Shinryu

Summary

For those who are tempted to open every treasure chest they see, the dragon comes for you. Shinryu is one of the game's two major superbosses, and definitely lives up to the title with a wide array of powerful attacks and spells. Dealing with Shinryu's massive offensive power may seem quite intimidating, but it turns out this monster might just have a key weakness or two that makes the fight much more straightforward. Don't breathe easy just yet, though.

Stats

Name	Shinryu
Level	97
Speed	87
HP	55500
MP	51000
Strength	175
Defense	60
Evasion	20
Magic	128
Magic Defense	60
Magic Evasion	95
Gil	0
Exp	0
Steal	Common: Dragon Fang Rare: Dragon's Whisker
Drops	Always: Dragon Seal Rare: Nothing

Status

Enemy Status

NAME	Shinryu
Elemental Immunity:	None
Elemental Absorb:	Holy
Elemental Weakness:	None
Status Vulnerability:	Darkness, Zombie, Float, Image, Mute, Berserk, Regen, Slow, Haste, Shell, Armor, Wall
Initial Status:	None
Cannot Evade:	None
Creature Type:	Dragon, Heavy
Command Vulnerability:	None
Special Properties:	Critical Attack

Attack Script

Condition: V00=01 {
    {Maelstrom, Attack, Roulette}
    {Ice Storm, Atomic Ray, Lightning}
    No Interrupt {
         {Maelstrom, Attack, Roulette}
         {Mighty Guard, Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare}
         }
    No Interrupt {
         {Attack, Attack, Evil Eye}
         {Attack, Attack, Poison Breath}
         }
    }

Nothing

No Interrupt {
    Set V00=01
    Tidal Wave
    }

React: Magic: No-Damage Magic {
    Set V00=00
    Zombie Breath
    }

Condition: HP < 20000 & HP Damage {
    {No-Damage Magic, Nothing, Nothing}
    }

Strategies

The very first thing to note about Shinryu is that, unlike most bosses, it can be fled from. If an attempt goes badly, you can always retreat, rework your party setup, and come back later with better preparation.

The second thing is that Shinryu opens every attempt the same way: launching a monstrous Tidal Wave cast that inflicts 8000+ damage to your entire party. If you do not have a way of dealing with this, you lose, period. This pretty much comes down to one of two accessories equipped: Hermes Sandals (which allow you a narrow window to act before the Tidal Wave is cast) or Coral Ring (absorbs the water damage). You will almost always need one of these two on every party member to progress.

The third thing is that Shinryu absorbs holy damage. Have your Knights and Dragoons put Excalibur and Holy Lance away, and don't expect your White Mage to be a damage contributor. (Not that this is a major problem for White Mages or Dragoons, see below.)

The fourth thing is that Shinryu is a dragon (gasp), so weapons that deal extra damage to Dragon type enemies like the Dragon Lance, Apollo's Harp, and the Dragon Whisker are valuable for this fight. (The Dragon Whisker is also Shinryu's rare steal, so it's possible to steal it off and then immediately put it to work if you have Beastmaser or Freelancer.)

At this point, your strategy will likely be put into play, which comes down to four options for dealing with Shinryu's attack rotation. The last one involves navigating Shinryu's gauntlet of powerful attacks (thankfully there will be no more Tidal Wave casts after this). The other three, meanwhile...

Berserk

That's right, Shinryu is vulnerable to Berserk, so instead of having to deal with Shinryu's regular script, you just have to answer to Shinryu spamming melee attacks. Inflicting Berserk can be done via White Mage's spell of the same name, Beastmaster releasing a Mammon to cast Berserk on a teammate with Reflect up so it bounces onto Shinryu, Chemist mixing a Bacchus's Cider (Holy Water + Turtle Shell), or having a rod-wielding job cast Berserk via the Wonder Wand's spell rotation.

Those melee attacks are no joke, however, inflicting several thousand damage and usually one-shotting your party members. Typical means of melee damage reduction like Protect will not help you here - you need to negate the attacks entirely. Knight can employ critical health Cover + Guard, White Mage can cast Blink (yes, White Mage generally trivializes this fight), Ninja can employ Image, and shields and gear that grants independent evade (keep in mind Elven Mantle is not an option, due to Tidal Wave) can also help.

Furthermore, Shinryu is also vulnerable to blind, although having to get around its magic evasion to land it with Blue Mage (Flash spell) or Ninja (throwing Ash) won't be easy. On older versions, Chemist could bypass this with the Dark Sigh mix (Eyedrop + Dragon Fang), but not so on the defunct mobile/Steam or Pixel Remaster versions. A Beastmaster can inflict blind on Shinryu via Rainbow Wind, which can be cast by releasing a Galajelly. A Ranger who carries a Dark Bow in every version but the defunct mobile/Steam can easily inflict this. (In said version, it's subject to magic evasion as well.) Furthermore, on defunct mobile/Steam, all of these will be countered with Zombie Breath even when Shinryu is berserked, so be careful.

