your way back to where you first entered the Castle Gates. If you look to the right you’ll find a gate with a Red Crystal near it. Examine the Red Crystal and then the nearby Blue Crystal to be taken to a lower level of the Castle.
Waterway
Take a moment and clear the area of Heartless. When they are in groups in confined area’s like this, Blizzard and Thunder magic work extremely well. Jump into the nearby Water Bubble to be taken to another section of this area. Here jump onto the nearby block and Glide across to a chest containing a Mythril. You’ll find a second chest here on the higher ledge containing a Thundara-G. You’ll find what looks like an Ice Sculpture nearby to this chest, interact with it to have a platform come out of a nearby wall. From here if you look over to the left you should see a second Ice Sculpture. You can Glide over to it and land just below it on a ledge. Jump up and activate it to have the second half of the platform come out of the wall. Head over to this newly formed bridge to find an opening on the other side leading to the Waterway.
In the Waterway you need to use the action command to have Beast destroy a Metal Gate. Head inside and claim the chest containing a Thundaga-G. With that area opened, head back out to the prior area where we formed the bridge.
If you climb onto the raised lip on the edge of this platform you can use your Glide skill to reach a nearby chest on a ledge. The chest contains a Paper-G. Drop down to the bottom Water level from here and hop into the lower of the two Water Bubbles here to be taken back into the Waterway.
Inside, grab the chest near the save point for a Fira Ring. Have Beast destroy the nearby gate. Go past the now destroyed gate to find a Water Bubble on your left. Freeze it with your Blizzard magic and climb on top of it. From here you should be able to jump onto a section of the wall on your left. Walk along the top of this section of the wall to find a chest containing Dark Matter. Wait for the Bubble to unfreeze and jump inside it, this will take us to another section of the Waterway. Examine the section of the wall on your left with the action icon to have Beast destroy this as well, revealing a new room, the Dungeon.
Defeat the enemies that spawn here and then open the two chests for an Ultima-G and a Thundaga-G. You’ll also find a Blue Trinity on the ground here, this is unusable until Donald and Goofy rejoin the party. Head back out of the Dungeon into the Waterway.
Continue down the Waterway until you come across a Blue Switch. Press it to have some of the walls here reconfigure. Go through the opening to find another Blue Switch, press it. Head through the opening and to the right to find another Blue Switch at about head height, press it to have another Blue Switch revealed. Head over to the newly revealed Switch and press it to reveal a Water Bubble. Jump inside to be taken to the next area. Hit the Blue Switch you find here to be taken to a fight with a Defender Heartless. Jump behind him and hit him with Magic. You can also just throw on your Aerora and run into his back, this will allow the wind damage from Aerora to eventually finish him off. Either way, once he’s defeated, hit the next nearby Blue Switch. Hitting this Switch has opened the main gates of Hollow Bastion. Head back the way you came via Water Bubble. Back in the room with all the Blue Switches, hit the switch around the far corner and then one final one behind and to your left. This should reopen the way to the Water Bubble that brought you to this area, to begin with. Make your way back to the Save Point and then jump into the Bubble near it to be taken out of the Waterways.
Here, again, you’ll need to defeat all the enemies before you can activate the Crystal that calls the lift to return you to the Castle Gates area. Head up when you can.
Head over to the now unlocked Front Door and through to the Entrance Hall. Here you’ll witness several cutscenes before finally having our first Boss Battle of the area.
Boss Battle: Riku (Hollow Bastion - Entrance Hall)
| Boss: | Riku (Entrance Hall) |
| HP: | 500 |
| EXP: | 2,000 |
| Rewards: | White Trinity |
Make use of either your Dodge roll or Guard abilities to deflect or dodge most of Riku’s attacks. Make sure you keep up Aerora at all times as well. This will both shield you from a portion of the incoming damage, and deal damage to Riku when he gets close enough to attack you. Once he is defeated you’ll gain the ability to use White Trinity marks as well.
