Toggle Background Color
Hippogriff Overview
Hippogriff
HP: 6254
STR: 78
INT: 70
VIT: 53
WIS: 49
AGI: 57
LUC: 47
Skills:
- Bind Claw: Uses the arms. Deals 90% melee STR-based cut damage to one row of party members. Attempts to bind hit targets' arms, with a 25% base chance. Has an 80% speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.
- Back Kick: Uses the legs. Deals 110% melee STR-based bash damage to one party member, with line-piercing effect. Has an 80% speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.
- Fury Gaze: Uses the head. Attempts to inflict panic on one party member, with an 80% base chance. Has no speed modifier.
- Lightning Dance: Uses the legs. Deals 2-4 instances of 80% ranged INT-based volt damage to random party members. Can hit the same target multiple times. Attempts to inflict paralysis on hit targets, with a 50% base chance. Has an 80% speed modifier and 150 base accuracy.
- Sky Dive: Used at around 75%, 55%, and 35% HP. Uses the arms. Deals 115% melee STR-based cut damage to every party member. Reduces hit targets' physical attack by 50% for 4 turns. Has a 10% speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.
- Wing Shield: Used after Sky Dive. Does not use a body part. Reduces physical damage to Hippogriff by 50% for 3 turns. During this time, Hippogriff will only use Rest. Wing Shield can be cancelled early by dealing 500 total damage to Hippogriff since Wing Shield's start. Has a 20% speed modifier.
- Rest: Uses the head. Heals Hippogriff for 500 HP. Has a 10% speed modifier.
Drops:
- Normal:
Hellbeast's Wingfist. 100% chance. Sells for 1100 en.
- 1 needed to make
Griff Buster (+72 ATK, +55 MATK, Rest, Silver x4). Costs 5000 en, sells for 2000 en.
- Conditional:
Ephemeral Axebeak (Kill on turn 1). 100% chance. Sells for 9800 en.
- 1 needed to make
Answerer (+196 ATK, +176 MATK, Bind Claw, Gold x6). Costs 438000 en, sells for 175200 en.
Damage Resistances:
100% 
100% 
100%
100% 
100% 
125%
Disable Resistances:
50% 
50% 
50% 
25% 
50% 
50% 
50%
0% 
10%
75% 
50% 
50%
Hippogriff is a far simpler affair than Golem was. That doesn't mean it's easier, though--Hippogriff is still plenty capable of screwing up our party. It's arguably better at that than Golem, since it doesn't have to worry about having the necessary body parts to use its dangerous skills, and its deadly skills use both the arms and legs.
Bind Claw is pretty explicitly designed to screw up our front row, and getting *really* unlucky with it while using Sasha can, effectively, be a game over.
Back Kick's not really worth talking about.
Fury Gaze really fucking sucks since that base chance is all but guaranteed when you factor in Hippogriff's LUC compared to most of our party members, and panic is really difficult to deal with, especially if a support gets hit with it.
Lightning Dance is very capable of ending a good attempt solely on its own, both between its damage and the paralysis.
Sky Dive hits as hard as Back Kick does, but hits the entire party and reduces phys damage. FUN.
Wing Shield and Rest are Hippogriff's primary gimmicks, and you need to have methods of dealing with them, or else the fight can become damn near unwinnable. Not canceling Wing Shield and Rest will mean that Hippogriff will heal 1500 HP over three turns--that's just shy of 25% of its HP. It's somewhat easy to counter it (INT-based damage dealers can hit that 500 damage requirement fairly easily and head binds stop Rest completely), mercifully.
With that in mind, onto party members:
Alexis: Alexis unfortunately isn't that great due to the fact that all of Hippogriff's attacks are multi-target. He can draw Lightning Dance to himself, yeah, but he'll likely die after drawing the second hit. On the upside, his normal attacks, Sylphid counterattacks, and Vision Thrust can all provide Chain hits. In addition, this is the one time that Wind Curtain can be useful, since I know when Sky Dive's going to come out, I know who's most in danger of being hit at any given time, and our metric boatload of Amritas means the TP cost is less of a problem than normal.
Iseria: With the proper elemental support, Iseria is a really good option for the fight, since any elemental damage source (even if it has phys components) goes through Wing Shield.
Sasha: Sasha's a good choice for basically every boss fight in the game, and Hippogriff is no exception.
Cecil: Cesti shine in single-target fights, and that's exactly what Hippogriff is. Both arm binds and leg binds (mostly leg binds) can take a lot of the difficulty out of the fight, and head binds mean Hippogriff becomes a sitting duck while we cancel Wing Shield.
Raven: Raven's nothing special for Hippogriff. Feeble Miasma makes other disablers' jobs easier, I suppose.
Kaelin: Elemental damage reigns supreme for Hippogriff due to how Wing Shield works, and it's also the first time Kaelin will really get to put Compression to good use. Our truckload of Amritas also means he's not in any danger of running out of TP before the fight's over. It also goes without saying, but he's also a good Iseria partner.
Lanzon: Poison is pretty decent for eating bits of Hippogriff's HP away, and...that's about it for Lanzon. He can make decent use of Volt Jars if Iseria is brought in, and the ghosts can possibly draw Bind Claw away from the party. If I decide to stick with the Megalith 5006, Barrier Wall can also mitigate some of the damage of Sky Dive.
Gram: Gram's nothing special. She deals ranged physical damage. Her attacks being stab means she can be an okay Iseria partner.
Jana: Jana's a good damage dealer on her own, but unfortunately can have issues when Wing Shield's out. She does bring a defense debuff (Armor Penetrate) to the table--and on top of that, Armor Penetrate's also stab damage, which means Chain hit potential.
Mio: Buffs mean everyone's damage goes farther, Prayer: Purple Lightning reduces Lightning Dance's damage, Oracle: Dance with the same amplifies Hippogriff's existing weakness to volt, and Mio can even equip bows, to be an Iseria partner.
Dosen: Dosen can patch up serious injuries (assuming someone wasn't just outright killed), and heal any paralysis from Lightning Dance. He can't do anything about binds on his own right now, though. Also: can equip bows, Iseria partner, you get the point.
Magda: Blind is okay since only Lightning Dance has higher-than-average base accuracy, Smoke Rot pairs incredibly well with any elemental damage (Iseria and Kaelin, namely), and, one last time, Magda can equip bows, and can provide Chain hits.