If none of these are options, all you can do is get into a rhythm of tossing Phoenix Downs while people attack. If this is required, you will want a full stack of 99 Phoenix Downs going into the fight.

Keep up the offense while maintaining whatever defensive measures you have, and Berserk Shinryu will go down.

Reflect Zombie

The local Necromancer enemies in the Interdimensional Rift like to use Zombie Powder to turn your characters into mindless undead. But if you have Bard as one of your jobs, you can take advantage of this to take down Shinryu.

You want a zombie character equipped with a Reflect Ring. (If you end up with multiple zombies, only one needs the Reflect Ring.) Any remaining characters must have the Bard's Hide ability set, and Hermes Sandals equipped. When the battle begins, all non-zombie characters should immediate Hide before the Tidal Wave hits and remain there.

And then you wait. The Reflect Ring will bounce Shinryu's Atomic Ray casts back at it, inflicting a small amount of damage each time. Nothing Shinryu can do can stop or undo the zombies, so it just becomes a matter of time for the reflected damage to add up. This is very slow due to Atomic Ray not being guaranteed and Shinryu highly likely to throw Mighty Guard on itself at some point, but after a couple of hours Shinryu should fall.

It is worth noting that on the defunct mobile/Steam version, the reflected Atomic Ray only does about a third of the damage it does on other versions, so be prepared to spend 5+ hours or more attempting this strategy on that version. If you lack the patience or time, choose another strategy or just move on.

Dragoon

While Dragoon are not normally the greatest job, they really shine when it comes to fighting Shinryu. Jump in conjunction with equipped Hermes Sandals allows your Dragoon to avoid basically all of Shinryu's attacks (including Tidal Wave), and with Dragon Lance inflicts heavy damage. Or if you want to be risky, you can use Coral Ring along with an equipped Ice Shield to nullify most of Shinryu's elemental damage, and pray for luck on which attacks Shinryu uses in between jumps.

As for the rest of your party...who cares? Okay, if you have another physical job, having them with Jump to inflict extra damage doesn't hurt. Additionally, this strategy becomes even more broken with Time Mage, as the Quick spell can allow you extra risk-free Jump attacks to burn through Shinryu's hit points even faster. Other jobs can chip in setup for the few turns they survive, but a lot of the time this is going to come down to a single Dragoon bouncing off of Shinryu's head over and over until it dies, while the rest of the party takes a floor nap.

Other

If none of the above strategies are possible, and you still want to try to kill Shinryu, you're in for a rough fight.

Shinryu's basic script after Tidal Wave follows a specific pattern. The first turn involves either a physical attack, Maelstrom, or the Blue Mage spell Roulette (inflicts instant death to a random target on the field, does nothing if it selects Shinryu as the target). The second turn is one of three elemental attacks (Atomic Ray, Frost Breath, or Lightning). Of the three, Lightning is the least dangerous, even if the Coral Rings double the damage it does (since it is percentage based). Combining an Ice Shield with your Coral Ring will result in the first two being nullified, so every shield user you have should go for this combo.

Then Shinryu takes a pair of double turns, where it acts twice per turn. The first of these double turns starts off identical to its first single turn, followed by one of three Blue Mage spells (Mighty Guard, Level 2 Old, or Level 3 Flare). You want to be a level that isn't affected by the latter two of those spells. The second double turn has a two-thirds chance of physical attacks each time, with a one third chance of Evil Eye for the first action and a chance of Poison Breath for the second action. Finally, Shinryu will skip a turn, then start over from the beginning. Finally, if hit with a non-damaging spell effect, Shinryu will counter with Zombie Breath.

In general, any of the strategies used to negate melee damage in the Berserk section work here too, and with enough hit points and level grinding, you can survive a melee strike from non-Berserked Shinryu with Protect and back row. Poison Breath is also dangerous, but on older versions an equipped Bone Mail lets you absorb it.

The fight is clearly designed for high level Freelancers with multiple mastered jobs, which is not an option for the fiesta, but with the right gear and preparation it's doable. However, you will still be counting on luck to avoid the dreaded Maelstrom + Lightning combo, which can wipe out your party, or bad combos of melee strikes, or avoiding getting Poison Breath at all. If you're determined and have the time to see it through, press on, and with luck and skill you can earn a win.