After the battle, return Donald and Goofy to the party. Climb the stairs, down the hallway infront of you is a door with the Heartless symbol on it. It is locked for now and requires us to collect 4 pieces to unlock. Ignore it for now and head to the right, climb ontop of the nearby pillar. This will give you enough height to Glide over to a chest, roughly to the left of you, that contains an AP Up. Climb the stairs again and exit this room through the door on the righ that leads to the Library.
Library
This library is a giant puzzle for us to solve. Basically, we need to find the books and put them in the correct places on the shelves. Luckily everything is color-coded so it’s not too much of a hassle. Start by grabbing the red book on the ground to your left called “Khama Vol 8” on the right you’ll see a row of red books with one missing. Go and interact with the space to place the book. As the bookcase slides away it will reveal a column you can interact with, use the action button to spin the section at the bottom of the pillar twice, to reveal a chest containing an Elixir. Now head up the stairs.
Up here you’ll find two more columns you can interact with and each will reveal a chest. The first is a Mythril and the second contains a Mega-Potion. Climb onto the nearby desk to grab a copy of the “Theon Vol 6” and you’ll find a Green Trinity (#9) here on the ground near a bookcase as well. Activating the Trinity will allow us to collect the “Azal Vol 3” book from on top of the bookshelf.
Head back to the second column you spun up here to find a row of Orange books on the shelves, interact with it to take the “Mava Vol 6” from it and interact a second time to correctly add the “Theon Vol 6” to it instead. This will cause the bookcase to move and reveal a Red Switch. Hit the button to unlock a nearby door, we wont be using this until we’ve completed the Library puzzle though.
Jump on top of the bookcases found on the first floor and head for the treasure chest you can see, this contains an Ultima-G. You’ll also find a column nearby that is ripe for some spinning, an AP Up is your reward. Head back down to the first-floor ground level.
Here you’ll find a row of Green books with “Salegg Vol 6” jammed in there. Take it out and in the second gap in the Green books you can insert “Mava Vol 6”. Behind you is a row of Blue Books, you can place “Salegg Vol 6” in here to reveal a passage leading back to the stairs.
Make your way towards the Library’s entrance to find a row of Yellow books, deposit “Azal Vol 3” in here. Head towards the stairs, to the left of a nearby column you’ll find another book “Nahara Vol 5”. Head upstairs and place “Nahara Vol 5” into the row of Yellow books, near the desk. This will reveal a row of Purple books, grab the “Mava Vol 3” from this row, and head back downstairs.
Near the entrance to the Library is a row of Green books, you can now place “Mava Vol 3” with them to complete the series and open the way to a side room. Head into the room and grab “Hafet Vol 4” from the desk. Return to the second floor and place “Hafet Vol 4” with the other Purple books to reveal the doorway to the Lift Stop area.
In this Lift Stop area, you’ll find a Treasure chest on a floating platform, cast Gravity magic on it to bring it back down to earth. It contains Dalmatians 97, 98, and 99. You can activate the nearby Blue Crystal to ride the lift to another area with a similar floating chest. Bring it down for an Osmose-G. Re-examine the Blue Crystal to return to the first area and then head back into the Library.
We now need to head through the door we unlocked with the Red Switch earlier, this will take us to the second level of the Entrance Hall.
Entrance Hall – Upper Level
To your right you’ll find two breakable pots. Smash them to have a nearby statue lower and an item dropped into the fountain on the First Floor. The item is one of the four Heartless symbol pieces we need to collect up here. Leave it down on the first floor for now, we’ll swing back around to collect when we’re ready to open the door.
On this second level, you’ll need to light every candle around the perimeter with your Fire magic to claim another piece.
You’ll find a statue up here with Red Trinity (#5) in front of it. Activate it to smash the statue releasing another piece onto the first floor.
On the second floor you should find one final statue remaining, this one can be pushed aside to trigger a chest to appear somewhere else. Look around the area up here and you should be able to find a stone tablet near the centre of the area, it will have a Lightning Bolt insignia on it. Use your Thunder magic on it to activate some moving platforms, these create a shortcut between the first and second levels of the Entrance Hall here for you. Use your Glide ability to claim the emblem piece on top of the Chandelier. Then head down to the first level to find a piece in the fountain, another piece in the middle of the room, and the chest that spawned to the right of the fountain contains the fourth piece.
With all four pieces, head up the stairs and interact with the door to fit all four pieces inside the symbol, opening the door and triggering another cutscene.
When you’re back with Sora, you’ll be attacked by some new enemies.
New Heartless: Wizard
| New Heartless | Wizard |
| HP: | 75 |
| EXP: | 90 |
| Drops: | Shiny Crystal (2%) Ether (2%) Wizard's Relic (0.2%) |
The Wizard Heartless can very rarely drop a powerful staff for Donald, in the same way that the Defender Heartless can drop a Shield for Goofy. Both of these are easily some of the most powerful weapons for them in the game, only outclassed by weapons that aren’t available for some time. Wizards will also absorb magic attacks, so be sure to use physical damage to defeat them.
New Heartless: Wyvern
| New Heartless | Wyvern |
| HP: | 135 |
| EXP: | 65 |
| Drops: | Power Crystal (2%) Hi-Potion (2%) Elixir (0.5%) |
Defeat the enemies and head through where the Heartless Door was.
**There is a chance of being attacked here by a rare enemy who is invisible. This is the Stealth Soldier Heartless, you can either run away for now if you don’t want to deal with it or use a combination of Stop magic followed by Ars Arcanum to defeat them quickly before they disappear. After taking enough damage they will lose their invisibility.
Lift Stop
Clear the Heartless that are waiting for you here, then interact with the Red Crystal to turn it Blue. Examine the second Blue Crystal to be taken to an area with a chest on another floating platform, use your Gravity magic to bring it down for an Orichalcum. Use the Blue Crystal to return to the previous area afterwards. Here examine the Red/Blue Crystal to change it to Red. Now examine the Blue Crystal that calls the lift again. This time you should be taken to a hallway that exits out into the Waterway.
Defeat the Heartless and take the platform on the right hand side back to the Lift Stop area.
Here you’ll find a Red Crystal, interact with it to gain some MP orbs and a Mythril. Head back out to the Waterway.
The second platform here will take you to the Dungeon area. Once down here you’ll need to defeat all the Heartless before finally being able to claim this Blue Trinity (#16). This is the one we found earlier while we only had Beast in the party. For activating it you’ll receive a Mega-Potion, Mega-Ether, and a Cottage. Ride the platform back up to where you came from.
Head back another screen to the Lift Stop area with the Darkball enemies. Defeat all the Heartless and use the Blue Crystal to ride the lift up once again. This time use the nearby opening to return to the Castle Gates.
You can make good use of your Aerora out here to help deal with the Wyverns. Cast it on yourself and it will stun them briefly when they come to attack you, creating an opening for an aerial combo. Just be careful not to fall off the edge. Hit the Red Crystal when the area is clear, to start a platform moving. You can ride this to the right to find another floating chest, hit it with Gravity magic to claim the Dalmatians 94, 95, and 96 inside it. Hop back on the moving platform and wait for it to get within Glide distance to the other moving platform on the left side, near the Arch. You can grab two chests along this moving platform’s route so keep an eye out. The first contains a Haste2-G and the second an Orichalcum. Grab them and jump back onto the platform. Ride the platform back to where we originally had to clear out the Wyverns and this time hit the Blue Crystal to call a different lift down.
Ahead of you will be a Red Crystal, interact with it to board a new lift. This one will have various Heartless attack it along the route so make sure you’re prepared. Defeat the Heartless and reactivate the Red Crystal to continue the journey. Where it drops you off will be very close to another Blue Trinity (#17) activate it to claim a Megalixir and two Cottages. Nearby you’ll find a chest containing a Thundaga-G as well. You’ll see some stairs leading down, take these down to another part of the Lift Stop.
Run down the hallway and enter the next area, the Great Crest.
Great Crest
Grab a chest to the left containing ann Orichalcum and hit the Blue Crystal to take a lift up one level. Defeat the enemies that spawn here and use your Gravity magic to lower the nearby chest for a Thundara Ring. Head back to the Blue Crystal and jump off the edge. Glide to your right to reach an area off to the side beneath red and gold columns. Head into the opening here to be taken to another Lift Stop. Use your Gravity on the nearby chest to claim a Royal Crown Accessory, head back out of the area. Jump off the edge here to be returned to the Great Crest area.
Interact with the Blue Crystal to ride the lift up once more. Now, you want to interact with the Red Crystal to lower the “right” half of the Heartless Insignia Bridge. Then use the opening near the Blue Crystal to head back into the Lift Stop. Defeat the enemies that spawn and head down the hallway and through the doorway.
Out here you’ll first need to defeat all the Heartless. You’ll find another chest here that can be accessed by using Gravity magic. It contains an Osmose-G. Hit the nearby Red Crystal to lower the “left” half of the Heartless Insignia Bridge. Climb both halves to get to the next level and clear out the enemies.
Nearby you’ll find a Yellow Crystal, activate it to raise the “left” part of the bridge. Climb up it and to the next level. Here you’ll find a chest containing a Megalixir, as well as another Red Crystal. Examine the Crystal to create a shortcut, this will take you back to the Library. Go down the steps and around the corner to arrive at another Lift Stop.
Castle Chapel
This hallway leads to the Castle Chapel, clear it of Heartless, and head through the doorway at the end. As you enter, you’ll trigger a cutscene and a Boss Battle.
Boss Battle: Maleficent
| Boss: | Maleficent |
| HP: | 900 |
| EXP: | 3,400 |
| Rewards: | Cheer (Ability - Donald) Ansem's Report 5 |
Maleficent will spend the battle on a floating platform. You’ll need to hit it with Gravity magic in order to bring it down. You can then jump onto the platform and deal damage to her until you’re thrown from the platform and the process is repeated. Be aware that she has some very powerful magic so you likely dont want this fight to go on too long.
The fastest way to bring her HP down, and avoid most of her most powerful spells, is to cast Aero magic on yourself after you bring her platform down with Gravity. Jump onto the downed platform and use the Ars Arcanum ability we gained in Neverland to deal tremendous damage in a steady combo to her. The Ars Arcanum combined with the bonus hits from Aerora will drastically reduce her HP and you’ll likely only need to repeat this a couple of times to end the battle.
Once the battle is over, Maleficent will retreat, and you’ll be given access to a save point. Be sure to take the chance to restock any items and change any abilities you need to. The next boss is a tough one. Head through the Portal after Maleficent when you’re ready.
After a cutscene you’ll face another Boss Battle.
Boss Battle: Dragon Maleficent
| Boss: | Dragon Maleficent |
| HP: | 1200 |
| EXP: | 6,000 |
| Rewards: | Fireglow Summon Gem |
Maleficent’s Dragon form can be very tough to fight. There’s not really anywhere in the arena that her attacks can’t reach, and if you’re underleveled you’ll take significant damage from everything she does. You’ll need to keep Aerora up for this entire fight, that is pretty much mandatory. Don’t count on Donald or Goofy being particularly helpful either as it is highly likely they will both be knocked out quite quickly, so you’ll need to be on top of your own healing as well.
Throw Aerora on and try to keep underneath her neck as much as possible for this fight. Simply continuously perform aerial combos to slowly whittle down her health. This should keep you safe from most of her Fire-based attacks, and you should only occasionally be caught by one of her shockwaves. Aerora will help to soften the damage you take, it will also help to chip away at her health whenever you are close to her head.
It can be a tough fight, but take your time and use the lift stop area to farm a couple of levels if you need to. At this point, you could even consider taking some time to try and obtain the Defender Shield and Wizard’s Staff for Donald and Goofy. Farming those weapons can take a considerable amount of time, resulting in many levels and also some of the game’s most powerful gear for your allies.
Either way, once complete, you’ll be rewarded with the Fireglow Gem that you can hand over to the Fairy Godmother next time you are in Traverse Town. You’ll receive the Mushu Summon for turning it in. Defeating the Dragon will also trigger some cutscenes, after they are finished you can head back out through the portal and return to the previous save point to save your game.
Heal up and head through the new opening near the Save Point. Enter the Lift Stop area and continue through to the other side to enter the Grand Hall.
Grand Hall
Continue forward, once you reach the stairs a cutscene will play out and we’ll be face with another Boss Battle.
Boss Battle: Riku (Grand Hall)
| Boss: | Riku (Grand Hall) |
| HP: | 900 |
| EXP: | 8,500 |
| Rewards: | Ragnarok (Ability - Sora) |
This can be a tough fight, as you dont have Donald or Goofy for assistance. Managing MP is one of the toughest elements here, you want to make sure that your HP is kept high and that Aerora is pretty much on at all times. Since Riku is primarily melee based, keeping Aerora on you will mean that whenever he moves in to attack, he’ll also take damage from Aerora.
Riku’s primary attack to start, is a 3 hit combo with his Keyblade. If you guard it, you can then counter him with a combo of your own, be sure to guard immediately afterwards though. The real issue of the fight starts as Riku’s health drops. He gains access to an attack that will cover pretty much the entire area. He’ll begin by floating into the middle of the arena and the floor will become covered in darkness. When this begins it is important that you begin gliding around the outer perimeter of the arena. Jump as high as you can and try not to touch the floor for as long as possible. Doing this should allow you to avoid most if not all of the damage from this attack.
You can use Ars Arcanum to bring Riku’s health down faster during the fight, however this ability consumes a ton of MP and you’ll likely need it for Cura and Aerora more, but the choice is yours.
After the battle you’ll learn the Ragnarok ability and trigger another cutscene.
Heartless
From where you regain control all you want to do is keep jumping off ledges until you reach the Castle Gates area of Hollow Bastion. Once you arrive, head towards the Entrance Hall and through the big doors that we unlocked when we were with Beast at the start.
Inside the Entrance Hall, you’ll find the rest of the group, after a few short cutscenes you’ll leave Hollow Bastion aboard the Gummi Ship. From here we need to head back to Traverse Town.
With Hollow Bastion complete for now, we need to head back to Traverse Town to reunite with Leon and fill him in on the events that have just occurred.
Hollow Bastion – Second Story Visit
Disembark your Gummi Ship in the Rising Falls area. Beast will greet you here, filling you in on the current situation. Continue to ascend the falls until you find a bubble just before the platform with the Archway, jump inside to be taken to an area with a chest containing a Defence Up. Continue to the Archway to find another White Trinity (#10) in a pool of water on the same platform, activating it will reveal a chest containing a Thundaga-G. Head for the Castle Gates.
Continue to press forward, fighting the Heartless as you go. Head into the Entrance Hall and up into the Library.
Climb the stairs to witness a scene between Belle and Beast. Speak to Belle afterward, she’ll shed some more light on the current situation here in Hollow Bastion as well as gifting you the Divine Rose Keyblade.
The Ascent
From here head into the Lift Stop and hit the Blue Crystal to be taken to another area with a floating platform, use your Gravity magic to lower the chest for a Ramuh Belt Accessory. Examine the Blue Crystal again to return to the Library, and make your way down into the Entrance Hall once again.
Take the door we previously opened with the Heartless Insignia, behind the fountain, into another Lift Stop. Head out the exit and defeat the Heartless here to be able to use the nearby Blue Crystal to head to the Great Crest area.
Activate the Red Crystal to take the lift across to the other side. Here head through the door and into the Lift Stop, activate the nearby Blue Crystal to take the lift to another door leading to another section of the Great Crest.
Take the lift here to the High Tower area and head through the door to another Lift Stop. Head down the corridor and out into another section of the High Tower. Go up the stairs and into the next Lift Stop that leads on to the Castle Chapel.
Here in the Chapel you can use the Save Point to refill your HP and MP for the upcoming fight. Once you’re ready head through the opening into another Lift Stop and through the other side into the Grand Hall.
The Grand Hall
Clear the Heartless from the area before heading over to the stairs on the right-hand side. Here on a ledge above and to the right you’ll find a chest containing a Dark Matter. Continue to climb up the stairs until you find a pile of rubble. Here you can jump over it to reach a ledge, follow the ledge around to back track alittle and eventually you’ll come to a chest containing a new Keychain for the Oblivion Keyblade. Jump down and head up the left hand stairs to find another chest in a similar place to the one on the right-hand side, this time containing Dalmatians 61, 62, and 63.
Once you’re all done with the item collecting, head through the opening where the Keyhole was the first time we were here to arrive in the Dark Depths.
Dark Depths
Once inside you’ll trigger a cutscene and a battle will commence.
Boss Battle: Behemoth
| Boss: | Behemoth |
| HP: | 1,350 |
| EXP: | 10,000 |
| Rewards: | Omega Arts (Accessory) |
The only way to damage Behemoth is to damage his horn. You can take several approaches, the first is to climb onto his back and over his head to damage it directly. If he knocks you off, you can aerial combo it when he bends over. You can also inflict a large amount of damage using Gravity magic on his horn. Gravity inflicts damage based on max HP and Behemoth has a massive amount of HP, this works in your favour if you decide to go this route. If Behemoth’s horn starts to glow, it is powering up for a massive magical attack, the only way to avoid it is to get out of range. If you have high enough HP and Aerora up then I find its easier to simply just stay on the back and keep attacking, it wont do enough damage to worry you.
Once he goes down you’ll earn the Omega Arts Accessory and trigger a few cutscenes.
Eventually the Princesses of Heart will fill you in on the plan for finally sealing away the darkness. You’ll also receive an upgrade to your Fire magic. Head to the nearby Save Point, board your Gummi Ship and land back in Hollow Bastion, but select the Library for your dropoff point. Alternatively, if you need the experience, you can fight your way back down there.
In the Library you’ll find Aerith, speak to her to receive Ansem’s Report 2, 4, 6, and 10. Speak to her another two times to receive an upgrade to your Cure magic. Curaga restores your Max MP + 36 worth of HP.
You’ve also now collected all 99 of the Dalmatian Puppies in the game. Head back to Traverse Town and go visit them to claim an upgrade to your Aero magic, Aeroga, as well as a full set of Gummi Blocks. Aeroga lasts for your Max MP + 18 seconds, and it deals your (Max MP x2) + 8 in damage per second to enemies standing close by. It will also deflect some enemy projectiles.
Head back to a Save Point and board your Gummi Ship for the Olympus Coliseum’s final set of games, the Hades Cup.
Head to the Olympus Coliseum to participate in the Hades Cup.
Hollow Bastion – Optional Superboss
Once you’ve completed all the story elements of Hollow Bastion, if you return to the Castle Chapel area you will find a portal of darkness. Entering this will trigger a fight with another of the games Superbosses, called Unknown. This fight was added in the Final Mix version of this game, and wasn’t here in the PS2 original. Its meant to serve as a tie between this game and ones that follow, if you’ve played through Kingdom Hearts 2 then you’ll already know who this is.
Boss Battle: Unknown
| Boss: | Unknown |
| HP: | 1,500 |
| EXP: | 12,000 |
| Rewards: | EXP Bracelet Ansem's Report 13 |
Since Donald and Goofy will prove mostly useless in this fight, you can summon Tinkerbell instead to provide some constant HP restoration. You’ll need Aeroga up for this entire fight as well, for damage mitigation purposes. The best way to deal with this fight is to use Gravity magic to briefly stagger Unknown and then move in for a combo. Without staggering him first, it is likely he will either guard or counterattack each of your combo attempts. You can also have some success using the Ars Arcanum ability to bypass his blocking and counterattacks, in an attempt to simply over power him. At low health Unknown will start to use a move that will lock away your attack functions on your menu. It replaces everything with either Shock or Release, choose the Release option to have the attack end.
Keep at it and eventually he will go down. You’ll be rewarded with an EXP Bracelet and Ansem’s Report 13 for your trouble. The brief cutscene afterwards will foreshadow some of the events to come in the following games.
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